Last month, 22-year-old Georgia college student Laken Riley was murdered on the campus of the University of Georgia while out jogging. Her death has become a talking point in politics recently as the suspected killer entered the country illegally in 2022. As a result, Riley was brought up during Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on Friday, leading to a horrible mistake from Biden.
While discussing border security in his speech, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia demanded that Joe Biden say the name of Laken Riley as part of his address.
Biden obliged. But unfortunately, he did not get Riley’s name correct. Instead, Biden called her “Lincoln Riley,” which is the name of the current USC Trojans football coach.
Biden just said Lincoln Riley was killed by an illegal
On a side note Lincoln Riley is the head football coach of the University of Southern California pic.twitter.com/Oy0JOCjdol
— Vision4theBlind (@Vision4theBlind) March 8, 2024
“Lincoln Riley. An innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal. That’s right. But how many of thousands of people have been killed by illegals,” Biden said. “To her parents, my heart goes out to having lost children myself. I understand. But look if we change the dynamics at the border, people pay these smugglers eight thousand bucks to get across the border. Because they know if they get by, it will be six to eight years before they have a hearing.”
Lincoln Riley is obviously a very familiar name for any football fan like Biden, which probably explains the name mixup. But given the situation, it was a pretty horrible mistake for the president to make on such an important occasion.