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Barack Obama retakes oath after inauguration mix-up

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Barack Obama, news, Marie Claire

America’s new President, Barack Obama, has been forced to take the oath of office a second time after Chief Justice John Roberts delivered the pledge in the wrong order.

When all eyes were on Mr Obama as he was sworn in on Tuesday, viewers were surprised when the President appeared to stumble over his words during the oath.

However, Mr Obama stopped mid-sentence when he realised the delivery from Chief Justice John Roberts was in the wrong order.

Now, as a precaution, Mr Roberts has readministered the oath to the President at the White House with reporters present.

A White House counsel said the repetition was out of an ‘abundance of caution’.

‘We believe that the oath of office was administered effectively and that the President was sworn in appropriately yesterday,’ said White House Counsel Greg Craig.

‘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.’

The mistake came when Mr Roberts – dubbed the ‘oaf of office' by one US paper – should have said ‘faithfully execute the Office of the United States’, but instead said ‘execute the Office of the President of the United States faithfully’.

Mr Obama paused to allow the Chief Justice to correct himself, but Mr Roberts followed it up by leaving out the word execute.

Watch the gaff below:

According to witnesses at the inaugural luncheon, Mr Roberts apologised to the President, admitting ‘it was my fault’.

Although Mr Roberts may be reliving his faux pas by the minute, he can at least take comfort in the fact he wasn’t the first – in 1881 and 1923, the oath was repeated privately because of similar mistakes.

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Thursday 22 January 2009