Photo: Science Photo Library RF
1 FBI Says Trump Reported Safe After "Attempted Assassination"
Early yesterday, reports emerged that there had been gunfire near former President Donald Trump as he played golf at his club in West Palm Beach, Florida. Just a few hours later, law enforcement held a press conference to announce that the gunfire was from Secret Service agents firing at an attempted assassin. A suspect was in the shrubbery on the edge of the course about one hold ahead of the former president, and agents saw “a rifle barrel sticking out of the woods and opened fire.” The man, identified as Ryan Wesley Routh, from North Carolina and currently living in Hawaii. Routh ran and drove off in an SUV, but Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said a witness saw him fleeing and took a picture of the suspect’s vehicle. He was arrested in short order. Sheriff Bradshaw said the gunman had an AK-style rifle with a scope, two backpacks “with ceramic tile in them,” and a GoPro camera Bradshaw said he was planning to use to take pictures. Routh was reportedly convicted in 2002 of possession of a weapon of mass destruction after a three-hour standoff with police, with the weapon being described as a full automatic machine gun by News & Record. Routh reportedly last voted in the 2024 Democratic primary, despite previously having been a supporter of Trump. The news was received by universal condemnation of political violence from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, including Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
2 Polaris Dawn Mission Splashed Down In Gulf After Record-Setting Mission
Four crewmembers splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico yesterday morning after setting a record. The Polaris Dawn mission set an altitude record for a private spacecraft and also featured the first two non-governmental spacewalks in history. Billionaire Jared Isaacman, Anna Menon, Sarah Gillis, and pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet spent five days in space, reaching a high point of 875-miles above the surface of the Earth, farther than any human has been from the planet since the last Apollo trip to the moon in 1972. It was the first of three planned trips by Isaacman in cooperation with Musk. The second flight will be aboard another Crew Dragon mission, and the third will be the first piloted flight of SpaceX’s Super Heavy Starship rocket that’s currently being built in Texas. SpaceX has now launched 54 people into orbit since May 2020.
3 Fani Willis Misses Georgia State Senate Hearing
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis skipped a state Senate committee hearing on Friday, challenging the legality of the subpoenas she received to appear. Willis is leading the Georgia election interference case against former President Donald Trump, and the hearing in front of the Republican-led committee was supposed to include “sworn testimony” from Willis. Her attorney said Willis “will not appear until there has been a judicial determination of the validity of the subpoena.”