Jerry Falwell Can't Say If There Were 'Very Fine People' in Charlottesville

The evangelical advisory council remains in tact, but even Jerry Falwell Jr. has trouble defending Donald Trump.

ABC's This Week prefaced its interview with the Liberty University president on Sunday by noting that the White House had picked Falwell when asked for a surrogate to interview about Charlottesville.

When confronted over whether there were indeed good people at the violent, white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, as President Trump suggested on Tuesday, Falwell said "He has inside information that I don't have."

Still, Falwell suggested that any good person should've abandoned the Charlottesville rally the moment they noticed they were marching alongside racists.

"If somebody showed up and they saw that they were marching beside somebody who hates blacks, who hates Jews, who wants to do violence, I think they should just walk away, yes," he said.

Moderator Martha Raddatz repeatedly asked Falwell why he had praised the president for his Charlottesville response on Twitter. Heather Heyer's mother, Susan Bro, is refusing to take the president's phone calls after he equated a protest by Nazis with the protest by her daughter. Falwell said people merely misunderstood the president.

"The American people have gotten sort of thin-skinned and I think they need to listen to the substance of what he said," said Falwell. "The only groups he identified by name as evil and causing what happened in Charlottesville were the Nazis, KKK, and the white supremacists. That's what I thought was bold and truthful."

Raddatz pointed out to Falwell that his own qualifications about support for Trump seemed to be getting lost. "When you say things like that, when you say it's all evil, but you say you're so proud of Donald Trump," she said, "that's the message that resonated."

Despite facing backlash from his own student body, Falwell appeared to double down on his support for Trump on Sunday.

"One of the reasons I supported him is because he doesn't say what's politically correct, he says what is is in his heart, what he believes, and sometimes that gets him in trouble," said Falwell. "But he does not have a racist bone in his body. I know him well."

NPR reports that a former student body president, Chris Gaumer, is calling on alumni to return their diplomas to Falwell, or send him a letter denouncing his support for Trump. They claim that Falwell's backing of Trump makes the university appear "complicit" in white supremacy and in partnership with Nazis.

"He completely misunderstands my support," insisted Falwell, defending himself. "My support for the president is his bold and truthful willingness to call terrorist groups by their names, and that's something we haven't seen in presidents in recent years."

Raddatz pointed out that President Trump hasn't called the attack in Charlottesville a case of domestic terrorism -- although Falwell claimed Trump hadn't ruled it out.

"He left the door open for that," said Falwell.

Although a number of President Trump's advisory councils crumbled this week amid mass resignations by CEOs and arts leaders, the evangelical advisory council on which Falwell serves is still going.

Watch the complete interview below: