Student Reacts To Right-Wing Conspiracy Attacks: It’s ‘Disgusting’

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student David Hogg responds to conspiracy theories that he's a paid actor during an interview with CNN Feb. 20, 2018.
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An outspoken high schooler who survived the school shooting in Florida last week called Donald Trump Jr., and those in the far-right peddling conspiracy theories about student activists being “crisis actors,” “unbelievable” and “disgusting” during an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper Tuesday evening.

It’s unbelievable to me that these people are even saying this, and the fact that Donald Trump Jr. liked that post is disgusting to me,” the student, David Hogg, said, referencing reports that Trump Jr. liked some of the tweets propagating the conspiracy theory.

I am so sorry that these people have lost their faith in America,” he said. “I know I certainly haven’t. … I am not a crisis actor, I am somebody who had to witness this and live through this and I continue to have to do that.”

After a former student allegedly shot and killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida last week, Hogg and many of his surviving classmates were incensed by the massacre and have become vocal advocates for reform of gun control policies at the state and national level.

TPM reported Tuesday on the efforts of far-right groups, like InfoWars and Gateway Pundit, to perpetuate conspiracy theories that the students are paid actors working for far-left, anti-gun groups. True Pundit published a story this week, claiming Hogg and his father, who is a former FBI agent, were working with the mainstream media to prop up the FBI.

“The fact that these people are being critical of me as a witness and personally as a victim to this incident and having to witness this and live through it again and again, it is unbelievable,” Hogg said. “And the fact that some of the students at Stoneman Douglas High School, are showing more maturity and political action than many of our elected officials— its a testament to how disgusting and broken our political system is right now in America.”   

Watch a video of Hogg’s interview with Cooper below:

 

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