President Joe Biden on Friday did not walk back referring to the suspect in the killing of Georgia student Laken Riley as “an illegal” in his State of the Union address, even as some Democrats expressed deep concern and others tepid discomfort about the use of the phrase. 

“Well, I probably -- I don’t re- -- technically not supposed to be here,” Biden told reporters before heading to a campaign event in Pennsylvania on Friday when asked if he regrets using the word. 

What You Need To Know

  • President Joe Biden on Friday did not walk back referring to the suspect in the killing of a Georgia student Laken Riley as “an illegal” in his State of the Union address
  • Some Democrats have expressed deep concern and others tepid discomfort with Biden's use of the phrase
  • In recent days, Republicans have pointed to the death of the Georgia nursing student Laken Riley as a prime example of how, in their view, Biden’s policies at the U.S.-Mexico border are a failure

It comes in response to a moment in Biden's State of the Union address Thursday night in which he called Riley “an innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal,” after conservative firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., appeared to yell Riley’s name at the president as he spoke about the GOP’s rejection of a bipartisan border policy bill. 

In recent days, Republicans have pointed to the death of the Georgia nursing student as a prime example of how, in their view, Biden’s policies at the U.S.-Mexico border are a failure. The person arrested and charged with murder is an immigrant from Venezuela who entered the U.S. illegally. 

Following the speech on Thursday, two New York House Democrats expressed discomfort with Biden using the phrase without offering full-fledged criticism. 

“It was a moment – I’m never comfortable with that kind of language but it was a moment in a very long speech that was full of great things and I would rather focus on 99% of the great things,” Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., told Spectrum News. “I’m never going to agree with everything.” 

“Look, I would prefer that the president use the word undocumented,” Rep. Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., told Spectrum News, “but when you speak extemporaneously, you will make missteps and I suspect it was a misstep and it's not a word that he typically uses.”

In a similar manner, Biden campaign’s national co-chair Mitch Landrieu referred to the president’s use of “illegal” as a “small mistake” while pointing to other moments in Thursday’s speech. 

“He probably should’ve used a different word and I think he would know that,” Landrieu said on CNN on Friday. “But what you should notice about that is not that he made a small mistake.” 

“The big thing that he did right, and this is what this president always does, is express empathy to people, he expressed kindness to people,” he added. 

And on a call with reporters Friday morning, Biden’s reelection team dismissed the idea that the president’s use of the term could negatively impact his efforts with Latino voters.

But other Democrats, particularly those further on the left in the party, have been much more straightforward about their concerns. 

“No human being is illegal,” Democratic Reps. Delia Ramirez and Cori Bush both wrote in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. 

And in perhaps the most vocal backlash, Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas., compared the use of the word to former President Donald Trump’s language on immigration. 

“The rhetoric President Biden used tonight was dangerously close to language from Donald Trump that puts a target on the backs of Latinos everywhere,” Castro said on X. “Democrats shouldn’t be taking our cues from MAGA extremism.”

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Thursday downplayed it as not a “big issue” on CNN, despite agreeing Biden should have said undocumented.