Caught on tape: Doug Mastriano prayed for MAGA to ‘seize the power’ ahead of January 6
A week before Jan. 6, on a Zoom call organized by far-right Christian Nationalists seeking to reinstall Donald Trump in the White House, a man with a booming baritone voice bowed his bald head and began to pray. “We remember the promises of old,” he said, before invoking the book of Revelations and its account of the End Times: “We know we overcome Satan by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony and not loving our lives unto death.”
Seated before a Revolutionary War flag with the motto “An Appeal to Heaven,” the man spoke of the nation’s founding in biblical terms: “We remember 1776, our Declaration of Independence, speaking God’s Truth and Word over what would become the United States of America.” He tied Pennsylvania to God’s divine plan, from the Battle of Gettysbug to the fate of Flight 93, which crashed after a “strong Christian man” confronted Islamist hijackers on 9/11, with the cry, “Let’s roll!”
“God I ask you that you help us roll in these dark times, that we fear not the darkness, that we will seize our Esther and Gideon moments,” the man said, invoking a pair of Old Testament heroes who made themselves instruments of God’s vengeance. “We’re surrounded by wickedness and fear, and dithering, and inaction,” he added, “But that’s not our problem. Our problem is following Your lead.” Looking ahead to Jan 6, the man said: “I pray that… we’ll seize the power that we had given to us by the Constitution, and as well by You, providentially. I pray for the leaders also in the federal government, God, on the Sixth of January that they will rise up with boldness.” [Continue reading…]
Doug Mastriano has spent much of the summer ignoring mainstream press, setting a new unorthodox precedent for a major gubernatorial campaign.
Now the Republican nominee in Pennsylvania is entering the homestretch of the race without another staple resource: Television ads.
Mastriano has not aired a single commercial since May 16, the day before the primary. And according to advertising tracking firms, to date, he’s reserved no air time for the final 60 days of the general election, when TV wars between candidates traditionally reach their peak.
Josh Shapiro, his Democratic opponent, has allocated nearly $29 million to broadcast and cable advertising between April and November, a number only expected to grow as the well-resourced attorney general builds his messaging campaign as necessary. [Continue reading…]