The Miami Herald reports:
Federal authorities have arrested a South Florida man and accused him of calling the offices of three members of Congress and leaving threatening, racist and homophobic messages. John Kless, 49, has been charged with making threatening communications after U.S. Capitol Police say he called up U.S. Sen. Cory Booker and U.S. Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Eric Swalwell Tuesday and unleashed foul, profanity-laced rants onto their office voicemails.
Kless, according to a criminal complaint, warned Swalwell — a California congressman who is running for a president on a gun-safety platform — that he’d be dead before Americans would lose their guns. “The day you come after our guns, motherf***er, is the day you’ll be dead,” Kless said, according to the complaint. “Along with everybody in the f***ing government.”
The Miami New Times reports:
In all three messages, Kless referenced his hatred for Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar — repeatedly calling her a “towel head” and a member of the Taliban.
In his message to Tlaib’s office, Kless referenced Omar’s recent “some people did something” comments about 9/11 — a statement Omar made to argue that all Muslims should not be punished for the actions of the few who committed the attacks.
Kless repeatedly used the N-word to refer to Booker and called him a “monkey,” according to court records, adding he wanted to kill black men like the senator. “You’re a fucking disgrace,” Kless allegedly said. “We need to kill all you motherfuckers, man, every fucking one of you, man.”
Miami’s ABC affiliate reports:
U.S. Capitol police said Kless also made profane and harassing calls to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-California, in February “concerning Congress taking away his guns, abortion, illegal immigration and Muslims in Congress.” Broward County voter records show that Kless is registered to vote as an independent.
The Daily Beast reports:
President Trump recently tweeted out an edited video of Omar talking about the establishment of the Council on American-Islamic Relations with footage of the World Trade Center on 9/11. Omar says the video sparked new death threats against her life. In two of the three voicemails, Kless defended President Trump and told lawmakers to stop criticizing him.