PBS NewsHour | The cultural and political legacy of Pat Robertson | Season 2023

AMNA NAWAZ: Famed religious broadcaster Pat Robertson has died.

The TV host and one-time presidential candidate left a lifetime of achievements and controversies behind.

Lisa Desjardins has our look at his life and legacy.

PAT ROBERTSON, Host, "The 700 Club": In Jesus' name.

LISA DESJARDINS: A pioneer, Pat Robertson was one of the nation's most prominent televangelists and shaped conservative politics and controversy for decades.

Few people were more influential in the rise of the religious right.

PAT ROBERTSON: Even as the framers of our Constitution gave our forefathers a new land blessed with liberty, I would like for all of us, on this special day, to hold out a new vision for America.

LISA DESJARDINS: Robertson was born in Virginia in 1930 and saw politics early.

His father, a conservative Democrat, spent decades in Congress.

After serving in the Korean War, he went to law school, then a turn.

A religious awakening took him to ministry.

And he uprooted his wife and young family for a leap of faith.

In 1960, he purchased a small TV station in Virginia Beach, saying the lord told him to start the Christian Broadcasting Network, or CBN.

JOHN JESSUP, Christian Broadcasting Network: He was a towering figure.

LISA DESJARDINS: John Jessup is CBN's main anchor today.

ANNOUNCER: "The 700 Club."

LISA DESJARDINS: Where Robertson's "700 Club," named for 700 original pledging viewers, is still the flagship.

Robertson created a global network, but didn't stop there.

He looked to shape minds and in the 1970s founded the private Christian Regent University, as well as a national legal foundation.

JOHN JESSUP: It shows his business acumen, to a certain extent.

He was someone that I would call maybe a serial entrepreneur.

LISA DESJARDINS: But Robertson wanted a wider reach.

ROBERT MACNEIL, Former Anchor, "PBS NewsHour": It's pretty early to be talking presidential politics for 1988.

But the people who do have started including the name of Pat Robertson in the list of possible Republicans.

LISA DESJARDINS: His White House bid was a long shot, but he found his base, Christian conservative voters, and finished second in the Iowa caucuses.

PAT ROBERTSON: I entered the race so I might speak out on great moral issues confronting our nation, and I entered the race to win.

I did not win.

LISA DESJARDINS: Robertson turned his failed presidential campaign into a movement, launching the Christian Coalition, reaching directly to churches.

That reshaped politics in America and was pivotal in the 1994 GOP takeover of the U.S. House.

JON WARD, Chief National Correspondent, Yahoo News: Pat Robertson will as crucial to building the evangelical movement into a political constituency.

LISA DESJARDINS: Jon Ward is chief national correspondent for Yahoo News.

PAT ROBERTSON: Thank you, and God bless you.

LISA DESJARDINS: He knows Robertson was a figure revered by millions, but he was equally controversial and seen as fueling hatred at times with anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and attacking other religions as demonic.

Robertson implied that Hurricane Katrina was punishment for abortion in America.

And he publicly agreed with the idea that September 11 was God's rebuke for America moving left.

JON WARD: Those comments that he made, I think, came from impart that sense of wanting to be an all-or-nothing type of believer, as well as wanting to interpret -- or just coming from a corner of Christianity where the Bible is interpreted in a quite literal fashion.

LISA DESJARDINS: Robertson also claimed God would intervene after President Donald Trump's 2020 election loss.

PAT ROBERTSON: We declared on this program, and you joined with me, that God almighty was going to do a miracle and stop the theft of our election.

LISA DESJARDINS: But that shifted gears a few weeks later.

PAT ROBERTSON: The president still lives in an alternate reality.

I think it would be well to say, you have had your day and it's time to move on.

LISA DESJARDINS: He was not always predictable, as when he teamed up with Democrat Al Sharpton for a message about climate change.

PAT ROBERTSON: And we strongly disagree.

REV.

AL SHARPTON, Civil Rights Activist: Except on one issue.

Tell them what it is, Reverend Pat.

PAT ROBERTSON: That would be our planet.

LISA DESJARDINS: Robertson stepped down from hosting "The 700 Club" in 2021 after a series of health issues, but he continued to comment on politics and religion until his death.

Pat Robertson was 93 years old.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Lisa Desjardins.

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