Yeesh, can’t some people take a blanking joke? That’s Kyler Schmitz’s story, and he’s sticking to it (even though his lawyer has already argued that what his client did was lawful because he was making a “political protest”).
Schmitz, a Virginia resident, is being held without bail after having tweeted to at least two Republican U.S. senators, “I can’t wait to shoot you in the face.”
According to NBC Washington, one of the tweets, sent in the days following the Orlando nightclub shooting, was addressed to Sen. [score]Roy Blunt[/score] (R-Mo.).
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
The tweets, which included graphic and violent language, led to an investigation by U.S. Capitol Police.
An automated license plate reader detected Schmitz’s car on Independence Avenue SW within two blocks of the U.S. Capitol in the hours after he posted some of the messages, prosecutors said.
Schmitz acknowledges sending the tweets, his fiancé, Paul Cianciolo, told News4, but the tweets were meant as “parody” and satire. The messages were “inartful political discourse” on the issue of gun control, Schmitz’s defense attorney said.
A judge ordered Schmitz held until future court proceedings, adding, “I don’t know how to read these tweets in any way but as threatening.”
