Source: Kent Nishimura / Getty
A GOP candidate for the Senate has sparked outrage after a video shows him assaulting an activist wearing a Black Lives Matter t-shirt, but the candidate claims there is more that happened.
According to reports, Arizona Republican Senate candidate Blake Masters was caught on camera committing assault on an activist at a meet-and-greet for all the candidates at the Continential Shopping Plaza in the town of Green Valley this past Saturday (June 4th). The event was crashed by Democratic activists, a group that included 73-year-old Peter Jackson. Jackson was wearing a t-shirt with “Black Lives Matter” and a hat with “Jail Trump.” The footage allegedly showed Masters lunging after Jackson with both hands outstretched. The action forced Jackson to his knees. The activist was then thrown out by others at the event and left on the ground outside.
Parts of the incident were captured on a GoPro camera that Jackson was wearing. The video went viral on Twitter, nabbing over 400,000 views. However, it didn’t show Jackson throwing a blow.
Masters would later claim that “me and a couple guys intervened” when they claimed Jackson struck a woman, which led to him being thrown out. He’d also crack wise about how he’d be portrayed in the news. Now he’s being wheeled out on a stretcher, so you know what the New York Times headline is going to be,” he said to supporters. “‘U.S. Senate candidate Blake Masters punches a peaceful elderly protestor.’ That’s the kind of treatment that the left-wing media has been giving me lately.” Jackson was cited at the event for simple assault and trespassing and is due to appear in court on June 23rd.
The incident is the latest controversy for the attorney, who has become a favorite of former President Donald
Trump for sharing his false claim that the 2020 Presidential Election was stolen from him. He recently made comments that blamed the uptick in mass shootings in the United States on Black people. “We do have a gun violence problem in this country, and it’s gang violence.” Masters told “The Jeff Oravits Show” podcast in April. “It’s people in Chicago, St. Louis shooting each other. Very often, you know, Black people, frankly.”
