During the Tuesday, March 5, White House Press Briefing, Fox News Channel White House Correspondent Peter Doocy pressed White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre over whether President Biden would, during his Thursday March 7 State of the Union address, speak about the murder of Laken Riley. Ms. Riley was murdered on UGA’s campus, with an illegal immigrant from Venezuela suspected in the case.
Doocy, questioning KJP about Ms. Riley’s murder, asked, “Will President Biden publicly address Laken Riley’s murder, allegedly at the hands of an illegal immigrant who was released by law enforcement multiple times, on Thursday night? I know he’s put out a statement. But what about at the State of the Union?”
KJP, in response, said, “You — look, let me — I do want — this is such a tragic story and, obviously, situation. This is someone’s life that was lost, so I do want to always acknowledge and extend our deepest condolences to — to her family and to her friends and the people who — who loved her. And so, want to always be sure to say that and — because it’s so tragic.”
Continuing, she didn’t give any details about Biden’s planned remarks, then gave platitudes about Biden’s stance on victims of crime, saying, “Look, I don’t have anything to share about the President’s speech as it relates to that particular question that you have. But we — you know, we want to always — always be sure that we li- — lift up the families who have lost their loved ones in that way.”
She then attempted to frame Biden as having focused on “doing something” at the US-Mexico border, saying, “And I would reiterate — you just asked me about the Border Patrol chief. The President was just there with the current chief, Owens. The President went to the border — obviously, Brownsville, Texas — to lift up the importance of doing something — of doing something at the border.”
KJP then, absurdly, attempted to frame Republicans as being responsible for the death of Laken Riley because they didn’t agree to the Lankford-Schumer border deal. Many on the right argued that the border deal would have done little to defend the border and likely involved letting in many illegal immigrants.
Attacking Republicans, KJP said, “And I would be remiss if I did not continue to say that Republicans rejected a bipartisan proposal that came out of the Senate. And so, if they truly, truly cared about what was going on at the border; if they truly cared about this immigration policies and trying to fix that, trying to move forward in a step, in a way where we have a tough and fair law, they would work with us on it. They wouldn’t listen to the former President, who is clearly telling them to reject — telling Republicans to reject it for their — for his own political gain. And that’s shameful. That’s truly shameful.“
Watch Doocy and KJP here:
This isn’t the first time KJP has blamed Republicans for Laken Riley’s death. Previously, when asked about the murdered young woman, KJP said, “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.”
She added, “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.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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