For Immediate Release
Tuesday, June 7, 2022
Contact: Hannah Goss, hgoss@azdem.org

ICYMI: Trump-backed Masters “Decries ‘Open Borders’ But Once Called For ‘Unrestricted’ Immigration’ While Praising Drug Smugglers As ‘Heroes’”

PHOENIX — Today, Jewish Insider published an eye-opening profile of Blake Masters, the recently Trump-endorsed candidate in Arizona’s “wide-open” GOP Senate primary who is clearly willing to say anything to win this crowded contest.
Unearthing previously unreported blog entries, the profile exposes some of Masters’ most controversial opinions and calls into question where he actually stands on the issues today.
See below for key excerpts or check out the full story here:

• In a series of short, polemical blog posts, Masters once suggested that “illegal immigration is an ethical contradiction in terms,” argued that “‘unrestricted’ immigration is the only choice,” and commended U.S. service members who had participated in a drug trafficking ring along the southwestern border as “heroes,” among other things.
• In one representative entry, for instance, Masters suggested that a government-drawn border is just a “line in the sand,” and said that libertarians “would have no trouble stating that ‘illegal immigration is an ethical contradiction in terms, with regards to nation-states.’”
• “I don’t care about the Supreme Court,” Masters declared at the beginning of one entry. “It just doesn’t matter. That everyone thinks it does, or should, only illustrates the degree to which people prefer to dwell on what they’re fed than actually think. But I’m bored, I’ll play along. If I did care about the Supreme Court, here’s what I’d say.”
• “Before Trump, Wedel said in a recent interview, Masters had long espoused the views of a “classic, extreme libertarian” who endorsed “open borders,” backed the gold standard and identified as an “outspoken” supporter of abortion rights. “Blake was the one who convinced me to be pro-choice,” said Wedel, who is now an attorney in Los Angeles. “I remember him arguing with me. I mean, it was Tucson, Arizona, in the ‘90s, so it was a very conservative evangelical community, and he was not that.”
• “How can you control somebody else’s life or body?” Wedel said Masters had once reasoned while questioning the anti-abortion line.
• Masters now says on his campaign site that he is “100% pro-life,” describing Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion at the federal level, as “a horrible decision” that “must be reversed.”
• Not long after Trump issued his endorsement last week, Lamon had already gone on the offensive, releasing an attack ad designed to ensure that voters would not forget the contents of Masters’ college essay.
• “You think you know Blake Masters?” a narrator intones, before noting that the Republican Senate candidate had “called World War II unjust,” “extensively quoted an antisemite who believes Jews and Zionists are bent on world domination” and “unironically quoted a Nazi war criminal.”

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