Addressing one of the biggest vulnerabilities in his reelection campaign — the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border — Biden again called on Republicans to drop their resistance to the Senate bipartisan security deal that the GOP recently scuttled at the behest of Trump.
“We can fight about fixing the border,” Biden said, “or we can fix it.”
Going into the speech, Republicans had challenged Biden to “say her name” and mention Laken Riley, the slain Georgia nursing student whose alleged killer, immigration authorities say, illegally entered the country.
They got their way — sort of — while Biden discussed the bipartisan border security deal. Responding to an outburst from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Biden paused and addressed the matter, though he appeared to initially mispronounce Riley’s first name as “Lincoln.”
“An innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal, that’s right,” Biden said. “But how many thousands of people being killed by illegals? To her parents, I say, my heart goes out to you, having lost children myself.”