RNC Chairman Mangles NH Senator's Name

Maybe it was the bright lights. Maybe it was excitement of the night. Maybe it was being from Wisconsin.

Whatever it was, Republican National Chairman Reince Priebus had a hard time remembering how to pronounce a very important name – New Hampshire’s junior Senator and fellow Republican Kelly Ayotte.

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At the NH GOP’s sold out dinner on May 20, Priebus mispronounced Ayotte’s name not once, but twice, calling her “Eye-yotte” and not “Ay-yotte.”

Democrats pounced on the mangling, with new NHDP Communications Director Harrell Kirstein posting on Twitter: “Nothing says rising star like your party chair mispronouncing your name. Twice. In your home state.”

Democrats weren’t the only ones who noticed the butchering of the Senator’s name. A number of reporters openly laughed the first time he mispronounced the name and gasped the second time, with NECN reporter Lauren Collins writing on Twitter, “Not for nuthin’, but she did speak at the convention last year and was one of those VP names...” Others simple wrote, “Twice!”

Some though defended Priebus.

Grant Bosse, of NH Watchdog and the Concord Monitor, wrote on Twitter, in reaction to Collins’ post: “To be fair, how can you tell when he’s mispronouncing something, and when he’s just from Wisconsin?”

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