MARYLAND — A new editorial from the Washington Post put a spotlight on Republican gubernatorial nominee Dan Cox’s affiliation with the social media platform Gab, a haven for white supremacists, neo-Nazis and other adherents to extreme ideologies, and his efforts to hide any record of his activity there. The editorial listed the revelation of Cox’s presence on the site and deletion of the evidence among “plenty of evidence that Mr. Cox is unfit to lead the state” just in the past few months, from his speech at a QAnon-populated rally to his unhinged rush to defend former president Donald Trump as soon as news broke of the FBI’s court-approved search of his estate. Cox “would not discuss” what he had been posting when asked about his deleted statements and the editorial lamented Cox’s lack of transparency:
The sources of [Gab’s] notoriety are plentiful; among other lowlights, Gab is where mass murderer Robert Bowers posted his antisemitic rants before he barged into a Pittsburgh synagogue and killed 11 worshipers in 2018. Neo-Nazi screeds are popular Gab fodder.
Of all the social media forums on which to post 1,000 times, Mr. Cox chose Gab. Why — and what did he have to say before he had the record erased? Marylanders deserve answers. Unfortunately, Mr. Cox generally eschews questions from the mainstream media, preferring to speak mainly to his Republican base.
“Dan Cox’s decision that a platform notoriously associated with the Tree of Life synagogue shooting and white supremacist content was a good place to share his message speaks volumes about his candidacy,” said Maryland Democratic Party spokesperson Ernest Bailey. “Cox’s consistent instinct is to pander to a fringe base to which he is completely in thrall. What was he saying on that site? Cox needs to come clean by releasing any records related to his involvement with Gab and explaining why he chose to use that platform.”