Former president Donald Trump has blasted Joe Biden for saying he regrets calling Laken Riley’s killer an “illegal.” During the State of Union speech, Biden also mistakenly referred to Laken Riley as Lincoln Riley.
Biden failed to apologise for his mistake, but instead said he regrets referring to Riley’s killer, Jose Antonio Ibarra, as an “illegal.”
Campaigning in Rome, Georgia, Trump slammed Biden, saying, “Joe Biden went on television and apologized for calling Laken murderer an illegal. Biden should be apologizing for apologizing to this killer."
"I say he is an illegal alien, he is an illegal immigrant, he is an illegal migrant, and he should have never been in our country, and he wouldn’t have been under the Trump policies,” Trump said.
Joe Biden's gaffe
Butchering Riley’s name was one of Biden’s latest gaffes. After Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-Ga.) shouted from the audience, “Say her name!”, Biden snapped back, saying “I know how to say her name.”
{{/usCountry}}Butchering Riley’s name was one of Biden’s latest gaffes. After Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-Ga.) shouted from the audience, “Say her name!”, Biden snapped back, saying “I know how to say her name.”
{{/usCountry}}“Lincoln — Lincoln Riley, an innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal,” he added.
Biden later appeared in an interview with MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart and said he regrets using the word “illegal” to describe Ibarra. However, he failed to apologise for saying Riley’s name wrong. “I shouldn’t have used illegal, it’s undocumented,” he said.
Ibarra, an illegal immigrant, was charged with malice and felony murder, aggravated battery, kidnapping, concealing the death of another and other charges. Police said Riley’s murder was a “crime of opportunity.”
Riley’s mom also called out Biden for his gaffe. “Biden does not even KNOW my child’s name – it [sic] pathetic!” Allyson Phillips wrote on Facebook in response to a comment celebrating the Laken Riley Act.
“If you are going to say her name (even when forced to do so) at least say the right name!” she added. Phillips also wrote “Amen!” underneath a comment calling 81-year-old Biden “a disgrace of a president.”