First there's this from Paul Van Osdol at WTAE:
The Doug Mastriano for Governor campaign has not responded to multiple requests for interviews with the candidate during the past two months.
Action News Investigates tried to question the Republican nominee during a campaign stop outside New Castle on Tuesday.
Mastriano was speaking with people who attended the event. But when Action News Investigates tried to talk with the state senator, a campaign aide intervened.
This guy. The one in the classy campaign t-shirt
Not the first time Mastriano has blocked the press. As Will Bunch over at the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote:
If there were a picture next to the word “irony” in the dictionary, it might be a guy all decked out in circa-1776, self-styled patriot garb, topped by a tri-corner hat, blocking a free press from covering a political rally where the future of democracy in Pennsylvania — and perhaps the American Experiment that was hatched here — is on the line.
Yep. That's State Senator (and now GOP cand. for PA Gov) Doug Mastriano. What a patriot.
As he explained to the nearly sparse crowd:
"Our friends are here from Channel 4. I'm happy to talk to any journalist that can prove to be fair and that's going to ask Josh Shapiro the same hard questions," Mastriano said. "But I'm no fool, like I'm going to talk to someone who asks questions like why you beat your wife kind of questions, really?"
I have no idea (and how could I?) what Von Osdol was looking to ask Doug, but I for one would love to hear him ask these same hard questions to both Mastriano and PA AG Josh Shapiro:
- Do you believe that the 1st Amendment to the US Constitution mandates a separation of church and state?
- Do you believe that a woman has the right make her own health care decisions regarding reproduction (whether to terminate a pregnancy and/or obtain birth control)?
- Who won the 2020 presidential election?
- (A follow-up) If you believe it was somehow tainted, doesn't that taint also taint all of the candidates who actually won their races? Including all the Republicans?
Let Pennsylvania's reporters ask BOTH CANDIDATES those questions!
Von Osdol ends his piece with this:
Mastriano has other appearances in northwest Pennsylvania this week. He said on Facebook that he plans to campaign in southwest Pennsylvania next week.
If they're open to the public (I'm a member of the public!), and candidate Mastriano is looking for a dialog with prospective voters (I'm one of them, too!) then, you know, I should be allowed it, right?
Even though I'm blocked from viewing Mastriano's campaign FB page.
What are you scared of, Doug? Why have you blocked little old me?