White House condemns ‘irresponsible’ Elon Musk post on assassination attempt
by Marc Guitard/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The White House on Monday decried a now-deleted post by Elon Musk on X as “irresponsible.”
In the Sunday night post — which he made after the second apparent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump — Musk, who owns the platform, responded to a user who asked, “Why they want to kill Donald Trump?”
In his post, Musk wrote, “And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala.”
Following intense backlash, Musk deleted the post and walked it back as a joke early Monday.
“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,” Musk wrote.
“Turns out that jokes are WAY less funny if people don’t know the context and the delivery is plain text,” he added shortly after.
Responding to the post on Monday, the White House condemned Musk for having “joked about” or even “encouraged” violence.
“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,’ the statement read.
“Violence should only be condemned, never encouraged or joked about. This rhetoric is irresponsible,” the White House added.
Musk has endorsed Trump, and Trump has said he would tap Musk to lead a government efficiency commission if elected.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden is taking maybe his final lap on the world stage this week with a trip to South America.
He’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, making a historic visit to the Amazon rainforest and attending two major summits.
His travel comes just about a week after the U.S. election threw into question what America’s role in the world will be during the next four years under President-elect Donald Trump.
Biden will kick off his trip to South America by traveling to Lima, Peru, for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. While there, he will meet with Peru’s President Dina Boluarte and other world leaders.
Biden’s time at APEC will likely come under heightened scrutiny because Trump has vowed to enact major tariffs that could vastly affect global trade.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan said that Biden would “reinforce America’s leading role in the Indo-Pacific,” and touted his success in enhancing America’s “strategic position” in the region during a briefing with reporters on Wednesday. Sullivan touted Biden’s relationship with Indo-Pacific partners as at “a literal all-time high,” and said that is “what he’s going to hand off to President Trump.”
On Saturday, Biden’s planned sit-down with China’s President Xi will be the first with his Chinese counterpart since the two men met in Woodside, California, last November. It is also expected to be their last meeting as presidents.
“This meeting between President Biden and President Xi will be an opportunity to ensure a smooth transition and also to continue to keep those channels of communication open, including those especially critical military to military channels of communication,” Sullivan said.
Given that, the a senior administration official said that Biden will use the meeting as a point of reflection about how the U.S.-China relationship has evolved. The official declined to talk about what Biden’s message to Xi would be about policies to expect from a Trump administration.
“I think the way I come at this question is this is a tough, complicated relationship between the U.S. and China. And so whatever the next administration decides, they’re going to need to find ways to manage that tough, complicated relationship,” the official said on a call with reporters.
President Biden will then head to Manaus, Brazil – in the Amazon region – to engage with “local, indigenous, and other leaders working to preserve and protect this critical ecosystem,” according to the White House.
This will be a historic visit, the first time a sitting president has visited the Amazon rainforest, according to the White House. Sullivan said that the trip will “underscore his personal commitment” to combating climate change in the U.S. and around the world.
Biden’s historic visit comes as the next administration will likely enact major changes when it comes to climate policy. Trump has called climate change a hoax and has promised to pull out of the Paris Agreement on climate change.
After that, Biden will travel to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to participate in the G20 summit. Sullivan said Biden’s aims in Rio will be to reassure allies despite pending differences in foreign policy as Trump prepares to take office.
“[Biden’s] going to have the same message that he’s had for four years as president, which is that he believes that America’s allies are vital to America’s national security,” Sullivan said. “They contribute to our common causes, including the cause of standing up for freedom and territorial integrity in Ukraine.”
Sullivan also said that there will be a major focus on structuring debt for low-and middle-income countries and helping finance for physical, digital and energy infrastructure. He added that geopolitical issues, including “Ukraine to the Middle East,” will also be crucial.
(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump has begun to shut down the possibility of a second match against Vice President Kamala Harris after debating her Tuesday night, claiming he doesn’t need to debate her again because he won the debate.
“Well she wants a second debate because she lost tonight, very badly,” Trump told ABC News late Tuesday night during a surprise appearance in the spin room after participating in the presidential debate hosted by ABC News in Philadelphia.
“So, we’ll, you know, think about that. But she immediately called for a second,” Trump said, refusing to commit whether he’d participate.
Less than an hour after the ABC News presidential debate ended Tuesday night, Harris’ campaign called for another matchup. The campaign put out an email touting her performance at the debate and blasting Trump for his responses and demeanor.
Pressed by ABC News why Trump wouldn’t commit if she lost the debate, Trump said he’s looking at polls, boasting about what he believed is a lead over Harris in polling numbers. Harris leads Trump, 47% to 44%, according 538’s polling average.
Trump’s non-commitment to a second debate comes after the former president in May said he accepted what was going to be a fourth presidential debate with NBC News between Trump and then-candidate President Joe Biden — after debates with CNN, ABC News and Fox News.
In August, after Harris took over the top of the Democratic ticket, Trump again agreed to participate in a debate hosted by NBC, after ABC News and Fox News’ debates. Trump ended up doing a town hall with Fox News last week after Harris declined to participate.
But since the ABC News debate, Trump has been gradually escalating the rhetoric that he doesn’t need a second match with Harris, telling Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Tuesday night, “I sort of think maybe I shouldn’t do it.”
“I have to think about it, but if you won the debate, I sort of think maybe I shouldn’t do it. Why should I do another debate?” Trump said on “Hannity.”
During his visit to the Shanksville Volunteer Fire Department in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, Wednesday afternoon to honor the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Trump said he was thinking about the possibility of a second debate.
“We’re looking at it, but, you know, when you win, you don’t really necessarily have to do it a second time. So we’ll see, but we had a, I thought we had a great debate last night,” Trump said. “I just don’t know. We’ll think about it.”
On Wednesday morning, Trump called into “Fox and Friends” and said he’d be “less inclined to” do a second debate with Harris. Still, he kept his options open without shutting down the possibility of a second debate completely: “Let’s see what happens.”
And on Wednesday afternoon, Trump posted on his social media site, “In the World of Boxing or UFC, when a Fighter gets beaten or knocked out, they get up and scream, ‘I DEMAND A REMATCH, I DEMAND A REMATCH!'”
“Well, it’s no different with a Debate,” he continued. “She was beaten badly last night. Every Poll has us WINNING, in one case, 92-8, so why would I do a Rematch?”
538 has collected three national polls and one swing-state poll that were conducted since the debate. In all of them, more people who watched the debate said Harris won the debate than said Trump did. On average, 57% of debate watchers nationally said Harris turned in the better performance; only 34% said Trump did.
Showing up in the spin room after the debate, Trump claimed Tuesday night was his “best debate ever,” suggesting his spin room visit had nothing to do with needing to clean up his debate performance.
“We thought it was our best debate ever. It was my best debate ever,” Trump said to a large group of reporters that surrounded him in the spin room.
“It showed how weak they are, how pathetic they are, and what they’re doing to destroy our country, on the border, with foreign trade, with everything. And, I think it was the best debate I’ve ever personally — that I’ve had,” Trump continued.
But after the debate, Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law and Republican National Committee co-chair who served as the former president’s surrogate in the spin room, said he had a “fine night,” adding she wished there were more debates.
“I think he had a night that we expected to see, which is that Donald Trump was four years in the White House. We all remember how our lives were then,” Lara Trump said when asked about Trump’s performance.
Pressed by reporters if she means her father-in-law didn’t have a great night, Lara Trump said, “I mean, he had a fine night,” and then added: “He had a night that was absolutely necessary, and I am so happy we finally got to see these two people on the stage.”
“I wish we had two more debates. We usually have three presidential debates. Kamala Harris has said — she only wants one, so far,” Lara Trump said just minutes before the Harris campaign called for a second debate. “Donald Trump would certainly be willing to do another debate.”
Some Democrats on Capitol Hill said Wednesday weighed in on the prospect of another Harris-Trump debate.
Sen. Tim Kaine said he supports another presidential debate between Harris and Trump, but said he didn’t think the former president would agree.
“I’m sort of not expecting that President Trump will accept a second debate, but [Harris] is very willing to do it and that’s good,” Kaine said.
Asked if another debate is needed, Sen. Cory Booker said “I don’t know about the word ‘needs.'”
“I mean this one debate was so revelatory, it so exposed Donald Trump,” Booker said. “I think it was a reminder for a lot of people just how unhinged and unchecked this guy is; how he can’t control himself.”
ABC News’ Allison Pecorin contributed to this report.
Sen. John Thune; Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Senate Republicans are poised to make a historic decision on Wednesday when they’ll gather behind closed doors to select their new party leader — and President-elect Donald Trump’s influence in undeniable as he insists that whoever be selected support his ability to install recess appointments to his Cabinet.
With Trump’s victory and Senate Republican’s majority secured, the lead up to the race has intensified the jockeying between the three major contenders for the position: Sen. John Thune, Sen. John Cornyn and Sen. Rick Scott.
The leadership election, slated to occur just one day after the Senate returns from its monthlong election recess, will see Senate Republicans selecting their first new leader since 2007, when current Republican Leader Mitch McConnell first won the job. McConnell is the longest-serving party leader in United States history, but announced earlier this year he’d be stepping aside after the election.
Thune, a South Dakota Republican who currently serves as the No. 2 Republican, is somewhat of a front-runner in the race. He has served as the party whip for the last six years and in that time has notched a number of policy wins for the party, and has been working behind closed doors to whip support for the role for months. Thune said he keeps in regular contact with Trump and his team, but the two have at times had an icy relationship.
Running against Thune is Cornyn, a Texas Republican and another established GOP leader who served as the party’s whip for the six years prior to Thune before being term-limited out of the role. Though Cornyn has a slightly more conservative track record than Thune, he also faced ire from Trump for his support of the bipartisan gun safety bill that passed in the wake of the shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
Also vying for the role is Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican who just won reelection. Scott has attempted to brand himself as the most Trump-aligned of the contenders, but is less popular among some of his Senate colleagues after a stint atop the Senate GOP’s campaign arm in 2022 led to a less-than-successful night for Senate Republicans.
Trump won’t get a vote in this secret-ballot race, but his influence over it is palpable.
Many Republicans see Trump’s comfortable victory in Tuesday’s elections coupled with Senate Republicans’ new majority as a sweeping mandate to implement Trump’s policies, and as such, potential party leaders seem to be cozying up to Trump ahead of the vote.
Trump has not yet endorsed a specific candidate for the race, and it’s unclear whether he ultimately will. Instead, Trump has attempted to exert influence over the race by arguing that whoever is slated to fill the role supports a modification to what has become the Senate’s normal operating procedure to allow him to temporarily install appointments to federal vacancies without Senate approval during the Senate recesses.
“Any Republican Senator seeking the coveted LEADERSHIP position in the United States Senate must agree to Recess Appointments (in the Senate!), without which we will not be able to get people confirmed in a timely manner. Sometimes the votes can take two years, or more. This is what they did four years ago, and we cannot let it happen again. We need positions filled IMMEDIATELY!” Trump wrote on his social media platform on Sunday.
Recess appointments are permitted by the constitution, and allow presidents to fill federal vacancies during Senate recesses. Though once a regular occurrence, the Senate has operated in such a way as to block all recess appointments since former President Barack Obama’s first term. Allowing recess appointments for Trump’s second term could allow controversial nominees who may otherwise fail to get the support they need from the GOP-controlled Senate to serve for nearly two years without Senate approval.
None of the top contenders have ruled out supporting the use of these recess appointments, and their responses to Trump’s post show how far each is willing to go to show that they’re on Trump’s side.
Though Thune said in an interview on Thursday that his “preference” would be for Trump to stay out of the Senate leadership race, he issued a statement Sunday night following Trump’s post affirming his commitment to installing Trump’s Cabinet, and not ruling out the appointments Trump is seeking.
“One thing is clear: We must act quickly and decisively to get the president’s cabinet and other nominees in place as soon as possible to start delivering on the mandate we’ve been sent to execute, and all options are on the table to make that happen, including recess appointments,” Thune said in a statement. “We cannot let Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats block the will of the American people.”
Cornyn meanwhile discussed the use of recess appointments with Trump prior to his post, per a source familiar. In a post on X Sunday afternoon, Cornyn affirmed his support, noting that if he is elected leader, he will keep the Senate in session continuously until nominees are confirmed.
“It is unacceptable for Senate Ds to blockade President @realDonaldTrump’s cabinet appointments. If they do, we will stay in session, including weekends, until they relent. Additionally, the Constitution expressly confers the power on the President to make recess appointments,” Cornyn wrote.
Almost immediately after Trump posted on Sunday, Scott posted on X that he was in lockstep with Trump on this policy.
“100% agree. I will do whatever it takes to get your nominations through as quickly as possible,” Scott wrote, reposting Trump’s post.
A small handful of senators have come out publicly to endorse their chosen candidate.
Scott, for his part, has picked up endorsements from some of Trump’s most out-and-proud supporters in the Senate as well as a number of Trump-aligned outside voices, including Robert F. Kennedy and Elon Musk.
But this critical race has a very small constituency: only Republican senators serving in the incoming Senate get a vote. ABC News has not yet reported a projection in the Pennsylvania Senate race, but that means only about 52 people will get to cast ballots.
Senators are also shielded behind closed doors and by secret ballot in this race. In order to win the election, a candidate must amass a simple majority of the vote. If all candidates fail to get a simple majority, the lowest vote earner is eliminated from the process, and senators vote again.
Because of the secret nature of the vote, it’s unclear how much of an influence any outside factor, including Trump, will ultimately wield.
Newly elected incoming senators including Bernie Moreno of Ohio, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, Reps. Jim Banks of Indiana and John Curtis of Utah and Tim Sheehy of Montana will all be in attendance to cast votes.
Sen. JD Vance, who is now the vice president-elect, is also eligible to cast a vote in the election if he so chooses, but his team has not yet said whether he ultimately will attend Wednesday’s vote.
In addition to the closely-watched race for party leader, a number of other positions will also be selected during Wednesday’s vote. Sen. John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican, is running unopposed to becoming the No. 2 Senate Republican. Sen. Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican, and Sen. Tom Cotton, the Republican from Arkansas, are in a race to become the conference chair. Additional down-ballot races will also be voted on Wednesday.
