Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr defended President Trump’s response to the violence in Charlottesville, trying to explain how the president could say there were ‘very fine people on both sides,’ when one side was comprised of KKK members and neo-Nazis.
‘He has inside information that I don’t have,’ Falwell said to ABC News’ Martha Raddatz. ‘I don’t know if there were historical purists there who were trying to preserve some statues. I don’t know.’
ABC News had reached out to the White House to book an official who would defend the president, in the aftermath of one of Trump’s most politically-damaging weeks, and the administration had pointed to Falwell, one of Trump’s biggest backers from the religious, evangelical community.
The president of Liberty University, Jerry Falwell Jr, went on ABC’s This Week to defend President Trump, suggesting the president had ‘inside information’ on the make up of the Charlottesville, Virginia crowd
Jerry Falwell Jr (left) told ABC News’ Martha Raddatz (right) that he believed President Trump could be more careful with his words, but ‘at least he’s not politically correct’
On Wednesday, the day after Trump’s eyebrow-raising Trump Tower press conference in which the president doubled down on placing blame, too, on counter-protesters marching against the racists, Falwell had tweeted his support for Trump, complimenting him for making a ‘bold’ and ‘truthful’ statement.
He explained what he meant by his compliment on ABC’s This Week today.
‘The bold and truthful statements I was referring to were his willingness to call evil and terrorism by its name, to identify the groups, the Nazis, the KKK, the white supremacists,’ Falwell told Raddatz. ‘And that’s something a leader should do. And I admire him for that.’
On Monday, Trump had read from a teleprompter and condemned the KKK, neo-Nazis and white supremacists by name, two days after a Nazi sympathizer had used his car to mow down counter-protesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer.
It was the first time Trump had called out the hate groups by name.
But by Tuesday, Trump had seemingly backtracked by saying the counter-protesters were somewhat at fault for the violence that happened.
Trump also said there were ‘very fine people on both sides.’
Raddatz pointed to that comments and asked Falwell to react.
‘He had information I didn’t have,’ the Liberty University president said. ‘I think he saw videos of who was there. I think he was talking about what he had seen, information that he had that I don’t have.’
‘All I know is it was pure evil,’ Falwell said of those attending the ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville.
‘The media has tried to paint this as Republican versus Democrat, black versus white, Jew versus gentile, but it’s just pure evil versus good,’ Falwell continued. ‘And that’s what we all need to unite behind.’
Raddatz then pointed to comments made earlier this week by Ronna Romney McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, who said that once people saw Nazi flags at the event they should have ‘turned tail.’
Raddatz said she was ‘intrigued’ that Falwell thought Trump knew there were some good people at the rally.
‘I don’t know that to be the fact,’ Falwell then said of his ‘inside information’ claim.
He also said he agreed with Romney McDaniel’s assessment, that marchers should leave a protest if they see a Nazi flag.
The alt-right groups in Charlottesville had been gathered there under the guise of protesting the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
‘If some[body] showed up and they saw that they were marching beside somebody who hates blacks, who hates Jews, who wants to do violence, I think they should just walk away, yes,’ Falwell urged.
Raddatz also asked what Falwell would tell Heyer’s mother, who says she doesn’t want to speak with President Trump after what he said about the counter-protesters.
‘I think the president has made it very clear that there is no moral equivalency between what the counter-protesters did, even though maybe some of them resorted to violence in response … and somebody driving his car into a crowd because he hates people of other races,’ Falwell said. ‘That’s wrong. That’s just evil. There’s no two ways about it.’
‘And the president has made that clear,’ the evangelical leader added.
Raddatz later pointed out that Trump had never labeled the incident domestic terrorism.
‘He did. He said that is something for the officials to determine,’ Falwell replied. ‘He said you can call it terrorism, you can call it evil, you can call it murder. I’m not sure exactly what his words were. But he never said it was not terrorism.’
Raddatz asked Falwell if he’d like to see Trump be more careful with his words.
‘All of us could,’ the faith leader replied. ‘But at least he’s not politically correct, he’s not so concerned about rehearsing and focus grouping every statement he makes.’
‘And that’s one of the reasons I supported him,’ he added.