Ryan Wesley Routh was taken into custody following the shooting incident with Secret Service Sunday. He was stopped. You see a picture there stopped on the highway in nearby Martin County by his. Facial affect was so flat his demeanor was relaxed. [00:00:16] I honestly thought it looked like somebody had just left a church picnic. We now have more details about 58 year old Ryan Wesley Routh, who was named as Trump's second would be assassin this past weekend. Now, here's what we know about the shooter, and there's more [00:00:33] and more information coming out. The story continues to develop, but for now, as we film this video, here's what we know. The man. Law enforcement took into custody is the 58 year old that I speak of, Ryan Routh. He describes himself as self-employed in the affordable housing area. [00:00:50] He claims to build affordable housing in Hawaii for a company known as Camp Box Honolulu. Now, he's been a registered independent since 2012, but clearly has been supporting Democrats and has donated money for Democratic causes since 2019. [00:01:07] In fact, FEC filings show that between September of 2019 and March of 2020, he donated about $140 to Actblue. But he was also randomly a fan of Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley [00:01:23] and encouraged them to continue their campaigns, writing on Twitter to Ramaswamy, quote, you cannot quit. Why? You must stay on the ballot to the end. You must fight. You must continue giving speeches and push all the way to Election Day. No matter the election results. [00:01:39] Do not give in and join Nikki and keep working. Never give up. And I know we forget things very quickly with the rapid news cycle, but Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley despised each other and probably continue to despise each other. But nonetheless, he tweeted to Nikki Haley as well, saying please join Vivek Ramaswamy as a team of pres and VP. We must do [00:02:00] this now to create a winning ticket. Now that we all can get behind. Please do not be selfish and arrogant, partner. Now, to change the course of this election, break norms and give us an option. But he also criticized Donald Trump on social media and regurgitated [00:02:17] some lines that we have heard, you know, repeated by some Democrats. He said democracy is on the ballot and we cannot lose. We cannot afford to fail. The world is counting on us to show the way. He tweeted to Trump back in June of 2020. While he supported keep in mind he did support the Republican in 2016, he voted [00:02:36] for him in 2016 and in this post he wrote, I and the world hope that President Trump would be different and better than the candidate, but we all were greatly disappointed and it seems you are getting worse and devolving. Are you? Then he uses a slur. [00:02:53] I will be glad when you're gone. So I'm going to get into all the Ukraine stuff, including his self-published book, which he published last year, in just a moment. But I wanted to pause to get your thoughts so far, Jake. - Yeah. - Hey, don't scroll away. Come back, come back. Because before the video continues, we just want to urge you to lend your support [00:03:11] to tweet you power our honest reporting. You do it at Titcomb Slash Team and we love you for it. So he voted for Trump in 2016. He's supporting people like Vivek Ramaswamy who have very similar thoughts to Donald Trump. So does that make him a Republican? And that's why we're pointing it out. [00:03:29] Haha. It was actually Trump support. No, that's not the point guys. The point is mentally unbalanced. People do mentally unbalanced things and say mentally unbalanced things. So that's why he's like, oh, I love Trump, I hate Trump. Oh. Biden and Harris are great. We should support them also. [00:03:48] Vivek Ramaswamy what and Nikki Haley, are you saying Nikki Haley? Joe Biden maybe there isn't that much of a big difference. Okay, but there's a giant difference with Vivek Ramaswamy. Ramaswami, but he the guy doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. He's committed a lot of crimes. [00:04:04] He's an unstable dude who we're going to tell you about how he tried to get into the Ukrainian military and fight back. So I think we spend like when somebody says, hey, I am going to kill people because I want to start a race war, as happened in Charleston, right? [00:04:21] In the church shooting or the shooting in El Paso. I want to go kill Mexicans or the temple shootings, or I want to go kill Jews, etc. That is relevant because it helps us understand where is this coming from? Or a fundamentalist Muslim does an attack? Where is this coming from? [00:04:37] How can we prevent it, etc. But like parsing out the exact motivations of loons is not overly helpful on either direction. So if you're going oh no, he's just a Trump supporter. No, that's no, he's mentally unbalanced. [00:04:53] Oh, he's just a Democrat who loves Democrats. No, he's mentally unbalanced. Look at he's all over the board on politics because this stable guys don't try to assassinate presidents. Not that complicated. So The New York Times and the Associated Press found a book [00:05:10] that he self-published last year. The book is titled Ukraine's Unwinnable War, and in it he expresses his searing hatred for Vladimir Putin. He has a little bit of a savior complex, especially with the Ukraine stuff. He's obsessed with the Ukraine war, attempted to recruit mercenaries [00:05:32] from Afghanistan to help defend Ukraine against Russia. We're going to get to that in just a moment, but just real quick. Focusing on his self-published book. Many pages include graphic and bloody images of soldiers and civilians from conflicts around the world. [00:05:47] He's apparently furious with Joe Biden for withdrawing from Afghanistan, and he also refers to Trump in the book. I mean, he talks about Trump quite a bit. According to a review of the book from The New York Times, but he refers to Trump as fool, idiot, buffoon. And he's furious that Trump also destroyed the Iran nuclear deal, which, of course, [00:06:06] was the deal negotiated by the Obama administration and other Western allies. And he says about the Iran nuclear deal to Iran, Iran, I apologize. You are free to assassinate Trump. Now, he also tagged President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris [00:06:24] in separate posts, encouraging them to visit the injured at the rally during the first assassination attempt. So the individuals who were hurt and also the, the gentleman who was shot and killed in the first assassination attempt, he felt that Biden and Harris needed to show some empathy and support [00:06:43] for the family and the wounded. You and Biden should visit the injured people in the hospital from the Trump rally and attend the funeral of the murdered firemen. Firemen. Trump will never do anything for them, he wrote in a post directed at Harris. And then in an April post on X tagging Biden's presidential account, [00:07:00] he wrote Biden's campaign should be called something like Kdaf. Keep America democratic and free. Trump should be MRSA. Make Americans slaves again. Master democracy is on the ballot and we cannot lose. [00:07:18] So yeah, I mean, he seemed to have some pretty grandiose views of himself. He thinks that he's some sort of savior. That was definitely clear in what he would say about Ukraine and his role in helping Ukraine defend itself against Russia. [00:07:34] But it is clear that the one constant that you notice in his writings is that he absolutely despised Donald Trump. Yeah. Lately, like I said, he voted for him in 2016. The thing that I saw throughout was the guy's nuts. [00:07:50] The Ukrainians, whose job is to help Non-ukrainians come in to help the Ukrainian military are like, watch out for this guy. He's totally nuts. Don't listen to him, he's lying, etc.. Right. So and look guys, whenever it's a fundamentalist doing an assassination [00:08:08] attempt, a bombing or shooting, etc., you think they're rational? No, they're all unbalanced. They just are using one thing or another as a trigger. So look, all that stuff about the mass of the it is what it is at this point. [00:08:25] He definitely hates Trump and likes Biden and and presumably Harris. Wallace. Right. Yeah. But the idea that Democrats shouldn't say democracy is on the ballot because this guy said it. That's not a thing. [00:08:40] Hey, be careful about, hey, the domestic enemies within. Somebody should do something about it. That's dangerous rhetoric. Saying democracy is on the ballot. Well, what do you want me to do? The the Trump is the one who put it on the ballot by saying, hey, remember the last time when I lost and I tried to burn the place down [00:08:56] and I try to do a coup against America and try to terminate the Constitution. Yeah, democracy is on the ballot because of Trump. If he didn't do that stuff, nobody would say it. And this whole idea of like, Hitler was a vegetarian, so no one should be a vegetarian. No, that doesn't make any sense at all. [00:09:12] So in regard to Ukraine and his support for it, I just want to give you a taste of some of the stuff that he had posted. He said, I am willing to fly to Krakow and go to the border of Ukraine to volunteer and fight and die. We didn't add those all caps, just, you know, parts of that statement [00:09:29] that was his doing. Can I be the example we must win, he said in an ex post in March of 2022. And then he thought of himself as an off the books liaison for the Ukrainian government, and tried to encourage foreigners [00:09:44] to fight in the war on behalf of Ukraine. But to Jenk's point, I want to be clear this isn't verified, but these are posts from last June and this is an individual who identifies himself on X as a veteran of Ukraines international legion. [00:10:00] He pushed back on Ruths claims that hes like an off the books liaison for Ukraine and is helping to recruit people for their military. He says, warning about Ryan Routh he is not and never has been associated with the International Legion or the Ukrainian armed forces at all. [00:10:16] He is not and never has been a Legion recruiter. He is misrepresenting himself and lying to many people. Ryan Routh has many, many public Facebook posts about getting soldiers into Ukraine in 2023 and 2024. He has no authority to act on behalf of Ukraine and ignores laws about visas. [00:10:35] And I'll just give you one more. From this thread. He writes that Routh is either human trafficking, scamming people, or attempting to break as many countries laws as he can by trying to smuggle people into Ukraine to fight. This is unethical, unprofessional, and unacceptable. Worse, he is doing this by insisting he is helping Ukraine. [00:10:54] Again, I want to reiterate these are posts on X dating back to June of this year. And what's also a little strange is that a lot of big name mainstream news publications actually interviewed him, right? So The New York Times had previously interviewed him [00:11:11] about his views on Ukraine. So did Newsweek Romania and Semafor. So here's a clip from Newsweek Romania's interview with the would be assassin. This is about good versus evil. This is a storybook. You know, any movie we've ever watched this is definitely evil against good. [00:11:30] I mean, we're battling a situation here where, you know, the Ukrainians and the rest of the world are caring and kind and and generous and unselfish and, and take care of one another. And it's just a matter of, you know, we need to stand up for that. [00:11:47] That is the most important thing in the world, is just to show human beings that we're kind and we're caring and that we take care of one another, and that the world is united so that we feed each other and make sure that, you know, we all move forward as, as one collective, whole unit. [00:12:04] This whole I mean, everything is so bizarre about this guy. Like the fact that he didn't appear unhinged enough to avoid using him in interviews about a serious conflict in Ukraine. Like, I think that's strange. And it wasn't just Newsweek and Romania again. [00:12:21] It was Semafor. It was New York Times. The whole thing is super bizarre. Yeah, I think I can explain it. I think there's a connecting theme here. So he's desperately looking for attention. So and he wants to make an impact in the world. So but he's doing it in all the wrong ways. [00:12:37] So let me break it down into two component parts here. First of all, in Ukraine, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia could be terrible. But it doesn't mean that you should break a whole bunch of laws trying to fight against it, right? And just because this guy happened to break a whole bunch of laws trying to [00:12:53] fight against the Russian invasion doesn't make the Russian invasion a good thing. You see how those two things are totally different than each other? Right. So. But he is looking for. How do I help? But the thing that he needs. And this fits with what others have said too. [00:13:08] So his son says no, he's a great guy and he's been wonderful to me my whole life. He's a great dad. ET cetera. Neutral observers say he seems very calm and polite. Not normally what you see in an unhinged person and what he has been doing throughout. And you see it in that interview, too. [00:13:24] He is looking for a clear good versus evil because he wants to be impactful and get attention. So the minute he thinks, okay, I have a clear evil. So he says it about Putin over and over again. Putin is evil. He did this invasion that is very clear when it comes to Kim Jong UN. [00:13:42] He's like, oh, that was more complicated because he's evil. But on the other hand, he talked to Dennis Rodman and he was educated in the West. And maybe we can talk him out of it. So then he comes on to Trump and has now decided that Trump [00:13:57] is in the clear evil category. So he's going to go and do something about it. He couldn't join the Ukrainian army. He couldn't fight against Putin. He couldn't do any of these things. And he thinks in his mind, oh, I got it. This is my purpose to do something against evil. [00:14:12] But that's the problem with those kind of assumptions. Because who made you God? Who made you judge, jury and executioner literally in this case, who made you the arbiter of evil? And what are you sure the thing you're not you're doing isn't evil and will lead [00:14:28] to much greater evils because of the consequences and the reactions to it. So that's why, you know, looking at this, the whole thing of would you go back and kill Hitler is actually a super dangerous hypothetical people shouldn't engage in, because in the real world, no one knows who Hitler is until he's Hitler, right? [00:14:45] So when people go, I think he might be headed in that direction. So why don't I go ahead and kill him? No. Terrible idea, terrible idea. Because if democracy is on the ballot and you murder one of the people on the ballot. You're the one who killed democracy. Do you see how ironic that is? Oh, 50% or 40%, whatever the number is wants to vote for him, I don't care. [00:15:04] I want to take him off the ballot single handedly. How is that pro democracy? It isn't. He's an unstable guy looking to be a hero in all the wrong ways and instead becomes the villain. So he also has a criminal record. He had been arrested previously eight separate times, mostly for minor offenses [00:15:23] and things like not paying his taxes, traffic violations, things like that. But the most serious arrest happened in December of 2022. So there's a story about it by News and Record in Greensboro, North Carolina, [00:15:40] where they write that a man with the same name was arrested after a three hour standoff with police. He was reportedly charged with carrying a concealed weapon and possessing a weapon of mass Destruction. What it was referring to was a fully automatic machine gun, but I just. [00:15:58] I just want to go back to the date that this arrest happened, December of 2002. And he was found with a weapon of mass destruction. Like, again, a little bit bizarre, considering, like, what that era was like in America. [00:16:15] I mean, it was a little over a year after nine over 11 happened. Everyone was on high alert. I mean, you'd have, like, literal, like elementary school kids who drew a gun, like in a doodle, getting arrested. Like, it's crazy to me that this guy was caught with a weapon of mass destruction. [00:16:33] And it's like. Anyway, I guess that's the era we live in right now, right? Like, no. Well, I mean, look, there's I take that in two different ways. So number one, if you're ever wondering who the suspect might be in an assassination attempt, and one of the guys on the list has holed himself up in a standoff with police [00:16:50] with dangerous weapons before. That's the guy. That's the guy. He has a tendency to do that. That's why I believe in red flag laws. ET cetera. And. But then the right wing goes, no. Just because somebody was had committed a crime with a dangerous weapon before doesn't mean they shouldn't have 20 now. No, it does mean that. It does mean that, to be. [00:17:08] Fair, he was not able to legally possess a firearm, right, as a convicted criminal. But he had one anyway. Yeah. So that's a very fair point. And guys we get it. People will be able to get guns too. And yes, people will be able to. [00:17:23] It still will do some rape when it's illegal. It doesn't mean we should make rape legal. Okay. So I'm glad that it's illegal that he had a weapon even though he wound up getting it. And by the way, it was easier to arrest him because he had a weapon in an illegal way. Otherwise, if he had it in a legal way, they would have had trouble arresting. [00:17:42] I mean, they would have arrested him, of course, because they thought he was going to take a shot at the president. But then you get into dicey territory. He didn't take the shot. How do you know his intent, etc. But at least in this case, because we have the right laws. What he did was illegal and that allows allowed us to arrest him. [00:17:58] But look, one more thing about why didn't they make a bigger deal out of the weapon of mass destruction back in oh two and stuff? Look, there's an uncomfortable answer there. Because he's white. Yeah. Like, honestly, like, just imagine we're talking about a muslim guy in December of [00:18:17] 2002 with what the authorities referred to as a weapon of mass destruction. There's no chance that that guy wouldn't get arrested and spent a long time in prison. - He'd be. - In prison right. Now. Yeah. Let alone everything else that would come from it. But. And this is. But it's guys this. [00:18:32] Now he hates Trump right before he voted for Trump. But we say white and sometimes we say right winger. And in a situation like this it's usually kind of meshed together. Why? Because cops when they see a white guy, especially if it's a right winger. [00:18:49] But in this case, again, complicated. They think, oh, that's a good Second Amendment believing American. And, you know, he's got a right to that weapon. He's got a right to that weapon. They see a muslim guy, a black guy, etc., a Latino Latino with a weapon. They go, oh, dangerous. [00:19:04] I got to investigate that, find out what's going on. And so those are the inherent biases that are built in to a lot of us, to maybe all of us. Right. It doesn't mean that, like, you know, there's we can talk about policy in regard to that. [00:19:20] But for the moment being, that's probably the simple answer to why they didn't do much about it back in the day. Thanks for watching The Young Turks really appreciate it. Another way to show support is through YouTube memberships. You'll get to interact with us more. There's live chat emojis, badges. 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