A New Hampshire man was arrested for allegedly sending text messages threatening to kill Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and attendees at a campaign event scheduled to take place Monday.
Tyler Anderson, 30, of Dover, is charged with transmitting in interstate commerce a threat to injure the person of another, U.S. Attorney Jane Young announced in a press release. He is scheduled to appear in federal court in Concord at 2:30 p.m. Monday.
According to court documents, Anderson received a text message from the candidate's campaign notifying him of a political event in Portsmouth. He responded to the text message on Friday, stating, "Great, another opportunity for me to blow [the candidate's] brains out!" and "I'm going to kill everyone who attends and then [expletive] their corpses."
The documents said the text messages targeted a candidate who was "scheduled to hold a campaign event in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on December 11, 2023" at 8:30 a.m. They said the event included a "buffet Style breakfast."
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Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy was the only candidate with a listed event in Portsmouth on Monday, an 8:30 a.m. Town Hall at the Roundabout Diner. He was also scheduled to make stops in Nashua and Manchester later in the day.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Ramaswamy campaign, confirmed Monday that Ramaswamy's campaign was the one targeted by Anderson's threat.
"Unfortunately it is true," she said in an email. "We are grateful to law enforcement for their swiftness and professionalism in handling this matter and pray for the safety of all Americans."
Court documents showed investigators used Verizon Wireless records to determine that the two messages were sent from Anderson's phone at 10:06 a.m. on Friday, about six minutes after he received a text message from the candidate's campaign.
On Saturday, federal agents obtained a search warrant for Anderson's residence on Central Avenue in Dover and seized a Samsung Galaxy S10E phone believed to have sent the text messages, along with firearms. Court documents did not say what type of guns were seized.
During a preliminary search of the phone, an FBI agent said they found, in a deleted folder, the text messages reported by the candidate's campaign staff. They also found additional text messages sent last Wednesday to a different candidate, including similar threats to "blow that bastard's head off!"
"Thanks, I'll see you there. Hope you have the stamina for a mass shooting!" one of the messages said.
During an interview with the FBI, Anderson admitted to sending the threatening messages to the candidate and said he sent similar threatening text messages to "multiple other campaigns."
The Ramaswamy campaign released a statement later in the day Monday thanking law enforcement "for their swiftness and professionalism in handling this matter."
The charge Anderson is facing carries a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of probation and a maximum fine of $250,000.
The investigation that led to his arrest was led by the FBI, with assistance from Dover and Portsmouth police.
No further details were released.
