First Lady Jill Biden (2-R) and Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff (R), with her guests in the First Lady’s Box, prior to US President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress in the House chamber of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, USA, Feb. 7, 2023. Will Oliiver, EPA-EFE
WASHINGTON — Did they, or didn't they?
For a surreal moment -- just as Joe Biden prepared to deliver his State of the Union speech -- his wife Jill Biden stole the show by appearing to plant a kiss smack on the lips of the vice president's husband.
It happened in a heartbeat: after sweeping into Congress to cheers, the first lady made her way over to the second gentleman, Doug Emhoff, and clasped his hand.
Then, in a moment destined to go viral, they leaned in for a friendly embrace -- but at least one of them appears to have miscalculated and the result was a kiss either on, or very, very close, to the lips.
"Smooch of the Union," teased the New York Post tabloid -- zooming in on photos of what it declared without a doubt to have been a kiss on the mouth.
Other close-ups of the embrace seemed to show Biden's kiss landing just to one side of Kamala Harris's husband's mouth.
But Fox News -- a frequent critic of Biden's administration -- pounced on the apparent slip-up without the shadow of a doubt.
And Donald Trump's former advisor Kellyanne Conway shared a picture of the smooch with similar delight, quipping: "Wow, COVID really is over."
© Agence France-Presse