(TheProudRepublic.com) – A bombshell admission from the acting director of the Secret Service revealed that the agency’s agents did not search the outskirts of GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s Florida golf course where his would-be assassin was hiding.
The agents did not do this because the former president’s visit was planned as an “off-the-record” event.
Federal prosecutors stated that 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh set up a sniper’s nest at the edge of Trump International West Palm Beach and managed to stay hidden for nearly 12 hours before Trump began his round of golf on Sunday afternoon.
Acting Secret Service head Ronald Rowe Jr. explained that agents did not conduct a thorough search of the area because Trump’s visit was not on his official schedule.
“The president wasn’t even really supposed to go there. It was not on his official schedule,” Rowe told reporters, defending the security measures.
“And so we put together a security plan — and that security plan worked,” Rowe said, referring to the arrest of Routh before he could fire any shots.
Moreover, Rowe did not specify if the “off-the-record” nature of the visit meant that agents did not have enough time to check the golf course’s perimeter properly.
However, the head of the Secret Service praised the agents who spotted the muzzle of an AK-style rifle protruding from the bushes and fired at the suspect before he could shoot.
The suspect allegedly dropped his rifle when agents opened fire and fled in an SUV, leaving behind his firearm, two backpacks, and a GoPro camera,
He later was apprehended and arrested about 40 minutes later on Interstate 95, authorities said.
In addition, Rowe’s comments come amid intense scrutiny of the Secret Service following the first attempt on Trump’s life at a campaign rally in Butler, PA, on July 13
Rowe, who took over after the agency’s previous leader, Kimberly Cheatle, resigned following that attack, had previously expressed his “shame” over the security failures during the earlier incident.
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