Biden Spox Slams Trump And Republicans When CNN Asks About Immigration And Laken Riley Killing
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre slammed former President Donald Trump and Republicans over immigration reform when CNN anchor John Berman brought up the killing of Laken Riley in the context of immigration.
Laken Riley is the 22-year-old nursing student whose murder has become a flashpoint in immigration politics because the suspect in custody is a 26-year-old migrant named Jose Antonio Ibarra. According to ICE, Ibarra unlawfully entered the United States near El Paso, Texas in 2022.
On Thursday’s edition of CNN News Central, co-anchor Berman asked Jean-Pierre to respond to a Republican senator who blamed President Joe Biden directly for Riley’s death — which Trump has also done.
Jean-Pierre expressed condolences over Riley’s death and hope that her killer face justice if found guilty. She then slammed Republicans for blocking an immigration deal, and Trump for telling them to do so:
JOHN BERMAN: One of the things that 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 Senator Josh Hawley said, quote, “These deaths are on him.”.
What’s the White House response to that?
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: 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 that happens. And obviously, we don’t want to, we don’t want to see, anything happen like that again.
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.
And so, look, this is a serious this is a serious matter. That’s why the president’s 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. 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.
So the president’s going to take it directly to the American people. He’s going to hear from 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 of out of Washington, DC.
Watch above via CNN News Central.
