Obama retakes presidential oath
Barack Obama retook the US presidential oath of office early today, after the inauguration blunder that was heard throughout the world.
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts delivered the oath to Mr Obama at the White House in a rare move in which no TV camera crews or news photographers were allowed in.
The surprise moment came in response to Tuesday’s much-noticed stumble, when Mr Roberts made a mistake, transposing some of the words of the oath – which prompted Mr Obama to do so too.
So Mr Obama and Mr Roberts went through the drill again, out of what White House counsel Greg Craig called “an abundance of caution”.
This time, the scene was the White House map room in front of a small group of reporters.
“We decided that because it was so much fun,” Mr Obama joked to reporters who followed press secretary Robert Gibbs into the room.
Mr Roberts then put on his black robe. “Are you ready to take the oath?” he said.
“Yes, I am,” Mr Obama said. “And we’re going to do it very slowly.”
Mr Roberts then led Mr Obama through the oath without any missteps.
The president said he did not have his bible with him, but that the oath was binding anyway.
The original, bungled version on Tuesday caught observers by surprise and then got replayed on cable news shows.
It happened when Mr Obama interrupted Mr Roberts midway through the opening line, in which the president repeats his name and solemnly swears.
Next in the oath is the phrase “That I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States.” But Mr Roberts rearranged the order of the words, not saying “faithfully” until after “president of the US”.
That appeared to throw Mr Obama off. He stopped abruptly at the word “execute”.
Recognising something was off, Mr Roberts then repeated the phrase, putting “faithfully” in the right place, but without repeating “execute”.
But Mr Obama then repeated Mr Roberts’ original, incorrect version: “The office of president of the US faithfully.”
Mr Craig said before the repeat performance: “We believe the oath of office was administered effectively and that the president was sworn in appropriately yesterday.
“Yet the oath appears in the (US) constitution itself. And out of the abundance of caution, because there was one word out of sequence, Chief Justice John Roberts will administer the oath a second time.”
The constitution is clear about the exact wording of the oath and as a result, some experts have said that a repetition was probably unnecessary, but also could not hurt.
Two other previous presidents have repeated the oath because of similar issues - Calvin Coolidge and Chester Arthur.
