Vance Appears at Event of Evangelical Leader Who Spoke of Harris’s ‘Witchcraft’

Senator JD Vance of Ohio campaigned Saturday in Pennsylvania at an event organized by Lance Wallnau, a self-described prophet who has said that former President Donald J. Trump was chosen by God, defended the Jan. 6 attack and described Vice President Kamala Harris’s debate performance as “witchcraft.”

But when Mr. Vance took the stage Saturday afternoon for the event — which signs called “Townhall Remarks hosted by The Lance Wallnau Show Courage Series” — there was no sign of Mr. Wallnau. He took questions and spoke with another host.

Mr. Wallnau, an evangelical influencer from Dallas, has become a big name in the charismatic movement of Christianity. A corporate marketer who became a celebrity prophet, he applies his marketing skills to push prosperity gospel teachings and products. He is especially well known for the belief that Christians should influence or even rule society, from politics to media to culture to the economy.

In a recent online conversation about Ms. Harris’s performance at the debate earlier this month, Mr. Wallnau said that she could “look presidential.”

“That’s the seduction of what I would say is witchcraft,” he said. “That’s the manipulation of imagery that creates an impression contrary to the truth, but it seduces you into seeing it. So that spirit, that occult spirit, I believe is operating on her and through her, similar to with Obama.”

Mr. Wallnau has defended the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by pro-Trump rioters, downplaying the violence or justifying it as righteous. He recently told a crowd of supporters in Eau Claire, Wis., that “Jan. 6 was not an insurrection, it was an election fraud intervention,” according to CBS News.

Before the event, a spokeswoman for the Democratic National