Last evening in the Map Room, Chief Justice John Roberts re-administered the presidential oath of office to President Obama to dispel any questions of whether or not Obama is the legal president.
In a written statement, White House Counsel Greg Craig said, “We believe that the oath of office was administered effectively and that the president was sworn in appropriately yesterday. But the oath appears in the Constitution itself. And out of an abundance of caution, because there was one word out of sequence, Chief Justice Roberts administered the oath a second time.” He was, of course, referring to this flub from Tuesday.
Ben Smith posts the White House pool report about the event:
At 735 pm, Roberts administred the oath of office again to obama in the map
room. Robert gibbs said the wh counsel, greg craig, believes the oath was
fine Tuesday, but one word was out of sequence so they did this out of a
“an abundance of caution.”
“We decided it was so much fun…” Obama joked while sitting on a couch.
Obama stood and walked over to make small talk with pool as roberts donned
his black robe.
“Are you ready to take the oath?” Roberts asked.
“I am, and we’re going to do it very slowly,” obama replied.
Oath took 25 seconds.
After a flawless recitation, roberts smiled and said, “congratulations,
again.”
Obama said, “thank you, sir.”
Smattering of applause.
“All right.” Obama said. “The bad news for the pool is there’s 12 more
balls.”
(Photo: Pete Souza/The White House)
