Former FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker said there is a “scary” possibility that must be considered following the second alleged attempt to assassinate former President Donald Trump on Sunday.
Ryan Routh, a 58-year-old Democrat donor, was arrested on Sunday after authorities say he positioned himself 300-500 yards away from Trump while the Republican nominee was golfing at Trump International Golf Course West Palm Beach. Secret Service agents reportedly spotted the barrel of a rifle sticking out of a fence. They fired at the alleged would-be assassin before the suspect fled and was apprehended by authorities.
Swecker, who served as assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division from 2004 to 2006, told Newsweek on Monday that authorities need to focus on one question.
“The biggest question to answer is: ‘How did the would-be assassin know to be at that location at that time?’” he said. “There are only three possible answers: He guessed and got very lucky; he conducted surveillance on Trump and followed him to the golf course or he had inside information about Trump’s schedule.”
“The last answer is scary and has implications that another person was involved,” Swecker added.
The former FBI assistant director also said that the Left’s “demonization of Trump is resonating with the fringe elements who are mentally unstable and highly impressionable,” adding that it is “time to tone it down a bit.” Swecker said that Routh appears to be a “wingnut.”
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Routh made small donations exclusively to Democrats in 2019 and 2020 and was convicted of possessing a weapon of mass destruction — a fully automatic machine gun — in 2002. That year, he reportedly barricaded himself inside a Greensboro, North Carolina, business with a gun. Routh was also sentenced for driving without a license, carrying a concealed weapon, and a hit and run in 2003, Fox 8 reported.
On Sunday, authorities found an AK-47-style rifle, a GoPro, and backpacks where Routh allegedly set himself up to take a shot at Trump. Routh criticized Trump in social media posts, including one where he wrote, “While you were my choice in [2016], I and the world hoped that president Trump would be different and better than the candidate, but we all were greatly disappointment [sic] and it seems you are getting worse and devolving. I will be glad when you gone.”
Swecker also commented on Routh’s reported attempts to get fighters to sign up to help Ukraine fight Russia.
“We know this suspect has posted about Trump being a danger to democracy and he has been active on some strange quests: visiting Ukraine to round up Afghan fighters so motive is coming into focus—he is a wing nut who dislikes authority, based on his arrest record for resisting arrest in a two-hour standoff,” Swecker said.
