Secret Service agents disrupted the second assassination attempt on Donald Trump’s life in two months, but difficult questions remain on how a would-be assassin with an AK-47 rifle got within 500 yards of the former president while he was golfing and why anti-Trump vitriol in America rages on.
The Sunday incident at Trump’s golf course near Mar-A-Lago drew new calls for civility and repudiations of political violence as authorities announced they had arrested a 58-year-old man who reportedly took a deep interest in the Ukraine war.
The episode also sparked new calls for investigations into the ability of the Secret Service to protect candidates, from Congress to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“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,” DeSantis said.
Congress is already investigating significant Secret Service lapses that led to the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Pa. House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green said Sunday night the new episode in Florida would also have to be investigated.
The FBI and the Secret Service said they are investigating the incident as an assassination attempt on Trump.
Authorities had not officially identified the suspect by late Sunday evening but multiple news agencies reported that law enforcement sources identified the man as Ryan Wesley Routh, 58.
Routh reportedly lived in North Carolina for most of his life before moving to Kaaawa, Hawaii, in 2018 and he and his son operated a company building sheds, the Associated Press reported.