John Hinckley Jr. was 25 years old on March 30, 1981, when he attempted to take the life of then-President Ronald Reagan outside the Washington Hilton hotel in Washington, D.C.
Following a widely publicized trial, Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity and spent over 34 years in psychiatric confinement until 2016 when he was given a conditional release. A full release followed in 2022, and he now lives in the Williamsburg, Virginia, area where he records music and paints.
Hinckley spoke out after the assassination attempt of President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents Dinner in April, which took place at the hotel dubbed by many as “The Hinckley Hilton.” He joined Megyn on Friday’s show to discuss the latest violence at the property and his reaction to it.
WHCD Shooting
On April 25, a gunman opened fire outside the annual WHCD attended by thousands of media members and top Trump administration officials in yet another stunning attempt on President Donald Trump’s life. The incident took place at the Washington Hilton – the same hotel where President Reagan survived an assassination attempt 45 years prior – while President Trump was attending the annual event for the first time as president.
The dinner started at 8:00pm, the president and First Lady Melania Trump were seated around 8:15, and, at 8:36pm, surveillance footage shows suspect Cole Allen making a mad dash past the final layer of security before he was ultimately apprehended by the Secret Service. One officer was shot during the arrest but was wearing a bulletproof vest and was released from the hospital after a brief stay.
The event was cancelled after the president, first lady, and other administration officials were safely evacuated, and it has since been rescheduled for July 24. It will take place at Waldorf Astoria in D.C. instead of the Hilton.
“I guess I’m glad it’s not at the Hilton because I don’t think it’s a very safe place to hold events like that,” Hinckley told Megyn. “I mean, the Waldorf Astoria doesn’t sound too much safer to me, but hopefully things will go well… I’m sure they’ll have tighter security, but it’s interesting that they rescheduled so fast.”
Increased Political Violence
Hinckley – who has expressed remorse for carrying out the shooting that wounded four, including President Reagan – said he is troubled by the rise of political violence in the U.S. “This is like the third or fourth attempt against President Trump, and… I just can’t believe this is going on because there’s so much violence in America right now,” he said. “It’s hard to watch the news because every time you turn on the news there’s all this carnage going on.”
He said he has been on the receiving end of some chilling requests on social media. “I had, and actually still have, people who go online go on my X account and they say, ‘John, we need you again.’ You got to do it again.’ Things like that” Hinckley revealed. “Of course, I don’t think that’s funny.”
He noted that after one of the early attempts on Trump’s life, he posted on X that “violence is not the way to go,” and Megyn asked him how he got to that place after trying to assassinate a sitting president in 1981.
“I’m just a totally different person from the person that I was in 1981. Totally different, and that’s why I wrote [my memoir John Hinckley Jr.: Who I Really Am], actually, to show the public the way that I really am now,” Hinckley explained.
“There has been such a negative image of me for like 45 years, and people think that I’m the way that I was back then,” he added. “So, I hope if they read the book [and] there’s also a documentary out that I participated in. It’s a pretty big delusion to think you can shoot the president to impress somebody. If they watch the documentary, they’ll see that I’m not the person that I was back then at all. I’m a totally changed man.”
Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity and has said the assassination plot was an attempt to get actress Jodie Foster to notice him. When Megyn asked him if he is “against violence now,” he said “very much so” and that he got that place through treatment.
“[It was through] overcoming my mental illness that I had in 1981. I just had a really dark heart in 1981. I was, you know, thinking of violent things,” he admitted. “And when I came out of my mental illness over the years, I just saw that violence, you know, as I said, is not the way to go, and it took some time to come to that belief.”
‘Not the Way to Go’
In the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, a YouGov survey found 19 percent of liberals under the age of 30 believe political violence “can be justified.” Hinckley said he hadn’t heard that statistic before but believes it is problematic.
“That’s terrible,” Hinckley said. “Political violence is growing. Unfortunately, we just can’t seem to argue about things without it turning to violence… It’s a shame.”
Megyn asked Hinckley if he had a message for those who may be considering a violent act or think it is acceptable: “Don’t resort to violence, that’s all I can say. I’m sure they got a lot of things going on in their life, like I had going on in my life back in 1981… It’s hard to talk people out of doing what they want to do, but I’m just here to tell you… violence is not the way to go.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Hinckley by tuning in to episode 1,343 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Channel (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.