Politico: “A little-known GOP candidate in one of Florida’s most competitive congressional seats was secretly recorded threatening to send ‘a Russian and Ukrainian hit squad’ to a fellow Republican opponent to make her ‘disappear.’ During a 30-minute call with a conservative activist that was recorded before he became a candidate, William Braddock repeatedly warned the activist to not support GOP candidate Anna Paulina Luna in the Republican primary for a Tampa Bay-area congressional seat because he had access to assassins. The seat is being vacated by Rep. Charlie Crist (D-Fla.), who is running for governor.”

“‘I really don’t want to have to end anybody’s life for the good of the people of the United States of America,’ Braddock said at one point in the conversation last week, according to the recording exclusively obtained by Politico. ‘That will break my heart. But if it needs to be done, it needs to be done. Luna is a fucking speed bump in the road. She’s a dead squirrel you run over every day when you leave the neighborhood.’ Reached by text message, Braddock refused to say whether he made any threats about Luna to the person who recorded him, Erin Olszewski. Asked repeatedly via text if he mentioned Russian-Ukrainian hit squads, Braddock wouldn’t give a yes or no answer, saying he had not heard the recording and that it’s ‘allegedly me… there is no proof of that.’ He also suggested the recording ‘may even be altered and edited.’ ‘This is a dirty political tactic that has caused a lot of people a lot of stress and is completely unnecessary,’ he said.”