Doug Mastriano.Photo: Michael M. Santiago/Getty
Doug Mastriano, the Republican candidate for governor in Pennsylvania, has apparently been deleting videos from his campaign’s Facebook page.
Mastriano, a state senator who backedDonald Trump’s false claims of voter fraud in 2020 and the effort to overturn the presidential election, won the Republican primary for governor in May.
Weeks before his victory, Mastriano appeared in a video weighing in on the issue of global warming and reportedly calling it “pop science.”
That video has vanished,according toThe Philadelphia Inquirer, which reports that more than a dozen other clips have been removed from the page in the last three months.
Mastriano, a retired Army colonel, also complained in a now deleted video post that fellow Republicans opposed to his campaign represent a “corrupt” establishment wing of the party that holds “disdain” for veterans like him.
“They can talk about policies, but why do they have to attack me as a person and say the things they do? Because they have this disdain and hate for veterans,” Mastriano said, according to theInquirer. “If they really respected veterans — they can disagree on policy, no problem. They can criticize me on policy. But when they make the attacks personal, call them out. Tell them, ‘This personifies your disdain for veterans.'”
Abortion was the topic of other Facebook posts that Mastriano’s campaign evidently deleted, according to theInquirer.
According to a spokesperson, Mastriano’s campaign didn’t go out of its way to remove the content from Facebook.
But theTimespoints out that at least one of the deleted videos was apparently removed less than 30 days ago while others that are more than 30 days old remain on the Facebook page.
Mastriano’s critics say he may be removing videos in an attempt to hide some of the views he expressed during the Republican primary ahead of his Nov. 8 general election contest against Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro.
The Republican candidate “can’t delete his extreme positions,” David Turner, a spokesman for the Democratic Governors Association, told theTimes.
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“He’s completely out of touch with most Pennsylvanians, calling to ban abortions, trafficking insane election conspiracy theories, and denying climate change,” Turner said.
It’s not the first time Mastriano has attempted to clean up his social media profiles. Media Matters for America reported in 2021 that hedeleted dozens of tweetsthat allegedly supported QAnon conspiracy theories.
source: people.com
