CNN commentator Symone Sanders blames Mollie Tibbetts' death on 'toxic masculinity'
Symone Sanders, CNN commentator, and former Bernie Sanders' campaign spokeswoman recently stated that the death of Mollie Tibbetts is due to 'toxic masculinity' and not weak immigration policies. Symone took to Twitter on Wednesday (August 22) to argue this point after it was reported that a suspected illegal immigrant was arrested over the Iowa college student's death. Cristhian Rivera, a 24-year-old from Mexico, was charged on Tuesday (August 21) with killing Mollie. He was accused of dumping her body in a cornfield in her hometown of Brooklyn on July 18. Soon, after this was reported, President Donald Trump led the calls for tougher immigration.
Symone argued on Twitter that Mollie was killed because she asked a man to leave while she was jogging. "Her murderer happens to be undocumented. This isn’t about border security. This is about toxic masculinity. Mollie Tibbetts lost her life because a man couldn’t take her saying no," she wrote, as reported by Daily Mail. "Her murderer actually might not even be undocumented. Regardless it is problematic for people to characterize an entire community based on the actions of one person."
To further strengthen her point, Symone brought attention to the number of murders that have been carried out by white men. "The majority of mass shootings in America are carried out by white men. So are we going to round them all up? That logic is asinine, archaic and flawed," she further noted.
She went on to state that she wanted more conversations where people discussed the safety of women in the country. She thinks that it is necessary because some men "do not know how to check their egos." "Lest we continue to defile the life of #MollieTibbets with racist garbage some folks think is politically expedient that does nothing to address the root cause of the issue. Just stop," she wrote.
The Mexican national charged with Mollie's death had been living in Iowa and according to authorities, he had been working illegally for anywhere between four and seven years. This comes after the authorities revealed that they got their big break in the case after they looked into the surveillance footage from the area where Mollie was last seen. In the video, Mollie was spotted running by, and it also showed a black Chevrolet Malibu repeatedly passing through the area.
The investigators traced the car to her alleged murderer, 24-year-old Cristhian. Rick Rahn of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation said that Cristhian admitted he had followed Mollie in his car a few minutes before he parked his car and started running behind her. "Rivera said he then panicked and got mad and that he then 'blocked' his 'memory,' which is what he does when he gets very upset," according to the document which was written by a sheriff's deputy, as reported by People. Cristhian recalled that he dragged Mollie into the filed, then put her body on the shoulder and carried her into a deeper corner of the field.