Secret Service 'aware' of Elon Musk's post about Biden and Harris assassinations

The Secret Service in the United States has revealed it is “aware” of Elon Musk’s since-deleted post in which he appeared to question why no one has tried to assassinate President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Amid a recent second assassination attempt on Donald Trump, X/Twitter owner Musk sparked significant backlash after posting, “no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala”, to his almost 198 million followers.

The tech billionaire later deleted the post, claiming it was a “joke” and arguing people didn’t “know the context”.

But, it seems the body that provides protection to current and former presidential and vice-presidential candidates has taken note as the US Secret Service told the BBC it is “aware” of Musk’s post.

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

The White House has also condemned Musk’s post, calling the rhetoric “irresponsible”.

“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 Senior Deputy Press Secretary, Andrew Bates, said in a statement.

“Violence should only be condemned, never encouraged or joked about. This rhetoric is irresponsible.”

Former president Trump has taken a different view and appears to be placing the blame on Biden and Harris for the assassination attempts.

In a social media rant, Trump claimed that “bullets are flying” because of “Communist Left Rhetoric” and once again repeated the lie that last week’s presidential debate between himself and Harris was “rigged” against him.

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