The Anti-Defamation League describes Gab as a “haven for antisemites, extremists and conspiracy theorists,” including Torba himself. Torba denies this characterization.
By Tara Kavaler| The Arizona Republic
The founder of a far-right social media platform and U.S. Senate candidate Blake Masters exchanged barbs after Masters essentially dismissed him.
Gab founder Andrew Torba posted on Gab before the Aug. 2 primary that he was endorsing the Donald Trump-endorsed Masters, U.S. Reps. Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar, gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem, and state Senate candidate Wendy Rogers. All won their primary races.
Masters and Lake rejected the endorsement. “I’ve never heard of this guy and I reject his support,” Masters told the Arizona Mirror. “The reason I’ve never heard of him is because he’s a nobody, and nobody cares about him except the media.”
Torba said on his social media platform that “it’s a flat-out lie” that Masters was unaware of who Torba was.
His Aug. 4 post on Gab, which since has been taken down, came in response to the article in the Mirror in which Masters denounced Torba’s endorsement of his candidacy.
The Anti-Defamation League describes Gab as a “haven for antisemites, extremists and conspiracy theorists,” including Torba himself. Torba denies this characterization. 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.
