MONROEVILLE, Pa. \u2014 Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance appeared Saturday at a town hall event organized by top Christian nationalist leaders who promote election denialism and portray Vice President Kamala Harris as a \u201cdemon.\u201d<\/p>\n
The event\u2019s host, Lance Wallnau, who emceed the live event and introduced Vance\u2019s first town hall on the campaign trail, is a leading figure in the fast-growing New Apostolic Reformation, a movement that preaches Christian supremacy through a blend of prophecy and hard-right politics.<\/p>\n
Though a campaign official said Vance and Wallnau didn\u2019t speak to each other, Vance\u2019s appearance at Saturday\u2019s event was the latest example of the Trump campaign intersecting with once-fringe figures who now have wide followings.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, Vance sat down with Pastor Jason Howard to talk about drug addiction and answer questions from pre-selected audience members. He described his faith journey and political beliefs as he courted the crowd in western Pennsylvania, promising the audience that the Trump administration would enact policies guaranteeing that if they \u201cwork hard and play by the rules, you can afford a good life in this country.\u201d Polls show former president Donald Trump and Harris neck and neck in the crucial swing state.<\/p>\n
Vance spokesman Luke Schroeder sidestepped questions about Wallnau\u2019s extremism, saying instead that Vance and his mother, Beverly, who was with him at the event, \u201cwere thankful for the opportunity to call attention to the millions of Americans who are struggling with addiction.\u201d Schroeder also said it was \u201ca disgrace that the media would rather distract Americans from Kamala\u2019s failures than give struggling Americans the spotlight they deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last weekend, Vance appeared on the \u201cTucker Carlson Live\u201d show after Carlson praised Holocaust revisionist Darryl Cooper, who falsely claimed that the Nazis\u2019 genocide of Jewish people was a logistical error. Vance said at the time that he supported free speech.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Holocaust was a terrible tragedy, and it\u2019s something that we have to make sure never gets repeated again in this country,\u201d Vance told reporters ahead of his Carlson event. \u201cThe best way to ensure that doesn\u2019t happen is to debate and push back against bad ideas. It\u2019s not to try to censor and suppress them.\u201d<\/p>\n
For his part, Wallnau has previously cast Harris as both a demon and Jezebel, the biblical symbol of womanly wickedness. He has said on his podcast that Harris represents \u201cthe spirit of Jezebel in a way that will be even more ominous than Hillary [Clinton] because she\u2019ll bring a racial component, and she\u2019s younger.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vance\u2019s appearances with Carlson and on Wallnau\u2019s live show Saturday have brought condemnation from Democrats, who criticize him for aligning with conspiracy theorists.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile Vance and Donald Trump are peddling lies, stoking division, and clinging to the past because they have no solutions to lead us forward, Kamala Harris is leading us into a future of opportunity for all Americans,\u201d Harris campaign spokeswoman Sarafina Chitika said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Faithful America, a Christian group focused on social justice, said in its petition that Wallnau is a \u201cfalse prophet\u201d who was \u201cspewing fear and hate in the name of Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a Facebook video Friday, Wallnau filmed himself promoting Vance\u2019s appearance and claiming that 15,000 people had signed a petition against his event, called the Courage Tour.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve got this crazy narrative, the left,\u201d Wallnau said in the video. \u201cWhy is the left adversarial to Christians, and why are pastors and churches actually voting with the left? They\u2019re attacking Christians.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wallnau is known for advocating Christian dominion over the \u201cseven mountains\u201d of society: religion, family, government, education, business, media, and arts and entertainment.<\/p>\n
MAGA ideology is woven throughout the movement, with prophets and apostles sharing pro-Trump visions and declaring \u201cspiritual warfare\u201d against his opponents \u2014 sometimes invoking biblical language that extremism researchers say masks violent or racist messaging. Video footage documents the movement\u2019s presence among the crowds that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a conquest narrative. That, combined with the election denialism, is concerning,\u201d said Karrie Gaspard-Hogewood, a sociologist at Tulane University who studies Christian nationalism.<\/p>\n
She said it\u2019s hard to imagine that Vance would be unaware of Wallnau\u2019s well-documented views, which were featured in a CBS Evening News segment this month. That includes election denialism, warning of an impending \u201cfiery trial\u201d over ideologies and disparaging Harris.<\/p>\n
Gaspard-Hogewood said Vance\u2019s appearance at the Courage Tour lends credence to Wallnau\u2019s extremist views.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe message it sends is that Vance is not against what Lance Wallnau is saying and preaching,\u201d Gaspard-Hogewood said.<\/p>\n
Allam reported from Washington. Michelle Boorstein in Washington contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
MONROEVILLE, Pa. \u2014 Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance appeared Saturday at a town hall event organized by top Christian nationalist leaders who promote election denialism and portray Vice President Kamala Harris as a \u201cdemon.\u201d The event\u2019s host, Lance Wallnau, who emceed the live event and introduced Vance\u2019s first town hall on the campaign trail, is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":10290,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}