Former President Donald Trump on Monday claimed the Harris-Biden administration is “mishandling and downplaying” the second assassination attempt this year.
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, the suspect who ambushed the 45th president on a Florida golf course, was ordered held without bail by a federal judge in West Palm Beach on Monday.
Routh was initially charged with criminal possession of a firearm while a convicted felon for possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number, but federal prosecutors indicated Monday that he will be charged with a more serious offense.
“BREAKING: The Kamala Harris/Joe Biden Department of Justice and the FBI are mishandling and downplaying the second assassination attempt on my life since July. These are light charges against a deranged assassin,” Trump said in a statement shortly after Routh was ordered held in pretrial detention.
“It's no wonder, given that the Department of Justice and the FBI have relentlessly pursued me with weaponized legal actions since I first announced my historic campaign for President.”
Investigators say Routh fled from an improvised sniper nest on the sixth hole at Trump International Golf Club West Palm Beach after a Secret Service agent on advance patrol spotted Routh's gun and opened fire — without firing a shot at the 78-year-old Republican candidate.
Trump was also shot in the right ear by gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. Crooks, 20, stood on a roof opposite the outdoor rally stage and aimed at the former president, firing eight shots at him before being shot dead by a Secret Service counter-sniper.
“Russia, Russia, Russia, Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine, Iran, Iran, Iran, Impeachment Hoax No. 1, Impeachment Hoax No. 2, the lawless document hoax brought after the illegal and unconstitutional raid on my home (I am suing the Department of Justice for misconduct), to the January 6th hoax in Washington DC. [sic]”From the J6 Non-Elected Committee illegally deleting and destroying all documents, to the Manhattan District Attorney's Zombie Affair, the NYS Attorney General fraud, the illegal spying on my campaign, to the censorship of the hellish Hunter Biden laptop that was criminally led by 51 fake intelligence officials and claimed to be 'Russian interference and disinformation' but the laptop was actually Hunter Biden and not Russia and exposed decades of fraud by Bad Joe and his family and many lawless and extreme attacks on our political opponents in the ME,” the former president raged.
“The DOJ and FBI have a conflict of interest because they have long been obsessed with 'getting Trump'. Election interference, the bogus lawsuit against me, and their control over District Attorneys and Attorneys General make it very hard to trust the Biden/Harris DOJ/FBI to investigate an assassination attempt,” Trump continued.
The 45th president also slammed FBI Director Christopher Wray for speaking to Congress and casting doubt on whether a bullet had originally struck Trump in Butler.
“His comments were disgraceful and he was forced to immediately retract them, especially since they were witnessed live by millions of people,” Trump said of Wray.
The former president then praised Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for ordering an investigation into the assassination attempt on Routh.
“If the Department of Justice and the FBI cannot do their jobs honestly and without bias, and hold those plotting this assassin accountable to the fullest extent of the law, Governor Ron DeSantis and the State of Florida have already agreed to lead the investigation and prosecution,” Trump wrote.
“The charges in Florida will be far more severe than those announced by the FBI. The truth will be pursued wherever it leads. Our justice system is corrupt and discredited, especially when it comes to the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump. Let's leave this case to the State of Florida!”
