In a chummy interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Wednesday, Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano tried to depict his denial of the 2020 election results as merely asking questions about the outcome “per our constitutional responsibilities” as a member of the state legislature.
Carlson first asked Mastriano about MSNBC host Ali Velshi warning of Mastriano’s potential influence as governor when it comes time to sign off on 2024 election results. “You just heard [Velshi] explain that voting for you—voting in an election—is an attack on democracy. How does that work, I wonder?” the Fox host asked.
“It doesn’t work at all,” answered the far-right candidate, who said his military background should assuage any concerns about his ability to accept election results he doesn’t like. “I’m no hero, but [a] 30-year veteran, colonel in the Army, top-secret access, leading men and women from around that nation and around the world on sensitive missions. Really?”
ADVERTISEMENT
Mastriano, a member of the Pennsylvania General Assembly when former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, then characterized his efforts to oppose President Joe Biden’s win as unjustly maligned by the left.
“November 3rd happens. I start hearing from constituents. I’m a state senator, and I represent them, and I ask questions,” he said. “We put a hearing together per our constitutional responsibilities, and that makes us an election denier? I guess the rule is, Tucker, only the Democrats can ask questions like Stacey Abrams or Hillary Clinton.”
Carlson, who minutes earlier claimed that there is “no such thing as election denying in a free society,” followed Mastriano’s jab at Democrats by defending the tactic of asking certain questions under the guise of free speech.
“I don’t understand why Republicans put up with this for even one second. So many Republicans I have watched over the past two years have said,’I don’t want to have anything to do with the crazies,’” Carlson said. “Really? I think it’s the responsibility of the people running the government to prove that the system is not corrupt, and to do that with transparency. Why does nobody say that?”
“It’s as easy as that. [If] you got nothing to hide, open up the books. That’s what I asked two years ago,” replied Mastriano, to Carlson’s approval.
In November 2020, Mastriano hosted a public meeting in Pennsylvania with other Republican lawmakers and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani seeking ways to overturn the election, with Trump himself speaking to the group by phone. Mastriano then went to the White House to meet with Trump and later that month issued a memo saying he would introduce a resolution declaring the election in Pennsylvania “irredeemably corrupted.”
Mastriano attended the “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, and his campaign funded charter buses to transport Trump supporters there.
This year, the House Jan. 6 committee subpoenaed Mastriano, who was reportedly uncooperative and “didn’t answer a single question” from lawmakers during an interview in August. He then sued the committee.
