Obama is a ‘false prophet’ says Voight
Veteran actor hits out at American president at Republican fundraising dinner
Hollywood, it seems, is not unanimously in love with Barack Obama. Step forward Jon Voight, Angelina Jolie's father, the star of Midnight Cowboy and Coming Home, and an arch-villain in the recent series of 24.
Playing the role of master of ceremonies at the Republican party's congressional dinner, an important fundraiser, Voight opened the evening with a withering attack on Obama, whom he called a "false prophet". It got worse. "We are becoming a weak nation," Voight said.
This is not the first time that Voight has criticised Obama. Last July, during Obama's run for the presidency against John McCain, Voight wrote an editorial for the Washington Post which warned about how an Obama victory would weaken America.
Voight wrote that Obama "has grown up with the teaching of very angry, militant white and black people: the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Louis Farrakhan, William Ayers and Rev. Michael Pfleger. We cannot say we are not affected by teachers who are militant and angry... The Democratic Party, in its quest for power, has managed a propaganda campaign with subliminal messages, creating a God-like figure in a man who falls short in every way."
Surprisingly, Voight used to be a Democrat, who protested against the Vietnam war during Nixon's presidency. But now he is one of the few dissenting conservatives in normally liberal Hollywood. Last year he paid a solidarity visit to Israel to celebrate its 60th birthday, and described the country as a moral beacon. He also provided the voiceover to a video biography of Sarah Palin.