[Phillips:] If you are leaving the house right now, you can continue watching CNN from your mobile phone and watch CNN live from your desk top. Just go to CNN.comtv. He wasn't at Liberty to talk about Mormonism or partisan politics, at least not directly. Over the weekend, Mitt Romney was at Liberty, Liberty University, to try to convince the Christian right that he's not so different from them, at least when it comes to fundamental principles.
[Mitt Romney, , Former Massachusetts Governor & Presidential Candidate:] Culture, what you believe, how you live, matters. As fundamental as these principles are, they may become topics of Democratic debate from time to time. So it is today with the institution of marriage, marriage is a relationship between one man and one woman.
[Phillips:] I'm pleased now to welcome Romney's host for Saturday's address. The president and chancellor of Liberty University and son of the school's founder, Jerry Falwell Jr. Chancellor, overall, did Romney win over evangelicals or is this a good start as Tony Perkins says?
[Jerry Falwell Jr., President & Chancellor, Liberty University:] I don't think that was his purpose in coming to liberty. We invited him to be our commencement speaker. It's about our graduates and accomplishments. Many graduates said after his speech that they were worried it would be a campaign speech, they didn't want their graduation speech to be political. And they were very pleased that it was not political and it was about them and about their future and i think in that sense he made a lot of friends here Saturday.
[Phillips:] Chancellor, let me ask you, you quoted your father in your introduction saying that Christians should vote for candidates based on their political views and not their faith or theology. Were you actually telling your school and followers that Romney's Mormonism is a nonissue?
[Falwell:] Well, there were a few complaints from very small minority of students before the speech because he's Mormon and we're an evangelical Christian school and have 80,000 online students, 12,500 here in residents and the world's largest Christian school but I have to explain to that group that we traditionally have had speakers from all faith and some no faith all-to give a well rounded selection of speakers from all walks of life. I was trying to communicate to everyone that liberty is a nonprofit institution prohibited from endorsing candidates and his appearance here was not an intuitional endorsement. I also wanted to add that we believe and my father always believed that when you elect a you're not electing pastor, you're electing a commander in chief. You should choose a Christian should choose a candidate whose position on political issues are aligned with their own and not a candidate whose theological issues are most closely aligned with their own. I started to make a joke about how Jimmy Carter was a good Southern Baptist but some didn't find his political positions palatable. I refrained from doing that at commencement. It was for folks that are confusing theological values and political values and I want to distinguish the two.
[Phillips:] It's interesting that you mention that you don't endorse. You introduced Romney as the next president of the United States. That wasn't an endorsement?
[Falwell:] It was a prediction. Not an endorsement.
[Phillips:] Interesting.
[Falwell:] I'm an attorney so i get accused splitting hairs like that.
[Phillips:] You're an attorney so your word choice is very interesting. We could kind of say that a prediction is a bit of an endorsement.
[Falwell:] It was a prediction. That's all. It could turn out to be wrong. That's my political forecasting.
[Phillips:] Are you going to vote for Mitt Romney?
[Falwell:] I've said all along that i would support whoever becomes the Republican nominee. I've not endorsed anyone up to this point. Individually i will. That's still my position. I will support and vote for whoever is the Republican nominee this year.
[Phillips:] We talked that Romney's speech was heavy on faith and values and pretty much devoid of partisan rhetoric. Let me play a little part of that speech from this weekend.
[Romney:] Central to America's rise is the vision of goodness and possibilities of every human life. The American culture promotes personal responsibility, the dignity of work, the value of education, the merit of service, devotion to a purpose greater than self and at the foundation the family.
[Phillips:] Here's my question taking that to heart. Not once did he mention Mormonism. Didn't say the word Mormon. Do you think that he should just give a flat out speech on his Mormon faith sort of like JFK back in 1960 when he addressed his Catholicism? Since he sort of did it in 2007 with his speech on Mormonism, should he just go ahead and come out and talk about it and then move on?
[Falwell:] I think Americans have gotten past that. I think in 1960 it was necessary for John Kennedy because he was our first Roman Catholic candidate for the presidency or first one to win. Americans have moved beyond that now and most Americans understand that for a candidate it's important what they believe on the political issues, not their religious faith and that's what I was trying to communicate to our audience. I believe that his warm reception at Liberty University is a good indicator of how evangelicals nationwide will support him in the fall. I say that because Liberty is largest Christian university in the country and in the world and we have a good cross section of evangelicals from all denominations and all faiths. If anything, his appearance here and warm reception bodes well for his electability.
[Phillips:] One final question. Maybe two if you don't mind. You did mention some of the students that were protesting this commencement speech. And I was reading through the Facebook petitions and even one student cited your own theology course there at Liberty that labels Mormonism a cult. What's your response to that and the fact there were a number of students that came forward and said this shouldn't be happening and this is not what Liberty preaches when it comes to Mormon religion?
[Falwell:] Liberty has no official position on Mormonism. Our statement does not define Mormonism as a cult. There are hundreds of professors here and I'm sure you could find someone like the professor who authored that course that you just mentioned. I'm sure there are some that believe it is a cult. That's not part of our doctrinal position and not our official position. We've had speakers from every like I said before, from every faith and we had Ben Stein as our speaker three years ago. He's Jewish. We had Glenn Beck. When I graduated from Liberty in 1984, the speaker was Terrell Bell, also a Mormon. We try to expose our students to leaders from all walks of life. I did have to explain a little bit but complaints we received were in the hundreds and when you have 93,000 students, that's a very small percentage. Most were extremely happy with the choice and were grateful that the nominee chose to speak at Liberty University. This was a big weekend for our little corner of Virginia. The first lady spoke at Virginia Tech just up the road. The presumptive nominee for the Republican Party spoke at Liberty. Things like that don't happen in this part of Virginia very often. Most were very, very excited.
[Phillips:] Chancellor Jerry Falwell. Appreciate your interview.
[Falwell:] Thank you. Thank you, Kyra.
[Phillips:] You bet. Liberty is the largest Christian university in the world by the way and now claims to be the largest private four-year university in the nation.