The statement shortly followed Biden’s effort to walk back using the term “illegal” for a suspected murderer instead of “undocumented” in his State of the Union address.
President Biden has been hit with backlash for comments he made in a recent interview when he stated that “undocumented” immigrants built the United States, shortly after crediting the middle class and unions for building the nation during his State of the Union address.
In his State of the Union address, Biden attempted to highlight the contributions of union workers and the middle class, reiterating his belief that the middle class is the backbone of America and that unions played a crucial role in building it.
"Wall Street didn’t build America. They’re not bad guys. They didn’t build it, though. The middle class built the country, and unions built the middle class,” Biden said during the State of the Union.
But in his recent interview with MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart, Biden instead gave credit to “undocumented” immigrants for building this country.
"I'm not gonna treat any of these people with disrespect. They built this country," Biden said.
The use of the term “undocumented” comes after Biden apologized for using the term “illegal” in his state of the Union address when referring to Jose Ibarra, a Venezuelan national and active gang member responsible for the death of Laken Riley.
Biden clarified with Capehart that he should have used the term “undocumented” instead of “illegal,” and went on to say that illegal immigrants are “the reason our economy is growing.”
Former President Trump ridiculed Biden at a recent campaign rally for walking back his reference to Laken’s killer as an illegal.
"They have a new name that’s even worse. You know what the new name is? Neighbor," Trump stated. "A newcomer to our country… are we going crazy or what? Is this country going crazy? How about that one, newcomer… no, he was an illegal. And I say he was an illegal alien. He was an illegal immigrant. He was an illegal migrant. And he shouldn’t have been in our country, and he never would have been under the Trump policy."
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