Doug Mastriano’s Gab page removed, candidate responds to criticism of social media platform

Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano has been criticized by elected officials and anti-hate speech groups for his association with Gab, a far-right social media platform that was favored by the accused Tree of Life shooter.

He has responded to the criticism and his Gab account was apparently removed recently.

Mastriano paid $5,000 to Gab in consulting fees, and the Huffington Post reported that new accounts on Gab recently started to automatically follow Mastriano’s Gab account. Pittsburgh Jewish and Black leaders criticized the move, noting the antisemitism prevalent on the platform and espoused publicly by Gab’s founder Andrew Torba.

On July 28, Mastriano responded to that criticism, attempting to distance himself from the site and its Christian nationalist founder, who said recently in a video that Christians are “done being controlled and being told what we’re allowed to do in our own country by a 2% minority.”

In a statement, Mastriano said Torba doesn’t speak for his campaign and he rejects antisemitism in any form. He said the recent criticism of his association with Gab was an attempt by Democrats to smear him and he attacked his Democratic opponent, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro.

“While extremist speech is an unfortunate but inevitable cost of living in a free society, extremist policies are not, and the only candidate in this election who wants to impose extreme policies in Pennsylvania — inflation, crime, lockdowns and mandates — is Josh Shapiro,” Mastriano said.

Mastriano’s Gab account was apparently removed sometime Thursday. Neither Mastriano’s campaign nor Gab officials responded to a request for comment.

Torba did post a response on Gab on Thursday, also attempting to distance himself from Mastriano.

“I want to make very clear that I do not work for the Mastriano campaign,” Torba wrote. “I am not their consultant. The campaign paid Gab as a business for advertising during the primary. The campaign posts on Gab, as do 50+ other campaigns from around the country. That’s the extent of the relationship.”

He said his words are his own and not representative of the Mastriano campaign, but Torba also defended his positions and the Christian nationalist movement. The Gab website states that it “champions free speech, individual liberty and the free flow of information online.”

Shapiro spokesperson Manuel Bonder said he doesn’t buy Mastriano’s claims that he is not associated with Torba. In May, Mastriano thanked Torba in an interview for providing a space for conservative voices like his on social media, according to WESA-FM.

“Doug Mastriano’s deep support for Andrew Torba and Gab goes so far that he has literally thanked god for Torba’s efforts to bring racist, antisemitic extremism into our communities – the very extremism that motivated the Tree of Life murderer, who used Torba’s platform moments before killing 11 Jewish people in Pittsburgh,” Bonder said.

A report from the Anti-Defamation League showed how the accused Tree of Life shooter, Robert Bowers, wrote many antisemitic posts on Gab, including his last post before the mass shooting that claimed that a Jewish refugee resettlement group “likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I’m going in.”

Bonder criticized Mastriano for failing to denounce Gab, and said Mastriano is “far too dangerous to be governor of Pennsylvania.”

In an interview this week with retired Army Col. Chris Wyatt, Mastriano claimed the criticism over Gab was being unfairly targeted at him and it should also be directed to Twitter, which he said had millions of antisemitic remarks in one year. He said he is calling on Shapiro to renounce Twitter and get off Twitter. (Two days after this interview aired, Mastriano posted his statement about Gab on Twitter.)

“It is all about the great suppression, they want people to stop giving (money) to us,” Mastriano said during the Wyatt interview on Tuesday. “They will go through with a fine-tooth comb over my donors, which pales in comparison to the amount little Josh has.”