Although Routh claimed that he voted for Trump in 2016, there is no record of him voting that year in his then-home state.
Ryan Wesley Routh, the man accused in the second attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, has previously said he regrets voting for Trump in 2016. Some media outlets have taken his words at face value.
In journalism, however, the rule of thumb used to be: if your mother says she loves you, check it out. Likewise, if an accused would-be assassin with a long criminal rap sheet says he voted for the guy he’s alleged to have aimed his gun at, check it out.
North Carolina records show Routh voted in the state’s general or municipal elections in 2008, 2009, and 2012, as well as in this year’s primary. His current voter status is listed as “active” in the state.
Although he reportedly both posted on his social media (which has “now been suspended“) and mentioned in a self-published book that he voted for Trump in 2016 and regretted that vote, North Carolina has no record of Routh voting in that state in 2016.