President Joe Biden badly botched a moment in the State of the Union speech Thursday night when he discussed Laken Riley.
But don’t worry, the left-wing mainstream media was there to cover for him.
As the Tampa Free Press reported on Friday, Biden pulled one of his more infamous gaffes in a 50-year political career filled with them by referring to the 22-year-old slain Georgia nursing student by the wrong name.
At one point in the speech, Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene heckled the 81-year-old president by calling out the name of Laken Riley, who was recently murdered at the University of Georgia.
Read: Georgia Rep. MTG Gets Biden To ‘Say Her Name’ After Confronting Him Over Murder Of Laken Riley
Police arrested Jose Antonio Ibarra as the only suspect in her death. Ibarra is an illegal immigrant from Venezuela who entered the country in 2022 and was allowed to stay in America despite multiple encounters with law enforcement.
In response to Greene, Biden then held up one of the Laken Riley pins that Greene handed out before the speech.
Literally on the pin were the words “Say her name … Laken Riley.”
As he held up the pin, Biden clearly stated, “Lincoln, Lincoln Riley, an innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal. That’s right. But how many thousands of people are being killed by illegals?”
Read: Florida Rep. Byron Donalds Rips The 170 Democrats Who Voted Nay On ‘Laken Riley Act’
Biden not only screwed up her name but instead invoked the name of the head football coach at USC for the past two seasons and who spent the five seasons before that as head coach of the Oklahoma Sooners.
Biden’s gaffe was so egregious that “Lincoln Riley” was one of the top trending topics on X Thursday night, clocking in with more than 39,000 posts at one point.
But good luck finding that moment in any mainstream media account of the speech.
For instance, both USA Today and Time magazine posted what they called the “full text” of Biden’s speech. Yet neither one refers to Biden mentioning either Laken Riley or Lincoln Riley.
NBC News and CBS News posted parts of the speech as they occurred.
Of that moment, NBC’s account noted, “Biden responded [to Greene] by picking up a button portraying the woman, Laken Riley, that Greene had handed him as he entered the chamber for tonight’s address. Biden said Riley was an ‘innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal.’ He then addressed Riley’s parents and said his heart goes out to them as someone who lost has children himself.”
Read: Matt Walsh Says DHS Secretary Is “100%” To Blame For Georgia Student Laken Riley’s Murder
This was a lie because a photo of Biden at that moment clearly showed the pin did not have an image of Laken Riley on it. Moreover, her parents were not there, having declined an invitation to attend.
Similarly, CBS reported Biden “veered off script to mention Laken Riley, the Georgia woman who was killed last month. The president held up a button with Riley’s name given to him by Greene as he entered the House chamber and delivered a message to her parents, saying ‘my heart goes out to you.’”
CNN also ignored Biden’s bungle, reporting, “During tonight’s speech, President Joe Biden held up a pin with the name of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old student who was found dead last month after she went jogging near a lake on the University of Georgia campus. Police say the man who killed Riley entered the country illegally.”
The New York Times, in what had to be the most laughable coverage of that moment of the speech, admitted Biden screwed up Laken’s name, without saying how, but then added that he’s absolutely Trumpian about the border.
Read: Residents Slam Dem Mayor In Georgia Defending Sanctuary City Policies At Laken Riley Briefing
“President Biden picked up a button that said ‘Say Her Name,’ and said the young Georgia woman’s name — albeit mispronounced,” the Times reported. “He responded to Greene by referring to undocumented immigrant suspected of killing Riley as ‘an illegal,’ a stark indication of how sharply Biden’s immigration policy has pulled to the right.”
To its credit, The Washington Post got it right.
“Going into the speech, Republicans had challenged Biden to ‘say her name’ and mention Laken Riley, the slain Georgia nursing student whose alleged killer, immigration authorities say, illegally entered the country. They got their way — sort of — while Biden discussed the bipartisan border security deal,” the Post reported. “Responding to an outburst from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Biden paused and addressed the matter, though he appeared to initially mispronounce Riley’s first name as ‘Lincoln.’ ‘An innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal, that’s right,’ Biden said. ‘But how many thousands of people being killed by illegals? To her parents, I say, my heart goes out to you, having lost children myself.
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