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Yesterday, the president’s eldest son made a wholly characteristic move by “liking” a tweet by far-right outlet Gateway Pundit claiming that Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student David Hogg – who survived the tragic shooting in Parkland, Florida – is not a student, but a crisis actor. The conspiracy theory has been proliferated on other right-wing sites, as well.
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Hogg opted to take the high road in his response to Donald Trump Jr.’s promotion of the despicable attacks against him, showing that he has more sophistication and class than those trying to tear him down.
“I just think it’s a testament to the sick immaturity and broken state of our government when these people feel the need to pedal conspiracy theories about people that were in a school shooting where 17 people died and it just makes me sick.
“It’s immature, rude, and inhuman for these people to destroy the people trying to prevent the death of the future of America because they won’t” said Hogg to Buzzfeed News when asked what he thought of the attacks.
MSNBC’s Joy Reid also weighed in with a scathing condemnation of “the grown, adult son of the president of the United States.”
For the grown, adult son of the president of the United States to participate in promoting conspiracy theories that sick the worst elements infecting social media on a 17-year-old kid – a kid who survived a massacre at his school no less – is so far beyond the pale it’s insane. https://t.co/6IvyJIzucm
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) February 21, 2018
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The Gateway Pundit, a right-wing propaganda outlet that regularly publishes unsourced conspiracy theories, targeted student activist David Hogg and attempted to craft a narrative which somehow linked the Trump-Russia investigation to the shooting because Hogg’s father is a retired FBI agent. In other words, he does not work for the FBI anymore, for those like Trump Jr. who need the clarification.
“One student, in particular, David Hogg has been astonishingly articulate and highly skilled at propagating a new anti-Conservative/anti-Trump narrative behind the recent school shooting. Few have seen this type of rapid media play before, and when they have it has come from well-trained political operatives and MSM commentators,” the Gateway Pundit wrote.
Why would the child of an FBI agent be used as a pawn for anti-Trump rhetoric and anti-gun legislation? Because the FBI is only looking to curb YOUR Constitutional rights and INCREASE their power. We’ve seen similar moves by them many times over. This is just another disgusting example of it.”
Donald Trump Jr.’s “liking” of the tweet placed it in the timelines of his 2.26 million Twitter followers, endorsing and promoting the baseless and truly despicable conspiracy theories that blood profiteers and gun culture warriors are using to attack a kid who just watched seventeen of his friends die en masse.
Gateway Pundit editor Lucian Wintrich then doubled down on his attacks against Hogg, calling him a “prick” and attempting to argue that these kids are using the murder of their friends to advance their own careers.
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They're little pricks (shooting aside). Completely entitled, not to mention this is absolutely bizarre. https://t.co/iwM2qjP6Oa
— Lucian B. Wintrich (@lucianwintrich) February 20, 2018
Based on the way those kids are milking the deaths of their peers for careers, it's completely safe to say that they don't care about those lives lost, they only care about their SJW agenda, and the soullessness comes from social media desensitization.
— Lucian B. Wintrich (@lucianwintrich) February 20, 2018
Trump Jr. may enjoy pandering to his base, but the large majority of Americans can see right through his disgusting tactics. As the GOP ducks for cover, these shameless attacks emerging from the White House are certain to cost Trump and his Party dearly come November.
Follow Brian Tyler Cohen on Facebook and Twitter.
