Jerry Falwell Jr. on Sunday night said he believes the release of the damning audio of Donald Trump's lewd comments about women was the result of a "conspiracy among establishment Republicans."

In an exclusive interview with WABC radio host Rita Cosby, the president of Liberty University said, "I'm hearing something of substance, and it's disappointing.

"I think this ... video tape thing was planned, I think it was timed, I think it might have even been a conspiracy among establishment Republicans who have known about it for weeks and who tried to time it to do the maximum damage to Donald Trump, and I just ... I just think it just backfired on them," Falwell Jr. told Cosby.

When Cosby followed up about who he thinks was behind the release of the tape, Falwell wouldn't name names.

"I've got some independent information, but I'm not going to reveal it on the air — but I think some of the establishment folks who reluctantly endorsed him had this planned all along as a way to slither out of the endorsement," Falwell Jr. told Cosby.

"It wasn't a coincidence that it came out right before Trump was supposed to appear with Paul Ryan at a rally, and it conveniently gave Paul Ryan a way to disinvite Trump," Falwell Jr. told Cosby.



Falwell Jr., one of the first evangelicals to support Trump, said he couldn't nor wouldn't condone Trump's sexual-laden comments about women on the tape, but said he still support the GOP nominee.

"Nothing he says on that tape was defensible, and I'm not going to try to defend it. It was just a horrible thing," Falwell Jr. told Cosby. "But he apologized, he was contrite about it, he moved on to the issues, which is what the American people care about."