It seems pretty clear that Ryan Routh, the would-be Trump assassin who got flushed out by one alert Secret Service agent while Trump was golfing at his West Palm Beach course, is an attention whore with delusions of grandeur.

So, why give the attention whore more attention? Good question. Let’s ask POLITICO reporter Ankush Khardori. You remember him – he’s the same “journalist” and former DOJ prosecutor that is cheerleading a Hunter Biden pardon or commutation, on the grounds of “Orange Man Bad, So Biden Can Do What He Wants.” Hmmmmm, I wonder why Ryan Routh, a legit unhinged nutcase, would feel like Khardori is someone who would listen to him???

Khardori then proved the point by publishing large chunks of a letter that Ryan Routh sent specifically to him, while acknowledging that other media outlets also received this letter.

… I was intrigued when I received a four-page letter at POLITICO’s office that was addressed to me and appeared to be from Routh himself. The top of the line on the return address was “Trump Alleged Shooter” and below that was Routh’s name, inmate number and an address for the federal detention center in Miami where he has been held since mid-September, when Routh allegedly tried to kill Trump at his Florida golf course.

It eventually became clear the letter was, in fact, from Routh. The handwriting closely resembled the handwriting in a letter the Justice Department has publicly attributed to Routh as evidence of his plan to kill Trump, and the signature closely matched Routh’s signature from a document prepared in 2015. We sent a copy of the envelope to Routh’s lawyers and asked them to let us know if it was not from him; they declined to comment. In recent weeks, Routh also apparently sent a similar letter to the Palm Beach Post.

And then comes the explanation.

In deciding to publish this story, we were not eager to appear as if we were simply providing a platform for the political views of someone accused of attempted murder. It is generally not a good idea simply to take the claims of an accused or convicted criminal at face value. They can have agendas and delusions — sometimes both.

But ultimately, Routh’s letter — which includes potentially incriminating references to the attempt on Trump’s life and a self-description of his political beliefs — is newsworthy. There was, after all, legitimate and widespread media coverage when federal prosecutors made public part of an earlier letter that they have attributed to Routh — a somewhat confusing letter that he appears to have written several months prior to his arrest, and in which he appears at the time to have contemplated a failed assassination attempt. On top of that, Routh apparently tried to kill a leading candidate for president — now the president-elect — but did not leave a formal manifesto, and he is scheduled to stand trial in February. On an even more basic level, if Routh held a press conference, we would cover it.

Routh’s new correspondence may shed some light on what drove him to make an attempt on Trump’s life — though we should also approach it with a measure of caution. He may simply be a deeply disturbed individual.

Now, we have a pretty good idea why Routh was focused on assassinating Donald Trump – and he came very close to achieving his stated purpose, though he lacked the courage of his convictions to actually pull the trigger. That, combined with his fleeing when being fired upon, plus his letter offering money to someone who succeeded, screams that this was all done for attention – but he is the one now charged with attempted assassination.

And now Khardori is giving him even more attention – and by extension, those of us who write about it are as well. Because this is an open case, with Routh moving to trial, what he does write here goes to motive. Prosecutors are probably thrilled that POLITICO (and the Palm Beach Post) decided to publish this letter – it will serve as evidence in the case to keep Routh locked up for years to come. But it says nothing good about Ankush Khardori that a delusional wannabe assassin saw him a receptive listener to his complaints about Donald Trump, the two-party system, and demanding “peace” in the Middle East.

It also says nothing good about the racheting up of political tension over the last four years.

Ryan Routh — the second would-be Trump assassin — sent letters to Palm Beach Post & Politico from jail after his arrrest, and it appears from his writing he may have been motivated by all of the “dictator” rhetoric pushed by Dems.https://t.co/gTCthBNdF6https://t.co/4Nfm3Ck43q pic.twitter.com/cuKGzdxMJ9

— Jerry Dunleavy IV 🇺🇸 (@JerryDunleavy) November 26, 2024

What does Routh want? According to him, peace at any price. That includes killing a presidential candidate, and allowing Iran to control the Middle East.

“I am unclear how we allowed ourselves to fall into just a two-party system,” Routh wrote, “but it infuriates me. My entire life has been plagued by D’s and R’s. It seems not long ago there was a push for the libertarian party and now a green party and maybe Truth party. But for some reason our leaders have not allowed any other party [to] be recognized in any race.”

Routh proceeded to criticize “the two ruling parties” and argued that “[w]ith our national debt swallowing us whole and bankruptcy imminent we may as well fix this problem balls out.” He appeared to call for full public campaign financing in order to “eliminate private donations” and also takes issue with “gridlock in Congress.”

“We all wonder why we end up with such flawed candidates,” Routh wrote, “when our system is designed to exclude most everyone.”

At one point in the letter, Routh explicitly disclaimed any affiliation with the Democratic Party. “A guard [in] Palm Beach asked jokingly if I was a democrat — I said, ‘NO — Independent — I vote for the best candidate.’”

This letter was apparently written before the election, because Routh has ideas regarding what should happen if Trump loses.

To be sure, Routh is a vigorous Trump opponent. He wrote his letter before the election and urged the country, in the event of a Trump victory, “to remove the power of our military by the President and place it with Congress before January.” “We must limit all Presidential power before Trump seizes our country,” he wrote. He referred to Trump at one point as a “dictator.” (Last year, Trump said he would not be a dictator if reelected “except for day one.”)

In the event that Trump lost, Routh called on Americans “to encircle the capitol” in order to prevent another siege of the U.S. Capitol akin to the one that occurred on Jan. 6, 2021. At multiple points, he contemplated the prospect of another “civil war.” (For the record, this is not a good idea, to put it as mildly as possible.)

Routh referred to himself multiple times as the “Trump Alleged Shooter,” perhaps to avoid an explicit confession, but at one point, he linked himself directly to Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was the first person who tried to assassinate Trump this year, during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Crooks was killed on sight by a Secret Service sniper; Routh has been charged with the attempted assassination of Trump but has pleaded not guilty. Routh described them both, however, as being “ready to die for freedom and democracy.”

Seeing as Routh dropped his rifle and ran when confronted by a Secret Service agent, I don’t think he was “ready to die” for what he says he believes in. But he does have Opinions™ on the Middle East.

The letter continued with a short section urging people to vote against Trump and criticized him for having “destroyed the MidEast.” Routh took specific issue with Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal — name-checking the “JCPOA” — and blamed Trump “for all those lives lost and all the destruction” in the region since.

Routh closed with a call for an agreement to end the conflict in the Middle East. “We must demand that Israel stop their attacks and demand that all parties come to the table and find common ground,” he writes. He urged Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to meet with “the new president of Iran and Hamas, Hezbollah and [the Houthis for] as long as it takes.”

“My fellowmen,” Routh concluded, “please demand peace.”

Routh here demonstrates the same naiveté that led him to his Ukraine fanaticism – and got him a whole lot of media attention – and apparently the current conflict is all Trump and Israel’s fault. These are slogans, not actual foreign policy solutions. But Routh is a delusional attention whore, which means that he doesn’t need actual solutions, only soundbites. What did Khardori expect?

In the end, Khardori concludes:

Take this all for what it’s worth, which may not be much. After all, the basic message — a call for peace from someone who appears to have attempted an assassination — is not exactly a coherent or compelling one in the first place.

No shit, Sherlock.

In the end, we can’t know what may have driven an agitated mind to attempt a heinous act. You don’t have to believe Routh based on what he put in his letter. He’s not exactly a reliable narrator. But you also don’t have to take the word of partisan politicians. The only thing for certain in this polarized climate is that the debate isn’t going away.

The debate over WHAT? Overheated rhetoric? Presidential security? Motives for an assassination attempt? WHAT? Routh is a crazed lunatic, but Khardori is attempting to read the guy’s organic tea leaves and sounding “intellectual” about it. “We just might never know,” he sighs. OR, this is a nutjob who nearly committed a cold-blooded murder, and he should never be a free man again.

I’d say the prosecutor’s case against Routh just got a whole lot easier. He is supposed to appear in court on December 11th, with the trial scheduled to start in February. Wouldn’t it be fittingly ironic if Donald Trump had already brokered a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia, and given Israel everything it needed to defend itself while Iran backed off, by the time this trial starts?

Featured image via the Martin County Sheriff’s Office on Wikimedia Commons, cropped, public domain