Pete Buttigieg Jumps to Defend Biden on CNN After Being Asked If He’s ‘Comfortable’ with Term ‘Illegal’

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg defended President Joe Biden’s use of the term “illegal” in his State of the Union address following Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) stating the president likely should have said “undocumented” instead.

In a fiery exchange with Republicans, the president referred to Laken Riley, a 22-year-old student killed last month, and said she was “killed by an illegal.”

On Friday’s CNN This Morning, Kasie Hunt asked Buttigieg if he is “comfortable” with the use that that term in the president’s context.

Buttieig jumped to defend the president, saying he responded to heckling from Republicans with “compassion.” He also accused Republicans of using Riley’s murder as a “political football.”

“Look, I think the president was responding to what was being hurled at him from the House floor and responding as he characteristically does with compassion to a tragic case that shouldn’t be used as a political football,” he said.

He suggested Republicans only “invoke” immigration issues when it’s convenient and pushed for them to support the bipartisan border bill backed by the president.

“[The president] laid out that if that got to his desk, he would sign something that includes tough compromises that neither side’s base might love but they would make a concrete difference at the southern border, and I think it’s the difference between having a problem that you mention or invoke or use and having a problem that you actually seek to solve, which is President Biden’s approach to the border issue,” Buttigieg said.

Pelosi told CNN earlier that the preferable term would have been “undocumented.”

“Well, we usually say ‘undocumented.’ He said ‘illegal.’ I don’t think it’s a big deal. I don’t think it’s a big deal because I think his focus was on the sympathy for the family. It’s a terrible tragedy,” she said.

Watch above via CNN.

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