Something seems off about the history of Ryan Wesley Routh, who attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump and managed to evade the law—and child support obligations—for years while traveling internationally, Fox News host Jesse Watters revealed Thursday. Producers and researchers for the program conducted an investigation into Routh’s recent past, revealing a troubling picture of a man living irresponsibly. Despite only having $68 in his bank account, Watters reported that the 58-year-old Routh managed to travel extensively, visiting places like Poland and Ukraine. The source of his funding for these trips remains unclear, however.
By the time Routh appeared at Trump’s Florida golf course with an AK-47-style rifle, he was reportedly “living in a barn” and accumulating “more felonies than he had money in his bank account.” Watters and his team examined Routh’s financial records, revealing that he was consistently behind on child support payments, which his ex-wife eventually forgave due to his dire financial situation. Earlier this year, Routh sold his dilapidated North Carolina home for about $174,000 and subsequently settled in Hawaii, where he lived in an $800,000 bungalow, according to Watters.
“How does a man with no money for child support suddenly start living in a pricey house in Hawaii and afford flights to Taiwan, Turkey, Poland, Ukraine. His neighbors say sometimes they wouldn’t see him for three years,” Watters revealed, adding that Routh was “always able to get press” when he appeared in war zones. In its coverage of the Ukraine-Russia war, the New York Times interviewed Routh, who asserted that he was an American assisting former Taliban members in joining the Ukrainian fight against the Russian invasion.
Interestingly, the Hawaii home is linked to Routh’s wife, Kathleen Shaffer, who in 2022 launched a GoFundMe campaign to support her husband’s travels, according to CNN. By the time Routh traveled to Ukraine in April 2022, the campaign had raised over $1,800 of its $2,500 goal. Shaffer stated that the funds would be used to arrange the “delivery of 120 drones to the front lines.” Recently, Shaffer lost her job at a Victoria’s Secret store in Hawaii. “She’s engaged to this guy who flies to Ukraine for months, and she’s fine with that?” Watters asked rhetorically.
Routh, who at one point spent eight months sleeping in Ukrainian military barracks, was “rubbing elbows with cold-blooded killers,” was managing to spend thousands on airfare despite having just $68 in his bank account earlier this year. “How are you even feeding yourself in Ukraine? And everywhere he goes he gets press, from the local papers to the New York Times to Newsweek,” Watters continued before asking an obvious question – what person or government agency is was footing Routh’s bills?
“After spending months with Ukrainian mobsters and scaring the bejeezus out of everybody connected to him, he was flagged by the FBI, the State Department and Homeland Security, but they all dropped the investigation… No one is curious to see if Ryan Routh was sent here on a mission to kill” President Trump, Watters exclaimed. Meanwhile, “nobody’s been able to find his fiance.” Watters added: “How do we know there’s not more Ryan Rouths or Thomas Crooks out there?”
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