All eyes were on Nevada last night, as the state continues to tally votes in the 2020 presidential election. And all knees were on the ground, as a group of President Donald Trump’s supporters gathered outside a Nevada counting center to pray for the incumbent president’s victory.
CBS News producer Alyssa Estrada tweeted a video of the scene outside the Clark County Election Department on Thursday night, which shows several in red hats kneeling on the ground, arms outstretched, enrapt in prayer. (Another woman is standing against the building with a hand on the window.) The women reportedly told Estrada they were “praying justice will be done and that righteousness prevails.”
The video struck a chord with many social media users—though not necessarily the same chord for everybody. While some admired the women’s piety, others found their public prayer to be performative, misplaced, and cultish.
“I understand praying for a man however they are praying for a man that has caused so much division and chaos all of what God doesn’t represent,” @LucinaMurillo0 tweeted. “Yet they want this man in office smh I don’t get it!”
“Put an American Flag in the window and they will stop kneeling,” @the_coleman21 quipped.
Twitter user @dameFK shared the viral video—which has now been viewed nearly 8 million times—with the caption, “Me at chic fila on sundays.”
Self-proclaimed “Christian dyke” @holyqueerit quote-tweeted the video and called out the Trump supporters’ self-servitude with an exhortation from Jesus Christ himself: “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others.”
“Imagine dramatically speaking in tongues in public—literally murmuring unknown languages—yet being part of the racist ‘this is America, speak English’ crowd,” @holyqueerit continued. “Imagine.”
