Fox News host Sean Hannity reported that former President Trump told him he “really wanted to finish the hole“ after the Secret Service responded to an apparent assassination attempt while he was playing a round at Trump International Golf Course on Sunday in West Palm Beach, Fla.
“When the president found out everybody was safe and nobody had been harmed … he related to me, ‘Ugh, I really wanted to finish the hole. I was even and I had a birdie putt, and it was … on the fifth,’” Hannity told anchor Arthel Neville. “It was on the fifth hole, which shows a lot of, I think, guts and gumption and very Trumpian, I guess, in every way.”
Hannity said he’s spoken to Trump three times since Sunday and has discovered something new from each conversation, including real-time updates from law enforcement. He said investigators relied on aerial views to secure the site.
“Drone footage was able to give them enough surveillance to identify the exact car that the individual involved in the shooting got into,” Hannity explained.
“I would say the time frame was less than a half hour between the time that the shooting actually took place and they identified the car,” he added.
The shooter, identified as Ryan Wesley Routh, fled the scene when Secret Service agents fired and left behind an AK-47-style rifle, according to The Associated Press. Agents had reportedly seen his rifle sticking through the bushes 300-500 yards away from Trump.
Trump thanked law enforcement in a social media post Sunday night, and blamed President Biden and Vice President Harris for the attack in an interview on Monday.
“I would like to thank everyone for your concern and well wishes – It was certainly an interesting day!” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Most importantly, I want to thank the U.S. Secret Service, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw and his Office of brave and dedicated Patriots, and, all of Law Enforcement, for the incredible job done today at Trump International in keeping me, as the 45th President of the United States, and the Republican Nominee in the upcoming Presidential Election, SAFE.”
Speaking to Fox News Digital on Monday, he said Democrats’ rhetoric was to blame for the attempted attack, while also calling Harris and Biden the “real threat” to the country.
“He believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris, and he acted on it,” Trump told Fox. “Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country — both from the inside and out.”
After Sunday’s incident, the heads of a bipartisan congressional task force assembled in July after Trump’s first attempted assassination said they had requesting a briefing from Secret Service on the latest one.