Florida Republican allegedly boasted Russian-Ukrainian ‘hit squad’ could ‘disappear’ rival

The June 9 call turned dark when the man identified as Braddock said he could “call up my Russian and Ukrainian hit squad, and within 24 hours, they’re sending me pictures of her disappearing.”

“I really don’t want to have to end anybody’s life for the good of the people of the United States of America,” he said, the recording shows. “That will break my heart. But if it needs to be done, it needs to be done. Luna is a … speed bump in the road. She’s a dead squirrel you run over every day when you leave the neighborhood.”

“My polling people are going to charge me $20,000 to do a poll right before the primary. And if the poll says Luna’s gonna win, she’s gonna be gone. She’s gonna disappear,” he said, according to the recording. “For the good of our country, we have to sacrifice the few. … For the better or the good of the majority of the people, we’ve got to sacrifice the few.”

Later, he repeated how Luna was “gonna be gone” and that she was “not an issue.” When he mentioned how assassins could send him pictures of Luna disappearing, he described the alleged hit squad as “Russian mafia” who used “close-battle combat, TEC-9s, MAC-10s, silencers kind of thing.”

“No, I’m not joking,” he said to Olszewski, according to the recording. “Like, this is beyond my control this point.”