Gaetz Slammed For Mocking Opponent's 12 Year Old Autistic Son

Matt Gaetz thought that he had a slam dunk attack against his Democratic challenger Rebekah Jones over the weekend, but he ended up just mocking her 12-year-old autistic son. Gaetz was slammed by Jones as well as an army of angry people online for mocking the child who was photographed with his head down on a desk at a health expo from last week. Farron Cousins explains what happened.

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*This transcript was auto-generated. Please excuse any typos.

My Congressman Matt gates, as we all know has spent the last month and a half, two months, whatever it is, making fun of people, making fun of their weight, attacking their level of attractiveness. If they're not up to the Matt gates scale. But a couple days ago, Matt gates did something that believe it or not is actually even a new low for somebody like Matt gates. And he mocked a 12 year old, a 12 year old child on Facebook own. By the way, the 12 year old child also happens to be autistic. That is the low that Congressman Matt gates has sunk to in order to attack his democratic opponent, Rebecca Jones. Here's what happened. Um, I know we have the, the photograph of this Facebook post. So Matt gates puts this photo on Facebook, and this is a photo from September 10th. He posted it 7:02 PM. Matt gates event versus Rebecca Jones event.

What he didn't tell you was that that actually wasn't a Rebecca Jones event. It was a little booth set up at, uh, what was it? The Emerald coast, holistic health expo. It wasn't an event for Rebecca Jones. It was just a little information booth set up. And Rebecca Jones had gone to the event in her district where she's running and she brought her 12 year old autistic son with her. Now he was at the booth and he was tired and he put his head down and Matt gates tried to use this child who was tired clearly. You know, didn't wanna be there. If I was 12 year old, uh, 12 years old, my mom was running for office or not. I would've done the same thing, but tried to be like, hi, this is what you get at a Rebecca Jones event, mocking this individual. And listen, I'm willing to bet gates probably didn't even realize it was her kid at the time.

Probably didn't know that the kid was autistic. You know, I'm not saying that gates did it because it's a 12 year old or because the kid is autistic, but, okay. So what did he do after he learned all of this information? Right? Did he remove the post? No. He left it up. It's still there. So what I'm gonna do now, cuz I still have the post open right in front of me. I'm gonna read you some of the responses from people who saw this and finally attacked Matt gates here is what some of them said. The first one, I'm not gonna give any names. I don't wanna, you know, do that to people. First comment says, good God, leave underage kids alone. Pretty poignant. Um, somebody says, that's her underage son. You creep.

Next comment is yet the left in L G B T Q I a are called groomers. This is exactly why I will never vote Republican vote blue. This is her 12 year old autistic son, shame on his campaign. Lies, lies, lies. It's an info table at a healthcare event. And you just took a pick of a 12 year old boy. Um, here's one as the owner and producer of the Emerald coast, holistic health expo. I am saddened that Matt gates would use such a great event out of context. This was not a political rally, but rather an event to bring the community together. Not a divisive one. His political attack was a dastardly opportunistic attempt to make some kind of statement utilizing a moment in a time of non-political in time at a non-political event. I think that in and of itself speaks volumes. Perhaps he could benefit inter personally from the minute of positive and kind exhibitors who truly love our Northwest Florida community. So a post photo at a political event versus a picture of a minor at a table at a healthcare event, not even a political event, your point. So the person who's had some questionable behavior with underage girls is now posting up, uh, posting up an underage child on your profile. Maybe it's me, but this is very disturbing. It goes on and on folks, I could sit here for the next 20 minutes, reading you angry comments from people in Matt gates' district. And of course people outside

Of the district

Who I love you for coming on there. But at the same time, you don't technically matter what matters is this district right here that is a deep red district that Matt gates will likely cruise to the biggest victory we've ever seen. And that's not a knock on Rebecca Jones. It's a knock on the people of