FBI arrests man for threatening to KILL Vivek Ramaswamy at New Hampshire event: Suspect faces up to five years in prison for warning he ‘blow his brains out’ and kill ‘everyone in attendance’
Vivek Ramaswamy and his supporters faced death threats from a New Hampshire man on Monday ahead of a campaign trip to the state for the early primaries.
Tyler Anderson, 30, of Dover was arrested by the FBI and faces up to five years in prison, three years of probation and a maximum fine of $250,000 for threatening a presidential candidate.
The intended candidate was not named in official documents, but Ramaswamy's campaign confirmed to DailyMail.com that he had received the threatening text messages.
After receiving a message from the biotech entrepreneur's campaign on December 8 promoting a political campaign stop in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on December 11, Anderson made his threat via text message – and across state lines.
“Great, another chance for me to blow his brains out!” Anderson wrote this according to images of the text messages in charging documents from the United States Attorney's Office for the District of New Hampshire.
In a separate message to the campaign, he wrote: “I'm going to kill everyone present and then fuck their corpses.”
Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy received threatening text messages from a man saying he wants to “blow his brains out!” and 'kill everyone in attendance' at his campaign event in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on Monday (pictured)
Tyler Anderson, 30, sent two messages in response to a campaign text previewing Monday's stop in New Hampshire. He said the event was “another opportunity for me to blow his brains out.”
Ramaswamy continued his campaign event in Portsmouth on Monday, posting a video of himself speaking to people at a restaurant.
“We are grateful to law enforcement for their speed and professionalism in handling this case,” Tricia McLaughlin told DailyMail.com. “We'll let the investigators do their work and figure out who this person is and what their motives might be.”
She also pointed out the hypocrisy in Democrats and left-wing media's refusal to make threats and violence against Republican candidates.
“We hear about January 6 and 'violence' and 'extremism on the right' all the time from the media, but those same media are silent when the target is a Republican.”
'It's no wonder that fanatics are taking action. When it comes to some lunatic with so-called right-wing views, the media is quick to blame all conservatives for fueling violence,” McLaughling said.
“And yet the media never looks in the mirror and sees that they are fueling hatred and violence by questioning our patriotism and motives and accusing us of undermining democracy.”
Anderson is scheduled to appear in federal court in Concord, New Hampshire, on Monday at 2:30 p.m.
Federal agents obtained a search warrant for Anderson's home on Central Avenue in Dover on Saturday, seizing a Samsung Galaxy S10E phone believed to have sent the text messages.
They also seized firearms from the home, according to court documents that did not specify the type of weapons.
An FBI agent said they found the text messages reported by Ramaswamy's campaign staff in a deleted folder. NBC's local Boston 10 affiliate reported this.
This is not the first time that Ramaswamy has faced unhinged targeting from critics. In October, a young driver rammed his car into Ramaswamy's rental car during a stop in Grinnell, Iowa (pictured)
A protester honked his horn, raised his middle finger and rammed his vehicle into 2024 hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy's rental car during a campaign stop in Iowa in October
They also found other text messages Anderson sent to another candidate last Wednesday, including similar threats to “blow that motherfucker off!”
Another message read: 'Thanks, see you there. I hope you have the stamina for a mass shooting!'
Anderson admitted in an interview with the FBI that he sent the threatening messages to Ramaswamy and said he had sent similar threatening text messages to “multiple other campaigns.”
This is not the first time that Ramaswamy, a millionaire father of two, has faced unhinged targeting from critics.
In October, a young driver rammed his car into Ramaswamy's rental car during a stop in Grinnell, Iowa.
The 2024 hopeful was not in the vehicle when video captured a driver with a Minnesota license plate and a passenger snapping his middle finger at Ramaswamy before honking the horn and crashing into the candidate's car.
It happened after Ramaswamy had an apparently respectful conversation with protesters outside the Saints Rest Coffee House in Grinnell.
“I had a civil conversation with protesters today, right before two of them got in their car and rammed it into ours,” the candidate posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, at the time of the incident in early October.
He added: “Those two need to be held accountable, but the rest of the peaceful protesters should not be ravaged by the behavior of two bad actors.”