Photo surfaces of PA Senator Mastriano in Confederate costume at Army War College

A photo of Republican gubernatorial nominee state Sen. Doug Mastriano posing in a Confederate uniform reported by Reuters Friday brought sharp criticism from his opponent, Attorney General Josh Shapiro, and other Democrats over the weekend.

Obtained by Reuters through a Freedom of Information Act request, the photo shows Mastriano posing in a 2013-2014 faculty portrait with faculty of the Army War College's Department of Military Strategy, Plans and Operations. Reuters said it was told the faculty at the time were given the option of dressing as a historical figure, and while a few did so, only Mastriano is shown wearing a Confederate uniform.

Mastriano served for three decades in the Army, retiring as a colonel in 2017 after serving in Europe, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He ended his military career as a faculty member of the military college in Carlisle between 2012 and 2017.

The Army War College said in a statement that a team in 2020 had reviewed all art, text and images displayed at the Carlisle barracks for alignment with Army values and the college’s educational philosophies, but it missed the faculty photo, which “has since been removed because it does not meet AWC values.”

Shapiro rebuked Mastriano's choice of costume in an Associated Press story Saturday, accusing 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.”

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While Mastriano did not immediately respond to the Associated Press for comment, the Republican from Franklin County retweeted a post by Jenna Ellis, a senior legal adviser to his campaign, who said “Media MELT DOWN that Mastriano apparently once posed as a civil war historical figure for a photo. And? He has a Ph.D in HISTORY.

“The left wants to erase history. Doug Mastriano wants us to learn from it,” Ellis tweeted.

State and federal Democrat lawmakers joined Shapiro in condemning Mastriano over the weekend, with U.S. Sen. Bob Casey retweeting the Reuters story Friday night from his personal Twitter account.

State Sen. Steve Santarsiero, D-10, of Bucks County, tweeted a cropped version of the Reuters photograph showing Mastriano in the uniform saying "He CHOSE to wear a Confederate uniform, the uniform of traitors to our country … The uniform of a rebellion that wanted to maintain slavery. Ironically, Mastriano represents Gettysburg in the State Senate."

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"(Mastriano) has never seen an insurrection against the United States that he didn’t love," state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, D-181, of Philadelphia, tweeted Sunday, a reference to Mastriano's attendance at the Jan. 6 rally to overturn the 2020 election results at the U.S Capitol.

Kenyatta also posted a tweet over the weekend that included another user's post of a picture of Mastriano posing with his wife, Rebbie, and son, Josiah, with other actors on the set of a film called Operation Resist, an World War II-era action film.

Mastriano played U.S. spy helping members of the Dutch resistance and his son plays a character named "Nazi Fritz" and the picture appears to show the two in costume while the movie was filmed in South Carolina, according to information about the film found on www.imdb.com.

Kenyatta drew allusions to the picture and past news stories that Mastriano paid $5,000 in April to Gab Ai Inc. in April for advertising consulting. The website has been repeatedly called a "haven" for far-right extremists like mass shooter Robert Bowers, who in October 2018 killed 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.

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The Reuters photograph and backlash are one in a string of controversies that have followed Mastriano through his campaign to replace Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat who hits the state's two-consecutive term limit this year.

One of the leading voices of the false claim there was widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, Mastriano has proposed legally questionable voting laws if elected and his support on a complete ban on abortion under any conditions have helped draw division among his own party.

Mastriano saw heavy pushback from establishment GOP members in Pennsylvania in the weeks leading up to the May 17 primary, where hundreds of Republicans called on voters to cast a ballot for former Congressman Lou Barletta over fears that Mastriano couldn't draw votes across party lines in November.

Several prominent Republicans have endorsed Shapiro since the primary, saying Mastriano is too extreme for Pennsylvania.

The Defend Democracy Project, an organization founded by two men who worked for the Obama campaign and administration, called Mastriano, U.S. Rep. Scott Perry (R-10) and U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly (R-16) as "a grave danger to American democracy" in a report expected to be released this week.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Photo of Sen. Mastriano in Confederate uniform draws Democrats' ire