By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-12-12 15:01:50 | Updated at 2024-12-23 03:31:02
1 week ago
Bombshell details from the House Assassination Task Force final report stunned after it was revealed U.S. Secret Service was unable to neutralize a threat to Donald Trump from just five-feet away.
An agent fired off at least six rounds at Ryan Wesley Routh in West Palm Beach, Florida in September, but was unable to hit the target before he fled, according to the 180-page report.
Fox News host Jesse Watters was outraged at the latest revelation.
'He missed him six times, from five feet. How does a trained agent who passed the firearms feet miss a target five feet away?' he questioned on Wednesday night.
The bipartisan 13-member House Assassination Task Force released its final and longawaited report on Tuesday, claiming the deadly shooting at Trump's Butler, Pennsylvania rally on July 13 was 'preventable and should not have happened.'
But the report also encompassed the new details about the second foiled attempt on Trump's life.
'The report says the Secret Service found out at 2:30 in the morning that Trump would be golfing that day,' Watters said of the West Palm Beach incident. 'But they didn't secure the course, allowing Routh to camp out for 12 hours before anyone saw him.'
Routh appeared in court on Wednesday and his legal team is using the insanity defense.
New revelations show that a Secret Service agent missed shooting Trump would-assassin Ryan Wesley Routh (pictured) six times from as close as five feet away
Fox host Jesse Waters was furious over the bombshell details, questioning on Wednesday: 'How does a trained agent who passed the firearms feet miss a target five feet away?'
The report notes: 'The agent first noticed the suspect, later identified as Ryan Wesley Routh, and then noticed the barrel of Routh's gun sticking through the fence line. The special agent, who may have been as close as five feet away from Routh, immediately responded by firing shots toward the suspect. It is believed six shots in total were fired; however, final ballistics are pending an ongoing FBI investigation.'
So it's not conclusive that the distance or shots are as detailed by the panel.
If true, the new details present concerning information about the marksmanship of a agent assigned to the detail of the former president who at the time was running for another term and who had already been shot just two months earlier.
The report was released just days after its final public meeting last week where Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe got into a screaming match with Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas).
Rowe did acknowledge at the hearing the agency's 'abject failure' in the July shooting.
The panel was created by a House vote shortly after the first assassination attempt over the summer. And a few months later they were asked to also look into the second incident.
The group concluded that there was no single failure that allowed shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks to fire at Trump, but 'various' decisions and moments that created an ideal situation for the assassination attempt.
The Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald Trump released a series of recommendations it feels will help prevent future incidents.
Members of the task force visited both sites where men tried to take out the former – and now future – president.
The House Assassination Task Force released on Tuesday its final, 180-page report on the two attempts on Donald Trump's life
The task force said it conducted 46 interviews and reviewed 18,000 pages of documents.
Crooks, who was 20 when he was shot dead by a Secret Service counter sniper, killed one rally goer, injured two others and was able to strike Trump in the right ear before he was neutralized by the former president's protective detail.
'[T]he former President—and everyone at the campaign event—were exposed to grave danger,' the committee wrote.
'Conversely, the events that transpired on September 15, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Florida, demonstrated how properly executed protective measures can foil an attempted assassination,' they added.
The bipartisan task force was created to investigate the July 13 attack that came just centimeters away from ending Trump's life.
But when a second assassination plot was foiled just two months later on September 15, the panel was also asked to include that incident in its probe.
While Crooks was able to get just several hundred feet in range of Trump with a rifle and discharge several shots, Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, didn't even fire a shot before a Secret Service agent opened fire in his direction.
Routh was posted outside Trump's West Palm Beach golf course in the shrubs when he pointed the barrel of his firearm through the fencing and bush.
An agent surveying the green a few holes ahead of the then-2024 presidential candidate spotted the scope and fired in the direction of the threat. Routh fled the scene but was captured shortly after and taken into custody.
His firearm, backpacks with bulletproof materials and a GoPro camera were recovered from where he was camping out since the middle of the night.
The Assassination Task Force said the second incident was an example of what should be done by the Secret Service to best guard their protectees.
While the first assassination attempt was used as an example of how a series of failures can lead to a deadly situation.
The report comes just days after their final hearing, which devolved as Rep. Fallon got into a fiery back-and-forth with Acting Director Rowe.
An impassioned shouting match broke out after Fallon struck a nerve when he pressed Rowe about security measures in place to protect Trump, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris at the September 11 remembrance this year.
It led to a bitter argument between the two men at the hearing on Thursday, which was supposed to be focused on the security failures surrounding Trump's protective detail.
But the conversation turned to what Fallon considered to be another Secret Service security problem two months after the first attempt – and just days before the second.
Fallon said the agent in charge of the detail should have been stationed physically closer to Trump, Biden and Harris when they all attended a 9/11 commemoration event at Ground Zero.
When asked about why the SAIC was out of range, Rowe insisted that he and other members of the detail were just outside of view of the image Fallon had blown up to exhibit at the hearing.
Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) got into a heated screaming match with U.S. Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe during the final House Assassination Task Force hearing
'Do not invoke 9/11 for political purposes, congressman,' Rowe yelled at Fallon over a barrage of cross-shouting after the lawmaker displayed an image of the Acting Director at the Ground Zero service this year
'That is the day that we remember the more than 3,000 people that have died on 9/11,' Rowe said, starting to raise his voice.
'I actually responded to Ground Zero. I was there going through the ashes of the World Trade Center,' he went on.
When Fallon tried to cut in, Rowe did not back down, causing the congressman to begin shouting.
'I'm not asking you that. I'm asking you, were you the special agent in charge?! You were not,' Fallon charged.
'Do not invoke 9/11 for political purposes, congressman!' Rowe was heard yelling over a barrage of cross-shouting.
'I'm trying to ask a question. Don't try to bully me!' Fallon screamed and pointed at the witness.
'You are out of line, congressman!' Rowe fired back. 'Way out of line.'
