Time Magazine recently faced backlash over its coverage of the suspect in the alleged second assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump for a major omission in its reporting of the suspected would-be shooter, Ryan Wesley Routh. The outlet has been blasted for refusing to acknowledge the suspect’s apparent motive despite the litany of evidence the 58-year-old has left across social media.
Reportedly, Routh had been an ardent critic of the Republican presidential candidate who had often warned that “democracy is on the ballot” this year, a common piece of rhetoric from the Democratic Party that Trump is an existential threat to democracy. Furthermore, reports indicate that Routh had been a Democratic donor for years. However, Time insisted that his political ideology was “unclear.”
Time posted on X, “The suspect arrested in relation to the shooting at Trump’s golf course in Florida on Sunday has been identified as Ryan Routh—a 58-year-old with unclear political ideology, a criminal record, and a history of praising Iran and supporting Ukraine.” After the post, Time received immense backlash from conservative critics on social media.
“He only donated to Democrats and had a Biden sticker on his truck.. But don’t let that get in the way of your narrative,” Tim Young pointed out. Many users in the comments section posted photographic evidence that showed a Biden Harris sticker that was allegedly on the back of Routh’s truck. “The shooter donated to Democrats and had a Biden/Harris sticker on his truck But y’all say his political ideology was unclear This is why people don’t trust the media no more,” the popular conservative activists, the Hodgetwins wrote.
Another user wrote, “Feels like his political ideology is pretty clear – he repeated Kamala Harris’s talking points including ‘democracy is on the ballot…’ and contributed exclusively to ActBlue 19 times. He was even given probation for felony possession of a weapon of mass destruction. Oh and he was in Ukraine recruiting mercenaries and appeared in a CIA-funded propaganda video for the AZOV Battalion… But I guess that wasn’t clear enough for Time Magazine…”
Furthermore, Routh reportedly released a self-published book online addressing Iran in which he apologized for supporting Trump in the past and wished for his death. “I am man enough to say that I misjudged and made a terrible mistake,” Routh wrote. “You are free to assassinate Trump as well as me for that error in judgment. No one here in the U.S. seems to have the balls to put natural selection to work or even unnatural selection.”
Former President Trump has claimed the Harris-Walz campaign is complicit in the violence waged against him, as they have constantly touted rhetoric that paints him as an existential threat to the nation.“They do it with a combination of rhetoric and lawsuits they wrap me up in,” Trump told Fox News earlier this week after the alleged second assassination attempt.
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He continued, “These are the things that dangerous fools, like the shooter, listen to — that is the rhetoric they listen to, and the same with the first one.” Harris and Walz, he added, are not the “unity” leaders they purport to be. “They do it with a combination of rhetoric and lawsuits they wrap me up in,” Trump said. “These are the things that dangerous fools, like the shooter, listen to — that is the rhetoric they listen to, and the same with the first one.”
Watch NBC’s Lester Holt seemingly blame Trump for the apparent assassination attempt: