What the MAGA “Seize the Power” Prayer Tells Us About Doug Mastriano

Pennsylvania’s Republican candidate for governor reportedly led a prayer that included a call to “seize the power” on Jan. 6 and another to “disregard” Pennsylvania’s certified election results.

Last week, Rolling Stone reported that Pennsylvania Republican and candidate for governor Doug Mastriano was involved in a rather controversial Zoom meeting just before the events of Jan. 6.

The call was organized by the fringe-right New Apostolic Restoration movement, and on that call, Doug Mastriano led a prayer that included a number of surprising word choices, including a call to “seize the power” on Jan. 6 and another to “disregard” Pennsylvania’s certified election results.

“I pray that… we’ll seize the power that we had given to us by the Constitution, and as well by You, providentially. I pray for the leaders also in the federal government, God, on the Sixth of January that they will rise up with boldness.”

Mastriano has denied that he is a Christian Nationalist, or that he has any affiliation with fringe groups like the New Apostolic Restoration Movement, though the video recently released paints an entirely different picture.

This is just the latest in a string of revelations that make it more and more difficult for Mastriano to deny his extremism. Whether he’s trafficking in Qanon conspiracy theories, participating in the Jan. 6 insurrection, or supporting Rudy Guliani’s election denialism and the sham ‘hearings’ that followed, Mastriano can typically be found wherever the most extreme views are being expressed.

Mastriano even spearheaded the election ‘audits’ that Harrisburg Republicans used to sow doubt in the results of an election that was never in question. The list goes on and on.

And now, after denying that he is a Christian nationalist, we find out yet again that Mastriano is not playing straight with the public. That said, a politician lying to voters is nothing new, but the firehose of lies coming out of the Mastriano camp is not your run-of-the-mill brand of political theater.

The “seize the power” prayer moment before the violence of Jan. 6 is disturbing, but the lesson we learn from it is not new; it simply reinforces what we have been learning for quite some time now.

Doug Mastriano is not telling us the truth.