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Pat Robertson Has No Clue

You have probably already heard the hubbub about Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson’s call to assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on his show, The 700 Club, yesterday. Specifically, Mr. Robertson said

If he thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think 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.

Today, however, Mr. Robertson claims

I didn’t say ‘assassination.’ I said our special forces should ‘take him out.’ And ‘take him out’ can be a number of things, including kidnapping; there are a number of ways to take out a dictator from power besides killing him. I was misinterpreted by the AP [Associated Press], but that happens all the time.

Well, Mr. Robertson is right, he didn’t say the word “assassination”. And based on the line “If he thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think we really ought to go ahead and do it”, I just don’t think Mr. Robertson meant that we should kidnap the fellow when he said we should “take him out”.

You know, if you are going to go on your radio show and demand that our government kill someone, either stick to your guns or apologize. This yellow-bellied attempt to weasel out of your comments by claiming misinterpretation by the Associated Press is even more embarrassing than the original comments themselves.