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Tuesday, September 17, 2024

Suspect in Trump Assassination Attempt Charged With Two Gun Infractions

Just the News: The man arrested Sunday in connection with an apparent attempt to shoot former President Donald Trump this past weekend was formally charged Monday in a Florida court on two federal firearms charges. Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was charged with possession of a firearm as a felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. The charges were brought in a federal court in West Palm Beach, Florida (Just the News). Nick Sortor: Would-be Trump assassin Ryan Routh has been charged with: Possession of a firearm while a convicted felon. Possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. Routh is currently NOT facing any charges relating directly to the assassination attempt. He is set to be formally arraigned in two weeks (X).

CNN’s Juliette Kayyem Fears Second Assassination Attempt of Trump Will Help His Campaign

Daily Wire: CNN’s Juliette Kayyem lamented the possibility that former President Donald Trump could benefit politically after a second assassination attempt over the weekend, calling the situation a “problem” and “unfortunate” (Daily Wire). Curtis Houck: CNN’s Juliette Kayyem laments this second Trump assassination attempt “could have impacted voters” and “will be used for political purposes” and that’s “exceptionally unfortunate” (X).

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Promises to Conduct an Independent Investigation Into the Second Assassination Attempt of Donald Trump

Fox News: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Sunday that his state will conduct a separate investigation into how a second gunman was able to get within 500 yards of former President Trump. The former president was playing a round at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, when the U.S. Secret Service opened fire on Ryan Wesley Routh, who was allegedly armed with a rifle. Authorities said Routh had a GoPro camera and two backpacks, and allegedly shoved the muzzle of his rifle through a chain-linked fence about 300 to 500 yards away from the former president. The agents fired at Routh after they saw him raising the weapon, Fox News’ Lucas Tomlinson confirmed. Routh then fled in a black Nissan but was apprehended quickly, authorities said (Fox News). Ron DeSantis: The State of Florida will be conducting its own investigation regarding the attempted assassination at Trump International Golf Club. 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 (X).

Trump’s Would-Be Assassin Wrote Book Advocating for Assassinating Trump in 2023

Post Millennial: Ryan Wesley Routh, the man under investigation for a second assassination attempt on Donald Trump on Sunday, wrote a book with his fiancé about how Ukraine must win the “unwinnable war” against Russia in which he discussed Donald Trump being assassinated. The book was published last year… Routh wrote of Trump in the book with disparaging terms and supported the assassination of the now-GOP nominee. “I must take part of the blame for the retarded child that we elected for our next president that ended up being brainless, but I am man enough to say that I misjudged and made a terrible mistake and Iran I apologize,” he wrote. “You are free to assassinate Trump as well as me,” he continued, “for that error in judgment and the dismantling of the deal. No one here in the US seems to have the balls to put natural selection to work or even unnatural selection” (Post Millennial). Andy Ngo: Ryan W. Routh, the Ukraine foreign fighter recruiter and Never Trumper accused of nearly assassinating Trump, wrote a book/manifesto in 2023 where he discussed Trump being assassinated. Trump is mentioned repeatedly in the book in disparaging terms. Routh was furious that Trump ripped up Barack Obama and John Kerry’s Iran nuclear deal. He apologizes to Iran and says they are justified in wanting to assassinate Trump. (Intelligence officials recently said they have intel that Iran plotted to kill Trump.) Routh was also angry about Trump’s role in Jan. 6 (X).

Whistleblower Report Reveals Secret Service Agent in Charge of Trump’s Butler Rally “was known to be incompetent”

New York Post: The Secret Service agent in charge of former President Donald Trump’s July 13 rally in Butler, Pa., “was known to be incompetent” and “failed a key examination during their federal law enforcement training,” according to new whistleblower allegations released by a Republican lawmaker. The unidentified agent was one of several Secret Service officials sidelined after catastrophic security failures led to would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, killing rallygoer Corey Comperatore, 50, wounding Trump, 78, and critically injuring rally attendees. Whistleblowers alleged that the agent placed “flags around the Butler stage and catwalk, impairing visibility” — despite such items being “typically prohibited because of how they affected the line-of-sight of those agents responsible for identifying threats,” a 21-page report unveiled Monday by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) shows. The allegations also note that Secret Service intelligence units “were absent from the Butler rally,” which would have “mitigated” the communication breakdown that occurred just minutes before Trump took the main stage and was struck by a would-be assassin’s bullet (New York Post). Daily Signal: Hawley also found that the hospital where Trump was treated was poorly secured. His report states that the hospital site agent failed to answer basic questions regarding site security. The report further highlights that neither the Secret Service, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, nor the department itself, provided answers about who made the decisions to deny counter sniper coverage to the rooftop where the Pennsylvania shooter shot Trump. They also did not answer questions about reports that the Secret Service denied the Trump campaign the protection resources it requested (Daily Signal).

Kamala Harris Adopts Another Trump Policy

Townhall: Vice President Kamala Harris is being accused of copying another economic policy from her GOP opponent. Kevin Hassett, a former senior adviser to Trump and chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, told PBS’s Margaret Hoover that Harris took a page from “Trump’s playbook” when she proposed a $50,000 small business tax credit… So that policy, the small business deduction, it’s $5,000 in the law now. And in 2018, President Trump and the Republicans wanted to expand the deduction to $20,000. It actually passed the House with very little Democratic support. And so, you know, Republicans are on the record as saying that there should be a bigger deduction for the start of a small business. And so this is an example of her reaching into Donald Trump’s playbook and taking one of his policies (Townhall). Daily Wire: He added that it was not clear at all what her economic agenda was, but that a lot of what she has proposed is “very extreme” (Daily Wire).

U.S. Government to Pay $1 Trillion in Interest Payments on Debt

Hill: The federal government has paid north of $1 trillion in gross interest payments on its debt for fiscal 2024 as the national debt continues to climb. The Treasury Department said in a recent statement that the U.S. paid about $1.05 trillion in gross interest on treasury debt securities in the current fiscal year. The figure is estimated to reach roughly $1.16 trillion in the 12-month period ending Sept. 30 (Hill). Richard Stern: We’ve now topped $1 trillion in federal interest payments – much more than we spend on the military – and the fiscal year isn’t even over yet… Well over $8,000 per household just in interest each year! This is the debt death spiral we’ve been warning about (X).

Gavin Newsom Against Proposed Tough-on-Crime Bill in CA

ABC: Proposition 36 on the November ballot has divided California lawmakers, including many Democrats. It would essentially unwind Prop. 47, which passed 10 years ago and made some theft and drug crimes misdemeanors instead of felonies. According to the governor’s office, Prop. 47 has saved taxpayers over $816 million through reduced incarceration costs. Gov. Gavin Newsom says the Prop. 36 campaign is misleading. Prop. 36 would reclassify some misdemeanor theft and drug crimes as felonies, creating a new category of crime called “treatment-mandated felony” where the person charged could go into treatment instead of prison. If treatment isn’t completed, the person would face up to three years in prison. Prop. 36 sponsors call it a reform, not a repeal, of Prop. 47 (ABC). Politico: At a moment when even many Democratic politicians and left-of-center voters are increasingly focused on fighting crime, Newsom is insisting that the initiative goes too far in returning to an era when American law enforcement emphasized imprisonment over rehabilitation (Politico).

Boeing Puts Freeze on Hiring in Cost Saving Measures Amid Mass Strike

33,000 are walking out of work. Wall Street Journal: Boeing said it would freeze hiring and delay pay increases for its salaried workforce as the jet maker grapples with financial fallout from a strike launched Friday by its largest union. The company announced the cost-saving measures in a memo to staff on Monday and said it would also cut back orders from suppliers for its 737, 767 and 777 jets. The memo said Boeing was also considering temporary furloughs for employees and executives. A strike could cost the manufacturer some $500 million a week, according to one analyst estimate. Among the other changes announced Monday, the company is eliminating all first and business-class air travel, including for executives. It is also pausing spending on outside consultants and temporarily releasing nonessential contractors (Wall Street Journal). CNBC: On Friday, Moody’s put all of Boeing’s credit ratings on review for a downgrade and Fitch Ratings said a prolonged strike could put Boeing at risk of a downgrade. That could drive up the borrowing costs of a manufacturer that already has mounting debt. Boeing burned about $8 billion in the first half of the year as production slowed in the wake of a near-catastrophic door-panel blowout at the start of the year (CNBC).

10.

Young People on Why They Don’t Want Children

Los Angeles Times: The kid question. It comes up over and over again in the form of family questions and expectations. It arises in conversations with peers, partners and new dates. It appears in the quiet times, sitting in the spaces where our wildest hopes and deepest fears collide. American society feels more socially and politically polarized than ever. Is it right to bring another person into that? In 2021 and 2022, I conducted a series of interviews on this topic with millennials and members of Generation Z, all of them people of color. Some grew up in low-income families and neighborhoods while others were from the middle- or upper-middle class… Melanie’s feelings about climate change include a general sense of powerlessness and lack of control over other people’s actions, which directly translates into her fears about parenthood: “With climate change, we’re the driving force of things breaking down, but then also, the planet’s going to do what the planet’s going to do. … So … it almost feels, like, kind of shameful to want to have children” (Los Angeles Times).