A radical censorship-obsessed group financed by leftist billionaire George Soros is doubling down on efforts to interfere in the 2024 election by turning the screws on Big Tech to censor speech and by manipulating journalists. Free Press, fueled with at least $2 million by Soros between 2017 and 2021, announced that it was launching a new Orwellian scheme called “‘Democracy Is … .’” This so-called “new initiative” will deputize journalists through indoctrination by the Soros machine and engage the public on how to censor speech by supposedly “flagging disinformation” on social media platforms. In addition, Free Press pledged that the initiative would “provide other needed resources to influence media and technology platforms to better serve our communities and strengthen our democracy,” the press release boasted. [Emphasis added.] The new “Democracy Is …” website sensationalized how “In an era of misinformation and manipulation, the role of media and tech matter more than ever,” offering chilling insights into where the Soros empire is zeroing its focus ahead of the November elections.  The coalition is a hodgepodge of leftist and Soros-backed groups. These groups include the “digital brownshirts” at the Center for Countering Digital Hate, whose entire modus operandi is pressuring Big Tech to censor views that don’t comport with leftist narratives on climate change, COVID-19 and other things.  Other coalition members include Soros-backed groups like People for the American Way, UnidosUS, Common Cause, UltraViolet and United We Dream, which received an additional $12,085,000 at least collectively between them and/or their affiliated groups from the billionaire’s empire. Another group, Accountable Tech, became notorious for pressuring advertisers to pull their ads from Twitter (now X) after owner Elon Musk completed his multibillion-dollar acquisition.  MRC Free Speech America Vice President Dan Schneider ripped the coalition in a statement. “Free Press’s view of saving Democracy is to take away the rights of half of Americans by silencing its political opponents who express different political points of view,” he rebuked. “Nothing can be more undemocratic than that.” The new “Democracy Is …” website excoriated Big Tech platforms for scaling back their 1984-like Ministry of Truth apparatus that censored speech like it was going out of style in the 2020 election: This retreat from content moderation, civil-society oversight and trust-and-safety measures means that tech companies are not prepared to protect users and democracy in 2024. In 2020, election disinformation disproportionately targeted people of color, women and non-English speakers — and this trend continues today. “Democracy Is …” laid out a litany of “demands” to Big Tech platforms, which are nothing short of disturbing. One demand was for Big Tech platforms to “expand critical moderation and enforcement teams,” which is a euphemism for making sure social media giants like Facebook, TikTok and X act as speech control officers.  But there’s more. Another demand was for Big Tech platforms to actively “Add technical interventions to limit virality,” an outright call for censorship that would target the reach of a post and not openly silencing the speech on the platform. Specifically, the coalition is calling for Big Tech to “Place greater friction to reduce the visibility and easy distribution of election-related content that has been flagged and is awaiting review.” No, you didn’t misread that.  Nora Benavidez,  Free Press Senior Counsel and Director of Digital Justice and Civil Rights, openly boasted in the press release about the dystopian premises of the new Soros empire effort, masquerading it as some sort of noble display of heroics: Democracy Is … was founded on the premise that people power can disrupt institutional failings. We have brought together organizations with core recommendations that both media and tech companies should take to protect users and give people the information they need to participate fully in their communities and our democracy. The time to act is now. This new push immediately follows just after Free Press bellowed in May how it was leading another 200 member coalition of leftist groups around the world to pressure Big Tech to restrict speech by “reinstating” their so-called “election-integrity policies.” Forty-five members of the 200-member coalition were fueled with over $80 million from Soros between 2016 and 2022, including Free Press.   The Media Research Center and members of its Free Speech Alliance have already publicly warned Big Tech companies in August about not bowing to leftist pressure to censor speech before the 2024 election. Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on so-called hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using MRC Free Speech America’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.  

On Tuesday, CBS Mornings and NBC’s Today continued to show disgust with how former President Trump’s reacted to the second assassination attempt on his life in as many months, calling on him (and not the left or themselves, for that matter) to ease “heightened tensions” and “calm things down” instead of espousing “growing anger”. In the latter’s case, they even lumped in Trump’s family and loved ones being angry at having nearly lost the former President with divisive rhetoric. NBC’s chief White House correspondent Peter Alexander huffed about Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris “return[ing[ to the road comes amid these heightened tensions in the political season with new calls today to calm things down.”     He then kvetched that Trump wasn’t “call[ing] for unity” but instead “blaming his political opponents” and specifically telling Marc Thiessen that “the rhetoric from the Democrats is making the bullets fly.” Alexander painted President Biden and Harris as the true angels in this story and above the fray: “In the wake of the apparent assassination attempt against former President Trump, President Biden and Vice President Harris are urging all Americans to lower the temperature, forcefully condemning political violence.” Alexander contrasted that propaganda with “Trump…not backing down from inflammatory rhetoric, telling Fox News that President Biden and Harris are ‘people that want to destroy our country. It's called the enemy from within. They are the real threat,’ he said.” The Saturday Today co-host also threw jabs at GOP vice presidential candidate JD Vance and X owner Elon Musk as a way of suggesting the right is the side who has a rhetoric problem (click “expand”): ALEXNADER: Trump's running mate JD Vance blaming the left for provoking violence. VANCE: No one has tried to kill Kamala Harris in the last couple of months and two people now have tried to kill Doanld Trump in the last couple of months. I’d say that’s pretty strong evidence that the left needs to take – tone down their rhetoric. ALEXANDER: And the White House quickly slammed Elon Musk's recent comments as irresponsible after his weekend post on X appearing to question why no one has even “tr[ied] to assassinate” President Biden or Harris. Musk later deleted the post and said it was a joke. A top Republican, Senator Mitt Romney, also calling for calm. SENATOR MITT ROMNEY (R-UT): Over the weekend, I saw that President Trump suggested he hated Taylor Swift. I think cooling down the rhetoric would be a good thing on both sides. ALEXANDER: That came after Trump Sunday morning, Trump declared “I hate Taylor Swift” on his social media site, just days after the superstar endorsed Harris in an Instagram post to her 284 million followers…Trump's voter registration pitch included an attack on the VP, accusing Harris, who is half black, of killing the legacy of black and Hispanic voters[.] CBS also showed zero shame. Immediately after anti-Trump correspondent and author Robert Costa shared that “Trump family members and friends and advisers – they’re angry and wonder if Trump is safe,” co-host and former NFL player Nate Burleson tied this genuine reaction anyone would have someone they cared about was nearly killed to a toxic political climate. “And that growing anger is already spilling out on the campaign trail including comments by Trump's running mate, JD Vance, where he appears to use what happened in Florida to fire up the supporters,” said Burleson.     Usually promoting abortion or Trump as a threat to democracy and poll workers, correspondent Caitlin Huey-Burns told viewers Trump wasn’t “changing any plans, and he is continuing his campaign as usual, but he is adding to his messaging, blaming Vice President Kamala Harris for what happened on Sunday.” “On Monday, the former President said that Harris and President Biden's rhetoric is, ‘causing me to be shot at,’ and his running mate, JD Vance, echoed that sentiment while on the campaign trail in Georgia yesterday,” she added as a lead-in to an identical soundbite from NBC on Vance. She too painted Democrats as the adults in the room: “Now, Biden and Harris have denounced the violence, and Harris said, ‘everyone must do their part to make sure this incident doesn't lead to more violence.’” Following Huey-Burns, co-host Tony Dokoupil had a news brief about Springfield, touting Governor Mike DeWine (R-OH) “call[ing] in state troopers to protect schools” as a result of threats emanating from Trump’s “inflammatory claims about that city's migrant community” Dokoupil only tacked on the part about the threats having come from foreign countries: CBS's Tony Dokoupil: "Meanwhile, a Republican governor of Ohio is taking action after the Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, made inflammatory claims about that city's migrant community. The Republican governor there, Mike DeWine has called in state troopers to… pic.twitter.com/OzRAkGMP9X — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 17, 2024 Apologies are really hard for the liberal media, so don’t expect them to concede Trump and Vance had nothing to do with these dialed-in fake threats. To see the relevant transcripts from September 17, click here (for CBS) and here (for NBC).

Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler spun himself dizzy on Monday as he came to Kamala Harris’s defense as he gave former Minneapolis police officer Scott Creighton three Pinocchios for his characterization of her response to the 2020 riots. Creighton claimed in a Preserve America PAC ad that, “Four years ago, in this alley, rioters threw a brick at my face and knocked out my teeth. Why? Because I was a police officer. And what did Kamala Harris do? While America’s cities were burning, Kamala was defending peaceful protests. She raised millions to help bail rioters out of jail. And supported defunding our police, making us all less safe. Kamala Harris is dangerous.”  Kessler began his rebuttal by first attacking Creighton’s resume, “The ad also does not mention that he was the first defense witness to testify for police officer Derek Chauvin, who was convicted of murdering Floyd and sentenced to 22½ years in prison.” After six more paragraphs attacking Creighton’s credibility, Kessler finally got to his claims. After recalling that Harris’s position on peaceful protests was the same as Donald Trump's, “Robert O’Brien, Donald Trump’s national security adviser at the time, told CNN that Trump supported peaceful demonstrations, even as he pledged a crackdown on violence.” Be that as it may, Kessler then went downhill fast. On the second part of Creighton’s statement, Kessler simply wrote, “This cannot be verified.” Kessler then cited Harris’s tweet urging people to donate to the Minnesota Freedom Fund and didn’t notice how he contradicted himself, “Just weeks after Floyd’s death, it raised $35 million — in part because of tweets such as the one by Harris. The fund initially had only about $10,000 set aside to help out protesters, MFF said in a tweet.” By this point, Kessler was fully immersed in the process of twisting himself into a logical pretzel, “Harris herself never personally bailed out anyone or had any interaction with the fund... Justin Timberlake also tweeted his support. There’s no way to know how much money was raised because of Harris’s tweet.” Who cares? She promoted the cause; that’s all that matters. Still, Kessler didn’t see any problem in lax law enforcement, “all but three of the 170 people arrested during the protests between May 26 and June 2 were released from jail within a week. Of the 167 released, only 10 had to put up a monetary bond; in most cases, the amounts were nominal, such as $78 or $100.” People bailed out by the MFF have gone on to commit more violent crimes. As for the “defund the police” accusation, Kessler’s great defense was that Harris never explicitly supported the movement, she just paid lip service, “This is mostly false. Harris, a former prosecutor, never supported the ‘defund the police’ movement, though she called for ‘reimagining public safety’ in the United States. The ad cites an article in the New York Post reporting that Harris told ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ that the movement posed legitimate questions about police budgets, but the Post acknowledged Harris ‘stopped short’ of backing defunding.” Here is that article in greater context, “Vice presidential hopeful Sen. Kamala Harris on Tuesday applauded Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s decision to slash police funding by $150 million but stopped short of saying she backed the “defund the police” movement.”     Kessler also claimed, ‘“Defund the police’ was often misunderstood. It did not call for the outright elimination of police departments... The idea was that low-income communities would become stronger — and less in need of policing tactics — if root problems were addressed. He then recalled Harris echoing such sentiments to The View, “We need to reimagine how we are achieving public safety in America… there is a dire need in those same cities for mental health resources, for resources going into public schools, for resources going into job training and job creation — come on. We have to be honest about this.” In his conclusion, Kessler returned to the issue and wrote, “Finally, he says she supported the ‘defund the police’ movement. She never embraced it, instead saying the movement raised good questions about how public safety could be best achieved.” She didn’t say she supported it, she just praised it and echoed its talking points. That’s some fact-check.

Exactly 50 days before the November election and 64 days after the previous assassination attempt, President Donald Trump was allegedly targeted for murder by a Democratic donor with an impotent interest in Ukraine's war effort. Unlike Thomas Matthew Crooks' July 13 assassination attempt, which left Trump bleeding, two individuals critically wounded, and heroic former firefighter Corey Comperatore dead in the stands, it appears there may be far more clarity around suspected would-be assassin Ryan Routh and his Sept. 15 plot. For starters, Routh is still alive to speak to his alleged crimes. There's also the matter of Routh's significant online footprint and his apparent affinity in recent years for doing interviews with virtually anyone who would stick a microphone in his face. What follows is a summary of the facts as they are presently understood. Incident and arrest According to the FBI's affidavit in support of the criminal complaint filed Monday, President Donald Trump was golfing at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday. Unbeknownst to him or his Secret Service detail, a deranged gunman lay ahead in ambush. Just after 1:30 p.m., a U.S. Secret Service agent on Trump's detail, who had been walking the perimeter of the course — one hole ahead of the president — spotted what appeared to be a rifle "poking out of the tree line" and through a chain-link fence, roughly 400 yards away from Trump. The USSS agent reportedly opened fire but failed to land a shot. The suspect apparently never got a shot off. 'Nothing will slow me down.' Suspected gunman Ryan Routh apparently fled the tree line, jumped into a Nissan SUV with license plates belonging to a stolen white 2012 Ford truck, then sped out of the area. The gunman left behind a GoPro digital camera, two bags including a backpack, a black plastic bag containing food, and an SKS-style 7.62x39 caliber rifle with a long-range scope and an "obliterated" serial number. Blaze News previously noted that geolocation data from Routh's T-Mobile cell phone apparently placed him along the fence line at 1:59 a.m. Sunday morning. He remained there until the Secret Service agent opened fire. The FBI affidavit indicated that after fleeing the scene, Routh traveled northbound on I-95 — where officers from the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office and Martin County Sheriff's Office made their move, afforded insights about the driver and vehicle by a witness who spotted Routh getting away. Roughly 45 minutes after the USSS agent opened fire and 40 miles away from the course, MCSO managed to stop Routh's vehicle and place him under arrest without incident. Routh is now facing charges of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession and receipt of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. If slapped with the maximum penalty for both charges, then Routh is looking at 20 years' imprisonment. He may face additional charges. 'The people deserve the truth about the would be assassin.' Shortly after the incident, President Trump stated, "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! Nothing will slow me down. I will NEVER SURRENDER! I will always love you for supporting me. Unity. Peace. Make America Great Again." While the FBI announced it was leading the ongoing investigation, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) announced Sunday that the Sunshine State will be conducting its own investigation. "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," wrote DeSantis. Who is Ryan Routh?Felon known to FBI Ryan Wesley Routh is a 58-year-old North Carolina native who has lived in Hawaii for at least six years, where he owns a small construction company. While still a Hawaii resident, Routh reportedly voted in North Carolina's Democratic primary this past March. According to his LinkedIn, he received a degree in mechanical engineering from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. Routh was known to law enforcement prior to Sunday and has a significant criminal record, charged with at least 100 criminal counts in North Carolina alone. The suspected would-be assassin reportedly wielded a fully automatic machine gun in a three-hour standoff with police in North Carolina in 2002. According a decades-old Greensboro News & Record report, Routh was charged at the time with carrying a concealed weapon and possession of a weapon of mass destruction. He was also charged with resisting, delaying, and obstructing a law enforcement officer as well as driving with a revoked license and hit-and-run. The North Carolina Department of Adult Correction offender database indicates Routh was convicted in 2010 for possession of stolen goods. The corresponding police affidavit used to get a search warrant claimed Routh was selling stolen building supplies to buy crack cocaine, reported the Associated Press. Routh has also reportedly been in and out of court on numerous occasions for various civil suits, for several of which he was ultimately ordered to pay tens of thousands of dollars to plaintiffs. Blaze News previously reported that Jeffrey Veltri, the FBI's special agent in charge of the Miami field office, revealed that the FBI received a complaint in 2019 that Routh had a firearm, despite being a convicted felon. According to Veltri, the FBI passed the information on to local law enforcement in Honolulu. It's unclear whether anything came of the referral. Trump critic, Democratic booster Sleuths online had ample time before Facebook and X scrubbed his profiles to screenshot and archive damning comments indicating his political views and possible motivations. It quickly became clear that he had thrown in his lot with the Democrats and bought into their rhetoric about Trump. Blaze News previously highlighted how Routh recycled a go-to Democratic slogan in this election cycle in an April 22 post on X, writing: @POTUS Your campaign should be called something like KADAF. Keep America democratic and free. Trumps should be MASA ... make Americans slave again master. DEMOCRACY is on the ballot and we cannot lose. We cannot afford to fail. The world is counting in us to show the way. His final two posts on X prior to the incident were messages to President Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, recommending in mid-July that they should "visit the injured people in the hospital from the Trump rally and attend the funeral of the murdered fireman. Trump will never do anything for them....show the world what compassion and humanity is all about. 8084648342." Apart from his consistent fixation on committing civilians to the Ukrainian war effort, Routh's politics have been all over the place. He has indicated, for instance, that he voted for Trump in 2016 but that he deeply regrets it. Prior to throwing his support behind Biden, Routh also admitted to having a soft spot for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). It's clear from his social media posts that he also supported the Black Lives Matter movement and has adopted anti-Israel talking points, such as the suggestion that Israel has no claim to the land within its borders. In his self-published 2023 book, "Ukraine's Unwinnable War," Routh echoes various establishment Democrat talking points, including the suggestion that the Jan. 6 riot was a "catastrophe ... perpetrated by Donald Trump and his undemocratic posse." As was the case with Crooks, Routh has made political contributions to Democrats. In Routh's case, he made around 20 small donations to Democrats through ActBlue between 2019 and 2020. In his book, the suspected would-be assassin apologizes to Iranians for Trump dismantling the nuclear deal and noted, "You are free to assassinate Trump as well as me for that error in judgment," reported the New York Post. The Democratic donor added, "No one here in the US seems to have the balls to put natural selection to work or even unnatural selection." Wannabe Ukraine mercenary Routh appears to be a zealous advocate for Ukraine and its defensive war against Russia. He appears to have run the website "Fight for Ukraine," where he figures prominently in the About section and provides links to his now-deleted webpages. The page states: We need thousands of fighters and humanitarian aid workers and supplies to win this war and no one should ever let paperwork or red tape hinder their desire to fight for freedom, humanity and basic human rights. It is the most honorable and dignified sacrifice anyone can make to support their fellowman. Please encourage every age and gender from around the world to come and join the fight. On the site, Routh details various ways — including unlawful ways — people could supposedly go to fight as mercenaries in Ukraine. For those who simply cross the border into Ukraine, he recommended they give him a call once in Kiev. The New York Times' Thomas Gibbons-Neff recalled an interview he had in 2023 with individuals who were "not qualified to be allowed anywhere near the battlefield in a U.S.-led war and yet were fighting on the front against Russia, with access to weapons and military equipment." Gibbons-Neff indicated he heard of Routh through a former Afghan special operations soldier in Iran. "Like many foreign volunteers who showed up at Ukraine's border in the war's early months, he was eager to cast aside his former life for something far more exciting and make a name for himself," wrote the Times reporter. Routh, who told the Financial Times in 2022 that the Ukrainian Foreign Legion rejected him on account of his age, apparently spent some time in Ukraine attempting to recruit Afghans who had fled the Taliban. His X timeline was crowded with failed pleas to various defense officials and organizations to allow Afghan fighters into Ukraine. Ukraine's foreign legion has characterized Routh as a charlatan. The legion said in an official statement, "American citizen Ryan Routh has never served in the International Legion of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, has no relation to the unit. Rumors disseminated in certain media are not true." "There's a streak of zealotry in him," Evelyn Aschenbrenner, an American who was in the legion's administration until June, told the Washington Post. "In November of last year, I began sending out a [message] to all foreign soldiers saying, 'This guy is not a real recruiter. He's not legit. I don't know what he's up to. Just stay away from him — block and ignore and move on.'" "The cats and dogs on the military bases did more than he did," added Aschenbrenner. Despite begging others to do so and claiming he had in a December 2023 Facebook post, the New York Times indicated Routh never fought in Ukraine. Routh was, however, a cheerleader for the Ukrainian brigade associated with neo-Nazis since its inception. He appears at the 1:50-minute mark in a 2022 video of a Ukrainian demonstration in support of the Azov Brigade. He also tweeted to Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy on March 13, 2022, informing him "I am an American coming to fight with you in Ukraine; I am flying into Krokow and will take any transport to Kyiv to meet you and fight to the death. We must get every civilian in the world to come and join the fight; I will be the example. Attack moscow now." USA Today indicated it tried calling a number associated with Ryan and was greeted by a voicemail message identifying the number's owner as "Ryan in Hawaii," working with the "National Volunteer Center, sending soldiers to Ukraine, as well as Taiwan." The International Volunteer Center in Ukraine made clear it hasn't worked with Ryan. Routh told the Times that he had also been scheduled to meet with the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (the Helsinki Commission) "for two hours" to increase support for Ukraine. It's unclear if they ever went through with the meeting. The Helsinki Commission is an independent commission of the federal government that has among its current commissioners Reps. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) and Mike Lawler (R-N.Y) and Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

The second attempted assassination of former President Donald J. Trump in two months has laid bare the reality his security is still not being based on a threat matrix reflective of the dangers he faces, experts say. After Thomas Matthew Crooks fired eight shots at Trump and a rally crowd in Butler Township, Pa., on July 13, security professionals opined that the U.S. Secret Service treated him much differently than President Joe Biden, even though his threat profile was considerably higher than that of the sitting president. As a result, many experts and observers predicted another assassination attempt would be carried out in the coming weeks or months. That came true around 1:30 p.m. Sept. 15 when the Secret Service spotted a rifle poking out of the bushes at the edge of Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla. 'They have to move to a threat-based protective model.' An agent opened fire on what turned out to be a sniper’s nest on the public side of the fence near the sixth green, causing alleged would-be assassin Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, to flee the area, the FBI and Secret Service said. Routh was arrested about 45 minutes later in nearby Martin County, Fla. Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. said the gunman never had line of sight to former President Trump. The Secret Service discovered Routh trying to hide himself “in the wood line,” Rowe said. “The protective methodologies of the Secret Service were effective yesterday,” Rowe said, citing a “layered approach” that had agents out ahead of Trump on the course. However, he said his department needs to shift away from being in a reactive mode into using a “readiness model.” Rowe said “increased assets” ordered by President Joe Biden — including countersniper teams, counter-assault teams, and counter-surveillance agents — “were in place yesterday.” At a news conference hours after the attempted assassination, however, the local sheriff confirmed Trump is not getting top-tier protection but only what the Secret Service deems “possible.” “At this level that he is at right now, he’s not the sitting president,” Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said. “If he was, we would have had this entire golf course surrounded.” Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw addresses a news conference Sept. 16, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla.Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images “No, he’s a former President who was struck by an assassin’s bullet two months ago, and who Iran and others continue to plot against,” said U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.). “Two attempts in a little over 60 days. Horrendous and unacceptable.” United States Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said the Secret Service still has not answered even basic questions about the Butler assassination case and now faces new scrutiny. “Yesterday's would-be Trump assassin was on the golf course for 12 hours before Secret Service ID'd him,” Hawley wrote on X. “The Butler shooter was on site long before he took his first shot. This is a dangerous pattern. Secret Service needs to tell us what's going on. And what they're doing to stop it.” Martin County Sheriff William Snyder, whose deputies helped take Routh into custody at 2:14 p.m. Sept. 15, said Routh has no known ties to the county. “I think we’re finding out he’s not from this area, which raises the bigger question, how does a guy from not here get all the way to Trump International, realize that the president, the former president of the United States is golfing and is able to get a rifle in that vicinity?” The Secret Service has not been using the correct mindset when it comes to Trump’s security, one expert said. “We’re in a situation where the threats against him are going to be higher than almost anyone, and they are still treating him like a third-rate protective responsibility,” said Tristan Leavitt, president of Empower Oversight, an educational organization dedicated to government accountability. 'The fact that the guy got away is troubling, that they weren't able to put effective fire on him.' “They have to move to a threat-based protective model,” Leavitt said during an August Heritage Foundation forum on the Secret Service. Jeffrey Veltri, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Miami Field Office, said the bureau received a tip in 2019 about Routh being a felon in possession of a firearm but was not able to substantiate the tip. Routh was convicted in 2002 of possessing a fully automatic machine gun in Guilford County, N.C., court records show. The 2019 tip was passed by the FBI to authorities in Hawaii, where Routh was living at the time, Veltri said. Routh has a long criminal record in North Carolina. In addition to the gun felony, he has arrests for hit-and-run, obstructing police, multiple counts of possession of stolen goods, carrying a concealed weapon, driving on a revoked license, and multiple other motor-vehicle violations. In his 2002 gun case, Routh fled from police after being pulled over on a traffic stop, then holed up in his roofing business keeping police at bay for three hours, according to a local newspaper account at the time. According to North Carolina court records, Routh did not serve even one night in jail for his many convictions. Trump's suspected would-be assassin in 2002 wielded a fully automatic machine gun in 3-hour standoff with police: Report www.theblaze.com Erik Prince, founder of the private security firm Blackwater, said it’s crucial that the state of Florida conduct its own comprehensive investigation. “We have a federal system, and states have a lot more rights and a lot more power than they assert,” Prince said on "The Glenn Beck Program." “And this is a perfect opportunity for the governor of Florida to say, ‘Enough. This nonsense stops on my watch.' And they’re going to do what they should do, a very thorough proctology, and especially dig into Routh’s electronics, anyone he’s in contact with over the last six days, six months, to figure out what the hell stimulated this guy to try this.” Prince said he was “very troubled” that Routh was able to escape after being fired upon. “There [are] two ballistic plates affixed to the fence — so obviously he was expecting counter fire — and his GoPro attached. Trophy hunting. He was going to be a hero of the left,” Prince said. “I am very troubled. I'm glad the Secret Service saw him first and engaged, but there [were] four rounds fired. The fact that the guy got away is troubling, that they weren't able to put effective fire on him.” Former FBI Special Agent Steve Friend, a whistleblower who testified before the House Judiciary Committee in May 2023, said he’s troubled that the man in charge of the FBI’s West Palm Beach assassination case is a well-known Trump-hater. Cellphone data uncovers would-be assassin's disturbing determination to attack Trump — until Secret Service opened fire Ryan Wesley Routh's arrest shown on police bodycam. Friend said Special Agent In Charge Veltri was previously deputy assistant director of the FBI’s Security Division, which he said has targeted whistleblowers for expulsion from the bureau. “And from that post, he actually said that whistleblowers that they were looking to purge from the ranks were people who were military veterans — because he thought that they were disloyal — as well as people who attended regular religious worship ceremonies and opposed the coronavirus vaccine,” Friend said on "The Glenn Beck Program." FBI Director Christopher Wray, Deputy Director Paul Abbate, and former Executive Assistant Director Jen Moore told Veltri to clean his Facebook profile “of all the anti-Trump vitriol that he publicly put out there” before he could accept a promotion to head the FBI Miami office, Friend said. Prince echoed those concerns. “And to think that this [is] the Miami office of the FBI, the same office that raided Mar-a-Lago on a bogus documents case where the new special agent in charge, [a] whistleblower said that the FBI told him to delete his social media history because it was so virulently anti-Trump,” Prince said. “If we think that FBI office is going to do an honest job of investigating, I have severe doubts.” Several officials said there needs to be an investigation of possible leaks inside the Secret Service, the Department of Homeland Security, and even the Trump campaign itself to determine how Routh knew 12 hours in advance Trump would be on the golf course. Others asked how an active mercenary recruiting for soldiers to fight the war in Ukraine was not under FBI watch. Jeff Clark, assistant attorney general under President Trump, blamed the Biden-Harris administration for the ongoing risk to the former president. “Protocol is just a fancy French word for rules of thumb,” Clark wrote on X. “The thing about rules of thumb is that they can be changed as circumstances demand. And they should certainly have changed after the first assassination attempt on Trump in Butler." “Joe Biden and Kamala could easily give the Secret Service surge resources and the flexibility to harden the protocol,” Clark said. “So it’s their fault President Trump isn’t being adequately protected.” Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) officially announced on Tuesday that statewide law enforcement agencies will conduct their own investigation into the second assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump since the most egregious crime affiliated with the incident, attempted murder, falls under Florida's jurisdiction."The suspect, Ryan Routh, is believed to have committed state law violations across multiple judicial circuits in this state, Palm Beach judicial circuit, judicial circuits including Martin County, as well as, perhaps, the judicial circuit represented by Broward County. I directed state agencies to move expeditiously and provide full transparency to the public," DeSantis explained.DeSantis said he does not believe it is in the best interest of the nation for the FBI and the Department of Justice to lead the investigation considering that those same agencies are trying to prosecute Trump in Florida. DeSantis pointed to how there are still unanswered questions from the FBI on the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas and the first assassination attempt on Trump in July."In addition to holding the suspect accountable, the public deserves to know the truth of how this assassination [attempt] came to be," he added.The FBI revealed on Monday that the agency received a complaint in 2019 that Routh had a firearm.The state investigation will be carried out by the Florida Highway Patrol and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The case will be handled by a statewide prosecutor and overseen by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody. When asked by Blaze News whether he agrees with acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe, who said on Monday that the plans to keep Trump safe are working, DeSantis said he is looking forward to what the state uncovers in its investigation."We'll see how this guy was able to burrow himself in the bushes for, apparently, 12 hours and how that came to happen. I don't have the answer for that. Perhaps our investigation will," DeSantis continued.DeSantis said having played on the golf course at Trump International Golf Club before, even he understood where Trump was and where the would-be shooter placed himself since that area poses the greatest security risk. — (@) DeSantis said he is concerned that there could be yet another attempt on Trump's life before November's election because "we have a climate right now which is not healthy for this country."The FBI revealed on Monday that the agency received a complaint in 2019 that Routh had a firearm but was unable to verify it."When following up on the tip, the alleged complainant was interviewed and did not verify, I repeat, did not verify providing the initial information. The FBI passed that information on to local law enforcement in Honolulu," said Jeffrey Veltri, the FBI's special agent in charge of the Miami field office.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

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