JEDDAH — Watching the Biden-Abbas press conference from the press center at the Intercontinental Hotel in Jeddah, dozens of reporters let out a gasp of disappointment as the US president struggles to pronounce the name of their slain colleague, Shireen Abu Akleh.
Biden at first pronounces her name “al-Kae’a” and then “al-Kaylee.”
Speaking in Bethlehem alongside Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Biden said the US “will continue to insist on a full and transparent accounting of her death and will continue to stand up for media freedom everywhere in the world.”
Biden said Abu Akleh “was performing very vital work” when she was killed in May.
Biden, who has spoken of his troubles with stuttering and often trips over his own tongue, regularly makes verbal gaffes with even non-foreign sounding words or names, which most Americans have stopped making an issue out of.
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