April 30, 2022

PA State Senator Doug Mastriano Responds to Questions About QAnon and That Subpoena!

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But he also completely avoids actually answering those questions about QAnon and that subpoena!

This all happened during the GOP Gubernatorial debate this past week. You can find the video here.

At about 9 minutes in, Dennis Owens of ABC27 asked Sen Mastriano this:

Today the Philadelphia Inquirer reported you attended a conference last week in Gettysburg hosted by a couple who publicly call themselves “Prophets of QAnon.” What can you tell about that and do you consider yourself a member of that group. 30 Seconds.

To which Doug "responded" with this:

It's funny how the media likes to paint anyone they disagree with as a right, on the conservative side, as some kind of extremist.

I don't know that those two ever said that. I was there, of course, speaking to constituents and many people from across the state. And it's very unfair – and people across the state are sick and tired of being labeled as something because you disagree with them politically. 

And with great non-menace, Dennis let him off the hook with:

Ok, thank you.

Ok. So let's unpack Doug's evasion since Dennis simply moved on from it.

Here is the Philadelphia Inquirer article on Doug's attendance at that rally. And this is what they say about the Fosdicks - the hosts:

The conference was organized by Francine and Allen Fodsick, self-described prophets who have long promoted QAnon.

So they're "self-described prophets" who've promoted QAnon but the Inky did not say they called themselves "Prophets of QAnon." 

Dennis got this one a tiny bit wrong and it gave Doug a tiny loophole to avoid the Fosdick's deep QAnon connections.

The Inquirer continued:

About 25 minutes into the two-day conference, organizers played a video claiming the world is experiencing a “great awakening” that will expose “ritual child sacrifice” and a “global satanic blood cult.”

Followers of QAnon believe a global cabal of Democrats and elites are trafficking children for sex and engaged in other demonic activity — but that all of this will soon be exposed. Images associated with the conspiracy theory were on display during the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack.

The video showed Friday featured a kind of greatest hits of conspiracy theories that have circulated for decades. It showed images of the Twin Towers collapsing on 9/11 — with the label “false flags.” It claimed John F. Kennedy was assassinated because he “knew too much” and posed a “high risk of cabal exposure,” that vaccines amount to “genocide therapy,” and that Hitler faked his death. It offered other conspiracy theories about the atomic bomb, the Spanish flu, 5G, the 2008 financial crisis — and, of course, the 2020 election.

This is how the Fosdicks promoted themselves on the Patriots Arise website advertising this QAnon rally:

Allen & Francine Fosdick are the founders of Up Front in the Prophetic Podcast and can be seen on YouTube, Rumble as well as other platforms. Their mission was, and still is today, to inform and educate on all realms of media to include Government, Business, Education, Supernatural, Family, Wellness and so much more.

 In a world that is full of noise and confusion, Up Front in The Prophetic was established to bring truth and solid biblical answers to the issues of our day.

From call-in shows to events, prophecy updates to news reports and national prayer calls, Up Front in The Prophetic is on the cutting edge to keep you, the listeners, informed. [Italics in original.]

Their website does contain a "Q" page but it's nearly empty - the videos victims of YouTube's misinformation scrubbing.

The Inquirer also has this:

Mastriano has been interviewed by the Fodsicks multiple times for their podcast. After the Fodsicks began promoting a similar event last year and listed Mastriano as a featured speaker, the senator’s spokesman said he wouldn’t be attending.

Mastriano “strongly condemns the ‘Q anon’ conspiracy theory” and “never committed to speak at this event but sadly was used to help promote it with his picture on the invite,” the spokesperson said at the time.

But that didn’t stop Mastriano from attending this time. His campaign did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Mastriano’s campaign has not responded to repeated inquiries over the course of the campaign.

So while the Inquirer never said that the Fosdicks promoted themselves as "prophets of QAnon" it's hard if not impossible to see how Doug Mastriano did not know what they believed and did not know the sort of the room he was entering to "speak to his constituents."
 
They were there because they believed (or were at least very sympathetic) to QAnon. Doug had to know this. His suggesting anything otherwise is just a lie. 
 
And then there's Doug evading a question about the Subpoena. 

About 15 minutes in, Dennis the non-Menace asked:
You organized buses to the Capital on January 6, 2020. You’ve been subpoenaed to testify before the House committee investigating that day. To our knowledge, you have not responded to that subpoena. But what do you say to Republican voters tonight, specifically those who might be concerned that there are still legal issues ahead for you on that topic?

And Doug evaded with:

There are no legal issues. I'll delineate in the US Constitution that we have five freedoms delineated in the first Amendment. Freedom of Religion, Press, Speech, Assembly and Right to Redress the Government. I was there to hear my president speak and then I was invited to speak in two locations, exercising my constitutional rights. And shame on the media and the democrats for painting anyone down there as a villain. 

Barack Obama said in 2016 and this station played that. He said, “to condemn a group based on the actions of one is irresponsible and wrong.” And so condemning all those people that did nothing wrong, that's unjustice to our freedom.

Yea, Doug's leaving a lot out. For example the First Amendment says this:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. [Emphasis added.]

Did you see the adverb Doug left out?

The Committee is not investigating the peaceable assembly of Trump's mob.  It's investigating the violent assembly of Trump's mob.

From the Subpoena letter Doug evaded:

The Select Committee is investigating the facts, circumstances, and causes of the January 6th attack and issues relating to the peaceful transfer of power, in order to identify and evaluate lessons learned and to recommend to the House and its relevant committees corrective laws, policies, procedures, rules, or regulations. The inquiry includes examination of how various individuals and entities coordinated their activities leading up to the events of January 6, 2021.

And specifically, this is what the committee is asking of Doug:

Based on publicly available information and information produced to the Select Committee, we believe that you have documents and information that are relevant to the Select Committee’s investigation. For example, we understand that you have knowledge of and participated in a plan to arrange for an alternate slate of electors to be presented to the President of the Senate on January 6, 2021, and we understand that you spoke with former President Trump about your post-election activities.

We understand you participated in these activities based on assertions of voter fraud and other asserted irregularities and based on a stated belief that under the U.S. Constitution the “state legislature has the sole authority to direct the manner of selecting delegates to the Electoral College.” We have an interest in understanding these activities and the theories that motivated them. 

Based on your public statements, we understand that you were present during the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and that you witnessed “agitators...getting in the face of the police” and “agitators...start pushing the police up the [Capitol] steps.”4 We would like to better understand these statements and expenditures, events that you witnessed or in which you participated, and communications we believe you may have had with national, state, and local officials about the outcome of the November 2020 election.

See that? Nothing about Doug exercising his constitutional rights. Nothing about his free speech rights. Nothing about anything other than the events surrounding and leading up to a non-peaceful assembly.

By evading that characterization, Doug is lying about the January 6 Committee subpoena.

On the other hand, he got the Sword of David (and a heavy swag bag!) as thanks for being a part of at that QAnon conference he willfully attended.
What's in the heavy bag, Doug?

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