David Hogg, a survivor of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting in February 2018 who has since become a leading gun control advocate, was called out by staff from Sen. Marco Rubio’s office on Thursday for lying about the nature of a canceled meeting with the Florida Republican.
Hogg claimed on Twitter that Rubio canceled a meeting after supposedly being “triggered” but he was forced to apologize after Rubio’s staff called him out publicly for lying.
“Rubio staff said I can’t meet with him or his staff because I ‘trigger’ him. I just wanna have a conversation,” Hogg tweeted. “Please meet with me @marcorubio I just want to figure out how we can stop these things from happening. We have to end the continuous debate and find out what we can agree on.”
Rubio’s chief of staff Michael Needham excoriated Hogg and called him out.
“No one said such a thing. As for the meeting, you must be confused as we had a 2p meeting scheduled with you,” Needham tweeted. “However, since you are lying and clearly using this all for self-promotion, that meeting is now canceled.”
No one said such a thing. As for the meeting, you must be confused as we had a 2p meeting scheduled with you. However, since you are lying and clearly using this all for self-promotion, that meeting is now cancelled. https://t.co/dteqDZ7ruM
— Michael Needham (@MikeNeedham) June 9, 2022
“Also, the reporter doing a profile of you knows the meeting is real since she was emailing yesterday with our comms team about it,” Needham said in a second tweet.
“Don’t lie again — we have receipts,” he added.
Also, the reporter doing a profile of you knows the meeting is real since she was emailing yesterday with our comms team about it. Don’t lie again — we have receipts.
— Michael Needham (@MikeNeedham) June 9, 2022
Hogg deleted his initial tweet before issuing a public apology.
“[A]n honest mistake, got our meetings confused in the flurry and my staff misinformed me. I apologize. We’d still love to meet with you and have an honest, respectful discussion,” he wrote.
.@marcorubio an honest mistake, got our meetings confused in the flurry and my staff misinformed me. I apologize. We’d still love to meet with you and have an honest, respectful discussion. Deleted the tweet bc it wasn’t true but attaching here for transparency. pic.twitter.com/icmaLoSA0C
— David Hogg ☮️ (@davidhogg111) June 9, 2022
“Deleted the tweet bc it wasn’t true but attaching here for transparency,” he added.
Hogg was a survivor of the Feb. 14, 2018, shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School by a former student, Nicolas Cruz. He has been a vocal gun control advocate since.
But he’s also been called out in the past for complaining about there being too many regulations for him to start a pillow business — a complaint that got him ridiculed by conservatives who pointed out that he supports the same government-centric Democratic Party that creates so many regulations.
.@williamlegate and I are going to prove that progressives can make a better pillow, run a better business and help make the world a better place while doing it.
— David Hogg ☮️ (@davidhogg111) February 4, 2021
After he ended his shortlived endeavor, he took to Twitter again to complain about the complicated business start-up process.
Luckily I made enough money from previous clients I worked for a 1099 to fund this but I can already see why there are so many people who can go beyond the LLC phase.
— David Hogg ☮️ (@davidhogg111) April 24, 2022
