Man charged with threatening to kill Indian-American presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy
New York (PTI): A 30-year-old man has been arrested and charged in connection with death threats aimed at Indian-American Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and his campaign event attendees, the US attorney's office in New Hampshire has said.
The attorney's office on Monday said Tyler Anderson of Dover in New Hampshire was arrested on Saturday and charged with transmitting in interstate commerce a threat to injure Ramaswamy, a 38-year-old biotech entrepreneur.
According to an FBI affidavit, the Ramaswamy campaign sent a text message on Friday to notify voters, including Anderson, about an upcoming campaign event in Portsmouth.
Anderson allegedly responded to the message: "Great, another opportunity for me to blow his brains out!"
He also said: "I'm going to kill everyone who attends" and added a vulgar description of what he would do to the bodies.
While the statement from the US attorney's office did not name which presidential campaign was targeted, Ramaswamy's team confirmed on Monday that he was the target, The Washington Post reported.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Ramaswamy campaign, said on Monday: "Unfortunately it is true."
"We are grateful to law enforcement for their swiftness and professionalism in handling this matter and pray for the safety of all Americans," she added.
A statement from his staff then criticised the news media, "deranged voices" and "left-wing cranks", accusing the groups of inciting violence against the Republicans ahead of the 2024 presidential elections.
"I'm grateful to the people on the front lines who work hard every day to make sure people like me and other Americans keep safe," Ramaswamy told reporters in New Hampshire.
"I think that we are very well protected," he added.
He declined to say when he found out about the alleged death threat or whether he would increase his security.
Ramaswamy's staff reported the threatening text messages to authorities, the FBI affidavit said.
Law enforcement officials searched Anderson's residence on Saturday, arrested him, and seized his phone and firearms.
While searching Anderson's phone, the affidavit says, authorities discovered the texts to Ramaswamy in a deleted folder and found additional threatening messages to another candidate.
According to the affidavit, one message sent on Wednesday said: "Fantastic, now I know where to go so I can blow that b------'s head off."
Subsequent texts were referring to "a mass shooting" and intentions to defile a corpse.
Anderson admitted to sending the text messages to Ramaswamy and confirmed that he sent threatening texts to other campaigns, according to the affidavit.
A businessman and a Republican presidential candidate, Ramaswamy went on to hold the event in Portsmouth on Monday.
If convicted, Anderson could face five years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a USD 250,000 fine.
Threats of violence against politicians are up, Forbes cited a recent University of Massachusetts-Amherst survey of nearly 300 former members of Congress as suggesting.
The survey found 47 per cent reported receiving threats while in Congress, with those who were first elected more recently experiencing a higher number of threats than those first elected earlier.
The numbers were split fairly evenly across party lines, but women and people of colour reported receiving threats at a much higher rate of 69 per cent, Forbes reported.
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Trump says EU has until July 4 to approve last year's trade deal or it will face higher tariffs
Washington (AP): President Donald Trump has said in a social media post that goods from the European Union would face higher tariff rates if the 27-member bloc fails to approve last year's trade framework by July 4.
The announcement on Thursday appeared to be a deadline extension after the president said last Friday that EU autos would face a higher 25 per cent tariff starting this week. Trump made the updated announcement after what he described as a "great call" with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Still, the US president was displeased that the European Parliament had yet to finalize the trade arrangement reached last year, which was further complicated in February by the US Supreme Court ruling that Trump lacked the legal authority to declare an economic emergency to impose the initial tariffs used to pressure the EU into talks.
"A promise was made that the EU would deliver their side of the Deal and, as per Agreement, cut their Tariffs to ZERO!" Trump posted. "I agreed to give her until our Country's 250th Birthday or, unfortunately, their Tariffs would immediately jump to much higher levels."
It was unclear from the post whether Trump was implying that the tariff rates would jump on all EU goods or the increase would only apply to autos.
His latest statement indicates he might be backing away from his earlier threat on EU autos by giving the European Parliament several more weeks to approve the agreement.
Under the original terms of the framework, the US would charge a 15 per cent tax on most goods imported from the EU.
But since the Supreme Court ruling, the administration has levied a 10 per cent tariff while investigating trade imbalances and national security issues, aiming to put in new tariffs to make up for lost revenues.
