Following the second failed assassination attempt on the life of GOP nominee Donald Trump, Elon Musk posted comments on his social media platform X that have drawn the ire of some law enforcement sources.
Not long after the scare on Sunday outside of one of Trump’s golf clubs, Musk posted a message on the social media platform that he owns, questioning why people haven’t tried to assassinate President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris.
In the post, which he has since deleted, Musk wrote:
“And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala.”
He put a thinking emoji after that statement.
Later on, he replied to his own post, writing:
“Well, one lesson I’ve learned is that just because I saw something to a group and they laugh doesn’t mean it’s going to be all that hilarious as a post on X.”
Musk ultimately deleted the post altogether after that.
The post wasn’t a direct threat to anyone, of course, but the government certainly took notice of it. The White House responded swiftly, slamming Musk for what he wrote.
Andrew Bats, a spokesperson for the White House, said:
“As President Biden and Vice President Harris said after yesterday’s disturbing news, there is no place for political violence or for any violence every in our country … and we all must do our part to ensure this incident does not lead to more violence.”
He added that violence should “only be condemned, never encouraged or joked about.” Bates called Musk’s actions “irresponsible.”
It’s not just the White House that is not happy with Musk. The U.S. Secret Service also said recently that it was investigating the posts Musk made on X. A spokesperson for the federal agency wrote in an email to the Independent news outlet in the UK:
“The U.S. Secret Service is aware of the social media post made by Elon Musk, and as a matter of practice, we do not comment on matters involving protective intelligence. … [The agency] investigates all threats related to our protectees.”
It’s unlikely that the Secret Service truly believes that Musk is a threat to Harris or Biden, but the agency also really doesn’t have a choice but to respond when a man so powerful, well-known and with an online reach as large as his posts something like that on social media.
Many liberal media outlets jumped on the dogpile, trying to gain views by making some outrageous claims. Wired, for instance, wrote in a headline that Musk is “a national security risk,” saying his posts “could be interpreted as a call to murder President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.”
Roger McNamee, an investor in Silicon Valley, even said on MSNBC that Musk should be charged. He said:
“You have somebody who runs a really strategic defense and aerospace projects for the federal government who’s actively undermining the government that’s paying him. And somewhere in that is a legal case that needs to be prosecuted.”
