Berkeley County Delegate Under Fire For Alleged Antisemitic Remark

A West Virginia lawmaker is facing blowback from the state’s Democratic Party after antisemitic comments he allegedly made surfaced online.

On Saturday, an Instagram account with the username @NoQuarterMasters commented on a post regarding Dave Portnoy, founder of the blog Barstool Sports, who is Jewish.

“He’s not white. He’s a Jew. We never claimed them,” the comment reads. “That’s why he’s short tiny and weak.”

The Instagram account, which is currently private, is listed under Ian T. Masters — the name of the Republican lawmaker who holds the 91st district seat in the West Virginia House of Delegates.

The Instagram account also previously included a link to the West Virginia Citizen’s Defense League, a gun rights lobbying group where Masters has served as president.

Masters has denied making the comment or running the Instagram account in question. But on Wednesday, the West Virginia Democratic Party called for a formal investigation into his online activity at large.

Lawmakers React

Democratic Party Chair Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, told West Virginia Public Broadcasting Thursday that he was “shocked and disgusted” by the comment.

“This type of behavior and this kind of statement isn’t becoming [of] anybody, but much less of someone who is supposed to be representing the people of this state,” Pushkin said. “If it’s not his account, I think he could easily prove that he has no connection to the account. But the facts all say otherwise.”

House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, appeared on the radio show MetroNews Talkline Wednesday morning, and said the chamber is “trying to get to the bottom” of the comment. But he stopped short of approving a formal investigation.

“This is not the kind of thing that we’re going to tolerate from any member of the body. The first thing we have to do here is ascertain whether it was, in fact, made by a member of the body. Thus far, Del. Masters assured me that it is not,” Hanshaw said.

Hanshaw said Masters told him he was “previously affiliated” with the account, but “denies having any connection to that comment at all.”

News of the comment was first reported by Caity Coyne, a journalist from the digital news organization West Virginia Watch, on Tuesday. Coyne reported that the Instagram account also featured other attributes related to Masters — as well as possible antisemitic, white supremecist imagery.

The account has been tagged in posts featuring photographs of Masters, and is connected to a phone number ending in the same two digits as Masters’s cell phone number. The profile photo of the account includes symbols with documented usage by neo-Nazi groups.

Plus, the profile photo features an envelope addressed to someone with the first name Ian. The zip code on that envelope corresponds to the zip code of Manypenny Raines Law Office, a legal practice in Hancock County where Masters served as an attorney for more than three years, according to a LinkedIn page listed under his name.

Despite the account’s recovery phone number ending in identical digits as Masters’s cell phone number, Hanshaw said the delegate said he was unable to access the account when he tried to do so this week.

“Apparently the password had been changed,” Hanshaw said. “He had to seek technical assistance to even be able to reset the password so he could check it.”

To recover an Instagram account after losing access to its password, users typically must seek support with the social media platform through the phone number or email address associated with the page. Regaining access otherwise is a lengthy process, which can require users to send the platform video selfies for review and identification.

Still, Hanshaw said he is still willing to give Masters “the benefit of the doubt.”

“In past situations where we’ve had members of the House demonstrate behavior that’s inconsistent with the values that we want to espouse, we usually see those members own right up to it and say, ‘Well yes, I did do that, and I’m not a bit ashamed of it,’” Hanshaw said. “In those cases, we do have to take some pretty swift action. That’s not what we have here.”

Some identifiable attributes, including Masters’s full name and the link to the Citizens Defense League, were removed from the Instagram account page after West Virginia Watch contacted Masters Tuesday afternoon. His full name was restored to the account after the news organization published their article.

Masters did not return an email request for comment on this story Thursday. Neither did the West Virginia Republican Party, or House Speaker Hanshaw.

A Deeper Investigation

Meanwhile, local and state Democratic leaders are calling upon the West Virginia Legislature to thoroughly investigate the allegations against Masters.

In their press release Wednesday, the West Virginia Democratic Party urged the state legislature to investigate all of Masters’s digital activity. They also called upon Masters to explain the account’s profile picture, the purportedly neo-Nazi symbols featured in it and the timing of the account’s name change.

“I just hope that the speaker of the House has a thorough investigation,” Pushkin told WVPB. “An investigation is a lot more than just saying, ‘Well, he says he didn’t do it.’ I think there needs to be a thorough investigation into this.”

“And, if it turns out it is his account?” he continued. “Well, then he should step down.”

The incident comes amid a string of controversies for the 91st House district, which Masters represents. The lawmaker who won the seat in last year’s election, Joseph de Soto, was arrested and charged last December for allegedly threatening to kill other lawmakers.

In January, the House voted to vacate the seat, which encompasses southern Berkeley County. But before de Soto was arrested, he changed political affiliations to the Democratic Party, triggering a months-long legal battle over which party would name his successor.

As that debate was ongoing in the courts, Gov. Patrick Morrisey named Masters to the seat, generating widespread pushback from Democratic officials.

Tammy Offutt, chair of the Berkeley County Democratic Executive Committee, said in her party’s Wednesday press release that the allegations surrounding Masters’s online conduct call into question the vetting that went into his appointment process.

“The governor bypassed all three [Democratic nominations for the seat] to appoint someone who, according to these reports, espouses white nationalist and antisemitic views,” she said. “The people of this district deserve better. If true, Ian Masters does not, and cannot, represent them.”