In a rare do-over, Barack H Obama was sworn in for second time as the US President by the Chief Justice of Supreme Court John Roberts at White House.
The surprise move was taken last evening in "an abundance of caution", as the US Chief Justice had flubbed the oath of the office. The second oath was administered at 7-35 pm.
White House Counsel Greg Craig said that the oath administered to Obama on Tuesday was fine, but one word was out of sequence so that decided to do this out of "an abundance of caution".
"We decided it was so much fun..." Obama joked while sitting on a couch, according to a White House pool report. As Obama stood and then walked over to make small talk with pool reporters, Roberts asked, "Are you ready to take the oath?"
Obama replied "I am, and we're going to do it very slowly." The second oath took 25 seconds. After a flawless recitation, Roberts smiled and said, "congratulations, again."
Obama said, "Thank you, Sir." On Tuesday Roberts had fumbled while administering the 35-word oath of office.
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When the Chief Justice started to say the second portion of the quote "... That I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States," he instead put faithfully at the end of the sentence.
Obama, who apparently had memorised the oath, looked at Roberts, who then realised his mistake and repeated that portion of the oath correctly. Obama then repeated the oath in the incorrect order.
In a statement, Craig said last night, "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."