In a moment that cut through the marble and chandeliers of the White House East Room, a grieving mother said what much of the corporate press did not want amplified.
Two years after 22 year old nursing student Laken Riley was brutally murdered on a jogging trail in Georgia, her mother stood just steps away from the president and spoke from a place no parent should ever have to stand. The pain in the room was unmistakable. The message was even clearer.
Americans may remember that in March 2024, then President Joe Biden referred to Laken Riley as “Lincoln Riley” during his State of the Union address. He later issued an apology. But the apology was not for misnaming the young woman who had been beaten to death with a rock. It was for using the word “illegal” to describe her killer rather than “undocumented.” That moment, for many families, symbolized everything they believed was wrong with Washington’s priorities.
On Monday, that contrast could not have been sharper.
President Donald Trump signed a proclamation designating February 22 as National Angel Family Day. The date marks February 22, 2024, the day Venezuelan national Jose Antonio Ibarra murdered Laken Riley after allegedly being released into the country during the previous administration’s border policies.
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