Musk Posts – and Deletes – Post About Biden/Harris Assassination

Elon Musk has deleted a post that appeared to be calling for political balance in regard to assassination attempts.

In a moment of rare self-reflection, Elon Musk has deleted a post just hours after publishing.

The CEO of X/Twitter frequently takes to his platform to vent, including a recent offer to father Taylor Swift’s children.

This latest X storm comes after Musk – who is a vocal opponent of Kamala Harris – questioned why it is only Donald Trump who is facing assassination attempts.

Conspiracy Theories

The post followed a re-share of a question asking why people wanted to kill Donald Trump, after the most recent attempt on the former president’s life.

Musk gave conspiracy theorists plenty of material by responding: “And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala,” followed by the thinking face emoji.

Fanning the Flames

 

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When faced with a backlash – including a call for a visit from the FBI – Musk merrily dug himself in deeper. An X user posted: “Trump threatens the machine. Biden/Kamala are the machine” to which Musk responded “100%.”

The original post continued to gather momentum with many suggesting Musk had gone too far. One X user asked Musk to “reconsider this post.” “Shit’s getting out of hand,” he wrote, “We need to unite.” Musk gave a petulant response, stating: “No one has even tried to do so is the point I’m making and no one will.”

The volleys of messages continued with Musk finally taking down the post after a user suggested that “some people like misinterpreting your obvious intent.” Musk responded: “Fair enough… I don’t want to do what they have done, even in jest.”

Only Joking

In an apparent attempt to calm things down, Musk later responded that the original post was just a joke. “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.

Musk’s post wasn’t the only one to cross a line on the topic of assignation attempts.

Forbes reported that the New Hampshire Libertarian Party posted on Sunday: “Anyone who murders Kamala Harris would be an American hero.” The party pushed back against criticism, writing: “Encouraging politicians to be shot is legal under the first amendment. It’s part of what makes this country great.” It eventually took down the post.

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Katie has been a journalist for more than twenty years. At 18 years old, she started her career at the world's oldest photography magazine before joining the launch team at Wired magazine as News Editor. After a spell in Hong Kong writing for Cathay Pacific's inflight magazine about the Asian startup scene, she is now back in the UK. Writing from Sussex, she covers everything from nature restoration to data science for a beautiful array of magazines and websites.
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