'Pro-police' televangelist Pat Robertson slams Derek Chauvin, Kim Potter, says 'we cannot have a bunch of clowns' policing the U.S.

(Image credit: Screenshot/Twitter/700 Club)

last updated 16 April 2021

O.G. televangelist Pat Robertson isn't about to take to the streets to protest the police shooting of Daunte Wright at the hands of former Minnesota police officer Kim Potter, arrested Wednesday and charged with second-degree manslaughter. But like many people, Robertson is baffled that Potter evidently meant to use her Taser on Wright, not her gun.

"If you can't tell the difference in the feel of those things, it's crazy," and Potter "deserves" the consequences, Robertson said on Thursday's 700 Club, holding both a handgun and a Taser. "You know, I am pro-police, folks. I think we need the police, we need their service, and they do a good job, but if they don't stop this onslaught, they cannot do this," he said, pivoting to the other prominent police killing in the Minneapolis area. "And the thing that's going on in Minnesota about that Derek Chauvin — I mean, they ought to put him under the jail, he has caused so much trouble by kneeling on the death of George Floyd, I mean on his neck — it's just terrible what's happening."

"We don't have the finest in the police department," Robertson said. "They're low-paid people, Terri," and we need to hire "a more superior workforce." (The average annual wage for a police officer in the U.S. in 2019, not including overtime, was $67,600, or $71,840 in Minnesota, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.) "We need police! We need them and we need to honor them and I'm all for," Robertson said. "But at the same time, we cannot have a bunch of clowns running around who are underpaid and who really are not the best and brightest." Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.