Dem
49
GOP
51
Yesterday was Sunday, which means, of course, that Donald Trump was in church. Oops, wait, no. Sorry, Sunday is his golfing day. Along with Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Anyhow, during yesterday's round, the Secret Service was conducting its usual sweep of the holes that Trump was about to play (specifically, the sixth and seventh holes on one of the Trump International Golf Club courses), and an agent saw a gun barrel poking out from some bushes along the perimeter of the course. One or more agents fired their weapons in the direction of the gun barrel, and the suspect dropped a bunch of his stuff (including the camera he was using to record his activities) and ran for it.
The would-be shooter, in part because he left a bunch of his possessions behind, was identified and apprehended fairly quickly. He is 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh. He's got a fairly long history of petty crime and, according to his social media accounts, he voted for Trump in 2016. However, Routh is also strongly pro-Ukraine, and so apparently turned against the former president on that basis. That said, while there may have been a vague political agenda here, the presence of the camera suggests it was also another "look at me!" incident, like the first assassination attempt.
It's not clear if the shooter actually got any shots off. If he did, he was far away from Trump at the time (300-500 yards) and Trump was not in danger, and certainly was not struck or grazed. So there will be no opportunities for dramatic photos or bandaged ears or anything like that. Meanwhile, given that the shooter was apparently a Trumper, and apparently was not a Democrat, that angle is not available for Trump and his acolytes to carp upon. In short, the first assassination attempt did not move the needle, despite much greater potential to do so, so we don't see how the second one will have any meaningful impact on the presidential race. (Z)