Glenn Beck says God sent Tea Party challenger to wipe out 'progressive' Mitch McConnell

The Tea Party-backed Matt Bevin was sent by God to unseat Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), claimed talk show host Glenn Beck during a campaign event for the Republican challenger.

Beck told conservative activists Saturday afternoon at FreePAC Kentucky that Bevin was the answer to their prayers.

"I will tell you I met the guys you had speaking. Some of them I've met several times," Beck said. "Matt Bevin, I have not met. I’ve talked to him several times and I had a good feeling. But I am telling you, I believe that man was called of God."

Bevin made national news last week after he spoke at a rally for legalized cockfighting, although the Republican insisted he thought the rally was more broadly in favor of state rights – rather than explicitly supportive of a state’s right to allow bloodsport.

“Let me tell you something: Mitch McConnell is as big of a danger to this country as Barack Obama is,” Beck told the crowd. “The progressive disease is in both parties. Big government is a philosophy in both parties, period. It is antithetical to the American system, period.”

About 3,500 people attended the Louisville rally organized by FreedomWorks ahead of the May 20 primary election in Kentucky.

The conservative crowd also heard from FreedomWorks President and CEO Matt Kibbe, Senate candidate Chris McDaniel of Mississippi, and Bevin, who spoke before Beck.

Beck urged the conservative activists to “wake up” their friends and tell them to vote for the heavenly ordained candidates for which they had begged.

“These are the beginnings of miracles, but it requires us to stand, and it requires us to get hit,” he said.

Beck then pulled out a pocket watch he claimed had saved the life of the Mormon Church founder and told a misleading anecdote to rouse the audience.

The former Louisville shock jock said authorities had tried to tar and feather Joseph Smith for his support for abolition before attempting to arrest him over a stolen stove.

Beck claimed Smith traded the watch for payment of $25 he owed a vendor for the stove.

“‘You know that’s not true, sheriff, but just to settle everything,’” Beck said, “and (Smith) reached into his pocket, took out this watch, and put it in the hand of the sheriff, and said, ‘Just to make sure we’re clear on everything, this should certainly cover the price of any stove I might have stolen, and I don’t owe a man a dime.’”

Beck apparently was referring to a day in 1837 when Smith was sued six times in one day while living in Ohio.

Smith frequently ran afoul of the law over illegal banking, threats made against authorities, and unpaid debts -- including the stove, which a vendor had given him to test but he had kept.

Smith advocated during a failed 1844 presidential run that the federal government should sell off public lands to purchase the freedom of slaves, who he believed should be sent to colonize Africa.

Watch this video posted online by Freedom Works Action:

[Image via Flickr user Gage Skidmore]