Thread by @TaylorMatthewD

Joshua Caleb Standifer's organization Lion of Judah represents an urgent & unrecognized hazard to our democracy this fall.

It's targeting election workers.

I was at this event on Monday. I talked to Standifer himself.

So please, watch this video, & I'll continue... 1/

https://twitter.com/RightWingWatch/status/1818709350581506286

Lion of Judah poses as a Christian ministry aimed at assisting Christians to register as election workers.

That might sound mostly innocuous-albeit strange-but you have to look at the context in which they're doing it & how they go about it.

They are 2020 election denyers! 2/

This @RightWingWatch video clip was taken from the Courage Tour in Eau Claire, WI on Monday ().

It's a hyperpoliticized revival tour cooked up by Lance Wallnau.

If you don't know Wallnau, here's my podcast episode on him: 3/ thecouragetour.com
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/epi…

TL;DR - Lance Wallnau is Donald Trump's most effective spiritual propagandist.

He creates memes that draw Christians into viewing Trump as God's anointed leader; he was one of the most influential Christian leaders mobilizing for January 6th.

He was even there himself. 4/

In fact, at this same event, just a few hours before Standifer spoke, Wallnau said:

"January 6th was not an insurrection. It was an election fraud intervention."

In other words, the Capitol Riot was righteous & lamentably unsuccessful. 5/

https://x.com/KiraResistance/status/1818072913821512043

The Courage Tour is a thinly disguised, overtly Christian nationalist, voter mobilization effort coordinated w/ the 2024 Trump campaign.

America First Policy Inst. (Trump Admin 2.0 in waiting) is working hand-in-glove w/ Wallnau to target swing states. 6/ rollingstone.com/politics/polit…

I was present throughout the Courage Tour event on Monday, & it was rife with 2020 election denialism from the stage, in conversations among attendees, & in the literature at the booths.

It's like a tamer version of the ReAwaken America tour. 7/

https://x.com/TaylorMatthewD/status/1755997208325787742

I spoke to Joshua Caleb Standifer for a few minutes, & he told me his background was in doing oppo research for a major Republican firm in DC, then he got disillusioned w/ how corrupt & business-like Repub. politics were, so he moved back to Nashville & started Lion of Judah. 8/

He created LOJ--a 501(c)(4)--in Jan 2024, so good luck getting any financial or legal info on it.

He said they're active in all 50 states but are especially focused on the swing states (same as Wallnau's Courage Tour -- highly targeted).

Standifer is a Wallnau acolyte. 9/

At one point in the event Wallnau said to the roughly 2500 Wisconsinites & Minnesotans present, "If we don't get every person here convinced they need to become a poll watcher or an election worker or helping to mobilize more voters [for Trump], then we haven't done our job." 10/

Oh, and if 2500 in-person attendees sounds like a big number, that's not even counting the roughly 50,000 people following the live stream on Facebook.

Wallnau has a massive online following of millions of charismatic Christians who view him as a literal prophet. 11/

And the support for Donald Trump & obvious campaigning & strategizing for 2024 were built into the program.

So while it's presented as a revival tour, it started with 45 minutes of worship singing & speaking in tongues, then got straight to Wallnau's political messaging. 11/

That's the context, now let's look at what Lion of Judah is doing: They are recruiting election workers from a crowd where it's absolutely safe to assume belief in conspiracy theories about the 2024 election.

THEY WANT TO PUT THESE PEOPLE INSIDE THE VOTE-COUNTING PROCESS!

12/

I have 2 areas of concern here: 1 major, 1 minor.

Of minor concern: these people could monkey with the vote-counting process & attempt to rig the election for Trump.

That's possible, & this IS an undeniably partisan effort at election-worker recruitment. 13/

But having talked to people in the audience, these are more the deluded, true-believer, conspiracy theorist types.

They really believe that the 2020 election was stolen (w/ no evidence!), & they see it as their duty to become election workers to stop that happening again. 14/

Which leads to my major concern: a prime reason the effort to overturn the 2020 election was unsuccessful was Trump's lawyers & advocates were unable to offer up any evidence or witnesses to voter fraud.

Giuliani/Powell looked like fools.

This could change that dynamic. 15/

We already know that the RNC/2024 Trump campaign is investing inordinate resources in standing up legal teams in all the swing states, ready to contest the election at Trump's command.

So let's imagine we have a replay of 2020: Trump loses & fights. 16/

axios.com/2024/06/02/leg…

Wallnau & Standifer are pre-positioning embedded Trump assets inside the voting infrastructure.

These are people who will be in place to "step forward" with "evidence" of voter fraud or election tampering.

Look at the the instructions Lion of Judah gives their trainees! 17/

Lion of Judah tells the trainees that the 1st step upon seeing anything fishy is to report it to Lion of Judah before reporting it to election authorities (that's Step 2!).

Mind you, LOJ presents itself as a Christian ministry. What do they need reports of voter fraud for?

18/

The scariest thing to me: I can actually imagine these true-believer types manufacturing evidence of voter fraud while believing in their heart it's real.

I study these election-denying Xns day in & day out--they are truly disconnected from reality & the fact-based world.

19/

Journalists & election lawyers: We need you on this story!

Where is Standifer's funding coming from?

Who is pushing this strategy? AFPI?

Is this even legal?

It must vary state to state, but don't there have to be some vows or oaths to objectivity election workers take?

20/

It's worth noting that Wallnau has heavy ties to Ziklag, a (probably illegal) private political funding scheme focused on "election integrity" that @propublica recently exposed.

It's highly likely Ziklag money is in the background of this LOJ scheme. 21/

propublica.org/article/inside…

To conclude: in the video above Standifer said "I call this our Trojan Horse in" to US electoral systems. This is a deception, a battle tactic.

These delusional reality-denyers attempted to overturn a legit election 4 years ago.

Now, they're smarter & more determined. 22/

Footnotes: if you want an excellent rundown of the Courage Tour, read @anelsona's recent account of the Michigan stop:

And if you want to understand Wallnau, I've got a whole chapter on him in my forthcoming book: 23 . . washingtonspectator.org/michigan/
icjs.org/the-violent-ta…