House Speaker Mike Johnson blasted President Biden as a “disgrace” for appearing to apologize to the accused killer of Laken Riley instead of the slain student’s family.
“The president is pandering to his base and showing respect to someone he doesn’t deserve. This guy is an illegal immigrant who brutally killed Laken Riley. President Biden should apologize to Laken’s family. Shameful, ” Johnson wrote on X on Sunday, responding to Biden’s interview with MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart that aired Saturday.
At the urging of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., Biden, in an off-script moment in her State of the Union address Thursday, denounced the killing of Riley by “an illegal.” The president later backtracked during his interview with Capehart, saying he should have instead used the word “undocumented” to describe Jose Ibarra, a Venezuelan national charged with killing Riley, an Augusta University nursing student who ran on the University of Georgia campus last month.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed that Ibarra illegally crossed the border near El Paso, Texas, and was released to the US for further processing in September 2022. He was arrested and released in New York City for allegedly placing at risk to a child one year later.
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House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., criticized President Biden’s apology for describing the accused killer of Laken Riley as an “illegal.” (Getty Images)
The Athens-Clarke County Police Department confirmed that Ibarra and his brother were cited for shoplifting in Georgia in October 2023, months before Riley’s murder.
Ibarra was charged with the felonies of malice murder, murder, kidnapping, false imprisonment, aggravated assault, aggravated battery and concealing the death of another, as well as the misdemeanor of physically hindering a 911 call, according to the affidavit filed on Feb. 23 According to charging documents, Ibarra is accused of “disfiguring” Riley’s skull.
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“I shouldn’t be using illegal, it should be … it’s undocumented,” Biden told Capehart. “And look, when I talked about the difference between me and Trump, one of the things I talked about at the border was his — the way he talks about vermin, the way he talks him about it. people who pollute the blood. I talked about what I wouldn’t do, what I wouldn’t do. I will not treat any, any, any of these people with disrespect. Look, they built the country.”
Trump supporters hold photos of Laken Riley before he speaks at a rally in Rome, Georgia, on March 9, 2024. (Elijah Nouvelage/AFP via Getty Images)
Notably, former President Trump, the front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination, criticized Biden’s apology at a rally. Biden is under fire for mixing up Riley’s first name USC head football coach Lincoln RileyTrump said Biden “went on television and apologized for calling Laken’s killer an illegal,” drawing boos from the crowd.
Trump, who spoke with Riley’s parents backstage at the rally, doubled down on his choice of language.
“They have a new name that’s worse. You know what the new name is? Neighbor,” Trump said. “A newcomers to our country … are we going crazy or what? Has this country gone crazy? What about a ‘newcomer’ … no, he’s an illegal. And I said he is an illegal alien. He is an illegal immigrant. He is an illegal migrant. And he should never have been in our country, and he never was under the Trump policy.”
Biden addressed Riley’s parents in the State of the Union address while also asking, “But how many thousands of people are the legal ones killing?”
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“To his parents, I say: My heart goes out to you. Having lost children myself, I understand,” he said.
