The White House is refusing to say whether President Joe Biden will mention the murder of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley in Athens, Georgia, allegedly at the hands of an illegal alien who was released into the United States by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
This week, Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), running for the United States Senate, called on Biden to name Laken Riley in his State of the Union (SOTU) address.
“You have a great opportunity to respect the wishes of Laken Riley’s mother by breaking your silence and saying her name at the upcoming State of the Union address on Thursday, March 7, 2024,” Banks wrote to Biden.
On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to say whether Biden would mention Riley’s murder in his SOTU address:
PETER DOOCY: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? [Emphasis added]
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: Look … this is such a tragic story and obviously situation. This is someone’s life that was lost, so I do want to always acknowledge it and extend our deepest condolences to her family and to her friends and to the people who loved her. And so we want to always be sure to say that because it’s so tragic. 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 want to always be sure that we lift up the families who have lost loved ones in that way. And I would reiterate … the president was just [at the border] with the current [Border Patrol] chief. The president went to the border, obviously Brownsville, Texas to lift up the importance of doing something, of doing something at the border. [Emphasis added]
Q: Will Biden publicly address Laken Riley's murder at the State of the Union?
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: "I don't have anything to share" pic.twitter.com/3pFQdTy7lg
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 5, 2024
Already, Biden has dodged questions about Riley’s murder.
While visiting the U.S.-Mexico border last week in Brownsville, Texas, a reporter asked Biden “Mr. President, do you bear any responsibility for Laken Riley’s death?” Biden did not acknowledge the question or respond.
On February 22, Riley went for a morning jog around the University of Georgia (UGA) campus in Athens. Riley was a nursing student at nearby Augusta University.
When Riley did not return for hours, her roommate called the police. Her body was found hours later, brutally disfigured, near Lake Herrick on UGA’s campus. On Feb. 23, 26-year-old illegal alien Jose Antonio Ibarra from Venezuela was charged with her murder.
After crossing the border, Ibarra was released into the U.S. interior thanks to Biden’s parole pipeline in September 2022. He was arrested in the sanctuary city of New York City, as well as in Athens in 2023, before Riley’s murder, but was never turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
At the time of Riley’s murder, Ibarra had been living in an apartment complex near the UGA campus. Riley often used the complex’s parking lot as a shortcut route on her morning jogs.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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