New Reports & Audio Reveal Blake Masters Lied When Claimed He “Never Heard Of” White Nationalist Platform Founder and Endorser Andrew Torba

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Newly discovered audio and reports from Jewish Insider and the Arizona Republic this week contradict GOP Senate candidate Blake Masters’ claim that he “never heard of” Andrew Torba—the CEO of far-right social media platform Gab who previously endorsed Masters—including a recording of Masters’ “nearly three-minute exchange with [Torba] during a live Twitter conversation” in January and a post from Torba himself who says that “‘it’s a flat-out lie’ that Masters was unaware of who Torba was.” See for yourself:

Jewish Insider: Audio contradicts Blake Masters’ claim he ‘never heard of’ Gab CEO.

By Matthew Kassel

August 10, 2022

Key Points: 

• Blake Masters, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Arizona, has claimed he is unfamiliar with the controversial founder of a social media platform for extremists who endorsed his campaign last month.
  • In late July, Masters earned a nod of approval from Andrew Torba, the chief executive of Gab, a far-right Twitter alternative that is widely viewed as a hotbed of white nationalist sentiment.
• While Masters rejected the endorsement a few days later and insisted he had “never heard of” Torba, the incendiary social media entrepreneur has since countered that Masters’ claim is a “flat-out lie.”
  • “Blake Masters knows exactly who I am,” Torba wrote in an Aug. 4 Gab post, which has since been removed from the site. “We had a long conversation on Twitter Spaces live a few months ago.”
• It would not be unreasonable, however, to expect that Masters might remember his nearly three-minute exchange with the founder of Gab during a live Twitter conversation in January — a recording of which was obtained by Jewish Insider on Tuesday.
  • “My question for Blake is, Blake, when are you getting on Gab?” Torba, who seemed eager to plug his company to a possible future senator, asked after entering the Twitter Spaces discussion…
  • Masters chuckled. “I’ll check it out.”

• Torba bemoaned that Gab’s “entire developer account is banned from Apple,” adding that he is “not even allowed to make submissions to the app store.”
  • Following a brief technical back-and-forth about how Gab functions independently from the mainstream app stores, Masters appeared to express sympathy for Torba’s challenges at the helm of the social networking site. “I hadn’t realized it was that bad,” Masters said. “That’s obviously super messed up. I don’t think Apple should be allowed to do that.”
    

• In an interview with MSNBC last month, Jonathan Greenblatt, the ADL’s CEO, said Torba “is one of the most toxic people in public life right now.”
  • The Gab executive, who identifies as a Christian nationalist, has frequently expressed anti-Jewish views. He recently argued, for instance, that Jews are not welcome in the conservative movement unless “they repent and accept Jesus Christ as their lord and savior.”
• [Masters’] past writings from college — including an essay in which he referenced a “poignant quotation” from Nazi leader Hermann Goering and cited an antisemitic conspiracy theorist — dogged his campaign throughout the primary and could be a vulnerability as he prepares to go up against Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) in the hotly contested November election.

Arizona Republic: White nationalist platform founder says ‘it’s a flat-out lie’ Blake Masters never heard of him.

By Tara Kavaler

August 9, 2022

• Torba said on his social media platform that “it’s a flat-out lie” that Masters was unaware of who Torba was.
• The Anti-Defamation League describes Gab as a “haven for antisemites, extremists and conspiracy theorists,” including Torba himself.
  
  • The social media platform was founded in 2016 and gained national attention in 2018 because the Tree of Life Synagogue shooter in Pittsburgh used the site.
• This is not the first time Masters has been endorsed by a white nationalist. In July, he denounced the support of Andrew Anglin, the creator of neo-Nazi blog site Daily Stormer, using the same language he provided to the Mirror.
• This time, however, Torba says Masters is feigning ignorance about the Gab founder’s identity.
  • “Blake Masters knows exactly who I am. We had a long conversation on Twitter Spaces live a few months ago. Mega cringe cucking here, but whatever I still want him to win for the great people of Arizona and for the right to control the Senate,” Torba wrote in the Gab post.
  • “Just want you guys to be aware of who bend the knee to media pressure and who does not. What is concerning is that Blake can flat-out lie like this, he’s already becoming a typical politician before he is even elected!…”

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