UPDATE
A little less than five-hours after a Tallahassee Reports story about a tweet sent by Mayor Gillum’s office confirming a link between Tallahassee and the Parkland shooter that turned out to be false, the Mayor’s Office has posted the following update on twitter:
UPDATE: while we were troubled at the possibility of the shooter receiving paramilitary training in TLH, our local law-enforcement agencies found no evidence to confirm that. We will continue to monitor these hate groups, as the safety of our community remains our top priority.
Original Story
On February 15, 2018, Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum used the Mayor’s Office twitter account to broadcast the following statement:
“We are sickened to learn that the shooter received paramilitary training in #Tallahassee. This hate group should immediately be investigated for domestic terrorism & if confirmed, should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
The problem is the statement turned out to be false shortly after the tweet was published.
The first headlines from the national media alleging a connection between the Parkland school shooter and the Republic of Florida, a local paramilitary organization located in Tallahassee, occurred around 1:00 pm .
The Tallahassee Democrat posted a story around 1:44 pm that clearly stated that the national reports were unconfirmed.
Tallahassee Democrat Editor, William Hatfield, after hearing the national reports about the shooter’s connection to Tallahassee wrote, “we were immediately skeptical.”
However, it appears Mayor Gillum was not.
At 1:57, on Feb 15, 2018, an hour after the first unconfirmed media report hit the newswires, the Mayors Office sent out the less than flattering tweet about Tallahassee.
A couple of hours after the 1:45 report, the Tallahassee Democrat reported that there “was no connection between our solitary supremacist and the shooter who massacred 17 people in South Florida.”
The Mayors Office twitter account has yet to acknowledge the truth about Tallahassee and the Parkland shooter. In fact, the tweet remains on the Office of the Mayor twitter feed.
This is not the first time Mayor Gillum has attempted to paint Tallahassee in a negative light over a controversial issue.
Back in October, speaking at the University of Tampa, Gillum said, “There isn’t a day that doesn’t go by in my city where I’m not driving behind a truck on my way to work that has a big old Confederate flag.”
The statement drew immediate criticism from the Tallahassee community and from Ron Sachs, the influential CEO of Sachs Media Group.
Sachs said that Gillum “essentially trashed the very community that propelled his political career by electing him repeatedly to the city commission and most recently as mayor.”
UPDATED: Gillum Uses Mayor’s Office to Spread Unconfirmed Claims About Tallahassee, Parkland Shooter added by Staff on
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He is a racist— trying to stir up problems out of lies. It is sad we have come to such a big divide after having the first black president
I imagine as “mayor” Gillum is escorted from court in handcuffs that he will be shouting the FBI is now a “hate group”. Sadly, I’m not sure which is worse: That Tallahassee has Andrew Gillum in an elected office, or that there are Tallahassee voters who put him there, and will again if they get the chance.
Gillum lacks any imagination and-or positive message as a potential governor, so he resorts to the hackneyed Liberal Playbook of ginning up resentment and racial divide by calling out non-existent “hate groups” and imaginary “Confederate Flag carriers”. If you can’t inspire your voters with proven performance, ideas, and policies, you must resort to inciting them with hatred and resentment of others. It’s a crude and uninspired method of getting votes, and it’s employed repeatedly by Liberal Democrats everywhere.
Time and again, we’ve seen several big American cities and states decline into financial ruin, runaway crime, and profoundly corrupt governments. Examples: New York, Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York State, California, Illinois, et al. Yet the Lockstep Liberal voters in these areas dogmatically keep electing the same corrupt, failed liberal politicians into office. Meanwhile, their city or state heads off the cliff – all the while the Liberal voters delude themselves that they live in a Liberal Utopia, remaining blind to their self-imposed fates. I’d hate to think that Tallahassee has fallen into that same category, and I pray that we’ll get some new candidates who can pull the city out of this corrupt morass.
The Mayor is a zero…he’s going to be indicted by the FBI so let him have his fun while he’s still free…
Gillum is doing absolutely anything he can do to get in the news – such are his desperate political times.
He can’t rescind this statement now; that would just bring more headlines to him; he will just try and ignore it…
Would a consolidated Tallahassee and Leon County government force all elected public officials to submit themselves to the scrutinization of re-election at the time of consolidation, and, if our current said-same officials were candidates were running for office, whom would a county-wide electorate choise?
The public discussions, advocating both pro and con, regarding city/county consolidation, seem to have never included the benefits of a complete re-set of our elected leaders, and, presumedly, their appointees, staff, vendors, and contractual hires.
If our Mayor thinks Tallahassee is so bad why doesn’t he quit his job and move to Washington or some other place he likes better? I wish him happiness somewhere else!
Let’s hope the FBI will haul his sorry arse to jail soon. He’s pathetic. Those people that keep voting trash into office are just as pathetic or just plain stupid!
Our Mayor thinks nothing of trashing Tallahassee, it’s too bad he doesn’t realize what a negative effect he’s had on the prestige of our City. If he had ANY honor or decency he’d resign from the Mayor’s job and his candidacy for Governor. He is part of a cancer that eats at the heart of Tallahassee.
He still hasn’t pointed out any “big ol’ Confederate flags,” still promoting the “fastest growing gdp” (without acknowledging the driver is a hurricane), still calling for gun control.
It has been shown that F.B.I., Broward S.O., school admin, school district admin, ALL were the failure here. Not a gun law issue.
Andy is a propagandist at best and liar would not be inaccurate.
Andrew Gillum:
A poor man’s Rahm “Never let a crisis go to waste” Emanuel.
Couldn’t help but read how upset he was over the loss of his Minister of Disinformation Aintsley.
Nothing worse than a knee jerk ultra liberal being placed in charge of anything important.
His wife is likely fully aware and allows Andy no decision making authority whatsoever regarding the family and home.
Could you imagine having a George Soros puppet raising your kids? I think not.