JD Vance Speaks At Occasion Hosted By ‘Apostle’ Who Accused Kamala Harris of ‘Witchcraft’

MONROEVILLE, Pa. — Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance spoke Saturday at an occasion hosted by a self-described Christian “apostle” who believes former President Donald Trump is destined to save lots of America from Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, who was despatched by the satan to “take Trump out.”

Vance walked onto the stage at a city corridor on the Monroeville Conference Heart, close to Pittsburgh, in entrance just a few hundred folks attending the “Courage” tour, a touring neo-Charismatic Christian revival organized by Lance Wallnau, a outstanding evangelical pastor. Wallnau has used the tour to journey to battleground states, encouraging evangelicals to vote for Trump and to enroll as ballot watchers and election employees.

“I got baptized in 2019,” Vance stated to scattered cheers, recounting the story of how he rediscovered his Catholic religion late in life.

Vance’s city corridor was a principally routine recapitulation of his marketing campaign speaking factors: He blamed the fentanyl disaster on lax border legal guidelines; made baseless assertions that schoolchildren aren’t studying math however “know there are 87 different genders”; and inspired folks to vote this November.

What was important about Vance’s choice to take part at Wallnau’s city corridor is that it reveals the Trump marketing campaign but once more associating itself with a pressure of extremism steeped in anti-LGTBQ bigotry that’s decided to rework the federal government right into a Christian theocracy.

Wallnau was a outstanding a part of the “stop the steal” motion that sought to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 election and hand Trump a second time period. He was even set to talk on the Jan. 6, 2021 rally that become the violent assault on the Capitol. Wallnau, who has repeatedly in contrast Trump to the biblical determine of King Cyrus, just lately stated that the occasions of that day have been “not an insurrection” however “an election fraud intervention.”

He has used strident, misogynistic language when speaking about Harris, saying she has the “spirit of Jezebel.” Wallnau additionally claimed that Harris used “witchcraft” throughout the televised debate with Trump.

“When I say ‘witchcraft,’ I am talking about what happened tonight. Occult-empowered deception, manipulation, and domination,” he wrote.

One other time, Wallnau wrote on Fb that Harris had been despatched by Devil himself to “take Trump out.”

On Friday night, throughout a welcome speech, Wallnau argued “the word ‘trans’ in its root means to transgress a boundary that God set up.”

The pastor has a historical past of vile anti-LGBTQ feedback, notably in opposition to trans folks, as soon as referring to queer activists because the “trans Taliban.” As soon as, outraged over a Pleasure flag hanging on the White Home, 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 additionally as soon as informed a narrative about how reformed “hookers” who discovered God turned a homosexual man straight by having him take a chunk of an “anointed cake.”

The cake story underscores Wallnau’s outstanding function within the New Apostolic Reformation, an evangelical motion that believes in miracles, the supernatural and the existence of modern-day apostles and prophets who’ve the facility to heal. Wallnau and the broader NAR consider in one thing known as the “seven mountains mandate,” a prophecy that claims Christians should conquer the “seven mountains” of societal affect, together with authorities and media, in orderfor Christ can return to Earth.

David Bartels, 67, from Harrisburg, stood in line at 8:30 a.m. Saturday morning outdoors the Monroeville Conference Heart, ready to get inside, the place he hoped to “pray and intercede” for Trump to turn out to be president. Bartels confirmed HuffPost a photograph of the reworked college bus he’s dubbed the “Chariot,” which he and his spouse drive across the nation, therapeutic folks. Bartles believes he’s been endowed with prophetic powers.

He stated 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.”