Pat Robertson recently sat down with The Virginian-Pilot to reflect back upon CBN's 50 years of operation and was asked if the criticism and mockery he receives whenever he makes an outrageous statement still bothers him.
Robertson said that "of course it hurt" ... and then proceeded to stand by his recent assertion regarding Haiti:
Q. Speaking of working out, you caught flack from skeptics in 2008 for saying you did a leg press of 2,000 pounds. Through the years, you've been criticized for your remarks about God sparing Virginia Beach from hurricanes, Haiti inviting an earthquake by entering into a pact with the devil, and suggesting the assassination of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez would be cheaper than starting a war. Does such criticism hurt?
A. "Of course it hurts. I do have sensitivity. I'm not dead, you know. It's so easy to make jokes. I don't focus on the jokes or the things that the bloggers write when they go after me. I don't read that junk. As for Haiti, the truth is that the country has given itself over to voodoo. Regarding the leg press, some people tried to make it a big deal. But I did do it. One time."
Of course, nobody was disputing Haiti's ties to voodoo; they were mocking Robertson's assertion that God caused the earthquake because Haiti "swore a pact to the Devil."
Fortunately for us, Robertson says that even though he is 80 years old, he expects to be around for a long time ... after all, "Moses was just getting warmed up when he was 80."
