"The fact that @DonaldJTrumpJr liked that post is disgusting to me" — @davidhogg111 pic.twitter.com/G8z7m7FE0Q
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) February 21, 2018
David Hogg, a survivor of last week’s massacre at Parkland, Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is hitting back at right-wing internet trolls attempting to discredit his increasingly sharp television commentary calling for gun control.
In a prime-time spot on CNN Tuesday evening, Hogg told Anderson Cooper that he felt sorry for the rumor-mongerers and explicitly denied conspiracy theories swirling around him and his father, former FBI agent Kevin Hogg.
“These people saying this is absolutely disturbing and I’m not an actor in any sense, way, shape or form,” said Hogg. “I was a witness to this. I am not a crisis actor. I am somebody that had to witness this and live through this and I continue to have to do that. It’s just unbelievable to me that these people are even saying this.”
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In addition to being a “crisis actor,” some writers in the right-wing fevers swamps speculated that Hogg had received coaching from the media and that his commentary was suspect because his father used to work for the FBI.
“Immediately, these students-turned-activists threw up some red flags,” Gateway Pundit White House correspondent Lucian Wintrich wrote in a much-maligned piece.
“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.”
Hogg also took issue with Donald Trump Jr. The president’s son “liked” a post on Twitter Tuesday which made many of the same scurrilous claims against Hogg outlined above.
Also Read: 'Morning Joe' Slams Right-Wing Critics of Florida Shooting Survivors: 'Lack of Humanity'
“The fact that Donald Trump Jr. liked that post is disgusting to me,” Hogg said before insisting that he was actually a defender of the Second Amendment.
“These people keep saying that I am anti-Second Amendment, I’m not.” Hogg told Cooper. “I do not want to take away the constitutional rights of American citizens.”
TheWrap reached David Hogg by phone shortly before his CNN appearance Tuesday, but he declined to offer any additional comment.
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