Washington— Republicans requested but never expected it.President Joe Biden nicknamed her “Laken Riley.”Obama's mispronunciation infuriated Republicans and prompted criticism.
Republicans have exploited Riley's death, a Georgia nursing student, to criticize the Biden administration's border operations during a major immigration surge. A Venezuelan illegal immigrant was accused with murder.Border security was a major topic before Biden's State of the Union address on Thursday.
Hard-line Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene questioned the Democratic president as he entered the House chamber wearing a red Trump MAGA hat, a T-shirt with the slogan, and a button she placed in his hand.“Say her name,” it said, echoing campaigners' calls for police to stop killing Black women.
Biden called on Congress to approve border security legislation and reform immigration laws middle of the speech, applauding the bipartisan effort that collapsed when his likely Republican presidential opponent, Donald Trump, opposed it.Greene demands, “Name her!”Pointing at Biden, Georgia congresswoman exclaimed.Biden then did that.
He held up the white button and said, “Laken Riley.”Republicans slammed him for mispronouncing her first name “Lincoln”.“It’s Laken Riley, Mr. President,” tweeted the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Biden highlighted Riley's loss and his family's trauma—his first wife and daughter were killed in a 1972 vehicle crash. His son Beau died of brain cancer in 2015.Biden advised Congress to compromise on border security.Finish this bill!" Biden said.He even advised Trump to stop opposing border accords.“We can do it together,” he said.
As immigration becomes a major issue in the presidential race, Republicans are criticizing the president's border control in almost every way, even impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
DHS must detain unauthorized migrants accused of stealing under the "Laken Riley Act" enacted by the House hours earlier.José Ibarra, a Venezuelan who entered the U.S. illegally but was permitted to defend his immigration case, was arrested for murder and assault. His plea is not guilty.
Trump has used Riley's death to criticize Biden's border control and promised never to mention her name last month.On Thursday night, Biden called Riley's killer a "illegal" mirroring Trump's border rhetoric.
Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., chair of the Progressive Caucus, was dissatisfied. “I wish he hadn’t engaged with Marjorie Taylor Greene and used the word ‘illegal,’” she told the AP after the address.Speaker emerita Nancy Pelosi told CNN, “Now he should have said ‘undocumented,’ but it’s not a big thing.”
Greene distributed buttons earlier that day.After Sandra Bland, a 28-year-old Black woman, was found dead in a Texas jail cell a few days after being booked for a traffic stop, civil rights activist, law professor, and African American Policy Institute executive director Kimberlé Crenshaw popularized “say her name” in 2015.
Biden addressed the gallery, where many guests were seated but Riley's parents were not.Mike Collins, a Georgia Republican, invited Riley's parents to the State of the Union but had "chosen to stay home as they grieve the loss of their daughter."
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