{"id":1170987,"date":"2021-12-29T23:19:19","date_gmt":"2021-12-30T04:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1170987"},"modified":"2021-12-29T23:19:22","modified_gmt":"2021-12-30T04:19:22","slug":"unhinged-mastriano-repeatedly-lies-smears-breitbart-reporter-in-meltdown-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/unhinged-mastriano-repeatedly-lies-smears-breitbart-reporter-in-meltdown-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Unhinged Mastriano Repeatedly Lies, Smears Breitbart Reporter in Meltdown Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Funhinged-mastriano-repeatedly-lies-smears-breitbart-reporter-in-meltdown-interview%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1170987&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Doug-Mastriano-ap-640x335-1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\">Pennsylvania State Sen. Doug Mastriano repeatedly lied about Breitbart News and questioned the&nbsp;religious faith of a Breitbart reporter&nbsp;in an unhinged interview Wednesday morning then refused to answer any questions about the statements.<\/p>\n<p>Mastriano, a Republican and retired U.S. Army Colonel, has publicly floated a possible gubernatorial bid in Pennsylvania next year\u2014and is expected to formally announce a campaign per several local news reports in early January. If Mastriano runs as expected, he will face a crowded GOP primary field including former U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta (R-PA) and state Senate President Jay Corman, among others.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>Breitbart News <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2021\/12\/28\/campaign-finance-questions-swirl-around-potential-pa-gop-gubernatorial-contender-doug-mastriano\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">published a story earlier this week<\/a> raising concerns about the possibility that Mastriano might have run afoul of campaign finance laws because he is apparently campaigning for governor without a formal campaign committee, using his old state senate campaign committee to raise funds. Billboards he is running, paid for by his state senate campaign committee, urge people to support him for governor\u2013something legal experts familiar with Pennsylvania campaign finance law said might be concerning if he decides to formally run.<\/p>\n<p>Mistakes like these\u2014and Mastriano having made election integrity the centerpiece of his political image <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2021\/06\/04\/pa-state-senator-championing-election-integrity-voted-for-no-excuse-absentee-voting-in-the-state\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">despite having voted for Act 77<\/a>, the legislation that Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf used to implement the mail-in voting system in Pennsylvania in 2020\u2014cast serious doubt on a potential candidate\u2019s ability to successfully win a general election.<\/p>\n<p>Following the publication of the Breitbart News story, Mastriano <a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/newstalk1037fm\/29-december-state-senator-mastriano-on-news-talk-1037fm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">appeared on<\/a>&nbsp;NewsTalk 103.7 FM, a local talk radio station in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday morning to make a series of nasty comments about Breitbart News as well as a number of inaccurate statements about the reporter who wrote the piece..<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>Asked to respond to the original story on his campaign finance and structure issues by the local radio host, Mastriano launched into a diatribe questioning the Christianity and integrity of the Breitbart News reporter who reported the story, Hannah Bleau.<\/p>\n<p>Slamming her as \u201cYoung Hannah,\u201d Mastriano said, \u201cI don\u2019t dig how\u201d Bleau \u201cdid this piece here and shame on her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe professes on her Twitter page to be a Christian,\u201d Mastriano said. \u201cIf that is so, I can\u2019t judge her heart here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When the host, sounding shocked, clarified that Mastriano was indeed referring to Breitbart\u2019s Bleau, Mastriano replied: \u201cYeah. That girl is very questionable and she is compromising her integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The host then asked Mastriano if Breitbart News contacted Mastriano for the story\u2014Bleau had, and included his comment in the piece\u2014to which he replied with a series of inaccurate statements about the nature and timeline of the reporting of the original story and about the content of it. Mastriano replied:<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Let me tell you how she did it. The left, when they want to say they reached out to somebody conservative but don\u2019t want to hear from you, they\u2019ll send you\u2014they\u2019ll get you in the middle of the day. It\u2019ll be an email that you may or may not see. They\u2019ll say, \u2018hey, I got this article. I\u2019m alleging this. You got two or three hours to respond.\u2019 She pretty much did that to us. I got an email to one of my accounts. It basically said \u2018I hope to publish\u2019\u2014I got it around, I think I saw it around 2 or 3 o\u2019clock. I don\u2019t know exactly when she sent it. But basically, \u2018I plan on\u2019\u2014I\u2019m quoting her here\u2014\u2018I hope to publish by the end of the day.\u2019 So you\u2019re giving me two or three hours to respond. I\u2019m in the middle of an event and now I have to drop everything I\u2019m doing, I decide to drop everything I\u2019m doing.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>After Mastriano made these comments, Breitbart News went back and checked the timeline of events and the formal comment request. The comment request went to the communications director for his state Senate office\u2014a man named Joshua Hermann\u2014at 12:47 p.m. on Dec. 21, and did include that Breitbart News intended to publish the story by the end of the day. It is very typical in media to include a deadline for a comment request, and it is also very typical for those receiving comment requests to ask for more time.<\/p>\n<p>Hermann replied with a statement from Mastriano at 3:17 p.m. that day, Dec. 21, a statement that was included in full in the story. What\u2019s more, the actual story was not published until a full week later on Dec. 28. In other words, Mastriano\u2019s claim that he was blindsided by this request or the story is totally false\u2014he and his team were well aware of it and able to prepare for its publication for a full week before Breitbart News put this information out to our readers\u2014and had already provided his comment a week before the publication of the story.<\/p>\n<p>Mastriano did not stop there in this local radio interview, however. He made several more dubious or inaccurate statements throughout the next several minutes on air. In one instance, for example, he claimed the Pennsylvania Department of State told him that he did nothing wrong\u2014but the very same Department of State told Breitbart News that it does not weigh in on such matters publicly. Mastriano said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>I have to call the Department of State, sit on hold\u2014everyone has to, there\u2019s no hotline there to their campaign finance people. I finally get to speak to somebody 20 or 30 minutes later, and this is what\u2019s being alleged, this is what I got going on. \u2018Have I violated any rules? Have I done everything right?\u2019 They are like \u2018you are good to go, you\u2019ve done everything right.\u2019 There is no gray area. That\u2019s crap. So when I was reading that article, I actually laughed out loud when I got to the end of it because you got all these allegations and then in the end there\u2019s this attorney who says there\u2019s no issues there were no laws were broken\u2026.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Mastriano has not replied to several formal interview and comment requests sent repeatedly, not only to his state senate staff in Pennsylvania, but also calls, texts, and voicemails left for him on his personal cell phone. Several intermediaries, including the station manager for the local radio station and others in contact with Mastriano, were either unable to convince him to further explain his comments in an interview with Breitbart News or were unable to reach him. The station manager for the local radio station declined Breitbart News\u2019s requests for an interview with the local host who conducted the interview with Mastriano on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n<p>Mastriano did, however, remove a video of the error-filled radio appearance from his Facebook page after Breitbart News inquiries on the matter.<\/p>\n<p>Mastriano also later made another pair of inaccurate claims about Breitbart News, falsely stating that Breitbart News did not cover his efforts to secure a forensic audit of Pennsylvania\u2019s 2020 election and that Breitbart News had \u201cbelittled or even mocked\u201d the Arizona audit:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>I will note, where was Breitbart during my entire endeavor of trying to do a forensic investigation of our election results since last November? And actually am I incorrect in saying they belittled or even mocked what was going on in Arizona? So, you have to consider the source.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>This statement is false, and Breitbart News published <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2021\/07\/12\/pennsylvania-sec-state-dont-comply-gop-state-senators-election-audit-request\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">several pieces<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2021\/06\/23\/pennsylvania-senator-election-audit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mastriano\u2019s effort to secure a forensic audit<\/a> of the Pennsylvania election\u2014including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2021\/06\/03\/pennsylvania-republicans-call-for-arizona-style-election-audit-in-the-keystone-state\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">most notably one by none other than Hannah Bleau<\/a>\u2014and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2021\/09\/25\/arizona-senate-draft-report-on-the-maricopa-county-election-audit-highlights-49000-questionable-votes-asks-ag-to-investigate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">several pieces<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/radio\/2021\/09\/28\/exclusive-kelli-ward-on-az-audit-full-canvas-of-every-state-needs-to-be-done\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">on Arizona\u2019s audit<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2021\/09\/27\/maricopa-county-23344-mail-in-ballots-voted-from-a-prior-address-legal-under-federal-election-law\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">as well<\/a>. Breitbart News editor -n-chief Alex Marlow <a href=\"https:\/\/rumble.com\/vr9e18-exclusive-alex-marlow-hosts-arizona-audit-panel-with-az-state-legislators.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">even recently hosted an election integrity panel<\/a> in Arizona at Turning Point USA\u2019s Americafest conference\u2013another pair of the specific questions Mastriano has not answered is a response to the revelation that Breitbart News did in fact regularly cover both audit efforts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI try to walk with integrity,\u201d Mastriano said in the interview. \u201cI\u2019m not perfect, I\u2019m a sinner like everyone else here, but I try to honor my oath. I did it all my life, and they\u2019re not used to\u2014when I won the election two and a half years ago, they didn\u2019t know what to do with an army colonel coming in who had 30 years of top secret clearance and doing operations around the world. It\u2019s because they can\u2019t control me. I work for the people and I do honor my oath.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pennsylvania State Sen. Doug Mastriano repeatedly lied about Breitbart News and questioned the\u00a0religious faith of a Breitbart reporter\u00a0in an unhinged interview Wednesday morning then refused to answer any questions about &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1170987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1170987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1170987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1170987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1170987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1170987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1170987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}