This is a partial transcript from "Hannity & Colmes," February 2, 2005, that has been edited for clarity.
SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: As we continue on "Hannity & Colmes," we're glad you're with us. I'm Sean Hannity.
Now, if you're wishing for a miracle, well, you may be in luck. The Reverend Pat Robertson has a brand new book out and get it on Amazon.com, bookstores all across the country. Ariel Sharon...
ROBERTSON: OK.
HANNITY: ... after he had his stroke. And I'll give you a chance — first of all, what's interesting about it, you were friends with him.
ROBERTSON: Extremely so. I met with him in his office. We prayed together. I am one of the great supporters of Israel in the United States, and they all know that.
HANNITY: Yes. But you had talked about — if you read the Bible, this is my land. Any prime minister of Israel who decides he's going to carve it up and give it away, no, this is mine. And...
ROBERTSON: Well, you know, I'm a Bible teacher. And I'm very passionate about especially Israel. I love Israel. I'm concerned about the safety of that country.
And sometimes, you know, I adlib a lot of comments on my program. And unfortunately, I get a little carried away. And so I didn't say all the things that the A.P. said I said, but nevertheless it was inappropriate, given his condition. I apologized to his son. He accepted it. And so...
HANNITY: He did. And it's gone away? And...
ROBERTSON: It's gone away, yes.
HANNITY: Yes, look, you know what? I think those words actually in life — you talk about miracles — in part of your book, you talk about if you want a miracle, you've got to forgive people.
ROBERTSON: Exactly.
HANNITY: Which I think is the hardest thing sometimes to do.
ROBERTSON: It's the absolute key.
HANNITY: Yes. But I mean, and when you say you're sorry, it goes a long way, doesn't it?
ROBERTSON: Well, it does. I think the American people are very forgiving. And, you know, I guess...
HANNITY: I'm not sorry for all the things I've said to Alan over the years.
(CROSSTALK)
ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: For nine years, he hasn't forgiven me.
ROBERTSON: Alan, I forgive you. You're one of the nicest liberals I know.
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: Be careful.
COLMES: Can't you just take out the word "liberal" and say people?
ROBERTSON: All right. You're one of the nicest people I know.
HANNITY: Keep it liberal.
ROBERTSON: Keep the liberal, all right, whatever.
HANNITY: You know what's funny? You know I'm a Christian.
ROBERTSON: Yes, I do.
HANNITY: And it's the most — it's got to be the most important thing, I think, religion, if you believe in God, if you believe there's a creator who put us here, if you believe the Bible that says the very hairs on everyone's head are counted.
ROBERTSON: That's right.
HANNITY: And you talk about, you know, if you believe in Jesus' time on Earth, you believe he walked on water, he healed the sick...
ROBERTSON: That's right.
HANNITY: ... he healed people who were crippled. He expelled demons. He did all these things. But you know? I think when you say you believe in miracles, a lot of people don't believe in them.
ROBERTSON: Well, in this book, "Miracles Can Be Yours Today," I cite the examples of people, medically sick — one lady...
HANNITY: Yes, I read that.
ROBERTSON: ... down in Vicksburg, Mississippi, was stone cold dead for 10 minutes, Connie Davis, beautiful African-American 42-year-old mother. She was out, and her church prayed for her, and it was like a bolt of lightning hit her. And she began to come back to life again. And the doctors said, "We'd never seen anything like that." That's just one of the miracles I point out in this book.
COLMES: Hey, Reverend, in the next time I want to get more into your book. But as long as we're talking about some of the things you've said...
ROBERTSON: OK.
COLMES: ... we're going to straighten out the record here.
ROBERTSON: Let's get — whatever.
COLMES: Here it is, OK, Hugo Chavez.
ROBERTSON: All right.
COLMES: And here is what you said. Let's watch.
ROBERTSON: All right.
COLMES: We got it.
HANNITY: Somewhere.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: 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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLMES: And then you went and corrected it and you said this. Here's your correction.
ROBERTSON: All right.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: I didn't say "assassination." I said our Special Forces should, quote, "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 A.P., but that happens all the time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLMES: You did say assassination. Was that a mistake?
ROBERTSON: Well, we did — I've got a wonderful news team. They did a five-minute analysis of Chavez. It was just brilliant. It ended with him saying the United States is trying to assassinate me.
And what I should have said was we ought to accommodate him and kept my mouth shut. Instead of that, I said well ahead — and then I went on from there. And I said, well, the special forces should take him out.
But my premise was — and this is so important — I don't like to go to war. I see young men maimed. You all were talking about that earlier in the show, you know, this cartoonist, so obnoxious.
We've spent $200, $300, $400 billion dollars in Iraq. Wouldn't it have been better to have targeted Saddam Hussein? Wouldn't it have been better to have targeted Adolf Hitler? And I just think that we ought to wage war against the dictators...
(CROSSTALK)
COLMES: Should Chavez be assassinated?
ROBERTSON: Well, one day he's going to be aiming nuclear weapons. And what's coming across the Gulf isn't going to be Katrina, it's going to be his nukes.
COLMES: Would you feel better going back to the original comment, that if he were assassinated the world would be a safer place?
ROBERTSON: I think South America would. He has got hit squads. He's a very dangerous man.
COLMES: So you're not taking back the comment. You believe assassination of Hugo Chavez would be in the best interests of the world.
ROBERTSON: Rather than going to war. One day, we're going to have to go to war, I'm afraid, if he continues his policy. You know, but I don't know. I wrote him a letter. I apologized to him.
COLMES: But wait a minute. If you say you apologized to him, what you just said seems to contravene that, because you just now said...
ROBERTSON: I know. I know.
COLMES: ... you think it'd be better if he be assassinated.
ROBERTSON: Alan, the whole thing we've got to deal with is that one day, if he continues his course of trying to mobilize Marxist powers in South America, it's going to be a clear...
COLMES: He's very popular with his country.
ROBERTSON: Well, yes and no. But he does...
HANNITY: He's building up weapons against the United States, isn't he?
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTSON: He's also calling for the destruction of George Bush. He calls him a war criminal.
COLMES: You want him taken out?
ROBERTSON: Not now, but one day, one day, one day. My premise is, and I think as, you know, until that comment came out, everybody thought Chavez was a fellow having to do with table grapes in California. Now...
HANNITY: I think one thing we could say is the world would be better off without him where he is, because he is a danger to the United States.
ROBERTSON: Extreme danger.
HANNITY: We've got to break. We'll come back, more with Pat Robertson. We'll talk about his new book in just a moment. You can get it on Amazon.com or in bookstores.
And then a single phone call may have broken the case of the murdered mothered and child in Mass.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWSBREAK)
COLMES: Welcome back to "Hannity and Colmes." I'm Alan Colmes.
We now continue with the author of "Miracles Can be Yours Today," the Reverend Pat Robertson.
John Danforth, former senator, Episcopal priest...
ROBERTSON: Yes.
COLMES: And he says that the Republican Party has been taken over by something it's not, a winning combination for now but it won't last. He's referring to the evangelical right. And here's a guy who's a conservative, who's a minister, who is a former senator.
ROBERTSON: John was a wonderful friend of mine, but during my campaign for the presidency, he called and had some very good words. He graduated from Yale Divinity School. He's a super guy. I've known him for a long time.
COLMES: What do you think of what he said?
ROBERTSON: Well, I think if there are some who are a little extreme on some positions, he may be right. But I don't agree with him. I think the evangelicals are very strong, and I think they've worked very hard in the Republican Party.
COLMES: Have they taken over the party?
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTSON: That was my goal when I headed up the Christian Coalition. I don't think we succeed in it but...
COLMES: Do you want the evangelicals to take over the Republican Party?
ROBERTSON: No, I really don't think so. I think we should be inclusive. The Republican Party just couldn't possibly be identified as a, quote, "evangelical party." It has to represent all the people.
COLMES: I think the idea of miracles is a terrific idea for a book.
ROBERTSON: Yes.
COLMES: Do you have to be a believer to have a miracle happen?
ROBERTSON: You have to believe in God. If you don't believe in God you can't — I don't think you're going to see a miracle. There's a story in here about a Roman Centurion. He wasn't either a Jew or a Christian. And Jesus said, "I've never seen such faith in all of Israel. This guy — this guy got it about how miracles take place."
COLMES: Wonderful things can happen, can't they, regardless of what your belief system is?
ROBERTSON: Absolutely.
HANNITY: Wouldn't it be a miracle if he stopped being a liberal?
COLMES: What show would we have?
ROBERTSON: You're right. It would be terrible.
COLMES: I just want to understand. Do you have to be a believer in Jesus Christ or any religious faith for what you would call a miracle to take place?
ROBERTSON: Well, I think God loves people. He loves everybody. And he reaches down and helps people along the way. And they say well, where did that come from? Well, it was from God.
But if you're going to have the kind of miracles I'm talking about where you're asking for and receiving them, I think you do have to have faith in God. That's what one of the principles is.
HANNITY: And you put down six specific principles there.
ROBERTSON: Right.
HANNITY: Now I'm very intrigued about what we were discussing before we went to the last break. There is evil in the world.
ROBERTSON: Absolutely.
HANNITY: We see it. Murder, we see it. Crime. We've watched, in the last hundred years of human history, Adolf Hitler, what he did was evil. What Stalin did in Russia was evil. What happened in the killing fields in Cambodia was evil. What happened on 9/11 was evil. The mass graves of Saddam Hussein are evil.
ROBERTSON: All those things.
HANNITY: We have a new Iranian president who wants to wipe Israel off the map. That's evil. Can I say that?
ROBERTSON: You sure can.
HANNITY: You know, why, if we — is it wrong morally, because I don't believe it is — what would the world have been like if we took Hitler out earlier? Churchill suggested it.
ROBERTSON: We would have saved 50 million people who died in World War II. One man is responsible. These — I mean, Usama bin Laden?
ROBERTSON: Absolutely. I could forgive anybody. I've had occasion to forgive a whole lot of people. Really, I mean, and that's one of the principles of miracles. Jesus says when you stand praying if you have against any, forgive that your heavenly father forgive you.
COLMES: All right. Thank you for being with us.
ROBERTSON: It's good to see you.
HANNITY: Appreciate it.
COLMES: Thank you very much.
HANNITY: Thanks.
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