U.S. Senate candidate Blake Masters assisted a Republican crowd in physically removing a rowdy Black Lives Matter protester from an event on Saturday night.
Peter Jackson, 73, attended the GOP event at a shopping mall in Sahuarita, Arizona on Saturday, where a number of Republican candidates were planning on speaking to attendees, including Trump-endorsed Senate candidate Blake Masters.
Dressed in a t-shirt that said “Black Lives Matter more than white feelings – check your privilege,” and an N-95 mask, Jackson first attempted to get into the event for free and avoid the $10 entry fee. After being confronted by attendees, Jackson eventually engaged in a scuffle with a woman, at which point Masters and other men intervened to pull the protester away.
Video shows Jackson being physically removed from the event by Masters and others, with the crowd claiming that he had hit the woman he had confronted. Footage from Jackson’s camera showing the confrontation is blurry.
A masked-up guy with a BLM shirt crashed this GOP event tonight. Started causing trouble, then he hit a woman. So me and some guys put him on the ground, then the police came for him.
Fake news headline tomorrow: Senate Candidate Blake Masters ATTACKS Peaceful Protestor! pic.twitter.com/FgCmlZfsaq
— Blake Masters (@bgmasters) June 5, 2022
“You can’t hit a woman. What the hell’s wrong with you?” said one attendee after removing Jackson, who called the police. “I think they’re going to kill me,” he said.
“They’re yelling at me, they’re attacking me, they’re threatening me,” he continued, despite him sitting on the floor by himself untouched at that point by anyone else.
When the police did turn up, Jackson received two citations for simple assault and trespassing.
After the incident, Masters spoke to the crowd, and alleged that Jackson had hit one of the women who confronted him.
“So me and a couple of guys intervened a little bit and pinned him down on the floor, and now he’s being wheeled out on a stretcher, so you know what the New York Times headline is gonna be: ‘US Senate candidate Blake Masters Punches Peaceful, Elderly Protester’!” Masters said.
“That’s the kind of treatment that the left-wing media has been giving me lately, which tells me that I’m over the target.”
This guy hit a woman in the jaw. I saw it, clear as day. He should not have done that! https://t.co/o1tTLgaxCu
— Blake Masters (@bgmasters) June 8, 2022
As Masters predicted, an article about the incident initially published in the Green Valley News, and republished in the Tucson Sentinel, was entitled “GOP Senate candidate Blake Masters roughs up 73-year-old Dem protester in Green Valley.”
“LOL I called it – the media tries to make *me* the bad guy, for defending a woman after she was punched,” Masters tweeted. “10/10 would do again.”
LOL I called it — the media tries to make *me* the bad guy, for defending a woman after she was punched. 10/10 would do again https://t.co/gXCgLxLBuZ pic.twitter.com/Fr233fHJ8h
— Blake Masters (@bgmasters) June 8, 2022
