Matt Gaetz’ Son Nestor Reveal

Overview

Matt Gaetz’ Son Nestor Reveal refers to a post by Florida congressman Matt Gaetz in which he surprisingly introduced the world to his 18-year-old adopted son Nestor, who Gaetz says he adopted from Cuba when Nestor was 12. The tweet led to skepticism if Gaetz’ story was the truth, as well as parodies wherein people would post Gaetz’ text and add a humorous photo.

Background

On June 17th, 2020 during a marathon hearing from the House Judiciary Committee on police brutality, Louisana congressman Clarence Richmond spoke in an attempt to focus the debate on police brutality when Republican members were attempting to bring up Antifa. Richmond stated that as a black person, his white male colleagues could not understand the pain in his community caused by police brutality. Republican Matt Gaetz asked if Richmond was implying that none of the Republican colleagues had non-white children. Richmond replied, “”I’m not about to get sidetracked about the color of our children. … It is not about the color of your kids. It is about black males, black people in the streets that are getting killed, and if one of them happens to be your kid, I’m concerned about him, too, and clearly, I’m more concerned about him than you are.” This made Gaetz irate.

The following day, Gaetz explained his explosive reaction by revealing he had an 18-year-old son named Nestor, whom Gaetz claimes to have adopted from Cuba when Nestor was 12. His tweet reads, “For all those wondering, this is my son Nestor. We share no blood but he is my life. He came from Cuba (legally, of course) six years ago and lives with me in Florida. I am so proud of him and raising him has been the best, most rewarding thing I’ve done in my life.”

Developments

The tweet surprised many, as Gaetz had never mentioned having a son during his political career. User @jtcinct pointed out that Gaetz’ own biography on his website makes no mention of Nestor. Many users pointed out that Gaetz had posted a photo of Nestor to his Facebook page in 2016, after Gaetz says he adopted him, in which he referred to Nestor as a “local student” (shown below, right). This caused widespread doubt over whether Gaetz was telling the truth with regard to his relationship with Nestor.

Furthermore, Gaetz’ tweet spawned a copypasta wherein people would post Gaetz’ text and add a humorous photo. For example, @robdelaney tweeted a picture of himself with Nick Offerman with the text, gaining over 1,400 retweets and 16,000 likes (shown below, left). User @boringdrew made the joke using the baby from Eraserhead, gaining over 50 retweets and 350 likes (shown below, right).

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