Inside Jerry Falwell Jr.’s Unlikely Rise and Precipitous Fall at Liberty University

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Jerry Falwell Jr.’s final chapter at Liberty University was marked by self-destructive episodes and capped by a sensational tabloid sex scandal. V.F.’s gabrielsherman details the former university president’s surprising rise and dizzying fall.

that Liberty Online staffed a sales department of 300 telemarketers, who worked for low pay and got only a 45-second break between calls. They aggressively recruited students, who were often saddled with debt. By 2010, digital enrollment topped 50,000 and annual revenues reached $420 million.

Jerry said the first time he learned of the affair was eight months after he and Becki met Granda. In December 2012, Becki seemed distant and melancholic for reasons Jerry couldn’t figure out. “I would see her crying around the house,” Jerry recalled. A few days after Christmas, Jerry walked in on Becki in tears in their bedroom. He asked why she was sad.Jerry remembered there was a long pause. Then Becki told him she was cheating on him. Jerry had to suppress the urge to yell.

That summer, Jerry and Becki flew to Miami a few times to scout properties. They liked the idea of owning a business in Florida. It would give them a reason to spend time at the beach, where they felt free from prying eyes in Lynchburg. “Miami was a nice place to get away and feel like another country,” Jerry told me. “I thought, Nobody knows us,” Becki added. “I can have a drink by the pool.… We just felt at home.

Becki told Granda that Jerry knew about them. “Giancarlo was very worried Jerry or my boys would beat him up,” Becki said. Becki said Granda shouldn’t be scared. Everyone would try to make the awkward arrangement work. Granda apologized to Jerry the next time they were all together. “He said, ‘I hope you’re okay.’ And I said, ‘I’m dealing with it,’ ” Jerry recalled. “The only way I could do it was to detach. I let it go on. I’m partly to blame.

Jerry and Becki’s fears only intensified. That fall, Becki’s lawyers were made aware that topless pictures of her were circulating among people who were party to the suit. The photos showed Becki posing on a tractor at the Falwells’ farm. Jerry told me he had taken them years earlier on his phone. “We were just playing around,” he said.

Cohen didn’t need to coerce the endorsement, because Jerry was already supporting Trump behind the scenes and echoing his rhetoric. Three days after the December 2, 2015, mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, Jerry brought a .25-caliber pistol onstage at an all-school assembly. “If more good people had concealed-carry permits, then we could end those Muslims before they walked in,” he said. Jerry also let Liberty’s IT chief, John Gauger, do consulting for the Trump campaign.

 

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Cannot wait to watch BillyCorben 's doc on this

No thanks.

Vile human

Pool boy poolboy

gabrielsherman FYI: Baptist Bible College is in Springfield, Missouri. The article states St. Louis which is three hours northeast of Springfield. Also the current President of LU, Jerry Prevo, attended BBC.

gabrielsherman MIGOP's disgraced & disgraceful Young Chatfield matriculated at this fine institution.

gabrielsherman between this and the Hugh Freeze saga; somebody option these

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