# The Democratic president of the United States of America, the guy who ran against Donald Trump and just launched his campaign to do so again, just called someone "an illegal" in the State of the Union address **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 8, 2024, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-democratic-president-of-the-united-states-of-america-the-guy-who-ran-against-donald-trump-and-just-launched-his-campaign-to-do-so-again-just-called-someone-an-illegal-in-the-state-of-the-union-address/998607 "2024-03-08T13:24:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 216
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2024, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-democratic-president-of-the-united-states-of-america-the-guy-who-ran-against-donald-trump-and-just-launched-his-campaign-to-do-so-again-just-called-someone-an-illegal-in-the-state-of-the-union-address/998607/216 "2024-03-11T20:55:45Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > Do they provide gift links? and if so, could you please post one here? I couldn’t find a gift link. I originally opened up the link in a private window, but failed to scroll down enough. Moving forward I’ll check my links more carefully and add a (sub req, beyond ~1st 1000 words) where appropriate. * * * In the OP’s defense, I think Biden’s use of the word “Illegal” was more jarring audibly, than in the transcript. Still. Biden echoed MTG’s use of the word “Illegal”, in order to pivot to the question, “But how many of thousands of people are being killed by legals?” The answer of course is that illegal immigrants as a group commit less crime than native born Americans do. Right wing bigots focus on anecdotes, because that’s all they have. To the anecdote, Biden said, " To her parents, I say: My heart goes out to you. Having lost children myself, I understand." I don’t recall much of Jimmy\_Chitwood’s other posts, and I’m willing to assume that posts like the OP aren’t a habit of his. I would say that if he’s done something like this three times on this message board, he needs to reflect a little. Otherwise I’d give it a pass. His vitriol was in response to some rather strong mockery from myself after all. > [@DSeid](#): > > FWIW, which is very little: words do matter; actions and policies matter more. I agree with this. I think it’s significant that Biden apologized for echoing MTG’s use of the word illegal, while MTG did not. I’ll go further and note that policy is the slow boring of hard boards, and Biden’s words represented a reaching out to his opponents, or rather the base of his opponents. Generally speaking you don’t persuade people by acting all huffy. Persuasion happens in pivots and baby steps. Those interested in my more serious thoughts about immigration policy can go here: > [@Trump and the right's immigration stances are pushing the left towards open borders.](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-the-rights-immigration-stances-are-pushing-the-left-towards-open-borders/823407/142): > > I’m saying that serious attempts at immigration control should focus on the employer. For the US that means strengthening eVerify, which is currently strictly optional if you are not a government contractor. [E-Verify - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Verify) There are all manner of ways to fairly clamp down on employers who hire illegal immigrants. In northern Europe, illegal immigrants are forced to work in the underground economy, [if I’m reading the subtext of this paper properly](http://oecdobserver.org/news/archivestory.php/aid/190/Illegal_immigrants_and_the_labour_market.html). In other words they can’t easily secure … --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-democratic-president-of-the-united-states-of-america-the-guy-who-ran-against-donald-trump-and-just-launched-his-campaign-to-do-so-again-just-called-someone-an-illegal-in-the-state-of-the-union-address/998607)._