Fox News host Jesse Watters in disbelief after learning how many times Secret Service shot and missed would-be Trump assassin

The US Secret Service was unable to neutralize a threat to Donald Trump from just five feet away, according to a new report.

An officer fired at least six shots at Ryan Wesley Routh in West Palm Beach, Florida, in September but was unable to hit the target before fleeing, according to the House Assassination Task Force’s 180-page report.

Fox News host Jesse Watters expressed his outrage Wednesday evening over the latest revelation on his hit show.

“He was only five feet away and he missed [Routh] not once, not twice, but six times,” Watters exclaimed.

‘He missed it six times, from one and a half meters. How does a trained officer who has passed the firearms test miss a target five feet away?” he asked.

The report claimed that the deadly shooting at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13 “was preventable and should not have happened.”

But the report also included new details about the second thwarted attempt on Trump’s life at his Doral golf course.

“According to the report, the Secret Service discovered at 1:30 a.m. that Trump was supposed to be golfing that day,” Watters said of the West Palm Beach incident. “But they didn’t secure the track, so Routh was able to camp for 12 hours before anyone saw him.”

Routh appeared in court Wednesday and his legal team is using the insanity defense.

“How convenient,” Watters said, skeptical of the proposed defense.

The report notes, “The officer first noticed the suspect, later identified as Ryan Wesley Routh, and then noticed the barrel of Routh’s gun protruding through the fence. The special agent, who may have been within five feet of Routh, immediately responded by firing shots at the suspect. It is believed a total of six shots were fired; however, final ballistics data are dependent on an ongoing FBI investigation.”

So it is not decisive that the distance or shots are as detailed as indicated by the panel.

If true, the new details include information about the marksmanship of an officer assigned to the detail of the former president who was then running for another term and who had already been shot just two months earlier.

The report was released just days after the final public meeting last week, where Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe got into a shouting match with Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas).

Rowe acknowledged during the hearing the agency’s “abject failure” in the July shooting.

The panel was established following a vote in the House of Representatives shortly after the first assassination attempt last summer. And a few months later they were asked to look into the second incident as well.

The group concluded that there was no single failure that allowed gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks to shoot Trump, but that there were “several” decisions and moments that created an ideal situation for the assassination attempt.

The Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald Trump has released a series of recommendations that it says will help prevent future incidents.

Members of the task force visited both locations where men attempted to take out the former – and now future – president.

The task force said it conducted 46 interviews and reviewed 18,000 pages of documents.

Crooks, who was 20 when he was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper, killed one protester, wounded two others and was able to hit Trump in the right ear before being neutralized by the former president’s protective detail.

‘[T]The former president – ​​and everyone present at the campaign event – ​​was exposed to grave danger,” the committee wrote.

“Conversely, the events that occurred on September 15, 2024 in West Palm Beach, Florida demonstrated how well-executed protective measures can thwart an attempted murder,” she added.

The bipartisan task force was created to investigate the July 13 attack, which came inches away from ending Trump’s life.

But when a second murder plot was foiled just two months later, on September 15, the panel was also asked to include that incident in its investigation.

While Crooks was able to get just a few hundred yards within range of Trump with a rifle and fire several shots, Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, didn’t even fire a shot before a Secret Service agent opened fire in his direction.

Routh was placed in the bushes outside Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach when he pointed the barrel of his firearm through the fencing and bushes.

An officer surveying the green, a few holes ahead of the then-2024 presidential candidate, saw the range and shot toward the threat. Routh fled the scene, but was captured and taken into custody shortly afterwards.

His firearm, backpacks containing bulletproof material and a GoPro camera were recovered from the spot where he had been camping since the middle of the night.

The Assassination Task Force said the second incident was an example of what the Secret Service should do to best protect their proteges.

While the first assassination attempt was used as an example of how a series of failures can lead to a deadly situation.

The report comes just days after their last hearing, which passed when Rep. Fallon got into a fiery back-and-forth with acting director Rowe.

A passionate shouting match broke out after Fallon struck a nerve when he pressed Rowe about security measures to protect Trump, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris during this year’s September 11 commemoration.

It led to a bitter row between the two men on Thursday during the hearing, which was expected to focus on security concerns surrounding Trump’s protective details.

But the conversation turned to what Fallon viewed as another Secret Service security problem two months after the first attempt — and just days before the second.

Fallon said the agent in charge of the details should have been physically stationed closer to Trump, Biden and Harris when they all attended a September 11 memorial event at Ground Zero.

When asked why the SAIC was out of range, Rowe insisted that he and other members of the team were just out of sight of the statue Fallon blew up during the hearing.

“That’s the day we remember the more than 3,000 people who died on September 11,” Rowe said, starting to raise his voice.

“I actually responded to Ground Zero. I was there going through the ashes of the World Trade Center,” he continued.

When Fallon tried to intervene, Rowe did not back down, causing the congressman to scream.

‘I’m not asking you that. I ask you: were you the special agent in charge?! It wasn’t,” Fallon charged.

“Don’t invoke 9/11 for political purposes, Congressman!” Rowe could be heard shouting over a barrage of crotch shouts.

‘I’m trying to ask a question. Don’t try to bully me!’ Fallon shouted and pointed at the witness.

“You’re going too far, Congressman!” Rowe shot back. ‘Way out of line.’