I don't think "die" itself makes something a threat. Words like "kill", "assassinate", "murder", etc would make it more threatening. I took the statement in a darwinian way, like a variant of "adapt or die". If someone said "adapt or die" to me I wouldn't think of it as a threat or attempt at intimidation. If they were angry at me, that wouldn't change it.
If they'd said something more like "If you don't get out of the way then something will happen" I would believe it to be a threat. This is just barely on the edge of the fine line, though.
I can totally see someone with the mind of a politician taking this as a threat though.