WESA, NPR’s Pittsburgh affiliate, reported on Wednesday (July 13) that
Pennsylvania Sen. Doug Mastriano’s campaign for governor in Pennsylvania paid $5,000 for “consulting services” to Gab, a social media platform that provides a home for conspiracy theories and antisemitic content.
Gab is the website used by Robert Bowers, who is charged with killing 11 Jewish worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill in 2018. Bowers routinely posted antisemitic content on Gab before the shooting, according to archives of the posts.
Mastriano has posted 66 times on Gab since he joined it in February. A recent post on July 9 — a criticism of Democratic economic policies — received 157 comments. At least two dozen of those responses — the most common response by far — were antisemitic insults about state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the Democratic candidate in the race for governor. Shapiro is Jewish.
Mastriano has been known to block accounts of those who are critical of him and the positions he promotes. But he has not been motivated to block accounts expressing virulently Anti-semitic sentiments supporting his candidacy.
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[…] the best he can do? Would it be asking too much for Mastriano to apologize for diving into the cesspool of hatred that is Gab.com? It’s nice to know that Torba doesn’t speak for him (it took long enough for Mastriano […]