Eric Metaxas, the right-wing pundit who praised Oath Keepers’ Stewart Rhodes for “keepin’ it real” after after Rhodes threatened “bloody war if Trump didn’t stay in power, told readers of his newsletter Thursday evening that he is “still praying” for the miracle it would take to keep Joe Biden from being inaugurated. Metaxas served as master of ceremonies at the Dec. 12 rally advertises as “Let the Church ROAR” where Rhodes made his declaration.
On his radio show Thursday, Metaxas declared, “It’s impossible for me to recognize Biden as president.” Metaxas also said baselessly that the Georgia Senate runoffs won by Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff were “fraudulent.”
In his Thursday evening edition of his newsletter, Metaxas included no condemnation of the violence at the Capitol but continued to claim that “numerous bad actors” had “robbed” the election from the American people. “What happened in this election was disgraceful, and no amount of virtue-signaling over the circus in the Capitol yesterday can change that.”
Here’s an excerpt from the Metaxas “Dear friends” note:
I am unfortunately still convinced numerous bad actors participated in robbing “we the people” of our legitimate voice in this election. But rather than letting it be investigated and exposed, the powers that be last night chose to sweep it under the rug and “turn the page.” If millions of voters believe Joe Biden was not legitimately elected, we have no choice but to push ahead to find out precisely what happened. If he is inaugurated nonetheless, which seems inevitable apart from a miracle — for which I am still praying, rest assured — his term of office will be fatally eclipsed by the largest asterisk in the history of the world, which will hang over it like a black cloud. What happened in this election was disgraceful, and no amount of virtue-signaling over the circus in the Capitol yesterday can change that.
Metaxas included clips from his Thursday radio program interviews with Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA and co-founder of Liberty University’s Falkirk Center, pro-Trump “prophetic” author Lance Wallnau, and Salem broadcasting radio host Kevin McCullough. Wallnau, a promoter of Seven Mountains Dominionism, is part of a circle of right-wing evangelicals courted by the Trump administration.
Sounding a somewhat contrarian note, Kirk criticized unnamed conservatives he said had been building audiences in recent weeks by dealing “hopium” and telling people “it’s certain that Donald Trump is going to serve a second term.”
Metaxas has been a regular participant in prayer calls sponsored by religious-right activists Jim Garlow and Mario Bramnick at which people regularly declared that God would intervene to prevent Joe Biden from becoming president, and he acknowledged that. Kirk tried (unconvincingly) to let Metaxas off the hook by suggesting that his counting on divine intervention was somehow different than people assuring activists that legal and political means were sure to keep Trump in office.
Kirk was among the right-wing activists who urged Mike Pence to assert the unilateral power to reject certified electors from battleground states, even though the vice president does not have the power to do that during the certification process. Pence did not act with “courage or clarity,” Kirk said, going on to assert that he believes that only a “God-sized miracle”—which he said he is “holding out for” —could change the outcome now that Biden’s Electoral College victory has been certified by Congress.
McCullough continued to insist that Trump “won an overwhelming victory.” Metaxas concurred, adding that “what happened in the Capitol” did not change what happened during the election. The “emotional reaction” to the violence among some members of Congress who withdrew their objections to the certification of the electors was criticized by Metaxas, who singled out outgoing Sen. Kelly Loeffler for having “led the way,” slamming “the emotional reaction to have a woman like a Senator Loeffler behave in that emotional way.”
During his conversation with McCullough, Metaxas decried the “Deep State,” saying “we have to face the satanic ugliness of people in our government living off of our taxes, who are working against the will of the people.” He added, “The Deep State is Adolf Hitler. These people are working within the process to undermine the process.”
When McCullough suggested that the people who penetrated the barrier around the Capitol may have been undercover anti-fascist activists, Metaxas jumped in to say, “Let’s say it was Trump people. I still say, ‘So what?’”
During his segment, Wallnau declared “I know it’s antifa”—a false claim, especially given the ongoing identification of such far-right figures as Timothy Gionet and Nick Fuentes in the crowd that stormed the Capitol. Pivoting from his previous position, Metaxas said it looked like a “Marxist coup” meant to take the wind out of the sails of the effort to challenge electors.
When Metaxas asked Wallnau about all the prophets who had wrongly predicted Trump’s reelection, Wallnau was defensive, dismissing the question by saying, “We’re in the middle of a war for our survival. Let’s unify.”
Wallnau said one imperative for the religious right moving forward is “occupying our local governments more fully.” And he said that Trump is still willing to lead a movement that will redefine the Republican Party and damage the Democrats. But he said activists cannot resort to violence because it would be used by people who “would love to come for the guns of lawful people, just like they want to come for the freedom of speech of God’s most righteous people.”
