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During his State of the Union address on Thursday, Biden was
goaded by Trump-allied Republican U.S. Representative Marjorie
Taylor Greene and went off script to address the case of Laken
Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student from the U.S. state of
Georgia, who was allegedly murdered last month by an
undocumented immigrant who had been released on parole.
Republicans, who blame Biden and his administration's border
policies for the deaths of Americans killed by illegal migrants,
have seized on Riley's death as a symbol of Democrats' failure.
On Thursday night, as Biden walked to the podium for his
address, Greene had thrust a button into his hand. During the
speech, when Greene challenged him to say Riley's name, he took
up the button and repeated her name, saying she was an innocent
woman killed by "an illegal."
In an except of an interview with MSNBC's Jonathan Capehart
scheduled to air on Saturday, Biden said, "I shouldn't have used
illegal, it’s undocumented," he said. When asked if he regretted
using the term, he said emphatically "yes."
When asked the same question on Friday, Biden had said,
“technically he’s not supposed to be here."
Biden has slammed Republicans for tanking a tough bipartisan
border bill because former President Donald Trump wants to keep
immigration as a campaign issue.
On Saturday, Biden also drew a contrast with his Republican
presidential rival Trump, who has echoed Adolf Hitler by saying
migrants "poison the blood" of the nation.
"I'm not going to treat any, any, any of these people with
disrespect. Look, they built the country. The reason our economy
is growing. We have to control the border and more orderly flow,
but I don't share his view at all," he said.
(Reporting by Alexandra Alper; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
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