JD Vance disclosed details of a phone call with Donald Trump that took place just minutes after the former president became the target of a second assassination attempt on Sunday.
“He says, ‘JD, you’re not going to believe this, but they tried to do it again,’” Vance said Trump told him on a phone call 10 minutes after Secret Service agents spotted the barrel of an AK-47-style rifle jutting out of a hedgerow at Trump’s international golf course in Palm Beach, where he was playing a round.
Vance was home in Cincinnati with his children on Sunday when his phone rang — “and it’s Donald J Trump,” he told a rally crowd at the Faith and Freedom Coalition event in Georgia.
“I said, ‘No, you’re joshing me. But, what’s going on here, sir?’” Vance said, according to the New York Post.
Trump informed him that the gunman, later identified as Ryan Wesley Routh from Hawaii, had planned the second assassination attempt on his life, which occurred just two months after the first attempt.
“I was playing golf and the Secret Service found somebody who was trying to shoot me,” Vance said Trump told him. “I said, ‘Oh my Lord, sir, I’m so glad you’re okay,’” Vance said he told the former president in response.
Vance also said that Trump told him he was relieved that the plot was uncovered by “pissed off” that he couldn’t complete his birdie putt.
Secret Service agents positioned one hole ahead of Trump spotted the gunman aiming his rifle through the golf course’s chain-link fence around 2 p.m. They promptly fired at him, causing the suspect to flee.
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was reportedly located between 300 and 500 yards from Trump but did not discharge his weapon before being engaged by the agents.
He then ran to his car and drove approximately 40 miles north before being pulled over and arrested on I-95 shortly thereafter, The Post noted.
In July, Donald Trump narrowly escaped an assassination attempt when a bullet grazed his ear during a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania. The 20-year-old suspect, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was fatally shot by law enforcement officers. Tragically, the incident also resulted in the death of one attendee and left two others seriously injured.
Following this second attempt, Secret Service veteran and prominent political commentator Dan Bongino suggested the possibility of a “mole” within the Secret Service or Department of Homeland Security.
“I have to ask you all a really troubling question now that I promised you 10 years ago I would have called myself nuts for asking this,” Bongino said before a long pause. “Is there a mole inside the DHS or Secret Service?”
Bongino highlighted several documented cases of foreign nationals or governments attempting to infiltrate and undermine federal agencies. He cited a notable example where two individuals were convicted of impersonating federal agents in an elaborate scheme that deceived the Secret Service.
“Folks, what happened yesterday in Secret Service jargon, the movement to the golf, the golf course, Donald Trump going to play golf at the golf course is what we call an OTR. Stands for an off-the-record movement, meaning it’s not on the official schedule, meaning very few people have access to it,” Bongino explained.
“What makes me even more curious about what happened yesterday is apparently the decision to golf was made at the last minute. Meaning, there were probably – when the decision was made, less than 10 people who knew about it. How’d this guy know to set up there?”
Bongino went on to note that Routh — who is originally from North Carolina and currently lives in Hawaii — was not familiar with the area.
“How did he know how to set up, and where to set up, and that Trump was going to be there? Folks, the mole may not be a foreign national himself. I don’t want you to think Jason Bourne stuff. Don’t overcomplicate what doesn’t need to be overcomplicated,” he continued.
“Is there a honeypot trap going on in the Secret Service? Is there a guy or a woman in the Secret Service having a relationship with someone who is not who they say they are? The Iranians have been running these traps in Israel and elsewhere. The Iranians who want to kill President Trump. Folks, how do we know that there’s not some kind of honeypot trap and that some agent or some DHS personnel, someone who has to be notified, is not in a relationship with someone?”
