Televangelist Pat Robertson on Tuesday
weighed in on Sunday's attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando that left
49 people dead and dozens injured.
Robertson told his The 700 Club
viewers that the shooting posed a “dilemma” for liberals who love
both the LGBT community and Muslims.
The Orlando shooter, Omar Mateen, was
an American who reportedly swore allegiance to ISIS in a 911 call.
The FBI, however, has not verified a connection.
Soon after the attack, presumptive
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump reiterated his call for
a ban on all Muslims entering the country.
“The left is having a dilemma of
major proportions and I think for those of us who disagree with some
of their policies, the best thing to do is to sit on the sidelines
and let them kill themselves,” Robertson said.
“The dilemma of the liberals,”
according to Robertson, is that “they have two favored groups.
One, the Muslims. Number two, the homosexuals.”
“We’re looking at a favored group
by the left, the homosexuals, and that in Islam is punishable by
death or imprisonment or some sanction, so what are the left going to
do? How are they going to describe it? And they don’t know quite
what to do now. The fact that this Islamic gentleman opens fire in a
gay nightclub and kills almost 50 homosexuals, that says something
and tells the fact that Islam is against homosexuality. So the
liberals are going to be scrambling to find some rationale. I think
they’re going to have a hard time doing it,” Robertson
said.
“In the meantime, Donald Trump is
riding high because he said we should screen these people, and he’s
absolutely right. We should screen them. So the left is saying, ‘Oh
you’re anti-Muslim, you’re racist’ and all this. Suddenly, that
part of the narrative doesn’t play too well and they’re stuck as
to what to do. But Trump is enjoying a victory,” he added.
The Christian Broadcasting Network
(CBN) later released a statement clarifying Robertson's comments:
“Dr. Robertson's commentary today about the left, gay and Muslim
communities was clearly referring to politics – killing themselves
politically. Any attempt by extreme left wing bloggers to portray
these comments in another context is disingenuous.”