In a statement on Monday, the White House called a now-deleted “joke” by Elon Musk, in which he questioned why “no one has even tried” to assassinate Vice President Harris, “irresponsible.”
White House press secretary Andrew Bates said, “As President Biden and Vice President Harris stated after yesterday's alarming news, 'political violence, or any violence, has no place in our country' and 'we must all do our part to ensure this incident does not lead to further violence.'”
“Violence is condemned and should never be encouraged or joked about. Such language is irresponsible,” Bates continued.
Musk's post came hours after former President Donald Trump was the target of a second assassination attempt on Sunday. Trump, who was playing golf at the time, was unharmed, and the suspect was spotted around a golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, and arrested a short time later.
maskQuoted from X's post“Why would they want to kill Donald Trump?” it read, to which he added his own comment, “And no one is even trying to assassinate Kamala,” along with a thinking face emoji.
Musk, who owns X, removed the post from his platform early on Monday and claimed it was a “joke.”
“One lesson I've learned is that just because I say something to a group and they laugh, doesn't make it any less funny as X's post,” he said.Written on Monday,Add later,“We find that jokes are much less funny when they're delivered in plain text, without people knowing the context.”
The post, which has now been deleted, drew heavy criticism from a range of politicians and commentators.
“What happened to this guy?! Can't his loved ones intervene? This is seriously outrageous,” said former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.).I wrote to X.
The former congressman later wrote, “@elonmusk is a contractor for the Department of Defense and the US Government and makes statements that would get anyone kicked out of the military. He needs to stop making those statements or the government needs to treat him equally to everyone else. Just because you're rich doesn't mean you're above the law.”
Conservative columnist Jonah GoldbergMusk's post“It's awful and inexcusable”
Sunday's incident came just nine weeks after a gunman opened fire at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania, striking the former president in the ear and killing one attendee.
Musk endorsed Trump's reelection shortly after the July shooting and has since launched a series of attacks on Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Harris.
The tech leader has faced scrutiny over various posts and reposts on X in recent months, including when he was involved in a post about an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory in November last year.
The Hill has reached out to Mr. X for comment.
Miranda Nazzaro contributed.
