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Donald Trump has joked that he would have used a three wood club to take out the suspected would-be assassin at his Florida golf course.
Just hours after hosting a rally in Uniondale, Long Island – which marked his first public appearance since the second attempt on his life on Sunday – the former president appeared on Fox News’ political satire talk show Gutfeld!
Host Greg Gutfeld quickly turned his attention to the failed Trump hit which allegedly saw suspected gunman Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, lurk for almost 12 hours outside the Republican presidential nominee’s golf club in West Palm Beach, before the Secret Service spotted an SKS-type rifle poking through a fence and foiled the alleged plot.
“How’s your golf game?” Gutfeld joked.
“Well I haven’t been thinking about it too much lately,” Trump said to a chuckling audience. “I always say golf is a very dangerous game.”
“Especially if they’re playing with you,” Gutfeld quipped, before admitting he made a “mean joke.”
Gutfeld then asked Trump – who once boasted that he had a handicap of 2.5 – if the former president would have used his golfing skills to stop the suspect if he spotted him.
“If they had told you the shooter was there, would you have tried to take him out with your three wood?” Gutfeld asked.
“I think so… if I knew,” Trump teased.
Trump went on to praise the Secret Service for preventing the alleged attack.
“Actually the Secret Service did a great job. They saw a barrel of a gun – big gun. And it came out through the bushes, and how many people would see that?” he said.
“They could have at least yell ‘fore,’” TV personality George Murdoch, known as Tyrus – who was also appearing on Gutfeld’s show – joked.
Routh was allegedly in the bushes about 400 to 500 yards away from the former president as he played on the fifth hole of the course, officials said.
When a Secret Service agent fired towards the suspect, he allegedly fled in his vehicle, leaving behind cameras, a black plastic bag of food, and the loaded semi-automatic rifle.
Police said a witness took down the license plate on the suspect’s Nissan SUV as he fled. Routh was later apprehended on I-95 and taken into custody, with dramatic bodycam footage of his arrest released by authorities.
Trump praised the “heroine” witness who helped lead authorities to the suspect.
“Who would do that? ‘Out of a thousand individuals, would that ever happen,’” Trump said he asked authorities about the witness’s actions.
“‘Very rarely,’” he said law enforcement officers told him.
Trump was asked how he deals with the threats – with Sunday’s incident marking the second assassination attempt in two months.
He claimed his job is exponentially more dangerous than that of a bull rider and racing driver, claiming that “six percent or seven percent” of US presidents are killed while in office.
Four of the 46 US presidents have been assassinated while in office – nearly nine per cent.
“It’s the most dangerous profession there is,” Trump added.
“It’s always a consequential president that gets shot at,” he said – a soundbite parroted from his Flint, Wisconsin, rally on Wednesday.
