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Joe Biden faced massive backlash online after he apologized for calling the man charged with Laken Riley's murder, Jose Antonio Ibarra, an undocumented Venezuelan immigrant, "illegal" during his State of the Union address on Thursday, February 7. Biden apologized for his comments in an MSNBC interview on Saturday, February 9, as per the NY Post.
Social media users were outraged by Biden's apology. Many pointed out that he did not apologize for mistakenly calling Laken Riley, "Lincoln" during the very same address and claimed that he was more worried about the alleged murderer than the victim. Several individuals were against the American President apologizing to a charged murderer and took X to react to the same.
Netizens react to Joe Biden's apology
Laken Riley was a 22-year-old Georgia nursing student who was allegedly abducted and murdered while she was taking a jog around the University of Georgia campus on February 22, 2024. An undocumented Venezuelan immigrant named José Antonio Ibarra was arrested and charged with Riley's murder. The incident took the internet by storm and prompted many debates on immigration.
Joe Biden mentioned Laken Riley's murder in his February 7 State of the Union address when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene shouted at Biden to talk about the victim and say her name. He held up a "Say Her Name, Laken Riley." pin and said, "I know how to say her name."
"Lincoln — Lincoln Riley, an innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal," he said, as per the NY Post.
Later during an MSNBC interview on Saturday, Jonathan Capehart questioned Joe Biden on his usage of the word "illegal" when he spoke about Laken Riley's alleged murderer. Biden quickly replied:
"An undocumented person. And I shouldn’t have used ‘illegal.’ It’s ‘undocumented.’ "
When pressed by Capehart on if he actually regretted using the word, Biden simply said "yes" but before that, he talked about Donald Trump's comments and views on undocumented immigrants and claimed:
"I'm not gonna treat any of these people with disrespect. Look they built this country, the reason our economy is growing. We have to control the border and more orderly flow but I don’t share [Trump’s] view at all."
Joe Biden's comments touched a nerve with a plethora of social media users and they reacted to the same online. Elon Musk said that Biden's apology was "unreal" and many others blamed Laken Riley's murder on the American President.
Several users further criticized Joe Biden for apologizing for referring to a charged murderer as an 'illegal' while he still did not apologize for mispronouncing the name of the victim. Some netizens claimed that Biden was siding with the alleged murderer as they took to the comments section of @CollinRugg and @EndWokeness' tweets.
In his State of the Union speech, Joe Biden sympathized with the pain endured by Laken's parents as he has lost two children himself. However, Laken Riley's mom, Allyson Phillips slammed Biden in a Facebook comment in response to a post about the passage of the Laken Riley Act. She called it "pathetic" that Biden did not know her child's name.
