During a recent appearance on CNN, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre somehow managed to make the White House’s stance on the horrific death of Laken Riley on UGA’s campus worse. That came when she was speaking to the host, John Berman, and he characterized the important thing as being Republicans attacking Biden for crimes committed by illegal immigrants, framing that blame as unfair.
KJP, in response, didn’t push back and say that the Biden Administration needs to make sweeping changes in how it defends the border to prevent the deaths of others like Laken Riley, Instead, she took to blaming Republicans for the border crises and “broken immigration system.”
It began when Berman asked, “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. Republicans are directly blaming President Biden for this. Republican Sen. Josh Hawley said, quote, ‘These deaths are on him.’ What’s the White House response to that?”
KJP, in response, first said, “So, first of all, I want to offer our condolences to the family of Laken. 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.”
Continuing, after just that brief statement of condolence for Laken, KJP switched tracks and started blaming Republicans. She 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 then tried to make Biden look like a staunch defender of the border, saying, “And so, look, this is a serious — this is a serious matter. That’s why the president is going to the border. The president was at the border a year ago in El Paso, visiting the border back in January 2023. He put a comprehensive — a comprehensive immigration policy on day one.”
Turning immediately back to attacking Republicans, saying they are “getting in the way” of border security, KJP then 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.”
Concluding, she said, “So the president is going to take it directly to the American people. He’s going to hear by — form folks — from people who are — who are directly impacted by what’s happening with this broken immigration system. But the president is not going to stop. 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.”
Watch her here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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