Liberty University president Jerry Falwell is defending his decision to keep the Lynchburg, Va., school open during the pandemic — and mockingly said he’ll wear a state-mandated face mask if the protection has a picture of “governor blackface” on it.
In an interview on Sinclair Broadcasting’s “America This Week,” the evangelist leader lamented Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s orders to close schools and universities, as well as his requirement that all Virginians wear masks.
According to Falwell, he designed a mask featuring a picture of Northam wearing blackface next to another person wearing a Ku Klux Klan robe — mocking the controversy over the picture of Northam that turned up last year.
“I got a mask printed up with him and a friend in his KKK… fine I’ll wear a mask but only if it’s got a picture of governor black face,” he said.
He also asserted none of the roughly 1,200 students who remained on campus during the spring semester contracted COVID-19.
“We had zero cases the whole spring semester,” he said. “Only 1200 were on campus, they couldn’t go back home to do their studies…. others were international students. We had two surprise inspections and we got nothing but glowing reports” from the state.
He railed at a New York Times report on the campus during that time.
“They never talked to us the whole time,” he said. “They never contacted [the doctor on campus]. … it was a hit job.”
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