State Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Franklin, addresses a crowd of Trump supporters at the Pennsylvania State Capitol on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, the day the presidential race was called for Democrat Joe Biden (Capital-Star photo).
On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted along party lines to nominate state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Franklin) as ambassador to Slovakia.
The former Republican Party candidate for governor was selected for the position by President Donald Trump in May.
Mastriano said he will continue to serve in the Pennsylvania Senate as the confirmation process moves forward. With the committee vote on Wednesday, Mastriano will face a vote in the GOP-controlled U.S. Senate.
During a committee hearing last week, members of the Democratic Party questioned Mastriano about his views and actions regarding the 2020 election.
Nearly six years ago, Mastriano became one of Pennsylvania’s most vocal supporters of Trump’s debunked claims that the election was stolen from him. As a state senator, he unsuccessfully urged the Pennsylvania Legislature to overturn the commonwealth’s popular vote, hosted Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani at a partisan Senate committee hearing in Gettysburg weeks after the 2020 election, attended the Jan. 6 rally that led to a violent riot at the Capitol, and spent campaign money to fly supporters to Washington that same day.
Under questioning by Sen. Tim Kaine (R-Va.), Mastriano declined to directly answer questions about the winner of the 2020 election.
“Joe Biden has been certified,” Mastriano said in response to a question about who won the popular vote and the electoral college.
Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Dave McCormick, who also served on the committee, advocated for Mastriano. Introducing him, he emphasized the legislator’s military service.
During his thirty-year military career, Mastriano spent time in Europe, first in Germany and Czechoslovakia at the end of the Cold War, and later at NATO Headquarters in Germany. He served in Operation Desert Storm and the war in Afghanistan, and retired as a colonel in 2017 after conducting strategic studies at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle.
“The Slovak Republic is an important NATO ally located at the strategic crossroads of Central Europe,” McCormick said. “At a time when this alliance faces significant security challenges… this position requires a leader with strategic judgment, deep knowledge of NATO’s inner workings and first-hand experience working with our allies, with an unwavering commitment to America’s interests.”
In addition to investigating his activities surrounding the 2020 election, Democrats are questioning Mastriano over his past comments and allegedly anti-Semitic statements.
Sen. Jacky Rosen (R-Nev.) accused Mastriano of having contacts with Holocaust deniers and making anti-Semitic statements. She asked him about his story comparing US policies, which he dislikes, to the Holocaust AND citing the persecution in Nazi Germany to describe his own Gov. Josh Shapiro’s double-digit defeat in 2022.
Mastriano said he has since worked with Pennsylvania’s Jewish community to raise funding for Holocaust education and said, “I wouldn’t do it today.”
The committee’s 12-10 majority vote came after Texas Republican John Cornyn’s threats to derail Mastriano’s nomination.
Cornyn told a Semafor reporter that he would block the nominations of Mastriano and another Trump ally, Kari Lake, who was nominated to be ambassador to Jamaica, unless the Trump administration began making funds available to fight AIDS in Africa.
Finally, Cornyn voted for Mastriano’s nomination Wednesday.
