Snubbing Laken Riley's family showed the Democrats at their unelectable worst

Telegraph

05-03-2025

'In all 13 State of the Unions I've attended, I have never seen such a disgraceful display from the Democrats', said Texas Senator Ted Cruz on X late Tuesday night. He was referring in part to the party's failure to stand up and applaud when, in his speech to Congress, Donald Trump recognised the mother and sister of Laken Riley, the 22-year old University of Georgia nursing student who was murdered by an illegal immigrant in February 2024. Riley's killer, a native of Venezuela, had illegally crossed the US's southern border in September 2022 and racked up multiple arrests for child endangerment, theft, and motor vehicle violations before he murdered Riley during her morning jog.
On Jan 29, Trump signed into law the first legislation of his new presidential term: the Laken Riley Act, a bill proposed by Congressional Republicans requiring the detention of illegal immigrants arrested for crimes relating to theft or causing death and injury. In the final tally, 35 Democratic Senators and 156 Democratic Representatives voted against the bill, while all Republicans present supported it.
This year's State of the Union address was not the first time that the annual presidential address made mention of Laken Riley, whose murder might very well have been prevented had Democrats been willing to enforce America's immigration laws. Last year, just days after Riley's murder, former president Joe Biden reluctantly mentioned her – appearing to misidentify her as 'Lincoln Riley' – after firebrand Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene shouted a demand that he say her name when Biden discussed weak immigration legislation that his administration failed to pass.
This year, disempowered in all branches of government and opposed by wide majorities of Americans on virtually every issue, the Democrats sat in stony silence as Trump touted not only the lightning fast achievements of his new term, but also the human tragedies caused by his opponents' incompetence.
Failing to rise for Laken Riley's family was shameful, but also illustrated the profound disconnect between Democrats and most American voters.
As disgraceful as the moment was, however, it was hardly the only case of Congressional Democrats showing their true colours on national television during Trump's speech. They also failed to rise for the family of Jocelyn Nungaray, a 12-year old Texas girl who was sexually assaulted and murdered last June. They failed to rise for DJ Daniel, a 13-year old brain cancer survivor whose life's dream is to become a police officer, and whom Trump made an honorary officer in the Secret Service.
They failed to rise for Jason Hartley, a graduating high school student who at a young age lost his father, a California sheriff's deputy, and whose wish, which Trump granted during his speech, was to win admission to the US military academy at West Point and continue a four-generation family tradition of service.
The Democrats remained motionless when Trump announced foreign investment pledges rising into the hundreds of billions of dollars, unprecedented infusions of capital that will create thousands of jobs and reduce dependency on foreign manufacturing. They were unmoved by his intention to get toxins and pollutants out of America's food and water supplies. They sat silently when Trump cheered record-high military recruitment, record low illegal border crossings, and the apprehension of the terrorist suspect believed responsible for the 2021 Abbey Gate bombing in Afghanistan, which killed 13 American servicemen and 160 civilians.
The Democrats greeted with grim visages the widow and children of Corey Comperatore, the man who was killed in the July 2024 assassination attempt against Trump in Pennsylvania. Crossed Democratic arms and twisted Leftist sourpusses met Trump's assurance to America's children that 'you are perfect exactly the way God made you' when he announced his intention to ban transgender surgeries for minors. They wouldn't even cheer Trump's mention of a member of the Kennedy family, the once-iconic Democratic political dynasty that produced Trump's Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, whose highest avowed goal is to 'make America healthy again'.
All the Democrats could offer in response, apart from their Groucho Marx-style 'Whatever it is, I'm against it' stance, was an embarrassing reply by newly-elected Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin, who urged her constituents to practise self-care and community involvement. In what sounded amusingly like a self-help session, Slotkin made what was perhaps a Freudian slip, appearing to tell disenfranchised Democrats that change starts 'from the bottle up'. That, really, is all they have left.