The man who allegedly shot several people at a baseball practice for Congressional Republicans was a Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) supporter and reportedly volunteered on Sanders’ presidential campaign.
Authorities say 66-year-old James Hodgkinson of Belleville, Ill., opened fire Wednesday morning at a baseball field in Alexandria, Va. Five people were wounded, including House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.). Hodgkinson was shot at the scene and later died in a hospital.
Sanders first issued a statement condemning the shooting, then addressed it in prepared remarks delivered on the U.S. Senate floor.
“I have just been informed that the alleged shooter at the Republican baseball practice is someone who apparently volunteered on my presidential campaign,” Sanders said. “I am sickened by this despicable act. Let me be as clear as I can be. Violence of any kind is unacceptable in our society and I condemn this action in the strongest possible terms.”
The banner photo on what appears to be Hodgkinson’s Facebook page is an image of Sanders. The page is full of progressive and anti-Republican commentaries, many of them harsh or even vulgar. Hodgkinson was a frequent letter-writer to his local newspaper; the letters were sharply critical of Republican policies and politicians.
The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Hodgkinson volunteered for Sanders’ presidential campaign in Iowa. According to the Des Moines Register, Hodgkinson was not a paid staffer, and campaign operatives had no recollection of him.
The shooting broke out just after 7 a.m. Wednesday at Eugene Simpson Stadium Park in Alexandria, a few miles outside of Washington, D.C. Scalise was shot in the hip and taken to a hospital for treatment. The wounded also included a Congressional staffer, a lobbyist and two U.S. Capitol police officers.
Here is video of Sanders’ full remarks:
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A person who does that is not driven by ideology but is a deranged person. It’s too bad he couldn’t have been treated for his mental illness.
You are completely off-base, citizen. Nothing in the speeches of Sanders or the Left was intended to be, or could reasonably be interpreted as a call to violence.
Unlike some of the campaign speeches of Trump who explicitly recommended personal violence, and who did nothing to address the occurrence of same at some of his rallies. Your insinuations that those of us on the left are not Americans is vile.
July 27, 2008Jim Adkisson shoots and kills two people at a progressive church in Knoxville, Tennessee, wounding two. Adkisson calls it a symbolic killing because he really wanted to killevery Democrat in the Senate & House, the 100 people in Bernard Goldbergs book, but was unable to gain access to them.
December 9, 2008FBI teams investigating the murder of white supremacist James Cumming, 29, a resident of Belfast, Maine, find supplies for a crude radiological dispersal device and other explosives in his home. Cummings wife, who shot him to death after being abused by him repeatedly, explains, His intentions were to construct a dirty bomb and take it to Washington to kill President Obama. He was planning to hide it in the undercarriage of our motor home.
December 12, 2008Bruce Turnidge and his son, Joshua Turnidge, detonate a bomb at a bank in Woodburn, Oregon, killing two police officers. The Turnidges were vocal about their extreme, anti-government views and believed that the Obama administration was going to take away their right to keep and bear arms. Bruce Turnidge cited Timothy McVeigh as an inspiration for his crime.
March 21-22, 2009Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-MN) states that she wants residents of her state to be armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax because we need to fight back.
April 4, 2009Neo-Nazi Richard Poplawski shoots and kills three police officers responding to a 911 call to his home in Pittsburgh. His friend Edward Perkovic tells reporters that Poplawski feared the Obama gun ban that s on its way and didn t like our rights being infringed upon.
April 7, 2009The Department of Homeland Security s Office of Intelligence and Analysis releases an assessment of right wing extremism in the United States. The Department notes that the economic downturn and the election of the first African American president present unique drivers for rightwing radicalization and recruitment. Recalling the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing by Timothy McVeigh, the Department speculates, The possible passage of new restrictions on firearms and the return of military veterans facing significant challenges reintegrating into their communities could lead to the potential emergence of terrorist groups or lone wolf extremists capable of carrying out violent attacks.
April 13, 2009Rep. Don Young (R-AK) signs a Letter of Declaration drafted by Schaeffer Cox, the head of the Second Amendment Task Force. Cox is later convicted for plotting to kill federal and state government officials.
April 25, 2009Joshua Cartwright, 28, a member of the Florida National Guard, shoots and kills two Okaloosa County sheriffs deputies attempting to arrest him on a domestic abuse charge. Cartwright is killed in an enusing gun battle with police. Cartwrights wife reports that he was severely disturbed that Barack Obama had been elected president. Okaloosa County Sheriff Edward Spooner states that Cartrwight was interested in militia groups and weapons training.
May 31, 2009Scott P. Roeder shoots and kills Dr. George Tiller in the foyer of Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kansas. The FBI lists Roeder as a member of the Montana Freemen, a radical anti-government group.
June 10, 2009James W. von Brunn, a convicted felon and Neo-Nazi, walks into the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. and shoots and kills a security guard. Von Brunn believed that Western civilization was going to be replaced with a ONE WORLD ILLUMINATI GOVERNMENT that would confiscate private weapons in order to accomplish its goals.
June 24, 2009Hal Turner, a New Jersey resident and white supremacist blogger/radio host, calls for the murder of three Republican-appointed jurists on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals who had issued a June 2 decision upholding handgun restrictions in Chicago. Turner says, Let me be the first to say this plainly: these judges deserve to be killed, and includes photographs, phone numbers, work addresses, and room numbers of the judges, as well as a map of Chicago s federal courthouse which points out its anti-truck bomb pylons.
July 13, 2009Gilbert Ortez, Jr. kills a police deputy in Chambers County, Texas, with an assault rifle. Police searching Ortez mobile home after a 10-hour standoff find more than 100 explosive devices; Nazi drawings and extremist literature; and several additional firearms.
October 18-19, 2009The Secret Service has received an unprecedented number of death threats against President Obama.
October 21, 2009John Brek, a 55 year-old Newark Airport security guard, is arrested for making terroristic threats against President Obama. Authorities find 43 firearms while searching his home, including a stolen rifle. Brek, a National Rifle Association member, is also found to be in possession of illegal hollow point bullets.
November 2009A billboard is erected on I-70 in Lafayette County, Missouri, that promotes a citizen’s guide to REVOLUTION. It urges Missourians to LIVE FREE OR DIE and PREPARE FOR WAR with a corrupt government. The billboard is highlighted at the Lafayette County Republicans website.
December 23, 2009Anti-Obama and pro-gun activist Warren Gator Taylor takes three people hostage at a federal post office in Wytheville, Virginia. He is armed with four guns, including a .40-caliber Glock pistol, despite a criminal record that includes convictions for lewd and lascivious behavior with a 13 year-old and attempted second-degree murder (Taylor shot his ex-wife three times in a parking lot in 1993). Taylor fires at least three rounds before the stand-off ends, including one at the stations fleeing postmaster.
January 12, 2010Law enforcement find 30 pipe bombs, 17 rifles and handguns, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in the dwelling of Mark Campano of Cuyhaoga Falls, Ohio. Law enforcement are called to Campanos apartment in November 2009 after he accidentally detonates a pipe bomb and loses parts of two fingers.
January 12, 2010Charles Allan Dyer, a member of the Tea Party and far-right-wing organizations like Oath Keepers, is arrested at his home on charges of raping a 7 year old-girl. Sheriffs deputies find several firearms inside Dyers home and a Colt M-203 40mm grenade launcher, which was stolen from a military base in Fort Irwin, California, in 2006. Dyer told one interviewer, Im going to use my training and become one of those domestic terrorists that youre so afraid of from the [Department of Homeland Security (DHS)] reports.
March 4, 2010John Patrick Bedell opens fire on police officers at the entrance to the Pentagon. Bedell is armed with two semiautomatic firearms and many magazines. Bedell injures two officers before he is killed by return fire. Bedell believed the U.S. government had been taken over by a criminal organization.
March 21, 2010As the U.S. House of Representatives enters a final round of debate over the health care reform bill, Conservative blogger Solomon Solly Forrell calls for the assassination of President Barack Obama on his Twitter account. In two separate postings, Forrel writes, ASSASSINATION! America, we survived the #Assassinations of #Lincoln & #Kennedy. Well surely get over a bullet 2 #BarackObamas head!
March 23, 2010After Mike Troxel of the Lynchburg Tea Party and Nigel Coleman of the Danville Tea Party post the home address of the brother of Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA) and urge supporters to drop by, someone deliberately cuts a propane gas line at Perriellos house. Rep. Perriello had been targeted by the Tea Party activists because of his vote in favor of health care reform. Perriellos brother and his wife have four children under the age of eight.
The list just keeps going and going. Don’t be a hypocrite. Violence and terrorism are vile regardless of which side the perp is on. Not a huge Bernie fan but everyone knows he doesn’t condone violence. The records show that most violence and domestic terrorism come from the right wing.
Citizen, I am on Bernie’s side, and nothing he said during the campaign or since compares to what your president said and continues to say promoting violence. I was born and bred in America, and am as American as you. Your diatribe seems to ignore that you were one of the ones who never accepted Obama as your president. Your 180 degree about-face is not as subtle as you may think, or perhaps you think it’s okay to spout this bull about “accepting the loss in November.” Obama was more legitatimately elected both times than Trump, winning over 50% of the popular vote.
So get off your high horse and try to be civilized. We are all appalled and disgusted by this violence today. Bernie Sanders is the single most popular politician in this country today. You are the one out of step with the majority of Americans. If you don’t like it, why don’t you take your own advice?
The web has this figured out already. The shooter was associated with the CIA and the whole thing was a psyop. Notice how the shooter conveniently died? (think lone gunman, Oswald) I hope the Congressman, alive during surgery, isn’t placed on the VIP list and then dies in hospital as so often happens. Hilary’s hit men out to make Bernie supporters to be violent, and in need of gun regulations. When are we going to see this evil witch imprisoned, awaiting execution for murders and treason?
Sadly, Vermont is obviously not immune from nutjobs on the lunatic fringe Left and fringe Right.
A pro-Trump commentator blames this sad, tragic event on Bernie? Anyone who sees my comments on this site knows I am no Bernie fan, but c’mon. Only one candidate in the last election incited the crowd to violence at his rallies. Only one. And it wasn’t Bernie, and it wasn’t Hillary. It was the lying, insecure bully named Trump.
A pro-Bernie commentator posits that this is a conspiracy by Hillary to get back at Bernie.
Unbelievable. How sad it is that people actually believe this utterly paranoid nonsense, and spread it.
You all say “oh Sanders isn’t violent” well unless this link gets deleted read and listen what Sanders is saying that Pres Trump is dangerous..and a nutcase like this is why he shot at republicans..Hodgkinson was a Sanders lover..
.http://www.zootfeed.com/2017/06/14/bernie-….. Not just Sanders but all the democrats and even some rino republican are talking violence against Pres Trump.. Sanders and the rest need to shut their friggin mouths.. HikeVT stop looking up democrats lies.. I see you didn’t post anything about the violence from the democrats..Who do you think these fools who do violent protesting are republicans? No they are paid by democrats..
Barbara Alsop where did you get the idea that Socialist Sanders is the single most popular politician in this country today…You’re drinking to much kool aid..wearing rose color glasses.. this is a man who wrote a paper in college stating that women enjoy being raped, they fantasize about it..Seven day did a article on it.!!! So I’m not making it up.. I know not one woman who wants to be raped..do you???
Knowyourass…….. How about the fact that not one Trump supporter has shot any member of the government. And over the past 18 months Bernies supporters have proven time and time again that their answer to opposition is violence. Example 1. Bernie supporter charges stage and tries to assault Trump at one of his rallies. 2. At the home of the free speech movement Bernie supporters burn Berkley in order to stop someone from speaking. 3.Bernie supporters at Middlebury assault a professor and another speaker in order to halt free speech once again. 4. Today the most hittiaus act of all a BERNIE SUPPORTER shot innocent people that were practicing for a charity event. Knowyourass…….. stop pretending to be a moderate Republican because your not. And Bernie supporters you should all remember violence is a sign of weakness. I hope I have not offended anyone so I don’t get censored again by the good independent people at 7days.
Barbara, me be civilized? None of the people that I know that support President Trump have shot anyone. So you get off your high horse. I certainly did accept Obama as the President, I might not have liked it sometimes but I certainly accepted it, because I am a true American that accepts how the founding fathers of this great nation intended for political process to work. The left does not seem to be able to accept that same process.
Citizen, why do you make up facts? I absolutely deplore what the students did at Berkley and Middlebury, but Bernie personally had absolutely nothing to do with those events. You’re entitled to your opinion that some radicals on the Left are as intolerant as some on the Right, which I share. But that is completely different from suggesting that Bernie promoted what happened at those events. You cannot simply make up facts to support an argument that Bernie promotes violence. You do Trump proud with your Fake News.
Important to note that IF this man was a volunteer–which there is yet to be any actual proof of (he is not listed in volunteer logs and staff do not recognize him)–he was a volunteer with hundreds of thousands of others across the country. The lines being drawn between this man and Senator Sanders are absurd and nothing more than grasping at straws by the media to stir up a non-story and create even more hostility between democrats and republicans. Don’t drink the kool-aide!
citizen, yes, Trump supporters have killed people. Violence begets violence. And continuous vitriol on either side emboldens individuals who are mentally ill and have lots of guns. http://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/j… AND http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/new… PLUS http://www.diversityinc.com/news/trump-con…
I left out the recent stabbing deaths: This happened on June 3, 2017. Phillip Wade, 38, of Antioch was arrested for stabbing 57-year-old Anthony Johnson of Pittsburg multiple times at a bus stop on Saturday afternoon. Wades Facebook page had increasingly hostile statements and threats towards Muslims and African-Americans. On May 19, Wade posted a threatening racist statement concerning former President Barack Obama. The killer was described as more of a follower, who became a major Trump supporter. The victim in Saturdays fatal stabbing was black. And this one: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-n…
Knowyourass…….. please tell me what facts I made up. Also Bernie himself on the floor of the Senate yesterday claimed the scumbag shooter as one of his campaign volunteer, and many of the protesters that have been taking part in violence that is going on around the nation have been seen in Bernie shirts. Also the scumbag that stabbed two people to death while trying to assault two Muslim women in Portland was an admitted Bernie supporter. So I think it’s time you get your facts correct sir. I’m not sure how any one that has posted on this article and has defended the action taken by anyone that uses violence can look at themselves and see a decent human. I think even Bernie knows he has created monsters he can no longer control and now he will try to pull the political trick of trying to distance himself from them. It won’t work this time. #timetovotethebaldguysout.
“Knowyourass…….. please tell me what facts I made up.”
In your 06/14/2017 at 9:35 posting, you stated that the students who caused the violence on the Berkley and Middlebury campus were “Bernie supporters.” That’s making up facts. Please post here any evidence that any of the perpetrators in either of those incidents identified themselves as Bernie supporters, or said that they were disrupting the speeches because of Bernie.
Furthermore, you clearly implied that the perpetrators engaged in that violence because Bernie somehow encourages violence. Please cite your proof for that.
I have little use for Bernie. But claiming that he is responsible for left wing violence is pure right wing bullshit.
When Bernie says things like “Trump is the most dangerous President in American history and must be stopped” that might encourage violence. Or when he and his lib friends say thing like Trumps agenda will “kill people” you mean to tell me that comments like that don’t imply that violence might be an acceptable action. Fact. College students make up about 90% of his voters, also the reason he lost because many of them are to lazy or to stoned to vote. And for someone that claims to be a Republican and ” has little use for Bernie” you sure spend a lot of energy defending the communist. Oh I’m sorry “socialist” a made up word for communism so it fits better in the American vocabulary. Bernie may not have given the order but when he uses the words he does to get his base fired up he might as well have given the guy the gun and the students the match. He started a fire in our culture that is out of control. Not much different from the propaganda ISIS uses to inspire their crazy followers to commit hitious acts of terrorism. And don’t fool yourself the actions taken yesterday were political terrorism.
You still haven’t offered any evidence for your “fact” that the college hooligans at Berkley and Middlebury were Bernie supporters, other than it’s just your assumption. Nice job.
More importantly, your conclusion that they engaged in their hooliganism because Bernie encouraged them to do so is pure howl-at-the-moon lunacy. Let me see if I get your impeccable logic: Because Bernie’s support base has a lot of college students in it, and because the hooligans at Berkley and Middlebury were college students, it therefore follows inevitably that he caused those students to engage in the violence. Very nice job. A+ in logic.
And, no, I absolutely, positively disagree with you that the comments you quote from Bernie could or would in any way, shape, or form, possibly incite anybody to violence, or were intended to do so. I can’t say the same thing about the racist-tinged, xenophobic remarks that your hero Trump spewed regularly during his campaign, or the unsubtle hint he dropped that gun owners might want to shoot Hillary.
Blaming Bernie for this is akin to blaming Trump for the Pizzagate nut with the gun.
Tip of the hat to Walters for finding some fodder for his weekly Bernie hate-on though.
Blame Socialist old Bernie or not..Why aren’t some in here paying attention to the news..The liberal hating left are blaming Pres Trump for the shooting.. there is liberals tweeting that the shooter should had shot harder and more, and it’s to bad he didn’t kill Scalise..
Statements from Democrats… Tim Kaine Called For Fighting in the Streets. Loretta Lynch called for Blood in the streets.
Obama asked his supporters to “Rise Up”….Sanders calls Pres Trump a dangerous man and needs to be taken out..CNN announced who would take over the government if all elected Republicans were KILLED during Trump’s inauguration…..A New York “play” shows the killing of Trump…..Snoop Dog kills Trump in a video…..Kathy Griffin decapitates Trump in a photoshoot…..Madonna wants to blow up the White House…..Ashley Judd is NASTY & Hillary joins the “Resistance”…..A play in NYC does a stabbing of a actor dressed as Pres Trump…There are Idiot Lefties in MSM calling our Wonderful President is a Nazi, Racist, Bigot along with his supporters….I wonder why people are losing their minds. Do NOT call for Gun Control….Call for Liberal Control….Liberalism is truly a MENTAL DISEASE…..and I’m a deplorable Trump supporter and proud of it.. and respect my President..
Donna you are not alone in your support of our great President and our Great Nation. All those suffering from Trump Derangement syndrome will never get it. Folks like Knowyourass….. will never be able to wrap their tiny brains around the fact that the silent majority choose to be silent no longer in November and I can’t wait to watch them loose their minds when Trump wins a second term in 2020. They are blinded by stupidity and self hate. They have fallen pray to the liberal brain washing that has been going on since the summer of love back on 1969. Stand strong Donna and thank you for speaking up for proper values our country needs more people like yourself. And when the crazy libs get their way and start a civil war know that I’ll have your back sister.
Hey Bernie fans I have a question I’m hoping one of you can answer. At the Democratic National Convention was it a person from Hillary’s camp or a peace loving Bernie fan that threw the first chair when tempers flared? I thought I read somewhere on here that Democrats don’t use violence as a political tool. Jane Sanders reminded the world today of the fact that dems will even use violence on each other when they dont get their own way , in her CNN interview. AS REPORTED BY WCAX. http://www.wcax.com/story/35676245/jane-sa…
CNN NEVER reports fake news right?
“since the summer of love back on 1969”
The Summer of Love was 1967. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_of_Lo…
“At the Democratic National Convention was it a person from Hillary’s camp or a peace loving Bernie fan that threw the first chair”
No one threw chairs at the Democratic National Convention. There was an allegation that chairs were thrown at the Nevada Democratic Convention, but that accusation has been called into question.
You are seriously fact-challenged. You just say stuff. No wonder you love Trump so much. You’re just like him. Facts? Accuracy? Who cares?
Knowwyourass……. are calling Jane Sanders a lier. She is the one that reported the chair throwing not me. I think you might have fried your brain during the Summer of Love. It must be awful to be so wrong all the time. I would say I feel bad for you but you ignorance is your own fault. It might help to stop getting all your fake facts from media sources controlled by the evil Goerge Soros. And congratulations you have fallen into the libs trap and now spend time arguing with fellow republicans instead of fighting the real enemy the liberals. How foolish can you be? Ps I hope you saw my post to you before it was removed. Have a good day my confused friend.
Citizen, Thank you and I’ll be right by your side also.. I love my country, it’s the way I was raised. I was taught RESPECT for our country and flag. My father was in WW!! and the Korean War, My Uncles from both sides also, My husband was in Vietnam, along with all my cousins and friends, my son was in Iraq..and none of them were drafted, they SIGNED up.I come from a long line of Military and from all branches of the Military..There was never any DRAFT DODGERS..
I lost family in these wars. some that I didn’t know., but they get my respect and I show my respect every year. I was raised to show respect to our Presidents even tho he wasn’t the one I voted for and don’t agree with.He is the President. My father always said “you may not respect the person but you need to respect the office he is in” I don’t want America to become a NWO liberal country..!!!!!
My family fought for our country freedom and I’ll be damn that I will let idiots destroy my country..Hitler was a Socialist do you democrat liberals know that.? My father saw the claw marks on the inside of these “ovens”.Socialism doesn’t work..Yet I know a lot of you believe in it, because you believe the socialist sanders, you like that anyone can take what you have and make and give it to someone else who don’t even work..
.I feel sorry for you all..Vermont was once a great state, friendly,helpful and a Republican state !!!! Yes a Republican state now it’s a pathetic liberal state, run by pathetic liberals..and most of them are out of staters who moved here to change us, take over. who think they know better how to run our lives then we do… I was asked why I don’t leave Vt. I’m a fighter, stubborn and will not give up on my state.. and you want to know the main reason…I love pissing liberals off..!!!!! Makes my day..and I’m going to be around a very lonnnng time and will voice my opinion all the time.. I’m not a violent person, I believe in honesty , family, Country and FREEDOM.. which a lot in this state and the elected officials don’t believe in.. but when it comes to push I’ll be there pushing right back ..
knowyourassumptions.. When obama was elected did the republicans riot, destroy, steal, kill, beat up??? Nope but the democrats sure did all this when Pres Trump was elected.
2010 registered Democrat shot senator Gifford and 6 others
2011 Democrat killed 12 in a movie theater
2012 Democrat kills 7 in Minneapolis
2013 Democrat kills 12 at a navy shipyard.
2017 Democrat shoots at US Sen and US Rep Virginia Park
How many Republicans have done mass killings in the last say 5 years? I see a trend here.
nope democrats aren’t violent.. KKK was created by the DEMOCRATS. Lyndon B Johnson was a member of the KKK..
.I also don’t think a certain Vt senator while in another country, should run down our President like he did..
Citizen, can you actually read? It doesn’t appear so. Or is it that you just can’t be bothered? You wrote there was chair-throwing at the Democratic National Convention. There was no chair-throwing at that event. The alleged chair-throwing was at a different place and a different time. But why let a little thing like factual accuracy interfere with your paranoid pro-Trump fantasies, right?
So you are admitting that there was chair throwing between the different camps during the election, I just got the location wrong. I think you need to take some time and think about how silly you sound right now Knowyourass…… And once again in was just relying on Bernie’ s wife recollection of events. I forgot you were the only Republican in the country to attend the DNC, so I should take your account of the events over a person I know was there.