Did the Trump Campaign Shake Down Jerry Falwell Jr to Endorse Trump?

Did the Trump Campaign Shake Down Jerry Falwell Jr to Endorse Trump? August 9, 2020

Jerry Falwell Jr. with Giancarlo Granda drinking more ‘black water’ out of an on the rocks glass.

In the past few days as the internet exploded over that ridiculous photo of Liberty University’s Jerry Falwell Jr. with his pants unzipped I’ve been curious. Curious why no one made very much over this other scandal of Jerry’s. That lawsuit that came out of his providing a pool boy $1.8 million to build a hostel in Miami. A hostel described by Politico as a “cesspool of vice”. Compromising photographs were involved between the Falwells and Granda.

According to an article in the Rolling Stone and in other publications there were some possibly sleazy doings going on between Jerry, his wife and Giancarlo, whom they met when he was a pool boy at a Miami area hotel.

Guess who stepped in to make it all go away? Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s lawyer and fixer in chief that paid off Stormy Daniels and former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal. Cohen and Trump had met Granda and Falwell back in 2012 when Trump spoke at Liberty.

Here’s where it gets weirder, Tom Arnold, ex husband of Roseanne Barr, and Hollywood perpetual second banana in film, taped himself talking to Michael Cohen about the photographs and Cohen’s actions in solving the crisis:

“There’s a bunch of photographs, personal photographs, that somehow the guy ended up getting — whether it was off of Jerry’s phone or somehow maybe it got AirDropped or whatever the hell the whole thing was,” Cohen said on the recorded call. He described the photos as “personal” and “between husband and wife,” and said that he had one of them. “It’s terrible,” Cohen said.

I’d say we’ll never know the reality of what happened except that now that Michael Cohen has been jailed, rolled over on Trump et al, and is now out and rumored to be working on a book about his years working for Trump.  I have a sneaking suspicion that Falwell will rate a mention because of what happened very shortly after Cohen made those photographs go away.

After Jerry Falwell Jr. told Ted Cruz he would support him as a presidential candidate in the 2016 elections he turned around and publicly endorsed Donald Trump. Why this matters is that Falwell was the very first significant Christian Evangelical to support Trump. Up until that point the Evangelical and Fundamentalist movements were unsure who they were going to support. They hated Hillary and many of them hated Trump too, supporting Ted Cruz or others like Ohio governor John Kasich.

Interesting note on Kasich. It was just announced he’ll be speaking at the Democratic Convention, yes, a former Republican that ran against Donald Trump has officially switched sides hard. I hope this augers good things for the election of 2020. We’re kind of off the map in a place this country has never been before.

Back to Falwell. He endorsed and supported candidate Donald Trump mere months after Cohen made his problem go away. Suspicious timing. Reuters reported that Cohen was the one that leaned on Falwell to make it happen. I cannot wait until his book!

Once Falwell endorsed Trump, and started his own likely religious influencing we saw pretty much everyone in the Evangelical world line up to support Donald Trump, sweeping him in to the highest office of the land that he is in no way qualified or fit to occupy. Those that had once bemoaned his many marriages, abortions and affairs started babbling that God uses flawed men as well as perfect vessels, that the Donald was ‘God’s Choice’.

Would it not be the height of irony if that whole ‘God’s Choice’ nonsense came out of a shake down, a quid pro quo, a ‘I scratched your back, now you must scratch mine’ situation? It would mean that the entire shaky structure of Evangelicalism is as real as the naked Emperor’s supposedly magnificent clothing.

I cannot wait for Michael Cohen’s book, and I’m wondering if Jerry Falwell Jr’s removal from Liberty is possible damage control in advance of the book?

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About Suzanne Titkemeyer
Suzanne Titkemeyer went from a childhood in Louisiana to a life lived in the shadow of Washington D.C. For many years she worked in the field of social work, from national licensure to working hands on in a children's residential treatment center. Suzanne has been involved with helping the plights of women and children' in religious bondage. She is a ordained Stephen's Minister with many years of counseling experience. Now she's retired to be a full time beach bum in Tamarindo, Costa Rica with the monkeys and iguanas. She is also a thalassophile. She also left behind years in a Quiverfull church and loves to chronicle the worst abuses of that particular theology. She has been happily married to her best friend for the last 34 years You can read more about the author here.

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