Asked about his State of the Union message by MSNBC's Jonathan Capehart on Saturday
the president also said that he regrets using the word “illegal” to describe the undocumented immigrant who is charged with killing a 22-year-old nursing student in Georgia.
“During your response to [Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s] heckling of you, you used the word ‘illegal’ when talking about the man who allegedly killed Laken Riley,” Capehart said.
“An undocumented person. And I shouldn’t have used ‘illegal.’ It’s ‘undocumented,’” Biden said.
“So you regret using that word?” Capehart pressed him.
“Yes,” Biden replied.
The statement marks an apparent reversal from what Biden said Friday. While at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, the president was asked, “Do you regret using the word ‘illegal’ to describe immigrants last night, sir?”
“Well, I probably — I don’t re — technically not supposed to be here,” he responded.
During his State of the Union speech Thursday night, Biden used the term “an illegal” to describe Jose Antonio Ibarra, a Venezuelan who was previously arrested by federal authorities after having crossed the border into the U.S. Ibarra has been charged with killing 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley. The president did not mention Riley’s case in his MSNBC interview.
Memorandum to Capehart: the President did not use the word "illegal" to describe immigrants. He used it as a noun, which it is not, as a substitute for "illegal immigrants." There are illegal immigrants as there are legal immigrants; illegal immigration and legal immigration. "Illegals" is pejorative; "illegal immigrant" is descriptive, accurate, and objective.
Memorandum to Biden: However the left likes to use it, "undocumented person" is not synonymous with illegal immigrant. Born in the USA, I was "undocumented" when I was 16, before earning a driver's license. Or not- because no one would have used the term "undocumented" before "undocumented immigrant" or "undocumented person" was invented to avoid saying "illegal immigrant."
Initially, Biden uses the pejorative "illegals," then condones illegal immigration by invoking "undocumented person" as if the individual is late going to the DMV. Joe Biden cannot ignore addressing publicly the immigration issue but faces the problem of how to do so. It's an issue he's very uncomfortable with.
Additionally, he's playing on Donald Trump's turf. And so after Biden acknowledged the error, his immediate predecessor was joined at a rally in Rome, Georgia by the parents of Laken Riley, the University of Georgia student who while jogging was murdered, allegedly by an illegal immigrant. And
Trump, in a lengthy speech that lasted nearly two hours, hammered Biden on the border and for mispronouncing Riley’s name during his State of the Union address this past week.
“What Joe Biden has done on our border is a crime against humanity and the people of this nation for which he will never be forgiven,” Trump charged, alleging that Riley “would be alive today if Joe Biden had not willfully and maliciously eviscerated the borders of the United States and set loose thousands and thousands of dangerous criminals into our country.”
Trump, who had made immigration a centerpiece of his campaign, has repeatedly vowed to mount the largest deportation in the nation’s history if he wins.
He contrasted his rhetoric with Biden’s — “I say he was an illegal alien. He was an illegal immigrant. He was an illegal migrant” — and accused Biden, who has long been seen as an empathetic leader, of having “no remorse. He’s got no regret, he’s got no empathy, no compassion, and worst of all, he has no intention of stopping the deadly invasion that stole precious Laken’s beautiful American life,” Trump said.
He added “Joe Biden went on television and apologized for calling Laken’s murderer an illegal,” he said to loud jeers and boos. “Biden should be apologizing for apologizing to this killer.
In contrast to his upcoming opponent, the incumbent President clearly is out of his element, because of age or otherwise, when talking about immigration. When Representative Greene suckered Biden with "say her name," Biden held up a pin reading "Say Her Name, Laken Riley"- then proceeded to refer to her as "Lincoln Riley," who is 3,000 miles away on the West Coast.
Condemning the President, Trump in Rome added "Joe Biden went on television and apologized for calling Laken's murderer an illegal. Biden should be apologizing for apologizing to this killer."
Ouch. That's what's known as game, set, match. Actually, not "match" yet- that would be the election. However, when one is trying to prove that he is aware of the huge border problem and is not cognitively impaired, getting the name wrong of a violent crime victim and later apologizing for what he has called the accused perpetrator does not inspire confidence.
It's not too educate the President of the USA on immigration. However, it's going to take someone in his circle who understands the issue much better than does the boss.
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