Matt Gaetz Suddenly Announces He Has 19-Year-Old Son, Not Everybody is Convinced

Matt Gaetz is a dad, apparently.

The Republican Representative suddenly announced as much on Twitter on Thursday, sharing a pic with his now 19-year-old son, Nestor.

"For all those wondering, this is my son Nestor," he wrote. "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."

He continued: "Nestor turned 19 a few days ago & 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."

That fellow Congressman was Louisiana Democrat Cedric Richmond; the two men had gotten into a heated debate about police brutality in the House the day before.

While discussing the Justice in Policing Act, Richmond lashed out at his white GOP colleagues, saying they did not know what it was like having a black son, and were guilty of unconscious bias at best, and at worst, conscious bias; Gaetz countered by asking if he was suggesting that none of the GOP congressmen had any non-white children.

"It is not about the color of your kids," Richmond fired back, per the Daily Beast, saying Black people were getting killed in the streets; "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."

Gaetz exploded: "You're claiming you have more concern about my family than I do? Who in the hell do you think you are?"

Gaetz — who is unmarried and, up to this point at least, appeared to be childless — waited until the following day to drop his bombshell.

After recovering from the initial shock, Twitter began to wonder why it had never heard of Nestor before, especially considering Gaetz's self-professed pride.

It didn't take long for Twitter users to mockingly dig back through their social media history through the years:

Matt's sister jumped to his defense, calling her brother "an incredible father".

"Nestor came into our lives when he was 12 and had just lost his mother. He didn't speak English, but luckily, Matt speaks Spanish," she wrote.

"Matt has been an incredible father to Nestor, who just graduated from high school and will be attending college in the fall. So proud of them both."

She continued to spar with non-believers, posting several pictures of the two together through the years.