OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former President Donald Trump did what a president should do and what President Joe Biden did not, as he reached out to the family of University of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, whose life was allegedly ended by an illegal immigrant.
He met them backstage at his rally in Georgia on Saturday and a photo emerged of the former president hugging Riley’s mother.
“I met her beautiful mother and family backstage,” he said to the crowd in Rome, Georgia. “They said she was like the best. She was always the best to us. They admit that she was the best, and she was the first in her class. She was going to be the best nurse. She was the best nursing student. She was always the best. She was the brightest light in every room, they told me.”
“She was the whole world to her parents and to her sister and just to the whole family,” he said.
“Biden has implemented a formal policy that illegal aliens who intrude into the United States are granted immunity from deportation,” he said. “Thus, when this monster showed up at our border, he was set free immediately under the program. That crooked Joe created it.”
He said he was “profoundly honored” to have Riley’s family and friends present for the rally.
“They’re so incredible,” he said. “The hearts of hundreds of thousands and indeed millions and millions of Americans and people worldwide, they’re shattered alongside of your beautiful hearts. We share your grief. We share your grief. Thank you, darling. Thank you. Thank you very much. We appreciate it.”
Last week Trump said he reached out to Riley’s parents.
Fox News reported that the former president made his comments while he was at the border this week when he mentioned that he spoke to the young student’s parents.
“The parents are devastated, and they’re incredible people….This is a Joe Biden invasion. A Biden invasion. I call him crooked Joe… the most incompetent president we’ve ever had,” he said.
“He never mentioned her name,” the former president said of Biden. “I’m not going to forget her.”
He said that she was “barbarically attacked” when she was jogging and then “brutally assaulted, horrifically beaten, kidnapped, and savagely murdered.”
“She was an incredible young lady,” he said. “She was so beautiful in so many ways.”
Biden did eventually say her name, when he was shamed into doing it at the State of the Union, but he got her name incorrect and downplayed the crime.
The president complained that Republicans blocked border legislation at the behest of his “predecessor” when he was interrupted by Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
“What about Laken Riley?” she hollered from the gallery. “Say her name!”
Biden then held up a pin that Greene had given him that said, “Say Her Name, Laken Riley.”
He then said, “Lincoln … Lincoln, Lincoln Riley, an innocent young woman who was killed.”
“By an illegal!” the representative said.
“By an illegal. That’s right. But how many of thousands of people are being killed by legals?” Biden responded callously.
“To her parents, I say: My heart goes out to you. Having lost children myself, I understand,” he said.
Lincoln Riley is the head football coach at USC.
“Biden does not even KNOW my child’s name – it’s pathetic! If you are going to say her name (even when forced to do so at least say the right name!” Riley’s mother, Allyson Phillips, wrote on Facebook.
“Joe Biden just confused Laken Riley, a college student killed by an illegal immigrant, with USC football coach Lincoln Riley. This just happened. The man’s brain is mush. Incredibly disrespectful,” Clay Travis said after the gaffe.
“‘Lincoln’ Riley? Just appalling,” actor James Woods said.
“It’s Laken Riley, Mr. President, and she would be alive if it weren’t for your open border policies,” The Heritage Foundation said.
