Sen. 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 Trump was chosen by God, defended the Jan. 6 attack and described Vice President Kamala Harris’ debate performance as “witchcraft.”

But when Vance took the stage Saturday afternoon for the event — which signs billed as a town hall “hosted by The Lance Wallnau Show Courage Series” — the event had been arranged so that he did not appear with Wallnau. Wallnau addressed the gathering earlier and introduced another pastor who held the conversation.

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 Harris’ performance at the debate earlier this month, 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.”

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, Wisconsin, that “Jan. 6 was not an insurrection; it was an election fraud intervention,” according to CBS News.

Before the event, a spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee, Aida Ross, had criticized Vance for planning to appear with Wallnau, whom she called “a conspiracy theorist whose record includes accusing women of ‘witchcraft.’ ”

“This shameless pandering to the far right is exactly what the American people have come to expect from Vance,” she said in a statement, “and it’s why he’s the least popular VP nominee in modern American history whose disastrous reputation will be yet another drag on the Trump-Vance ticket this November.”

Luke Schroeder, a spokesperson for Vance, said that “Senator Vance and his mother, Beverly, were thankful for the opportunity to call attention to the millions of Americans who are struggling with addiction,” which he tied to “Kamala Harris’ open border policies and the fentanyl crisis those policies created.”

“The Trump-Vance administration will put a stop to this crisis, and it’s a disgrace that the media would rather distract Americans from Kamala’s failures than give struggling Americans the spotlight they deserve,” he said.