Video seems to contradict GOP politician who said he left Capitol before riot

Pennsylvania state senator Doug Mastriano is seen as a gubernatorial contender in 2022

Police release tear gas into a crowd of pro-Trump protesters during clashes at a rally to contest the certification of the 2020 US presidential election results by Congress, at the Capitol Building in Washington, 6 January 2021. (REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo)

Newly analysed video from the 6 January pro-Trump attack on the Capitol appears to contradict the account of a Republican state senator from Pennsylvania, who has previously said he left before the day turned violent.

Online sleuths from the left-leaning watchdog group Pennsylvania Spotlight on Monday claimed they spotted senator Doug Mastriano among the crowd, walking with his wife in areas where demonstrators had previously breeched police barricades. There’s no suggestion thus far that Mr Mastriano fought with police officers or entered the Capitol itself, as many did in their attempt to overturn the certification of the 2020 presidential election results.

The senator, a retired military colonel, was elected in 2019, and quickly rose in profile to become a likely 2022 gubernatorial contender through his fiery criticism of coronavirus restrictions and embrace of Donald Trump’s repeated lies and conspiracy theories about the election results, at one point hosting Rudy Giuliani for a rally in November.

The legislator dismissed the allegations he stuck around for the riot, telling the Philadelphia Inquirer on Tuesday that “angry partisans” made up the allegations because they are “blinded by their hatred for all things Donald Trump”.

He’s previously said that while he was at the 6 January rally that preceded the riots, he left before the attack broke out and was alarmed when he saw demonstrators beginning to clash with police.

“We didn’t stay to find out,” he said during a 12 January radio interview.

That said, Mr Mastriano was enough a supporter of the movement that inspired the riots, founded on repeatedly debunked assertions that the election had been rigged, that he used more than $3000 in campaign money to bus people to the Capitol for the 6 January demonstrators. His staunch stance even earned him an invitation to the White House to meet Donald Trump.

At least 445 people have been arrested in connection with the riot, according to a USA Today database.

So far, congressional Republicans have largely opposed a bill creating a bipartisan commission to investigate the Capitol riots, which passed the House last week, as former president Trump and his most fervent base supporters still maintain considerable power within the party ahead of the 2022 elections.