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The son of the man arrested on suspicion of attempting to assassinate Donald Trump has insisted that his father isn’t violent – but admitted he does hate the former president.
Oran Routh, son of 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh, told CNN that the accusations against his father “doesn’t sound like the man I know” and that he hopes “things have just been blown out of proportion.”
“I don’t have any comment beyond a character profile of him as a loving and caring father, and honest, hardworking man,” he said.
He went on to say: “I don’t know what’s happened in Florida, and I hope things have just been blown out of proportion, because from the little I’ve heard, it doesn’t sound like the man I know to do anything crazy, much less violent.
“He’s a good father, and a great man, and I hope you can portray him in an honest light.”
Speaking to the Daily Mail, he described his father as someone who is not violent, claiming he has had only “a couple traffic tickets,” but noted that he does hate Trump, as “every reasonable person does.”
“I don’t like Trump either,” he added.
“He’s my dad and all he’s had is couple traffic tickets, as far as I know. That’s crazy. I know my dad and love my dad, but that’s nothing like him.”
Oran said that it was the first he had heard about the incident and didn’t even know his dad was in Florida – adding that “we’ve had a falling out, we’ve grown apart.”
That said, he insisted he’s “not a violent person.”
Routh has a criminal record dating back to at least 2002 when he was convicted in Guilford County, North Carolina, on one felony count of possession of a weapon of mass destruction, according to a review of state court records. The charge was over a fully automatic machine gun, according to News & Record.
He was also convicted of possession of stolen goods in 2010, and has been vocal in his support for Ukraine, telling The New York Times last year that he went to the country after the Russian invasion and aimed to get soldiers from Afghanistan who fled the Taliban to fight in the war.
He contacted Ukraine’s foreign legion numerous times, offering them “large numbers of recruits from different countries,” but was never part of its volunteer fighting forces, Oleksandr Shaguri, an officer in the Foreigners Coordination Department of the Land Forces Command, told CNN.
“The best way to describe his messages is — delusional ideas,” he said, adding that Routh’s offers were “not realistic.”
“We didn’t even answer, there was nothing to answer to. He was never part of the Legion and didn’t cooperate with us in any way.”
Routh is currently being held in a local county jail while the FBI and local law enforcement investigate the alleged assassination attempt on Trump – the second the former president has faced in two months.
According to investigators, Secret Service agents spotted the muzzle of a rifle poking through a chainlink fence in a wooded area on the perimeter of the Trump’s International Golf Course in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday afternoon and opened fire on the suspect.
Trump was just 300 to 500 yards away at the time.
The alleged gunman fled the scene by car, but was apprehended by police minutes later on the I-95.
Law enforcement identified him as Routh, a business owner with an address currently registered in Hawaii.
