Trump ‘Resolved, Determined’ About Election, Says Pennsylvania Senator

Doug Mastriano, Republican member of the Pennsylvania Senate, speaks at a rally on the National Mall in Washington on Dec. 12, 2020. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

WASHINGTON—Several Pennsylvania state senators, all Republicans, met with the president in the Oval Office on Dec. 23 to discuss election fraud issues in their state.

Among them was Sen. Doug Mastriano, who said afterwards that he’s “never seen anyone more resolved or determined” as Trump, “because truth is on his side.”

“The mood was determined. We need to find out what the heck happened here,” Mastriano told The Epoch Times.

He said the group took Trump through the various concerns they had, including a dump of 570,000 votes in the middle of the night for Democratic nominee Joe Biden, during which time only about 3,200 votes appeared for Trump. “Even in the bluest of blue areas of Pennsylvania that’s statistically impossible,” Mastriano said.

“And we talked about how if this is not only fixed in the future, but if it’s not fixed for what just happened here, at what point does the republic collapse?”

Mastriano held a public hearing in Gettysburg on Nov. 25, where witness testimony outlined allegations of fraud ranging from chain-of-custody issues, lost USB cards, statistical anomalies, and poll watcher access issues.

The state legislature has been out of session since Nov. 30 and Republicans have been unable to convince Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, to call a special session to address election issues.

Wolf said on Dec. 4 that there’s “absolutely no reason” for state legislators to call a special session.

“We had a free and fair election and now it’s time to move on,” he wrote on Twitter.

State House Rep. Daryl Metcalfe started pushing for Wolf to call a special legislative session in early December.

“Due to the extraordinary election activities occurring, it is necessary for the General Assembly be sworn in and organize immediately in order to be actively engaged in continued oversight of this election to ensure the integrity of the process,” Metcalf wrote to Wolf on Dec. 2.

Wolf declined and a petition was launched, which is currently signed by 78 House members and 12 senators.

Mastriano said the legislature, as a co-equal branch of state government, should be able to come into session without the governor’s approval. He wants to test the constitution by convening through a simple majority vote.

“We want to come into session, because we have a crisis on our hands. And let the governor take us to court, let’s fight him on this,” he said.

State legislatures are ultimately responsible for carrying out elections in their states and for selecting the electoral college electors to present to Congress. On Dec. 14, Pennsylvania Republicans submitted a dueling slate of electors to the 20 Democratic electors. Six other states also put forth dueling electors for Trump: Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico.

The official vote count in Congress on Jan. 6 is expected to be contested.

Meanwhile, the Trump campaign this week filed an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse rulings by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that changed mail-in ballot laws without state legislature involvement.

“The fact is, there’s a lot of things that went wrong. And so we need to sort it out,” Mastriano said. “And [Trump] sees that. He’s laser focused on this republic. It’s not about him, it’s about our nation and our republic. If this is allowed to stand, what comes of us? Will we just be a republic in name only? Probably.”