Ron DeSantis says it makes no sense to have federal agencies that are prosecuting Trump also investigating assassination attempts against him

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) said Tuesday that it makes no sense for federal agencies to investigate the second Trump assassination attempt when those same federal agencies are prosecuting the GOP nominee. This comes as DeSantis has also said that Florida will conduct its own investigation into the assassination attempt. 

DeSantis spoke out about the assassination attempt: “In my judgment, it’s not in the best interest of our state or our nation that the same federal agencies that are seeking to prosecute Donald Trump are leading this investigation.”

The Florida governor has not only made the call to have a different agency besides the FBI to investigate the assassination attempt, but he has also committed that the state of Florida will itself investigate.

DeSantis posted in light of the assassination attempt on Trump’s life: "The State of Florida is conducting its own investigation into the second attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. It is not in the best interests of our state and nation to have the same federal agencies seeking to prosecute Trump leading this investigation."

Ryan Wesley Routh, a Democratic activist, has been accused of attempting to assassinate former President Donald Trump with an AK-style firearm. The incident played out on Sunday afternoon when Secret Service agents spotted Routh lurking in the bushes at Trump’s golf course with the gun. Secret Service fired shots at him, causing him to flee the scene, and he was later arrested.

DeSantis told a news conference that “this is an offense that should merit life in prison. And if we're not going to go to the fullest extent of the law, you're lowering the threshold which someone in the future may try to try to do something like this.”

Saying that “a couple of gun charges” won’t suffice, the governor noted that Florida is “in a better position ... to be able to provide answers to the public,” adding, “I think back about what happened in Las Vegas back six, seven years ago, we never got any answers about that. I think back about what happened in Butler, Pennsylvania, we've not gotten very many answers about that. I think that that really erodes public confidence.”

“I think the Florida agencies working from local on up, have an opportunity to do with their own investigation and then to provide the truth about what's happening, or what happened and how this came to be … and then delivering the truth about how this could have happened,” he said.