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The biggest news of the day—even beating the Iraq constitution on Google News—is Robertson's call for the U.S. government to assassinate Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.

If you've missed the comments, here they are:

There was a popular coup that overthrew him [Chavez]. And what did the United States State Department do about it? Virtually nothing. And as a result, within about 48 hours that coup was broken; Chavez was back in power, but we had a chance to move in. He has destroyed the Venezuelan economy, and he's going to make that a launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism all over the continent.

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. And I don't think any oil shipments will stop. But this man is a terrific danger and the United … This is in our sphere of influence, so we can't let this happen. We have the Monroe Doctrine, we have other doctrines that we have announced. And without question, this is a dangerous enemy to our south, controlling a huge pool of oil, that could hurt us very badly. We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator. It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with.

On today's 700 Club broadcast (video), after a segment reiterating reports of Chavez's evils, Robertson told Human Rights Foundation president Thor Halvorssen that he was misquoted:

August is a slow news day, but it seems like the whole world is talking about my comments about the Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez. … 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, but that happens all the time.

Huh. What Robertson meant by "If he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it" was that we should kidnap him. Riiiiight … .

It's especially odd for Robertson now to claim he's against assassination when he has repeatedly called for the assassinations of other heads of state.

"I know it sounds somewhat Machiavellian and evil, to think that you could send a squad in to take out somebody like Osama bin Laden, or to take out the head of North Korea," Robertson said in 1999. "But isn't it better to do something like that, to take out Milosevic, to take out Saddam Hussein, rather than to spend billions of dollars on a war that harms innocent civilians and destroys the infrastructure of a country?" And in 2004, Robertson reiterated his support for assassinating Saddam Hussein. "Our forces are going to war, and we support them," he said. "But if I had been doing it, I think I would have much preferred the assassination route."

On today's show, Robertson also quoted Dietrich Bonhoeffer and compared Chavez to Hitler.

Almost every news story has response from Venezuelan and U.S. politicians, so let's pay particular attention to responses from evangelical leaders.

"This kind of statement, by this well known American Christian leader, is in complete contradiction to the teachings of Jesus Christ who evangelical Christians believe and seek to demonstrate," Geoff Tunnicliffe, International Director of the World Evangelical Alliance, says in a press release. "Robertson does not speak for evangelical Christians. We believe in justice and the protection of human rights of all people, including the life of President Chavez."

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August (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49