FBI investigating apparent assassination attempt of Trump in Florida

[Gunny]

Live updates: FBI investigating apparent assassination attempt of Trump in Florida | CNN Politics (https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-harris-election-09-15-24/index.html)

Trump campaign says former president is 'safe following gunshots in his vicinity' (thehill.com) (https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4880877-trump-campaign-safe-gunshots/)


The nature of the incident was not clear, though the Associated Press reported (https://apnews.com/article/trump-shooting-gunshots-florida-f62f8378d3a8ce7b2e99d6a8fb40aba9#https://apnews.com/article/trump-shooting-gunshots-florida-f62f8378d3a8ce7b2e99d6a8fb40aba9) that the Secret Service fired shots at someone seen as a potential threat in his vicinity in Florida.
A man with an AK-style rifle reportedly pushed the firearm’s muzzle through the permitter of the Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach, the AP reported, citing three law enforcement officials.
This prompted Secret Service officials to open fire and the man dropped the weapon and fled the scene in an SUV, the AP added. He was reportedly later apprehended in a neighboring county.
The statement did not provide any further information, and it was not immediately clear if Trump was the target in the shooting. A media briefing by Secret Service and local law enforcement is expected Sunday afternoon.

[Kathianne]

The guy's background, weird:

https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2024/09/15/more-on-the-suspect-in-new-assassination-attempt-n2179362


The Background on the Alleged Suspect in New Trump Assassination Attempt Is Something ElseBy Nick Arama | 10:25 PM on September 15, 2024The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of RedState.com.



Martin County Sheriff's Office via AP
Fox News has reported that the alleged suspect in the second Trump assassination attempt is Ryan Wesley Routh, as we reported earlier.


He allegedly aimed a rifle through the fence on the golf course where Trump was. He was about 300-500 yards away. Law enforcement claimed he had an AK-47 with a scope and and a Go-Pro camera at the fence. He also had a bag with ceramic plates. The Secret Service fired at him and he fled in a black SUV. A citizen saw him and took a picture of his license which the citizen gave to police. The suspect was later caught on the highway by the Martin County Sheriff's Office. Sheriff William Snyder said the suspect was "calm" and not armed when he was stopped. He is now in custody. (Note he didn't ask, 'why are you stopping me?)






Now there's more information about this man and it's concerning.


According to the Sacramento Bee,


[He had a] criminal history in North Carolina that includes convictions between 2002 and 2010 of possession of weapons of mass destruction, carrying a concealed gun, hit and run, possession of stolen goods and resisting law enforcement, among other charges. He’s registered in North Carolina as an unaffiliated voter. In North Carolina, unaffiliated voters can choose which primary they want to vote in. Routh chose Democrats.


The News and Record had a 2002 report about a Ryan Routh who barricaded himself inside United Roofing and then faced charges including having a "weapon of mass destruction" because they said he had a "fully automatic machine gun."


The News & Observer said Routh was interviewed in 2022 by Newsweek Romania and in 2023 by The New York Times for helping to recruit civilian volunteers to help Ukraine fight in the war against Russia.


“If governments won’t send their official military, then we civilians have to pick up the torch and make this happen,” Routh told Newsweek.


You can also see a report on Semafor where they covered Routh in passing and his effort to raise volunteers for Ukraine.


According to the NY Times:


In the interview, Mr. Routh said he was in Washington to meet with the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, known as the Helsinki Commission “for two hours” to help push for more support for Ukraine. The commission is led by members of Congress and staffed by congressional aides. It is influential on matters of democracy and security and has been vocal in supporting Ukraine.


Routh allegedly has also made small donations to Democrats through ActBlue. He purportedly made 19 donations since 2019, including for individual 2020 Democratic presidential primary candidates including former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX), Andrew Yang, Tom Steyer, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). He has not donated to Joe Biden or Kamala Harris.


According to what people have seen of what is believed to be his X account, he was a huge supporter of Ukraine and he's also made a lot of bizarre posts. like this one to Elon Musk.


“I would like to buy a rocket from you. I wish to load it with a warhead for Putin’s Black Sea mansion bunker to end him. Can you give me a price please. It can be old and used as not returning,” Routh wrote


You can see more of what appears to be his X account here. I was looking at it as it went down, so thanks to Billboard Chris for preserving it.


According to the NY Post:


He advised Biden, 81, in an April 22 X post when he was still running for reelection, to run a campaign around keeping “America democratic and free.”


He claimed Trump wants to “make Americans slaves against master.”


“DEMOCRACY is on the ballot and we cannot lose,” he wrote, a similar slogan commonly used by President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.


“We cannot afford to fail,” Routh continued. “The world is counting on us to show the way.”


While he had been in North Carolina, he relocated to Hawaii.


What isn't clear is how he knew Trump would be there at that time at the golf course, since that wasn't on Trump's public schedule. That raises even more questions.

[revelarts]

FBI investigating it. great.
Like they're investigating Epstein clients or the Whitmer kidnapping attempt?
Or is it more like every last soul at the civil war level J6 "insurrection"?

[revelarts]

like you said kath it's weird
The guy was also an extra in a promotional video for the Azov battalion (our neo-nazi battalion allies in Ukraine) put out in 2022.

[Gunny]

The guy's background, weird:

https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2024/09/15/more-on-the-suspect-in-new-assassination-attempt-n2179362

On the surface of what is reported, I don't have a problem with his support for Ukraine, and I can see how an unbalanced person could view Trump as an enemy to that cause. He needs to stick to donations though. His military acumen is suspect, to say the least. A rifle and a Go Pro:rolleyes:

Myopic is what I would call the notion that killing Trump would solve the naive, isolationist problem the right is infected with. His plan, in support of Ukraine, is to galvanize the very people he's working against?

He should have stayed home. He's not good at this :laugh:

[Kathianne]

On the surface of what is reported, I don't have a problem with his support for Ukraine, and I can see how an unbalanced person could view Trump as an enemy to that cause. He needs to stick to donations though. His military acumen is suspect, to say the least. A rifle and a Go Pro:rolleyes:

Myopic is what I would call the notion that killing Trump would solve the naive, isolationist problem the right is infected with. His plan, in support of Ukraine, is to galvanize the very people he's working against?

He should have stayed home. He's not good at this :laugh:

Yeah, using a machine gun or threatening to in NC isn't exactly within normal either.

[Gunny]

Yeah, using a machine gun or threatening to in NC isn't exactly within normal either.I'm having a hard time taking this at face value.

[revelarts]

Seems the guy was also trying to get people to volunteer as soldiers to fight in Taiwan as well.
Via a group he called the "international volunteer center".

U.S. should go to war with Russia and China... at the same time... if we don't we're isolationist... what could go wrong?

[Gunny]

Seems the guy was also trying to get people to volunteer as soldiers to fight in Taiwan as well.
Via a group he called the "international volunteer center".

U.S. should go to war with Russia and China... at the same time... if we don't we're isolationist... what could go wrong?

As usual, it's one extreme or the other. World War or Ostrichville:rolleyes: LOT of room in between.

I read another article on this guy. I'll see if I can find it. This guy is the worst of the worst, from MY front porch. He's trying to rile up all these "volunteers" to go fight in Ukraine. He has been to Ukraine with pics to prove it. Meaning his alligator mouth had EVERY opportunity to volunteer his bumblebee ass and the Ukrainian military never heard of him. Next thing you know he's in FL (long way from his home in HI) doing amateur hour on a golf course.

Even before all that, he was in a standoff with cops with a full-auto weapon and charged with possession of a weapon of mass destruction (that term being debatable as used). Nevertheless, how is it he's on the street, and/or where'd he come by the weapon?

I digress. IIRC my internet message board terminology correctly, this guy is the definition of a chickenhawk. He's all about these wars with zero interest in fighting one. Trying to shoot a civilian from ambush is his speed.

[Gunny]

ABC's version of events for whatever they're worth anymore.

It appears the great chickenhawk recruiting others to go to war had a concealed position and a SKS and the second the agent opened fire he ran without firing a shot. Half-ass pussy:rolleyes:



Gunman didn't have a line of sight on Trump or take a shot: Officials (msn.com) (https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/gunman-didn-t-have-a-line-of-sight-on-trump-or-take-a-shot-officials/ar-AA1qDSzU?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=eeb90823299f48269f77e28ca9c9f87f&ei=16)

[revelarts]

According to a an FBI whistle Blower it seems the head of the investigation here is the same guy that lead the raid at Mar Largo. Agent Jeffrey Veltri.


“This is Mr. Jeffrey Veltri. Before he assumed his post in FBI Miami…he was the Deputy Assistant Director of the Security Division of the FBI. That’s the branch that’s going after the whistleblowers.

When the word came down that he was going to the FBI Miami office, Christopher Wray… said he had to CLEANSE his Facebook account of all the ANTI-TRUMP vitriol that he publicly put out there.”

[Kathianne]

Make of this as you will:

https://hotair.com/david-strom/2024/09/18/this-makes-two-times-iran-linked-assassins-have-been-ignored-by-feds-when-identified-n3794637


This Makes Two Times Iran-Linked Assassins Have Been Ignored By FedsDavid Strom 10:00 AM | September 18, 2024



Guilford County Sheriff’s Office via AP
It's more than a bit disturbing that there are now two known attempts to kill Donald Trump linked to Iran, and in both cases, the federal government was aware of the individuals involved.


In both instances, the federal government was instrumental in letting the plotter into the country from abroad despite the suspect being flagged as a potential threat.


After Thomas Matthew Crooks took his shots at Trump in Butler, PA, we learned that Asif Merchant--a Pakistani with deep ties to Iran--had been arrested for plotting to have Trump assassinated. He was tracked for months as he tried to hire assassins to take out the former president.


He was a known wolf, allowed to roam the country, and had been flagged as a potential terrorist upon entering the country. The TSA interviewed him and was ready to kick him out of the country, but the FBI gave him a special visa, fully aware of his mission to get Americans killed.


Think about that.


The Pakistani national with links to Iran who was arrested for allegedly plotting a political assassination on American soil was admitted into the United States via immigration parole for the "significant public benefit," multiple federal law enforcement sources briefed on the investigation told Fox News.


In April, Asif Merchant, 46, flew into Houston where he encountered U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers. The FBI sponsored his parole for "security interests," the law enforcement sources said.


The FBI had eyes on Merchant before he arrived in the U.S. and needed him to physically enter the country so they could build a case and arrest him. If they arrested him at customs, they would not have been able to gather evidence and information about his plot, the sources said.


He was arrested on July 12th--the day before the assassination attempt in Butler that took the life of one person and wounded three others, including the former president. He wasn't arrested after he tried to hire somebody to kill Trump, but only when he tried to leave the country.


Funny that.




Now we have a second Iran-linked assassin, Ryan Routh, who happened to get within a few hundred yards of the president with a rifle. And it turns out that he, too, had been flagged when entering the country, and the Department of Homeland Security declined to investigate.


Routh had written a book calling on Iran to assassinate Trump.




This makes two Iran-linked plots to kill President Trump, both of which the perpetrators had been flagged by security services, and both of which the Department of Homeland Security or the FBI allowed to go forward unhindered.


Ryan Routh, the suspected Donald Trump assassin, was interviewed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials when he returned from Ukraine last year and flagged for further investigation based on spontaneous comments he made to agents, but the Homeland Security Department declined to act, Just the News has confirmed.


The June 2023 encounter with Routh at the Honolulu airport is confirmed in U.S. border entry records reviewed by Just the News and is latest tale of missed law enforcement opportunities dating 2019 to stop or further investigation the alleged would-be assassin.


In neither case do we have evidence that federal law enforcement officials wanted anything bad to happen, but it is rather surprising to see that assassins linked to Iran somehow entered the country--in one case only with the HELP of federal law enforcement labeling the entry a "significant public benefit"--with the full knowledge that they were dangers to Americans, and specifically Donald Trump.


Routh even gave U.S. agents who interviewed him a business card that portrayed him as the director of a group called the "International Volunteer Center" that also claimed to have contact in Syria, Pakistan and Israel. He also described who had underwritten his efforts to recruit foreigners to assist Kyiv.


“Subject is a USC who had traveled to Kiev, Ukraine for 3 months to help recruit Soldiers from Afghanistan, Moldova, and Taiwan, to fight in the Ukrainian war against Russia,” the CBP interview notes of Routh state.


“Subject stated that he does not get paid for his recruiting efforts and all his work for the Ukrainian government is strictly volunteer work Subject provided his recruiting business card (cards have been uploaded into the event) which list his recruiting partners that he speaks with to recruit soldiers from Afghanistan, Romanian, Pakistan, Syria, and Israel,” the note added. "Subject stated that he obtains money from his wife to help fund his trips to Ukraine."


The memo stated that the Ukraine advocate was referred to Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the lead investigative organ of the Homeland Security Department, but the division declined to pursue the matter.


“HSI was contacted and refused the case,” the interview memo stated.


No doubt, in the case of Routh, the agents on the ground did not know specifically about the threats to Donald Trump, but by the same token, it is also obvious that the Homeland Security officials who declined to investigate the case must have known that Routh had written a book inviting Iran to kill the president and that he was recruiting soldiers from the Middle East to go fight in Iran.


How do we know that? Nobody writes a book suggesting the assassination of the president without it coming to the attention of federal law enforcement, and the details of the book came out within hours of Routh's arrest, so it wasn't exactly hidden.


It is striking, at least to me, that we now have two cases where individuals linked somehow to Iranian plots to assassinate the former President of the United States were let into the country with the prior knowledge of federal law enforcement officials, and there have been two assassination attempts against President Trump.


Is this a coincidence? Perhaps. But it sure LOOKS suspicious, and perhaps federal law enforcement officials shouldn't be the ones investigating that coincidence, given that they, too, should be forced to explain themselves.


We don't know much about Thomas Matthew Crooks' connections to Iran or the lack thereof because the feds have revealed remarkably little about him or the attempt yet.


But a third-party investigation is warranted. Don't be surprised, though, if we don't get a thorough one. The results would be, at the very least, embarrassing to the FBI and Homeland Security.

[Gunny]

Make of this as you will:

https://hotair.com/david-strom/2024/09/18/this-makes-two-times-iran-linked-assassins-have-been-ignored-by-feds-when-identified-n3794637I don't really have an opinion yet on this. Other than what I've already said.

Seems to me what isn't being mentioned by the head hunters is security worked exactly like it was supposed to in the Routh case. I'm not sure what else anyone thinks is supposed to happen. I'm surprised the idiots on the left haven't cried about the agent shooting at an unidentified target in the brush:rolleyes:

But then, we don't have to guess too hard why all the bureaucrats are wailing and gnashing teeth and it sure as Hell isn't out of any concern for Trump. They're worrying about their own asses. Just the same as Jan 6th was some kind of mortal sin as opposed to far more costly leftwingnut riots conducted "elsewhere". But when it's THEM? Oh Hell no. Suddenly there's a problem. It is in ALL their best interest that Secret Service/FBI function properly.

Decisions, decisions:rolleyes: Do we fund the IRS to a manpower level that exceeds the marine Corps' to get us more taxpayer dollars to waste? Or do we fund for more personal security since half of the idiots want to defund police anyway?

The system has been neglected at all levels, with conflicting priorities to the point that it is breaking down.

I don't want to see anyone get killed, but this is that big, fat, toady bureaucracy's own doing.

So much for no opinion:laugh:

[Kathianne]

I don't really have an opinion yet on this. Other than what I've already said.

Seems to me what isn't being mentioned by the head hunters is security worked exactly like it was supposed to in the Routh case. I'm not sure what else anyone thinks is supposed to happen. I'm surprised the idiots on the left haven't cried about the agent shooting at an unidentified target in the brush:rolleyes:

But then, we don't have to guess too hard why all the bureaucrats are wailing and gnashing teeth and it sure as Hell isn't out of any concern for Trump. They're worrying about their own asses. Just the same as Jan 6th was some kind of mortal sin as opposed to far more costly leftwingnut riots conducted "elsewhere". But when it's THEM? Oh Hell no. Suddenly there's a problem. It is in ALL their best interest that Secret Service/FBI function properly.

Decisions, decisions:rolleyes: Do we fund the IRS to a manpower level that exceeds the marine Corps' to get us more taxpayer dollars to waste? Or do we fund for more personal security since half of the idiots want to defund police anyway?

The system has been neglected at all levels, with conflicting priorities to the point that it is breaking down.

I don't want to see anyone get killed, but this is that big, fat, toady bureaucracy's own doing.

So much for no opinion:laugh:

I think the point here is that there seems some complicity between perhaps Iranian sympathizers and a relaxes security apparatus Regarding decision making.