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 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.
