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Trump-backed GOP nominee for U.S. Senate in Arizona, Blake Masters, tried to dunk on the Federal Reserve over the weekend in a tweet that sparked a quick backlash of angry condemnation.
Masters sparked the fury by replying to a tweet from the Associated Press, which read:
Leadership at the Federal Reserve has become its most diverse ever. There are more female, Black and gay officials contributing to the central bank’s interest-rate decisions than at any time in its 109-year history.
The Arizona Republican thought to make a wisecrack regarding the AP’s pro-diversity framing of the story and shared the tweet with the comment, “Finally a compelling explanation for why our economy is doing so well.”
Masters has been a lightning rod of controversy since announcing his bid for the senate as old posts and comments he has made resurfaced.
Masters, who is now running as a hard-right “America First” candidate, once “called for ‘unrestricted’ immigration while praising drug smugglers as ‘heroes,’” reported Jewish Insider after delving through old posts online from when Masters was a libertarian.
In more recent comments, Masters has suggested the Jan. 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol was a false flag attack coordinated by the FBI and blamed “Black people” for gun violence in the U.S.
Masters’s latest remark whipped up a bevy of accusations of racism and white supremacy by critics online, while many in the media noted Masters is clearly not pivoting to a softer message for the general election.
Axios’s Josh Kraushaar commented, “Masters still on primary message mode.” Former NPR reporter Pam Fessler responded, “He might want to reconsider this tweet, unless he doesn’t care about more than half the AZ electorate.” Masters’s tweet came a day after news broke that his campaign website had been scrubbed of his pro-life positions, including support for a “federal personhood law,” which effectively would ban abortion nationwide.
#AZSEN: Masters still on primary message mode. https://t.co/196b9btcvQ
— Josh Kraushaar (@JoshKraushaar) August 29, 2022
He might want to reconsider this tweet, unless he doesn’t care about more than half the AZ electorate. https://t.co/fL1rbQj2Mu
— Pam Fessler (@pamelafessler) August 29, 2022
Below are more reactions to Masters’s tweet:
I really hope AZ sends this white supremacist weirdo back to whatever hole he crawled out of https://t.co/8izff0g3nv
— andreasgal🇺🇸🇺🇦 (@andreasgal) August 29, 2022
This is what white supremacy looks like https://t.co/2RcwvAYVav
— Walter Thompson (@YourProtagonist) August 29, 2022
When they show you who they are https://t.co/zvWnHArWMA
— Luke Zaleski (@ZaleskiLuke) August 29, 2022
August 1963: A young Mitch McConnell goes to the March on Washington
August 2022: https://t.co/lbPK8iPyT5
— Bill Scher (@billscher) August 29, 2022
Open sexism to deflect from getting caught trying to scrub anti-abortion position https://t.co/xKjGwkqm0l
— Sophia Tesfaye (@SophiaTesfaye) August 29, 2022
The racism and misogyny is just straight up out there for the GOP https://t.co/8cBMudTCug
— Anshel Sag (@anshelsag) August 29, 2022
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