The contentious issue of immigration has been a significant pillar of the 2024 presidential campaign, with former President Donald Trump blasting the policies pursued by the Biden-Harris administration since 2021.

At an event in Georgia last weekend, Trump received a bit of vindication from an unexpected source, namely, former President Bill Clinton, who admitted that nursing student Laken Riley likely would not have been murdered if migrants had been properly vetted before being let loose in the United States, comments that have also drawn the attention of a prominent GOP senator, as Fox News reports.

Clinton's candor

Speaking in the Peach State on Sunday, Clinton was attempting to champion Harris as the right choice for those interested in reforming immigration, but one of his remarks went somewhat astray from that message.

While touting Harris' past support of a controversial border bill he blames Trump for helping scuttle, Clinton referenced the killing of Riley by an illegal migrant released into the interior due to Biden-Harris policies.

“You had a case in Georgia not very long ago, didn't you? They made an ad about it, a young woman who had been killed by an immigrant,” Clinton began.

He continued, “Yeah, well, if they'd all been properly vetted that probably wouldn't have happened. But if they're all properly vetted, that doesn't happen,” seeming to many to be echoing the sentiments of Trump, who took a much harder line on immigration that his successors in office.

Britt responds

Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) was responsible for leading the introduction of the Laken Riley Act in the upper chamber earlier this year, and she had some choice words to share about Clinton's acknowledgment of the problem.

The legislation, as, the Alabama Political Reporter noted would force the Department of Homeland Security to detain any undocumented immigrants “charged with, arrested for, convicted for, or [who have admitted] to...burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting” -- a category into which Riley's accused killer would have fallen -- and would also permit a state government to pursue legal action against the DHS secretary for any harm to it or its residents caused by such an individual.

Reacting to Clinton's words, Britt said, “Laken Riley would be alive today if the Biden-Harris administration had stronger border security and interior immigration enforcement policies in place. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have willfully, recklessly, and unlawfully allowed poorly vetted individuals, including Laken Riley's accused murderer, to unleash havoc on American families nationwide.”

She did not stop there, adding, “What President Clinton refused to admit is that this is a conscious choice the Biden-Harris administration has made. No one is forcing them to parole hundreds of thousands of poorly vetted individuals into communities across our country, and they could end their dangerous, unprecedented abuse of immigration parole today if they wanted to.”

Reactions pour in

In the aftermath of Clinton's surprising commentary on the state of migrant vetting under the Biden-Harris administration, a host of online voices offered their take on what they believe it really revealed.

Guy Benson, a Fox News contributor, mused on X, “He gets some credit for at least acknowledging that Riley was murdered & he's right that her accused killer, an illegal immigrant, wasn't properly vetted by the Biden-Harris admin.”

Noting the perhaps inadvertent implications of Clinton's words, Doug Powers at Twitchy remarked, “Great case against voting for the kinds of tragic and deadly policies that Kamala Harris would no doubt continue. Thanks, @BillClinton!”

Perhaps most telling of all, however, was the fact that during her Wednesday sit-down with Fox News' Bret Baier, despite receiving multiple opportunities to do so, Harris declined to apologize to the families of those killed by improperly vetted migrants, going only so far as to say that she feels “so sorry” for the losses they have suffered and pivoted to tired campaign talking points about Trump.