White House: Joe Biden ‘Did Not Apologize’ to Laken Riley’s Accused Killer

President Joe Biden “did not apologize” for calling Jose Antonio Ibarra, the man accused of murdering 22-year-old Laken Riley, “an illegal” during his State of the Union (SOTU) address last week, White House spokeswoman Olivia Dalton says. The clarification comes after Biden suggested he “shouldn’t have” used the term to describe Ibarra.

Under pressure to acknowledge Laken Riley’s murder, Biden held up a pin that read “Say Her Name: Laken Riley” — given to him by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) — at his SOTU address.

“Lincoln, Lincoln Riley,” Biden said, mispronouncing her name. “An innocent young woman who was killed … by an illegal. That’s right. But how many of thousands of people are being killed by legals?”

U.S. House of Representatives

Following the off-script remark, Democrats and open borders activists denounced Biden’s calling Ibarra “an illegal” at the SOTU address.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Biden should have used the term “undocumented” while Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) wrote on Twitter that “no human being is illegal.”

Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) said Biden’s term to describe Ibarra was “incendiary and wrong” and Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) said he “wouldn’t have used the word ‘illegal.'”

Then, in an interview with MSNBC over the weekend, Biden suggested that he regretted using the term “illegal” to describe Ibarra:

I shouldn’t have used ‘illegal,’ I should have — it’s undocumented.
[Emphasis added]

On Monday, Dalton told a reporter in Manchester, New Hampshire, that Biden never apologized for calling Ibarra “an illegal” and claimed that former President Donald Trump is “playing politics” with Riley’s murder.

The exchange went as follows:

REPORTER: In his interview with Jonathan Capehart, President Biden apologized for calling Laken Riley’s killer an “illegal.” Does — does he feel like he needs to apologize to illegal immigrants for calling them what they are — or using the term “illegal”? [Emphasis added]

DALTON: Well, first of all, I want to be really clear about something. The President absolutely did not apologize. There was no apology anywhere in that conversation. He did not apologize. He used a different word.
[Emphasis added]

I think, what’s — what’s — what we should be really clear about is the facts. So, in addition to the fact that, you know, the President did not apologize, I want to make another thing clear. The President spoke directly to this in the State of the Union Address not four nights ago, when he spoke passionately about knowing what it means to lose a child and extended his deep grief and condolences to Laken Riley’s family in — in front of the entire country in the — in the House Chamber. [Emphasis added]

And beyond that, I think it’s unconscionable that there are some people who are playing politics with this young woman’s tragic murder — and particularly at a time when, let’s not forget, House Republicans are standing in the way of a bipartisan border security agreement that is the toughest bill we have ever seen in history. And they’re doing so because Donald Trump feels that the American people’s safety is less important than his personal politics. That’s the fact.
[Emphasis added]

This past weekend, Trump visited with Riley’s family and friends during a campaign stop in Rome, Georgia. Trump said Biden and his border policies are to blame for the young woman’s murder as Ibarra was released into the United States from the southern border.

One of Riley’s friends, Callie Irvin, told the New York Post that she and others are “angry” because Ibarra “shouldn’t have been allowed to do this.”

“He shouldn’t have even been here,” Irvin said.

Prosecutors allege that Riley was kidnapped and murdered by Ibarra while she was out for a morning jog on Feb. 22 on the University of Georgia (UGA) campus. Her body was discovered that day, brutally disfigured after being beaten to death.

On Feb. 23, police arrested Ibarra, who had had run-ins with the law in New York City and Athens, Georgia, but apparently was never turned over to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.

Ibarra remains in Clarke County Jail.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.