On a podcast preview reported by NBC News, Hinckley said he hopes Foster has a good life. The remark revived memories of the 1981 assassination attempt on Reagan, which also left press secretary James Brady permanently paralyzed and wounded Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy and D.C. police officer Thomas Delahanty.
The comment itself is hollow. John Hinckley Jr., who shot Ronald Reagan to impress Jodie Foster, still commands media attention for saying nothing of substance. Every fresh appearance drags a presidential assassination attempt back into the culture as celebrity gossip. Brady's permanent injuries and the broader reckoning over political violence fade to background noise.
Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity and spent decades under psychiatric supervision before restrictions were lifted. Foster built a career while carrying the burden of a fixation that was never hers to own.
America still treats one of the most violent acts of political obsession in modern history as recyclable content. Foster becomes a permanent footnote in someone else's pathology. Brady—the real casualty—fades again. We keep turning assassination attempts into spectacle instead of reckoning with what they mean.
Filed to the Politics desk · Aug 12