Senator Bernie Sanders confirmed Wednesday that Hodgkinson was a volunteer on his campaign, and there were social media posts praising Sanders attributed to Hodgkinson. Sanders refused to take questions on the matter, but did issue a statement that he also delivered on the 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,” it read. “Let me be clear as I can be. Violence of any kind is unacceptable in our society and I condemn this action in the strongest possible terms.”
Our prayers go out for a full recovery of Rep. Scalise, the congressional aides and police who were injured. We’ve got to stop the violence.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) June 14, 2017
Hodgkinson Facebook pages where he repeatedly posted about politics, most recently slamming Trump and Israel, has both been removed during the publishing of this article. The Facebook pages were previously located here and here.
“Trump is Guilty & Should Go to Prison for Treason,” read one post that shared a video calling for Trump’s impeachment. Another said: “Trump is a mean, disgusting person.”
Hodgkinson also apparently made several negative comments about Republicans, including one about the Republican candidate for the vacant House seat in Georgia, Karen Handel: “Republican B**** Wants People to Work for Slave Wages, when a Livable Wage is the Only Way to Go! Vote Blue, It’s Right for You!”
In January 2015, he liked a comic (Since Deleted by Facebook) featuring Scalise, who was said to have suffered non-life-threatening injuries after being shot in the hip. The comic ridiculed him for attending a white supremacist conference in 2002.
According to his Facebook page, Hodgkinson’s favorite shows include political shows, Politics Nation with Al Sharpton, The Rachel Maddow Show and Last Week with John Oliver among others.
Hodgkinson, “Facebook Likes” page seem to indicate that he was not a fan of President Donald Trump and other US Republicans and was a supporter or fan of Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Al Jazeera, MSNBC, Huffington Post as well as many other left leaning political pages.
JBN discovered an additional Hodgkinson Facebook page with many politically charged posts against Donald Trump some of which compared Trump to a Nazi ruler.
Other Hodgkinson posts targeted Trump’s daughter and son in law, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner as well as anti-Israel rhetoric. Facebook removed both of Hodgkinson Facebook pages as JBN was creating screenshots of the offending posts.
Representative Ron De Santis said that a man matching Hodgkinson’s description approached him prior to the shooting and asked “whether it was Republicans or Democrats out there.”
Newsweek contributed to this article.
