One day after a major earthquake in Haiti, Pat Robertson used his platform on The 700 Club to state that Haitians had “swor[n] a pact to the devil” to get “free from the French” and that “ever since, they have been cursed.” Robertson continued:

ROBERTSON: Desperately poor. That island of Hispaniola is one island. It's cut down the middle. On the one side is Haiti; on the other side is the Dominican Republic. Dominican Republic is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, et cetera. Haiti is in desperate poverty. Same island. They need to have and we need to pray for them a great turning to God. And out of this tragedy, I'm optimistic something good may come. But right now, we're helping the suffering people, and the suffering is unimaginable.

Robertson's comments followed a pattern in which he has assigned blame for tragedies and disasters.

Despite condemnation of his most recent outrageous remarks, Robertson chose not to address his comments about Haitians' “pact to the devil” on today's 700 Club, though he did say that “the hearts of many of us are grieved” by the earthquake there and that it is “a tragedy of major proportions.”