BUCK: Doug Mastriano is the Republican candidate for governor in Pennsylvania. He’s a retired military officer and serves in the Pennsylvania state senate. Doug, great to have you on the program. Appreciate you making the time.
MASTRIANO: What a thrill to be on with you guys. Thank you for taking the time to do it.
BUCK: So, tell us about — because we have a lot of listeners in Pennsylvania, right — so nationwide, this is just important for the purposes of the Red Wave that we’ve all been discussing. But some of these governor’s contests, whether it’s New York, Michigan, Oregon are an opportunity to really give a slapdown to the leftist madness that has gripped the country for the last couple of years. What’s at stake? What are the key issues for you right now that separate you from the Democrat contender in Pennsylvania?
MASTRIANO: Well, you know, let me make a broad appeal first. You know, we are the birthplace of our nation, where our country was born in 1776, a new birth of freedom in Gettysburg. And even on 9/11, you know, Todd Beamer on Flight 93. “Let’s roll.” But, you know, even on top of our legacy in history, Pennsylvania, I believe this is the most important gubernatorial race in the nation or even compared to the Senate race. And for that matter, because we’re sitting on massive energy resources, we have one of the largest natural gas reserves under the Marcellus Shale that we have underneath our feet here in the world. And we have high grade oil. We have a high quality anthracite coal. And so under Governor Mastriano, of course, I’m going to open up our energy sector. Our goal is to become the number-one energy producer and exporter in the nation.
I do have a plan called the Pennsylvania Energy Independence Act that we’re going to implement on day one of my administration. And the goal is to provide the needs for the nation in a way where Joe Biden has rolled back our ability to maintain our own energy reserves and, on top of that, become a net exporter to our allies over in Europe, like Lithuania and Poland and Germany, and make the world safer.
On the other side, crime. My opponent is the attorney general for six years and we have lawlessness in our streets and cities because of his failure to do his job. We’re looking at 2,000 shooting victims in Philadelphia, a thousand carjackings, 439 homicides already this year, 4,411 robberies this year in Philadelphia. And this is really becoming a crisis. We’re the fourth highest in fentanyl deaths. So, under my administration, we’ll become a law and order state. And then finally, you know, as I mentioned, with our energy sector, we have the potential of helping the nation to come out of this economic collapse that we’re experiencing under Joe Biden because of the energy capacity that we do have in our state.
CLAY: Doug, you just mentioned what’s going on in Philadelphia. It’s one of the most violent cities in America. It’s setting records. There’s been talk of impeaching Larry Krasner, the D.A. there, who has been very soft on crime. Do you think that should happen? What could the governor do to make Philadelphia safer?
MASTRIANO: Yes. So the House, of course, introduced articles of impeachment just a few days ago. I will sit as a senator, as a member of the jury. You know, when he is impeached, I believe it will be because of his record, you know, but far greater. Josh Shapiro, I know Fetterman is taking a lot of hits from Dr. Oz on crime, but there’s nothing that can really be done at the U.S. Senate level on crime in Pennsylvania. If we want law and order, it devolves down to electing Doug Mastriano.
So on day one, this BLM-Defund the Police-Antifa cabal that our current governor and Josh Shapiro are supportive of and part of ends. I’ll have the back of the law enforcement, we’ll increase the number of police we do have on the street. We already did this actually this past summer with our budget. They included my bill to expand our state police by 200. That’s just the tip of the iceberg.
I will surge special prosecutors in the high crime areas, the revolving door and early release of criminals between 8 and 10,000 under Shapiro in the past six years, that ends. We need to end this cashless bail nonsense in Philly as well. And we need to protect victims. And so that’s all going to happen under Mastriano.
On day one of my administration, we’re going to wage war against this fentanyl crisis. We’re the fourth worst in the nation, between 12 and 15 Pennsylvanians die every day. We’re going to come in and hold drug dealers accountable for killing people.
BUCK: Speaking to Doug Mastriano. He’s running for governor in Pennsylvania. To our Pennsylvania listeners, this is a critical race, as you all know. And, Doug, I want to ask you about the security of this election that’s underway. My friends and sources in Pennsylvania have been bringing this up to me privately. We have a lot of listeners who send us emails about concerns, concerns about incorrect mail-in ballots in distribution, for example, concerns about drop box security for ballots out there, for the ballot drop boxes. How is your state doing with regard to election integrity measures?
MASTRIANO: Sadly, as you can imagine, our governor vetoed any good legislation that we had to try to reform the election process, but we did manage to get some through. So it’s a bit more secure than 2020. So it’s not as lawless as we saw just a couple of years ago.
To make a difference, though, the people needed to do something instead of shaking our fist at the radio or TV, we need to get off our chairs and do something about it. This time last year, Glenn Youngkin was supposed to lose the race. And there was a couple of these things that happened. Of course, you know, the rape of that, sadly, that 15-year-old girl in Loudoun County and the cover-up there. You know, and that actually was brought to you by Josh Shapiro, my opponent fought in Virginia to get the right for boys in the girl’s bathroom. So, he’s culpable.
But we have to get off our chairs. Glenn Youngkin ensured that there was coverage of about 90% of the polls in Virginia. They had trained Republican observers for transparency and almost every polling station in Virginia. And I believe that to really pulled the victory for him was having, you know, so many boots on the ground. Pennsylvania, I still need a few thousand volunteers. And so go to Doug4Gov.com and do something about it. If you care about freedom in our state and our country and that our kids have the same opportunities that we had, do something about it. Just don’t complain.
CLAY: Doug, you mentioned what went on with Glenn Youngkin down there and we talked about the massive crime in Philadelphia. Certainly, parents and their ability to advocate for their kids was a big part of Virginia. I’m still flabbergasted that the University of Pennsylvania had a man decide to become a woman and he became the women’s champion in the 500 meters. This is in your state. I’m sure it’s much talked about. And I would imagine your opponent, like John Fetterman has, has essentially endorsed that is the right choice to be made. How crazy is that? How much traction do you get? Just talking about the pure insanity of allowing men to compete against women in women’s sports?
MASTRIANO: My opponent supports canceling women. He rejoiced when Governor Wolf vetoed our legislation to protect women athletes from being dominated by men. I mean, gentlemen, I sounded like a radical feminist on the floor of the senate. You know, when I was speaking about this bill. We need to end the male domination of female athletes. We need to protect women from patriarchal domination. And I stopped in the middle of my remarks on the floor of the senate in Harrisburg, and I looked over at the Democrats, and it was almost an appeal. Where are the feminists? And only one Democrat senator voted with us to defend women athletes.
When Governor Wolf vetoed that bill to protect women athletes, Josh Shapiro rejoiced loudly. He tweeted out in his support of for boys being on a girls’ team. I mean, this is rolling back the clock 50 years on women’s rights and achievement in sports. And this kind of madness here is why I’m going to win the race, because on day one, executive order, 17 January, no more boys on a girls’ team. On day one, we’re going to protect our girls in school. We’re going to turn back what Josh Shapiro did and get the boys out of the girls’ bathroom. That’s a safety and health issue there. We’re going to end CRT on day one. This gender transition experimentation on minors ends in Pennsylvania on day one. Josh Shapiro supports that as well. I mean, it’s complete, utter madness right now culturally in Pennsylvania.
BUCK: What are the biggest differences, Doug, in terms of policy going forward between the Pennsylvania that you would see under your leadership versus, you know, Josh Shapiro? Because, you know, he’s not a national figure. Some of these other individuals that are in tight races, people know what they’ve been doing. They know who Gretchen Whitmer is. They know who Kathy Hochul is, for example. Josh Shapiro, a lot of people maybe don’t really know or need to know more about what he stands for. So, for anyone listening in Pennsylvania who wants to know what the difference would be going forward in your state, what are the most important points you’d want them to know?
MASTRIANO: So Governor Wolf, of course, is our current governor and never was a governor more appropriately named. He waged war against the people of Pennsylvania during the shutdown. And Josh Shapiro is a radical, as radical, if not more, than Tom Wolf. He sued to keep your kids masked up. He sued to keep business shut down. He looks the other way when criminals are running amuck in our streets and killing innocent people caught in the crossfire.
And instead of, this is how extreme he is, let me just lay it out this way. Instead of doing his job and protecting people and fighting crime and defending victims, Josh Shapiro sued the Little Sisters of the Poor twice over a religious issue to the Supreme Court, and he threatened to sue them again. We’re talking about a group of nuns who’ve dedicated their lives the most needy in our society. That’s how low he’s gone. Under Mastriano, obviously, we’re going to restore common sense to the commonwealth. We’re going to have an economic renaissance in our state underneath me, based upon unleashing our energy sector. That’s going to help our country in many ways as well. I mean, it’s night and day.
CLAY: Doug, he’s afraid to debate you. We saw what happened when Fetterman debated Oz. It probably decided that election in favor of Dr. Oz. So, what is the latest on debating — and big picture here — are we going to be waiting weeks, do you think, to know who won the races in Pennsylvania or is it going to be decided faster than that? What should we be expecting for those of us who are going to be watching the results come down starting in 11 days?
MASTRIANO: Yeah. As far as the debates, you know, at least and I’m not defending him, but at least Fetterman despite his cognitive disabilities and unfit physically for office, he showed up. My opponent Josh Shapiro ostensibly has his wits about him and he absolutely has been refusing to debate me. I’ve been offering him for 75 days. I said, “Josh, we will even give you a box to stand on. We’ll give you Donna Brazile to give you the answers in advance like she did in 2016.” (laughing) And he’s absolutely dodging from me.
And the Democrats, hats off to them. They totally get it. You know, I don’t know why our side doesn’t quite understand how important this seat is, because Fetterman is not going to be able to stay in very long if he does win. And so you need Governor Mastriano to appoint a good, reliable conservative there to make sure that we have our voices heard in D.C. as well.
BUCK: Doug, there are a lot of people listening. How can they help? Where should they go? What can they do?
MASTRIANO: Thank you for having me on, once again, gentlemen. Go to Doug4Gov.com, Doug, number-4- gov.com and please volunteer. You can make phone calls for most — you know, if you live in Hawaii, we could use your help and consider donating to our campaign. This is a grassroots movement, here. It is about the people of Pennsylvania. You know, I could retired off to a sunset, to a comfortable retirement as a retired Army colonel. And I could not do that because we’re about to lose our our freedoms and rights in our country. But we need the people to get across the line in just 11 days.
BUCK: Doug Mastriano, we’re hoping you pull it off, sir. Thank you very much for your service. And thank you for joining us today on the show.
MASTRIANO: Thank you, gentlemen. God bless you.
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