Blake Masters isn't just moderating on issues. He's done a full 180

Give Kari Lake credit.

Arizona’s Republican nominee for governor is who she is. There’s been no sudden lurch toward the center since winning her primary, no softening of her hard right views to try to broaden her appeal to a wider swath of voters. She is all in UltraMaga and proud of it.

What you see is what you get.

Then there’s Arizona’s Republican nominee for the Senate, Blake Masters.

First, he wanted to privatize Social Security. Now, he doesn't.

First, he wanted a nationwide ban on abortion. Now, he doesn’t.

After nearly a year of watching this 36-year-old venture capitalist, I am compelled to ask:

Will the real Blake Masters please stand up?

Masters spoke with the founder of Gab

This week, he’s in a tiff with Andrew Torba, the founder of Gab, a far-right social media platform that caters to the antisemitic, white nationalist, neo-Nazi crowd. In late July, Torba endorsed Masters, prompting the candidate to respond, “I’ve never heard of this guy and I reject his support.”

Yet, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel on Wednesday obtained audio of a nearly three-minute exchange between the two men during a live Twitter Spaces discussion in January.

“My question for Blake is, Blake, when are you getting on Gab?” Torba asked, after introducing himself at the start of their exchange.

“I’ll check it out,” Masters replied, chuckling. “I’m definitely not, I mean, I’ve never used it. I’m definitely not anti I think I’m on Gettr.”

Now, he says he doesn't know him

Masters went on to ask Torba about his site being shunned by Big Tech’s mainstream app stores and Kassel reports the two men had a conversation about how Gab functions.

“I hadn’t realized it was that bad,” Masters said at one point. “That’s obviously super messed up. I don’t think Apple should be allowed to do that.”

'Time for something new': Masters brings more nuance to Senate race

The Anti-Defamation League has described Gab as “rife with white supremacist” and “antisemitic bigotry.” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt has called Torba “one of the most toxic people in public life right now.”

Apparently, not toxic enough for Masters to remember him … or their conversation.

“Blake interacts with tens of thousands of people on Twitter spaces – the sentiment remains that he doesn’t know Torba and rejects his support,” the Masters campaign said, in a statement emailed to The Arizona Republic’s Tara Kavaler.

Masters has flip-flopped on Social Security

I wonder if his memory problems might explain his wholesale flips on two key issues?

In June, Masters wanted to privatize Social Security, though he said he wouldn’t “pull the rug out” from seniors already receiving it.

“We’ve got to cut the knot at some point though, because I’ll tell you what, I’m not going to receive Social Security,” Masters said, during a June 23 candidate forum hosted by FreedomWorks. “We need fresh and innovative thinking. Maybe we should privatize Social Security. Private retirement accounts, get the government out of it.”

Fresh off his primary election win last week, Masters was calling for an increase in Social Security payments.

“I do not want to privatize Social Security,” he told The Republic’s Ronald J. Hansen. “I think, in context, I was talking about something very different. We can’t change the system. We can’t pull the rug out from seniors. I will never, ever support cutting Social Security. If anything, we actually should probably increase payments because they don’t go as far these days with Mark Kelly and Joe Biden’s crazy inflation.”

OK, so people do evolve in their thinking … sometimes, it seems, within the span of a few weeks.

His abortion views also have evolved

Consider Masters’ apparently evolving views on abortion.

In January, locked in crowded Republican primary, Masters chided his opponents who wouldn’t back a national abortion ban, according to a report by the Huffington Post.

“What good is actually winning elections if you don’t do what you promised to do when you get in?” he said, during a Jan. 27 forum in Gilbert.

At that forum, he also argued against kicking the abortion issue to states, saying that amounts to “playing defense”.

“I don’t think it’s enough to return it to the states,” he said.

In May, during an event in Carefree, Masters expounded on those views, according to that Huff Post report.

“I think the 14th Amendment says you have the right to life, liberty and property,” he said. “You can’t deprive someone with that without due process. Hard to imagine a bigger deprivation of due process than killing a small child before they have a chance to take their first breath. So I think you do need a federal personhood law.”

The Arizona Legislature in 2021 passed a personhood law, conferring constitutional rights on all fetuses, embryos and fertilized eggs starting at the point of conception. It was blocked by a federal judge.

What, exactly, is Masters promising?

Now that Master must win over those all-important moderate Republican and independent voters?

Well, last week, Masters told The Republic’s Hansen that he believes states should set their own abortion laws. And as for that federal personhood law? Now he says he’d use it only to ban abortion in the third trimester.

Funny that never came up on the primary election campaign trail, don’t you think?

“The federal government should prohibit late-term abortion, third-trimester abortion and partial-birth abortion,” he told Hansen. “Below that, states are going to make different decisions that are going to reflect the will of the people in those states, and I think that’s reasonable. I think that’s what most people certainly in this state and nationwide are looking for.”

In case you were wondering, Masters also now says he supports the Arizona law passed last year, banning abortion after 15 weeks.

“I would look to Arizona’s (15-week) law and say I’m OK with it,” Masters said. “I think it’s a reasonable solution, which reflects where the electorate is.”

This, from the hard right candidate who in January wanted a national ban on abortions. One who asked, “What good is actually winning elections if you don’t do what you promised to do when you get in?”

Leaving me to wonder: What, exactly, is Blake Masters promising?

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Blake Masters isn't just moderating on issues. He's done a full 180