(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) Ryan Wesley Routh, the 58-year-old suspect in the second assassination attempt of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump was identified by news sources and social-media sleuths as a former Democrat voter while living in Greensboro, N.C.
Records also showed that Routh donated to President Joe Biden and to the crowdfunding aggregate ActBlue.
Trump was about 300-500 yards away, on hole 5 when Secret Service sweeping the area noticed a gun muzzle poking through a chain-link fence obscured by bushes and promptly opened fire.
Photos from a bystander that showed Routh fleeing the scene in his black SUV, including the license plate, allowed Martin County law enforcement officials to quickly apprehend Routh, who had an AK-style rifle, backpacks containing ceramic tiles and GoPro camera among the items confiscated.
Although other details about Routh were continuing to develop, he appears to have lived in multiple states over the past few years, including North Carolina, Hawaii and Kansas. His social media identified him most recently as the owner of Camp Box Honolulu, which was unavailable on Sunday night.
He has a criminal history that includes possession of stolen goods, concealed weapons and possession of weapons of mass destruction, resisting arrest and multiple traffic charges.
Posts on Routh’s own social media suggested he was a staunch Ukraine loyalist.
Speculation abounded following the first assassination attempt on Trump, just over two months ago, that the shooter, 21-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, may have had an indirect connection to Ukraine after several pieces of circumstantial evidence linked Crooks to the multitrillion-dollar BlackRock hedge fund.
BlackRock, which also maintains close ties to the Biden White House and, in particular, the National Security Council, was tapped as the primary private organization to oversee the postwar rebuilding of Ukraine.
Trump has made clear that he intends to end the war between Ukraine and Russia through forced negotiation, which he said could take place even before he was inaugurated for his second term if re-elected.
His selection of Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, a staunch Ukraine war skeptic, over sympathizers like North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum was seen as underscoring his stance against the fighting, which has cost hundreds of billions of dollars and U.S. military equipment despite having no defined objectives or accountability.
By contrast, the selection of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz by current Vice President Kamala Harris was a plus for Ukraine.
“Since the start of the full-scale invasion [in February 2022], Walz has been a vocal advocate for Ukraine in its fight against Russia, signing legislation barring state agencies from doing business with Russian and Belarusian companies,” noted the Kyiv Independent. “His state is also home to weapons manufacturers that supply arms critical for Ukraine’s defense.”
Walz also met personally with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in April 2023.
A congressional report on the July 13 assassination attempt is expected to be released soon, although many of the circumstances remain shrouded in mystery. Headline USA has been granted permission to receive Crooks’s autopsy report.
He was known to have been ostracized in high school and was active in online communities, where he may have been radicalized. He appeared in a BlackRock commercial while attending high school.
EXCLUSIVE:
🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨
Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20 year old shooter who tried assassinating President Donald Trump at his campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania last night, was featured in a BlackRock @BlackRock ad in 2023!
The ad was filmed at Bethel Park High School.… pic.twitter.com/radQ3fDJAR
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) July 14, 2024
BlackRock has also been linked to several other events suspected of trying to influence the outcome of the 2020 and 2024 elections. Although it was not directly linked to Dominion Voting Systems, it was heavily invested in CrowdStrike, a controversial cybersecurity company that has ties to both Ukraine and the Democratic National Committee and is known to have been used with some of Dominion’s voting software.
BREAKING: Reports are coming from Maricopa County, Arizona that Dominion voting machines are malfunctioning county-wide as a result of the CrowdStrike outage. Officials have long claimed that the machines are NEVER connected to the internet… you can laugh at those claims now… pic.twitter.com/t5A6SIImKY
— George (@BehizyTweets) July 19, 2024
Additionally, the July coup to force Biden out of the presidential race in favor of Harris had a BlackRock tie.
One of the two “hatchetmen” who delivered Biden the news that he was being given an ultimatum by party elites was longtime adviser Mike Donilon.
Lots of good nuggets in the full Politico report:
– Steve Richetti & Mike Donilon were the "political hatchetmen" who delivered the message
– Allegedly, they pushed Biden out by telling him the polling data was bleak
– Joe Biden was with Jill Biden & two aides when he made the… pic.twitter.com/NKRaC9eAu9— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) July 22, 2024
He is the brother of Tom Donilon, who was chief of staff in the Clinton State Department and national security adviser under Obama, and who now serves as chairman of the BlackRock Investment Institute.
Tom Donilon has visited the White House multiple times during the Biden administration, although the odds are good those meetings were not simply to do lunch with his brother or to say ‘hi’ to his former National Security Council colleagues.
A separate suspect is expected to be arraigned in a plot to assassinate Trump this week. That suspect, a Pakistani national, is suspected of having been hired as a hitman by Iran.
Ben Sellers is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/realbensellers.
