Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is facing backlash on social media over a resurfaced clip that seemingly contradicts President Biden’s recent comment where he walked back calling Laken Riley’s alleged killer an “illegal.”
“People who enter the United States without our permission are illegal aliens and illegal aliens should not be treated the same as people who enters the U.S. legally,” Schumer said during a 2009 speech.
“Illegal immigration is wrong, plain and simple. Until the American people are convinced that we will stop future flows of illegal immigration we will make no progress on dealing with the millions of illegal immigrants who are here now,” Schumer said. “When we use phrases like undocumented workers we convey a message to the American people that their government is not serious about combating illegal immigration which the American people overwhelmingly oppose. If you don’t think it’s illegal you’re not going to say it. I think it is illegal and wrong.”
Schumer drew criticism over the weekend from conservatives in light of President Biden referring to the illegal immigrant who allegedly killed 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley as an “illegal” in his State of the Union address before later walking back that term after many in his party took issue with it.
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L – Laken Riley R – Chuck Schumer (Getty Images)
“This is Democrat senate majority leader Chuck Schumer from 2009 talking about how unacceptable illegal immigration is,” Outkick.com founder Clay Travis posted on X. “Now Dems say it’s unacceptable to even use the word illegal. Things everyone said just a few years ago are now considered unacceptable.”
“Democrats really used to want to stop illegal immigration,” conservative comedian Tim Young posted on X. “Here’s Chuck Schumer in 2009 telling us all how ‘illegal immigration is wrong.’ What changed?”
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“Schumer and Pelosi had it exactly right about calling illegal immigration illegal,” Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott posted on X, referring to separate comments now-former House Speaker Pelosi made during a press conference over a decade ago. “Now they change their position to appease the far left progressive agenda. Their actions imperil our country.”
“Do we have a commitment to secure the border? Yes. What are the options that we have available to us, let’s make sure they work,” Pelosi said during a 2008 press conference. While Pelosi went on to use the term “undocumented” in 2008, she followed up by saying the government did “not want any more coming in.”
“Because we do need to address the issue of immigration and the challenge we have of undocumented people in our country,” she continued. “We certainly do not want any more coming in.”
On Friday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claimed that farmers in Florida need illegal immigrants to stay in their state and “pick the crops.” (Fox News )
Pelosi recently downplayed Biden’s “illegal” comment during a CNN interview by saying, “Now he should have said undocumented, but that’s not a big thing, ok? What’s the big thing?”
Aaron Bennett, a spokesperson for Pelosi, told Fox News Digital that “While Speaker Emerita Pelosi backs bipartisan legislation that includes the toughest and fairest reforms to secure the border in decades, Governor Abbot only backs Donald Trump, who directed MAGA Republicans to kill the deal because he thinks that will help him politically.”
Missouri Republican Senator Eric Schmitt referred to the comparison of Schumer in 2009 and Biden today as “unbelievable” in a post on X.
“Despicable,” Center for Renewing America Senior Fellow Mark Paoletta wrote on X.
Schumer appeared to defend Biden last week when pressed during an interview on “The View” about Biden’s use of “illegal.”
“Look, he showed in his heart how he feels for immigrants. He showed that he knows immigrants contribute greatly to America. He talked about our long history with immigrants and even showed real empathy for the family that lost a loved one in Georgia. So I think that Joe Biden comes out really well on the immigration issue in this speech,” Schumer said.
Over the weekend, Biden was pressed by MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart about the backlash he has received from some Democrats for using “illegal” to refer to Jose Ibarra, a Venezuelan national charged with murdering Riley, an Augusta University nursing student who was out for a run on the University of Georgia campus last month.
“And I shouldn’t have used illegal, I should’ve, It’s undocumented,” Biden recently told NBC News after members of his party criticized him for using the term “illegal” to describe the alleged killer.
“And look, when I spoke about the difference between Trump and me, one of the things I talked about on the border was his – the way he talks about vermin, the way he talks about these people polluting the blood. I talked about what I’m not going to do, what I won’t do,” Biden said. “I’m not going to treat any, any, any of these people with disrespect. Look, they built the country. The reason our economy is growing, we have to control the border and more orderly flow. But I don’t share his view at all.”
Joe Biden at the State of the Union split image (Getty Images)
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Biden was blasted by top Republicans over the weekend for walking it back, including House Speaker Mike Johnson calling it an “embarrassment.”
While Biden said over the weekend that he had “regret” over the use of the term “illegal” in his major speech, White House spokesperson Olivia Dalton disputed a reporter’s characterization of Biden apologizing on Monday, saying, “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,” she added.
Schumer’s office did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
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