The bottom line stunned the Hodgkinson-targeted lawmakers assembled in the U.S. Capitol visitors center.
Mr. Hodgkinson was committing “suicide by cop,” the FBI briefer said. In essence, the bureau had relegated the near-mass killings aimed at Washington’s legislative branch to a self-centered personal decision by a leftist activist from Illinois.
“What are you talking about?” Rep. Brad Wenstrup, Ohio Republican, recalls asking the briefer.
“I said ‘if you want to do suicide-by-cop, just pull a gun on the cop,’” he told The Washington Times in an interview. “‘Where are you getting this?’ They just kind of stood by it. We were pretty dismayed.”