MONROEVILLE, Pa. — Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance spoke Saturday at an event hosted by a self-described Christian “apostle” who believes former President Donald Trump is destined to save America from Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, who was sent by the devil to “take Trump out.”
Vance walked onto the stage at a town hall at the Monroeville Convention Center, near Pittsburgh, in front a few hundred people attending the “Courage” tour, a traveling neo-Charismatic Christian revival organized by Lance Wallnau, a prominent evangelical pastor. Wallnau has used the tour to travel to battleground states, encouraging evangelicals to vote for Trump and to sign up as poll watchers and election workers.
“I got baptized in 2019,” Vance said to scattered cheers, recounting the story of how he rediscovered his Catholic faith late in life.
Vance’s town hall was a mostly routine recapitulation of his campaign talking points: He blamed the fentanyl crisis on lax border laws; made baseless assertions that schoolchildren aren’t learning math but “know there are 87 different genders”; and encouraged people to vote this November.
What was significant about Vance’s decision to participate at Wallnau’s town hall is that it shows the Trump campaign yet again associating itself with a strain of extremism steeped in anti-LGTBQ bigotry that’s determined to transform the government into a Christian theocracy.
Wallnau was a prominent part of the “stop the steal” movement that sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election and hand Trump a second term. He was even set to speak at the Jan. 6, 2021 rally that turned into the violent attack on the Capitol. Wallnau, who has repeatedly compared Trump to the biblical figure of King Cyrus, recently said that the events of that day were “not an insurrection” but “an election fraud intervention.”
He has used strident, misogynistic language when talking about Harris, saying she has the “spirit of Jezebel.” Wallnau also claimed that Harris used “witchcraft” during the televised debate with Trump.
“When I say ‘witchcraft,’ I am talking about what happened tonight. Occult-empowered deception, manipulation, and domination,” he wrote.
Another time, Wallnau wrote on Facebook that Harris had been sent by Satan himself to “take Trump out.”
On Friday evening, during a welcome speech, Wallnau argued “the word ‘trans’ in its root means to transgress a boundary that God set up.”
The pastor has a history of vile anti-LGBTQ comments, particularly against trans people, once referring to queer activists as the “trans Taliban.” Once, outraged over a Pride flag hanging at the White House, Wallnau wrote: “Is the gay trans flag the new emblem of the United States Government? Is that America’s mission in the earth? Have we made our Government the champion of trans activism for the world? Or are we on a collision course with divine discipline for our pride and perversity?”
He also once told a story about how reformed “hookers” who found God turned a gay man straight by having him take a bite of an “anointed cake.”
The cake story underscores Wallnau’s prominent role in the New Apostolic Reformation, an evangelical movement that believes in miracles, the supernatural and the existence of modern-day apostles and prophets who have the power to heal. Wallnau and the wider NAR believe in something called the “seven mountains mandate,” a prophecy that says Christians must conquer the “seven mountains” of societal influence, including government and media, in orderfor Christ can return to Earth.
David Bartels, 67, from Harrisburg, stood in line at 8:30 a.m. Saturday morning outside the Monroeville Convention Center, waiting to get inside, where he hoped to “pray and intercede” for Trump to become president. Bartels showed HuffPost a photo of the remodeled school bus he’s dubbed the “Chariot,” which he and his wife drive around the country, healing people. Bartles believes he’s been endowed with prophetic powers.
He said he believes that “when things start happening with this election, that miracles are going to take place, and more and more of Trump and Vance and the Republican Party will wind up seeing miracles and be able to profess and witness more that God is real.”