Jon Voight Issues Call to Action Against START Treaty

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," December 20, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

MARK STEYN, GUEST HOST: President Obama is putting his Hawaiian getaway on hold in hopes of persuading senators to support his START Treaty with Russia. The treaty is drawing criticism because it drastically reduces both countries' nuclear warheads. While the president was hitting the phones, Senator Mitch McConnell was on the Senate floor explaining why he thinks the treaty is a bad idea.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL, R-KY., MINORITY LEADER: No senator should be forced to make decisions like this so we can tick off another item on someone's political checklist before the end of the year. Yet, looking back over the past two years, it becomes apparent why the administration would attempt to rush this treaty. And it's in this context that we discover another important reason to oppose it. I'm referring, of course, to the administration's pattern of rushing to a policy judgment and then subsequently studying the problem that the policy decision was intended to address.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEYN: But despite the opposition, Robert Gibbs said the White House is confident the Senate will ratify the START Treaty before leaving town.

I guess they are hoping for a Christmas miracle. Joining me now with reaction is the sanest man in Hollywood Jon Voight. Jon, this whole thing seems like something from another era, the idea of so much being attached to getting a treaty with Russia over nuclear weapons. Is it even relevant to the world we are living in today?

JON VOIGHT, ACTOR: Well, there is a lot to say about that. But, let me just say this Mark. First of all, it's very nice to be meeting you in this way. I have great respect for you and your intelligence and your passion have lifted my spirits over the last years.

STEYN: That's great. I will take that compliment.

VOIGHT: OK.

STEYN: And you, too, by the way.

VOIGHT: Oh, thank you so much. In my lifetime, Mark, and I'm a little order than you, I have seen America go through five wars. And if America weren't the strongest nation in the world, we could have seen ourselves being taken over by evil regimes many times.

And now I hear Obama trying to convince the American people that if we give up our nuclear weapons, this will set a fine example and all other countries will follow suit. What a dangerous and naive notion that is. If President Reagan wasn't such a powerful force of strength, we never would have seen Premier Gorbachev take down the Berlin Wall.

STEYN: Right.

VOIGHT: And are we so foolish to think -- are we all so foolish to think that President Ahmadinejad is going to start building a bomb as he is killing his own people for simply wanting their freedom.

STEYN: Well, that's the point, isn't it? I mean, we are not talking about the bipolar cold war world of Reagan and Gorbachev. We are talking about a world now where every nickel and dime psycho state like North Korea can go nuclear. North Korea, I think has a lower G.D.P. per capita than Zimbabwe. It's down there at subbasement level 5. But it's a nuclear power. Iran wants to share its nuclear technology with Sudan. Iran reached a missile deal with Venezuela. Why is -- why does Obama want to mortgage America's ability to react to those threats to some bilateral deal with Russia? It doesn't make any sense, does it?

VOIGHT: No. It doesn't. And every American citizen should be up in arms and calling their senators to reject this Obama's START Treaty. It's, you know, without our nuclear might, we would be subject to becoming a weak nation and what would follow would be much more severe than what we are currently going through with 9.6 unemployment, add that to the idea that our allies are very concerned about their safety and they are warning us not to reduce our nuclear power because their very protection is dependent on our strength.

STEYN: Yes. But the president's view on this Jon is that, you know, if America is just a base of itself before the world. If it shows that it doesn't want to be the super power, if it just wants to be -- and if it wants to put its might up for grabs and foreswear its great strength, the rest of the world will love us. He came into office saying that, he seems to still believe that two years later, despite everything.

VOIGHT: Well, our President Kennedy in September of 1961 and by the way, of course he served in the World War II nearly losing his life and he stated that American military might is the only way to keep our freedom. Of course, President Reagan was of the same point of view. And thank God he had the foresight not to sign away our national missile defense when he saw the world full of presidents and future threats from multiple nuclear powers.

STEYN: Do you think the Republicans are going to stand firm on this? The president tonight seems to be pretty confident he can get enough Republicans to get on board with this thing to pass it with 67 votes. Are you confident the Republican Party will stand firm?

VOIGHT: Well, I certainly hope, so. And I think, again, a lot of it has to do with the American people. Get on the phones, folks, and make sure that we encourage our senators to reject this thing. You know, I don't -- we have seen this before. We have seen it coming towards Christmas as well. This idea that we push something through and people are thinking about, you know, presents for their grandchildren and wanting to get out of town, they come in and no one is thorough in their questioning or their reading of the materials. And they push something through. I don't know how many more wrong Obama policies we need to see before we wake up to the possibility that this man is capable of destroying our country.

STEYN: Don't even joke about that. I think there is no end to the number of wrong policies he would like to ram through in a lame duck session. But you are right. I think this is the first time there has ever been a treaty rammed through in a lame duck session which is extraordinary. Why would an international treaty being rammed through during a lame duck session?

VOIGHT: Exactly. And you know, his distorted ambitions of bringing world peace about without American nuclear mite is a very dangerous, dangerous proposition. And we have seen over the past two years that he is not qualified to keep America safe and strong.

STEYN: Well, that's.

VOIGHT: This is a dire time right now.

STEYN: That's true. A dire time. Thank you very much Jon Voight.

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