House Speaker Mike Johnson laid into President Joe Biden as an “embarrassment” after he appeared to apologize to the illegal alien suspected of brutally murdering University of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley.
“The president is cowering to his base and showing deference to a man who deserves none. This man is an illegal immigrant who brutally murdered Laken Riley. President Biden should be apologizing to Laken’s family. What an embarrassment,” the Louisiana Republican wrote on X on Sunday, responding to Biden’s interview with MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart that aired Saturday.
In the interview, Biden said he should not have referred to the suspect, Jose Ibarra, as an “illegal” during his State of the Union address after being called out by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and challenged to “say her name.”
“I shouldn’t have used illegal, I should’ve … it’s undocumented,” Biden told Capehart.
“And look, when I spoke about the difference between Trump and me, one of the things I talked about on 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. Look, they built the country,” Biden added.
In September 2022, Ibarra was released into the United States for further processing after illegally crossing the border near El Paso, Texas, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Approximately a year later, he was purportedly endangering a child, leading to his subsequent arrest and release in New York City.
The Athens-Clarke County Police Department confirmed that in October 2023, prior to Riley’s passing, Ibarra and his brother were issued tickets for shoplifting in Georgia.
The affidavit filed on February 23 charges Ibarra with the misdemeanor of physically impeding a 911 call in addition to the felonies of malice murder, murder, kidnapping, false imprisonment, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, and concealing the death of another.
Reports said that investigators noted that Laken’s skull was crushed when her body was found.
