White House criticizes Musk's comment on Trump assassination attempt
On Monday, the White House criticized a deleted post by billionaire Elon Musk that touched on more than just the assassination attempts on US presidential candidate Donald Trump, according to Axios.
It is noted that in the deleted post, Musk questioned why former President Trump had recently faced two apparent assassination attempts, while President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris had not.
"And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala," Musk wrote in a post on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
According to Axios, Musk initially resisted calls to delete the post. When asked to reconsider his comment, he replied, "No one has even tried to do so is the point I'm making and no one will."
In response to another request to remove and rephrase the post, Musk said, "Fair enough. I don't want to do what they have done, even in jest."
Eventually, the billionaire deleted the post and attempted to claim it was a joke.
The White House responded to the situation. White House spokesperson Andrew Bates reminded that Biden and Harris had stated after the alarming news about the Trump assassination attempts that there is no place for political or other violence in the US They emphasized that everyone must contribute to preventing the incident from leading to further violence.
"Violence should only be condemned, never encouraged or joked about. This rhetoric is irresponsible," he continued.
At the end of the report, Axios added that representatives of X did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the situation.
Apparent second assassination attempt on Trump
As a reminder, on Sunday, September 15, it appeared that a second assassination attempt was made on Trump.
Media reports indicated that shots were fired near the former president while he was golfing at his Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
The suspect is identified as 58-year-old Ryan Routh from Hawaii. Reports say that Secret Service agents who were protecting Trump spotted the armed man and opened fire. He managed to flee but was later apprehended and is currently in custody.
Following the incident, President Joe Biden instructed his team to continue providing the Secret Service with all necessary resources for the maximum protection of Donald Trump.
Earlier, RBC-Ukraine reported that the FBI considers the apparent second attempt on Trump’s life to be extremely serious.