Elon Musk was quick to mock US president Joe Biden after he appeared to make a mistake due to his teleprompter while delivering a speech from the White House.
Biden made his address on Friday, July 8, after the US Supreme Court sparked outrage last month with its decision to overturn Roe v Wade and restrict access to abortion for millions of people.
As a result, the president announced yesterday he was signing an executive order to protect access to reproductive health care.
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During his speech, he cited statistics relating to the proportion of men versus women who vote in the United States. As he emphasised the stats by repeating them, it became unclear whether he was supposed to say the instruction, or simply repeat the line.
You can watch the moment here:
In a clip which has since gone viral, Biden can be heard quoting the statistics before saying: "Repeat the line."
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While we can't see what was written on the teleprompter, it appeared to some as if Biden accidentally read out loud what was intended to be an instruction for his delivery.
He said: "'Women are not without electoral or political power. It is noteworthy that the percentage of women who register to vote and cast a ballot is consistently higher than the percentage of the men who do so’ – end of quote.' Repeat the line. 'Women are not without electoral and/or political or – let me be precise, not and/or – ‘or political power'.”
After the clip was shared online, Musk responded with a tweet reading: "Whoever controls the teleprompter is the real President!"
The SpaceX CEO also shared an image from a scene in the comedy Anchorman, when anchor Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) reads the line "I'm Ron Burgundy" as a question due to a question mark accidentally being inserted into the teleprompter.
Musk's tweet received thousands of likes from amused Twitter users, with many agreeing with Musk's apparent comparison between Biden and Ron Burgundy. However, the White House has since said Biden's comment was intentional.
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The explanation came in response to Twitter user Greg Price, who wrote: "Joe Biden accidentally reads the part on the teleprompter that says ‘repeat the line’ when they wanted him to say the line again lmfao.”
In an attempt to set the record straight, White House Assistant Press Secretary Emilie Simons replied: “No. He said, ‘let me repeat that line.”
A transcript of Biden's speech from the White House backs this claim by saying, "Let me repeat the line," and some Twitter users have also dismissed the claim that Biden accidentally read out an instruction, arguing the teleprompter would simply repeat the line rather than directing the president to do so.
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Emily Brown