The President and Vice President of the USA, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, spoke by phone with former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Tuesday, the White House announced.
Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, told Trump in a brief and cordial conversation that she was "grateful" he was safe after Sunday's possible assassination attempt, a White House official said.
In an interview with members of the National Association of African American Journalists, Haris said that she conveyed to Trump what she says "publicly", which is that "there is no place for political violence".
"We should have healthy debate and disagreement, but not violence," Harris said.
US investigators are analyzing the social media accounts and other posts of the suspect in what appears to be a last-ditch attempt to kill the former president, trying to determine a motive and whether anyone else may have been involved.
Florida sheriff's deputies arrested 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Ruto, pulling him over on a major highway late Sunday after he fled the former president's golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Officials said data collected from Ruto's cell phone showed he had been lying in wait for 12 hours, hiding in the bushes along the fence between the fifth and seventh holes of the golf course's fairway.
Rut was charged with possession of a firearm as a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
Officials said when FBI investigators tried to speak with Ruto after he was arrested, he invoked his right to an attorney and did not speak further.
Instead, the FBI and their partners focused on obtaining search warrants for the GoPro camera and other electronic devices the suspect allegedly left at the scene, as well as searching his vehicle and electronic devices left at the suspect's previous addresses.
"The subject had an active online presence, and we're going through what he posted and all the searches he conducted online," FBI Special Agent in Chief Jeffrey Veltri said.
"The FBI has sent multiple requests to the companies to return the (activity) of the subject's phone and social media accounts," Veltri added, speaking to reporters at a press conference on Monday. "We have received several responses and are awaiting additional responses".
In addition, Veltri said FBI field offices in Honolulu, Hawaii, and Charlotte, North Carolina, have sent agents to interview family members, friends and former associates of the suspect.
Veltri said investigators are looking closely at other statements the suspect has made over the years, including interviews he gave to the media about attempts to recruit Afghan soldiers and others to fight in Ukraine.
The suspect's online history indicates that at one point he appeared to be a Trump supporter. However, in recent years, his posts seem to suggest he was terrified of Trump.
In a self-published book from 2023, Ruth appeared to want to incite Iran to kill the former president.
"You are free to kill Trump," he wrote in the book "Ukraine's Unwinnable War," describing the former president and current Republican presidential candidate as a "fool."
However, it is not yet clear whether Rut was in a conspiracy with someone.
"We have no information that he was operating with anyone else at this time," Veltri of the FBI told reporters.
Investigators are also seeking answers to questions about how the suspect decided to hide and wait in a bushy area on the Trump golf course.
"It was an off-the-record movement, meaning it was not on the former president's official schedule," said Ronald Rowe, acting director of the US Secret Service, the agency responsible for protecting Trump from all threats.
"It was not a place that was on his schedule. It was not part of his schedule," he said. "So there was no publication because he was not supposed to go there at all".
Rowe, however, defended the Secret Service agents guarding the former president, saying the elements in place were "working" despite the would-be attacker getting within 365 to 455 feet of Trump with a loaded AK-style rifle.
The suspect "was not in the line of sight of the former president," Rou said. "He did not shoot or fire any shot".
"The agents' hypervigilance and quick action down to the last detail were textbook, and I commend them and our partners for an exemplary response," he added.
Trump praised the work of Secret Service agents while speaking Monday during an event on the social networking platform X, but also added that more people are needed and that.
US President Joe Biden gave a similar message to reporters at the White House on Monday.
"The Secret Service needs more help," Biden said.
"I think Congress needs to respond to their needs," Biden said. "I think we may need more staff".
Rowe, acting director of the Secret Service, welcomed the support.
"We've been doing more with less for decades," Rowe said, adding that Secret Service personnel are overstretched.
"We have immediate needs. We also have future needs," he said. "So we are having these talks and I am confident that we will get what we need".
But in comments to Fox News Digital on Monday, Trump appeared to place some of the blame on President Biden and Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris.
"Their rhetoric causes me to be shot at, when I am the one who will save the country, and they are the ones who are destroying the country - both inside and out," Trump said.
The accused gunman "believed and acted on the rhetoric of Biden and Harris," Trump added.
During a speech at a conference of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in Philadelphia late Monday, Biden condemned the apparent assassination attempt on his predecessor, calling the move un-American.
"In America, we resolve our differences peacefully at the ballot box, not with a gun," Biden said.
"America has suffered too many tragedies because of an assassin's bullet," he added. "It solves nothing and only destroys the country".
The apparent assassination attempt on Trump is the second in as many months.
On July 13, a XNUMX-year-old gunman climbed onto the roof of a building opposite the site of a Trump rally in western Pennsylvania and fired multiple shots, killing a spectator, wounding the former president and critically wounding two others.
The attacker was then fatally shot by a Secret Service sniper.
Leaders of the bipartisan congressional task force investigating the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump said they requested a briefing from the Secret Service about the incident on Sunday.
"We are grateful that the former president was not injured, but we remain deeply concerned about political violence and condemn it in all its forms," Congressmen Mike Kelly, Republican of Pennsylvania, and Jason Crow, Democrat of Colorado, said in a statement.
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