Secret Service acknowledges Elon Musk’s assassination post about Harris, Biden

The US Secret Service has said it is “aware” of a social media post by billionaire Elon Musk in which he said that ‘no one is even trying’ to assassinate President Joe Biden or Vice-president Kamala Harris.

Many X users criticised Musk’s comments – accompanied by a raised eyebrow emoji – with some alleging that the post was a form of incitement against the US President and Vice President.

Musk has since deleted the post and said it was intended as a joke.

His post on X came just hours after the suspected attempted assassination of Donald Trump at his golf course in Florida on Sunday, September 15.

Musk is a supporter of Trump. Trump has vowed to enlist Musk to run a “government efficiency commission” if he wins a second term as US president.

In a statement, the White House condemned the post, saying that “this rhetoric is irresponsible”.

“Violence should be condemned, never encouraged or joked about,” the statement said, adding that there should be “no place for political violence or for any violence ever in our country”.

Responding, the US Secret Service in a statement on Monday said that it is “aware” of the post.

“As a matter of practice we do not comment on matters involving protective intelligence,” the statement added. “We can say, however, that the Secret Service investigates all threats related to our protectees.”

After deleting the post, Mr Musk tweeted that “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.”

“Turns out that jokes are way less funny if people don’t know the context and the delivery is in plain text,” a subsequent post read.