“Don’t believe initial reporting about any dramatic event. The rush to be first often overrides the responsibility to try to be correct. As with any event like this, some of this information is likely to change as more information becomes available.”
https://youtu.be/sgpYzFTtJug?feature=shared
In any case, I heard about the attempt shortly after I started scrolling through lemmy last night, so from my pov the information had gotten to me in a timely manner.
Source for him being a long time registered republican?
As far as I can tell from here, this guy seems all over the place. He voted for Trump in 2016 but later regretted it. He supported Sanders in 2020, but also Gabbard in 2020 and then Vivek Ramaswamy in 2024. He shows strong support for Ukraine, but he supported Covid conspiracies as late as 2023. Multiple felonies, many of which firearm related, some of which related to theft and traffic violations.
It’s not like I can say I know the guy, but I get the sense that he has severe undiagnosed mental illness, which is perhaps more important than his exact political leaning.