Donald Trump assassination attempt live updates: Biden makes surprise Secret Service admission
The fallout of the second assassination attempt on Donald Trump in two months continues today as questions mount over how a gunman was able to get within 500 yards of the former president.
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, is in custody in West Palm Beach, Florida, after pointing an AK-47 at the Republican nominee during a round of golf.
Law enforcement and the Secret Service are now investigating how he knew Trump was playing golf – even though it wasn’t on his public schedule.
President Joe Biden admitted on Monday that the Secret Service ‘needs help’ and hinted more resources should be made available.
An agent who was on Trump’s detail engaged with Routh after he saw his rifle muzzle poke through a hole in the fence, towards the fairway.
President Biden says ‘thank god’ Trump is ok after assassination attempt
President Biden departing the White House commented on the second assassination attempt made on Donald Trump.
Before departing on Marine One, Biden said ‘thank god the president is ok.’
He also said the one thing he want to make clear is ‘the Secret Service needs more help’ and he thinks ‘Congress should respond to their needs.’
Biden said the Secret Service is deciding whether they need more personnel.
The comments were Biden’s first public remarks on the shooting.
In a statement on Sunday, the president commended the work of the Secret Service and law enforcement and said he was ‘relieved that the former President is unharmed.’
‘As I have said many times, there is no place for political violence or for any violence ever in our country,’ Biden continued in his statement.
How did shooting suspect Wesley Ryan Routh know Donald Trump was golfing at his Florida course?
As multiple investigations open into the second assassination bid on Donald Trump’s life in just two months, one major question is lingering: How did the shooter know the former president was playing golf?
It’s not shocking that Trump, an avid golfer, was on his course in West Palm Beach, Florida on Sunday.
But it has raised eyebrows that the gunman knew the time and place where the Republican 2024 presidential nominee would be.
Law enforcement have suspect Wesley Ryan Routh, 58, in custody after he fled the scene when a Secret Service agent opened fire when they spotted the barrel of his AK-47 style rifle poking out of the shrubbery of Trump International Golf Club on Sunday.
Some analysts note it’s obvious when Trump is present at his golf club, which is only five miles from his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach. The president will travel to the course via motorcade and security presence is massively ramped up when he is on site.
Routh moved from North Carolina to Hawaii a few years ago and is a construction worker.
It’s unclear how long Routh was in Florida before he went to Trump’s golf course with a rifle, backpack, GoPro camera and bulletproof ceramic-layered body armor – all left behind at the scene when he fled from the security detail’s gunfire.
A truck in the driveway of Routh’s home in Hawaii has a Biden-Harris bumper sticker
