The US Secret Service acknowledged awareness of a controversial post by Elon Musk on the X social media platform, which hinted at a lack of assassination attempts against President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Musk, the owner of the platform previously known as Twitter, made the post following the arrest of a man suspected of planning to assassinate former President Donald Trump at his Florida golf course.
Musk faced backlash from users across the political spectrum for potentially inciting violence with his comments to his nearly 200 million followers. He subsequently deleted the post. The Secret Service, responsible for the safety of national leaders, stated, “As a matter of practice, we do not comment on protective intelligence matters but investigate all threats against our protectees.”
Although the agency did not confirm direct contact with Musk, he later implied that his comment was intended as a joke, acknowledging that humour can be misinterpreted without proper context. Meanwhile, Vice President Harris and President Biden, Democrats running against Republican Trump in the 2024 election, expressed relief that Trump was unharmed.
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