David Hogg deletes tweet, admits to falsely claiming Sen. Rubio rejected request for meeting

David Hogg claimed Thursday on Twitter that Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) had rejected his request for a meeting “because I ‘trigger’ him.” Rubio’s chief of staff rebuked him for the claim and Hogg later admitted it was false.

Hogg originally tweeted: “Rubio staff said I can’t meet with him or his staff because I ‘trigger’ him. I just wanna have a conversation. Please meet with me @marcorubio I just want to figure out how we can stop these things from happening. We have to end the continuous debate and find what we can agree on.” The tweet quickly went viral, despite only being up for a few hours.

Michael Needham, Rubio’s chief of staff, quickly went after Hogg’s tweet. “No one said such a thing. As for the meeting, you must be confused as we had a 2p meeting scheduled with you. However, since you are lying and clearly using this all for self-promotion, that meeting is now cancelled,” Michael Needham, Rubio’s chief of staff, told Hogg on Twitter.

Needham told Hogg that not only was the meeting was cancelled, but that there were independent witnesses to its having been scheduled. “The reporter doing a profile of you knows the meeting is real since she was emailing yesterday with our comms team about it,” he told him, later adding: “Don’t lie again — we have receipts.”

Hogg apologized Friday, saying: “An honest mistake, got our meetings confused in the flurry and my staff misinformed me. I apologize.” He added in a follow-up tweet that tagged Rubio, “We’d still love to meet with you and have an honest, respectful discussion,” Hogg added. “Deleted the tweet bc it wasn’t true but attaching here for transparency.”

Hogg has gained notoriety for surviving a 2018 school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 dead and 17 wounded. Since then, Hogg, a leading member of the student-led organization March for Our Lives, has been a vocal supporter of gun control measures.