Blake Masters, a Republican running to represent Arizona in the U.S. Senate, threatened to take legal action over a news article regarding his stance on contraception.
According to Masters, the Arizona Mirror published a piece with “defamatory claims” that implied Masters supports banning contraception.
The news outlet cited the candidate’s campaign website that said he would only support judicial nominees “who understand that Roe and Griswold and Casey were wrongly decided, and that there is no constitutional right to abortion.”
However, Masters argued that while he believes those cases were improperly decided, it does not mean he supports banning contraception.
“Hey @ArizonaMirror and @DillonReedRose: preserve your documents! If I get any free time after winning my elections then you’re getting sued, and I’ll easily prove actual malice. Gawker found out the hard way and you will too,” Masters said in a tweet.
At a minimum I expect @ArizonaMirror to retract the defamatory claims, correct the piece, and fire @DillonReedRose. The days of the left-wing media lying without consequence are over.
— Blake Masters (@bgmasters) May 9, 2022
The Masters campaign also detailed that the reporter who wrote the article emailed a wrong email address to the campaign manager to ask for a comment on the piece before publishing the article. Masters claimed the outlet published the article only 90 minutes after sending the email to the wrong address.
In response, a law firm representing the candidate asked the outlet to maintain all documents related to the matter.
“The article defames Blake in two respects, and we have reason to believe the false and injurious statements were made at a minimum, recklessly. Because litigation is at this time reasonably anticipated, we ask that you immediately preserve all evidence …” the letter from the law firm representing Masters said.
“At a minimum I expect @ArizonaMirror to retract the defamatory claims, correct the piece, and fire @DillonReedRose. The days of the left-wing media lying without consequence are over,” Masters added.
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Cooper Moran is a reporter for the Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Blake Masters” by Blake Masters for Senate.
