Patti Davis: John Hinckley Is Distorting History

John Hinckley Jr. nearly killed her father and now, Patti Davis says, he's trying to remake himself as something else entirely. In a New York Times opinion piece, Ronald Reagan's daughter pushes back against Hinckley's latest round of media appearances, which have coincided with the upcoming release of the film The Brink of War about the 1986 Reagan-Mikhail Gorbachev summit in Reykjavik. Hinckley has been presenting himself as rehabilitated and full of regret for the 1981 assassination attempt, even extending well-wishes to Jodie Foster, the actress whom he once sought to impress with the shooting.

Davis argues that this version of events erases the violence and its lasting damage: her father's near-fatal wound, press secretary James Brady's permanently altered life and eventual death, and serious injuries to a police officer and Secret Service agent. She notes Hinckley's past letters to serial killers and sees his public outreach as strategy, not remorse. Davis warns that allowing Hinckley to "rewrite history" turns calculated violence into a personal redemption narrative. Reagan himself said his own recovery hinged on forgiving Hinckley, which the president's daughter said she cannot do. "I do believe in forgiveness," Davis writes, "but I make exceptions." Patti Davis' full New York Times essay can be found here.