In all his years as a television preacher, you'd think Pat Robertson might have heard of this thing called videotape.
Apparently not.
Robertson is saying today that the Associated Press -- and pretty much the rest of the world -- took his comments out of context earlier this week when it reported that he had called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. "August is a slow news day but it seems like the whole world is talking about my comments about Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez," Robertson said on his TV show today. "I didn't say assassination. I said our special forces should take him out. '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."
Which is all well and good, except of course that Robertson did use the word "assassination" when he talked about Chavez Monday, and he made it clear beyond any question that that's the fate he was suggesting for the Venezuelan president. "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," Robertson said Monday. ''It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war . . . and I don't think any oil shipments will stop."
Media Matters has the videotape to prove it.
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