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‘Gun girl’ Kaitlin Bennett snubbed by Trump at rally, Internet says 'ouch, that’s gotta hurt'

Two 'major QAnon influencers' were given official press credentials to the Trump rally held in Sarasota, Florida, but Bennett and Liberty Hangout weren't

Remember Kaitlin Bennett? The conservative activist who soared to fame as “gun girl” after posing for graduation pictures with an AR-10 rifle in 2018 was allegedly denied media credentials for the upcoming Donald Trump rally. On Gab, an American social networking service known for its far-right user base, Bennet made this claim.

The Gab account for Liberty Hangout -- “the official TV home of Kaitlin Bennett” -- claimed on July 2, “We applied for media credentials for the upcoming Trump rally and were promptly denied. Why do the people around Trump keep trying to alienate their biggest supporters that have risked injury, doxxing, censorship, and harassment to promote his campaign?” By “we”, she meant herself and her husband, Justin Moldow, who was listed as a videographer on the press application.

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As per Snopes, Liberty Hangout, which brands itself as a “libertarian media outlet”, was co-founded in 2015 by Moldow, and features, among other things, a number of pro-Confederacy posts. In 2018, Liberty Hangout reportedly published an article asserting that “It’s Time to Admit that Martin Luther King, Jr. Really Sucked.” In February 2016, the group tweeted a meme depicting then-presidential candidate Donald Trump dressed in a Nazi uniform attached to the words “Make Reich Great Again.”

In January 2016, the Liberty Hangout Twitter account posted a poll asking other Twitter users to answer the question, “Do you believe the Holocaust happened as we’ve been told?” In response to that post, when one user asked, “What do you think?” Liberty Hangout replied, “It doesn’t seem possible that 6 million were killed.”

Salon reported that a right-wing radio pundit who is familiar with “TrumpWorld drama” said that they believe the press-credential snub could be related to Bennett's Twitter tiffs with fellow Trump loyalists, such as Mitch McConnell campaign staffer Nicholas Sandmann. The same source, however, also professed bewilderment about why the Trump camp would freeze Bennett out, given her 600,000-plus YouTube subscribers.

It’s also interesting that this comes in the wake of a report that says two “major QAnon influencers” were given official press credentials to the Trump rally held in Sarasota, Florida, on July 3 -- the same one where Bennett was denied credentials.

Vice News reported that Jeffrey Pedersen, known as In The Matrixx to his followers in QAnon groups and boards, announced on his Telegram channel on Friday, July 2, that he and his podcast co-host, known as Shady Grooove, had been approved by the Trump Organization for media credentials. “We are the news now,” Pedersen wrote.

The Trump snub, it seems, has hurt the ardent supporter of the former twice-impeached president. “Trump is banned from social media, as are many of his voters. Others are in jail for supporting him. The media won't cover his rallies. Those that do like RSBN get banned. Along comes Liberty Hangout with a reach of millions and the Trump team bans us from giving a voice to his voiceless supporters. Apparently hoping that the left will one day like Trump is more important than the people that already do,” the Liberty Hangout shared on Gab.

On the Gab posts, conservatives sympathized with Bennett and decried Trump. “Trump is a politician now. It's over,” said one person. Another person said, “Maybe Trump is no longer the warm, cuddly, somewhat-conservative narcissist we used to know. He won't get a knee-jerk vote from me in 2024 - he'll have to name his mistakes and promise not to repeat them.”

“Time to find a leader who will freely acknowledge that sending our factories out of our country is bad for America,” commented one person. “Trump was a start, but now it's time to leave him behind and turn the New GOP into a party of True America First Conserative Values.” While another said, “I'm starting to believe the Trump we know and love is no more. Or never was in the first place.”

On Twitter, many made fun of Bennett. One person tweeted: "Lmao Kaitlin Bennett was denied press creds to the trump rally by…Trump. He finally did something right." Another person asked her on Twitter, "How does it feel to be denied press credentials by your god. Lmao." Another person tweeted to her, "ouch. Trump denied you “press” credentials.  That’s gotta hurt."