Elon Musk deletes X submit about Biden, Harris assassination threats after backlash

Tesla CEO and X majority proprietor Elon Musk wrote after which deleted a Sunday post on X that appeared to query why there weren’t extra assassination threats made towards President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Musk, who has 197.8 million followers on X, posted the message shortly after a second obvious assassination try towards Republican former President Donald Trump.

The submit was prompted by an X person who requested, “Why they need to kill Donald Trump?”

Musk replied, “And nobody is even attempting to assassinate Biden/Kamala,” punctuating his sentence with a skeptical-looking emoticon.

Musk instantly confronted backlash for the submit. However he stood by it and defended it for roughly 9 hours, earlier than he deleted it.

At one level, Musk’s tweet had been seen by at the least 1.3 million customers, whereas over 3,000 customers had reposted it and at the least 18,000 customers had preferred it.

Hours after the preliminary submit was deleted, Musk penned two different X posts during which he claimed the unique one was an ill-received joke.

“Effectively, one lesson I’ve discovered is that simply because I say one thing to a gaggle they usually giggle does not imply it’ll be all that hilarious as a submit on X,” Musk posted at 2:58 a.m. E.T. on Monday.

He followed up that submit two minutes later: “Seems that jokes are WAY much less humorous if individuals do not know the context and the supply is apparent textual content.”

The Trump marketing campaign didn’t instantly reply to CNBC’s request for touch upon Musk’s submit.

Spokespeople for X press relations didn’t reply to a request for remark from CNBC on Sunday, nor did Musk himself.

The White Home denounced Musk’s language in an announcement Monday.

“As President Biden and Vice President Harris stated after yesterday’s disturbing information, ‘there is no such thing as a place for political violence or for any violence ever in our nation,’ and ‘all of us should do our half to make sure that this incident doesn’t result in extra violence,'” White Home spokesperson Andrew Bates stated. “Violence ought to solely be condemned, by no means inspired or joked about. This rhetoric is irresponsible.”

On Sunday, Trump was unhurt after what the Federal Bureau of Investigation stated appeared to have been an assassination try.

Shortly earlier than 2 p.m. E.T., whereas Trump was enjoying golf at his West Palm Seaside membership, the previous president was rushed to a protected location, moments after the Secret Service opened fireplace at a gunman with a rifle, who was 300 to 500 yards away from Trump.

The suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, made his first courtroom look on Monday.

Musk endorsed Trump in July, simply hours after the Republican presidential nominee survived his first assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally.

The billionaire entrepreneur and former president have now change into allies, a stark reversal from their public feuding simply two years in the past.

Musk stated he helped create and fund the pro-Trump political motion committee, America PAC.

In flip, Trump has endorsed a few of Musk’s coverage concepts, together with a proposal to create a authorities effectivity fee to rein in federal spending. Musk has repeatedly volunteered to helm such a fee, which Trump has to this point not dominated out.

— CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed reporting from San Francisco.