Days after breaking his silence on the slaying of Laken Riley, President Joe Biden said he shouldn’t have referred to the suspect as an “illegal” immigrant.
The death of Riley, who was found slain in a wooded area near the University of Georgia last month, has drawn new scrutiny to Biden’s immigration policies. Police charged Jose Antonio Ibarra, a 26-year-old migrant from Venezuela, in the killing.
While speaking during his State of the Union address on Thursday, Biden said: “Laken Riley, an innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal. That’s right. But how many thousands of people being killed by legals? To her parents, I say, my heart goes out to you, having lost children myself. I understand.”
On Saturday, the president expressed regret over his choice of words.
During an interview with MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart, Biden said that he regrets using the term “illegal” when referring to the alleged killer of Laken Riley during his State of the Union speech,
“I shouldn’t have used ‘illegal,'” the president said. “‘It’s undocumented.”
In a clip of the interview, which is slated to air at 6 p.m. Sunday, Biden also detailed what separates his border polices from his Republican rival former President Donald Trump.
“When I spoke about the difference between Trump and me and one of the things I talked about in the border was the way he talks about vermin, the way he talks about these people polluting the blood,” the president said. “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.”
Spencer Platt/Getty
This is a developing news story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.