25 Investigates: Gunman who shot Republican congressman had history of railing against GOP

The shooter who opened fire on Republican congressmen at baseball field in Virginia had blasted GOP lawmakers and supported taxing the rich for years, according to a review of more than two dozen letters he wrote to his local hometown newspaper.

James T. Hodgkinson, 66, was a Bernie Sanders supporter and frequent critic of Republicans according to at least 26 letters he wrote to the Belleville News-Democrat. It was only more recently that he turned his anger toward President Donald Trump.

Hodgkinson is originally from Belleville, Illinois – 800 miles from where the 66-year-old opened fire on Republican members of Congress at a Virginia baseball field. Police shot Hodgkinson, who later died. Hodgkinson had been in the Virginia area since March.

Social media posts also revealed more details about Hodgkinson and his politics.

His Facebook posts attacked the president, including one stating, “Trump is guilty and should go to prison for treason.”

Hodgkinson also “liked” a cartoon suggesting Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana) should be fired.

Scalise was one of the people Hodgkinson shot. He is expected to recover.

Back in Illinois at least one friend of Hodgkinson – who didn’t give his full name – defended him, saying, “I just want to let people know he wasn’t evil, that he was tired of some of the politics going on.”

As a home inspector, Hodgkinson got attention for helping hurricane victims in Florida in 2004.

He also had an arrest record going back to the 1990s, including a battery charge in 2006.

In March, Sheriff’s deputies came out to Hodgkinson’s house in Illinois after a neighbor reported hearing 50 gunshots. A police report states he had license to shoot the weapon and wasn’t charged in the incident.

A review by 25 Investigates found Hodgkinson's political frustration stretched back long before President Trump and some of the current Republican leaders came into power.
           
In more than two dozen letters to the editor of his local paper, Hodgkinson railed against former President George W. Bush and called for "voting all Republicans out of office."

In a 2010 letter, he wrote, “I don’t envy the rich; I despise the way they have bought our politicians…”

Hodgkinson also used his letters to praise the Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Boston protest and expressed his disappointment about Massachusetts’ own John Kerry losing the 2004 presidential election.

Cox Media Group