America's Talking - Indictment: Routh Charged With Attempted Assassination of Trump

Episode Date: September 27, 2024

Federal authorities on Tuesday secured an indictment charging Ryan Wesley Routh with the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. The indictment also charges Routh with four other counts, including knowingly possessing a firearm during a crime of violence; and forcibly assaulting, intimidating and interfering with a Secret Service agent. Trump was playing golf at his club in West Palm Beach when a Secret Service agent scouting the course about a hole ahead of the Republican candidate for president spotted a rifle sticking out from the tree line. The agent fired in the direction of the rifle before a witness told authorities Routh sped away in a Nissan sport utility vehicle. Local police pulled Routh over and arrested him a short time later.Support this podcast: https://secure.anedot.com/franklin-news-foundation/ce052532-b1e4-41c4-945c-d7ce2f52c38a?source_code=xxxxxxFull story:  https://www.thecentersquare.com/national/article_34500a12-7ac6-11ef-ac44-bfbaa8995dde.html Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Greetings, everyone, and welcome to America in Focus, powered by the Center Square. I'm Dan McAelib, Chief Content Officer at Franklin News Foundation, publisher of the Center Square Newswire Service. We are recording this on Thursday, September 26th. Federal prosecutors secured an indictment this week in the second assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. The indictment charges Ryan Wesley Ruth with the attempted assassination, forcible assaulting and interfering with a secret service agent and gun-related counts. The new charges come as the U.S. Senate released a scathing report on U.S. secret service failures in the first assassination attempt on the former president.

Joining me to discuss this is Casey Harper, Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief for the Center Square. Casey, let's start with the indictment. What can you tell us? Yeah, I mean, there was a lot of concern about initially that Ruth was not, you know, maybe he wouldn't be charged with the right thing because the first charges that came through were smaller gun charges. But we see here that those concerns were actually just part of the sort of the legal process working out and looks like Ruth, he would be a assassin, is going to face some real charges here. Of course, that's such an interesting would be a sass.

I mean, there's a lot of levels to it. I mean, we've talked on this program before today about how he could have possibly known that Trump was at the golf course at that time raises questions about whether he had somehow obtained some information, whether that person knowingly wasn't a. or whether they were unwittingly an accomplice, of course. But was he working with anyone? Not saying he was, but Iran's Ayatollah released videos about Trump's assassination, essentially threatening to assassinate former President Donald Trump, who's now survived his second assassination attempt. So we see that these are real meteor charges against Ruth, I think, is what people wanted,

what people expected, kind of going to work its way through the legal process now. But what people are looking forward now? I mean, what's going to happen? And we saw that the House and the Senate passed legislation this week to increase Secret Service protection for Trump and Vance. Really, it would be for all nominees for president and vice president going forward, which, of course, Trump and Vance fit that bill. So, you know, we're going to see, it looks like assuming Biden signs it, and I think you will, he said the Secret Service need more help. You know, with that with Biden's signature, we're going to see more protection for Trump. But it's still unsettling, Dan, even as we see.

some of, you know, a report come out this week about the failings of the Secret Service. It's unsettling that we've already had two. And I wrote about assassination attempts and I actually wrote about a poll this week that said, most Americans, Dan, expect, sadly, another attempt on Trump's life before Election Day. It is a crazy sad story. Sticking with the indictment, Casey, the attempted assassination charge comes with the potential sentence, if convicted, of life imprisonment. Trump just last week blasted federal prosecutors for having only up until that point charged him with a couple of gun crimes, which of course did not come with the potential for life imprisonment. But now we have those charges.

The judge in the case ordered Ruth to be held without bond in a federal prison in Florida. So we're not going to, he won't be released anytime soon. Anything else to add to that? You know, I mean, he left a note, of course. He offered $150,000 to anyone who could, quote, finish the job. His lawyer is trying to say, oh, this was just a publicity stunt. That's kind of the defense that's being chalked up now. But we know he did have a weapon. He waited, according to his cell phone records for, you know, 12 hours at that chain link fence in the sniper's nest. So, you know, I don't know. There's going to be much patience for that argument. Well, let's move on to the Senate report that was released this week, Casey. It was a bipepal. partisan report. This was not, you know, Democrats or Republicans or whatever. It was a bipartisan report out of the Senate that really was damning for the U.S. Secret Service, all their significant failures in protecting the former president during this July event, the first assassination

attempted that happened at a Trump campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. You wrote about that report, Casey, tell us about it. Yeah, I mean, as one Democratic lawmaker called it a stunning failure. As you pointed out, bipartisan condemnation of the Secret Service. Of course, the head of the Secret Service resigned earlier this year in the aftermath of that first assassination attempt, which was widely criticized. I talked to security experts who were flabbergasted, couldn't understand how the Secret Service could have messed up so badly. And this report, Dan, I read through it and it's pretty amazing. Some of the things are small but important, such as the radios weren't really working that day.

They couldn't get them working, but that wasn't even a one-off. The agents, you know, they were kind of used to the radios not working or having issues. And so it's not like, oh, wow, the radios didn't work that day. How unfortunate it's like, no, your radios never worked and you knew that and you didn't take the proactive steps to fix them, right? So, or to fix the problem. So they're having radio issues. They really didn't have the right meetings or,

planning that they were supposed to. They did not coordinate well, according to the report, with local law enforcement. And it looks like that communication, especially between local law enforcement and Secret Service agents, was not good. And there's kind of a stunning paragraph, Dan, this really shock to me, and I'll read from the report. It says approximately two minutes before shots were fired, the U.S. Secret Service security room, located on the rally grounds, was told that there was an individual on the roof of the building. Shortly before shots were fired, a Secret Service counter sniper observed local officers running towards the building, the same building with guns drawn.

And so, you know, two minutes is a lifetime in a situation like this, Dan. And not only did they not fire on the shooter. I mean, you could maybe make a case that we can't just fire on someone because they look suspicious, but they could have got Trump off the stage, right? I mean, there is no reason for Trump to stay out on that stage. If you have police who are concerned enough to be sprinting to the shooter with guns drawn, then that's more than enough to get Trump off stage and they simply didn't do it. And of course, there's also concerns that the Secret Service, part of the Department of Homeland Security, hasn't been forthcoming with information about its planning, about its

execution on that of its plan on that day. So I would expect more government hearings, more congressional hearings, Casey, and perhaps more new evidence about the Secret Service failures. But that is all the time we have. Thank you for joining us today, Casey. Listeners can keep up with this story and more at thecentersquare.com.