Why the Story of the Golf Course Shooting Will Be Told Twice

Florida’s governor says a state investigation is needed because federal agencies can’t be trusted.

Usually, after a deadly emergency or an event that could have become one, the governor of the state where it happened somberly pledges to support the agency investigating it however he or she can.

This is not quite what happened in Florida after the apparent attempted assassination of Donald Trump on one of his golf courses over the weekend.

Instead, after the F.B.I. announced it was investigating the incident, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, a Republican, announced that his state would do its own research on what had happened.

“In my judgment, it’s not in the best interest of our state or our nation to have the same federal agencies that are seeking to prosecute Donald Trump leading this investigation,” DeSantis said on Tuesday morning at a news conference in West Palm Beach, raising the possibility that the suspect, Ryan Routh, could face a state charge of attempted murder.

It is not uncommon for state and federal investigators to conduct parallel inquiries after a major event — but it is uncommon for state leaders to publicly impugn federal investigators in the process. It’s a sign of the way Sunday’s incident has become the latest front in the war that Trump’s party is waging with federal law enforcement, and the latest example of Republicans seeking to release their own version of the facts to score political points.

So today, I reached out to my colleague Patricia Mazzei, the Miami bureau chief for The New York Times, to ask about the apparent assassination attempt and DeSantis’s investigation. Our conversation was edited and condensed.

Pati, thank you so much for talking with me today. First things first: What’s the latest on the shooting?

The suspect in the case, who was detained on Sunday, made his first appearance in federal court on Monday in West Palm Beach, where he was charged with two federal gun possession crimes. The F.B.I. is leading an investigation, working with the Secret Service and various local sheriff’s offices, to sort out exactly what happened.

You have covered a lot of major news events in Florida during DeSantis’s time as governor. How unusual is it for him to announce the state’s own investigation into a matter like this?

It feels unusual in that when there is a federal crime, federal investigators usually just take the lead, and if there is a state crime to pursue, local prosecutors typically take a back seat while they wait for the federal case to resolve, or at least to move forward. The governor has made himself a national figure in the last few years by saying he’s unafraid to take on federal authority. So this plays into his political persona as someone who likes to do things his own way.

Who will run the state investigation?

DeSantis issued an executive order assigning the case to prosecutors from the office of Ashley Moody, the Florida attorney general. DeSantis is suggesting that having the state look at this is necessary because he’s unsure whether the federal investigation can be trusted — which I think is most striking.

DeSantis’s argument is that the same federal agencies that have charged Trump with various federal crimes — including the Southern District of Florida, where he was charged with illegally holding onto classified national security materials after leaving office — can’t be trusted to investigate this potential attempt on his life.

He also said the state would be more transparent than federal investigators because of Florida’s open records laws, although his administration is often unwilling to produce records under those laws.

I’m reminded of how, after Congress opened a bipartisan investigation of the July attempted assassination of Trump in Butler County, Pa., a group of right-wing lawmakers said they were opening a “parallel investigation” into the matter, too. What does this tell us about the broader politics of the moment when it comes to Republicans, law enforcement and Trump?

There does seem to be a parallel there — and let’s remember that DeSantis was once a member of the House of Representatives himself. He’s not that far removed from those very lawmakers who are taking those actions.

The Republican Party, for so many years, was associated with law and order. They would still promote themselves as a pro-law enforcement party. But right now, they see a benefit to questioning federal agencies. It seems like a way to keep in the political conversation something that the agencies would like to keep out of partisan disputes. It speaks to the charged political moment.

DeSantis ran against Trump for president. They were not particularly happy with each other at that time. What do we know about DeSantis’s relationship with Trump, and to the former president’s life in and around Mar-a-Lago?

DeSantis said today that he had finally spoken to Trump about the episode on Sunday, and he said that Trump told him that he agreed with the idea of the state-level investigation.

The two men were closer before the 2024 Republican primary. During the early years of DeSantis’s term as governor, he was seen as a staunch Trump ally who won with the then-president’s endorsement, and they had a fair amount of contact. The governor has talked a lot about golfing with Trump at the West Palm Beach golf course. Today, DeSantis said that he’s thought before that the golf course could be vulnerable because some of the holes there are so close to the fence line.

DeSantis has a long history of seizing on issues Trump cares about to score points with his own base. Is that part of what is happening here?

He gets to look like someone who is defending Trump’s interests. He is stoking distrust of federal agencies while saying his state agencies can get to the bottom of it. There does not appear to be a downside for him there, other than perhaps incurring the annoyance of the federal agencies. But that doesn’t seem to be the governor’s concern right now.

It’s business as usual on the campaign trail

After a summer of political upheaval that already saw an attempted assassination of the former president, an apparent second attempt on his life did little to slow the candidates’ activity.

In the two days since Secret Service agents opened fire on a man with a rifle near a golf course where Trump was playing, the former president has rolled out a cryptocurrency business, rolled back his position on a state and local tax break he limited during his presidency, and is set to appear tonight at a town hall in Flint, Mich.

Vice President Kamala Harris, meanwhile, sat for an interview with the National Association of Black Journalists while her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, made stops in Georgia and North Carolina on Tuesday.

If any candidate seemed keen to linger on the apparent assassination plot, it was Senator JD Vance of Ohio, who has been criticized in recent days for promoting false claims about migrants in Springfield, Ohio. Speaking at a campaign event in Sparta, Mich., on Tuesday, Vance blamed Democrats for the attempts on Trump’s life.

“It’s time to say to the Democrats, to the media, to everybody that’s been attacking this man and censoring this man for going on 10 years: Cut it out before you get somebody killed,” he said.