The White House communications team is desperately trying to clean up "regrets" President Biden expressed over the weekend to illegal alien Jose Ibarra, the man charged with murdering 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley.
"I want to be really clear about something the president absolutely did not apologize. There was no apology anywhere in that conversation," Principal Deputy Press Secretary Olivia Dalton told reporters onboard Air Force One Monday afternoon.
Now the Biden admin is trying to spin that the president didn't actually apologize for calling Laken Riley's murderer an "illegal."
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 11, 2024
We all saw Biden do it.
Townhall will never apologize for telling the truth or for using the term illegal: https://t.co/vvIpfwxUqh pic.twitter.com/N5geiYSjAC
While staffers for the president insist he didn't issue an apology, Biden's exchange with MSNBC over the weekend tells a different story. From NBC:
In Saturday’s interview, the president also said that he regrets using the word “illegal” to describe the undocumented immigrant who is charged with killing a 22-year-old nursing student in Georgia.
“During your response to [Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s] heckling of you, you used the word ‘illegal’ when talking about the man who allegedly killed Laken Riley,” Capehart said.
“An undocumented person. And I shouldn’t have used ‘illegal.’ It’s ‘undocumented,’” Biden said.
“So you regret using that word?” Capehart pressed him.
“Yes,” Biden replied.
The statement marks an apparent reversal from what Biden said Friday. While at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, the president was asked, “Do you regret using the word ‘illegal’ to describe immigrants last night, sir?”
“Well, I probably — I don’t re — technically not supposed to be here,” he responded.
Biden Apologized for Using the Term 'Illegal' to Describe a Killer. We Won't.https://t.co/vvIpfwxUqh pic.twitter.com/XYws4Ykxcb
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 11, 2024