In late October, as federal officials were hot on the trail of a person who sent at least 14 suspected pipe bombs to Democratic public figures, two Secret Service agents visited actor and comedian Tom Arnold to determine whether he posed a threat to President Trump over tweets he had made.
According to video recorded by Arnold’s closed-circuit camera system, the agents warned Arnold that his tweets could cause violence.
During a campaign rally a few days prior, Trump had praised Rep. Greg Gianforte (R-Mont.) for once body-slamming a reporter. Outraged, Arnold reacted by challenging Trump to a fight. He tweeted, “I say put up or shut up @realDonaldTrump Me vs You. For America. First body slam wins. Any Rally. Any Time. Between now & the midterms. #FridayFeeling.” And Arnold, a onetime Trump pal who became a passionate Trump detractor, followed that up with a tweet that referenced the infamous photo of comedian Kathy Griffin holding a bloody replica of Trump’s head: “Next time Kathy won’t be holding his fake head!” –Mother Jones
“We’re not the First Amendment police… You’re free to say whatever you want to say within certain boundaries… In your type of case, what we’re concerned with a lot, too, is the audience it can reach, that it could incite somebody to do something,” the agents told Arnold, adding “You see a lot of times when we’ve had previous attempts on the president’s life, they got motivated by somebody… So that’s the worry. It’s kind of twofold. We’re addressing the tweet, but we also want to make sure what you said, what can be taken as… And then obviously at the end of this whole thing, the biggest thing is to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Hey @TomArnold, it’s a Federal crime to threaten POTUS @realDonaldTrump
You asked him to fight you, and responded with “next time Kathy Griffin won’t be holding his fake head”, which suggested you would kill him in your proposed fight @SecretService pic.twitter.com/Mn3A9iOSRG
— Gabe Hoffman (@GabeHoff) October 21, 2018
To Arnold – a former friend of Trump who turned on the billionaire president – hosting a short-lived show revolving around a search for a tape of Trump using the “N” word, the whole thing was a joke. Not so much for the Secret Service, which reached out to Arnold’s agent on October 24 from their office in Los Angeles – acting on instructions from their headquarters in Washington. The next day, the two agents showed up to Arnolds’ home.
Arnold recorded the hourlong encounter that took place in his living room. According to Arnold, the agents were aware he was filming the conversation with a security camera that was visible to them. He has allowed Mother Jones to review the full video and post a portion of it. (At Arnold’s request, Mother Jones is not identifying the agents.) Asked about the visit to Arnold’s house, a Secret Service spokeswoman said, “For operational security reasons, the Secret Service cannot discuss specifically nor in general terms the means, methods or resources we utilize to carry out our protective responsibilities.” –Mother Jones
The agents had a list of “routine questions” for Arnold, including (via Mother Jones): “his height, his weight, his Social Security number. They asked whether he had ever been trained in martial arts. (No.) Did he have any intention of attending a Trump rally? (No.) Not even as a publicity stunt? (No.) Did he have any plans to fly to Washington to try to confront Trump? (No.) How does he typically behave when he gets angry in the workplace? (You put it into the performance.) When was the last time he fired a gun? (“I fired for movies.”) Did he know how to make IEDs? (No.) If he saw Trump, would he have an “impulse…to swing at him?” (“I’m not a crazy person.”) Did he have any ex-wives? (Three, including one named Roseanne.)”
Arnold explained that he had known Trump for decades – as the two of them had gone to the Playboy Mansion together, but that he decided to break off the friendship after Trump “began promoting the racist birther conspiracy theory about Barack Obama.”
Arnold detailed his previous addictions and his efforts to become sober. He explained his Griffin tweet as “a random throw-away” and insisted that he had been appalled by the Griffin photo shoot. “I would never be part of something like that,” said Arnold, who grew up in Iowa. “I worked at a meatpacking plant on the killing floor for three years.” –Mother Jones
Arnolds’ wife Ashley was then told by the agents, “We always are more concerned about who you could motivate or incite to that action,” to which Ashley responded, “That’s how we feel about Trump.”
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