House Majority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana remains in critical condition this morning, after he and four other people were wounded Wednesday when a gunman opened fire at a baseball field in Alexandria, Virginia. The lawmakers were practicing for tonight’s charity congressional baseball game when Scalise, the third-ranking Republican in the House, was shot in the hip.
The gunman, who was shot dead by Capitol Hill police, has been identified as a 66-year-old white man named James Hodgkinson from Belleville, Illinois. He has a history of being arrested for domestic violence and has also made violent threats online. In one recent Facebook post, he wrote, “Trump is a Traitor. Trump Has Destroyed Our Democracy. It’s Time to Destroy Trump & Co.” Reports indicate Hodgkinson also once volunteered for Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign. Hodgkinson received a license to have a gun earlier this year despite being arrested in 2006 for domestic battery and discharge of a firearm.
We’ll go to Capitol Hill for more on the Virginia shooting after headlines.