Biden says he regrets using term 'illegal' to describe suspected killer of Laken Riley

ATLANTA (AP) — President Joe Biden said Saturday that he regrets using the term “illegal” during his State of the Union address to describe the suspected killer of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley.

Facing frustration from some in his party for the use of the term to describe people who arrived or are living in the U.S. illegally, Biden expressed remorse, saying he didn’t want to demean any group, and sought to differentiate himself from former President Donald Trump.

In an interview with MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart on Saturday, Biden said, “I shouldn’t have used illegal, it’s undocumented.” The term was once common but is far less so today, particularly among Democrats who more fully embraced immigrant rights’ issues during Trump’s presidency.

The moment occurred Thursday night during an exchange in which Biden pressed Republicans in his address to pass a bipartisan border security deal that fell apart after Trump opposed it. U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a stalwart Trump ally, then shouted at the president to say the name of Laken Riley, the Georgia woman killed last month, adding she was killed “by an illegal.”

“By an illegal, that’s right,” Biden responded immediately, before appearing to ask how many people are being killed by “legals.”

The death of Riley, a nursing student, has become a rallying cry for Republicans, a tragedy that they say encompasses the Biden administration’s handling of the U.S-Mexico border amid a record surge of immigrants entering the country. An immigrant from Venezuela who entered the U.S. illegally has been arrested and charged with murder.

Speaking to Capehart, Biden said, “Look, when I spoke about the difference between Trump and me, one of the things I talked about in the border was his, the way he talks about vermin, the way he talks about these people polluting the blood. I talked about what I’m not going to do. What I won’t do. I’m not going to treat any, any, any of these people with disrespect.”

It appeared to be a shift from a day earlier, when Biden had hesitated when asked by reporters if he regretted using the term, saying, “well I probably,” before pausing and saying “I don’t” and appearing to start saying the word “regret.”

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Miller reported from Wilmington, Delaware.