Blake Masters.Photo: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty
A former close friend to Senate candidate Blake Masters now says he questions “what happened” to the Republican after Masters has made a string of controversial statements, including some about coronavirus virus and about the 2020 presidential election.
Masters, a Trump-endorsed candidate in Arizona’s Republican Senate primary, is the subject of a lengthy new profile inMother Jones, for which the outlet spoke to “more than a dozen friends and acquaintances” of the 35-year-old businessman.
Among those who spoke to the outlet about Masters is “a former college roommate,” who said the candidate “was not a s—–, hateful person” in school but instead “a misinformed libertarian white 20-year-old. But honestly, they were a dime a dozen at Stanford.”
A turning point for Wedel came in November, when Masters sent a tweet referring to vaccine mandates as evil.
“Shame on you,” Wedel replied to the tweet, perMother Jones. “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?”
Another of Masters' former friends, Noah Gustafson, is quoted in the outlet as saying, “It makes me ache when I see what he writes and says. It puts me in a state of depression.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Wedel says the two continue to be estranged, equating Masters with a snake oil salesman: “I don’t know what’s worse, if he actually is aware that he’s selling snake oil to people, or if he truly believes [it.]”
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
And avideoshared withMother Jonesshows a virtual submission Masters made to a talent show, where he raps with marks on his face resembling Native American war paint. “I’ve got the war paint on, as you can see,” he sings in the video. “Who said what about cultural insensitivity?”
source: people.com
