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JD Vance sure picked the perfect place to host his latest campaign rally in Arizona. Perfect, because it aligns exactly with his bigoted, chauvinistic worldview. Vance’s event, co-hosted by Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, was held Wednesday at Generation Church in Mesa, Arizona, and featured extremist pastor Ryan Visconti.
Visconti has literally told his followers “Christians can’t vote Democrat.” In addition to parroting right-wing talking points about elections, Visconti has also spewed plenty of anti-LGBTQ venom via his social media accounts.
And his views about women aren’t any better. Julie Roys, a Christian reporter whose work focuses on fundamentalism and Christian nationalism, found social media posts from Visconti in 2022 in which he said a strong woman with a weak husband “will become a toxic woman” and another in which he said domestic abuse isn’t a biblically justifiable reason for divorce.
“Although heartbreaking, ‘abuse’ is not a biblical justification for divorce,” Visconti claimed in a since-expired Instagram story, adding, “This is the most used and abused (pun intended) argument. It is grounds for separation, but not divorce.” Visconti apparently likes to get punny when he downplays domestic abuse. (In a video on the church’s YouTube in May, Visconti echoes this idea, arguing divorce is only acceptable in cases of “real” abuse, a nebulous term he says ought to be reserved for cases involving physical violence.) Notably, claims like these, discouraging battered spouses from seeking divorce, align with comments Vance has made as well. And Kirk, who hosted a discussion with Vance at the rally, is also known for sexist diatribes.
Vance spokesperson Luke Schroeder told NBC News, “Senator Vance supports every American’s right to freely practice their religion,” adding, “It’s a shame the media is attacking a pastor over his religious beliefs simply because he is hosting an event at his church.” Turning Point USA did not respond to NBC News’ request for comment.
That the campaign chose this venue and these co-hosts underscores a point I wrote about recently: Overt misogyny and chauvinism are fundamental to the current Republican Party. So it really comes as no surprise that the rally featured rhetoric full of hypermasculinity and xenophobia.
Visconti (at 14:49 in this video) took the stage to start and railed against “secularism,” which he described as the removal of God from “the boardroom and the courtroom, the classroom and the bedroom.” The pastor claimed that “demonic gods who hate us” are promoting things like “DEI, sexual depravity [and] radical gender ideology.”
Vance’s discussion with Kirk was filled with anti-immigrant fear-mongering, including the blatantly false claim that “we have thousands of missing children because Kamala Harris let the cartels sex traffic minors in our own country.” Vance said this is “hard to believe” — and it is, because according to the Department of Justice’s 2023 report, the vast majority of those prosecuted for child sex trafficking in the U.S. are white male citizens of this country.
But given the past statements from everyone involved, no one should be surprised by the sort of rhetoric we heard from Vance on Thursday. Disturbed? Yes. Surprised? Not in the least.