Relief, but questions, on alleged assassination plan

Opinion editor’s note: Editorials represent the opinions of the Minnesota Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.

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The Minnesota Star Tribune Editorial Board shares readers’ relief that neither former President Donald Trump nor anyone else was harmed in what the FBI labeled as “what appears to be an attempted assassination” on Sunday at Trump’s golf club in West Palm Beach, Fla.

That welcome outcome to this dangerous, disturbing episode is because of the vigilance and valor of U.S. Secret Service agents stationed a few holes up from Trump. After spotting a high-powered rifle through the course’s shrubbery about 400 yards away from the former president, an agent fired. The gunman then dropped his weapon, which was found along with two backpacks, a scope and a GoPro camera.

Additional heroics soon emerged, including from a witness who got the fleeing suspect’s license plate number as well as local law enforcement authorities who soon apprehended the man, later identified as 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh, most recently of Hawaii.

“THE JOB DONE WAS ABSOLUTELY OUTSTANDING,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account in a post that thanked the Secret Service and local law-enforcement personnel. Indeed, it was. But key questions remain, just as they did after the first attempt on Trump’s life at a July 13 election rally in Pennsylvania. Among them is how Routh was able to get so close to the former president and whether the protection protocol needs to be increased again, just as it was after the previous assassination attempt, which killed a rallygoer and wounded the former president and current Republican nominee himself.

“The Secret Service needs more help,” President Joe Biden told reporters on Monday after expressing his relief that his predecessor was OK. That clearly appears to be the case. Biden should lead that effort on an executive level and should expect an overwhelming if not unanimous congressional cohort to support him. While Trump already had increased protection compared to previous presidents, his unique status as a former and perhaps future president should result in protection commensurate to the current chief executive.

On Monday, Routh was charged with possessing a firearm despite a previous felony conviction as well as possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. Routh, who authorities estimate was camped outside the course for nearly 12 hours before being spotted, may face more charges in an investigation by multiple entities that will try to determine what drove him to this apparent assassination plan.

But as happens in these incidents, many have already made those determinations, based in part on his social media and political profile. And already, some of these conclusions, however premature, have entered the vitriolic environment enveloping the election, let alone American society writ large.

Such human behavior is not new, of course — it was Shakespeare, after all, who when considering caution coined the phrase, “The better part of valor is discretion.” (Or, in more modern parlance, that discretion is the better part of valor.) What is new are the technological transformations that have made it so fast and facile to make and amplify judgments that may not eventually be supported by facts — facts that will, in due time, reveal more of Routh’s motivation, method and how he obtained such lethal weaponry despite his criminal background.

So it’s best for everyone, citizens and politicians alike, to stay cool amid the already red-hot rhetoric that marks, and mars, this election and this era. It’s still seven weeks until Election Day, and waiting for results (and wading through any challenges) may take even longer.