Emma Gonzalez Cries For Slain Students, Rep. Steve King Mocks Her

WASHINGTON, DC — Emma González, the Parkland, Florida, high school senior whose face has become synonymous with the #NeverAgain student movement demanding common-sense gun laws, wept Saturday as she stood silent before tens of thousands gathered at the “March for Our Lives” rally in Washington, D.C.

In one of the most symbolic moments of the rally, González maintained her composure for six minutes and 20 seconds, the amount of time it took for a gunman to cut down 17 students and staff at her Parkland, Florida, high school last month.

In response, Iowa Republican Congressman Steve King, often derided for xenophobia and anti-immigrant remarks, found a way to mock the young woman based on what she was wearing — among several patches sewn onto her olive-green jacket was a Cuban flag, a Communist flag, King pointed out.

Kids and young adults like González have received a barrage of criticism for their activism from the far right and conspiracy theorists. They’ve been called paid crisis actors who were fed lines. They've been called Democratic shills. As the kids have continued talking, the far right has amped up its criticism.

“This is how you look when you claim Cuban heritage yet don’t speak Spanish and ignore the fact that your ancestors fled the island when the dictatorship turned Cuba into a prison camp, after removing all weapons from its citizens; hence their right to self defense,” King posted on his verified Facebook account.

More than 2,000 people commented, many of them calling King out for the meme that showed González at the lectern in Washington, D.C. They included people like Pulse nightclub shooting survivor Brandon J. Wolf, who criticized King for “mocking a school shooting survivor for her ethnic identity.”

King’s social media team responded, “Pointing out the irony of someone wearing the flag of a communist country while simultaneously calling for gun control isn't 'picking' on anyone. It's calling attention to the truth, but we understand that lefties find that offensive.”

Similar responses were posted on other comments in the thread.

González has increasingly become a lightning rod in an extraordinary moment of student activism.

She was attacked in a now debunked meme with a doctored photo that seemed to show her shredding the U.S. Constitution. The original photo was of her ripping apart a bullseye target, the kind used at shooting ranges that appeared in Teen Vogue.

Phillip Picardi, the chief content officer for Teen Vogue, said on Twitter that “the fact that we even have to clarify this is proof of how democracy continues to be fractured by people who manipulate and fabricate the truth.”

As her voice has grown stronger — and in Saturday’s case, fallen silent — the smear campaigns against González have continued. Earlier this month, Leslie Gibson, dropped out of a race for Maine’s House of Representatives after calling her “a skinhead lesbian.” Gibson apologized, saying it was “wrong and unacceptable.”

She was called “the Awful Face of Treason” by Jesse Hughes, the frontman of Eagles of Death Metal, in an altered image on Instagram that has since been deleted, the Guardian reported. Hughes, whose band was on stage during the Paris Bataclan terrorist attack in November 2015.

And though he didn’t specifically name González, former Republican senator from Pennsylvania and unsuccessful presidential candidate Rick Santorum said on CNN Sunday that instead of campaigning for “some phony gun law,” students should learn CPR.

Here is King’s post:

Photo: Tears roll down the face of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student Emma Gonzalez as she observes 6 minutes and 20 seconds of silence while addressing the March for Our Lives rally on March 24, 2018 in Washington, DC. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators, including students, teachers and parents gathered in Washington for the anti-gun violence rally organized by survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting on Feb. 14 that left 17 dead. More than 800 related events took place around the world to call for legislative action to address school safety and gun violence. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)