Hank Kunneman, a pastor aligned with former President Donald Trump‘s MAGA political movement, said that those who trust the results of the 2020 presidential election “might want to reexamine [their] theology.”
A self-described “prophet,” Kunneman is the founder of the Lord of Hosts Church in Omaha, Nebraska, where he also serves as senior pastor. In recent years, he has been strongly aligned with Trump, even suggesting that God foretold Trump’s presidency to him in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks in New York City. Kunneman has been a strong proponent of Trump’s false claims that widespread election fraud resulted in his 2020 loss to Joe Biden.
On Tuesday, the watchdog group Right Wing Watch shared a clip on Twitter in which Kunneman discussed the election, suggesting to his followers that they rethink their personal theology if they trust the results and believe that Biden won fairly.
MAGA pastor/self-proclaimed “prophet” Hank Kunneman, who repeatedly prophesied that Trump would win the 2020 election, says that if you actually believe that Biden won, “you might want to reexamine your theology.” pic.twitter.com/2MmiNCmcCm
— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) July 18, 2023
“If you believe that the media’s been telling us the truth all this time, and you believe that a guy that was hiding out in his basement, can’t gather a crowd, he wasn’t even around the crowds, could gather more than 80 million votes, you might want to reexamine your theology,” Kunneman said.
Kunneman’s remark came as a rebuttal to arguments he claimed to have heard, which said that religious leaders who predicted a second term as president for Trump were wrong. In the past, he has characterized Biden’s presidency as a test of faith.
David Dee Delgado/Getty
“God has not changed his mind,” Kunneman said in May 2021. “President Trump won. The nation is now in a place where we are being tested. God is going to fulfill what he has spoken through the prophets.
“There are some prophets that have backed off, they’re not pressing in. And the prophets that will, the believers that continue to press in are the ones are going to be rewarded in this day…These that are criticizing the prophets are going to see that they were, in fact, right.”
Kunneman previously claimed to have heard from God in the wake of 9/11 that He would “raise up a president [from New York City] who will bring this nation back on course and this president will be given two terms.”
In the clip shared on Tuesday, Kunneman referenced Biden’s crowd sizes in 2020, a common argument among election deniers who claim that Trump’s larger crowds were a sign of his greater popularity. Reports found that the difference in crowds during the 2020 election was a reflection of the Biden campaign trying to avoid larger crowds amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Newsweek reached out to Vote Common Good via email for comment. In 2020, the group rallied more than 1,600 religious leaders to endorse Biden over Trump.
