President Joe Biden waived the white flag rather than contend with pronouncing the challenging name of a corporate entity during remarks at the APEC summit Thursday.
While saluting US corporate innovation, Biden decided to skip over the name of a corporate entity rather than botch its name in remarks about innovation and achievement.
‘IBM, Organon, Visa. Look, they make up, they make our region more resilient, make it more secure,’ Biden said, reeling off the name of firms.
‘Here in this world renowned hub of innovation, leading tech companies like Anthropic and – I’m going to mispronounce. I’m not going to even try,’ Biden said, stopping himself.
‘I’m going to mispronounce,’ Biden told the crowd during a speech at APEC. He said it was better to skip a company’s name in his speech than to mispronounce it
‘It’s better not to try and not mispronounce than try and mispronounce,’ he observed, before continuing on with his remarks. ‘Point is small and medium sized business startups are getting an accent as well,’ Biden said.
His remark got a warm laugh from the crowd of dignitaries and officials from around the Asia Pacific region.
Biden, who overcame a speech impediment as a child, had moments before botched the name of the cavernous event space where he was speaking in downtown San Francisco.
‘The Marcone Center’s about as big as my state,’ messing up the name of the Moscone Center. It is named after former San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, who was assassinated in 1978 along with San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk.
On Wednesday, Biden avoided another potentially challenging name, when he didn’t hazard to try to name CBS White House correspondent Weijia Jiang.
Biden botched the name of the Moscone Center during his remarks
Biden read from a list of pre-prepared names to call on at his press conference Wednesday, and called on ‘CBS’ rather than naming White House correspondent Weijia Jiang
‘CBS, I can’t remember who’s CBS, I’m sorry,’ Biden said, when calling on her at his press conference while reading from a pre-prepared list of questioners.
Even if Biden didn’t single out the company he wanted to highlight, he did salute businesses overall, on a trip that stresses U.S. investment and ‘friend-shoring.’
‘All the announcements translate into real country outcomes that matter to people’s lives are proof that a strong dynamic American economy is an engine of growth, economic growth innovation throughout the entire region,’ he said.
Biden said more than 60 per cent of U.S. exports go to APEC countries, while companies at the summit had announced $50 billion in investments to APEC companies.