Sarcastic Diversity Tweet Causes a Ruckus

The conservative Senate candidate looking to unseat Democrat Mark Kelly in Arizona is making all kinds of headlines this week in the close, and closely watched, race:

• Diversity: Over the weekend, Blake Masters fired off a sarcastic tweet about an AP story that detailed how diverse the Federal Reserve's leadership has become. The AP story noted that the central bank has "more female, Black, and openly gay officials" than ever contributing to its decisions. Wrote Masters in response: "Finally a compelling explanation for why our economy is doing so well."

• Diversity, II: The snark drew criticism, notes the New York Times, and Masters leaned into it in a follow-up video. “I don’t care if every single employee at the Fed is a Black lesbian as long as they’re hired for their competence and not because of what they look like or who they sleep with,” Masters said, per NBC News. “News for Joe Biden: We are done with this affirmative action regime.” He took particular aim at VP Kamala Harris, saying he had “never spoken to anyone who can say with a straight face that Kamala was somehow the most qualified candidate for that job.”
• From the right: Countering the Times, a piece at the conservative National Review makes the case that the initial controversy over the tweet was one manufactured by liberal media. Masters wasn't mocking diversity, it argues, he was mocking the AP story's focus on it during dire economic times.
• Abortion: Masters also has drawn attention because he just scrubbed his website of details about his staunch opposition to abortion and his support of a "fetal personhood law," reports NBC News. The move is seen as a reflection of how the overturning of Roe v. Wade seems to have given a boost to Democratic candidates. Masters tweeted a new video describing his abortion position as one of "common sense." On the right, the Washington Examiner declared that the move to scrub the website "betrays pro-lifers."
• 2020 election: Masters, a venture capitalist, is backed by former President Trump, and his website earlier this month addressed the 2020 election: "We need to get serious about election integrity. The 2020 election was a rotten mess—if we had had a free and fair election, President Trump would be sitting in the Oval Office today and America would be so much better off." The page now reads only, "We need to get serious about election integrity," per CNN.
• The race: RealClearPolitics calls the Arizona race a toss-up, though Kelly has been leading in the most recent polls. Politico notes that Senate Republicans' primary super PAC recently canceled $8 million in ads on behalf of Masters in Arizona, raising speculation that party leaders were losing confidence in his ability to win.

(More Blake Masters stories.)