When I last wrote about Doug Mastriano, the MAGA man who aspires to run Pennsylvania, I referenced his fervent support for Trump’s stolen-election lie and his threat to decertify a statewide Democratic win in ’24. For those reasons, I called him a “fascist fellow traveler.”

And today, more than ever, that depiction fits him to a T, like a leather glove over a mailed fist.

Mastriano has cozied up to Andrew Torba, a Jew-hating social media CEO – heck, in April Mastriano paid the guy $5000 for “consulting” – and he refused to distance himself from Torba until the pressure this week from many in his own party became too hot. So last night Mastriano grudgingly posted a statement insisting that Torba “doesn’t speak for me. I reject anti-semitism in any form,” while complaining that he, Mastriano, is merely a victim of “smears by the Democrats and the media.”

Translation: “OK OK, you want me to say that Andrew says bad stuff? Andrew says bad stuff. Everybody happy now?”

Dr. Maya Angelou once said, “When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.” Let’s keep that in mind.

Mastriano hooked up with Torba – whose Gab social media site is as a toxic lagoon for right-wing Christian nationalists, white supremacists, and anti-semites of all kinds (including the domestic terrorist who has been charged with the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre) – because they are instinctively simpatico. No rote denunciation delivered under pressure can change that.

Torba says he wants to “take back” the country for “Jesus Christ.” Mastriano, in his rallies, says essentially the same thing: “We have the power of God with us. We have Jesus Christ that we’re serving here. He’s guiding and directing our steps.”

There once was a time – in ancient history, prior to 2016 – when no candidate of a major party would’ve dared join forces with someone who spews hate with gems like this: “We don’t want people who are Jewish…This is an explicitly Christian country.” And this, calling out a Jewish anti-defamation group: “You represent two percent of the country. (Christians) are done being controlled and being told what we’re allowed to do in our own country…There’s nothing you can do to stop us because what has been set in motion, it’s snowballing right now.”

That’s what Torba said earlier this week, when critics even within the Republican party began to voice their discomfort; meanwhile, Mastriano adamantly stayed silent. Mastriano apparently paid Torba five grand so that Torba would register his Gab fans as Mastriano partisans. As Torba himself said yesterday, “the campaign paid Gab as a business for advertising.” In short, Mastriano identified the hate site as fertile territory, a place where he could nurture his electoral base.

If Mastriano supposedly rejects “antisemitism in any form,” as he suddenly claims now, why did he join forces months ago with a guy whose site functions as a haven for antisemitism in any form?

If Mastriano supposedly now rejects “antisemitism in any form,” why did he sit for an interview with Torba and praise the guy? The candidate’s exact words: “Thank God for what you’ve done.”

If Mastriano supposedly now rejects “antisemitism in any form,” why has he not disputed Torba’s claim that the two guys share a policy of stonewalling Jewish members of the free press? That’s what Torba said earlier this week: “My policy is not to conduct interviews with people who aren’t Christian or with outlets who aren’t Christian, and Doug has a very similar media strategy where he does not do interviews with these people. He does not talk to these people…They’re a den of vipers.” (Italics are mine.)

Until last night, Mastriano even had his own public account on Gab. Now it’s magically gone. I suppose some voters might conclude that the Republican candidate for governor has experienced a high-road epiphany. But let the record show that he and Torba share a mutual theocratic interest in shattering the separation of church and state. That alone should consign Mastriano to oblivion.