White House slams Elon Musk post on Harris assassination as 'irresponsible'

The White House on Monday slammed Elon Musk's since-deleted social media post about no one attempting to assassinate Vice President Kamala Harris as "irresponsible," after a second would-be assassin allegedly plotted to shoot former President Donald Trump.

Musk, who claimed the post was a "joke," made the post on his social media platform X only a few hours after the thwarted assassination attempt took place at Trump's golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida. The Secret Service caught a suspect, identified as Ryan Wesley Routh, who allegedly aimed a gun at the former president. He has since been arrested and charged over the incident.

The X owner quoted a post that asked "Why they want to kill Donald Trump?" and added his own comment that "no one is even trying to assassinate Kamala," along with a thinking-face emoji, according to The Hill.

“As President Biden and Vice President Harris said after yesterday’s disturbing news, ‘there is no place for political violence or for any violence ever in our country,’ and ‘we all must do our part to ensure that this incident does not lead to more violence,’” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement. “Violence should only be condemned, never encouraged or joked about. This rhetoric is irresponsible."

Musk deleted the post in the early hours of Monday morning, but claimed it was meant as a joke that did not translate well on social media.

"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 all that hilarious as a post on 𝕏," he wrote. 

"Turns out that jokes are WAY less funny if people don’t know the context and the delivery is plain text," he added in a separate post. 

The assassination attempt was the second for Trump, who survived a shooting during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. 

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.