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Exactly 50 days before the November election and 64 days after the previous assassination attempt, President Donald Trump was allegedly targeted for murder by a Democratic donor with an impotent interest in Ukraine's war effort.
Unlike Thomas Matthew Crooks' July 13 assassination attempt, which left Trump bleeding, two individuals critically wounded, and heroic former firefighter Corey Comperatore dead in the stands, it appears there may be far more clarity around suspected would-be assassin Ryan Routh and his Sept. 15 plot.
For starters, Routh is still alive to speak to his alleged crimes. There's also the matter of Routh's significant online footprint and his apparent affinity in recent years for doing interviews with virtually anyone who would stick a microphone in his face.
What follows is a summary of the facts as they are presently understood.
Incident and arrest
According to the FBI's affidavit in support of the criminal complaint filed Monday, President Donald Trump was golfing at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday. Unbeknownst to him or his Secret Service detail, a deranged gunman lay ahead in ambush.
Just after 1:30 p.m., a U.S. Secret Service agent on Trump's detail, who had been walking the perimeter of the course — one hole ahead of the president — spotted what appeared to be a rifle "poking out of the tree line" and through a chain-link fence, roughly 400 yards away from Trump.
The USSS agent reportedly opened fire but failed to land a shot. The suspect apparently never got a shot off.
'Nothing will slow me down.'
Suspected gunman Ryan Routh apparently fled the tree line, jumped into a Nissan SUV with license plates belonging to a stolen white 2012 Ford truck, then sped out of the area.
The gunman left behind a GoPro digital camera, two bags including a backpack, a black plastic bag containing food, and an SKS-style 7.62x39 caliber rifle with a long-range scope and an "obliterated" serial number.
Blaze News previously noted that geolocation data from Routh's T-Mobile cell phone apparently placed him along the fence line at 1:59 a.m. Sunday morning. He remained there until the Secret Service agent opened fire.
The FBI affidavit indicated that after fleeing the scene, Routh traveled northbound on I-95 — where officers from the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office and Martin County Sheriff's Office made their move, afforded insights about the driver and vehicle by a witness who spotted Routh getting away.
Roughly 45 minutes after the USSS agent opened fire and 40 miles away from the course, MCSO managed to stop Routh's vehicle and place him under arrest without incident.
Routh is now facing charges of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession and receipt of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. If slapped with the maximum penalty for both charges, then Routh is looking at 20 years' imprisonment. He may face additional charges.
'The people deserve the truth about the would be assassin.'
Shortly after the incident, President Trump stated, "There were gunshots in my vicinity, but before rumors start spiraling out of control, I wanted you to hear this first: I AM SAFE AND WELL! Nothing will slow me down. I will NEVER SURRENDER! I will always love you for supporting me. Unity. Peace. Make America Great Again."
While the FBI announced it was leading the ongoing investigation, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) announced Sunday that the Sunshine State will be conducting its own investigation.
"The people deserve the truth about the would be assassin and how he was able to get within 500 yards of the former president and current GOP nominee," wrote DeSantis.
Who is Ryan Routh?
Felon known to FBI
Ryan Wesley Routh is a 58-year-old North Carolina native who has lived in Hawaii for at least six years, where he owns a small construction company. While still a Hawaii resident, Routh reportedly voted in North Carolina's Democratic primary this past March.
According to his LinkedIn, he received a degree in mechanical engineering from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University.
Routh was known to law enforcement prior to Sunday and has a significant criminal record, charged with at least 100 criminal counts in North Carolina alone.
The suspected would-be assassin reportedly wielded a fully automatic machine gun in a three-hour standoff with police in North Carolina in 2002.
According a decades-old Greensboro News & Record report, Routh was charged at the time with carrying a concealed weapon and possession of a weapon of mass destruction. He was also charged with resisting, delaying, and obstructing a law enforcement officer as well as driving with a revoked license and hit-and-run.
The North Carolina Department of Adult Correction offender database indicates Routh was convicted in 2010 for possession of stolen goods. The corresponding police affidavit used to get a search warrant claimed Routh was selling stolen building supplies to buy crack cocaine, reported the Associated Press.
Routh has also reportedly been in and out of court on numerous occasions for various civil suits, for several of which he was ultimately ordered to pay tens of thousands of dollars to plaintiffs.
Blaze News previously reported that Jeffrey Veltri, the FBI's special agent in charge of the Miami field office, revealed that the FBI received a complaint in 2019 that Routh had a firearm, despite being a convicted felon.
According to Veltri, the FBI passed the information on to local law enforcement in Honolulu. It's unclear whether anything came of the referral.
Trump critic, Democratic booster
Sleuths online had ample time before Facebook and X scrubbed his profiles to screenshot and archive damning comments indicating his political views and possible motivations. It quickly became clear that he had thrown in his lot with the Democrats and bought into their rhetoric about Trump.
Blaze News previously highlighted how Routh recycled a go-to Democratic slogan in this election cycle in an April 22 post on X, writing:
@POTUS Your campaign should be called something like KADAF. Keep America democratic and free. Trumps should be MASA ... make Americans slave again master. DEMOCRACY is on the ballot and we cannot lose. We cannot afford to fail. The world is counting in us to show the way.
His final two posts on X prior to the incident were messages to President Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, recommending in mid-July that they should "visit the injured people in the hospital from the Trump rally and attend the funeral of the murdered fireman. Trump will never do anything for them....show the world what compassion and humanity is all about. 8084648342."
Apart from his consistent fixation on committing civilians to the Ukrainian war effort, Routh's politics have been all over the place. He has indicated, for instance, that he voted for Trump in 2016 but that he deeply regrets it. Prior to throwing his support behind Biden, Routh also admitted to having a soft spot for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
It's clear from his social media posts that he also supported the Black Lives Matter movement and has adopted anti-Israel talking points, such as the suggestion that Israel has no claim to the land within its borders.
In his self-published 2023 book, "Ukraine's Unwinnable War," Routh echoes various establishment Democrat talking points, including the suggestion that the Jan. 6 riot was a "catastrophe ... perpetrated by Donald Trump and his undemocratic posse."
As was the case with Crooks, Routh has made political contributions to Democrats. In Routh's case, he made around 20 small donations to Democrats through ActBlue between 2019 and 2020.
In his book, the suspected would-be assassin apologizes to Iranians for Trump dismantling the nuclear deal and noted, "You are free to assassinate Trump as well as me for that error in judgment," reported the New York Post.
The Democratic donor added, "No one here in the US seems to have the balls to put natural selection to work or even unnatural selection."
Wannabe Ukraine mercenary
Routh appears to be a zealous advocate for Ukraine and its defensive war against Russia. He appears to have run the website "Fight for Ukraine," where he figures prominently in the About section and provides links to his now-deleted webpages.
The page states:
We need thousands of fighters and humanitarian aid workers and supplies to win this war and no one should ever let paperwork or red tape hinder their desire to fight for freedom, humanity and basic human rights. It is the most honorable and dignified sacrifice anyone can make to support their fellowman. Please encourage every age and gender from around the world to come and join the fight.
On the site, Routh details various ways — including unlawful ways — people could supposedly go to fight as mercenaries in Ukraine. For those who simply cross the border into Ukraine, he recommended they give him a call once in Kiev.
The New York Times' Thomas Gibbons-Neff recalled an interview he had in 2023 with individuals who were "not qualified to be allowed anywhere near the battlefield in a U.S.-led war and yet were fighting on the front against Russia, with access to weapons and military equipment."
Gibbons-Neff indicated he heard of Routh through a former Afghan special operations soldier in Iran.
"Like many foreign volunteers who showed up at Ukraine's border in the war's early months, he was eager to cast aside his former life for something far more exciting and make a name for himself," wrote the Times reporter.
Routh, who told the Financial Times in 2022 that the Ukrainian Foreign Legion rejected him on account of his age, apparently spent some time in Ukraine attempting to recruit Afghans who had fled the Taliban. His X timeline was crowded with failed pleas to various defense officials and organizations to allow Afghan fighters into Ukraine.
Ukraine's foreign legion has characterized Routh as a charlatan.
The legion said in an official statement, "American citizen Ryan Routh has never served in the International Legion of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, has no relation to the unit. Rumors disseminated in certain media are not true."
"There's a streak of zealotry in him," Evelyn Aschenbrenner, an American who was in the legion's administration until June, told the Washington Post. "In November of last year, I began sending out a [message] to all foreign soldiers saying, 'This guy is not a real recruiter. He's not legit. I don't know what he's up to. Just stay away from him — block and ignore and move on.'"
"The cats and dogs on the military bases did more than he did," added Aschenbrenner.
Despite begging others to do so and claiming he had in a December 2023 Facebook post, the New York Times indicated Routh never fought in Ukraine.
Routh was, however, a cheerleader for the Ukrainian brigade associated with neo-Nazis since its inception. He appears at the 1:50-minute mark in a 2022 video of a Ukrainian demonstration in support of the Azov Brigade.
He also tweeted to Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy on March 13, 2022, informing him "I am an American coming to fight with you in Ukraine; I am flying into Krokow and will take any transport to Kyiv to meet you and fight to the death. We must get every civilian in the world to come and join the fight; I will be the example. Attack moscow now."
USA Today indicated it tried calling a number associated with Ryan and was greeted by a voicemail message identifying the number's owner as "Ryan in Hawaii," working with the "National Volunteer Center, sending soldiers to Ukraine, as well as Taiwan."
The International Volunteer Center in Ukraine made clear it hasn't worked with Ryan.
Routh told the Times that he had also been scheduled to meet with the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (the Helsinki Commission) "for two hours" to increase support for Ukraine. It's unclear if they ever went through with the meeting.
The Helsinki Commission is an independent commission of the federal government that has among its current commissioners Reps. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) and Mike Lawler (R-N.Y) and Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).
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'Blaze News Tonight' RECAP: Elon Musk's Trump donation, Secret Service failure, and a Jan. 6 victory
In the wake of Trump’s near-assassinaton, Elon Musk has not only endorsed Donald Trump for president but has also pledged $45 million a month to a Trump-affiliated PAC, likely making him an even bigger target for the left. Corrupt Democrat Sen. Bob Menendez (N.J.) has been convicted on 16 counts, leading several Democrat senators to call for his resignation, even threatening to expel him if he refuses to step down. Next, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R) gives her thoughts in an exclusive interview on Trump’s decision to appoint JD Vance as his running mate, as well as Biden’s calls for unity. Next, former Navy SEAL and security expert Erik Prince joins the show to shed light on the newly surfaced Iranian assassination plot, as well as the failure of the Secret Service not only at the rally but in general. However, there is a hopeful development in one January 6 case. A federal judge ordered the release of January 6 prisoner John Strand. Blaze News investigative journalist Steve Baker calls in to discuss the ruling.
Elon Musk Goes Full MAGA with Monthly $45M Trump Super PAC Pledge | Guest: Erik Prince | 7/16/24 www.youtube.com
Elon gets super political in super PAC donation
Senior politics editor and Washington correspondent for Blaze Media Christopher Bedford joins Jill and the panel on “Blaze News Tonight” from day two of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to discuss Elon Musk’s recent political moves and Democrat Sen. Bob Menendez’s conviction.
In regard to Musk’s donation pledge, Bedford says, “My gosh, he’s brave.”
Not only did Musk pledge “$45 million a month, a staggering amount of money,” to a Trump super PAC, but he also expressed his disapproval of Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s bill that permits children to transition behind their parents’ backs by vowing to “move his space company to Texas.”
Further, Democrat Senator Bob Menendez, who Bedford says is “one of the more openly corrupt senators” and “an incredibly arrogant politician,” has been convicted on “federal corruption charges.”
Even “the Democrats just want him to go away,” says Bedford.
Further, Julio Rosas, Blaze Media’s national correspondent, who is also attending the RNC convention, spoke with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) about her thoughts regarding Trump’s VP pick, JD Vance.
“It’s the direction I want the party to go in, and that’s going to be America first,” Greene said of Vance.
To Biden’s calls for “unity,” Greene was candid: “If Joe Biden and the Democrats were serious about unity, he would completely stop the weaponized Department of Justice that he has enabled, he would reel back Merrick Garland, he would drop all the charges against President Trump, [and] he would release political prisoners who are being held in prison for years now for protesting election fraud.”
Secret Service failure and Kimberly Cheatle’s refusal to step down
The Secret Service is on high alert after reports of an Iranian plot to assassinate Donald Trump have surfaced. Former Navy SEAL and security expert Erik Prince joins the show to shed light on the threat.
“I think this is a desperate effort to deflect from a completely botched job of protecting the leading Republican candidate and front-runner for the next presidency,” Prince tells Jill, adding that he doesn’t give the threat “a whole lot of credibility.”
“We suffer from a from a whole collection of federal agencies that are bloated, obese, unaccountable, and ineffective, and we continue to steer away from a merit-based, execution-based excellent society to our detriment,” he continues, noting that had Trump been killed, “we could have literally torn the country asunder.”
When Prince points to the lack of merit in our federal agencies, he is, at least in part, referring to Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle’s DEI initiative to ensure 30% of the force is made up of women.
Even though Cheatle has technically “[taken] responsibility” for Trump’s near-assassination, she has nonetheless refused to step down from her position.
While the FBI has sworn to investigate Saturday’s unfortunate events, Jill questions the authenticity of their claims, given “the way that the federal agencies have handled Donald Trump-related issues in the past.”
Prince agrees, stating he has “zero confidence in the federal government being able to investigate itself.”
A January 6 victory
The tides have turned for one January 6 defendant, John Strand, who was ordered to be released by a federal judge this July.
Blaze News investigative journalist and fellow January 6 victim Steve Baker joins the show to explain the details of Strand’s case. Steve tells Jill and the panel that Strand is one of the more “high-profile cases” of all the January 6 defendants.
Strand attended the Capitol on January 6 because he was the friend and bodyguard of Dr. Simone Gold, who was deplatformed during the height of COVID for recommending “alternate therapies that were not part of the approved narrative from the administration.”
Dr. Gold was scheduled to speak at the Capitol that day — an event that was “legally permitted.” When the Oathkeepers and Strand escorted Dr. Gold to her speaking location, however, the chaos had already begun.
“John Strand and Simone Gold did not participate in violence; they did not participate in breaching the Capitol building whatsoever,” says Baker, “but when the doors opened, they, like so many hundreds and even thousands of others, did in fact go inside peacefully, and she actually decided to deliver her prepared remarks there in the Rotunda.”
After Dr. Gold delivered her speech, she and Strand “peacefully left.” However, both were “arrested very early on” and were “charged not only with a handful of misdemeanors,” but also with the “infamous 1512 obstruction of an official preceding felony, which carried up to 20 years potential imprisonment.”
While Gold ended up “taking a plea deal" involving “60 days in prison,” Strand decided that “he was going to be a warrior” and fight the charges. In the end, he was sentenced to “32 months in prison.”
“They committed exactly the same crimes, but because he wasted the government's time and he put them through the hassle of having to prepare for a trial … Simone got two months in prison and he got 32 months in prison,” says Baker.
However, the Supreme Court’s “overturning of 1512" led to Strand’s release.