Elon Musk’s Assassination Comment Triggers Secret Service Investigation and White House Response
The Secret Service has initiated an investigation into Elon Musk for a now-deleted X post he made, pondering why President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris had not had assassination attempts made against them.
The billionaire’s comment followed the second assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. In response to a post that asked, “Why they want to kill Donald Trump?” Musk replied, “And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden or Kamala.”
The Secret Service noted that it was aware of the post, which has since been deleted, stating that it investigates all threats made regarding those in its protection, the Daily Mail reports.
The announcement was made as the White House slammed Musk’s remark, calling it “irresponsible” on Monday.
“As President Biden and Vice President Harris said after 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 this incident does not lead to more violence,”‘ spokesman Andrew Bates told the outlet.
“Violence should only be condemned, never encouraged or joked about. This rhetoric is irresponsible.”
The X and Tesla owner deleted the post Monday morning, citing that the post was not meant to be taken seriously, as TTOA previously reported. Musk wrote two separate posts about the post being taken out of context.
“Well, one lesson I’ve learned is that just because I say something to a group and they laugh doesn’t mean it’s going to be all that hilarious as a post on X,” he wrote in one post.
Moments later he wrote, “Turns out that jokes are WAY less funny if people don’t know the context and the delivery is plain text.”
The Secret Service’s involvement comes as the New Hampshire Libertarian Party’s Jeremy Kauffman also came under fire for posting on X that suggested that Harris should be taken out. In that post, he wrote, “Anyone who murders Kamala Harris would be an American hero.”
That post has also since been deleted.
The attack on Musk comes as he has shared his opinions on various governments worldwide. Recently, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese criticized Musk for help spreading misinformation.
“If Mr Musk doesn’t understand that, that says more about him than it does about my government,” he said over the weekend.
Due to his free speech stance, Musk’s X platform has been suspended in Brazil as he continues to speak out against the decision, calling the judge an “evil dictator cosplaying as a judge.”
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