Matt Gaetz reveals adopted Cuban son after fiery clash with Democrat, people ask why it was a secret till now
During a House Judiciary Committee markup on Wednesday, June 17, Cedric Richmond, the U.S. representative for Louisiana's 2nd congressional district, criticized Republicans in a fiery statement, accusing them of distracting from the main focus of the Democrats’ police reform bill against police violence toward African-Americans.
He said, “I am absolutely sitting here offended. To my colleagues, especially the ones that keep introducing amendments that are a tangent and a distraction from what we’re talking about, you all are white males, you never lived in my shoes and you do not know what it’s like to be an African-American male.”
“If you are opposed to this legislation, let’s just have a vote,” Richmond added. “But please don’t come in here and make a mockery of the pain that exists in my community.”
Following this, Matt Gaetz, the U.S. representative for Florida's 1st congressional district, asked, “Are you suggesting that you’re certain that none of us have nonwhite children?”
Richmond responded to this with, “It's not about the color of your kids. It is about black people in the streets getting killed. And if one of them happens to be your kid, I’m concerned about him too. And clearly I’m more concerned about him than you are.” This retort angered Gaetz, who then said, “Who in the hell do you think you are?”
Gaetz then took to Twitter on Thursday, June 18, and revealed he had a 19-year-old Cuban son, Nestor Galban. Gaetz wrote, “For all those wondering, this is my son Nestor. We share no blood but he is my life. He came from Cuba (legally, of course) six years ago and lives with me in Florida. I am so proud of him and raising him has been the best, most rewarding thing I’ve done in my life.”
Gaetz added, “Nestor turned 19 a few days ago and will be off to University. He arrived here at 12. As you can imagine, I was triggered when (to make an absurd debate point) a fellow congressman diminished the contributions of Republicans because we don’t raise non-white kids. Well, I have.”
Gaetz’s revelation became a talking point on Twitter with many wondering why he had chosen to reveal at this moment that he had an adopted son.
“As of right now, there is not a single reference to nor a picture of Nestor on your campaign website. Which is... weird. Assuming what you're saying is true, why have you kept him hidden all this time?” asked a Twitter user, a question that was echoed by many.
Another asked, “If you’re so proud of him, why did you completely disappear him until you needed to show how not-racist you are? Why didn’t you take him as your guest to the state of the union instead of a Holocaust denier?”
The skepticism around Nestor led to many digging around. Journalist Siraj Hashmi found a video of Gaetz from December 2017, in which Gaetz refers to Nestor as his “helper”. Voice actor and singer Grey DeLisle-Griffin shared a screenshot of a Facebook post of Gaetz where he had referred to Nestor as a “local student” from Tallahassee, Florida.
This investigation led to the birth of the hashtag “FreeNestor”, under which people tweeted things like, “The first time Matt Gaetz decides to introduce his son Nester to the world, it’s to use him as a political prop to own the libs. It’s the mega version of ‘I have a black friend,’ so I can’t be racist. Or the MAGA version.”
Former congresswoman Katie Hill, a Democrat, however, criticized the outrage and wrote, “Many of you know Matt Gaetz and I have an unlikely friendship. I can’t stand a lot of his beliefs but he’s been there for me when others haven’t. He talks about Nestor more than anything, has done so much for his son and is truly a proud dad. This #FreeNestor thing is bulls***. Stop.”