President Joe Biden disappointed some Democrats and immigration activists when he used the term “illegal” during the news conference. State of the Union referring to an undocumented immigrant accused of murdering 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley.
Today, the administration and its campaign are weighing in on this off-script moment.
White House communications director Ben LaBolt told ABC News White House correspondent Karen Travers that when Biden said that, he was reacting to the language of an intervening lawmaker.
“In terms of this particular moment, he was responding to the language used in the House chamber,” LaBolt said when asked if Biden regretted using the term, considered an offensive and outdated way of doing things. reference to undocumented immigrants.
“He wanted to speak directly to Laken Riley’s parents, as someone who has lost a child and continually talks and thinks about it and knows what they went through,” LaBolt added.
“And you heard him speak more broadly about his view of immigrants in this country,” he continued. “The fact that he wouldn’t use language like Donald Trump used, calling them vermin, poisoning the blood of our country, really elevating them and respecting them as human beings. But also as person who supports a bipartisan solution to what is happening at the border.”
President Joe Biden holds up a Laken Riley button as he delivers the State of the Union address during a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol, March 7, 2024, in Washington.
Andrew Harnik/AP
Biden was also asked if he regretted using that language while on his way to a campaign event in Philadelphia on Friday afternoon.
“Well, I probably shouldn’t — I’m not saying it again — technically he’s not supposed to be here,” Biden told the reporter, stopping and starting throughout his response.
The moment under scrutiny occurred midway through Thursday’s speech as he turned to discussion of immigration and criticism of Republicans for failing to achieve a bipartisan border deal.
Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia — a vocal critic of Biden — called out to the audience: “What about Laken Riley?
A back and forth between them ensues.
“Laken Riley, an innocent young woman who was killed,” Biden began before Greene shouted, “By an illegal.”
“By an illegal. It’s true,” Biden repeated before expressing his condolences to his family: “To his parents, I say, my heart goes out to you.”
Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor shouts as President Joe Biden delivers his third State of the Union address on the floor of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, March 7, 2024.
Shawn Thew/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
The National Immigration Center said it was “shocked” to hear Biden use the term. Rep. Chuy García, D-Ill., said that as an immigrant he was “extremely disappointed” to hear that, a sentiment echoed by other Democratic lawmakers.
LaBolt said he was not aware of any outreach by President Biden or top White House aides to Democratic lawmakers who had publicly criticized him for using the term.
Vice President Kamala Harris to the question from Mary Bruce, ABC News chief White House correspondent While she was comfortable with the language, she attributed it to a “chaotic” scene, but said Biden was still able to empathize with Riley’s family and make his broader argument about the need for fix the immigration system.
Biden campaign co-chair Mitch Landrieu told CNN on Friday that Biden “probably should have used a different word” and called it a “small mistake.”
Campaign aides, in a testy response to the furore over Biden’s use of the term “illegal,” also sought to highlight how his views on immigration are different from those of many members of the Republican Party, including its rival Donald Trump.
“Oh, yeah, look, I know this may have been hard to hear because of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s incessant heckling last night, but we should be very clear about what the president was saying when it came to fix our broken system and reject “The cruelty of egalitarian extremism has been pushed by people like Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene, who are really just trying to demonize immigrants in order to score political points,” said Michael Tyler, the campaign’s communications director, to a reporter who asked whether Biden’s remark could hurt his outreach to Latinos.
Tyler accused Trump and Greene of “using immigrants as their primary political no-no.”
ABC News’ Molly Nagle, Libby Cathey and Gabrielle Abdul-Hakim contributed to this report.
