Sept. 16 (UPI) — Authorities on Monday charged a 58-year-old suspect with two gun charges in Florida in a second assassination attempt on Donald Trump, as the former president blamed Democrats’ “highly inflammatory language” for him being “shot at.”
In an interview one day after he was rushed off the golf course at Trump International in West Palm Beach, Trump said Monday he believed Democrats’ taking his words out of context and calling him a “threat to democracy” were to blame for the gunman’s actions.
“He believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris, and he acted on it,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News Digital. “Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country — both from the inside and out.”
“These are people who want to destroy our country,” Trump added. “It is called the enemy from within. They are the real threat.”
Later, Trump spoke by phone with President Joe Biden, according to the White House, before returning to the campaign trail and a town hall in Michigan.
“President Biden just spoke with former President Trump, and conveyed relief that he is safe. The two shared a cordial conversation and former President Trump expressed his thanks for the call,” White House spokesperson Emilie Simons wrote Monday in a post on X.
“We had a very nice call. It was about Secret Service protection,” Trump revealed in a statement to CNN.
Earlier Monday, Ryan Wesley Routh made his initial court appearance in U.S. District Court In front of Magistrate Ryon McCabe where he was charged with one count of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person and one count of possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
Routh was represented by a public defender and was scheduled to appear again for a bond hearing on Sept. 23.
The FBI said it is “still exploring” whether Routh acted alone.
“Our investigation will determine that,” Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey B. Veltri of the FBI Miami Field Office told reporters in a news conference Monday.
Routh was arrested by U.S. Secret Service on Sunday after agents fired on a suspect at the Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Fla.
The Republican presidential nominee was shooting a round of golf when agents engaged a suspect with gunfire a hole away. An agent saw a rifle with a scope in the bushes before firing. Authorities found a rifle, two backpacks and a GoPro camera at the scene.
“What we did yesterday proves that the system can work because the suspect didn’t even get close to getting a round off and we apprehended him and brought him to justice,” Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw told reporters Monday.
Routh was arrested by Martin County Sheriff’s Office after his vehicle was spotted some 50 miles away from the scene.
The sheriff’s office shared bodycam video of the arrest on Monday afternoon.
According to investigators, Routh depicted himself on social media as a globe-trotting freedom fighter.
Prosecutors will assert Routh as a flight risk while asking for pre-trial detention. After his bond hearing, he will return to court again for a probable cause hearing on Sept. 30.
Bradshaw said Trump called him Sunday night to thank him for everything law enforcement did with the Secret Service to protect him.
“He knows we worked great together and he feels safe — that’s important because he is. And what we did yesterday proves that the system can work,” Bradshaw said. “Because the suspect didn’t even get close to getting a round off and we apprehended him, and brought him to justice. So we’re very, very proud of that.”
This is the second assassination attempt on Trump after he was clipped in the ear by a bullet while speaking at an outdoor rally on July 13, in Butler, Pa. One supporter was killed in the shooting and several others were injured. The alleged gunman, who was perched on a nearby rooftop, was killed by Secret Service.
In the meantime, the leaders of the Congressional task force monitoring the earlier attempted assassination of Trump said they will also investigate what happened on Sunday.
“The task force is monitoring this attempted assassination of former President Trump in West Palm Beach this afternoon,” Reps. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., and Jason Crow, D-Colo., said in a statement. “We have requested a briefing with the U.S. Secret Service about what happened and how security responded.”
On Monday, the acting director of the Secret Service said “there’s not much difference” between Trump’s security at Mar-a-Lago now and when he was in office in 2017, adding that the suspect “did not have line of sight” on Trump.
Ronald Rowe Jr. told reporters Monday that there remains a “heavy uniformed presence” around Trump and that the former president’s round of golf on Sunday had not been scheduled, calling it an “off-the-record movement.”
Rowe said, “We put together a security plan, and that security plan worked.”
