Donald J. Trump is “America’s blue collar billionaire,” Rev. Jerry Falwell told delegates at the 2016 GOP convention, 32 years after his father, Rev. Jerry Falwell, offered an opening prayer at 1984 Republican National Convention.
Jerry Falwell, who leads the Lynchburg, Virginia school his father founded, said Trump is down-to-earth, loves America and the American people. “He is a true patriot and a champion of the common man,” Falwell said.
One example of Trump’s reverence for traditional American liberties is his support inserting for a plank in the GOP Platform which calls for the repeal of the so-called Johnson Amendment, Falwell said. The amendment is a 1954 change in the federal tax code, sponsored by Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson (D-Texas), which restricts political activity of non-profit organizations, principally churches.
“Conservative universities and churches have been investigated, while authorities has too often have turned a blind eye toward liberal groups, including universities, where left-wing ideology is so pervasive that they have in effect become Democratic voter indoctrination camps,” said the attorney. “Trust me. The repeal of the Johnson Amendment would create a huge revolution for conservative Christians and for free speech.”
Falwell said the country is at a crossroads, where the first priority must be saving the nation. “We must unite behind Donald Trump and Mike Pence,” he said.
Falwell obliquely addressed the controversy from the previous night, when Sen. Ted Cruz (R.-Texas) refused to endorse Trump and then this morning told the Texas delegates that he refused to be a “servile puppy” to Trump. Of course, a year ago March, Cruz launched his own run for president at Liberty. Then, Cruz positioned himself as the champion of religious liberty and the voice of the white evangelicals, who eventually swung to Trump.
“If you are a conservative, a decision not to vote or to vote for a third-party candidate is a de facto vote for Hillary Clinton,” he said. “If Hillary Clinton is allowed to appoint the next few Supreme Court justices, that in itself could be a fatal blow to our Republic.”
A vote for Trump “is a vote to uphold the Second Amendment right to bear arms, a vote to stop Iran from funding terrorists and harming Israel,” he said. “A vote for Trump is a vote to appoint conservative, pro-life justices to the Supreme Court.”
Falwell said in his father’s last days, he joked with CNN that he dreamed that he had been interviewed by Chelsea Clinton about the three greatest threats to America;
He replied, ‘The three greatest threats are: Osama, Obama and your mama.’ Well, Osama is now gone, Obama has six months left in his term and the only way to ‘Make America Great–and One Again’ is to tell Chelsea’s mama: ‘You’re fired.’
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