Tipsheet

KJP Just Made the White House's Response to Laken Riley's Murder Even Worse

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  March 01, 2024 10:15 AM

The Biden administration's response to the death of 22-year-old Laken Riley has not been the best. It's been downright awful, and inexplicably so, even for them. It might be because the overall Democratic response has been to blame the overlying issue of illegal immigrants and the crimes they commit on Republicans, especially former and potentially future President Donald Trump. That was the case when White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about Riley's death while speaking to CNN on Thursday.

While the whole interview was pretty terrible, what really stuck out was her response when host John Berman said, with particular phrasing, that "one of the things that some Americans are focused on are crimes that are allegedly being committed by migrants who are in the country illegally. There was the death of Laken Riley in Georgia. There's been an arrest made there," he pointed out as he made it about how Republicans, including Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), blamed Biden. "What's the White House response to that," Berman asked.

"I want to offer our condolences to the family of Laken," as she answered the question that came days after the young woman's death. "I mean, this is a horrific, horrific loss for any family. And obviously, any--if whoever is found guilty we need to make sure that--make sure that happens. And obviously, we don't want to--we don't want to see anything happen like that again," she said to further depersonalize the issue.

Jean-Pierre also glossed over the fact that it was an illegal immigrant who was arrested, speaking about Jose Antonio Ibarra, who is here illegally from Venezuela and has a criminal history, in the sense of "if whoever is found guilty we need to make sure that--make sure that happens." It's not even clear what "that" means.

Berman gave her considerable time to rant and rave about Republicans before moving on to another topic, and Jean-Pierre did just that.

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"But here's the thing. We have done the work to make sure we're dealing with a broken immigration system. The Republicans have gotten in the way. They have gotten in the way. And that's what we continue to see over and over and over again," Jean-Pierre falsely claimed, even adding that Biden put out what she claimed was "a comprehensive immigration policy on day one."

Not only did Biden sign an executive order on his first day in office that terminated the emergency at the southern border, but it also put an end to construction of the border wall. Republicans last May also passed legislation to secure the border with HR 2, the Secure the Border Act.

Biden and his fellow Democrats and what Republicans were with them on this just can't get past the terrible border bill released last month after months of negotiations before that was killed. 

Above all, Biden already has the authority to enforce the law and secure the border, he just refuses to do so and repeatedly claims otherwise, no matter how many times Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) calls him out.

"This really--the folks who are getting in the way here are Republicans. They are getting in the way and they are doing it because of what Donald Trump is telling them to do for their own--for his own political gain. And so, this is where we are right now," Jean-Pierre went on to claim, using a talking point that Democrats have shamefully relied on for weeks now.

In the time left that Berman let Jean-Pierre flail around with her response on such a question before moving on, Jean-Pierre spoke about Biden's trip to Brownsville to argue "the president is not going to stop," as if he already started. "He's not going to stop because this is not about politics; it's about the American people and what they want to see coming out of this--out of Washington, D.C.," she said.

Making her claim about "politics" more insufferable is that Jean-Pierre had harped on that narrative multiple times earlier in the interview as well, before Berman brought up Laken Riley's death. She had repeated many of the same talking points almost word for word, actually. 

Biden's border trip and claims to be doing anything about the border are almost certainly about "politics" given that we're in an election year, the president still insists he's running for reelection, and immigration is his worst issue and also one of if not the top issue in the polls. 

Such a disastrous but illustrative interview wasn't the only time Jean-Pierre had a lacking response about Riley's death, though. She addressed the tragedy during Wednesday's press briefing, after several days had gone by, and after she had to be asked on it. Jean-Pierre still didn't have much to say, though, and said Biden hadn't talked with the family yet.

During his trip to the border on Thursday, Trump shared that he had spoken with the young woman's parents.