Under the Dome: Latest update in apparent Trump assassination attempt
Good morning! ☀️And welcome back to Under the Dome, which returns to your inbox today after a brief summer break! We will be publishing these politics newsletters Tuesday through Friday, as well as our Sunday installment focused on the governor’s race, for the next 10 weeks.
Here’s a look at what you need to know.
NC GUNMAN APPEARS IN COURT AFTER TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
Accused gunman Ryan Wesley Routh of Greensboro appeared Monday in a Florida courtroom after this weekend’s apparent assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump at his West Palm Beach golf course in Florida.
Routh, 58, is a convicted felon with a long rap sheet. He told Judge Ryon M. McCabe on Monday at the Paul G. Rogers Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in West Palm Beach that:
He has no money.
He owns no property.
He couldn’t afford an attorney.
After the Sunday incident, Routh was charged with firearms possession by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number, according to a report by the Miami Herald. More serious charges were likely pending as of Monday night.
What we know has happened:
Routh is accused of hiding in the bushes with a loaded SKS-style rifle and trying to assassinate former Trump at his South Florida golf club.
The Secret Service spotted the gun and fired shots, but the suspected gunman escaped. Routh was later arrested.
Routh is a former roofer who once barricaded himself with a weapon at his company’s facility in North Carolina.
Routh was assigned a federal public defender.
He said he supports an adult son, age 25.
Trump wasn’t harmed and was several hundred yards away when the shooting began around 1:30 p.m. Sunday, the Miami Herald reports.
Recovered in the bushes near where the Secret Service spotted the suspect after noticing the barrel of his gun protruding through a fence were the rifle, two backpacks and a GoPro camera.
The shooting comes months after Trump was grazed by a bullet in an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania.
Read Danielle Battaglia’s story to find out more about Routh’s political views and criminal history.
NC SUPREME COURT CANDIDATE RELEASES NEW AD
North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs, a Democrat, released a campaign ad Monday targeting her opponent on abortion.
“As women, we should be in charge of our own reproductive health care – but our rights are at risk,” Riggs says in the ad, which is the first of her reelection campaign.
She goes on to say that Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the Republican candidate for governor, wants to ban abortion with no exceptions.
“My opponent could decide if his ban becomes law,” Riggs says, referring to Republican Jefferson Griffin, a judge on the Court of Appeals who is running to unseat her.
Text overlaid on top of Griffin’s image says he “could be the deciding vote.”
If Griffin wins, the state Supreme Court will have a 6-1 Republican majority, making it unlikely that any one Republican justice would cast the decisive vote in a hypothetical case challenging further abortion restrictions.
As for the claim about Robinson, he has expressed support for different abortion restrictions at different times. Earlier this month, audio of Robinson saying he wants to get abortion to “zero” weeks was released by a Democratic group.
This appears to contradict his message in an ad released last month, in which he said he stands by the state’s current abortion law, which bans the procedure after 12 weeks with exceptions.
— Kyle Ingram
Here’s what else the Under the Dome politics team is working on:
Danielle Battaglia reports that presidential campaigners — both Democrat and Republican — will be in North Carolina this week. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democrats’ nominee for vice president, visits today in Asheville while Republican former President Donald Trump goes to Wilmington on Saturday and running mate Sen. JD Vance will stop in Raleigh on Wednesday.
Check out this report by Chantal Allam about how state Sen. Natasha Marcus launched RateHikeMike.com, a website which is searchable so users can see how much rates have increased by county under Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey. Causey, a two-term Republican commissioner, is seeking reelection. His challenger, Marcus, a Democrat, is a three-term state senator from Mecklenburg County.
During a recent candidate forum for state superintendent, Democratic nominee Mo Green brought up GOP nominee Michele Morrow’s past social media posts about killing Democrats like former President Barack Obama, according to a report by T. Keung Hui. The forum was at N.C. State’s McKimmon Center in Raleigh and was organized by Public Schools First NC and the NC PTA. The event was closed to the media and public but was streamed online by WRAL.
Here’s what’s happening elsewhere:
Chris Cooper, the Madison Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Public Affairs and Director of the Haire Institute for Public Policy at Western Carolina University, wrote a book with a rundown on North Carolina politics. Indy Week reports the book, “Anatomy of a Purple State,” is an attempt to make sense of everyone involved in Tar Heel State politics.
WRAL reports a judge has ruled that the fiscally troubled St. Augustine’s University must come up with the money it owes for artificial turf. If it can’t come up with the cash, the company could take and sell some of the university’s land to recover what it’s owed.
With 54 days until the November election, voters in the Tar Heel State seem equally split this year, CNN is reporting.
That’s all for today.
Check your inbox tomorrow for more #ncpol news.
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