Speaking publicly for the first time since his daughter’s murder last month, Laken Riley’s father told NBC News that he doesn’t like to see her memory being used as a political wedge.
“I think it’s being used politically to get those votes,” Jason Riley said in the NBC interview. “It makes me angry. I feel like, you know, they’re just using my daughter’s name for that. And she was much better than that, and she should be raised up for the person that she is. She was an angel.”
Republicans like former President Donald Trump, U.S. Reps. Mike Collins and Marjorie Taylor Greene, Gov. Brian Kemp and state legislators like Athens’ Houston Gaines have seized on Riley’s murder to call for stricter border controls. Jose Antonio Ibarra, 26, a native of Venezuela who sought asylum in the U.S., is charged with killing the 22-year-old Athens nursing student.
Trump met with Riley’s mother and stepfather before a rally in Rome. And egged on by Greene, Biden mentioned Riley in an unscripted moment during his recent State of the Union address.
According to NBC News:
Jason Riley said he does support former President Donald Trump and that while he prefers his daughter’s death “not be so political,” it has opened up necessary discussions about how best to secure the southern border and help women, including those who are victims of human trafficking.
“Laken has been a rallying cry for secure borders and for the illegal immigration policies of this current administration, but there’s many women we don’t get to hear about,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ibarra’s attorneys filed a motion on Friday seeking a jury trial rather than a bench trial where the verdict is handed down by a judge, but did not request a speedy trial, which would have started a clock on proceedings. The defense lawyers also sought to see the prosecution’s evidence.
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