Biden Regrets Saying 'Illegal,' and Trump Pounces

President Biden said Saturday that he regretted using the term "illegal" during his State of the Union address to describe the suspected killer of Laken Riley, as his all-but-certain 2024 GOP rival, Donald Trump, blasted the Democrat's immigration policies and blamed them for her death at a rally in Rome, Georgia, attended by the nursing student's family and friends, reports the AP. They were welcomed with a standing ovation and large signs handed out by the campaign that featured Riley's photograph and the words "SAY HER NAME!" "REMEMBER OUR ANGELS," they read on the back.

Trump, in a lengthy speech that lasted nearly two hours, hammered Biden on the border and for mispronouncing Riley's name during his State of the Union address this past week. He contrasted his rhetoric with Biden's—"I say he was an illegal alien. He was an illegal immigrant. He was an illegal migrant." Biden said the opposite in an interview with MSNBC's Jonathan Capehart taped in Atlanta, where the president was meeting with small business owners and holding a campaign rally. "I shouldn't have used illegal, it's undocumented," Biden said.

Biden used the term Thursday night during an exchange in which the president pressed Republicans in his address to pass the bipartisan border security deal. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a stalwart Trump ally, then shouted at the president to say Riley 's name, adding she was killed "by an illegal." Biden responded with, "By an illegal, that's right," before appearing to ask how many people are being killed by "legals." An immigrant from Venezuela who entered the US illegally has been arrested and charged with Riley's murder.

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Trump blasted Biden for the expression of remorse. "Joe Biden went on television and apologized for calling Laken's murderer an illegal," he said to loud jeers and boos. "Biden should be apologizing for apologizing to this killer." The back-and-forth underscored how Riley's murder has become a flashpoint in the 2024 campaign and a rallying cry for Republicans who have seized on frustrations over the Biden administration's handling of the US-Mexico border amid a record surge of migrants entering the country. (More President Biden stories.)