Update: Shapiro calls on Mastriano to rescind invitation to alt-right operative Jack Posobiec

Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for governor, will hold a rally in Erie Friday alongside an alt-right conspiracy theorist and political operative who, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, has a history of spreading misinformation and collaborating with "white nationalists, antigovernment extremists, members of the Proud Boys, and neo-Nazis."

Jack Posobiec, a former pro-Trump correspondent for the hard-right television network One America News Network, is scheduled to speak at Mastriano's "Restore Freedom Rally" at the Bayfront Convention Center with less than four weeks to go before the Nov. 8 general election, according to an event listing on Mastriano's Facebook page.

A VIP event, which costs $125 per person, will start at 5 p.m. Doors will open for the free rally at 6 p.m.

Posobiec, 'Pizzagate' and other conspiracies

Posobiec, 37, spoke at Mastriano campaign events in Chester and Bucks counties in recent days. The Mastriano campaign event listing describes Posobiec as a "Native Pennsylvanian, Proud U.S. Navy Veteran and Podcast Host."

His allure:COVID created Doug Mastriano’s governor candidacy in PA. Now we can’t take our eyes off it

Believe the polls?:Doug Mastriano seems to be tanking. But are polls again underestimating a Republican in PA?

Posobiec, who has 1.8 million followers on Twitter, is also known for spreading conspiracies involving the 2016 death of Democratic National Committee employee Seth Rich and "Pizzagate," according to scores of reports about him.

The "Pizzagate" conspiracy, which was a precursor to the QAnon movement, claimed that the hacked emails of Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman contained coded messages that detailed the connection between high-ranking Democratic officials and a child trafficking and sex cult that operated out of the basement of a Washington D.C. pizzeria, among other places, even though the restaurant doesn't have a basement.

Posobiec visited the pizzeria eight days after the 2016 presidential election and streamed on social media live video of his visit. Weeks later, a North Carolina man entered the restaurant with a loaded AR-15 assault rifle and a revolver as patrons, including children, were inside. He fired the assault rifle multiple times to break open a door to a storage room. The man was arrested upon exiting the business 20 minutes later.

The Mastriano campaign did not respond to a request for comment. Posobiec could not be reached for comment.

Tom Eddy, the chairman of the Erie County Republican Party, said he's not familiar with Posobiec.

He said he doubts Posobiec will say or do anything other than make the case for Mastriano to be governor when he campaigns in Erie, but Eddy also noted that "I don't know. I just found out who was going to be speaking two days ago from the Mastriano campaign."

"I've never heard him speak," Eddy said of Posobiec, "so I am not able to make a comment on him."

Eddy also refuted the "extremist" label given to Mastriano by Democrats, the media and even some Republicans.

"He's anything but extreme," Eddy said, noting that Mastriano has run a nontraditional, grassroots campaign. Eddy said the Friday event will be the first rally Mastriano has held in Erie since the GOP primary. Mastriano, however, has made other stops in the county during the general election.

Posobiec's political influence

Posobiec's political rise, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, is due in large part to his collaboration "with white supremacists, neo-fascists and anti-Semites" and his production of "propaganda that Trump and his inner circle have publicly celebrated."

Posobiec, who is now a senior editor for the site Human Events, was named in 2017 to the Anti-Defamation League's guide to the "Alt-Right and the Alt-Lite." In response, Posobiec published a photo of himself standing in front of the Auschwitz-Berkenau Memorial in Poland with a caption saying that the ADL "would be wise to remember what happened the last time people made lists of undesirables."

That same year, a Philadelphia Magazine headline declared Posobiec, who is from Norristown, Montgomery County, the "king of fake news."

Mastriano, who trails Democrat Josh Shapiro by a double-digit polling average according to RealClearPolitics.com, has embraced other alt-right activists. Earlier this year, campaign finance reports revealed that Mastriano paid $5,000 for consulting services to Andrew Torba, the founder of the social media site Gab.

Mastriano has praised Torba, a Christian Nationalist whose extremist-friendly forum served as Robert Bowers' platform for hate-filled messages before he killed 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018.

More:New Josh Shapiro ads say Doug Mastriano hired 'alt-right extremists' after payment to Gab

Reuters has also reported that Mastriano wore a confederate uniform when he posed for a faculty photo in 2014 at the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center in Carlisle.

Throughout his campaign for governor, Mastriano, a state senator from Fayetteville, Franklin County, R-33rd Dist., has largely avoided traditional media and instead has given interviews to right-wing media outlets and political operatives such as Steve Bannon, as he did on Monday for Bannon's podcast.

Shapiro campaign responds

Following the initial publication of this story, the Shapiro campaign issued a statement calling on Mastriano and the Erie County Republican Party to rescind Posobiec's invitation to Mastriano's Erie rally on Friday.

"Throughout his campaign, Mastriano has continued to associate with far-right extremists," the Shapiro campaign said in its statement before citing additional examples. "...Now, less than four weeks before Election Day and in a swing county, Mastriano is promoting his dangerous far-right extremism, proving once again that he is unfit to lead the commonwealth."

Matthew Rink can be reached at mrink@timesnews.com and on Twitter at @ETNRink.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Shapiro wants Mastriano to cancel alt-right operative Jack Posobiec