Just days after election conspiracy theorist and right-wing funder Mike Lindell entered into a fundraising partnership with white nationalist Vincent James, radio host Eric Metaxas fawned over the pillow salesman, calling Lindell “my hero.”
It was not the pundit’s only recent brush with white nationalism. Right Wing Watch noted last week that Metaxas has joined religious-right commentator John Zmirak in promoting a version of the far-right “white genocide” theory by likening the situation of white Christians in the United States today to the worsening persecution faced by Jews in Nazi Germany and the demonization of Tutsi people leading up to the Rwanda genocide.
The Sept. 14 episode of “The Eric Metaxas Show” featured Lindell and was devoted to the two men expressing outrage that a group of FBI agents had questioned Lindell and confiscated his cell phone a day prior. A federal judge had granted the FBI the search warrant in connection to its investigation into a breach of voting machine data in Colorado.
Metaxas called the FBI actions “evil” and “unbelievably despicable,” telling his listeners, “If this doesn’t make you mad, you’re dead inside. You’re already dead.” To the FBI agents who enforced the search warrant, Metaxas said, “Shame on you,” with Lindell adding that FBI employees who don’t speak out are part of the problem.
Metaxas agreed and went on to say that God is speaking through both him and Lindell.
“Mike, you’re saying what I’m saying,” Metaxas told Lindell. “And here’s the real issue: It’s what God is saying through humble, broken servants like Mike and Eric and others. We have to speak the truth right now. That’s what is happening. And those who are going along with the silence, folks, trust me, God is holding you accountable.”
True to form, Metaxas mentioned the silence of many churches during the rise of the Nazis in pre-war Germany. It was not the first time he analogized the treatment of Trump supporters after the Jan. 6 insurrection to the persecution Jews and other people faced under the Nazi regime. He once declared, “The Deep State is Adolf Hitler.”
Lindell claimed that he is now in possession of data proving that “97 percent of all the machines in this country were manipulated in the 2020 election,” and that when the truth comes out, “We need to melt these machines down and use them for prison bars.” Lindell has repeatedly told supporters that he was on the verge of releasing irrefutable proof of the wild claims he has made about the election, and he has repeatedly failed to do make good on those promises. The pillow salesman has been more successful, however, in getting his supporters to disrupt election offices with nuisance public records requests.
Lindell ended the interview by saying that the election and its aftermath is happening in “God’s timing,” and that his efforts to reveal the truth are helping to bring about the greatest Christian revival in history. Metaxas agreed that there are “tons of people coming to faith” because they are questioning “the madness that has been unleashed in America.”
Metaxas was a regular participant in post-election prayer calls in support of former President Donald Trump at which dominionist “prophets” declared that God would intervene to stop Joe Biden from becoming president. Metaxas emceed the pro-Trump rally on the National Mall a few weeks before the Jan. 6 insurrection at which Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes threatened bloody civil war if Trump did not use the military to stay in power. Two days after the Capitol insurrection, in response to a guest’s suggestion that the violence was perpetrated by undercover anti-fascist activists, Metaxas said, “Let’s say it was Trump people. I still say, ‘So what?’”