PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT
HANNITY & COLMES, FOX NEWS FEBRUARY 2, 2006
Interview with Pat Robertson

[...]

SEAN HANNITY: You know, one miracle -- and I was kidding in the green room -- is that I'm going to keep you out of controversy for a while.

PAT ROBERTSON: Please. Please.

HANNITY: You have done any interviews. I know you have spoken about it, but I want to talk about the comments you made about Ariel Sharon...

ROBERTSON: OK.

HANNITY: ... after he had his stroke. And I'll give you a chance -- first of all, what's interesting about it, you were friends with him.

ROBERTSON: Extremely so. I met with him in his office. We prayed together. I am one of the great supporters of Israel in the United States, and they all know that.

HANNITY: Yes. But you had talked about -- if you read the Bible, this is my land. Any prime minister of Israel who decides he's going to carve it up and give it away, no, this is mine. And...

ROBERTSON: Well, you know, I'm a Bible teacher. And I'm very passionate about especially Israel. I love Israel. I'm concerned about the safety of that country.

And sometimes, you know, I adlib a lot of comments on my program. And unfortunately, I get a little carried away. And so I didn't say all the things that the A.P. said I said, but nevertheless it was inappropriate, given his condition. I apologized to his son. He accepted it. And so...

HANNITY: He did. And it's gone away? And...

ROBERTSON: It's gone away, yes.

[...]

ALAN COLMES: Hey, Reverend, in the next time I want to get more into your book. But as long as we're talking about some of the things you've said...

ROBERTSON: OK.

COLMES: ... we're going to straighten out the record here.

ROBERTSON: Let's get -- whatever.

COLMES: Here it is, OK, Hugo Chavez.

ROBERTSON: All right.

COLMES: And here is what you said. Let's watch.

ROBERTSON: All right.

COLMES: We got it.

HANNITY: Somewhere.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLMES: And then you went and corrected it and you said this. Here's your correction.

ROBERTSON: All right.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: I didn't say "assassination." I said our special forces should, quote, "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 A.P., but that happens all the time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLMES: You did say assassination. Was that a mistake?

ROBERTSON: Well, we did -- I've got a wonderful news team. They did a five-minute analysis of Chavez. It was just brilliant. It ended with him saying the United States is trying to assassinate me.

And what I should have said was we ought to accommodate him and kept my mouth shut. Instead of that, I said well ahead -- and then I went on from there. And I said, well, the special forces should take him out.

But my premise was -- and this is so important -- I don't like to go to war. I see young men maimed. You all were talking about that earlier in the show, you know, this cartoonist, so obnoxious.

We've spent $200, $300, $400 billion dollars in Iraq. Wouldn't it have been better to have targeted Saddam Hussein? Wouldn't it have been better to have targeted Adolf Hitler? And I just think that we ought to wage war against the dictators...

(CROSSTALK)

COLMES: Should Chavez be assassinated?

ROBERTSON: Well, one day he's going to be aiming nuclear weapons. And what's coming across the Gulf isn't going to be Katrina, it's going to be his nukes.

COLMES: Would you feel better going back to the original comment, that if he were assassinated the world would be a safer place?

ROBERTSON: I think South America would. He has got hit squads. He's a very dangerous man.

COLMES: So you're not taking back the comment. You believe assassination of Hugo Chavez would be in the best interests of the world.

ROBERTSON: Rather than going to war. One day, we're going to have to go to war, I'm afraid, if he continues his policy. You know, but I don't know. I wrote him a letter. I apologized to him.

COLMES: But wait a minute. If you say you apologized to him, what you just said seems to contravene that, because you just now said...

ROBERTSON: I know. I know.

COLMES: ... you think it'd be better if he be assassinated.

ROBERTSON: Alan, the whole thing we've got to deal with is that one day, if he continues his course of trying to mobilize Marxist powers in South America, it's going to be a clear...

COLMES: He's very popular with his country.

ROBERTSON: Well, yes and no. But he does...

HANNITY: He's building up weapons against the United States, isn't he?

(CROSSTALK)

ROBERTSON: He's also calling for the destruction of George Bush. He calls him a war criminal.

COLMES: You want him taken out?

ROBERTSON: Not now, but one day, one day, one day. My premise is, and I think as -- you know, until that comment came out, everybody thought Chavez was a fellow having to do with table grapes in California. Now...

HANNITY: I think one thing we could say is the world would be better off without him where he is, because he is a danger to the United States.

ROBERTSON: Extreme danger.

[...]