Last week, Pat Robertson spoke with Glenn Beck’s “The Blaze” to address the statement he made last year that there was nothing sinful about people who are transgender. In the interview, Robertson stood by his previous assertion, which was mildly surprising … but what was more surprising is Robertson’s belief that he is in no way an “extremist” but is, in fact, quite “balanced” and “mainstream”:

Evangelist and businessman Pat Robertson is no stranger to controversy, but he recently told TheBlaze that he believes some of his critics have spread a major fallacy about his political standing.

“Well, I think the misconception is that I’m some sort of right-wing extremist,” Robertson said. That, he said, just isn’t the case. “I’m a graduate of Yale Law School and I’m a businessman.”

Running down his credentials and accomplishments (he founded Regent University, the American Center for Law and Justice and the Christian Broadcasting Network, among other organizations) Robertson said it’s easy to make a caricature of someone to score political points and to dub him or her “extreme” as his critics have done.

In contrast to his media portrait, Robertson believes that he’s actually “extremely balanced.”

“I’m what you’d call a Jeffersonian Democrat [who believes in] fundamental … biblical values,” Robertson said. “That isn’t extreme, that’s mainstream.”