In a Lower Manhattan courtroom, prosecutors for District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr. are trying to show jurors that former President Donald Trump violated New York State laws when he made hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels and falsified business records in order to cover up an extramarital affair with her during the 2016 presidential election.
According to Trump's former personal attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen — who is expected to testify as a star witness in the trial — Trump also had an extramarital affair with former Playboy model Karen McDougal.
Yet Trump, despite these accusations, continues to be quite popular with far-right white evangelical Christian fundamentalists. One of them is Pastor Gene Bailey, who launched the evangelical cable news show "FlashPoint" in 2020 and is now using the program to promote Trump's 2024 campaign.
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NBC News' Mike Hixenbaugh examines "FlashPoint's" popularity among white evangelicals in an article published on May 3, stressing that Bailey's audience view Trump as someone who was chosen by God Almighty to lead the United States.
Global apocalypse, according to Hixenbaugh, is a recurring theme on the show.
During a recent three-hour broadcast, Hixenbaugh reports, "The audience heard the same overarching message that 'FlashPoint' broadcasts three times a week on the Victory Channel television network and various streaming platforms: The world has entered its final years. Jesus will soon return. But Christians are not meant to wait idly while evil runs rampant; they are called to occupy positions of power and influence in society. And in the short term, that means putting Donald Trump back in the White House."
Hixenbaugh notes that "FlashPoint" sometimes "looks and sounds like other right-wing cable programs" but unlike Fox News, combines "political analysis with messages that they say come directly from God."
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"The show draws a monthly cable TV audience of roughly 11,000 households, according to Comscore data, while clips of the program reach hundreds of thousands more viewers online," Hixenbaugh reports. "With a rabid following, it has 'become incredibly popular and even gravitational' on the Christian Right, said Matthew Taylor, a senior scholar at the nonprofit Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies in Maryland. Trump is one of several prominent Republicans who have appeared as guests on 'FlashPoint,' including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA."
According to Bradley Onishi, author of the book "Preparing For War the Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism — and What Comes Next" and a former megachurch pastor, "FlashPoint" encourages viewers to "think of themselves as soldiers in a cosmic conflict."
"When you explain it that way to folks," Onishi told NBC News, 'you're able to prime them not only for action, but I think for extreme measures."
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Read NBC News' full report at this link.
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