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OPINION

Biden Cares More About 'Illegals' Than Laken Riley

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.
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AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

The entire Joe-Biden-still-doesn’t-know- how-to-talk-yet-about-illegal- immigration episode that followed last week’s State of the Union address is a microcosm of what ails him politically, and explains how and why he’s trailing in the polls. His contempt for the vast majority of American voters – people who care about the rule of law, and who care about the ill effects of illegal immigration – was on full display as he tried, and tried, and tried yet again to please the hard left wing of his party, which is wildly out of touch with the vast majority of the American public.

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Let’s go back to Biden’s address last week. About 43 minutes into his remarks, as he spoke of the crisis at the border – a crisis brought on by the policies he ordered and directed at the beginning of his administration three years ago, which have allowed more than 7.5 million illegal aliens to enter our country – he was challenged from the floor of the chamber. In responding, he spoke of “Lincoln Riley, an innocent young woman who was killed, by an illegal. That’s right. But how many thousands of people are being killed by legals? To her parents, I say, my heart goes out to you, having lost children myself. I understand.”

Back at the White House (and, no doubt, the Biden campaign headquarters), the communications and political staffs were tearing their hair out. Not only had Biden fallen for the bait, choosing to respond to a heckle from the floor of the chamber by responding to it, and then not responding well, he had committed the grievous sin of using the wrong noun to describe a man who – according to the thinking of the man the communications and political staffs were hired to assist, after all – never should have been here in the first place. (Of course, the use of the word “illegal” to describe a man who entered the nation in violation of the law is wrong only to those most dedicated to the proposition that there should be no laws regulating immigration into the United States.)

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Consequently, a revised and updated manner of locution was prepared, and Biden was sent out to speak with selected reporters before boarding Marine One for a campaign trip the next day. Asked a softball question – “Do you regret using the word ‘illegal’ to describe immigrants last night, sir?” – he responded, “Well, I probably – I don’t re- – technically not supposed to be here.”

More hair was left lying on the floors of the communications and political offices at the White House. First, “illegal.” Then, trying to clean up, a sotto voce acknowledgement that the alien’s presence in the United States was a violation of law, “technical” though it may have been.

Consequently, the following day yet another attempt was made. This one would rise to the level of a formal sit-down interview with one of the regime’s most trusted lackeys, Jonathan Capehart of MSNBC.

“During your response to [Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greeene’s] heckling of you, you used the word ‘illegal’ when talking about the man who allegedly killed Laken Riley,” Capehart said. Biden responded: “An undocumented person. And I shouldn’t have used ‘illegal.’ It’s ‘undocumented.’”

Capehart, apparently not satisfied, pressed again: “So you regret using that word?”

“Yes,” Biden replied.

Biden’s apology tour demands a response. After all, he apologized to the wrong people.

First: Never – not on Thursday, when he made the gaffe, nor on Friday, when he first tried to clean it up, nor on Saturday, when he finally found the words he had been seeking – did Biden express regret or apologize for having been the responsible public official who ordered the open-borders policy that allowed a violent man to enter the country illegally, so he could be in the United States to, allegedly, commit murder.

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Second: Biden’s attempt to bond with Laken Riley’s mother and father by citing his own personal loss is disgusting. The attempt totally ignores the fact that he had a significant role to play in the death of their daughter – if it had not been for a decision he made and ordered implemented, Laken Riley would likely be alive today. Of all the people he apologized to, he should have apologized to them – yet he failed to.

Third: “How many thousands of people are being killed by legals?” is an acknowledgement that violent crime has soared over the last several years – another reason Biden is trailing in the polls. Again, he could have apologized to America for that, but he failed to.

Fourth: “Technically.” Really? “Technically,” Joe Biden, your administration never should have allowed Jose Antonio Ibarra to enter the United States. And your administration never should have paroled him into the United States once he had been apprehended after crossing the border illegally. Technically, you should have left Trump’s executive orders in place so the border would have remained secure the last three-plus years.

The entire episode demonstrates why Biden is trailing in the polls. He seeks the approval of his party’s hard left wing on every issue that matters – even if the issue is, according to the polls, the issue that dominates public concern and even if the issue is, according to the polls, an issue on which the position of the hard left wing of the Democrat Party is wildly out of touch with the vast majority of the American voting public.

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Biden made a choice. He chose to go left.

In November, voters will make a choice. They will choose a different path, and a different leader.

Jenny Beth Martin is Honorary Chairman of Tea Party Patriots Action. 

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