By Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. intelligence agencies said on Monday they were aware of a post by billionaire Elon Musk on the X social media platform that pondered the absence of assassination attempts on President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Musk, who owns the platform formerly known as Twitter, made the post after a man suspected of plotting to assassinate Republican former President Donald Trump at his West Palm Beach golf course was arrested on Sunday.
A Trump supporter and CEO of Tesla, Musk wrote on Sunday: “And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala,” a post he ended with an emoji of a face with raised eyebrows.
He was quickly criticized by X-users left and right, who said they were worried his words to nearly 200 million followers could incite violence against Biden and Harris.
Musk deleted the post, but the Secret Service, which is tasked with protecting current and former presidents, vice presidents and other notable officials, took notice.
“The Secret Service is aware of the social media post made by Elon Musk and as a practice we do not comment on matters involving protective intelligence,” a spokesperson told Reuters in an email. “However, we can say that the Secret Service investigates all threats related to our proteges.”
The spokesman declined to specify whether the agency had reached out to Musk, who appeared to suggest in follow-up posts that he had been joking.
“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 as funny as a post on X,” he wrote. “It turns out that jokes are a LOT less funny if people don’t know the context and the delivery is plain text.”
Harris, a Democrat running against Trump in the Nov. 5 presidential election, issued a statement Sunday night, as did Biden, expressing relief and gratitude that Trump had not been injured and condemning political violence.
The White House criticized Musk for his post.
“Violence should only be condemned, never encouraged or joked about. This rhetoric is irresponsible,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said Monday.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Heather Timmons and Howard Goller)