John Hinckley Jr., the man who almost succeeded in murdering President Ronald Reagan in 1981, urged Twitter followers to join his “community,” posting what he believed in: a laundry list of leftist tropes.
In September 2021, Hinckley, 66, won unconditional release from his state-mandated confinement; Hinckley’s attorney made a deal which a federal judge accepted.
Urging people to join him this week, Hinckley Jr. tweeted, “I believe in peace, love, equity, LGBTQ rights, abortion rights, animal rights, race mixing, assault weapon ban, sharing the wealth, Green New Deal, Black Lives Matter, Prison reform and good rock ‘n’ roll. Join the John Hinckley Community.”
I believe in peace, love, equity, LGBTQ rights, abortion rights, animal rights, race mixing, assault weapon ban, sharing the wealth, Green New Deal, Black Lives Matter, Prison reform and good rock ‘n’ roll. Join the John Hinckley Community.
— John Hinckley (@JohnHinckley20) July 25, 2022
hinckley reemerging as an average leftist poster with views indistinguishable from a 20-something-year-old in brooklyn sounds right https://t.co/J7MUbD3xku
— Joe Gabriel Simonson (@SaysSimonson) July 27, 2022
Fat slob who tried to assassinate the president of the United States is woke: https://t.co/v6rmkSn5Ds
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) July 27, 2022
I just read some of the replies to this and I'm speechless.
The fact that people want the man who tried to assassinate President Reagan to run for President in 2024, tells you everything you need to know about America in 2022. https://t.co/LOotY0gCRv
— Joel M. Petlin (@Joelmpetlin) July 27, 2022
On March 30, 1981, after President Reagan gave a speech to roughly 5,000 members of the AFL-CIO at the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington D.C., he left the hotel and walked outside as Hinckley Jr. lay in wait.
Hinckley Jr. had seen the movie “Taxi Driver” in 1976, starring Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster. In the film, De Niro’s character protects Foster, who plays a child prostitute; De Niro’s character also intends to assassinate a presidential candidate.
Hinckley Jr., obsessed with Foster, pursued her with love letters and phone calls after she attended Yale University years later; after she rejected his advances, he conjectured that he could win her love by assassinating Reagan.
As Reagan approached the presidential limousine, Hinckley Jr. fired six shots at him; one bullet lodged in his rib just one inch from his heart and punctured his lung.
Hinckley also shot White House Press Secretary James Brady, Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy, and policeman Thomas Delahanty. Brady, shot in the head, required a wheelchair for the rest of his life; after he died in 2014, a medical examiner ruled his death a homicide from Hinckley’s gunshot.
As Ashe Schow of The Daily Wire reported in her portrait of Hinckley Jr., the assassination and its aftermath:
In September 2021, U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman announced that Hinckley would be fully released without conditions if he continued to show he was “no longer a danger to himself or others,” The Associated Press reported. Hinckley was granted his freedom without any restrictions on June 15, 2022. He immediately attempted to enter the music industry, as he posted videos of himself performing covers and original songs on his YouTube page. At least one venue had originally booked him to perform but has since canceled, citing “threats and hate.”