Leave Matt Gaetz and his son alone

Why, the dregs of the Twitterati have spent the day asking, did Matt Gaetz hide the fact that he adopted a son if he really did so? Well, it only took a few hours to find out, with the most vile people on Twitter mocking Gaetz’s son, Nestor, and smearing Gaetz.

This really ought to go without saying, but if you’re one of the people tweeting “#FreeNestor” or smearing Gaetz as a bad father or a liar because you dislike his politics: stop. Full stop.

For starters, it seems pretty clear that Gaetz is telling the truth. Multiple people, including reporters and Katie Hill, the former Democratic congresswoman with whom he’s friends, confirmed that Gaetz’s son was openly referenced in his inner circle. Furthermore, an Instagram post from 2015 does show Nestor calling Gaetz and his sister Erin his family. And an account seemingly belonging to Nestor himself retweeted photos of him and Gaetz posted by Erin.

And given the response today, it makes perfect sense that Gaetz, a Republican flamethrower who frequently dominated social media controversies, would do everything in his power to keep his son private. Now that Nestor is an adult, he clearly felt comfortable going public. What that shouldn’t invite are baseless and vicious conspiracy theories.

Yes, the circumstances are odd. And Gaetz’s invocation of a nonblack son during a discussion about Black Lives Matter misses the point. But leave kids and politicians’ parenting skills out of the cesspool that political commentary has become.