Federal authorities have charged a New Hampshire resident with threatening to kill Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and target other attendees at a campaign event in the state.
On Dec. 11, the U.S. Department of Justice announced federal authorities had arrested 30-year-old Tyler Anderson of Dover, New Hampshire. Mr. Anderson made his initial appearance in federal court in Concord, New Hampshire, on charges of transmitting an interstate threat to harm.
While the charging documents didn’t specify the presidential campaign in question, Mr. Ramaswamy’s campaign team identified itself as the recipient of the threatening text messages. The campaign determined that the threatening texts came from a number that corresponds with a Dover address and, in turn, notified the Dover Police Department. The FBI was subsequently notified, executed a search warrant at the Dover address on Dec. 9, and arrested Mr. Anderson.
According to the charging documents, FBI agents who seized Mr. Anderson’s phone were able to find a deleted folder with messages that matched the threats that the Ramaswamy campaign had received. An FBI agent found another series of messages on the phone from Dec. 6 that included threatening remarks to another unspecified presidential campaign regarding a different upcoming event.
“Fantastic, now I know where to go so I can blow that [expletive’s] head off!” read one of the Dec. 6 messages from Mr. Anderson’s seized phone, according to the charging documents. “Thanks, I'll see you there. Hope you have the stamina for a mass shooting!” came a second message. A third and fourth message repeated similar sentiments.
According to the charging documents, Mr. Anderson signed a Miranda Rights waiver and admitted to investigators that he'd sent threatening messages to multiple campaigns.
With the current charges, the New Hampshire man faces up to five years in prison, up to three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000.
Ramaswamy Campaign Team Responds to Threats
“We are grateful to law enforcement for their swiftness and professionalism in handling this matter,” Mr. Ramaswamy’s campaign said in a statement following Mr. Anderson’s arrest.While the charging documents didn’t describe a potential motive for the threatening text messages, Mr. Ramaswamy’s team tied the threats to politically charged rhetoric targeting conservatives and people on the political right.
“We’re going to let the investigators do their work and figure out who this person is and what their motives might be. We will, however, say this: We constantly hear about [the] Jan. 6 [Capitol riot in 2021] and ‘violence’ and ‘extremism on the right’ from the media, but the same media goes silent when the target is a Republican,” Mr. Ramaswamy’s campaign said.
The campaign said that “deranged voices and left-wing cranks” routinely “demonize” Republicans and question their loyalty to the United States.
“It’s no wonder that fanatics will take action. Whenever it’s some nut with alleged right-wing views, the media is quick to blame all conservatives for stoking violence,” the campaign statement reads. “Yet the media never looks in the mirror and sees that they stoke hatred and violence by questioning our patriotism and motives and accusing us of undermining democracy.”
