Story highlights Evangelical leader and Donald Trump supporter Jerry Falwell, Jr., is standing by the Republican front-runner's decision to skip Thursday's debate on Fox News

(CNN) Evangelical leader and Donald Trump supporter Jerry Falwell, Jr., is standing by the Republican front-runner's decision to skip Thursday's debate on Fox News, and bashing its chairman and CEO instead.

In an exclusive interview on CNN's "Erin Burnett Outfront," Falwell said the Fox News statement, which mocked Trump was a "petty" act by Roger Ailes and "beneath someone of his stature."

Falwell added that Ailes "is revealing he's just mad that he lost the biggest draw of this debate, and I'm sure it's going to cost his company a lot of money."

The statement from Fox News said, "We learned from a secret back channel that the Ayatollah and Putin both intend to treat Donald Trump unfairly when they meet with him if he becomes president. A nefarious source tells us that Trump has his own secret plan to replace the Cabinet with his Twitter followers to see if he should even go to those meetings."

Falwell, the president of Liberty University, where Ted Cruz launched his presidential campaign last year, said Trump may not be the holiest candidate in the race.

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