The presidential campaign continues after a new apparent attempt on Donald Trump ‘s life. Trump was safe after the incident in Florida and praised the Secret Service for protecting him, but he didn’t shy away from blaming his opponents. The Republican candidate claimed without evidence that President Joe Biden and vice president Kamala Harris ‘ remark that poses a threat to democracy was the reason for Sunday’s attempt.
The suspect in the incident, Ryan Wesley Routhcamped outside the golf course in West Palm Beach for nearly 12 hours with food and a gun, according to court documents filed on mondayAdditional and more serious charges are possible as the investigation progresses and prosecutors pursue a grand jury indictment.
Trump is expected to travel to Michigan, while Harris will speak at a forum for black journalists in Pennsylvania.
Here’s the latest news:
Florida police will open a state-level criminal investigation into the alleged attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Tuesday.
DeSantis told reporters that the “suspect is believed to have committed (backslash) violations of state law.” DeSantis’ announcement comes a day after Ryan Routh was charged with federal firearms crimes.
Routh did not fire a single shot, never had Trump in his line of sight and sped away after an officer saw him firing in his direction, officials said. He was arrested in a neighboring county.
Tuesday is National Voter Registration Day, and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, are kicking off a week of action to encourage young voters in swing states to register to vote in the Nov. 5 election.
Walz has events in Macon, Georgia, and Atlanta on Tuesday, followed by a rally in Asheville, North Carolina, while his wife, Gwen, appears in Las Vegas.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and actress Jane Fonda are among a group of prominent Harris supporters who will participate in the registration drive.
More than 130 voter registration events will be held on college campuses — at basketball tournaments, football games and more — in the handful of states where Harris and Walz and former President Donald Trump’s Republican presidential nominee and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, are focusing their campaigns, the Harris-Walz campaign said.
The campaign will also be present at historically black colleges and universities and institutions that serve the Hispanic community, setting up kiosks to help students register, among other things.
While participating in an event on his X social media platform, Trump gave a shoutout to Elon Musk, saying the tech billionaire “supported me so strongly for president.”
Trump also called Musk his “friend” and particularly praised his efforts in space travel.
Musk deleted a post on X in which he said “no one is even trying to kill Biden and Harris” in the wake of the apparent assassination attempt about Trump.
On Monday morning, after deleting the post about Trump’s apparent assassination, Musk wrote on the platform: “Well, one lesson I’ve learned is that just because I say something to a group and they laugh, doesn’t mean it’s going to be as hilarious as a post on X.”
Musk, who has nearly 200 million followers on the social media site he bought for $44 billion in 2022, has increasingly embraced power conservative ideologies in recent years and supported Trump for president.
Trump says the attempted assassination of him was a “much better outcome” than when he was shot in July because no others were injured or killed.
“That was a crazy day, and yesterday you had another one with a different outcome, actually a much better outcome,” Trump said.
The host noted that several of Trump’s sons were in the room for the interview.
He and his friends who were playing golf “heard shots fired in the air, and I estimate there were probably four or five.”
Trump said they got into carts “and we were making pretty good progress.”
“I would have liked to have made that last putt,” Trump said of not being able to finish the round of golf.
Trump said an officer saw the barrel of a gun “and started firing into the bushes … and ran toward the target.”
Trump also noted that a nearby civilian woman drove her car up to the back of Routh’s vehicle and took photos of the license plate. She then gave the photos to authorities, who were able to track down the suspect.
Trump gives his first speech since Sunday’s suspected assassination attempt.
The former president is taking part in an X Space address regarding the launch of World Liberty Financial, a crypto platform run by his sons Donald Jr. and Eric.
From his home at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, Trump praised the Secret Service for “an excellent job.”
Farokh, the event’s host, began by praising Trump for not canceling his appearance.