The photo, which Reuters said it obtained on Friday following a request under the Freedom of Information Act, shows Mastriano in uniform in a 2013-14 portrait for the Department of Military Strategy, Plans and Operations, where he worked until until he retired in 2017. Reuters reported that it was told that professors were then given the option to dress as a historical figure, and while a few did, only Mastriano is shown wearing a Confederate uniform. The Army War College said in a statement that a team in 2020 reviewed all art, text and images displayed at Carlisle Barracks for alignment with Army values and the college’s educational philosophies, but missed the photo of the faculty, which “it has since been removed because it does not meet AWC values.” Mastriano, a Pennsylvania state senator, has peddled Donald Trump’s lies about widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election and was the lead backer in Pennsylvania of Trump’s bid to overturn the result. He was also in the crowd outside the US Capitol during the January 6, 2021 attack by Trump supporters after he attended the ‘Stop the Steal’ rally nearby. Mastriano did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but did retweet a comment from Jenna Ellis, a senior legal adviser to his campaign, who said “The media MELTED that Mastriano apparently once posed as a Civil War historical figure for a photo. And? He has a PhD in HISTORY. “The left wants to erase history. Doug Mastriano wants us to learn from this,” Ellis tweeted. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro accused Mastriano of wearing “the uniform of traitors who fought to defend slavery,” calling it “deeply offensive” and saying his opponent was “unfit to be governor.” Mastriano served three decades in the military, retiring as a colonel after serving in Europe, Iraq and Afghanistan. Confederate flags, symbols and statues have increasingly divided the country in recent years, with critics calling them symbols that represent the fight to preserve slavery and supporters calling them a display of Southern pride and heritage.
