Doug Mastriano Rally Crowd Did Not Give Nazi Salute, Preacher Says

GETTYSBURG, PA — The crowd at a Gettysburg weekend rally for Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano did not give a Nazi salute in unison during a preacher's speech, advocates for his campaign said.

Preacher Lance Wallnau, a controversial figure who campaigns with Mastriano and who once said that a blessed cake "converted" a gay man to heterosexuality, said the salute was to honor the Gettysburg Civil War Battle of Little Round Top.

"The left is so drunk on the wine of Jezebel that they are blind to the indoctrination, intimidation, and propaganda all around them," Wallnau said, adding "...an innocent group of Christians were falsely accused of doing a fascist salute when they were praying."

Wallanu said that he intentionally had the crowd raise their hands and bring them down. A video clip of the sequence circulated online and quickly drew comparisons to a Nazi Party salute.

Yes, this is a Nazi salute, at a Doug Mastriano campaign event in Pennsylvania. In 2022.

Democracy is literally on the ballot in November.

pic.twitter.com/unKyQKDN9A
— Tristan Snell (@TristanSnell) September 18, 2022

"Nazi? You putz, I’m part Jewish!" Wallnau tweeted in response.

While it may have been a rush to judgement, it was doubtlessly informed by months of a campaign that has defined itself on the coattails of Wallnau's distinctive brand of Dominion theology and Christian nationalism. Wallnau has gone farther than merely anointing Mastriano as the divine choice for the governor's office, however, also comparing former President Donald Trump to the biblical Persian King Cyrus. As first reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer, Wallnau called the Women’s March on Washington "witchcraft" and Russia's oligarchal president Vladimir Putin a "good dictator."

Mastriano's rally at the site of a Gettysburg Civil War battle comes weeks after photos of the retired Army Colonel surfaced wearing a Confederate uniform.