Congressman Matt Gaetz was criticized on Thursday after a misleading clip on social media appeared to show him calling on “America First” supporters to use the Second Amendment against Silicon Valley employees during a speech on cancel culture.
The Florida Republican actually told an “America First” rally in Dalton, Georgia, that Big Tech firms were “the internet’s hall monitors,” and said they were trying to “suppress” conservatives as he called on the movement to use the First Amendment to speak and assemble.
He later made a separate point about the Second Amendment and a Twitter user edited the speech to make it look like Gaetz was calling on people to shoot Silicon Valley employees. The clip went viral.
The GOP lawmaker in fact said: “Let us use the Constitution to strengthen our argument, and our movement. We have a First Amendment right to speak and assemble, and we better use it.
