America's Talking - Routh, Representing Himself, Begins Picking Florida Jury Monday

Episode Date: September 7, 2025

(The Center Square) – Ryan Routh will have court-appointed lawyers nearby as he represents himself in a Florida court against charges related to attempting to assassinate Donald Trump. Jury selection starts Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Routh, 59, is a construction worker from North Carolina more recently working in Hawaii. He pleaded not guilty to charges of attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer and several firearm violations.Support this podcast: https://secure.anedot.com/franklin-news-foundation/ce052532-b1e4-41c4-945c-d7ce2f52c38a?source_code=xxxxxxFull story: https://www.thecentersquare.com/florida/article_17ab15e0-9794-400d-a0ab-ea7e9538f075.html Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hi, welcome to America's Talking. I'm Kristen Smith. Join me today is the Center Square's East Coast managing editor, Alan Wooten. This week, Alan followed Ryan Ruth's upcoming trial on Monday. And for those who don't remember, he is the man who tried to assassinate Donald Trump on his golf course in September. So tell us more, Alan, about what's coming up on Monday with this trial. Well, it should be an interesting playout. The jury selection begins Monday. They expect the trial to begin. on Thursday of next week. The judge is booked out about four weeks for it. So it should go, I don't know, I think that would be relatively quickly in court terms or so. He is representing himself. And that in itself has already lent to a bit of a different situation. The judge has made some rules and things.

that they will be that he can and cannot do in the courtroom, such as using the podium, stand up and question witnesses or talk to the jury, that kind of thing. She's also a caution, though, that if he makes any sudden movements, there will be U.S. Marshals in the courtroom, and they are to act decisively. You can take that for what it sort of implies. But he also this week we've learned and we'll have a story on the center square.com later today. following up on the fact that, you know, he filed some court documents, and he is challenged President Trump to a round of golf and said if he loses that the president can execute him.

He's also challenged him to something of a smackdown, said that he can be in shackles and if the president can give it his worst. So it's got a tinge of bizarreness that's already leading off. Ryan is an interesting guy. You know, at the Center Square last year, we contacted the election officials in Hawaii, and we looked at the records in North Carolina. We saw that he voted both places last year. So he's a construction worker by trade out of North Carolina is where his residence is. He did live in Hawaii a little bit.

But this trial should be, I guess, a bit fascinating just to watch it play out. the judge has her hands full. Just to clarify, you said he voted in both places. Do you mean was one primary and one general or do we know the, was that how it works? Because otherwise, that would be quite alarming. Yes, he is, he did vote in the primary in North Carolina on Super Tuesday last March. In North Carolina, the state board of elections does have records and they are public records that anyone can search today. or whatever, and you can go in and see which ballot an unaffiliated voter chooses to use at the

primary. In North Carolina, if you're unaffiliated, you can choose to vote for the Democratic ticket or the Republican ticket. And then we talked to an election official in Hawaii. They're not set up the exact same way, but the fellow I talked to there, he did confirm and we did report that within the next day after the incident at the golf. course. Back up to how you mentioned the bizarreness of this case in general, we'd be remiss not to mention that two months earlier, we had the attempted assassination of Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania,

and in that case, the suspect was killed, and it was a very serious, a very different conversation than what we're having now. So will you talk a little bit about how this Secret Service responded in this case versus how we all know they responded in Butler. Yeah, both of them are interesting in their own tales, but the one in Florida was even interesting, even after what happened in Butler, Ryan was able to get around the perimeter of the golf course on a Sunday afternoon with weapons.

And I can remember as a lot of our rapporteurs were talking, in our meetings and stuff, it just seemed incredulous that a sweep, as they say in the Secret Service business, a sweep would not have made sure there was nobody even remotely close to where he was. But he was along the fence line. Granted on the golf course, that can be a good ways away from the playing area. But he was there. He did have weapons. the agents who were out on the golf course, sort of ahead of the group as they played,

did spot him, spotted somebody suspicious. And when they raised their rifle, then that's when he dropped his weapon. He never fired a shot. I think an agent did fire a shot in his direction. But they were able to capture him quickly on the highway as he tried to escape. All right, well, I'm sure you're going to keep us updated as this trial continues, starting next week, to follow that along with us, join us at thecentersquare.com.