Republican presidential candidate businessman Vivek Ramaswamy speaks during U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra's, R-Iowa, Faith and Family with the Feenstras event, Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023, in Sioux Center, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
By Kathy McCormack and Holly Ramer
A New Hampshire man has been accused of sending text messages threatening to kill a presidential candidate ahead of a scheduled campaign event Monday, federal prosecutors said.
The U.S. Attorney's office did not name the candidate. However, a spokesperson for Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said Monday that the texts were directed at his campaign.
“We are grateful to law enforcement for their swiftness and professionalism in handling this matter and pray for the safety of all Americans,” Stefan Mychajliw, deputy communications director, said in a statement.
Tyler Anderson, 30, of Dover, was arrested Saturday and charged with sending a threat using interstate commerce. He did not speak at his initial court appearance Monday other than telling the judge he understood the proceedings, and his court-appointed attorney declined to comment afterward. A detention hearing was scheduled for Thursday.
Ramaswamy went on to hold his event at the Roundabout Diner & Lounge in Portsmouth.
According to court documents, the man received a text message from the candidate's campaign on Friday notifying him of Monday's breakfast event in Portsmouth.
The campaign staff received two text messages in response, according to an FBI agent affidavit. One threatened to shoot the candidate in the head, the other threatened to kill everyone at the event and desecrate their corpses.
The cellphone number was traced to the man, the FBI said. Agents executed a search warrant at the man's home on Saturday. The texts were found in a deleted folder, the affidavit said.
The man told the FBI in an interview that he had sent similar texts to “multiple other campaigns,” the affidavit said. The document includes a screenshot of texts threatening a mass shooting in response to an invitation to see a candidate “who isn't afraid to tell it like it is.” Republican Chris Christie calls his events “Tell it Like It Is Town Halls.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Christie campaign thanked law enforcement officials for addressing those threats.
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.
The Social Security Administration’s acting commissioner has stepped down from her role at the agency over Department of Government Efficiency requests.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum says her government is not ruling out filing a civil lawsuit against Google if it maintains its stance of calling the stretch of sea between northeastern Mexico and the southeastern United States the “Gulf of America.” Sheinbaum, in her morning press conference on Thursday, said the president’s decree to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico is restricted to the “continental shelf of the United States” because Mexico still controls much of the body of water. “We have sovereignty over our continental shelf,” she said.
U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum “will not go unanswered,” European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen vowed on Tuesday, adding that they will trigger toug
President Donald Trump is hitting foreign steel and aluminum with a 25% tax. If that sounds familiar, it’s because he did pretty much the same thing during
President Donald Trump has ordered the U.S. to stop minting pennies. His surprise announcement comes after decades of unsuccessful efforts to phase out the 1-cent coin. Advocates for ditching the penny cite its high production cost and limited utility. Fans of the penny cite its usefulness in charity drives and relative bargain in production costs compared with the nickel. Here's a look at some question surrounding Trump's order.
The Trump administration has ordered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to stop nearly all its work, effectively shutting down the agency that was created to protect consumers after the 2008 financial crisis and subprime mortgage-lending scandal. Russell Vought is the newly installed director of the Office of Management and Budget. Vought directed the CFPB in a Saturday night email to stop work on proposed rules, to suspend the effective dates on any rules that were finalized but not yet effective, and to stop investigative work and not begin any new investigations. The agency has been a target of conservatives since President Barack Obama created it following the 2007-2008 financial crisis.
Brian Bennett, Senior White House correspondent at TIME, discusses Musk's relationship to Donald Trump and how he has such access in the federal government.
