Doug Mastriano faces criticism over his support of an anti-Semitic ally

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Doug Mastriano, the Republican candidate for governor of Pennsylvania, has come under increasing scrutiny for his ties to far-right social media platform Gab and its founder, who has repeatedly made anti-Semitic remarks in defense of their ties .

Earlier this month, news emerged that Mr. Mastrianos’ campaign had paid Gab, a haven for white nationalists and banned users of other platforms, $5,000 for the consultation, according to a state filing that was first discovered by Media Matters for America, a liberal watchdog group. .

Since then, Mr. Mastriano, a far-right state senator who falsely claimed the 2020 presidential election was stolen and who rarely speaks to mainstream media, has shrugged off criticism about his association with Gab.

But the platform’s founder and chief executive, Andrew Torba, has hit back more recently, using an anti-Jewish trope.

Let’s no longer bend the knee to the 2%, Mr. Torba said in a video this week, an apparent reference to the approximate percentage of the country that is Jewish.

Anti-Semitism in America

Mr. Torba was responding to an appearance on MSNBC on Tuesday by Jonathan Greenblatt, the chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, in which he criticized Mr. Mastriano for using Gab to post messages and gain political supporters.

Mr. Torba and his platform support Christian nationalism, the idea that America was founded to advance Christians and biblical values.

Let’s take back our country, he added. We’re taking back our government, so figure it out.

Andrew Torba is one of the most toxic people in public life right now, Greenblatt told MSNBC. The elected officials who indulge in this kind of rhetoric are not just flirting with fascism, they are putting it at the forefront of their political arguments.

Shortly after the Mastriano campaign payment, in April, Mr. Torba interviewed Mr. Mastriano on his site, when the candidate told him, thank goodness for what you did.

Ahead of the May 17 primary in Pennsylvania, Gab endorsed Mr. Mastriano, who was at the forefront of Republican efforts to overturn the 2020 results in the state.

Mr Mastriano won the nomination in a divided field, despite warnings from some Republican officials that he was too extreme to win in November. Recent polls have shown him running a surprisingly close race against Democratic candidate Josh Shapiro.

According to information from HuffPost, Mr. Mastriano could pay Gab to increase his audience on the site: new users seemed to be automatically assigned as subscribers to the Republican candidate.

In a series of videos broadcast live in recent days, Mr. Torba, who is based in Pennsylvania, repeatedly responded to criticism of him and Mr. Mastriano by reinforcing his own Christian nationalist and anti-Semitic views.

The Jerusalem Post quoted Mr. Torba as saying in a video on Tuesday that neither he nor Mr. Mastriano would give interviews to non-Christian journalists.

My policy is not to conduct interviews with journalists who are not Christians or with media outlets that are not Christians, and Doug has a very similar media strategy where he does not do interviews with these people, reportedly said Mr Torba. He doesn’t talk to these people. It does not give these people access to the press. These people are dishonest. They are liars. They are a lair of vipers and they want to destroy you.

Mr. Mastriano did not respond to a request for comment to his campaign.

Mr. Torba, when asked about the details of his consultation agreement with Mr. Mastriano, replied in an email: I only speak to Christian media.

Republican and Democratic Jewish leaders have called on Mr. Mastriano to leave Gab. We urge Doug Mastriano to end his association with Gab, a social network rightly viewed by American Jews as a cesspool of bigotry and anti-Semitism, said Matt Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, at the Philadelphia Inquirer last week.

In Pittsburgh, Jewish and black leaders condemned Mr. Mastriano for his association with Gab, which was used to publish anti-Semitic attacks by the man accused of massacring 11 people at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018.

Mr. Shapiro, the state attorney general, opened an investigation into Gab after the murders, though he eventually dropped it.

On Monday, Mr. Shapiro, who is Jewish, called on donors in a tweet to arrest Mr. Mastriano, who he says is paying Gab the same platform that got the Tree of Life killer thousands of dollars from recruit anti-Semites and white supremacists for his campaign.

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