Biden says he was WRONG to call Laken Riley’s ‘murderer’ an ‘illegal’

Joe Biden said he was wrong to describe nursing student Laken Riley’s suspected killer as an ‘illegal’.

The president was heckled into acknowledging the murder during Thursday’s State of the Union address by Georgia GOP Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.

But when asked by MSNBC about his use of the word ‘illegal’ in an interview on Saturday night, Biden said he regretted it.

‘During your response to her heckling of you, you used the word ‘illegal’ when talking about the man who allegedly killed…’ host Jonathan Capehart said.

Biden interrupted to say ‘undocumented’, just as Capehart was pivoting to Laken Riley. 

‘An undocumented person. I shouldn’t have used illegal, it’s undocumented,’ the president continued.

‘And look, when I spoke about the difference between Trump and me, one of the things I talked about in the border was his, the way he talks about vermin, the way he talks about these people polluting the blood. 

‘I talked about what I’m not going to do. What I won’t do. I’m not going to treat any, any, any of these people with disrespect. 

‘Look, they built the country. The reason our economy is growing. We have to control the border and more orderly flow, but I don’t share his view at all.’

Capehart asked if he regretted using the word, and Biden answered: ‘Yes.’

This was a reversal of Biden’s position when he was asked about his use of the word on Friday as he prepared to board Air Force One for a campaign trip to Philadelphia.

Asked if he regretted the comment – after subordinates were walking it back – Biden stuttered and searched for the right response on the fraught topic.

‘Well, I probably – I don’t regr– technically not supposed to be here,’ Biden said.

Riley, 22, was murdered while jogging at the University of Georgia’s Athens campus on February 22.

Venezuelan immigrant Jose Antonio Ibarra – who is in the US without a visa – was charged with the Augusta University student’s murder.

The incident piled even more pressure on Biden to get ahead of the worsening migration crisis, as record numbers are intercepted crossing the southern border.

Immigration is seen as a key issue in November’s presidential election, with Biden’s likely Republican rival Donald Trump vowing to take a more hardline stance. 

When he talked in the State of the Union about a bill to increase border security that was killed by Republicans after Trump came out against it, GOP lawmakers booed him.

Greene, who was wearing a shirt with Riley’s name, then shouted at Biden ‘say her name.’ 

‘Lincoln, Lincoln Riley,’ Biden said, holding up the pin. ‘An innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal.

‘But how many of thousands of people being killed by legals? To her parents I say my heart goes out to you, having lost children myself, I understand,’ he said.

Hours before Biden’s speech the House passed the Laken Riley Act, which would mandate that migrants who enter the country without authorization and are accused of theft be taken into federal custody.

Greene gave the pin to Biden when he walked into the House chamber to give his remarks.

Progressive Democrats pounced on Biden calling the alleged killer of Laken Riley an ‘illegal’ while ad-libbing a remark in his speech.

‘No human being is illegal,’ wrote Congresswoman Delia Ramirez (D-IL), one of several lawmakers to blast Biden’s word choice on Twitter afterward.

‘Let me be clear: No human being is illegal,’ wrote ‘squad’ member Congressman Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who immigrated from Somalia.

‘I’m extremely disappointed to hear President Biden use the word ‘illegal,’ wrote Congressman Chuy Garcia (D-IL) calling himself a ‘proud immigrant’.

‘The rhetoric President Biden used tonight was dangerously close to language from Donald Trump that puts a target on the backs of Latinos everywhere. Democrats shouldn’t be taking our cues from MAGA extremism,’ he said. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was prepared to give Biden a pass on the language when she got asked about it on CNN not long after the speech. 

‘We usually say “undocumented”. He said “illegal”. I don’t think it’s a big deal,’ she said. ‘I don’t think it’s a big deal because I think his focus was on the sympathy for the family. It’s a terrible tragedy.’

After Biden spoke about Riley in his speech he then turned to an attack on Trump, offering to work with him to pass a border security bill.

‘If my predecessor’s watching instead of paying politics and pressuring members of Congress to block the bill, join me in telling the Congress to pass it. We can do it together,’ he said.

He then added: ‘I will not demonize immigrants saying they are poisoning the blood of our country. I will not separate families. I will not.’

Republicans previously tanked a border bill – which would provide more funding for technology and agents – after Trump came out against it so he could use the issue to attack Biden in the election campaign.

Biden was also asked about his attack on the Supreme Court for overturning Roe v Wade, which from 1973 until 2022 upheld a constitutional right to abortion.

Capehart asked if he felt the court, which Trump packed with right-wing judges, was a ‘political body’ made of politicians, not legal professionals.

‘No. look, I think they made a wrong decision. I think they read the Constitution wrong. I think they made a mistake,’ Biden replied.

‘And I was being blunt and a part of it that they said, remember, what they said was, it’s up to the states to decide. That’s really what the – what was said. It’s no longer constitutionally guaranteed principle. 

‘And they use the phrase that women can vote, making changes they want to. I found that somewhat insulting the idea that they don’t think they can. 

‘Women are speaking now. They spoke out in 2022. They spoke out in 2024, 2020. This is what’s going to happen.’

Biden reiterated, as he did in his speech, that if voters in November gave the Democrats a majority in both houses of Congress, he would legislate it nationally. 

‘And I was just making clear, women speak up, this is going to change. And if you give me some – if you give me a Congress, that’s Democrat, we’re going to change it back to Roe v Wade,’ he said.

The president was also asked about the situation in Gaza, where more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli bombing and troops in five months.

He said Israel had a right to defend itself after the October 7 attack by Hamas, but needed to be much more careful about civilian casualties.

‘[Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu] has a right to defend Israel, a right to continue to pursue Hamas,’ Biden said.

‘But he must, he must, he must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken. 

‘He’s hurting, in my view, he’s hurting Israel more than helping Israel by making the rest of the world – it’s contrary to what Israel stands for. And I think it’s a big mistake.’

Biden said he wanted a six-week ceasefire to allow the release of hostages by Hamas and humanitarian aid for Gazan civilians.

‘I’ve spoken with the majority of the Arab leaders from Saudi Arabia to Egypt to Jordan, they’re all prepared to fully recognize Israel and begin to rebuild the region,’ he added.

Biden was asked if there was a ‘red line’ for his support of Israel, such as the invasion of the city of Rafah – the last place Gazan civilians have to shelter.

‘It is a red line, but I’m never going to leave Israel,’ he said, refusing to cut off military sales to Israel.

‘But there’s red lines that if it crosses and into — it cannot have 30,000 more Palestinians dead. There’s a consequence of going after — there’s other ways to deal, to get to, to deal with the — with the trauma that caused by Hamas,’ he said.

Biden said he warned Netanyahu not to make Gaza like the US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, though he first misspoke and said Ukraine.

‘It wasn’t necessary. It wasn’t necessary. This caused more problems than it erased, than it cured,’ he said of the Iraq and Afghanistan invasions.

Biden dismissed ideas of a permanent ceasefire, as some called for.

‘I think Hamas would like a total ceasefire across the board because they — then they would see they have a better chance to survive and maybe rebuild,’ he said.

Biden responded to some voters who said they preferred Trump because he wasn’t ‘overseeing and actively arming a genocide’ in Gaza.

He denied what was happening in Gaza was a genocide, but said he understood why people were emotional about the issue.

‘It’s not widely shared. You guys make judgments you — you’re not capable of making. That’s not what all those people said,’ he claimed.

‘What they said was they’re very upset, and I don’t blame them for being upset. There’s families there. There are people who are dying. They want something done about it. And they’re saying, Joe, do something, do something.

‘But the idea that they all think it’s genocide is just not – that’s a different situation.’