Don Lemon filed an aggravated harassment report with the New York Police Department on Wednesday after a Twitter user allegedly threatened to stab the CNN anchor “in the neck” while hurling racial slurs at him.
The messages were sent to the 51-year-old “CNN Tonight” host not long after he broke down reading on the air a letter he penned to President Trump regarding his conversation with a Gold Star widow that had dominated the news cycle for more than a week.
“It was harassment and they also made a threat. The person said, ‘I will find you real soon.’ And called [Lemon] a f—ing n-word,” an NYPD spokesman said. “It’s being investigated at this time.”
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The police spokesman added that the alleged harassment happened on Tuesday.
“U r a pile of rotting dogshit ,racist,communist,socialist, Liberal moron asshole.i will find u U will pay.ill see u real soon,” one threatening message reportedly read.
TMZ was first to report the story on Wednesday night.
The police spokesman told People magazine the investigation could ultimately be characterized as a hate-crime investigation.
The tweets and its profile have since been deleted, but according to TMZ, it described the owner as “white nationalist conservative . pro gun anti islam anti terrorist anti leftist yes i HATE demorats,blm,antifa ,socialists. heavily armed racist.WLM.”
The letter from Lemon came after Myeshia Johnson, the widow of a Green Beret killed in Niger, told ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Monday that she was “very angry” about the president’s condolence phone call and particularly upset because she said he struggled to “remember my husband’s name.”
Trump responded on Twitter almost immediately after the interview, stating he “had a very respectful conversation with the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, and spoke his name from beginning, without hesitation!”
The threat against Lemon comes months after the FBI arrested a man accused of triggering an epileptic seizure for political writer Kurt Eichenwald with a video clip of a flashing strobe light.
A Twitter account called @jew_goldstein — which has since been suspended — responded to Eichenwald with a gif of flashing strobe lights and a message: “You deserve a seizure for that post.”
John Rayne Rivello, 29, was charged in March with one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. The charge carries a hate-crime distinction.