Let me frame this for Pennsylvanians about State Senator (and now GOP candidate for PA Gov) Doug Mastriano.
First, this:
Former President Donald J. Trump on Saturday endorsed Doug Mastriano, a retired colonel and state senator who has propagated myriad false claims about the 2020 election and attended the protest leading up to the Capitol riot, in the Republican primary race for governor of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Trump made his choice three days before the state’s Tuesday primary, a political blessing that serves to increase the former president’s standing as much as Mr. Mastriano’s.
“There is no one in Pennsylvania who has done more, or fought harder, for election integrity,” Mr. Trump said in a statement, adding that Mr. Mastriano would also “fight violent crime, strengthen our borders, protect life, defend our under-siege Second Amendment, and help our military and our vets.”
We all know about the Gettysburg meeting, Mastriano's Covid diagnosis in The White House and Doug being mentioned in that Trump/DOJ phone call.
As well as his wanderings around the Capitol on January 6 and the February 15 subpoena from the January 6 committee.
Yea, Doug's deeply embedded in this mess.
Just how deeply, is not yet been fully explained.
That being said, let's go to yesterday's testimony.
Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to President Donald J. Trump’s final chief of staff, delivered explosive testimony on Tuesday to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, providing a vivid minute-by-minute account of heated confrontations she witnessed play out in the White House.
Ms. Hutchinson testified that Mr. Trump knew the crowd he had amassed in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, was armed and could turn violent but encouraged them to march on the Capitol anyway, and said she had heard that he had lunged at one of his Secret Service agents when he was told he could not join his supporters on Capitol Hill.
Of the events of that day, Hutchinson testified that about 10am on the morning of January 6:
Ms. Hutchinson and Anthony M. Ornato, the deputy White House chief of staff, met with Mr. Meadows to tell him that law enforcement was reporting that multiple individuals were arriving at Mr. Trump’s rally on the Ellipse carrying weapons including knives, guns, bear spray, body armor, spears and flagpoles.
“Tony relayed to me something to the effect of, ‘These f-ing people are fastening spears to the end of flagpoles,’” Ms. Hutchinson testified.
Mr. Meadows appeared unmoved, asking only if Mr. Ornato had relayed the information to the president. Mr. Ornato replied that he had, Ms. Hutchinson said.
And then:
Early that afternoon, Ms. Hutchinson texted Mr. Ornato that Mr. Trump was “furious” that rallygoers were being forced to pass through magnetometers, according to messages she provided to the committee. Backstage at the rally on the Ellipse, she overheard Mr. Trump angrily tell aides to let his supporters into the event space, concerned that the area looked empty.
Mr. Trump, she testified, said “something to the effect of, ‘I don’t f-ing care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me. Take the mags away. Let the people in, they can march to the Capitol from here.’”
Members of the Trump's mob were armed. And by the end of his speech, they were moving to the Capitol.
Doug Mastriano was in that crowd, wasn't he?
Of course, I'm not saying he was armed. Not at all. Fair to say that Doug Mastriano was completely unarmed as he mostly likely had to get through "the mags" to get to the rally where he was an Invited Speaker & Featured Guest and a VIP.
But then he walked with the mob to the Capitol.
On the way, did Doug Mastriano see any of the knives, guns, bear spray, body armor, spears and flagpoles or spears fastened to the ends of flag poles? We already know they were there. Law enforcement had already told The White House. They must've been with the mob as it walked to the Capitol.
State Sen Mastriano is a retired US Army colonel with expertise in military intelligence. He served on the border of East Germany at the end of the cold-war and was deployed three times in Afghanistan.
Surely he could spot weapons being carried openly (or even concealed), right?
So, what did he see?
Mastriano is on record with this statement:
My position on lawlessness is equally as clear. When it was apparent that this was no longer a peaceful protest, my wife and I left the area and made our way out of the area.
Walking amongst thousands, some of whom reportedly armed with knives, guns, bear spray, body armor, spears and flagpoles, didn't send up a red-flag for our US Army Col (ret.) with expertise in military intelligence?
He must've seen something. What was it?
