A Virginia man has been charged with threatening to kill Kamala Harris.
According to an affidavit in support of a criminal complaint, 66-year-old Frank Carillo, of Winchester, made 19 threatening comments about the vice-president and Democratic presidential nominee, using the rightwing platform Gettr.
The affidavit cites 19 mentions of Harris on the platform by an email account associated with Carillo, including a vow to “cut your eyes out of your head while you’re alive bitch” and the statement: “Kamala Harris needs to be put on fire alive I will do it personally.”
Writing in late July, after Joe Biden withdrew from his presidential re-election campaign and Harris closed in on the Democratic nomination for November’s race, Carillo said: “Harris is going to regret ever trying to become president because if that ever happened I will personally pluck out her eyes with a pair of pliers but first I will shoot and kill everyone that gets in my way that is a fucking promise.”
The same document said federal agents “seized an RF-15 rifle and a 9mm handgun” from Carillo’s residence.
A woman with whom Carillo lived said he bought the guns in 2023 and 2024.
A comment from the account linked to Carillo, from February this year, said: “I HAVE MY AR-15 LOCKED AND LOADED.”
Last month, Harris’s Republican opponent in the November election, Donald Trump, was shot at with an AR-15-style rifle, during a rally in Pennsylvania. Lightly wounded in the ear, the former president survived.
According to the affidavit in the Virginia case, Carillo’s comments came to light after authorities in Maricopa county, Arizona, reported a threat to Stephen Richer, a Republican elections official who said the 2020 election there was not rigged against Trump. Richer lost a primary election on 30 July.
In response to the Maricopa threat, Gettr provided records showing 4,359 posts by the same email account, “targeting various public officials including but not limited to: President Joseph Biden, Vice-President Kamala Harris, FBI director Christopher Wray, Maricopa county [Arizona] recorder Stephen Richer, and many other public officials.”
After officials traced the threatening comments to Carillo, the affidavit said, he was heard to say, “seemingly talking to himself, ‘… for a comment. This is ridiculous, for a comment. I guess I’m gonna need a lawyer.’”
After requesting a lawyer, Carillo said: “This is all over a comment, huh?”
After he was arrested, the affidavit said, Carillo asked if the woman with whom he lived was being arrested too.
“She didn’t do anything,” he said. “I made the comments.”
Carillo appeared in court on Monday. Another hearing was scheduled for Thursday.
A lawyer for Carillo did not comment.
In a statement reported by NBC News, Christopher Kavanaugh, US attorney for the western district of Virginia, said: “Open political discourse is a cornerstone of our American experience. We can disagree. We can argue, and we can debate. However, when those disagreements cross the line to threats of violence, law enforcement must step in.”
Threatening the vice-president is punishable by a fine of up to $250,000, a prison sentence of up to five years, or both.
