John Hinckley Jr. Says He Stalked Jimmy Carter Before Shooting President Ronald Reagan

Before John Hinckley Jr. turned his attention to President Ronald Reagan, he says he was fixated on another commander in chief.

During a new interview with Megyn Kelly on her eponymous YouTube show on Friday, June 19, Hinckley, 71, revealed that he spent time following President Jimmy Carter on the campaign trail in 1980 as his mental health deteriorated and his obsession with actress Jodie Foster intensified.

“Well, in 1980 Jimmy Carter [was] still president, and he was campaigning [for] the reelection. So I started stalking Carter,” Hinckley told the former Fox News reporter.

He went on to say that he attended an event held for Carter in Dayton, Ohio, and then followed him to another event in Nashville, Tennessee. However, when Carter lost the election, Hinckley’s sights shifted to Reagan.

“I dropped my focus on Carter and started focusing on Reagan,” he explained.

On March 30, 1981, Hinckley shot President Reagan outside the Washington Hilton after he finished speaking at an event. Hinckley was able to fire six shots in roughly two seconds as Reagan exited the hotel. One of the bullets ricocheted off the presidential limousine and hit the president, puncturing his lung and causing internal bleeding.

Reagan was rushed to George Washington University Hospital where he underwent emergency surgery and survived.

Hinckley later said that the assassination attempt was an effort to impress Foster. He became infatuated with her after seeing the Robert DeNiro film, Taxi Driver, multiple times. In the film, DeNiro’s character, Travis Bickle, plans to assassinate the president in an attempt to impress a woman. Meanwhile, Travis is also trying to save Foster’s character, 12-year-old Iris, from a life of prostitution.

“I was totally into this character that I was seeing Travis Bickle and totally relating to that,” Hinckley explained. “So that could be a big thing that further propelled me in my delusions and what I did.”

However, Hinckley told Kelly that his mental illness and dangerous delusions didn’t happen “overnight.”

“It was after seeing the movie, Taxi Driver, and going deeper into my depression and delusions,” he said. “It wasn’t an overnight thing that I got dangerous. It was a gradual thing. I got caught up in delusions about Jodi and the theme of Taxi Driver.”