A man in Broward County, Florida was arrested for threatening to kill two Democratic presidential candidates and the first and only two Muslim women in Congress, the local Miami New Times reported.
Federal authorities announced Friday that a man named John Kless was arrested for leaving voicemails in the Washington, D.C. offices of Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Sen. Corey Booker (D-NJ) earlier this week. In every voicemail, Kless spoke about his hatred for Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), whom, in the message he left on Tlaib’s voicemail, he said he wanted to “throw off the Empire State Building.”
Swalwell tweeted a message of thanks to Capitol Police and the law enforcement officers in Florida on Friday for “protecting my staff and constituents.” Booker’s spokesman directed all questions to law enforcement. Omar and Tlaib’s offices did not immediately return TPM’s requests for comment.
Thank you to the @CapitolPolice and Florida law enforcement for protecting my staff and constituents. https://t.co/qOuVcbnDJ8
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) April 19, 2019
The threats against Swalwell centered around his support for gun control policies; and with Booker, profane threats on his race. He repeatedly called Booker the n-word and told Swalwell he would be on his “death bed, motherfucker, along with the rest of you Democrats.”
The message left for Tlaib was particularly egregious.
“It was your Taliban bitch, the one who opened up her fucking towel head mouth about how ‘some people did it,'” the voicemail said, according to the Miami New Times. “You know what? She’s lucky she’s just getting death threats, bitch. So are you. Alright? You’re lucky they’re just threats. Motherfucker. ‘Cause the day when the bell tolls, whore, and this country comes to a war, there will be no more threats. Your life will be on the fucking line.”
Kless defended President Trump in two of the voicemails and has previously left “profane/harassing” voicemails in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office.
