Jerry Falwell: President Trump “doesn’t say what’s politically correct, he says what’s in his heart”

(Credit: AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

President Donald Trump’s sole surrogate on the Sunday shows this morning provided a damning quote about the commander-in-chief’s racial beliefs. Jerry Falwell Jr., the president of Liberty University and a loyal Trump supporter, said that the president spoke from the heart with his “many sides” remark.

“One of the reasons I support him is because he doesn’t say what’s politically correct, he says what’s in his heart,” Falwell Jr. said. “And sometimes that gets him in trouble. But he does not have a racist bone in his body.”

.@JerryFalwellJr: Pres. Trump "doesn't say what's politically correct, he says what's in his heart…and sometimes that gets him in trouble" http://pic.twitter.com/BtcrL8x8OI

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) August 20, 2017

Falwell Jr. was charged with the unpleasant task of justifying Trump’s tone-deaf response to the Charlottesville protests. Martha Raddatz, the host of ABC News’ “This Week,” revealed to her viewers that the White House declined to send an administration official onto her show, and instead invited Falwell Jr. in their stead

Raddatz asked Falwell Jr. why Trump would whitewash what happened in Charlottesville when the entire nation recognized that a white nationalist was responsible for the death of Heather Heyer.

“He has inside information that I don’t have,” Falwell Jr. said. “I don’t know if there were historical purists there who were trying to preserve some statues. I don’t know. But he had information I didn’t have.”

Falwell Jr. insisted that the president was not a racist, but no one should see the Evangelical leader as an authority figure on racism. Falwell Jr. is the president of a school that once briefly forbid interracial dating.

On Sunday, NPR reported that some Liberty University grads were returning their diplomas in protest of the school’s relationship with Trump.

Watch the full interview below, courtesy of ABC News: