The Free Press
It’s Monday, September 16, and this is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Are U.S. airlines aiding Iran in its war against Israel? Jay Solomon investigates. Ben Kawaller talks to Matt Walsh about his mockumentary “Am I Racist?” Kat Rosenfield reviews Kat Timpf’s new book on the dangers of binary thinking. And much more.
But first: The latest on yesterday’s apparent assassination attempt on Donald Trump—and our reporter’s interaction with the would-be assassin.
‘I Met Trump’s Would-Be Assassin’
Barely two months after a bullet came millimeters from taking Donald Trump’s life at a rally in Pennsylvania, the Secret Service spotted a gunman hiding in the bushes at his golf club in West Palm Beach and opened fire. The man fled and was later detained. Trump was unharmed. “Nothing will slow me down,” he said in an email to supporters.
Law enforcement said they did not know if the suspect had fired a shot, but that he had an “AK-style” rifle with a scope and was about 400 yards from the former president on Sunday. “With a rifle and a scope like that, that’s not a long distance,” said Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw. Law enforcement also identified the suspect in custody.
Ryan Routh is not a name that was familiar to most Americans when he was identified yesterday as the suspected would-be assassin of Donald Trump. But when it was made public, my colleague Tanya Lukyanova got a call from someone she used to work with. Why? Because Tanya had interviewed Routh last year over video for a piece she reported for Semafor on American-trained Afghan commandos who wanted to fight for Ukraine.
Routh had started something called the International Volunteer Center, which purported to help foreigners seeking to assist Ukraine’s war effort. He spoke to Tanya about his frustration with Kiev over how it handled foreign fighters. “Ukraine is very often hard to work with,” he told Tanya. “Many foreign soldiers leave after a week in Ukraine or must move from unit to unit to find a place they are respected and appreciated.”
“He was this zealous guy, an American who really wanted to volunteer to help Ukraine,” said Tanya of Routh, whom she spoke to for about twenty minutes over video while he was perched outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., last summer.
“You can tell right away that he’s crazy, but I think people thought, ‘Who cares? He’s supporting the right cause,’ ” said Tanya. “Everyone knew him as a little zealous, a bit much. But nobody really cared about that ‘too much’ because he was on the side of good. He was helping Ukraine.”
Back then “he was just a harmless loon, who didn’t do anything too crazy.” (Though not totally harmless: records indicate a long list of run-ins with the law in North Carolina, including a 2002 conviction for possessing a fully automatic machine gun.)
But Routh hardly seemed a career criminal to Tanya. “He reminds me of Brad Pitt in Burn After Reading, if I am completely honest,” said Tanya, referring to the Coen Brothers’ black comedy and its protagonist—a bumbling, dim-witted personal trainer who attempts to blackmail a CIA analyst. “A guy who is overzealous and goes a little overboard on the conspiratorial side of things. But until he does something terribly wrong, nobody quite thinks of him that way.
“Ryan Routh wasn’t a story, until he allegedly went to Trump’s golf course with a gun.”
Are U.S. Airlines Effectively Boycotting Israel?
Are U.S. airlines unwittingly aiding Iran in its attempt to isolate and harm Israel? For most of the past year, none of the three major American airline carriers—United, American, or Delta—have flown to Israel. Right now, Israel’s flag carrier, El Al, is the only direct link between Israel and its closest ally and economic partner. And none of the major U.S. carriers have any definitive timeline on when flights might resume.
The carriers insist this is simply a security decision, but the outspokenness of some airline unions against travel to Israel has raised concerns among members of Congress and the Israeli government that there may be more to the story.
Today, The Free Press’s Jay Solomon investigates the travel disruptions contributing to Israel’s wartime woes, and asks “Are U.S. Airlines ‘Playing Into Iran’s Game’?”
Matt Walsh Talks DEI, Division, and Robin DiAngelo
The fourth-highest grossing movie at the box office over the weekend was a mockumentary starring The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh called Am I Racist?. Think Borat but for DEI, with Walsh pretending to be an anti-racism “expert” and then trying to get white people to confess their terrible racism. Moviegoers seem to have enjoyed it—on Rotten Tomatoes, it has an audience score of 99 percent, which sounds quite good.
But you probably haven’t read any reviews from the critics: Most outlets ignored it.
“It must be that ignoring a film so poisonous to the spiritual health of the nation is the only appropriate response from polite society,” says The Free Press’s Ben Kawaller. Thankfully, Ben has “never identified as a member of such a group” (his words, not mine!). And so he went to Nashville to meet Walsh at his favorite cigar lounge, to talk about the movie the legacy press has ignored.
Watch their conversation—over stogies in Nashville (Ben gets all the tough assignments)—in full below:
Meanwhile, in other culture war news, Fox News personality Kat Timpf has a new book out, ‘I Used To Like You Until. . . ’
It’s about how politics has consumed everything, including our friendships. And it reminded our own Kat (Rosenfield) of a relationship she lost to politics. Read Kat’s review: “To the Woman Who Trashed Me on Twitter.”
The Polaris Dawn crew splashed down safely in the Gulf of Mexico yesterday. SpaceX’s five-person mission spent five days in space, completing the highest maximum altitude by a manned flight in fifty years as well as the first commercial space walk in history. One of the crew members FaceTimed her family from space using Starlink. Read Max Meyer’s recent Free Press essay on “The Man-Made Miracle of SpaceX.”
“I don’t like those comments,” said J.D. Vance when asked about recent posts by far-right activist Laura Loomer—who accompanied Donald Trump to the debate last week. Loomer said that the White House “will smell like curry” and its speeches will be “facilitated via a call center” if Kamala Harris—whose mother was born in India—wins in November. Vance, whose wife is also Indian American, insisted that Loomer, who recently appeared in Trump’s entourage, is “not affiliated with the Trump campaign.” Watch Batya Ungar-Sargon on the latest Free Press live: “I’m an undecided voter. I am not going to vote for somebody whose closest adviser is tweeting that the White House is going to smell like curry, and I am not going to vote for somebody whose vice president cannot disavow a Holocaust minimizer.”
On Sunday, the Iranian-backed Houthis fired a long-range missile from Yemen into central Israel for the first time. The Israel Defense Forces successfully intercepted the missile, preventing direct injuries. Still, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the terrorists “should have known by now that we exact a heavy price for any attempt to harm us.”
A Des Moines Register poll shows Harris trailing Trump by four points in Iowa. The survey is getting a lot of attention for two reasons. First, it was conducted by Ann Selzer—whose track record on polling the Hawkeye State makes her perhaps the most respected pollster around. Second, back in June, Selzer’s poll recorded an eighteen-point lead for Trump over Biden.
Republicans in Ohio have rubbished the “cat-eating Haitians” story pushed by Donald Trump in last week’s presidential debate. Mike DeWine, the state’s GOP governor, said on Sunday that “it is not helpful” for Republicans to spread “garbage” claims about Haitian immigrants eating pets. He added: “What we know is that the Haitians who are in Springfield are legal. They came to Springfield to work.” Springfield mayor Rob Rue, also a Republican, trashed the cat story and bemoaned “these federal politicians” who are “hurting our city.” Springfield’s city hall and two schools were evacuated after bomb threats last week.
“I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,” said Donald Trump on Truth Social Sunday. It’s not clear to me how much Swift’s endorsement of Kamala Harris last week will really matter. She endorsed Joe Biden four years ago, so it was hardly a surprise. But Trump sure seemed annoyed by it, and was determined to fire back. And as someone who once made the mistake of suggesting that her latest album may not be a classic, my advice to the former president is: Criticize Tay-Tay at your peril, sir.
At last night’s Emmy Awards, the best joke was about how unfunny The Bear is. This very stressful show, about a troubled chef, then went on to break its own record for the most Emmys won in a single year by a comedy. Read our critic, Tanya Gold, on The Bear, which she admittedly did not find that amusing. Meanwhile, Richard Gadd won multiple Emmys for Baby Reindeer, which is about as funny as The Bear. It’s about a comedian getting stalked, and is based on Gadd’s actual life. Read Kat Rosenfield on the ethical quandaries of Baby Reindeer.
Oliver Wiseman is a writer and editor for The Free Press. Follow him on X @ollywiseman.
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I have not been a big Ben Kawaller fan from his previous ‘man on the street’ type reporting. But I will give him credit for his interview with Matt Walsh.
My opinion: I found the overall interview to be very good. Ben, once he got past his usual over dramatization (circumcise a cigar?) he asked good, relevant, open ended questions instead of gotcha stuff and didn’t make it about himself. Personally this should be Ben’s format. Much better than his man on the street style reporting. More substantive and deep. Ben was respectful with his questions and I think elicited thoughtful responses from Matt.
I don’t follow Matt other than the occasional pop up on my social media feeds, so I don’t know much about him. Matt, again in my opinion, provided thoughtful responses, gave rationals for his thinking and used common sense that I think a lot of people could understand.
Everyone will take different things away from this but speaking for me, I thought it was well worth 41 minutes of my time. Pleasantly surprised.
Bari is a selective visionary. One week she’ll feature the wonderful Douglas Murray and you’ll think, “ Alas! She’s had an epiphany!” . The next week, a revisionist. And the apologism.
I’m not a hardcore left/right ideologue, but truth and common sense matter. Facts matter. Here is a partial list of falsehoods and abject stupidity she’s published:
1- Pastor Hagee is a rabid, virulent antisemite.
False: Without Hagee’s emphatic support, including financially, Israel would have been decimated during the Obama occupation. He is wonderful and his support of the Jewish people isn’t based upon religious ideology- it began when he realized the founder of Evangelical Christianity, Martin Luther had devolved into hateful antisemitism.
2- She ( or some of her “ featured contributors”) have labeled Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, Mike Flynn, Elon Musk, Vance, Lou Dobbs, MTG, Charlie Kirk, Trump et all antisemites, racists, alt-right… They’re not.
You know who she fails to name “ antisemites and racists”? Hank Green,Al Green, Maxine Waters, Tim Kaine,Rafael Warnock,Kamala Harris, Obama, Biden,Chris Murphy, Liz Warren,John Legend, Debbie Dingell,Chris Van Hollen, Ed Markey,Jayapal,Sharpton,Kerry,Powers,John Brennan,Soros,Blinken,Zients,Ciarmella,Strzok, Susan Rice,Chris Hayes,Trevor Noah
3- Bari interviewed Sheryl Sandberg who spoke at the UN , urging the world leaders to denounce Oct 7, the atrocities, the horrible rapes. So Bari has this heart to heart with Sandberg and asks who she was supporting in ‘24. Sandberg smiles and answers “ Joe Biden”. And Bari says nothing. And still blames Trump.
4-Bari also named Pat Robertson a lifelong antisemite and trashed the 700 Club and the featured contributors. Totally false and truly awful.
One of her guest contributors named Robertson as having spearheaded the total ban on abortion.
False. Though Robertson was very much pro-life, he vocally opposed the draconian Heartbeat Bill, which in his own words, was “ Unfair, too restrictive and cruel”.
5- In the article above , re: Routh, the lunatic, not mentioned, surprisingly, given Bari and Co ‘s penchant for accusing people of antisemitism who aren’t, is Routh’s very real antisemitism, anti-Zionism and affection for Ukraine’s Nazi Azov Regiment. And as per “ protecting Ukraine’s Democracy”.. What democracy? Zelenskyy cancelled elections, is flanked by the Nazis,closed the Orthodox churches and imprisoned the clerics , accusing them of abetting Putin. They weren’t. They are of Russian heritage. They are culturally Russian. That doesn’t make them anymore pro-Putin than it makes me pro-Marx, Lenin or Stalin. My grandparents fled the Soviet Union. And Ukraine isn’t a sovereign democracy. It’s a corrupt U.S. vassal State. I have no animus for the Ukranian people. It’s our “ vaunted” corrupt government that’s the problem.
7- Time and again Bari and her featured columnists have not accused, but stated as if fact, that the bilious Neo-Nazi, Nick Fuentes, is in Trump’s inner circle. He isn’t. When Kanye, Fuentes and Milo showed up unannounced at Mar A Lago, Trump had no idea who he was. Fuentes was booted long ago-after he showed his true self. Kanye has long been mentally ill- Trump is well aware. He made it clear-“ Kanye is a very disturbed young man”. As per Milo, he’s flaming gay and Jewish and has been really pissed off at Trump for a long time. Trump dropped him like a hot potato when the left falsely destroyed him as a “ pedophile”. Only because he was close to Trump. The guy was a provocateur, but very amusing. Had he been an Obama, Biden or Kamala supporter, Milo would have been celebrated by the left.. With his gorgeous face, black boyfriend and wardrobe wildness and hilarious , razor sharp wit. Milo later confessed his reason for showing up with Kanye and Fuentes was to get even with Trump he was very hurt that Trump didn’t stand up for him. I agree. So did David Horowitz, Dennis Prager, Rick Grenell, Kat Timpf, Gutfeld and Pirro.
Oh yeah! I’m Jewish, an artist and retired my 24 year interior design business. I had more LGBT friends than not and I wouldn’t vote for the lying, corrupt Post 1984 Brave New World Globalist CommunoIslamoFascist , necrophiliac Dem Party Of Hatred, Sociopathy,Psychopathy, Transhumanism, Technocracy and Tyranny if I was the last holdout. They are death.
If Bari and Co want to continue down the path of extinction, DEI, CRT,ESG, WEF, UN, CCP so be it. I’m hoping the new addition and independent spirit of RFK Jr., Nicole Shanahan , Elon keeps growing and morphs into a “ We The People” Party. Decent, independent,pragmatic, open minded Americans with ideas, backbone and sanity who respect the Constitution and each other replace the old.