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Attendees, including US First Lady Jill Biden, US Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff as US President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address in the House Chamber of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on February 7, 2023. Image Credit: AFP

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.

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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."