The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | September 23rd, 2024: Routh's Chilling Confession Letter & Israel Takes The Gloves Off Against Hezbollah

Episode Date: September 23, 2024

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin:   We’ll start things off with former President Donald Trump’s latest would-be assassin, as reports emerge that he stalked Trump for roughly a month and wrote a letter detailing his intention to assassinate Trump before attempting to shoot him at his West Palm Beach golf club on September 15th. Then, we’ll turn our attention back to the latest news out of Lebanon, where Israel has dramatically expanded their aerial attacks on Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants, striking at least 800 Hezbollah targets on Monday in the single deadliest day of fighting between the group and Israel since 2006. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief.  Email: [e-mail]. Blackout Coffee: https://www.blackoutcoffee.com/PDB Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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at his West Palm Beach Golf Club on the 15th of September. Then we'll look at the latest news out of Lebanon, where Israel has dramatically expanded their aerial attacks on Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants striking at least 800 Hezbollah targets on Monday in the single deadliest day of fighting between the group and Israel since 2006. But first, our afternoon spotlight. I want to begin with an update on Ryan Ralph, and that's the man accused of staking out former President Trump's West Palm Beach Golf Course for 12 hours in an apparent assassination attempt. Prosecutors revealed on Monday that Ralph, 58 years old, had written a letter months before the incident explicitly stating his intent to kill Trump. The letter addressed to, quote, Dear World, well, that narrows it down, included the chilling confession.

He wrote, quote, this was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump, but I failed you. I tried my best, he said, and gave it all the gumption I could muster. End quote. Yeah, that seems perfectly normal and sane. Ralph also encouraged others to finish his plot, offering $150,000 as a bounty to anyone who could, quote, finish the job. Prosecutors alleged that the letter and other items were left at a witness's residence several months before the incident. According to the filings, the witness found a box at their home containing not only the letter, but also ammunition, a metal pipe, various building materials, tools, and four phones. the witness who remained unnamed did not open the box until after Ralph's arrest.

The court filings also reveal Ralph's extended surveillance of Trump. The filings suggest Ralph planned his movements traveling from Greensboro, North Carolina, to West Palm Beach on 14 August. From 18 August through 15 September, Ralph reportedly stalked the former president as evidenced by the repeated activity of his phone accessing cell towers near Trump in International Golf Club and Trump's former Mar-Lago residents. Prosecutors alleged that Ralph was gathering information on Trump's whereabouts and plotting a potential

attack during this time. A search of Ralph's vehicle, a Nissan Xtera, uncovered a trove of critical evidence. Investigators found an SKS semi-automatic rifle equipped with a scope and an extended magazine that was loaded with 11 rounds, one already in the chamber. Ralph, who has an extensive criminal history, including felony convictions in North Carolina for possessing a weapon of mass destruction and stolen goods, now faces two new gun charges, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. Additionally, agents recovered a Hawaii driver's license, a passport, and a handwritten list detailing dates and locations where former President Trump had appeared or was expected to

appear in August, September, and October. The search also revealed body armor plates designed to stop small arms fire, two extra license plates, six cell phones, and a Google search for directions from Palm Beach County to Mexico. The filing, submitted before Ralph's Monday court appearance, has prosecutors arguing that Ralph poses too much risk and should remain in custody. You think so? Yeah, I'd say that not allowing him out on bail is a solid choice here. The FBI is continuing its investigation into whether Ralph acted alone or had accomplices in his detailed assassination plot. Coming up, we'll turn our attention back to Lebanon, where Israel has dramatically expanded

their campaign against Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants, unleashing their largest aerial attack on the group since at least 2006. I'll be right back. How many discounts does USA Auto Insurance offer? Too many to say here. Multi-vehicle discount. Safe driver. New vehicle discount. Storage discount. Legacy. How many discounts will you stack up?

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Welcome back to the afternoon bulletin. I want to return to events in Lebanon, where Israel unleashed an unprecedented aerial bombardment on Monday targeting at least 800 Hezbollah military sites and what appears to be a dramatic expansion of their military campaign against the Iranian-backed terror outfit. Dozens of Israeli jets led the assholes. on Monday, which focused on degrading Hasbalah's operations in southern Lebanon and the Beka Valley, noted strongholds for the militants. The airstrikes followed a warning from the Israeli military earlier on Monday for Lebanese civilians to evacuate from any areas affiliated with Hezbollah's military operations, and that's the first warning of its kind issued by the IDF in Lebanon,

according to our report from NBC News. We should note, Israel did not just send out some blanket statement regarding an evacuation. The head of a major telecoms company in Lebanon told Reuters that Israel made some 80,000 call and text message attempts asking people to evacuate the area. The IDF spokesman noted that Hezbollah was storing thousands of long-range rockets in civilian homes. The spokesman added after the strikes began that they were intended to destroy Hezbollah's military capabilities and infrastructure, saying, quote, based on accurate intelligence, the IDFs, attacked buildings where Hezbollah hid rockets, missiles, launchers, unmanned aerial vehicles, and other military infrastructure, end quote. Once the airstrikes began, it quickly turned into the

deadliest day inside Lebanon since the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah back in 2006. By last count, the Lebanese health ministry said the strikes had killed at least 274 people and injured at least 1,024. The strikes came as Hasbriac. Ghizbullah rockets continued to rain down on various locations throughout northern Israel. Chazbalah fired at least 165 rockets into northern Israel on Monday, though no injuries were reported. In a defiant statement, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said Monday that Israel was, quote, not waiting for the threat to come, were preempting it, were dismantling thousands of rockets and missiles aimed at Israeli cities and citizens, end quote.

Netanyahu also warned his population. to brace for difficult days ahead. As a reminder, Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging near daily rocket fire ever since Hezbollah attacked Israel's northern border communities in the wake of the 7 October attacks by Hamas. Hezbollah began its nearly year-long rocket attacks on Israel in support of their also-Aradian-backed Hamas terrorist colleagues, claiming that they would only stop once a ceasefire was in place in Gaza. Netanyahu continued, quote, whoever tries to hurt us, we hurt him even more. I promised that we would change the security balance, the balance of power in the north, and this is exactly what we are doing, end quote.

The Israeli security cabinet moved last Tuesday to update the goals of the war to include the safe return of tens of thousands of displaced Israelis to the northern border area, a signal that leaders in Jerusalem were preparing to shift their focus from Gaza to Lebanon. On Monday, as rockets continued to fly across both sides of the border, the Israeli cabinet declared a, quote, special situation across the country, granting them the emergency power to impose restrictions on civilian life, including school closures and limits on public gatherings. Currently, the order only applies to communities north of Haifa and in the vicinity of Gaza, that's according to our report from CNN. On the Lebanese side, officials have ordered the suspension of all classes in schools and universities across the country due to the bombardment. Monday was the fifth round, and by far the largest of Israeli airstrikes against Hezbollah targets since last Thursday. On Friday, Israel unleashed an

air strike on Beirut's southern suburbs, killing senior Hezbollah officials, including Ibrahim Akeel, the commander of Hezbollah's elite Radwan force, and mastermind behind a bombing back in in 1983 in Lebanon that killed hundreds of U.S. and French troops in their barracks. Those strikes followed Israel's alleged covert attacks last Tuesday and Wednesday on Chesbalah militants that employed pagers and handheld radios, walkie-talkies, used by the group that were rigged to explode via remote detonation. Lebanon's health ministry said at least 37 people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded in those attacks. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Monday 23 September. If you have any questions or comments, please

reach out to me at PDB at thefirsttv.com. And as I'm sure you've heard from your own sources, if you want to listen to the show ad free, well, simply become a premium member of president's daily brief by visiting pdb premium.com. It couldn't really be any simpler. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed. Stay safe. Stay cool. Not loving your AT&T or T Mobile Bill. Yeah, we've been hearing that a lot. Good news. Bring your AT&T or T Mobile Bill to Verizon and we'll give you a better deal.

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