The man suspected of opening fire on Republican congressmen during a baseball practice was an enthusiastic Bernie Sanders supporter on social media and an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump.
James Hodgkinson, of Belleville, Illinois, has been identified as the gunman who shot and wounded GOP whip Steve Scalise, Rep. Roger Williams (R-TX) and three others Wednesday morning at a ball field in Alexandria, Virginia.
The 66-year-old Hodgkinson, who was killed by Capitol police during the incident, owned a home inspection business, but he indicated on Facebook that he ended his involvement with the company at the end of last year.
Hodgkinson maintained two Facebook pages, which he posted to as recently as Monday, and both used images of Sanders as a profile picture or cover image.
He also maintained a Twitter account but tweeted only seven times, most recently in April.
Rep. Ron DeSantis said Hodgkinson appeared to be the same man who asked him before the shooting whether Democrats or Republicans were practicing on the field.
Hodgkinson didn’t make any specific social media threats against any of the lawmakers he’s accused of shooting, but he liked a political cartoon in 2015 after Scalise gave a speech to a white supremacist group.
His last post, which he made Monday evening, repeatedly described the president as as “assh*le” in reaction to a news story he shared about Cabinet members praising Trump during a meeting.
Hodgkinson followed numerous media outlets, including Raw Story and other left-leaning news sites, and activist groups on Facebook, and he frequently signed online petitions that he then shared on social media.
After the primaries, Hodgkinson appeared to support Green Party candidate Jill Stein and shared anti-Hillary Clinton stories from RT, the state-run Russia media outlet.
