On Politics: Updates on the apparent Trump assassination attempt
What we know about the accused gunmanThe latest, with 50 days to go
The F.B.I. continues to investigate an apparent attempt to assassinate Donald Trump on Sunday at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Fla. Today's newsletter rounds up what we've learned so far about the suspect and the charges against him, how the episode unfolded and how Trump and others are reacting. The suspectRyan W. Routh, identified by the authorities as the gunman, wore a blue inmate jumpsuit on Monday to his first court appearance in Florida, less than 24 hours after his arrest. He was charged with two federal gun crimes: possessing a firearm as a felon and possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number, which together carry prison sentences of up to 20 years. Routh, a 58-year-old former roofing contractor, has a criminal record. According to court documents, he was convicted of a felony in 2002 for "possessing a weapon of mass death and destruction." A North Carolina newspaper reported at the time that Routh had barricaded himself inside a building with an automatic weapon. The F.B.I. investigated him in 2019 based on a tip that he had a firearm despite being a felon, an official said yesterday, but closed the case after it didn't receive any more information. The semiautomatic rifle Routh is accused of carrying at Trump's golf club on Sunday, which the authorities recovered at the scene, had a partly scratched serial number, making its origins harder to trace. An eight-page federal complaint against Routh says nothing about his potential motive. Routh seems to have spoken positively about candidates in both political parties and described himself online as a disaffected former Trump supporter. In a rambling, 291-page book Routh self-published last year, he accused Trump of threatening American democracy and wrote "you are free to assassinate Trump." Routh told The Times last year that he was willing to fight and die in Ukraine despite appearing in over his head. The Justice Department could also bring additional charges against Routh as it investigates. The incidentAt a news conference and in the federal complaint against Routh, officials gave more details about what happened at Trump's golf course on Sunday. According to the complaint, which you can read here, a Secret Service agent patrolling ahead of Trump — who was golfing with staff members and a friend a few hundred yards away — noticed the barrel of a rifle poking out of the bushes on the edge of the course at around 1:30 p.m. After the agent fired at it, Routh fled in a Nissan S.U.V. with a stolen license plate, which the police stopped about 45 minutes later. Body camera footage released by the sheriff's office in Martin County, Fla., showed multiple officers arresting Routh, whose pink T-shirt was pulled above his head. The complaint says that Routh waited near the tree line of the golf course for about 12 hours before the Secret Service spotted him on Sunday. Routh, who appears to have acted alone, never had Trump in his sightline and did not fire his rifle, the agency's acting director, Ronald Rowe Jr., said. Rowe added that the Secret Service hadn't fully searched the golf course's perimeter because going there wasn't on Trump's official schedule. The responseTrump quickly blamed Vice President Kamala Harris and President Biden for the apparent assassination attempt. Trump told Fox News that the suspect had "acted on" their claims that he threatens democracy, adding, "These are the things that dangerous fools, like the shooter, listen to." He later posted on Truth Social that "because of this Communist Left Rhetoric, the bullets are flying, and it will only get worse!" Trump made similar remarks after an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pa., in July, during which a gunman wounded his right ear. "I probably took a bullet to the head because of the things that they say about me," he said at his debate with Harris last week. Even as Trump argued on Monday that overheated rhetoric had made him a target, he repeated his claim that Democrats "want to destroy our country," calling them "the enemy from within." On his campaign website, a fund-raising appeal said "there are people in this world who will do whatever it takes to stop us." Some of Trump's allies have echoed his accusations. Elon Musk posted and then deleted a comment on X that mused about why nobody had tried to kill Biden or Harris, saying he had meant it as a joke. (The authorities have accused multiple people of threatening Biden and Harris.) Biden, speaking in Philadelphia about the apparent assassination attempt, condemned political violence. "In America, we resolve our difference peacefully at the ballot box, not at the end of a gun," he said. What's nextThe latest episode has increased the already intense scrutiny on the Secret Service, which in just over two months has twice allowed gunmen to get close to Trump. Biden ordered additional Secret Service protection for Trump after the earlier assassination attempt against him, which the agency's acting director credited with protecting Trump on Sunday. Some members of Congress are now calling for Trump to receive the same level of security that sitting presidents and vice presidents are afforded. Biden appeared to endorse additional resources for the agency on Monday, saying that "the Service needs more help." The agency plans to conduct a review of the latest development. So far, though, the apparent assassination attempt hasn't changed Trump's campaign schedule. He's set to hold an event tomorrow with Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas in Flint, Mich.
Fracking is not, actually, the biggest issue in PennsylvaniaIf you watched the Harris-Trump debate in Philadelphia last week, you probably heard a lot about fracking. The term, short for hydraulic fracturing, refers to extracting natural gas by pumping pressurized water, sand and chemicals into underground shale formations. Trump, who has pledged to "drill, baby, drill" in a second term, supports fracking; Harris, who once proposed banning it over environmental and health concerns, says she no longer would. Both candidates treat fracking as important in part because it's used in Pennsylvania, a key swing state. But as my colleague Rebecca Elliott explains in a new story, the real issue for many voters there isn't producing more natural gas; it's raising the price of that gas, which has collapsed over the past two years and cost the state thousands of jobs. Solving Pennsylvania's gas glut would require building pipelines to transport it to new markets in New England and the Gulf Coast, an issue neither candidate has talked about much. As Matt Kurzejewski, who runs a natural gas company in northern Pennsylvania, told Rebecca, "Drill, baby, drill is not the answer." Read past editions of the newsletter here. If you're enjoying what you're reading, please consider recommending it to others. They can sign up here. Have feedback? Ideas for coverage? We'd love to hear from you. Email us at onpolitics@nytimes.com.
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