Recordings – NBC 6 South Florida

The man suspected of carrying out an apparent assassination attempt on Donald Trump camped outside a Florida golf course with food and a rifle for nearly 12 hours, ambushing the former president until a Secret Service agent foiled the potential attack and opened fire, according to court documents filed Monday.

Ryan Wesley Routh did not fire any shots, never had Trump in his sights and sped away when an agent who spotted him fired in his direction, officials said. He was arrested in a neighboring county.

Routh, 58, appeared in federal court in West Palm Beach to face a weapons charge, beginning a criminal trial in the final weeks of a presidential campaign already marked by violence and riots. Although no one was injured, it was the second attempt on Trump’s life in as many months, raising questions about the security he will receive at a time of heightened political rhetoric and what the Secret Service chief called an “unprecedented and hyperdynamic threat environment.”

While Trump’s Republican allies and some Democrats demanded answers about how a potential shooter could have gotten so close to Trump, Ronald Rowe Jr., the acting director of the Secret Service, vehemently defended the agents, saying they “rose to the occasion” despite needing additional resources.

“The men and women of the Secret Service are under pressure right now, and they are rising to the occasion and rising to the challenge,” Rowe said, citing recent political gatherings and other large events that have required the deployment of extensive security forces.

Authorities were still investigating Routh’s possible motive and movements in the days and weeks leading up to Sunday when a Secret Service agent assigned to Trump’s security detail saw a firearm sticking out of a bush at the West Palm Beach golf course where Trump was playing.

A police bodycam shows the moment a man allegedly involved in the assassination attempt on Donald Trump is arrested. Steve Litz of NBC6 reports

The agent fired and Routh fled in an SUV, leaving behind a digital camera, a backpack, a loaded SKS rifle with a telescopic sight, and a plastic bag of groceries.

He was at the tree line of the golf course from 1:59 a.m. to 2:31 p.m., according to an FBI affidavit that used cell phone data to track his whereabouts. The FBI is currently investigating how long the Hawaiian man was in Florida, said Jeffrey Veltri, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Miami field office.

The latest assassination attempt came just weeks after the July 13 shooting at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, where Trump was wounded by a gunman’s bullet, and heightened fears that violence will continue to shape American presidential politics.

Both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s opponent in the November election, condemned the foiled attack. Harris said in a post on X: “I’m glad he’s safe. Violence has no place in America.”

The FBI has interviewed family members, friends and colleagues and is working to gather evidence. No motive has been disclosed, and Routh invoked his right to an attorney during his questioning, authorities said.

Investigators are also examining Routh’s extensive online presence, which suggests that his political views were constantly evolving – including, more recently, an apparent disdain for Trump – and that he was extremely outraged by global events involving China and, in particular, Ukraine.

“You are free to assassinate Trump,” Routh wrote of Iran in a book apparently self-published in 2023 titled “Ukraine’s Unwinnable War.” In it, he called the former president a “fool” and a “buffoon” for both the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021, and the “enormous mistake” of withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal.

Routh wrote that he once voted for Trump and bears some of the blame for the “child we elected as our next president who turned out to be brainless.”

He also tried to recruit fighters for Ukraine’s self-defense against Russia and ran a website to collect donations and volunteers to fight for Kyiv.

Voter records show that he registered as an independent voter in North Carolina in 2012 and last voted in person in the state’s Democratic primary in March.

According to federal campaign finance records, Routh also made 19 small donations totaling $140 since 2019 to ActBlue, a political action committee that supports Democratic candidates.

One of the two counts is that he illegally possessed his gun despite multiple convictions, including two counts of receiving stolen goods in North Carolina in 2002. The other count is that the gun’s serial number was defaced and unreadable to the naked eye, a violation of federal law.

His lawyer declined to comment after Monday’s brief court hearing, after he was ordered to remain in custody because prosecutors argued there was a risk he would flee.

Routh was the subject of a previously closed 2019 tip to the FBI alleging he was a felon in possession of a firearm, Veltri said. The FBI interviewed the informant, but he did not confirm the original information, he said. The FBI passed that information on to local law enforcement in Honolulu.

The arrest drew renewed attention to the challenges of protecting Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, not only at campaign rallies but also away from his campaign activities, often at his own clubs and on his properties. Sunday’s golf course outing was an unofficial event, meaning, in Secret Service terminology, that it was not on Trump’s official schedule.

Nevertheless, Rowe said, the Secret Service has “the highest level of protection measures” in place under Biden’s directive, including “defensive sniper team elements” and “local tactical assets.”

Trump’s shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, made it clear that a paradigm shift was needed in the way the Secret Service protects dignitaries, he said.

“We need to move away from a reactive model and toward a preparedness model. There could be another geopolitical event that could involve the United States in a kinetic conflict or some other problem that could lead to additional responsibilities,” he said.

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Tucker, Durkin Richer and Long reported from Washington. Michael Biesecker contributed to this report.