RNC 2020: Arizona Mom's Speech Pulled After Anti-Semitic Tweet

ARIZONA — An Arizona "angel mom" whose son was killed by an illegal immigrant had her pre-recorded speech pulled from the Republican National Convention on Tuesday night after tweeting a flurry of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

Mary Ann Mendoza was due to speak on the telecast about President Donald Trump's immigration record. Mendoza's son, Mesa police Sgt. Brandon Mendoza, was killed by a drunken driver in 2014 who was in the country illegally. Mendoza has since become a fierce advocate for tougher immigration policies. She previously spoke about the issue at the Republican National Convention in 2016.

But her speech was abruptly pulled from the schedule Tuesday, shortly before it was to air on the telecast, due to a thread she promoted on Twitter.

The Daily Beast first reported that Mendoza encouraged her followers to read tweets from a QAnon conspiracy theorist making unfounded claims that Jewish bankers want to enslave non-Jews and stir up world wars. It also falsely claimed that Jews were responsible for sinking the Titanic and that President John F. Kennedy was a "slave president."

Mendoza quickly deleted the tweet and apologized, tweeting that she had not read every post in the thread.

“That does not reflect my feelings or personal thoughts whatsoever,” Mendoza wrote.

But the apology came too late for the RNC.

“We have removed the scheduled video from the convention lineup and it will no longer run this week,” Tim Murtaugh, spokesperson for the Trump campaign, said in a statement.

Some Democrats said Mendoza's tweets were a sign of how the Republican Party has shifted under Trump's presidency. Mendoza is a staunch Trump supporter and attended the 2020 State of the Union address as the guest of Rep. Andy Biggs of Mesa.

"Mary Ann Mendoza's initial inclusion speaks volumes about the radicalization of the Republican Party under Donald Trump and where we're headed if he has four more years to spread hate and division from the White House," said Kyle Morse, a spokesman for American Bridge's "Trump War Room" opposition research group. "Trump and his campaign refused to speak out against anti-Semitism and only pulled Mendoza because they got caught."

In the wake of the controversy, Mendoza's Twitter account has been set to private.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.