From President Biden's speech last night:
And here, in my view, is what is true: MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution. They do not believe in the rule of law. They do not recognize the will of the people. They refuse to accept the results of a free election. And they’re working right now, as I speak, in state after state to give power to decide elections in America to partisans and cronies, empowering election deniers to undermine democracy itself.
And in Pennsylvania's:
I’m Doug Mastriano, and I get to appoint the secretary of state who’s delegated from me the power to make the corrections to elections, the voting logs and everything. I could decertify every machine in the state with the stroke of a pen via the secretary of state.
And from The Hill:
Mastriano emerged from obscurity to become the “GOP legislator most loyal to Trump.” Between November 2020 and Jan. 6, 2021, he posted election disinformation on his Facebook page more than 100 times. Biden’s win, Mastriano claimed, was “statistically impossible.” He advocated decertifying Dominion voting machines and requiring all citizens in the state to re-register to vote. Mastriano introduced a bill in the state senate rejecting the certification of Pennsylvania’s presidential election results. He asserted that Vice President Mike Pence should not accept Electoral College tallies. Mastriano used campaign funds to charter buses to take Trump supporters to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6 and attended the rally himself. He continues to view Joe Biden as an illegitimate president.
President Biden:
MAGA forces are determined to take this country backwards — backwards to an America where there is no right to choose, no right to privacy, no right to contraception, no right to marry who you love.
And in Pennsylvania:
And:
The hosts asked Mastrianio if gay marriage should be legal. “Absolutely not,” he answered, citing the Old Testament. “I’m for traditional marriage. And I am not a hater for saying that. It’s been like that for 6,000 years,” he said, invoking the Bible: “It was the first institution founded by God in Genesis, and it needs to stay that way.”
The hosts also asked Mastriano if same-sex couples should be able to adopt children. “No,” he replied. And Mastriano was even more adamant when asked whether gender identity should be added to the nation’s anti-discrimination laws. “Absolutely not,” he insisted. “That’s madness.”
President Biden:
They promote authoritarian leaders, and they fan the flames of political violence that are a threat to our personal rights, to the pursuit of justice, to the rule of law, to the very soul of this country.
And in Pennsylvania:
In one of his regular Facebook livestreams, Doug Mastriano in 2020 approached armed men next to a Confederate flag and thanked them for “being vigilant” in supposedly protecting Robert E. Lee’s statue at Gettysburg. He also praised someone for wearing a half-American, half-Confederate flag, saying he “can't think of a better cape.”President Biden:
They look at the mob that stormed the United States Capitol on January 6th — brutally attacking law enforcement — not as insurrectionists who placed a dagger to the throat of our democracy, but they look at them as patriots.
And in Pennsylvania:
State Senator Doug Mastriano took this oath:
I do solemnly swear that I will support, obey and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of this Commonwealth and that I will discharge the duties of my office with fidelity.
When he first became State Senator. It's an oath he betrayed the minute he joined Donald Trump's attempt to overturn the 2020 election.
Through his actions and words, he is a clear threat to American Democracy. He is certainly a clear threat to all of our rights and liberties.
