JD Vance will join a Jan. 6 defender and Christian nationalist for a Western Pa. town hall before his Bucks County visit

Before Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance visits purple Bucks County on Saturday, he’ll be roughly 300 miles away in Monroeville participating in a town hall with a Christian nationalist and defender of the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Vance is set to be a “featured guest” Saturday afternoon at a town hall hosted by the Lance Wallnau Show podcast at the Monroeville Convention and Events Center in Allegheny County.

Wallnau — who backed former President Donald Trump’s unfounded 2020 election fraud claims — tried to legitimize the attack on the U.S. Capitol by saying that “Jan. 6 was not an insurrection. It was an election fraud intervention.”

The town hall is part of the religiously and politically charged “Courage Tour,” where participants can “experience revival” that marks the “Third Great Awakening.” In a video montage on the tour’s website, the events’ speakers use religion to encourage mass political mobilization from their attendees.

Prior tour stops include the battleground states of Michigan, Arizona, and Georgia, and tour speakers have included various conservative and religious leaders, with U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R, Ga.) as one of their more high-profile guests.

The Trump campaign did not comment on Vance’s appearance with Wallnau, but Karoline Leavitt, a campaign spokesperson, falsely claimed in a statement that the U.S. House’s Jan. 6 committee was covering up evidence that proved that neither Trump nor any of his supporters “ever engaged in an alleged ‘insurrection.’”

The Harris campaign said in a statement they are not surprised that Vance is appearing alongside Wallnau, noting how Vance, before becoming Trump’s running mate, said he would not have immediately certified the results of the 2020 election.

“While 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,” said Sarafina Chitika, a Harris campaign spokesperson. “That’s the leadership Americans deserve, not the distraction and dysfunction the Trump-Vance ticket has to offer.”

Wallnau, a Dallas-based evangelical leader and media personality, has been a staunch supporter of the former president since Trump made his debut in presidential politics. Since then, Wallnau, who grew up in Pennsylvania, has joined Trump-backed State Sen. Doug Mastriano (R., Franklin) on the Pennsylvania gubernatorial campaign trail in 2022 where he said Mastriano was “anointed” to lead.

Wallnau predicted Trump would win in 2016 and likened him to a modern-day King Cyrus.

Cyrus is a Bible figure who was anointed by God to free the Jewish people from Babylonian captivity so they could return to their homeland. This reflects a major school of thought in evangelical theology, which holds that the return of Jewish people to Israel will bring the world closer to a seven-year Armageddon, in which they believe Jesus Christ will return.

Wallnau believes his comparison between Trump and Cyrus was “vindicated” in March 2018 when Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The evangelist has had his fair share of dabbling in conspiracy theories. In one YouTube video for his podcast, he baselessly remarks there are “hit squads” of illegal immigrants trying to assassinate Trump. He’s even promoted the outlandish claim on X that Harris used witchcraft during the presidential debate.

Saturday’s town hall won’t be Vance’s first time appearing next to a controversial figure in Pennsylvania. On Sept. 21, Vance appeared as a guest for Tucker Carlson’s tour stop in Hershey. The former Fox News anchor had recently hosted Darryl Cooper, a Holocaust revisionist, on his show on X.

“Senator Vance doesn’t believe in guilt-by-association cancel culture but he obviously does not share the views of the guest interviewed by Tucker Carlson,” William Martin, a Vance spokesperson, said in a statement to The Inquirer at the time, citing Trump’s and Vance’s support for Israel and the Jewish community.

Once the Ohio senator’s appearance in Monroeville comes to a conclusion Saturday, Vance will extend his time in the key battleground state with a rally in Newtown, Bucks County, where it’s unlikely a majority of residents in the politically moderate area find much solace in Wallnau’s beliefs.