A New Hampshire man has been arrested after allegedly threatening to kill presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and his supporters at an event Monday, newly released court records show.
“We are grateful to law enforcement for their swiftness and professionalism in handling this matter and pray for the safety of all Americans,” campaign spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said to ABC News.
The suspect is 30-year-old Tyler Anderson, who was first reported to law enforcement by Ramaswamy’s campaign staff last week for allegedly sending a threatening message in response to a campaign text about an upcoming event.
“Great, another opportunity for me to blow [Ramaswamy’s] brains out,” the criminal complaint says Anderson replied on Friday.
“I’m going to kill everyone who attends and then fuck their corpses,” a second message said, screenshots obtained by ABC showed.
The campaign text provided the location of where the Republican candidate would be at the Monday morning event in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, for a breakfast with voters.
While authorities said Ramaswamy was not explicitly named as a target in Anderon’s text, he was the “only candidate with a listed event in Portsmouth on Monday,” NBC 10 Boston reported.
ABC confirmed that his campaign says he was the intended target of the threat.
While the breakfast event still took place,”there was a higher security presence than usual,” according to the outlet.
When conducting a search of Anderson’s home on Saturday, law enforcement found his phone and deleted text messages to the Ramaswamy campaign, court documents allege.
The criminal complaint also accuses the suspect of sending more threatening messages to another candidate on Wednesday, after the phone search allegedly unveiled a text reading: “hope you have the stamina for a mass shooting!”
It is unclear who the second candidate is.
NBC Boston also reported that multiple firearms were seized from Anderson’s home, but did not specify which kinds.
“During an interview with the FBI, Anderson admitted to sending the threatening messages to [Ramaswamy] and said he sent similar threatening text messages to ‘multiple other campaigns,'” the local outlet reported.
U.S. Attorney Jane E. Young announced that Anderson was charged with transmitting in interstate commerce a threat to injure the person of another, and is set to make an initial appearance in federal court in Concord on Monday at 2:30 p.m.
“The charge provides for a sentence of up to five years in prison, up to three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000,” she said in a press release.
ABC News asked Ramaswamy on the campaign trail last week if he was concerned for his safety, before Anderson’s arrest was public.
“I have not certainly brought that up as a concern,” the candidate replied.
When asked if threats had been made on his life, Ramaswamy answered vaguely. “We don’t take anything for granted, but I’m confident that the team around us and our family is on this journey together. And I’m praying for our family and our country.”
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