Would-be Trump assassin Ryan Routh is a fruitcake. That's pretty clear from the start, and while the media might want to downplay it, he's most definitely a leftist loon who wanted to take out the once and future President of the United States, as I thought of him at the time.
But while Routh made do with an old SKS rifle that you used to be able to get for less than $100, he wanted something a lot more extreme.
See, he apparently reached out to someone in Ukraine he thought had access to military weapons to request something that's beyond most Americans' ability to purchase.
According to a bombshell court filing from the Department of Justice, Ryan Wesley Routh, the suspect in the September Trump assassination attempt, communicated with a person he believed to be a Ukrainian with access to military-grade weapons and requested a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG), lamenting that then-presidential nominee Donald Trump “is not good for Ukraine,” The Daily Mail reported on Tuesday.
The DOJ court filing in the Southern District of Florida alleges that Routh messaged his contact, “send me an rpg or stinger and I will see what we can do…[Trump] is not good for Ukraine.” According to the filing, Routh added, “I need equipment so that Trump cannot get elected.”
Routh’s alleged discussion with the Ukrainian contact also included details about the price and shipment of weapons, according to prosecutors. The suspect also allegedly sent his Ukrainian contact a photo of Trump’s plane, writing, “Trump’s plane, he gets on and off daily.” He also discussed the potential shipment of anti-aircraft weapons, such as a rocket or missile launcher, according to the filing.
“[G]oing to the local store for such an item is impossible — however you are at war so those items lost and destroyed daily — one missing would not be noticed. Do you think Trump will be good for Ukraine?????” Routh allegedly wrote.
So Routh wasn't content to just kill Trump; he wanted to kill all of his aides, too, as well as who knows how many other innocent people who might be on board the plane.
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Luckily, he couldn't get his hands on such a weapon, and there's no guarantee he wouldn't have been caught trying to smuggle it into the United States if he had, but the fact that this is where the man went is troubling, to say the very least, especially as he claimed to have recruited Americans to fight for Ukraine as well as saying he'd gone and fought, too. If either of those is true, then his contact in Ukraine is even more troubling.
Of course, right now, these are all allegations. They haven't been proven in court, though that's part of why the filing happened. He could well be innocent of all charges.
I just wouldn't hold your breath on that being the case.
As it stands, he did try to lie in wait to assassinate Trump. I don't know how successful he would have been in the attempt, in part because he had a rifle with the scope held on with electrical tape, but even idiots get "lucky."
If he also tried to get a missile or rocket of some type, that just shows how unhinged he really was.
Trump Derangement Syndrome is a real thing, but I'm pretty sure Routh was nuts before Trump ever entered the picture.
