Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis gave a press conference Tuesday in Palm Beach County to unveil his plans for a statewide investigation into Sunday’s apparent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach.
“Today, I’m signing an executive order assigning the case, involving the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, to the office of statewide prosecutor under the supervision of Attorney General Ashley Moody,” the governor declared.
DeSantis said, “The suspect Ryan Routh is believed to have committed state law violations across multiple judicial circuits in this state,” but made clear that the Florida state prosecutors will seek charges for attempted murder, which he described as the “most serious, straight forward offense.”
“In addition to holding the suspect accountable, the public deserves to know the truth about how this assassination came to be,” DeSantis added.
The governor appeared baffled at how Routh was even able to get in close proximity to the former president. “This guy, I mean, you look at his wrap sheet, you look at the things he’s been involved in, this guy had red flags. I know he’s been looked at by federal law enforcement. Now how the heck did it end up that he’s in West Palm Beach in those bushes,” he questioned.
DeSantis cast doubt on the ability of the federal government to lead the investigation impartially.
“In my judgment, it’s not in the best interest of our state or our nation, to have the same federal agencies that are seeking to prosecute Donald Trump, leading this investigation,” he said.
“I’ve directed state agencies to move expeditiously and provide full transparency to the public,” the governor added.
During her turn at the podium, Ashley Moody, the Florida Attorney General, said that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Florida Highway Patrol will be “looking into and investigating what happened when something went terribly wrong.”
Mark Glass, the Florida Law Enforcement Department Commissioner, suggested that other groups involved in the investigation were obstructing his agency’s information-gathering efforts.
“Florida is a law and order state, and we will not sit idly by while anybody stonewalls information sharing amongst our law enforcement entities. We know that if we want answers, we gotta go get them,” said Glass.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw acknowledged that the security process will change next time Trump plays at the course.
DeSantis also shared that, after playing the West Palm Beach course with Trump in the past, he’s had concerns about potential security gaps in the exact spot where the gunman was hiding.
“Just me, as playing partner, as governor, just thinking about it, I was like, that is the soft underbelly from a security perspective. You can’t not notice that when you’re on that golf course,” DeSantis said. “I knew exactly on the golf course where that would be in, because that was really the obvious weak point.”