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John:
Good afternoon from Capitol Hill.
And here we are, a second time in as many months: another assassination attempt on President Trump. A shooter targeted Donald Trump at his West Palm Beach golf club on Sunday, pointing a rifle in the vicinity of the former president who was playing golf a few hundred yards away. The U.S. Secret Service fired on the man, reportedly identified as Ryan Wesley Routh, who fled the scene but was later arrested.
Trump is safe and there were no injuries. But the paramount question remains: how on earth did this happen again?
Information has emerged revealing Ryan Routh to be someone with a lengthy police record and an obsession with the war in Ukraine – which included travel to Kiev and efforts to recruit volunteers to fight there. He also gave interviews to the news site Semafor and the New York Times about his efforts, with both outlets apparently deeming him credible enough to quote.
In 2023, he told the New York Times he was in Washington to meet with the Helsinki Commission and met with them “‘for two hours’ to help push more support for Ukraine.” The Helsinki Commission is led by members of Congress and staffed by congressional aides, raising the possibility that Routh met with and was assisted by members of Congress.
The corporate media, for their part, is twisting themselves into pretzels trying to paint Routh as a Trump supporter or someone with “unclear” political ideology (despite his political giving trending to the left in recent years), and – unbelievably – blaming Trump’s rhetoric for the second attempt on his life.
Lester Holt of NBC News spoke of the assassination attempt in the context of “increasingly fierce rhetoric on the campaign trail” from Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance, before trying to link their comments about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, to a recent bomb threat. This comes after the last few weeks of the media complaining that Trump was still talking about nearly being shot two months ago.
There is only one word for this type of equivalence drawing and “he deserved it” rhetoric about a repeated assassination attempt on a US presidential candidate: demented. And we don’t need to know anything about Ryan Routh’s social media history or political donations to understand his motivation: he wanted Trump dead. The condemnations of Routh should be swift and severe.
Most importantly, the Secret Service must answer for the multiplying attempts on Trump’s life when he is under their protection. According to reports, Routh was able to scout the location for 12 hours before he attempted to shoot the former president. How did he know Trump would be there? And how did no one see him? Congress has demanded briefings. But according to a new report issued by Sen. Josh Hawley based on Secret Service whistleblower testimony, the rot runs deep. This isn’t just an issue of funding, it’s one of competence and leadership.
Meanwhile, back on Capitol Hill, there has still been no resolution to the rapidly approaching government funding deadline. House Speaker Mike Johnson is pressing ahead with his plan to pass a short-term Continuing Resolution into next year with the SAVE Act attached (the SAVE Act requires proof of citizenship before voting). He faces opposition from within his own conference, and the outcome of the vote, scheduled for late Wednesday, remains unclear. Senate Republicans, ever helpful, are already planning for the House effort to fail.
In fact, days after a second attempt on the life of their presidential candidate, two weeks before the government funding deadline hits, and amidst the efforts of the House colleagues to preserve the sanctity of federal elections, all the Senate Republicans can do is talk about raising American taxes to fund the war in Ukraine. Now that’s what I call being in touch with the rest of the country.
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One More Thing…
Last week we teased the new documentary, Fearless at the Point of Attack: The Jeff Clark Story. You can now watch the full episode here.
Sincerely,
Rachel Bovard
Vice President of Programs
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