Posted on 08/24/2005 10:35:22 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Conservative U.S. evangelist Pat Robertson, who called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, said on Wednesday he was misinterpreted and there were a number of ways to "take him out" including kidnapping.
"I said our special forces could take him out. Take him out could be a number of things including kidnapping," Robertson said on his "The 700 Club" television program.
"There are a number of ways of taking out a dictator from power besides killing him. I was misinterpreted," Robertson added.
Robertson, the founder of the Christian Coalition and a presidential candidate in 1988, said on Monday of Chavez, one of Bush's most vocal critics: "If he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it."
"We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability." He made the comments during his "The 700 Club" television program.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Tuesday dismissed Robertson's remarks, but the White House remained silent despite calls for repudiation from Venezuela and religious leaders including the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack called "without fact and baseless" any ideas of hostile action against Chavez or Venezuela.
The leftist Chavez has often accused the United States of plotting his overthrow or assassination. Alongside Cuban President Fidel Castro in Havana on Sunday, Chavez scoffed at the idea that he and Castro were destabilizing troublemakers.
Chavez survived a short-lived coup in 2002 that he says was backed by the United States. Washington denies involvement.
Venezuelan officials said Robertson's remarks, while those of a private citizen, took on more significance given his ties to President George W. Bush's Christian-right supporters.
"Mr Robertson has been one of this president's staunchest allies. His statement demands the strongest condemnation by the White House," Venezuela's ambassador to the United States Bernardo Alvarez said.
Waiting now for Jimmy Swaggart and Dr. Dobson to weigh in...
A host (Randi Rhodes?) on ScAIR America said that someone ought to take the President outside and shoot him.
The media ignored it.
The press is outraged that Robertson's statement could cause international incident but they see no harm in Cindy Sheehan calling Bush a terorist or the enemy in Iraq "freedom fighters".
Seems Pat "misrepresents" things alot, eh? Senility is quite sad.
Robert Tilton is keeping mum. He swallowed his tongue again.
STOP DIGGING!
"I haven't seen any conservatives or Christians come out publicly and defend his comments."
And they shouldn't defend him. He's not a leader of the GOP. By not defending him, they will help bury this story quickly.
Pat Robertson is hardly an ally of the President. He supported him over John Kerry, but he has been very critical of the President.
Also, NewsMax reports that in 1997 George Stephanopolis wrote an article which called for the assasination of Saddam Hussein.
For those of us who are religious, we realise the difference is that Pat Robertson should respect life, while George won't. But what excuse does the anti-God MSM have for ignoring George's comments but jumping on Pat?
BTW, I consider Pat Robertson something of a lunatic. A rich, well-known lunatic.
The left LOVES this...while I dont agree with Robertson's comment.. why wasnt the Iranian Cleric's call for the death of 3 prominent american christians headline news? or the requests by Baldwin to stone Henry Hyde? hollywood and even political lefty remarks are all swept under the rug.
OLD article but interesting:
http://www.jesusjournal.com/articles/publish/article_370.html
Stupidity in the defense of liberty is a vice.
Pat's remarks fall into category B.
Yeah, I'm sure that's it:
Robertson meant we ought to put pads and a helmet on Chavez, take him out on some grass somewhere and tackle the dickens out of him...
Riiiiiiight...
see my post #26 before you get too excited.
What PC police? Pat is an idiot of the highest order. He should have just simply apologized. But no...
"Today Rush said he was called by the MSM to give them a sound bite, he said called him 3 times. That would have been the perfect time to say that he backed Robertson's statement. That is if he did."
He said that yesterday...and then he said "why didnt you include castro"
Read the column below, unless of course you're just looking to misrepresent Rush's position on this:
"Rush (Limbaugh), Not Weighing in on Pat Robertson"
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1469291/posts
Yes, kidnapping would be MUCH better...
Well more for me I guess. You do realize in a lot of instances all the gas comes from the same storage places within a city don't you? I buy gas from where ever it's the cheapest. I could care less about the politics of the seller
I stand corrected (although saw a figure of ~25,000 when I looked online just now).
I did see a passing reference that "Jews will continue to emigrate at the rate of 2-3 percent a year, slowly but systematically shrinking the community;"
Also heard that Venezuela accepted Jews fleeing Europe even with the US would not.
Try buying "generic" gas from a convience store sometime and tell me your car runs the same. I've heard other peoples' troubles.
I know what I experienced (regardless of politics, note I made the purchase). My GM "ate something that disagreed with it".
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