The FBI arrested a Pennsylvania man on May 1 who had recently declared a Democratic run for U.S. Senate, charging him with making graphic death threats against President Donald Trump, an unnamed member of Congress, and the member's daughter in a string of voicemails stretching back months.
Raymond Chandler III was taken into custody in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, after a federal criminal complaint was filed in the Western District of Pennsylvania. The charges: influencing, impeding, or retaliating against a federal official by threatening a family member, and by threatening a federal official.
The arrest lands in a climate already on edge. Less than a week before Chandler was picked up, an armed gunman named Cole Allen allegedly tried to rush the ballroom of the Washington Hilton Hotel during the White House Correspondents' Dinner, where prosecutors say he intended to kill Trump and members of his administration. That incident made Allen the third person accused of attempting to take the president's life, following Thomas Matthew Crooks, who grazed Trump's ear at a Butler, Pennsylvania, rally on July 13, 2024, and Ryan Routh, convicted in February of an assassination attempt at Trump International Golf Club in Florida and sentenced to life in prison.
The criminal complaint, as Fox News Digital reported, paints a disturbing picture built from voicemails Chandler allegedly left for the same unnamed congressman over a period spanning April 2025 to January of this year. The language escalated from menacing to explicit calls for the president's assassination.
The first voicemail, dated April 18, 2025, set the tone. Chandler allegedly told the congressman to imagine a scenario in which "all the 1,200 billionaires in this country, all their properties are surrounded simultaneously by a thousand people." He then described those people pulling out pocket knives, walking toward the homes, and slitting the throats of the congressman, his daughter, and everyone he knew.
"Then imagine them all getting a text and then, then suddenly taking out their pocket knives, walking slowly towards your house with 10, you got your 10 guards or whatever against a thousand people, and then they come and they pull you out of your house and they slit your throat and they slit your daughter's throat and they slit everyone's throat."
Chandler allegedly framed the threat as a warning about wealth concentration, adding: "It's not a future I want, it's not a future I'm advocating for, but wealth concentration has gotten so bad in this country. The greed has gotten so bad. People are suffering so much, sir, that that is what is in our future. You will not escape their wrath. We must redistribute the wealth away from people like you."
Two more voicemails followed on April 28, 2025. Then on April 29, the language turned from veiled to unmistakable. Chandler allegedly called the same member of Congress and directed him to kill the president.
"Sir, I'm calling this evening because what I want you to do is I want you to take a firearm. I want you to put it in your hand. I want you to walk into the Oval Office. I want you to put that firearm to the President's head, and I want you to pull the trigger and I want you to kill him."
In that same call, Chandler allegedly framed his demand as a petition for redress of grievances, calling Trump "a liar among all liars," "a great deceiver," and "the antichrist." He then dared the congressman to come after him.
"I want you to kill the President. I want you to assassinate the President. That's what I want you to do. Now, Senator, are you gonna come after me? Are you going to try me because of my voice and what I said?"
The fact that Chandler addressed the congressman as "Senator" in these messages raises questions about the identity of the unnamed official, though the complaint does not name the member of Congress. Fox News Digital reported that Chandler had declared his candidacy for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania as a Democrat in the 2028 election cycle, hoping to unseat Sen. John Fetterman.
The complaint describes a separate voicemail from January 12 of this year in which Chandler allegedly told the congressman that "violence has become necessary." The arrest affidavit states that in the same message, Chandler communicated his support for armed resistance against ICE, expressed willingness to go to war and to "personally kill," and identified "those who deserve death, to include President Trump."
The affidavit also noted that Chandler communicated his concern that some people would be sent to death camps and that he had recently bought a seven-inch combat knife and a dagger because he was "terrified that his government would kill him." That combination, a stated willingness to kill, named targets, and newly purchased weapons, forms the backbone of the federal case.
Chandler's campaign website listed 16 priorities, one of which was abolishing ICE. It was not immediately clear whether Chandler had retained an attorney. Fox News Digital reported it had reached out to the FBI and the White House for comment.
The U.S. Secret Service confirmed the arrest in a statement to Fox News Digital.
"On May 1, the U.S. Secret Service, in collaboration with the FBI, arrested an individual in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania who allegedly made threatening statements toward federal officials, including President Trump. Threats against our protectees will not be tolerated."
The agency added: "We will continue to work alongside our law enforcement partners to ensure that anyone that threatens to harm the President is held accountable for their actions."
The statement was notable for its directness. After two actual attempts on Trump's life in 2024, and now a third accused would-be attacker apprehended at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, federal law enforcement has little room for ambiguity.
Chandler is not the first Democratic candidate to face serious criminal allegations in recent months. A former Democratic mayoral candidate in New Jersey recently admitted to forging 1,000 voter registration forms, adding to a growing list of legal troubles among candidates running under the party's banner.
The broader Democratic field has not exactly inspired confidence. Controversies have dogged Senate hopefuls across the country, from a Michigan candidate who drew backlash over remarks about JD and Usha Vance's children to questions about candidate recruitment and party discipline.
None of those episodes involved alleged assassination threats. Chandler's case stands alone in its severity. But the accumulation of candidate scandals, combined with growing frustration among Democrats over weak recruits and leadership missteps, raises fair questions about whether anyone in the party is minding the store.
Meanwhile, Democratic Senate candidates have been distancing themselves from their own leadership, a sign of internal disorder that makes stories like Chandler's harder for the party to address cleanly or quickly.
Chandler faces federal charges of influencing, impeding, or retaliating against a federal official by threatening a family member and by threatening a federal official. The criminal complaint was filed in the Western District of Pennsylvania. Whether he has been detained, released, or scheduled for a court appearance remains unclear from available information.
The specific federal statutes cited in the complaint were not identified in reporting. Nor was the unnamed member of Congress. Those details may emerge as the case proceeds through the federal court system.
What is already clear is the nature of the alleged conduct. The voicemails, as described in the complaint and affidavit, do not leave much room for interpretation. They name a target. They describe a method. They express willingness to act. And they were allegedly left by a man who simultaneously presented himself as a candidate for the United States Senate.
That combination should concern anyone who cares about the basic functioning of democratic politics, and about the safety of the people who serve in elected office, regardless of party.
When a man calls a sitting lawmaker's office, describes slitting his daughter's throat, demands the assassination of the president, and then files paperwork to run for Senate, the system had better take it seriously. This time, it appears it did.
