Some of Trump's most fervent supporters have started to attack a school shooting survivor who has made a flurry of media appearances
- Some on the far-right are going after a school shooting survivor who has made multiple media appearances in the aftermath of the Parkland, Florida school shooting.
- The student, David Hogg, has been critical of President Donald Trump and other politicians for their response to the massacre.
- Hogg's father is a retired FBI agent.
- Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., liked a pair of tweets questioning the student's motives in speaking out about the attack.
Some of President Donald Trump's most fervent supporters have started to attack a school shooting survivor who has made a series of media appearances following the violent attack at a Florida high school last week.
That student, David Hogg, has been featured on outlets such as CNN and CBS following the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida, where 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz is suspected of gunning down 17 students and faculty and injuring more than a dozen others. Hogg, a student journalist, reportedly interviewed classmates during the shooting. He has become one of the most prominent student voices following the atrocity, slamming politicians' "disgusting" response to the event.
Far-right outlets such as The Gateway Pundit and True Pundit have pointed to Hogg's father being a retired FBI agent to suggest something nefarious is at play with the student's frequent media appearances. Hogg criticized the president for his criticism of the FBI as it relates to the Florida shooting.
"Why would the child of an FBI agent be used as a pawn for anti-Trump rhetoric and anti-gun legislation?" Lucian Wintrich wrote on The Gateway Pundit. "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."
On True Pundit, a story linking Hogg and the FBI ran under the headline "Outspoken Trump-Hating School Shooting Survivor is Son of FBI Agent; MSM Helps Prop Up Incompetent Bureau."
"The kid who has been running his mouth about how Donald Trump and the GOP are teaming to help murder high school kids by upholding the Second Amendment is the son of an FBI agent," an unnamed author wrote. "David Hogg is a school shooting survivor in Florida. At least that is what the mainstream media has told us. We wouldn't be surprised by anything involving the FBI at this point."
The stories have been promoted on Twitter by pro-Trump accounts, which in some cases have received thousands of retweets. The conservative One America News Network additionally promoted a tweet suggesting that Hogg may be "running cover for his dad who works as an FBI agent at the Miami field office."
The stories gained even more attention when Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., liked the tweet promoted by One America and another post sharing the True Pundit story.
Echoing one of the most prominent conspiracies swirling on some parts of the right wing internet, Trump claimed over the weekend that the FBI "missed" the Florida school shooter because it was investigating his campaign for ties to Russia.
"Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter," he wrote Saturday just before midnight. "This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign - there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!"
Not only does the FBI have more than 35,000 employees and run hundreds of investigations simultaneously, but the special counsel's investigation is being run outside of the main Justice Department. Promoting the theory runs in line with Trump's repeated allegation that leaders within the Justice Department and FBI hold anti-Trump biases.
The FBI admitted it did make a serious error regarding a tip on Cruz that it did not properly investigate.