Pat Robertson

Enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve in 1948. Graduated from Washington and Lee in 1950 and was commissioned at the same time. Served in the rank of 2nd Lieutenant as the assistant adjutant of the First Marine Division in Korea. He was later promoted to first lieutenant in 1952, upon his return to the United States.

Unsuccessfully campaigned for the U.S. Republican presidential nomination in 1988. Took over hosting duties of "The 700 Club" (1966), a religious talk show, in 1972, when then host Jim Bakker left to start "The P.T.L. Club" (1976). His son, Tim Robertson, took over the host role in 1988 while he campaigned.

Claimed that the portion of the U.S. Constitution that pertains to the separation of church and state was not in the original Constitution and was forged onto it by a Communist spy sent to Washington, DC, by the Russians in the late 1920s. According to Robertson, the original framers of the Constitution were told by God that the United States was to be governed by a coalition of ministers, businessmen and property owners, and that the words "democracy" and "republic" are nowhere to be found in the original U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. [1996]

Referred to one of Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain's campaign members as a "vicious bigot" against Christian conservatives. [2000]

Caused a scandal in 2003 when a guest on his show who wrote a book claiming that the US State Department was a "nest of subversives" said that the only way to clean it out was to drop an atomic bomb on it. Robertson said, "I completely agree with you". Later on he said that he didn't mean it.

Caused a firestorm of controversy in 2005 when he called for the US government to assassinate Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, a frequent critic of the policies of the Republican administration of President George W. Bush, of whom Robertson was a fervent supporter. Robertson at first denied having said it and claimed it was a "liberal media" plot to discredit him, but when footage was aired showing that he indeed did advocate Chavez's assassination, he said that he didn't mean it.