POLITICS
President Biden’s huge blunder during the State of the Union
Immigration rights activists are attacking Biden for his use of the racist term “illegal” and everyone is pointing to his reference to ‘Lincoln’ Riley during the SoTU.
The President is coming under fire after he stumbled over his words during the immigration section of his 2024 State of the Union address. Referring to undocumented migrants as “illegals,” immigration justice advocates are voicing their concern with the racist language used by the president. Whether he misspoke or didn’t understand the pain caused by using such a word to describe an extraordinarily vulnerable and critical population living in the United States, the moment came as the president held up a pin with the name Laken Riley, a woman killed by an undocumented immigrant.
Even worse was the fact that directly after the verbal blunder, the president said that, unlike Donald Trump, he would not demonize immigrants. Many progressives on X quickly noted that he had a few sentences earlier.
Surprise and disappointment echos on Twitter from Democrats and Republicans
Many Democratic party operatives have said that taking the pin was a mistake, as Representative Marjorie Taylor Green, who gave it to the president, intended to attract attention to herself during the event. Democrats are not the only ones critiquing the president. White House Press Secretary for Donald Trump Kayleigh McEnany described the episode as “completely insensitive” and “lacking in compassion.”
Immigration rights activist Erika Andiola made her position clear, too.
While some may try to argue that the use of the term will not dissuade leftists, Andiola wrote that “it is something that immigrants care about.” For many immigrants, the term is dehumanizing, and Andiola hoped that it was a term that the Democratic Party had hoped to leave in the past.
Who is ‘Lincoln’ Riley, Mr President?
Another misspeak came with the first name of the victim, Laken Riley, which he pronounced as ‘Lincoln’. This did not go unnoticed and swarms of people took to social media to point it out.
Supporters of the president will argue that childish heckling from Marjorie Taylor-Green – she really does demean our political discourse like few others – threw him off his game, but it’s rather weak. If the leader of the free world can’t cope with something as basic as that then there is something seriously wrong. Maybe he just had the USC football team on his mind.