The failure of another assassination attempt against Donald Trump on Sunday, the second in two months, is a great relief but also another warning about our deranged politics.
The facts are still unfolding as we write this, including the motive of the apparent suspect, who was identified as 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh. Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said a man was seen with a rifle in the bushes only a few hundred yards from, and a hole or two ahead of, where Mr. Trump was playing with a friend at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla.
Mr. Bradshaw said the man in the bushes was spotted by a Secret Service agent, who confronted the man, who fled. The Secret Service agent fired at the man, who ran on foot and into a vehicle. He was apprehended while driving on I-95 after a witness near the golf course saw him flee and took a photo of the man’s Nissan and its license plate.
That was an alert witness and good police work. But it’s still alarming that the potential assassin could get so close to what could have been a clear line of sight on the former President. The site where the man had been positioned was found to have a rifle with a scope for targeting long-distance, plus backpacks with a GoPro camera and ceramic plates that are used to protect against bullets.
The reasonable suspicion is that the gunman planned on streaming his murder attempt with the GoPro camera and anticipated a shootout with police or the Secret Service. All of this suggests considerable planning, as does his location at the golf course that afforded him some foliage as cover.
One question is how Mr. Routh knew Mr. Trump would be golfing on Sunday at that course and how he knew where he could set up to target the former President. All the more so after 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks was allowed to shoot at Mr. Trump from a rooftop about 400 feet from where the former President was on stage in Butler, Pa.
The country is fortunate the Secret Service agent spotted the man, while other agents moved Mr. Trump to safety. The trauma of a successful assassination would make our current political distemper seem mild.
The Secret Service has raised the level of protection for Mr. Trump since the Butler debacle. But the debate was already raging on Sunday about whether the former President deserves the greater protection received by a current President. The simple answer is yes, and the same goes for Kamala Harris.
The risk level is too high these days to take chances. This will probably require Mr. Trump to change some of his habits, such as golfing only on courses where a shooter can’t get access. But the risks aren’t only from a lone gunman, if that is what Mr. Routh is.
We already know that Mr. Trump has been targeted by Iran, and it’s easy to imagine a foreign power or a domestic political group plotting to kill him now, while he’s a candidate and his protection is less intense than if he wins the election.
Especially after Butler and now West Palm Beach, the Secret Service cannot be seen as failing to protect the candidates. Any harm that comes to either nominee, but especially to Mr. Trump after two failed attempts, would lead to conspiracy theories that could lead to further violence. The country, and President Biden, can’t afford to tempt fate again.
— The Wall Street Journal
