If his Twitter accounts and alleged targets are any indication, Cesar Sayoc was obsessed with Andrew Gillum.
Sayoc, the man identified by law enforcement sources as the suspect believed to have sent about a dozen rudimentary pipe bombs to Democrats and Donald Trump critics in the mail this week, tweeted frequently about the Democratic nominee for governor.
Starting abruptly on Sept. 30, Sayoc began using his @hardrockintlent account to repeatedly trash Gillum as a socialist and a failed mayor. Amid disturbing images of ravaged body parts, alligators and a reference to a news story about a woman who was killed by an alligator in Davie, Sayoc tweeted about Gillum over and over again.
Over the last five days alone, around the time the Secret Service began intercepting suspicious packages addressed to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, Sayoc tweeted 22 images of Gillum, including one with him appearing as a puppet of Democratic billionaire and Gillum donor George Soros — who was the first to receive a pipe bomb in the mail this week.
Another likely related account was similarly loaded with pictures of Gillum and statements about the Tallahassee mayor. But Gillum has not been told of any threats against him, he says.
“Our top priority is ensuring our campaign, our volunteers, and our public events are safe, and we have taken strong security precautions. We have no evidence that any of our offices have been targeted, but we are in close contact with the authorities as this situation develops,” he said. “It is fortunate that the evil intent of the bomber has not been realized.”
Gillum also called on politicians “to cease the dangerous rhetoric of hatred and division that is poisoning our society.”
Read more at our news partner, the Miami Herald.
