Some Democrats are expressing outrage over President Biden’s use of the word “illegal” during last week’s State of the Union, but on today’s episode of The Editors, National Review senior editor Charles C. W. Cooke called this response “telling.”
“When people, especially older people who have grown accustomed to talking in a particular way, are unscripted, they often say what they think,” Cooke said. “He doesn’t think that it’s offensive. . . . I think that it’s so silly to suggest that anyone should have a problem with the use of the word ‘illegal’ when illegal is what those people are. They are illegal immigrants as distinct from immigrants who are here legally.”
Biden specifically used the term in reference to the alleged killer of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley — before later expressing regret over his phrasing amid progressive backlash.
Cooke, who went through the immigration process himself, explained why Biden’s original term fits: “Before I was a permanent resident, I was a visa holder. And until I was a citizen, I was an alien. . . . It’s not offensive to note that. It’s true. That’s the word that we’ve used for a long time. It comes from the Latin alienus. Illegal is a good word.”
“Biden knows this and probably thinks that too, as most people do and most Democrats did until about ten years ago.”
The Editors podcast is recorded on Tuesdays and Fridays every week and is available wherever you listen to podcasts.