Fact Checking Rep. Paul Gosar’s Claim About the Texas School Shooter
Gosar spread misinformation that originated on right-wing platforms.
Immediately after the deadly shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children and two adults were killed, Arizona GOP Rep. Paul Gosar began spreading misinformation about the Texas shooter. In a now-deleted tweet, Gosar promoted the false claim that the suspect was a “transsexual leftist illegal alien.”
On Tuesday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott identified the gunman as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, who was killed on the scene.
The false tweet was up for almost two hours before it was taken down, but has been saved as a screenshot below.
These same false rumors have been spreading on right-wing platforms, as reporters Matt Binder and Ben Collins pointed out, with users sharing a picture of a transgender person from Reddit who is unrelated to the incident but has been incorrectly identified as the Texas shooter.
Right-wing provocateur Candace Owens wondered what might cause “an 18 year old to murder innocent children,” and then answered her own question: “Judging by photos of him cross-dressing, we can assume there were plenty of signs that he was mentally disturbed and abused by adults in his life.” Owens did not provide evidence to support her speculation and did not respond to our request for comment.
If you have a claim you would like to see us fact check, please send us an email at factcheck@thedispatch.com. If you would like to suggest a correction to this piece or any other Dispatch article, please email corrections@thedispatch.com.
Remember the good old days when people could denigrate others just by calling them commies? Now, it's not enough to assume/assert that a killer is an illegal immigrant, or even a "leftist" illegal immigrant, they've got to be a transgender leftist illegal immigrant.
Why stop there? The next time something like this happens (a few days from now) we should all assume it was committed by a pro-choice, CRT-teaching, Democrat-loving, Transgender Marxist who just crossed over the open southern border illegally. May as well touch all the bases.
There is a radio host here in Phoenix that has known Gosar for many years and he cannot figure out what happened to him. He was, at one time, a good and decent person. There has been a distinct change in his character.