The man alleged to have plotted an assassination attempt on Donald Trump penned a lengthy letter from his jailhouse in which he railed against the Democrats and contemplated civil war, according to a report.
The letter was sent to a Politico reporter just days before the election, but was published by the outlet on Tuesday.
In it, Ryan Routh — the man arrested after a chase from a Trump golf course in Florida — attacked both political parties and made incriminating comments, Politico reported.
It also urged Americans to surround the Capitol if Trump lost the election to protect it from another Jan.6-style riot.
Politico said it asked Routh’s lawyer to confirm the validity of the letter, and didn’t receive a response. The outlet concluded that it was genuinely written by the man based on handwriting and other clues.
“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 attemptedmurder,” Politico wrote.
It added, “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.”
Politico reported that the letter may give insight into why Routh allegedly planned to kill Trump. He’s accused of spending hours in the bushes with a weapon, but was chased and caught after an aide to the now-president-elect saw him.
Trump railed against the Democrats after the attempt — the second against him in the campaign season. He said, “Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at.”
But Routh’s letter shows no affinity to the Democratic Party.
“I am unclear how we allowed ourselves to fall into just a two-party system,” he 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.”
He went on, “[W]ith our national debt swallowing us whole and bankruptcy imminent we may as well fix this problem balls out.”
“We all wonder why we end up with such flawed candidates, when our system is designed to exclude most everyone.”
He also wrote, “A guard [in] Palm Beach asked jokingly if I was a democrat — I said, ‘NO — Independent — I vote for the best candidate.’”
He also wrote warnings concerning the election. Again, the letter was written before Trump’s victory.
He urged that, if Trump won, the Biden government needed “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.
And, if he lost, he wrote that people needed “to encircle the capitol” to prevent another attack.
“At multiple points, he contemplated the prospect of another ‘civil war,’” Politico reported.
Routh also referred to himself and Thomas Matthew Crooks, the man killed in Butler, Pennsylvania, after shots were fired at Trump at a rally, Routh, as being “ready to die for freedom and democracy.”
The Politico report concluded, “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.”
