[ad_1]
On Tuesday, the Jerusalem Post reported that Gab CEO Andrew Torba responded to the criticism during a live broadcast, saying that neither he nor Mastriano gives interviews to non-Christian media.
“It’s my policy not to do interviews with non-Christian reporters or non-Christian media, and Doug has a very similar media strategy where he doesn’t do interviews with those people. He doesn’t talk to these people. He doesn’t give the media access to these people,” Torba said. “These people are dishonest. They are liars. They are a den of vipers and they want to destroy you. My typical conversation with them when they email me is “repent and accept Jesus Christ as your lord and savior”. I take it as an opportunity to try to turn them around.”
Then, after Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt criticized Mastriano for using Gab on MSNBC, Media Matters reported that Torba on Tuesday posted a separate video attacking Jews.
“This is a Christian nation. You Christians are far, far superior,” Torba said in the video posted on Gab. “We will not listen to the 2 percent. You represent 2 percent of the country, right? We are no longer bowing to the 2 percent.”
He added that “Christian nationalists” are “done with being controlled and told what we are allowed to do in our own country by a 2 percent minority or by people who hate our biblical worldview, hate our Christ, hate our Lord and Savior. “
Gab, founded in 2016 by Torba, is the far-right website where a gunman who killed 11 people during a 2018 Shabbat service at a Pittsburgh synagogue posted his anti-Semitic rants. It is also where some insurgents supporting former President Donald Trump made their plans to attack the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 in an attempt to stop the certification of President Biden’s victory.
Mastriano organized buses to Washington for the Stop Theft rally that day and was outside the Capitol when the pro-Trump crowd surrounded the building, but said he did not join others who stormed inside.
Mastriano, a state senator, continues to spread the lie that the 2020 election is rigged against Trump. As a candidate, he mostly shut down the mainstream press and avoided calls in recent weeks to explain his relationship with Gab and Torba.
In an interview in May, Mastriano told Torba, “Thank God for what he did.”
In response to Torba’s anti-Semitic comments, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro posted photos Tuesday outside the Holocaust Memorial in Philadelphia, where religious leaders joined to condemn Mastriano.
“Doug Mastriano’s use of the alt-right social media platform Gab to recruit white racists and anti-Semites to his campaign is unacceptable,” said Shapiro, the state attorney general. “Leaders of all faiths stood at the Holocaust Memorial Plaza in Philadelphia today to say: This man is dangerous and we must stop him.”
In the live broadcast, cited by the Jerusalem Post, Torba openly acknowledged his Christian nationalist mission, calling Mastriano’s campaign an “expressly Christian movement” and claiming that non-Christians are not true conservatives.
“This is the most important election since the 2022 midterm elections because Doug is an outspoken Christian,” Torba said in the video, according to the Jerusalem Post. “We’re going to build a coalition of Christian nationalists, of Christians, of Christian candidates at the state, local and federal level and we’re going to take this country back for the glory of God.”
Several groups and individuals, both Republican and Democratic, have called for Mastriano to be removed from Gab, and many have denounced his candidacy.
While many Republicans have distanced themselves from Mastriano, many others have declined to say whether he has their support. The Republican Governors Association was initially lukewarm on Mastriano, but has since attacked Shapiro and hosted an event last week in Aspen, Colo., where Mastriano addressed donors.
Trump endorsed Mastriano shortly before the May primaries, when polls showed him likely to win the GOP nomination.
Democrats have expressed concern about the dramatic policy changes that could occur in Pennsylvania, which currently has a Republican legislature, if Mastriano is elected governor. Mastriano believes in a total ban on abortion with no exceptions. As head of state, he will also be able to choose the person to oversee the elections ahead of the 2024 presidential race.
[ad_2]
Source link