America's Talking - Lawmakers Call for Changes at Secret Service After Second Assassination Attempt

Episode Date: September 20, 2024

 U.S. lawmakers are calling for changes in how the U.S. Secret Service protects former President Donald Trump after a second assassination attempt Sunday. Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was able to hide outside a golf course where Trump was golfing. Authorities say Routh pointed the barrel of an assault-style rifle through a chain-link fence toward the golf course, was spotted by an agent, who fired at Routh. The suspect was soon arrested after fleeing the scene. 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_e80374de-752d-11ef-b0c4-23e9bfed50f3.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 McAulb, Chief Content Officer at Franklin News Foundation, publisher of the Center Square Newswire Service. We are recording this on Friday, September 20th. Former President Donald Trump survived a second-would-be assassination on his life last weekend while he was playing golf at his West Palm Beach Golf Club, raising more questions about the divisive rhetoric in the country, and of how the U.S. Secret Service protects high-profile subject, like former President Trump.

Joining me to discuss this is Casey Harper, Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief for the Center Square. Casey, it's sad that we're having to talk about a second attempt on the former president's life. Let's start with what happened at the golf course. Yeah, sad. I mean, presidential assassinations might become a beat, which is, I agree, very sad, troubling. It's reminiscent of school shootings, which at one time were, you know, enough to grab the attention of the nation for weeks and now have become so common that people are a bit numb to them. And hopefully we don't get to that same place with these attempts on the president's life.

So, you know, what we do know, and of course, this is all from law enforcement reports, press conferences, et cetera. We know they've identified the would-be assassin as Ryan Ruth, 58-year-old who camped outside of Trump's golf course for about 12 hours, according to his cell phone data. He had a, looks like a bag of food and he had a weapon. And he had basically, you know, there's a lot of, if you look at photos, there's a lot of shrubbery around this fence, this chain link fence around the golf course. And he kind of nestled himself into a spot, what they call a hide for snipers in the military. He had found his own hide and was actually pretty close. I mean, distance-wise, he still was a bit far from Trump. But Trump was.

making his way towards the assassin as he played through these holes. And when the assassin, thankfully, a secret service agent who was going ahead of Trump to scope out the area, spotted him. They got some shots off, but the man, the, the would be assassin was able to escape, jumped in his car, but people took photos. He was arrested. And now he's facing the federal charges, although Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who has launched his own investigation into the whole ordeal, has also said he wants life in prison. and there's talk that he has jurisdiction to charge him with attempted murder, which could actually get him life in prison.

So, you know, those are the facts of the case. Trump is fine, thankfully, but it's a troubling sign. And, you know, we're still have a few months left in this election. And hopefully we don't have to address this topic again, Dan. One thing to talk about is right now, the would-be assassin, Ryan Wesley Ruth, who is 58-year-old. years old. As of now, he's only been charged with gun charges, possession of a firearm as a felon. He does have a criminal history and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. He has not been charged with attempted assassination or attempted murder by the feds. As you mentioned,

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, where the incident occurred, wants him to serve life in prison, says they'll bring straight charges against them, but those have been. not been filed yet. Of course, we're still just five days out from the incident, still under investigation. He's an alleged attempted assassin right now because he hasn't been convicted of anything. But the fact that he was able to scope out this golf course for many, many hours before raised new questions about the Secret Services protection of the former president. It's been said, you know, that if it had been President Joe Biden, a sitting president playing the golf course, they would have done, you know, advanced searches. They would have scoped the outer area outside the golf course to make sure it's safe.

That did not happen with Donald Trump on Sunday. Of course, it was sort of, as I understand it, a spur of the moment decision by President Trump to go play golf. So there wasn't really a ton of advance. It wasn't like a campaign event that's planned days, even weeks ahead, where you can do these types of searches. It just raises all kinds of questions about how the Secret Service should be and is protecting people under their watch. Right. How did this guy know? It's very, you don't want to be conspiratorial.

We have no evidence other than this very odd coincidence. But, I mean, is there somehow a leak within Trump's circle? I'm not even saying that someone is malicious, right? That someone is trying to hurt the president, but as someone being sloppy texting people or putting in a group chat or putting on Facebook that the president's heading somewhere? Or is the media, you know, maybe being a little sloppy. I mean, so it's an interesting question. I think, I do believe there was, you know, people, media is saying that Trump was golfing.

But even still, it was last minute. And a big question, Dan, I mean, you know, covering the story all week, lawmakers are asking the question, how can it be that President Trump does not have the same level of security as President Joe Biden given these two assassination attempts? Now, of course, the president gets more security than anyone, the sitting president does. But former presidents do get a bit of Secret Service protection. And I think that makes sense. How could every former president get the same level of protection as the current president? But given these two assassination attempts, it raises the obvious question of, can an exception be made for Trump?

Especially since he's running again. You know, he's not not sitting in his mansion somewhere on the beach every day as a retiree. I mean, he is out on the road. He's doing events. He's going from state to state to state in a very aggressive, highly contested close race. And so, at least for, you know, is it that difficult for, you know, the next six months for Trump to have presidential level security detail. I mean, the secret is not like,

if there's anything the Secret Service can be spending its multi-billion dollar budget on, you'd think it would be that. Now, of course, some people may or may not know, the Secret Service protects a lot of people and they are spread thin, and I have no doubt they're following protocol, but should the protocol change, that's what a lot of Republican lawmakers in particular are saying, Trump needs the same protection as Biden.

Yeah, and I do think, while questions about the planning and the level of security for the Secret Service, legitimate questions that need to be discussed and argued in Congress and figured out soon. Soon. The advanced Secret Service agent, who, as you mentioned, was walking in front of, on the course, in front of the former president, you know, scoping out the area. It sounds like he acted appropriately and maybe even heroically spotting this would-be sniper, seeing him point his rifle through the chain link fence in a very bushy area, fired on that person.

And then they, other secret service agents immediately, when the gunshots rang out, he immediately went to grab President Trump, bring him back to the clubhouse, bring him to safety as local and federal law enforcement, because of a witness. And I witnessed a spot of this guy running from the scene,

after the shots fired and got into a car, got a photograph of the car on the license plate, law enforcement were able to track him down very quickly and bring him into custody. So from that standpoint, it sounds like Secret Service and local law enforcement did an excellent job. The advanced plan. I'm not questioning that at all. Compared to the first incident where they took a lot of fire, you know, but no pun intended for their handling. But, you know, I talked to a security expert who's worked with the Secret Service in the And he told me that if Trump had Biden's level of protection, that that entire perimeter where the man was standing would have been protected.

And he would never even would have got to that fence. So that's just kind of a comparison of the size of the team. He never would have been able to even get into that fence where he was standing if he had Biden's level of protection. Thank you for joining us today. Casey, listeners can keep up with this story and more at the centerswear.