Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., is the boy politician of the Trump-era: Quick on his feet, omnipresent on the cable news circuit, and always controversial. Gaetz has gained as many fans as detractors for his defense of the president’s handling of the Russia investigation.
One of those detractors apparently goes to Shoal River Middle School and showed her disappointment by flipping Gaetz the bird.
While posing for a photo with school kids, Matt Gaetz was flipped off by a middle school girl. pic.twitter.com/fL2Y6prKac
— Philip Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) May 1, 2018
For that silent act of defiance, the young lady won plenty of liberal fans on Twitter. Zack Ford of ThinkProgress tweeted that “we are all that girl.” Ian Millhiser also of Think Progress chipped in that “not all heroes wear capes.”
One woman not amused? Her mother (or at least someone on Facebook who claims to be). The protest, she wrote on Facebook, wasn’t political. It was part of an effort “to fit in.”
“As the mother of the little girl very disrespectfully flipping the ‘bird,’ I will be dealing with her at home tonight! I absolutely have raised her better than this, and I promise this will NEVER happen again!” wrote the woman.
“I have been dealing with her wanting to ‘fit in’ and I promise you, I am livid. Political views aside, this is completely unacceptable. Mr. Gates[sic], I apologize on behalf of my daughter. I am very sorry this occurred,” she continued.
But Gaetz is taking it in stride and laughed off the small act of defiance during a phone interview. “First of all, I’ve done far more foolish things as a sixth grader so I am a very forgiving congressman,” he tells me. “Second of all, I appreciate what the mother of the young lady attended to this as an opportunity for a teaching moment.”
Will he delete the photo though? It’s already going viral. “I don’t intend to take down the picture because just like I learned how to do things better and behave better in circumstance, so can others.” Gaetz, who is better known in some parts of Florida for his views on animal rights than Russia, says photobombing is an occupational hazard. “This is just part of being out there with the people.”
