Fact Check

Pat Robertson Says Husbands Must Boycott Sex with Wives Voting Hillary

Former Southern Baptist minister Pat Robertson did not propose that Christian men should boycott sex with wives who are planning to vote for Hillary Clinton.

Published Oct. 3, 2016

Claim:
Pat Robertson advised men whose wives are voting for Hillary Clinton to "boycott sex" until they changed their minds.

On 29 September 2016, the web site Newslo published an article reporting that televangelist Pat Robertson had urged Christian men to "boycott intercourse" with wives who were planning to vote for Hillary Clinton:

In another example demonstrating that Pat Robertson believes in persecuting non-Christians and indoctrinating children, the televangelist openly suggested that parents should beat their kids until they respect Christian beliefs. During yet another shameful episode of The 700 Club, which runs on Disney-owned channel ABC Family, Robertson received an email from a woman who claimed that her grandson disrespects their Christian faith when they visit their daughter on Christmas and chose not to visit this past year. “Somebody take that kid to the woodshed and let him understand the blessings of discipline,” he advised.

“And while we’re on the subject of beating,” Robertson continued shamelessly, “I was thinking that that might not be such a bad punishment for married women who are thinking about voting for Hillary Clinton in November’s election. But, then again, it’s probably a little harsh to beat on your wife just because she has no idea who it is God wants to be president. Okay, here’s a compromise: non-Christian wives should get a beating from their husbands, and Christian wives should have their husbands boycott intercourse until they change their mind. How’s that?”

“That’s why I urge Christian husbands of all ages and races across America to stop having sex with their wives for the purpose of demonstrating that they don’t have control over us, and especially so if they’re planning to vote for Hillary Clinton. American women need to learn two things: one, that they don’t control us, but that it’s the other way around, and two, that God has made it very clear He wants Donald Trump to be the next President of the United States. And both of those things can be achieved through boycotting marital intercourse for a period of time. I know they tend to think blueb*lls are a fictional problem. Well, I guess we’ll have to see how they feel about having severe cases of blue-gina in the coming weeks,” Robertson concluded.

Like all items published by Newslo (and sister sites Religionlo, >Politicalo, and Politcops), the article's first paragraph was inspired by comments Robertson genuinely made in early 2016. Robertson was answering a question from a viewer about a badly behaved teen, advising the questioner that the youngster ought to be taken "to the woodshed" to learn about "the blessings of discipline":

Newslo articles typically start off with a paragraph of fact-based information, and the balance of the articles is almost entirely composed of fabricated details. Newslo's trio of fake news sites (often displaying under the Politicops domain on social media) include a button enabling readers to "show facts" or "hide facts" to distinguish the true portions of the text from the fabricated additions. But all articles display by default in "hide facts" mode, ensuring most readers see articles (or their headlines alone) without their embellishments highlighted:

newslo satire

Previous Newslo fabrications include claims Chris Christie posited a female Viagra would cause an uptick in "lesbianism" (and separately, that he voted down a gender pay parity bill for religious reasons), an Alabama politician proposed saliva-based "hunger tests" for food stamp recipients, Ted Cruz said he'd run as a Democrat if something affected Clinton's candidacy, Mike Pence opined that if abortion was legal in cases of rape women would try to "get raped" in order to obtain an abortion, the father of Brock Turner lamented the absence of punishment for the victim in his son's case, and that Robertson asserted David Bowie did not die but was kidnapped by demons.

Kim LaCapria is a former writer for Snopes.