NATIONAL HARBOR, MARYLAND — Phil Robertson, the patriarch of A&E’s Duck Dynasty, delivered a bizarre, rambling, and at times incoherent, speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday, in which he touched on sexually transmitted diseases, Muslims, Nazis, and the lack of pious figures in the White House.
The speech started out normal enough for a speech at the main stage at CPAC, with Robertson describing the importance of capitalism and quoting past U.S. presidents. Then, inexplicably, he moved on to the topic of sexually transmitted diseases.
“I got my facts from the CDC the day before yesterday,” Robertson said, warning the audience that 110 million Americans now have an STD.
“I’m looking at it, and I said ‘I don’t want you, America, to get sick. I don’t want you to become ill. I don’t want you to come down with debilitating diseases,” Robertson said.
Robertson said the millions of Americans who have STDs is the result of the “revenge of the hippies!”
“Sex, drugs, and rock and roll have come back to haunt us in a bad way,” Robertson said. “I report, you decide.”
The crowd laughed.
The he started yelling that the Constitution was written for a “religious and moral people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.”
“You know what’s happened GOP? We’ve got too many any-others in the White House. It wasn’t written for them,” Robertson said to applause. “It wasn’t written for them.”
Then Robertson said “stand on the Bible, stand on the Constitution. Hold on to your weapons.”
“We had to have all three to run the Brits back to where they came from, we had to have all three when the Nazis reared their head. ‘You say, the Nazis: World domination is what Hitler had on his mind. Territorial conquest. There was no Jesus. None. And they were famous for murder.”
Robertson yelled “was there any Jesus among the communists? None!” Robertson then likened the Nazis to the Islamic State.
“They took over half of Iraq and half of Syria! They’re worldwide over there in Africa,” Robertson said. “Any Jesus with them? No sir!”
Watch the full speech here.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) seemed to be getting a little impatient with Robertson’s speech, which came before his.
Backstage here at #CPAC2015, just waiting for Phil Robertson to wrap up! pic.twitter.com/PSIt86QcZy
— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) February 27, 2015
(Photo credit: Jeff Malet)
And to think I thought Hannity had the demographic of the weird covered.
Should be some good material for political ads down the road.
I’m not surprised that Phil Robertson gave a rambling, incoherent speech at CPAC, but I’m very surprised and somewhat let down that a certain former half-term governor didn’t. I was hoping for the mother of all meltdowns. Better luck next time, I suppose.