Elon Musk deleted a post on Monday morning that questioned why President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris hadn’t faced any apparent assassination attempts in the past several months while former President Donald Trump had two. Musk later labelled the post a joke.
“And nobody is even trying to kill Biden or Kamala ????,” Musk said in the now-deleted X post.
First, well into Sunday night, Musk ignored numerous requests to remove the post. “No one has even tried to do so, which is the point I’m making, and no one will,” Musk posted, responding to one of many requests that he remove his comments.
Eventually, though, Musk was swayed by a note from X that suggested Musk’s “obvious intent” may not have been quite so obvious after all.
All right, enough. Even in-joke, I don’t want to do what they have done,” Musk shot back. Later, he would repeatedly claim that the deleted post was a prank.
Musk later responded to a similar tweet, emoji-ing a thinking face to a picture that said Trump had reportedly experienced two assassination attempts, although the four presidents who came before him had not. A request for comment from X was not returned.
The White House said Musk’s comments were “irresponsible.”
The White House released the following statement by Spokesperson Andrew Bates: “As President Biden and Vice President Harris said in response to yesterday’s disturbing news, ‘there is no place for political violence or for any violence ever in our country, and ‘we all must do our part to ensure that this incident does not lead to more violence.'” “Violence should never be condoned or made light of; it should only be condemned.”
The Secret Service said it had seen Musk’s deleted tweet, but would not comment on action related to it. A Secret Service spokesperson told CNN, “We do not comment on protective intelligence matters as a matter of practice.” “The Secret Service investigates all threats relating to our protectees,” we can say.
The Secret Service is responsible for investigating alleged threats against the president and vice president, even when such threats are made humorously. In 2021, the Secret Service investigated a comment comedian John Mulaney had made on “Saturday Night Live” comparing President Trump to the slain Julius Cesar.
Whether Musk, the owner of X, violated X’s rules of service with those posts is unknown. He has numerous times violated the rules on his platform with impunity. Musk said he wasn’t advocating violence, but X says it doesn’t allow “engaging in or promoting violent acts.”
After a July assassination attempt, Musk backed Trump for president and this month chatted with Trump on X.
It is part of Musk’s recent and increasingly pronounced rightward turn: Elon Musk, the richest person on Earth, rails against the “woke mind virus” that progressives are spreading. He has even gone as far as to threaten “doom” for America if Democrats hold the White House.
But Musk writes more than your average political drivel in his tweets. His entanglement with conspiracy theories has increased, and one of his more recent assertions is that the Biden administration allows illegal aliens to vote in US elections. He has also included falsified images in his tweets and used hate speech in service of his goals, pushing the envelope-or blowing it out of the water.
Examples include Musk’s reposting several AI-generated images featuring Harris onto social media, including one where she speaks to a crowd draped in symbology and iconography from the communist movement. In addition, Musk responded to a nod by Taylor Swift that Harris should be president with a highly criticized comment: “Fine Taylor. you win. I’ll be making you a baby and tending to your kittens.”.
