Pennsylvania state rep. Daryl Metcalfe is known as one of the more controversially conservative members of the state legislature.
Now he seems to be getting on-board with the conspiracy theory spread on far-right news outlets that Florida students who went to Washington, DC to testify about school shootings may not really be students at all.
“This morning I was working out and listening to the news about ‘students’ being bused into the Florida Capitol,” Metcalfe wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday.
That comment echoed the theory spread on Gateway Pundit and other unreliable, alt-right news media that some of the students who survived the Parkland school shooting that killed 17 and spoke on CNN and other news media were “paid crisis actors.” Some of the students have even spoken out directly to the theory, saying “I am not a paid crisis actor.”
Metcalfe has been in the news before: in December, he went viral after exploding at a male Democratic state rep., telling him “I am not a homosexual” after the man touched his arm during a hearing.
Metcalfe’s Facebook post went on to criticize the students’ testimony while continuing to use quotes around the word students, apparently implying he does believe they are real students.
“The hypocrisy of the left struck me!” Metcalfe wrote. “They expect lawmakers to listen to the policy advice of 18-year-old and younger ‘students’ who are advocating for gun control, but they do not believe 18-year-olds who are old enough to serve on the battlefields of Afghanistan are old enough to purchase a rifle.”
Metcalfe could not immediately be reached for clarification about why he doubted the authenticity of the students.
