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Matt Gaetz Suddenly Announces He Has A Son And Everyone Is Confused

BY June 18, 2020

Matt Gaetz has suddenly announced to the general public that he has a 19-year-old son, and the internet is torn between making fun of Gaetz, wondering why he kept his son a secret for half a dozen years, and trying to figure out what the backstory is.

Matt Gaetz announces a son
[Image via Matt Gaetz/Twitter]

Perhaps Gaetz would never have mentioned his son except for this exchange with Representative Cedric Richmond, of Louisiana. Richmond was discussing police reform, and addressing specifically the danger to black men from police. Gaetz asked Richmond to yield, and asked, “Are you suggesting that you’re certain that none of us have non-white children? Because you reflected on your black son and said none of us could understand.”

Suddenly the whole internet was on a fact-finding mission. Was Gaetz trying to claim he has a black son? As the mockery flew, Gaetz decided it was time for a revelation. He shared that he had a son, Nestor, who came here — “legally, of course” — from Cuba, who he’s been raising since the boy was 12.

Rather than end the speculation, this merely fueled it. Why had Gaetz kept Nestor a secret until now? Why has Nestor appeared in Gaetz’ social media posts, referred to as “a local student” and “a helper,” if Gaetz is raising him as a son? There were also some inappropriate jokes and assumptions, which Devin Nunes’ Cow was fortunately present to call out.

Gaetz himself doubled down, tweeting photos of “my non-white son,” and maintaining this as evidence that he understood the plight of fathers of young black men and teenagers who fear for their children.

He also retweeted a post from a former Florida legislator giving some more background.

However, several Twitter users got down to the central point. However great a dad Gaetz has been to this young man, in this case, he used Nestor as a talking point to shut down a black legislator who was talking about his concerns about black children in the current policing environment in the United States. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution‘s reporter, Tia Mitchell, who had been told before that Gaetz was in a relationship with a POC with a son, and that he was for this reason offended at being called racist, called it out very specifically: Gaetz didn’t then, and doesn’t, now, get to use proximity to POC as evidence that he’s not being racist, she explained.

An executive editor for American Independent addressed the same thing, as did a reporter for the DC Sentinel.

Ultimately, after a day of poking fun, the Twitterverse seems to have arrived at a conclusion: if Gaetz is a great dad, that’s a wonderful thing, but if he’s using his kid as a means to shut down conversation and, in particular, to silence black voices, he’s going to get called out for it. Again, the consensus is that proximity to people of color, even having beloved people of color in one’s life, does not preclude a person from racist behavior, and doesn’t exempt a person from being called out on it.



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