LYNCHBURG, Va. -- Former President Jimmy Carter poked fun at President Donald Trump during his commencement address at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., on Saturday.
Carter, taking note of the size of the large crowd at Liberty University's Williams Stadium, said Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. "told me before we came here that it's even bigger -- I hate to say this -- than it was last year."
Liberty's Class of 2018 was the largest in the school's history with 20,200 graduates earning their degrees. The school says about 8,000 graduates participated in the on-campus ceremonies on Saturday.
Carter is the third US president and first Democrat that Liberty has hosted as commencement speaker. George H.W. Bush delivered the commencement address in 1990 and President Trump spoke to graduates last year. The school is generally seen as a home of conservative politics as well as evangelical voices. Carter is also an evangelical, but one with more progressive views.
Much of Carter's speech emphasized broad themes of human rights and equality. He told the assembled graduates he now believes the greatest challenge in the world is "discrimination against women and girls in the world," noting the killings of newborn girls around the world where families have a preference for boys, as well as global sex trafficking networks.
He called on Christians in general, and Baptists in particular, to emphasize their commonalities as opposed to their differences. Both Carter and Falwell are Baptists.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
