Chief Justice Roberts made a pretty big mistake when he was administering the oath to Barack Obama today:
WASHINGTON – Chief Justice John Roberts swore in President-elect Barack Obama as president of the United States on Tuesday with a slight stumble over the wording of the oath of office in the first of what could be many important interactions between two men who rose to their positions of power quickly and who have some background similarities, but whose politics differ.
Separated by a Bible used by Abraham Lincoln at his first inaugural, Roberts asked Obama: “Are you prepared to take the oath, Senator?”
The former Illinois senator indicated he was, and Roberts started reciting — and Obama repeating — the 35-word oath that is prescribed by the Constitution.
But at one point, Obama paused abruptly after Roberts reversed several words in the oath.
The oath includes the phrase “that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States” but Roberts didn’t say “faithfully” until after saying “president of the United States.”
Obama apparently realized that something was out of order.
With Obama not reciting, Roberts then repeated the phrase correctly, the brief awkward moment ended and Obama was back on track.
He was then the first to congratulate Obama on his new job.
Here’s a transcript of the whole awkward affair:
ROBERTS: Are you prepared to take the oath, Senator?
OBAMA: I am.
ROBERTS: I, Barack Hussein Obama…
OBAMA: I, Barack…
ROBERTS: … do solemnly swear…
OBAMA: I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear…
ROBERTS: … that I will execute the office of president to the United States faithfully…
OBAMA: … that I will execute…
ROBERTS: … faithfully the office of president of the United States…
OBAMA: … the office of president of the United States faithfully…
ROBERTS: … and will to the best of my ability…
OBAMA: … and will to the best of my ability…
ROBERTS: … preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
OBAMA: … preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
ROBERTS: So help you God?
OBAMA: So help me God.
ROBERTS: Congratulations, Mr. President.
And, here’s the video:
From the transcript and the video make it clear that it was Roberts who made the mistake first. When I watched it live, you could see Obama pause for a second after he says “that I will execute” and look at Roberts as if to give him a chance to fix the error, which only served to confuse things even more.
Or perhaps Obama tripped Roberts up at the very beginning by anticipating a pause that previous Chief Justices have taken, but which never came.
In either case, I would’ve thought they might have at least talked about how the oath was going to do down before hand, wouldn’t you ?
[...] at Below The Beltway This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 and is filed under Barack, History. You can [...]
Here we go, already liberals and conservatives differ. If you watch Joe Biden take the oath, you’d realize that he did so with acturacy. Fact is Obama errored first,Roberts errored after. No big deal for either person. If we the people are going to be so petty, we are in for one hell of a ride.
I have YET to see anyone make the more substantial point that the oath of office does NOT include the phrase, “so help me God.”
Since when did the CJ of th scotus start feeding that line to the president to be?????????????
Someone said recently that the first CJ to feed the line “so help me god” was Warren Burger to Ronald Reagan.
Not sure about that.
More importantly, it’s fairly clear that the assertion that George Washington used that line at the end of his Oath of Office in 1789 is false:
http://tinyurl.com/7cu8ey
The first President of whom there is a contemporaneous record using those additional words was Chester Alan Arthur
I rather a President or Chief Justice mess up a oath than the economy or our freedoms.
[...] to some rather obvious verbal gaffes by the Chief Justice of the United States during the Inaugural Ceremony, some experts say it couldn’t hurt: The presidential oath of [...]
Hello,
Regarding the stumble regarding the wording of the oath administered by the Chief Justice, I would like to urge you to show the full video 1 minute prior to the actual start of the oath. You will see that the Chief Justice snapped at the President because the President made a small comment to his older daughter. The Chief Justice in his arrogant attitude just snapped at the President. Very simple, after that he was the one saying the wrong wording of the oath.
[...] Chief Justice Roberts flubbed the Oath of Office on Tuesday, which led to questions from legal scholars about whether the oath was truly effective because of [...]
[...] didn’t get as much press as Chief Justice Roberts’ mistake on Inauguration Day, but Joe Biden flubbed Hillary Clinton’s swearing-in last [...]