Trump-Backed Senate Candidate Blake Masters Ripped By Best Man at His Wedding: ‘What Happened to You?’
Republican Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters has come under fire in recent weeks for past controversial statements, flip-flopping on various issues and now the best man at his wedding is publicly denouncing him.
In a profile for Mother Jones, Noah Lanard does a deep dive into the personal history of Masters, his relationship with tech billionaire Peter Thiel who is backing his campaign, and his transformation from Libertarian, vegetarian co-op member to hard-right MAGA acolyte. Former President Donald Trump endorsed Masters in August.
“After graduating from Stanford in 2008, Masters wrote to a listserv used by members of Columbae, the left-wing, vegetarian co-op he belonged during his college years. ‘When will someone start a group that’s pro-gun (pro-freedom) AND pro-choice (pro-freedom)?’ Masters wrote in opposition to the NRA. ‘I would join,'” wrote Lanard, noting Masters’s apparent flip-flop on abortion. Master has come out in favor of a federal abortion ban and called abortion “genocide.”
Lanard tracks how Masters and Thiel met at Stanford, eventually wrote a book together and Masters became Thiel’s chief of staff. He also breaks down Thiel’s disillusionment with Democracy, which he argues underpins his funding of Masters’s campaign – to the tune of $10 million.
Some of the most brutal quotes in the profile, however, come from Collin Wedel, a former close friend of Masters and the best man at his wedding.
“Shame on you, I’m so utterly disappointed in what you’ve done with yourself. People will get sick, and die, because of your reckless rhetoric. As someone who loves and used to respect you: What happened to you?” wrote Wedel on Twitter, in response to a post from Masters denouncing vaccine mandates.
Lanard explains that “only Masters and a few dozen people close to Wedel could see the message from his private account.”
“Instead of talking to Wedel, or just ignoring it, Masters responded by screenshotting the reply and sharing it with tens of thousands of followers,” adds Lanard.
“Collin was a best friend growing up. He told me about the famous class where I met Peter Thiel, and he was best man at my wedding,” Masters wrote on Twitter sharing his friend’s private criticism.
“The most deadly virus we face is progressivism, it rots both brains and nations. I wish Collin well—but freedom is worth losing friends over,” Masters added.
Lanard explains that Wedel then “received harassing calls at work and home” and even had to call the police over “threatening materials” being put in his mailbox as a result of Masters’s tweet.
“I don’t know what’s worse,” Wedel told Lanard about Masters, “if he actually is aware that he’s selling snake oil to people, or if he truly believes” what he’s saying.
