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Jerry Falwell Jr. 'willing to serve' in the Trump administration
Jerry Falwell, Jr. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Jerry Falwell Jr. 'willing to serve' in the Trump administration

Yet another name has arisen in the sweepstakes that is President-elect Donald Trump's Cabinet naming process: Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University and a longtime evangelical supporter of the billionaire businessman.

According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Falwell, who was in Manhattan with Trump Nov. 8 when he won the presidency, has met with both the president-elect and Vice President-elect Mike Pence to discuss his interest in serving in the administration.

"I let them know one of my passions is reforming higher education and education in general," he told the Times-Dispatch Tuesday. He added, "I told them I’d be willing — I have a lot of responsibilities here — but I’d be willing to serve in some capacity that sort of brings education back to some form of sanity."

He went on to say that education needs to "get back to the basics of teaching" instead of focusing on "salaries that are out of this world," which he asserted comes from an "ivory tower" mentality. Falwell has overseen a $900 million campus facelift over the past 10 years at Liberty, which is located in Lynchburg, Virginia, and is the world's largest Christian university.

Of Falwell's conversation with Trump and Pence and the reforms he'd like to see implemented, the Times-Dispatch reported:

In public K-12 education, Falwell said, school vouchers could “transform the country and the inner cities” by giving parents an educational choice that provides “a whole generation of young people a new lease on life.”

Falwell described the discussions as “very informal conversations” but said his offer was well-received. “They were very surprised because they know how busy I am ... but very glad to hear” his offer to help.

Falwell, like many evangelicals who fervently supported Trump during the election, has high hopes for the brash real estate mogul, and the Liberty president said he is confident the president-elect will follow through on his promises, at least when it comes to making conservative appointments to the Supreme Court.

He also had a few harsh words for the hundreds, if not thousands, of college students who have taken to the streets protesting the election results in the days since Trump secured enough electoral votes to become the next president. He said liberal colleges are "having these little cry sessions and canceling classes and basically saying the wrong guy won."

"Those are nonprofit schools. They are subject to the Johnson Amendment ... and they’re saying, ‘We’ll help you mourn since the wrong guy won,'" Falwell said, referring to the law that bars tax-exempt organizations from making political statements. "If Liberty had done that after Obama had won, we would have been called on the carpet on the Johnson Amendment and our tax exemption would have been at stake."

And of the criticism he has received from his fellow Christians for supporting Trump, who has said some not-so-appropriate things about women, minorities and the disabled, Falwell had this to say: "I knew on the other side you had the Pharisees, you know, the real judgmental Christians who were never going to support him, but I really felt like they were outnumbered."

Falwell did not immediately return TheBlaze's request for comment.

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Tré Goins-Phillips

Tré Goins-Phillips

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