Election denier and QAnon supporter Melody Jennings says Christian nationalist program FlashPoint played a role in her radicalization
Former President Donald Trump and other right-wing politicians have repeatedly appeared on the program
Written by Payton Armstrong
Research contributions from Alex Kaplan
Published
During an August 4 interview, Melody Jennings identified the Victory Channel’s Christian nationalist program FlashPoint as part of the radicalization pipeline that led her to launch Clean Elections USA — which was behind a major effort to monitor ballot boxes during the 2022 midterms.
Jennings is an avowed QAnon supporter who participated in right-wing “election integrity” efforts during the 2022 midterms — that were in response to the false notion of widespread voter fraud — by coordinating efforts to intimidate people at ballot drop boxes. Jennings even took credit for armed men who were staking out ballot drop boxes in Arizona and later joined True the Vote, another election denial group with extensive links to QAnon.
FlashPoint is helmed by a panel of self-described “prophets” who played a key role in spreading the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump and pushed rhetoric that helped inspire violence during the January 6 insurrection. As Christian nationalism has grown in popularity among Republican voters over the last two years, FlashPoint has quietly emerged as a friendly platform for GOP politicians to court right-wing voters. The program has repeatedly interviewed Trump himself. Since September 2021, he has been interviewed at least six times on FlashPoint, telling its host last summer, “You do a great job and I appreciate it. And we're with you 1,000%.”
During the August 4 edition of Headmaster’s Homeroom, a podcast on right-wing streaming platform Rumble, host Lady Hamilton asked Jennings to explain how she came to focus on “election integrity.” Jennings said that she first took a “tumble down the rabbit hole” after watching QAnon content Fall of the Cabal in 2019, and “then, from there, I started just shoving into myself everything from Mel K to Clay Clark to the guys over at FlashPoint — Hank Kunneman and all the prophets and the lovely people there.” (Clay Clark and Mel K are both far-right conspiracy theorists.)
Jennings said that after the 2020 election, she “spent a couple of years just educating myself on everything” and “2022 is really when I was activated with all that,” citing Trump’s platform Truth Social as another key influence.
Citation From the August 4, 2023, edition of Headmaster's Homeroom streamed on Rumble
LADY HAMILTON (HOST): I know that you're very big on election integrity, but what kind of sparked this? You know, what did you see — if you could tell us your story? That would be great.
MELODY JENNINGS (CLEAN ELECTIONS USA): Yeah, I would love to. I really got my start in 2019 – so maybe God wasn't backlogged, too backlogged yet when he captured my heart. I was already a Republican and a Christian, and I held my nose voting for Trump because I wanted all of his Cabinet and all of his people in office and I didn't want Hillary Clinton in office. But in 2019, I did tumble down the rabbit hole, if you would, when I saw the Fall of the Cabal series, like 10 different little short videos and didn't sleep — well, slept with nightmares for about a week. And so, it was the children that woke me up because of that, and then from there ... it was just — I started just shoving into myself everything from Mel K to Clay Clark to the guys over at FlashPoint — Hank Kunneman and all the prophets and the lovely people there. And just so much. I just started going, digesting everything. I went to the very first Reawaken tour because I'm from Tulsa and got to hobnob with those folks over there. And that was lovely. And I just — I couldn't come up for air. I was like, “Just give me more.” And I know God just put me — just kind of flung me into a season of just taking it all in.
And then in 2022 is really when I was activated with all that, like spent a couple of years just educating myself on everything. And then in 2022, I went out onto Truth Social. It was like, it was brand new, it was a brand new platform. I was so excited to get it. I hated Twitter because it was all just like demons over there, I thought. And so I found this place and thought, “Oh good, a bunch of, you know, patriots, people who love the Lord,” you know. And I quickly saw that it was just, you know, a lot of people enjoying being social. And I’m like, "hey, we got all this power and here we need to do something." You know, let's do something. And I'll tell you what, as soon as I asked the question, I typed it out onto Truth Social and said, “Why aren’t we doing something?” The Holy Spirit hit me and said, “Don't ask somebody else. I've given you something to do.” And we had been seeing the teasers coming out for 2000 Mules. I know you've had Gregg [True the Vote leader Gregg Phillips] on the show — but the movie hadn't come out yet. The film hadn't come out. But I just — what dropped in my spirit was dropbox initiative 22 — 2022. Ten people around drop boxes 24-7 because you know, just this righteous anger rose up inside of me about our elections being stolen. And so I just started — I became a keyboard warrior that day.