Jerry Falwell Jr. Promises ‘Business as Usual’ at Liberty University in Fall: No Social Distancing or Masks

CLEVELAND, OH - JULY 21: President of Liberty University, Jerry Falwell Jr., delivers a sp
John Moore/Getty
Robert Kraychik

Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University, told Breitbart News said his school will return to “business as usual” for the upcoming fall semester in the context of the coronavirus outbreak. He offered his remarks on Tuesday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight with host Matt Boyle.

Liberty University, based in Lynchburg, VA, is prepared to sue Gov. Ralph Northam (D-VA) if the governor seeks to mandate school closures.

“We’ve got a law firm poised to sue the governor if he tries has to stop us, or if he tries to say, ‘You have to have 50 percent attendance at ballgames or in classrooms, or you have to limit the size of classrooms,'” Falwell stated. “We don’t believe that 18- to 23-year-olds are at risk of any fatality.”

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Falwell continued, “Just like Purdue University, we are taking steps to protect the older staff and faculty members behind Plexiglass. Let them teach behind Plexiglass [or] let them work third shift if they’re custodians, whatever it takes to protect the ones that really are at risk, but the young ones, they don’t need to wear masks, they don’t need a social distance.”

“If they get sick, most of them don’t even know they’ve had it,” Falwell added. “That’s the way I look at it, and nobody has told me anything scientific to change my mind on that.”

Falwell said many Evangelical Christians have noticed a political dimension to lockdown and shutdown measures in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
“I’m just not falling for it,” Falwell remarked. “Our community believes it’s all political, and I just hate that somebody can get away with something like this. It’s a crime.”

Falwell shared, “Our enrollment is same as it was [at] this point last year. Our online enrollment is up 10,000 above the record high that we had in 2014. It’s 108,000 now compared to 98,000, but our residential enrollment is right where it was last year, and it’s all we have room for.”

Falwell continued, “Everybody wants to come back. They’re ready to come back. They’re not scared of this virus. They see now that it’s a ruse, and yes, there might be a surge here and there in infections, but the death rate like nothing like we were told it was percentage-wise when all this started.”

“The coronavirus has been politicized,” observed Falwell. “It is why they tried to shut the economy down [and] to try to blame Trump for it.”

Breitbart News Tonight broadcasts live on SiriusXM Patriot channel 125 weeknights from 9:00 p.m. to midnight Eastern or 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Pacific.

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