DeSantis says FL will conduct its own investigation into the attack

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) said the state will conduct its own investigation into the alleged assassination attempt on former President Trump at his golf club in West Palm Beach on Sunday.

“The State of Florida will conduct its own investigation into the attempted assassination at Trump International Golf Club,” DeSantis wrote in a post on X on Sunday evening. “The people have a right to know the truth about the assassin and how he was able to get within 500 yards of the former President and current Republican candidate.”

Trump was playing golf in West Palm Beach when Secret Service agents stationed at a nearby hole observed a man with a rifle pushing the muzzle of the weapon through the perimeter of the course, authorities told media. The rifle protruded from the bushes between 300 and 500 yards away.

A Secret Service agent shot the man, who dropped the AK-47 rifle and fled in a car. Secret Service agents contacted the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office around 1:30 p.m., and authorities immediately cordoned off the area, County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said.

Authorities were eventually able to track down the man as he was traveling on I-95 from Palm Beach County to Martin County after a witness took a photo of his vehicle and he was arrested at the scene, Bradshaw said. An AK-47 rifle with a scope, two backpacks and a GoPro were found in the bushes where the suspect was spotted, he added.

The Trump campaign and authorities quickly announced after the incident that the former president was “safe.”

While authorities have not publicly released the suspect’s name, several media outlets identified the man as Ryan Wesley Routh, a white 58-year-old man with ties to North Carolina and Hawaii. NewsNation reported that Routh was convicted of possession of a weapon of mass destruction in 2002, citing online records from the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction.

Palm Beach County District Attorney Dave Aronberg told NewsNation that Routh had not been on law enforcement’s radar until now. NewsNation is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which also owns The Hill.

The incident came just nine weeks after a gunman shot and killed the former president and attendee at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania. The Republican presidential candidate was speaking at the July 13 rally when suspected gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks fired his bullets from a nearby rooftop, hitting the former president’s ear and killing an onlooker.

Two other spectators were injured but have since been released from the hospital.

After the July shooting, the Secret Service came under fire for its security protocols, with politicians accusing the agency of not being adequately prepared to protect the former president.

The consequences of the Secret Service’s preparations and response to the shooting prompted Director Kimberly Cheatle to resign in July after she presented a disastrous picture during a congressional review of the incident.

Concerns remain among some lawmakers about the Secret Service’s security capabilities, and Sunday’s events already appear to be heightening some of those worries.

The House task force investigating the July assassination requested a Secret Service briefing on Sunday on the events and “the response of security forces” during Sunday’s incident.

“We are grateful that no harm came to the former President, but remain deeply concerned about political violence and condemn it in all its forms,” ​​task force chairman Mike Kelly (R-Pennsylvania) and its ranking member, Jason Crow (D-Colorado), wrote on Sunday.

Authorities have not yet determined a motive for the alleged attack on Trump, but Routh’s social media activity appears to indicate that he is openly vocal about the war in Ukraine.

The New York Times reported that it interviewed him last year for an article about pro-Ukrainian foreign fighters. Routh, originally from Greensboro, North Carolina, traveled to Ukraine in 2022 to recruit former Afghan soldiers who had fled the Taliban to fight for the embattled country.

A police official told the Times that Routh had been living in Hawaii before Sunday’s incident.

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