Editorial: Denounce Robertson

Thursday, Aug. 25, 2005 | 10:58 a.m.

The Bush administration is offering only mild criticism of conservative broadcaster Pat Robertson, who on Monday called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Robertson's remarks, made Monday on his Christian Broadcast Network show, "The 700 Club," were "inappropriate." To an Associated Press reporter, McCormack added, "This is not the policy of the United States government." Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told the AP the U.S. is not in the business of killing foreign leaders, but added, "(Robertson) is a private citizen. Private citizens say all kinds of things all of the time."

Chavez, a fierce critic of President Bush, has said that he believes the United States is plotting to assassinate him. In response, 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."

On Wednesday Robertson issued a statement apologizing for the remark, but earlier in the day, on his show, he insisted that his words had been "misinterpreted." "I didn't say 'assassination,' " he told his viewers. He explained that "take him out" didn't necessarily mean killing the South American leader, and that it could mean "a number of things, including kidnapping."

The mild criticism from Capitol Hill may be because of Robertson's strong support of President Bush, and because of the political influence the right-wing evangelist holds over the millions of people who watch his show. Despite Robertson's fumbling attempts at damage control, his words were an outrage, a vile affront to the civilized world -- and Bush and his top staff should mince no words in saying so.