Following the second assassination attempt, former President Trump praised Secret Service agents for their quick response after discovering the suspect at his golf club over the weekend, and contrasted it with the first incident in July, when a bullet grazed his ear.
“And in this particular case, we had very competent agents who did a fantastic job,” Trump said. Tuesday Night In an interview on Fox News' “Hannity.”
“But somebody could have missed the barrel of that rifle,” he told host Sean Hannity. “Someone less talented or less distracted could have missed and he could have been shot. Frankly, he could have been shot.”
Trump said the incident at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, “went very well,” but that the incident at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, earlier this summer where a gunman killed one attendee and wounded two before being shot down by Secret Service agents, was “a whole different story.”
“What happened with Butler is a whole other story,” Trump said. “Someone was in that building. That's a whole other story. But they also acted incredibly well. They were very brave. There were bullets flying and they were trying to protect me.”
The would-be assassin, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, took up position on the roof of a building near the July rally and began firing. Secret Service agents quickly surrounded the Republican candidate and shot him dead.
Though Trump initially praised Secret Service agents for “doing a great job” protecting him, the agency came under heavy criticism for failing to secure the area, and Kimberly Cheatle, then-Acting Director of the Secret Service, was called to testify before Congress, but gave such damning testimony that she resigned in late July.
The latest assassination threat came on Sunday, when Secret Service agents spotted a man they believed to be carrying a rifle on the perimeter of a golf course. Agents fired at the suspect, who dropped the gun and ran before firing his own gun.
Authorities found two bags, a scoped rifle with ammunition and other items at the scene.
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was subsequently arrested and charged Tuesday with two federal firearms offenses related to unlawful possession of a weapon as a convicted felon and using a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
The federal investigation into the incident is ongoing and more charges may be filed, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (Republican) said Tuesday he was opening his own state criminal investigation into the assassination attempt.
