The White House issued a statement on Monday (September 16th) calling Elon Musk’s “joke” regarding Vice President Harris “irresponsible”. The joke mentioned why “no one tried” to assassinate the Democratic presidential candidate Harris.
White House spokesperson Andrew Bates stated, “As President Biden and Vice President Harris said yesterday in response to the disturbing news of the attempted assassination of former President Trump, ‘Political violence or any violent acts have no place in our country,’ ‘We all must do our part to ensure that this incident does not lead to more acts of violence.'”
Bates continued, saying, “Violence should only be condemned, never encouraged or used as a joke; such remarks are irresponsible.”
Musk tweeted this comment hours before former President Trump faced a second apparent assassination attempt on Sunday. At the time, the former president was playing golf and was unharmed. The suspect was arrested shortly after being found near the golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Musk quoted a post on the social media platform X that read, “Why would they want to kill Donald Trump?” and added his commentary, writing, “Not even anyone trying to assassinate Harris,” accompanied by a puzzled emoji.
Musk’s post on X was deleted earlier on Monday and he insisted it was a “joke.”
He wrote on Monday, “Hmm, lesson learned is: just because I say something in a group that makes people laugh doesn’t mean every post on X will be that funny.” He then added, “It turns out jokes aren’t as funny when people don’t have context and it’s just text.”
The now-deleted post drew strong condemnation from numerous political figures and commentators.
Former Congressman Adam Kinzinger (Republican from Illinois) wrote on X, “What is wrong with this person? Can someone who loves him step in? I’m serious, this has gotten out of hand.”
The former congressman later added, “Reminder, Elon Musk is a contractor for the Department of Defense and the U.S. government, anyone else saying these things would lose their clearance; he needs to stop or the government needs to treat him and others equally; money doesn’t allow you to be above the law.”
Conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg called Musk’s post “shocking and nonsensical.”
The attempted assassination incident on Sunday occurred just nine weeks after Trump was shot at a rally in Pennsylvania on July 13, with Trump’s ear grazed and a participant shot dead in the previous shooting incident.
Shortly after the first attempted assassination, Musk announced his support for Trump’s re-election to the White House.
In recent months, the tech leader has faced criticism for posting and reposting various content on X, with Musk frequently making political comments.
In 2022, the billionaire acquired Twitter, renamed it X, and transformed it into a marketplace of ideas where people can freely express themselves without censorship. This move was welcomed by many conservatives. Musk often refers to X as a superior news source compared to mainstream media, where users can freely share information and discern “truth.”
Musk sometimes retracts his posts. Musk has deleted the “joke” post on Sunday about Biden and Harris not being assassination targets.
(Report referenced from “The Hill” and the Associated Press.)