A man accused of threatening to commit a mass shooting at CNN headquarters was arrested by federal authorities on Monday, after he made menacing calls over two days this month.
“Fake news. I’m coming to gun you all down. F‑‑‑ you, f‑‑‑ing n‑‑‑‑‑s,” a man said on a phone call on Jan. 9 to CNN headquarters in Atlanta. Minutes later, another call came: “I’m coming for you CNN. I’m smarter than you. More powerful than you. I have more guns than you. More manpower. Your cast is about to get gunned down in a matter of hours.”
On Monday, the FBI said that Brandon Griesemer of Novi, Michigan, made those calls, and 20 other calls to CNN on Jan. 9 and Jan. 10. Four of the calls involved threats. According to the “Washington Post,” the final call included derogatory comments about people of the Jewish faith, before a threat: “You are going down. I have a gun and I am coming to Georgia right now to go to the CNN headquarters to f‑‑‑ing gun every single last one of you. I have a team of people. It’s going to be great, man . . . You gotta get prepared for this one, buddy.”
Griesemer was arrested on a charge of interstate communications with intent to extort, threaten or injure. He made a court appearance on Jan. 19 and is free on a $10,000 unsecured bond.
President Trump regularly refers to CNN as “fake news.” The calls came just days after Trump announced his “Fake News Awards.” The president has shared violent imagery involving CNN on his Twitter feed, including a shot of the CNN logo in a bloodsplatter on the bottom of his shoe, and a gif of him attacking a man with a CNN logo superimposed on his face.
A high-school classmate of Griesemer, who graduated with him last year, told the “Post” that Griesemer was a Trump supporter who had said in school that he identified with Adolf Hitler.
Griesemer’s father said “this whole thing has been a mistake. He really didn’t mean any of it,” the “Post” reported. “He didn’t know what he was saying, the seriousness of it. We’re not even gun owners or anything like that. We don’t have any, neither does he.”
