SARASOTA/MANATEE – A Republican Congressional candidate says he’d kill FBI agents if they showed up at his house.
Local businessman Martin Hyde is running against Congressman Vern Buchanan of Longboat Key. He was in the news earlier this year for threatening a police officer’s job after being pulled over for speeding, to which he apologized in an editorial.
He’s now released a video after the FBI raid at Mar-a-Lago, claiming a raid against the former president was an assault on democracy.
Then came the threat.
“These people will stop at nothing. I wish they’d turn up at my home because they’d had gone home in a body bag,” Hyde says.
Hyde tells the Herald Tribune he said it to get free publicity, saying it’s cheaper than fliers.
However, a Florida statute says “any person who threatens a law enforcement officer… with death or serious bodily harm commits a misdemeanor of the first degree.” That’s punishable for up to one year in prison.
We’ve reached out to the Sarasota Sheriff’s Office to ask if this falls under their purview but have not yet heard back.
He’s not the only Republican to threaten to kill law enforcement since the FBI raid. Candidate for State House District 20, Luis Miguel, was banned from Twitter this week after saying he has a plan to allow Floridians to shoot the FBI, IRS, ATF and all other feds on sight.
