Former President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson said the president should apologize for walking back his use of the term.
Former President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) have sharply criticized President Joe Biden’s public apology for using the word “illegal” to refer to the man accused of Laken Riley’s murder.
During his State of the Union address last week, President Biden used the term “illegal” in reference to Jose Ibarra, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela who is accused of attacking Ms. Riley, a 22-year-old Georgia nursing student, and brutally beating her to death.
“Lincoln Riley, an innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal,” President Biden said during the address, mispronouncing her first name.
“That’s right. But how many thousands of people are being killed by illegals? To her parents, I say, my heart goes out to you having lost children myself.”
Some progressive lawmakers reacted with outrage over the president’s use of the term “illegal” to describe Ms. Riley’s alleged killer.
“As a proud immigrant, I’m extremely disappointed to hear President Biden use the word ‘illegal,’” Rep. Chuy García (D-Ill.) said in a post on social media platform X.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) said in a post on X: “No human being is illegal. Just like we should not be implementing Republican policy, we should not be repeating Republican rhetoric.”
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) posted on X, “Let me be clear: No human being is illegal.”
Amid the progressive blowback, President Biden expressed remorse for using the term, apologizing in an interview with MSNBC in Atlanta on March 10.
“I shouldn’t have used ‘illegal’; it’s ‘undocumented,’” President Biden said in the interview.
President Trump, who on the same day was campaigning in Rome, Georgia, criticized the president for the apology.
“Joe Biden went on television and apologized for calling Laken’s murderer an illegal,” President Trump said, to jeers and boos. “Biden should be apologizing for apologizing to this killer.”
Mr. Johnson also had sharp words of criticism, as he took to X to say: “The president is cowering to his base and showing deference to a man who deserves none. This man is an illegal immigrant who brutally murdered Laken Riley.
