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From left: Mark Pocan and Matt Gaetz
Gaetz contributed to the baseless right-wing buzz around the school shooting in Pocan's district.
U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, the gay Democrat who chairs the Congressional Equality Caucus, had a sharp response to his disgraced ex-colleague Matt Gaetz, who baselessly claimed that the teenage girl who shot students and teachers at a school in Pocan’s district was transgender.
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Natalie Rupnow, 15, who went by Samantha, killed a student and a teacher at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wis., Monday. Rupnow died as well, of a gunshot wound that was apparently self-inflicted. Six others were wounded in the shooting.
Several right-wing social media users suggested, without evidence, that Rupnow was trans. Gaetz joined in after Chaya Raichik of the far-right Libs of TikTok posted a statement from President Joe Biden on X, formerly Twitter, in which Biden called for additional gun safety legislation in light of the shooting. Raichik said Biden wanted gun control, and Gaetz shared her post with the comment “What about trans control instead?”
Pocan then shared Gaetz’s post and commented, “To all the idiots who claimed the shooter was trans with no information whatsoever to believe that, f**k off. Your ignorance speaks volumes. Your hate is consuming your brains (or what’s left of them).”
Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said at a Monday press conference that he doesn’t know about Rupnow’s gender identity and that it doesn’t matter. “What happened today has nothing to do with how she or he or they may have wanted to identify, and I wish people would leave their own personal biases out of this,” Barnes said. White cisgender men make up the majority of mass shooters.
Gaetz, a Republican who represented a U.S. House district in Florida, recently left Congress under a cloud. He resigned in November just as the House Ethics Committee was about to release the results of its investigation into allegations that Gaetz had used illegal drugs and had sex with a minor. He had hoped to avoid release of the report, but Wednesday the Ethics Committee voted to make it public, reversing an earlier decision, sources told NBC News.
Shortly after his resignation, Gaetz withdrew from consideration for attorney general in the incoming Donald Trump administration. Trump’s nomination of Gaetz, one of his closest allies, drew criticism not only for the sex and drug allegations but for Gaetz’s extremist views and lack of qualifications for the job.
