WASHINGTON - Did they, or didn’t they?

For a surreal moment, just as US President Joe Biden prepared to deliver his State of the Union speech, his wife, Mrs Jill Biden, stole the show by appearing to plant a kiss smack on the lips of Vice-President Kamala Harris’ husband.

It happened in a heartbeat. After sweeping into Congress to cheers, the First Lady made her way over to the Second Gentleman, Mr 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 appeared 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 the kiss landing just to one side of Mr Emhoff’s mouth.

But Fox News – a frequent critic of Mr Biden’s administration – pounced on the apparent slip-up without the shadow of a doubt.

Former president Donald Trump’s former adviser Kellyanne Conway shared a picture of the smooch with similar delight, quipping: “Wow, Covid-19 really is over.” AFP