Deplorable Republican Doug Mastriano Blames His Opponent in PA Contest for a Rape in Virginia

Doug Mastriano is the racist, drumpf-loving MAGA Republican running for Governor in Pennsylvania against Democrat Josh Shapiro. You can read more about him in the piece I did about him yesterday here if you wish.

He is polling well behind Shapiro as of now, which probably explains his latest, desperate hit piece of a slanderous political ad he put out yesterday, retweeted by the ever watchful Ron Filipowski:

PA Gov candidate Doug Mastriano blames his opponent, PA AG Josh Shapiro, for a sex assault in VA: “In VA, thanks to Josh Shapiro, a 15 year-old girl was raped by a male student in the girls bathroom.” pic.twitter.com/1iqZCrB9gE

— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) October 16, 2022

In the ad Mastriano accuses Shapiro of being responsible for the rape of a 15 year old girl by a male classmate in a bathroom of a Loudon County High School in May of 2021.

The rape became a cause celebe on the right because the boy was wearing a skirt the day of the assault, which led the girl’s father to blame transsexuals for the crime, adding fuel to the firestorm of controversy surrounding the issue of gender identity and access to bathrooms.

Though there was never any evidence offered that the assailant identified as trans, his mother, in an interview with the ever salacious New York Post did offer that her son instead identified as “pansexual” or, bisexual, and alternated between wearing men’s and women’s clothing depending on his mood.

Michelle Goldberg explained how the right got everything about the case wrong in her October, 2021 New York Times column:

“This is a story about how the right twisted the sexual assault
a culture war fantasy. It’s about how a distorted tale on a conservative website became grist for a nationwide moral panic.

On June 22, a middle-aged plumber named Scott Smith was dragged, lip bleeding and hands cuffed behind his back, from a raucous school board meeting in Loudoun County, Va. According to the local newspaper Loudoun Now, he’d been swearing loudly at another parent and leaning toward her with a clenched fist when the police tackled him and pulled him outside. He’d eventually be convicted of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest and given a suspended 10-day jail sentence.

Smith’s image quickly went viral as a symbol of the sort of school board strife breaking out all over America. The National School Boards Association, writing to President Biden to request help dealing with the “growing number of threats of violence and acts of intimidation” directed at school board members, included Smith’s arrest in a list of examples…

…The boy was indeed wearing a skirt, but that skirt didn’t authorize him to use the girls’ bathroom. As Amanda Terkel reported in HuffPost, the school district’s trans-inclusive bathroom policies were approved only in August, more than two months after the assault. This was not, said Biberaj, someone “identifying as transgender and going into the girls’ bathroom under the guise of that.”

(I highly recommend reading Goldberg’s entire column, if you are interested in how these tragic stories are twisted and contorted by the GOP for electoral advantage, and if you and have not already done so.)

But back to Mastriano’s hit piece.

You might have noticed in the brief ad that some sort of statement by Shapiro appeared briefly on your screen, much too briefly to be read, let alone understood.

Here is a screenshot of what Shapiro posted on Twitter and tacitly misrepresented by Mastriano:

The tweet affirms that Shapiro, in his capacity as Pennsylvania’s Attorney General at the time, filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court acknowledging that trans kids do indeed attend high school and do indeed have the right to use the restroom.

Filipowski’s followers had a lot to say about the ad:

I believe that Mastriano might be confusing Shapiro with Jim Jordan on this one. 😁

— kdunnez (@_The_Phantom_1_) October 16, 2022

Yup

Didn’t know a man in Pennsylvania, have such reaching powers in Virginia.

That leaves Mr. Sweater Vest in the clear.

— Novelette Dryden (@DrydenNovelette) October 16, 2022

🤣🤣🤣

Exactly what power does Josh have in Virginia?

None. He has none.

The AG in VA is Jason Miyares, a REPUBLICAN. The PA AG has zero say what happens in VA.

Insurrectionist @dougmastriano is DESPERATE.

— KMG365 ☕ 🥀 🐝 (@starbucksgirl51) October 16, 2022

Exactly.

Of course, if she's pregnant as a result of the rape, Mastriano wants her to be forced to carry it to term.

— ❄ Alex ❄ (@northernstar171) October 16, 2022

Yup

I can’t imagine that Mastriano will sway many voters with this horse-shit, more likely it will just confirm his own deplorable base in their opinions.

But it does speak to just how low Republicans will go to try to smear their Democratic opponents.

If, by small chance, you have forgotten.

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