ReAwaken acts as a petri dish for Christian nationalism and pushes the idea that there’s a battle underway between good and evil forces. Those who are considered evil include government officials and Democrats.
It’s “a pep rally on spiritual steroids” said Kristin Kobes Du Mez, a history professor at Calvin University in Michigan, who studies evangelicalism.
ReAwaken often appears in churches with speakers addressing attendees from the pulpit. The Batavia show was staged on the grounds of a church, after faith and community leaders in nearby Rochester told organizers they weren’t welcome.
Inside a revival tent set up outside, people sat in white folding chairs packed so tightly the rows between were nearly impassable. From the stage, speakers stirred up fear and hatred. Immigrants are rushing over the border “to take your place,” one said. Homosexuals and pedophiles are classified in the same category: sinful people who don’t honor God. Life-saving vaccines are creating “a damn genocide.” “The enemy wants to muzzle you,” another speaker warned. “He wants to shut your mouth.”
Clark, the Tour’s principal organizer and emcee, opened the Batavia show bellowing: “Good morning, New York! And good morning, New York Attorney General Letitia James!” The greeting was a reference to a letter James’ sent to Flynn and Clark warning them against violent or unlawful conduct.
“I want you to look around and you’ll see a group of people that love this country dearly,” he said. “At this Reawaken America Tour, Jesus is King (and) President Donald J. Trump is our president.”
The AP and Frontline bought tickets for the Batavia event after Clark invited “Frontline” to attend one of the tour’s shows. Reporters spent two days listening to speakers and observing the events from inside. On the second day, security escorted a “Frontline” reporter from the grounds because, he was told, Flynn believed he intended to cover the event unfavorably. When an AP reporter began interviewing people attending the event at the end of the second day, she was also reported to security.
While smaller in scale, the ReAwaken shows are similar in tone to the rallies Trump holds. Grievance and contempt for government institutions are regular themes. ReAwaken speakers have included Trump’s sons, Eric and Don Jr., Trump confidant Roger Stone, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who has spread anti-vaccine misinformation.
For a tour stop scheduled later this month in Pennsylvania, Republican gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano is listed as a speaker.
In Batavia, Greg Locke, a Tennessee pastor, and Eric Trump declared in back-to-back remarks that the FBI’s court-authorized search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida for classified records showed how the U.S. government has been weaponized against its citizens.
“Third world Gestapo stuff,” said Eric Trump. After he finished speaking, a group gathered to pray over him.
Other speakers promoted bizarre theories. One claimed President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 because he threatened to expose a plot to enslave every man, woman and child in the U.S. Another said a Hebrew prophet foretold 2,500 years ago the exact date the U.S. Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade, taking away the constitutional right to abortion.
