GOP Rep DeSantis: Man Asked If We Were Reps Or Dems, Then Shooting Happened (VIDEO)

14 Jun, 2017 by Cassy Fiano

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Details continue to emerge about the horrific shooting in Alexandria, Virginia, in which House Majority Whip Steve Scalise was shot, along with three other people. People have been searching for what might possibly motivate someone to open fire on innocent people and a statement from Rep. Ron DeSantis has many worried that it was politically motivated.

DeSantis was attending the baseball practice this morning and was leaving with Rep. Jeff Duncan just prior to the shooting. As they got into a car to leave, DeSantis said they had a suspicious encounter.

“[A]s I was getting into the car with one of my colleagues, Jeff Duncan, there was a guy that walked up to us that was asking whether there was Republicans or Democrats out there,” DeSantis recalled. “And it was just a little odd and then he kind of walked toward the area where all this happened.”

He said that he notified police about the conversation and understandably, people immediately took this detail to mean that the shooting was politically motivated. But it turns out, the man DeSantis spoke to may not have been the shooter at all:

The shooter has since been identified as 66 year-old James T. Hodgkinson of Belleville, Illinois. Social media postings indicate that Hodgkinson was a liberal progressive who hated Trump and idolized Bernie Sanders. DeSantis noted that the man he spoke to also was not carrying anything, making it doubtful — although not impossible — that Hodgkinson approached him before unleashing his rampage.

The FBI seems to be denying DeSantis’ account as well:

But then when shown a picture of Hodgkinson, Duncan confirmed that this was the man he spoke to:

Donald Trump has since announced that Hodgkinson has died of his wounds; none of his victims, meanwhile, have perished. While the details may still be fuzzy for now, there is at least some good news coming out of the craziness today.