While criticizing President Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, on Tuesday, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush incorrectly pronounced Malia Obama’s name as “Malayla.”
Bush slammed Michelle Obama for failing to attend a California summit between President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping that took place in 2013, Politico reported.
“The scandal in China was that Mrs. Obama and the United States government, and the United States, therefore, were insulting China and its first couple by not being there,” Bush said. “And every meeting I had in Beijing started out for the first 10 minutes lambasting me about why it was, as an American, why it was that we insulted China. And I’m thinking, you know what, it could be that Mrs. Obama was worried about the science project of Malayla.”
“I’m sure that they did not go out of their way to try to insult the country,” Bush continued. “But that’s how you get into trouble, is by not having full engagement.”
Mediaite noted that Michelle Obama was traveling in Europe at the time to promote her “Let’s Move” campaign.
This is not the first time that Bush has flubbed Malia Obama’s name. ABC News reporter Candace Smith published a tweet earlier in January noting that the former Florida governor pronounced Malia Obama’s name as “Malayla.”
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