(Headline USA) Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Sunday that his state would be conducting its own investigation into the second assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.
“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 in a post on X.
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…
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) September 16, 2024
Secret Service opened fire on Ryan Wesley Routh around 1:30 p.m. Sunday after noticing the muzzle of his rifle protruding from a fence within sniper range of where Trump was golfing.
A bystander was able to get photos of Routh fleeing in his SUV. He was apprehended after a short pursuit on Interstate 95, and has since been hit with several federal charges.
Several questions have been raised about Trump’s security detail in the wake of the attack, including whether he is properly staffed given the threats against him.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw admitted that Secret Service details Trump as a “former president,” but not as a “sitting president,” which means they do not always conduct full perimeter sweeps.
Others have expressed concern over how Routh knew Trump would be golfing at the club on Sunday afternoon, since the former president’s schedule is not publicly available. He reportedly was staking out the Trump International Golf Club, not far from the president’s residence at Mar-a-Lago, for about 12 hours.
In a statement on Monday, Trump thanked his Secret Service protection but blasted Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden for constantly using “highly inflammatory language” about his campaign.
“He believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris, and he acted on it,” Trump said of Routh. “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.”
