Christian YouTube star Sam Rader is once again at the center of controversy, admitting he verbally threatened another Christian vlogger before he was thrown out of a convention in Seattle this weekend.
The 29-year-old, who often appears alongside his wife and two children on their "Sam and Nia" YouTube channel, told Gawker he was mocked by two vloggers on Twitter for the way his family was mourning their recent miscarriage and took the opportunity at Vlogger Fair to address them.
"It was one person, and I didn't make a threat. What happened was there was a couple of fellow vloggers who had ridiculed our family on Twitter regarding the method we were mourning the loss, our miscarriage on Twitter," Rader told the site.
In a separate interview with People, Rader explained that he simply told the first vlogger, "Hey man, obviously I saw the Tweet that you made was targeted towards our family. I just need to let you know that really hurt us, you brought tears to my wife's eyes and you made me very angry but I forgive you.' "
However, the next day, when he approached the second vlogger, things "backfired."
"My plan was to do the exact same thing to the other vlogger. Just letting him know he hurt us and to let him know we'd forgiven him, but I approached and I requested an explanation," Rader contended.
"'I can Tweet whatever I want,' was his response," Rader says. "Of course I was upset but in no way was I trying to cause any physical altercation. But he got in my face and put his chest against mine and said, 'Are you trying to start something?' over and over and over." The confrontation eventually led to name-calling, which led to Rader being escorted out.
In continuing his comments to People, Rader emphasized he later private messaged the second one via Twitter, apologizing for his role.
"I just told the person that I was sorry I lost my temper and that I had forgiven him for the Tweet that was made and I hope he can forgive me," he says.
When asked to clarify whether or not he threatened anyone, Rader told told Gawker, "That's absolutely not true. If I made a threat, it was to the one person, and it was, 'You need to watch out before he messes with my family.'"
YouTube star and singer Meghan Tonjes, who attended the event, later weighed in on the incident, taking to Twitter to slam Rader for his alleged actions at the conference. "At the next con you're not invited to, definitely don't threaten violence against other vloggers? #trash #godbless," she wrote, sharing a link to a since-deleted tweet from the "Sam & Nia" Twitter account.
Tonjes asserted that Rader was "tolerated past your welcome" and praised Vlogger Fair for removing him from the event.
The incident came just one day after Rader publicly admitted to having an account on Ashley Madison, a site which helps facilitate extramarital affairs.
At the time, he released a video explained that Nia had already forgiven him for opening the account, and he had confessed his sin to God. "I brought this to my church at the time [and] to my discipleship partner, and to my wife's attention. She has forgive me for this mistake that I have made," he said. "I've sought forgiveness to God and he's forgiven me. So I've been completely cleansed of this sin."
As previously reported by the Gospel Herald, the Texas couple, who have been vlogging for eight years, made headlines after they released a video showing Sam telling an unsuspecting Nia that she was pregnant.
The video, titled "First Time Ever Daddy Announces the Pregnancy to Mommy," has since received over 14 million views. Less than a week later, the couple released a video revealing that they had miscarried.
As of Tuesday morning, the couple's YouTube channel had 361,573 subscribers and just over 71.3 million views.
