Jerry Falwell Jr. has gone out of his way to show his support for Donald Trump, making every twist and gyration necessary to overlook not just Trump’s sexual assaults but his racism, sexism, and religious bigotry. Falwell has also bolstered his claims that Trump is a strong candidate for evangelicals by claiming that the students at Liberty University are Trump enthusiasts.
But the students are tired of being used as props to support either Falwell or Trump.
A statement issued late Wednesday by the group Liberty United Against Trump strongly rebuked the candidate as well as the school’s president, Jerry Falwell Jr., for defending Trump after he made extremely lewd comments about women in a 2005 video. The students wrote that Falwell’s support for Trump had cast a stain on the school’s reputation.
“We are Liberty students who are disappointed with President Falwell’s endorsement and are tired of being associated with one of the worst presidential candidates in American history,” the statement said. “Donald Trump does not represent our values and we want nothing to do with him. … He has made his name by maligning others and bragging about his sins. Not only is Donald Trump a bad candidate for president, he is actively promoting the very things that we as Christians ought to oppose.”
The Liberty students aren’t alone in showing their disdain for Trump. Earlier this week, the University of Virginia College Republicans withdrew support for Donald Trump, and the College Republicans at Hampden-Sydney College stated that Trump could become “a potentially permanent stain on our brand and our country.”
Fallwell has been as smugly dismissive of the statement as he is of all criticism.
“I am proud of these few students for speaking their minds but I’m afraid the statement is incoherent and false.”
To everyone except Falwell , it seems perfectly coherent. And the “few” includes more than 250 students and faculty … and growing.
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