US politics

Subterms

    More stories

    • 138 Shares169 Views

      in US Politics

      Son of suspect speaks after apparent Trump assassination attempt in Florida

      by

      The son of the man accused of trying to assassinate Donald Trump at his Florida golf course Sunday said his father had traveled to Ukraine and volunteered to provide what the son described as “humanitarian” aid to troops defending the country from Russian forces that invaded in 2022.A source with direct knowledge of the investigation confirmed to the Guardian that the suspect in Sunday’s case is 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh – though law enforcement has not officially named him and there was no immediate indication of a motive.His son, Oran Routh, repeatedly said he had not been able to immediately speak to his father or get information about the accusations against him, so he did not want to talk on his behalf.But he also described his father as passionate about the Ukraine cause.View image in fullscreen“My dad went over there and saw people fucking fighting and dying,” the younger Routh said during a brief telephone call when asked about his father. “He … tried to make sure shit was cool, and shit was not cool.”Referring to the former president, who days earlier at the presidential debate would not answer whether he wanted Ukraine to win its war against Russia, Oran Routh said: “Meanwhile, this guy’s sitting behind his fucking desk, not doing a goddamn thing.”A review of posts on Twitter/X associated with an account under Ryan Routh’s name also show Ukraine was an important cause to him. Two posts on that account from August 2023 addressed Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. One said Routh was in Kyiv and wanted to create a tent city for foreigners in a local park in hopes that would prompt more people from abroad to “raise great support and equipment”.The other suggested that Zelenskiy asked Congress to put all members of the American military on paid leave “so they can fight as civilians in Ukraine”.A third post from December also expressed concern for Haiti, which has been dealing with violent civil unrest.Trump invoked both Ukraine and Haiti in his recent debate with Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for the 5 November White House race.With respect to the latter country, the Republican nominee would only say he wanted Ukraine’s war with Russia “to stop”. But he made it a point to avoid saying he wanted Ukraine to triumph, fueling concerns that a second Trump presidency could suspend US military support to those defending the country.Asked what he would tell his father if he could speak to him, Oran Routh said: “I know the discourse isn’t working, but we still need to stick to the discourse.”He then politely excused himself from the conversation to try to find out more information about his father’s arrest on Sunday.In a separate interview with CNN on Sunday, Oran Routh also called Ryan “a loving and caring father” and an “honest hardworking man”.“I don’t know what has happened in Florida, and I hope things have just been blown out of proportion, because from the little I’ve heard it doesn’t sound like the man I know to do anything crazy, much less violent,” he said.Online records show a man with the same name and age as Ryan Routh is registered to vote in North Carolina and lists his party affiliation as Democrat. Those records show he last voted in North Carolina’s presidential primaries in March.However, many on X noted how the political views espoused by the account under Routh’s name were not exclusively pro-Democrat. The account described voting for Trump in 2016 and expressed support for a White House ticket combining the unsuccessful Republican presidential primary contenders Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley.The account’s most recent post was addressed to Harris, timed in between Trump’s failed 13 July assassination at a political rally in Pennsylvania and when she replaced Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket after the president opted to halt his re-election campaign. The post said the vice-president and Biden should visit two spectators wounded and attend the funeral of a rally-goer slain at the shooting before the attacker was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper.“Show the world what compassion and humanity is all about,” the post said.Sunday’s suspect was reported to have put the muzzle of a rifle through a fence in a wooded area at Trump International golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday afternoon.Trump was golfing there at the time. An agent spotted the rifle and fired, prompting the suspect to flee before he was arrested in a neighboring county.

      Hugo Lowell contributed reporting More

    • 163 Shares159 Views

      in US Politics

      Trump golf club shooting: what we know so far about apparent assassination attempt

      by

      The Republican presidential candidate and former US president Donald Trump is “safe and unharmed” after US Secret Service agents opened fire when they spotted a person with a firearm at the Trump international golf course west of Palm Beach, where the former president’s Mar-a-Lago resort home is located. Law enforcement officials said the gunman was in some bushes near the property line of the golf course when Secret Service agents, who were clearing holes ahead of where Trump was playing, spotted a rifle barrel in the bushes.

      Agents engaged the gunman and fired at least four rounds of ammunition about 1.30pm local time. The gunman then dropped his rifle, two backpacks and other items and fled in a black Nissan car. A witness, the sheriff said, saw the gunman and managed to take photos of his car and license plate. In a press conference, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said a male suspect had been detained by authorities. According to Bradshaw, the suspect was relatively calm.

      Officials acknowledged that because Trump is not in office, the full golf course was not cordoned off.“If he was, we would have had the entire golf course surrounded,” Bradshaw said during Sunday’s briefing. “Because he’s not, security is limited to the areas that the Secret Service deems possible.”

      The gunman was spotted between 300 and 500 yards from where Trump was playing, Secret Service officials said.

      The FBI called the incident “what appears to be an attempted assassination of the former president”. The FBI and other law enforcement officials said the suspect had a scope on an AK47 rifle, and a GoPro camera with which he apparently intended to record footage and two backpacks with ceramic tiles in it.

      The suspect has been identified as Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, a source with direct knowledge of the investigation has told the Guardian. The same name was reported by other US media outlets including the Associated Press, Fox news and CNN. Law enforcement officials have not officially named a suspect or given any immediate indication of a motive. Secret service and homeland security agents searched a former home of the suspect.

      In an email to supporters, Trump said: “There were gunshots in my vicinity, but before rumors start spiraling out of control, I wanted you to hear this first: I AM SAFE AND WELL!”. He added, “Nothing will slow me down. I will NEVER SURRENDER!”. Trump was injured in an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania on 13 July.

      In a late night post on his Truth Social account, Donald Trump has thanked the secret service and other law enforcement for their “incredible job” of keeping him safe. After stating that it had been an “interesting day”, Trump went on to further commend law enforcement officials: “THE JOB DONE WAS ABSOLUTELY OUTSTANDING. I AM VERY PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!”

      The White House said in a statement that President Joe Biden and vice-president Kamala Harris had been briefed about the incidentand were relieved to know that Trump is safe. “Violence has no place in America,” Harris said in a social media post. Democratic vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz issued a statement, posting on X: “Gwen and I are glad to hear that Donald Trump is safe. Violence has no place in our country. It’s not who we are as a nation.”

      Later, Biden and Harris released separate statements. Biden said, “I am relieved that the former President is unharmed.” Biden also said he has, “directed my team to continue to ensure that Secret Service has every resource, capability and protective measure necessary to ensure the former President’s continued safety.” Harris reiterated Biden’s call for protective measures and said she was “deeply disturbed” by the apparent assassination attempt.

      Trump’s running mate in the presidential election, US senator JD Vance, said he spoke to Trump after the shooting and that the former president was in good spirits. The South Carolina Republican senator Lindsey Graham, one of Trump’s top congressional allies, said he had spoken with the former president after the incident and that Trump was in “good spirits” and was “one of the strongest people I’ve ever known”.

      Trump will be briefed in person on the investigation by acting secret service director Ronald Rowe, the Associated Press reports. Earlier, CNN reported that Rowe was on his way to Florida. Rowe has held the Service’s most senior position since Kimberly Cheatle resigned in July after the assassination attempt against Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.

      Florida governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, has said on X that, “the State of Florida will be conducting its own investigation regarding the attempted assassination at Trump International Golf Club.” He added, “The people deserve the truth about the would be assassin and how he was able to get within 500 yards of the former president and current GOP nominee”.

      Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries has released a statement on the apparent assassination attempt, saying, “Political violence has no place in a civilised society. I am thankful that former President Trump is safe and that the alleged perpetrator is in custody. He should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.” More

    • 113 Shares199 Views

      in US Politics

      Second Trump assassination attempt highlights ‘dangerous times’ for US

      by

      A US Secret Service spokesperson summed up an extraordinary afternoon at the Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach, Florida, in five chilling words: “We live in dangerous times.”The spokesperson made his assessment at a press conference on Sunday afternoon, just hours after an individual had been spotted with an AK-47-style semi-automatic rifle just a few hundred yards from where Donald Trump was playing golf.The incident is being treated by the FBI as the second attempted assassination on the former president in as many months. Pictures released by law enforcement appeared to show a rudimentary sniper’s nest and pointed security questions are sure to be asked about how someone was able to get so close to Trump.Details released at the press conference underlined how close Trump came to being shot at – yet again – so soon after a shooter grazed his ear at a rally in Butler county, Pennsylvania, on 13 July. Asked by reporters how far away the gunman spotted on Sunday was to his apparent target, the sheriff of West Palm Beach, Ric Bradshaw, replied: “Probably between 300 and 500 yards – but with a rifle and scope like that, that’s not a lot of distance.”The security emergency began at 1.30pm on Sunday when the Secret Service reported that shots had been fired. At the time, Trump was golfing with his friend and real estate Republican mega-donor Steve Witkoff between the 5th and 6th holes of the 18-hole course.Bradshaw explained that the area was surrounded by dense shrubbery – a security agency’s waking nightmare – allowing the suspected would-be assassin to place himself on the edge of the course largely out of sight. Federal agents divulged that in addition to his AK-47-style rifle and scope, the suspect had two backpacks as well as a GoPro filming device, which Bradshaw said indicated that he intended to record his actions.In the immediate aftermath of the incident, the initial analysis suggested a story of two conflicting narratives.The first narrative focused on how exposed Trump was, even after security had been ramped up after the Butler incident, and how easy it appeared to have been for a heavily armed individual to gain entrance to the golf course and hide there ensconced in the bushes.As Bradshaw put it, had Trump been a sitting president at the time he would never have been allowed by the Secret Service to play golf in such an open environment. But “he is not the sitting president, and so we are limited to what the Secret Service deems possible”.The second narrative is more positive. Unlike the attempted assassination on Trump in Butler county, in which the Secret Service has faced serious questions about its competence leading to the resignation of its then director, Kimberly Cheatle, Sunday’s incident appears to paint the agency in a much rosier light.The suspected gunman was spotted by a Secret Service agent who was acting as forward guard, going ahead of Trump by a hole or two to stake out potential threats. Despite the thick greenery flanking the course, the agent caught sight of a rifle barrel peeking through and engaged the suspect, firing four to six rounds of ammunition.“The Secret Service did exactly what they were supposed to do, and their agent did a fantastic job,” Bradshaw said.From there, the apprehension of the suspect also went like clockwork. As he was being fired upon, the suspect dropped the rifle and fled through the bushes, jumping into a black Nissan that he had presumably left strategically located for a fast getaway. Also remarkably in the circumstances, a passerby saw him flee and had the wits to take a photograph of the vehicle including its license plate.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionSuch is the power of surveillance technology in Florida that within minutes the number plate was being run through the state’s license plate readers. The escaping suspect was quickly tracked to the I-95 highway and promptly detained at gunpoint.As William Snyder, sheriff of neighboring Martin county where the arrest was made, noted, the suspect was unarmed and appeared “relatively calm, he was not displaying a lot of emotion”.The exemplary way in which federal and local law enforcement worked together to prevent what could have been a catastrophic event, followed by the consummate apprehension of the suspect, will take a lot of heat out of the situation as the inevitable blame game gets under way. But that other initial narrative also glares out and will demand answers.How, after Trump came so close to being shot in Pennsylvania, was it possible for him to be out playing golf in a setting that appears to have been impossible to secure? What is happening in a country with as painful a history of successful assassinations as America’s when it sees a former president targeted not once but twice in such short order?A beady-eyed Secret Service agent spared the US a potentially unconscionable disaster. Is that security enough?“The threat level is high,” said the Secret Service spokesperson. “We live in dangerous times.” More

    • 138 Shares139 Views

      in US Politics

      Trump says he hates Taylor Swift after she endorses Kamala Harris

      by

      Donald Trump has addressed Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Kamala Harris in November’s presidential race by announcing his hatred of the pop star.The former president and Republican nominee wrote on Sunday on his Truth Social platform: “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!”Swift five days earlier announced her endorsement of Harris and running mate Tim Walz shortly after the vice-president debated Trump.In an Instagram post, the 34-year-old singer wrote, “I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 presidential election,” adding, “I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos.”Ex-congresswoman and frequent Trump political opponent Liz Cheney summed up the typical reaction to Sunday’s post, invoking the title of a Swift song and writing on X: “Says the smallest man who ever lived.”Meanwhile, Swift on Wednesday evening urged her fans to vote during her acceptance of the Video of the Year award at MTV’s Video Music Awards ceremony in Elmont, New York.“If you are over 18, please register to vote for something else that’s very important … [the] presidential election,” she said.Though Trump now says he hates Swift, it wasn’t that long ago that he apparently coveted her endorsement. He posted images generated by artificial intelligence that suggested Swift had endorsed Trump for president in August.One image showed Swift dressed as Uncle Sam, accompanied with the words, “Taylor wants you to vote for Donald Trump.”The former president also posted deepfakes of young women wearing “Swifties for Trump” shirts on his Truth Social Account, writing, “I accept!”Swift said Trump’s posts influenced her decision to announce her endorsement.“It really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation,” she wrote on her Instagram. “It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter.” More

    • 113 Shares139 Views

      in US Politics

      Former Ronald Reagan staffers endorse Kamala Harris for president

      by

      More than a dozen former Ronald Reagan staff members have joined dozens of other Republican figures endorsing the Democratic nominee and vice-president, Kamala Harris, saying their support was “less about supporting the Democratic party and more about our resounding support for democracy”.In a letter obtained by CBS News, former Reagan aides and appointees – including Ken Adelman, a US ambassador to the United Nations and arms control negotiator, as well as a deputy press secretary, B Jay Cooper – said they believed that, if alive today, Reagan would have supported Harris.“President Ronald Reagan famously spoke about a ‘Time for Choosing.’ While he is not here to experience the current moment, we who worked for him in the White House, in the administration, in campaigns and on his personal staff, know he would join us in supporting the Harris-Walz ticket,” the group wrote.“The time for choosing we face today is a choice between integrity and demagoguery, and the choice must be Harris-Walz,” the group added. “Our votes in this election are less about supporting the Democratic party and more about our resounding support for democracy.”The letter comes as more than 230 former Republican administration officials have also backed Harris. Karl Rove, George W Bush campaign strategist and senior adviser, wrote “there’s no putting lipstick on this pig” after Donald Trump’s debate performance. Bush has said he has no plans to endorse any 2024 candidate.While there are more Republican-for-Harris defectors than vice-versa – Trump has gained the support of the Democrat outcasts Robert F Kennedy Jr. and former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard – natural alignment resets are increasing.The conservative columnist George Will floated in the Washington Post last week that “a Harris presidency, tempered by a Republican-led Senate, might finally revive a more normal politics.”Will wrote that the outcome required the removal of Donald Trump – “that Krakatau of volcanic, incoherent, fact-free bombast” – from public life and the rekindling of genuine liberal-conservative debate.The Reagan staffers said they were looking to convince former colleagues to back their stand for Harris and the Minnesota governor, Tim Walz, as “the only path forward toward an America that is strong and viable for our children and grandchildren for years to come”.Other Republicans backing Harris include former vice-president Dick Cheney and daughter Liz Cheney, a former congresswoman, Trump press secretary Stephanie Grisham, former Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger and former Georgia lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan. The latter three accepted speaking slots at the Democrats’ convention in August.But few Republicans endorsing Harris over Trump are in the political game.Trump’s nomination rival Nikki Haley has not backed Harris and said she agrees with Trump’s policies. But challenged last week to go further, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, failed to say she thought Trump was a good candidate.“I think he is the Republican nominee,” Haley replied. “Do I agree with his style, do I agree with his approach, do I agree with his communications? No.”Olivia Troye, a former adviser to Trump’s vice-president, Mike Pence, said before the Harris-Trump debate in Philadelphia last week that “many people who have worked for Donald Trump have said that they do not support Donald Trump coming back to the presidency. And I think that speaks volumes, because we know him.” More

    • 125 Shares189 Views

      in US Politics

      RFK Jr says he faces federal investigation for beheading whale

      by

      Robert F Kennedy Jr has said that he is being investigated by federal authorities for collecting the head from a decapitated whale carcass.During a campaign event on Saturday for the Republican nominee, Donald Trump, in Glendale, Arizona, the former independent presidential candidate said, “I received a letter from the National Marine Fisheries Institute saying that they were investigating me for collecting a whale specimen 20 years ago.”He added: “This is all about the weaponization of our government against political opponents.”Kennedy, who endorsed the former president after dropping out of November’s election, fell under scrutiny in recent weeks after the resurfacing of a 2012 interview that his daughter Kick gave to Town & Country in which she addressed the whale in question.Recounting how the creature washed up on a beach near Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, she said, “[He] ran down to the beach with a chainsaw, cut off the whale’s head and then bungee-corded it to the roof of the family minivan for the five-hour haul back to Mount Kisco, New York.“Every time we accelerated on the highway, whale juice would pour into the windows of the car, and it was the rankest thing on the planet. We all had plastic bags over our heads with mouth holes cut out, and people on the highway were giving us the finger, but that was just normal day to day stuff for us.”Reports of the decapitation caught the attention of the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund, which called on federal authorities to investigate Kennedy. In a letter to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), the environmental group said Kennedy “violated the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and possibly the Endangered Species Act, by illegally cutting the head off of a dead whale in or around 1994 in Hyannis Point, Massachusetts, and bringing it to his New York house.”The letter went on to say, “We hope that the NOAA Office of Law Enforcement, at a minimum, is able to ensure that Mr Kennedy surrenders any and all illegally obtained wildlife that he continues to possess, including the whale skull he took from the Massachusetts beach in 1994. Given Mr Kennedy’s reckless disregard for the two most important marine conservation laws in the United States, we ask that NOAA consider all appropriate civil and criminal penalties as well.”Kennedy in August faced a separate backlash after an unrelated animal admission. In that case, he acknowledged on a video that he was behind the dumping of a dead bear cub in New York City’s Central Park over a decade ago.Recalling the episode, Kennedy said that he picked up the carcass and put it in his van with plans to skin it and eat it later. However, he ran out of time to take the bear home and instead decided to stage a scene to make it look like a cyclist had hit the animal.“We thought it would be amusing for whoever found it,” Kennedy said. More

    • 163 Shares169 Views

      in US Politics

      JD Vance admits he is willing to ‘create stories’ to get media attention

      by

      In a stunning admission, the Republican vice-presidential candidate, JD Vance, said he was willing “to create stories” on the campaign trail while defending his spreading false, racist rumors of pets being abducted and eaten in a town in his home state of Ohio.Vance’s remarks came during an appearance on Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union, where he said he felt the need “to create stories so that the … media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people”.Asked by the CNN host Dana Bash whether the false rumors centering on Springfield, Ohio, were “a story that you created”, Vance replied, “Yes!” He then said the claims were rooted in “accounts from … constituents” and that he as well as the Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, had spoken publicly about them to draw attention to Springfield’s relatively large Haitian population.Vance’s remarks drew a quick rebuke from the US transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, a Democrat who supports his party’s White House nominee in November’s election, Kamala Harris.“Remarkable confession by JD Vance when he said he will ‘create stories’ (that is, lie) to redirect the media,” Buttigieg wrote on X. “All this to change the subject away from abortion rights, manufacturing jobs, taxation of the rich, and the other things clearly at stake in this election.”Vance further insulted people in Springfield who are Haitian as “illegal”, though the vast majority of them are in the US legally through a temporary protected status (TPS) that has been allocated to them due to the violence and unrest in their home country in the Caribbean. The status must be renewed after 18 months.The rumors proliferating out of Springfield have led to bomb threats aimed at local hospitals and government offices. Vance on Sunday told Bash it was “disgusting” for the media to suggest any of his remarks had led to those threats. He also used the same term to refer to the people issuing those threats, though – in a separate appearance on Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press – he made it a point to blame the media for accurately reporting on them, saying it was “amplifying the worst people in the world”.Vance ultimately defended his endorsement of the lies about Springfield as calling attention to the immigration policies at the White House while Harris has served as vice-president to Joe Biden.“I’m not mad at Haitian migrants for wanting to have a better life,” Vance said. “We’re angry at Kamala Harris for letting this happen.”Haitians in Springfield have been thrust under the US’s divisive political spotlight after Trump alleged that some of them were responsible for the abduction and consumption of pets during the former president’s debate with Harris on Tuesday.Town officials have vociferously rejected the lies, and a woman who helped start the rumors on a widely circulated Facebook post acknowledged they were unfounded hearsay.Nonetheless, Springfield has been subjected to far-right conspiracy theories.About 15,000 immigrants began trickling into Springfield – a city of about 60,000 – in 2017 to work in local produce packaging and machining factories. They have been particularly in demand at a vegetable manufacturer and at automotive machining plants whose owners were experiencing a labor shortage in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.The Republican governor of Ohio, Mike DeWine, said on Sunday on ABC’s This Week that Haitians in Springfield “are here legally”.“What the employers tell you is, you know, we don’t know what we would do without them,” DeWine said. “They are working. And they are working very hard. And they’re fitting in.”Nonetheless, while vulnerable with voters over their handling of reproductive rights, Republicans have helped spread the xenophobic rumors in Springfield in an attempt to capitalize on voters’ dissatisfaction with Democrats’ handling of immigration.Vance on Sunday also sought to distance himself from a second controversy, telling the Meet the Press host Kristen Welker that he doesn’t like remarks by the far-right Trump campaign ally Laura Loomer that the White House “will smell like curry” if Harris wins the election.Harris is of Indian and Jamaican heritage. Vance’s wife, Usha Vance, is of Indian heritage, too.“I make a mean chicken curry,” he said, but “I don’t think that it’s insulting for anybody to talk about their dietary preferences or what they want to do in the White House.“What Laura said about Kamala Harris is not what we should be focused on. We should be focused on the policy and on the issues.”Vance has spent much of his vice-presidential run on the defensive, including over his stated belief that women who choose to pursue professional careers rather than roles as family matriarchs are miserable. More