This is a rush transcript from “Hannity,” May 26, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: The California Supreme Court today upheld Proposition 8, the state legislators’ pan on same-sex marriages.
Now, the court ruled the California citizens must amend their Constitution if they want to see gay marriage realized. Nonetheless, they are allowing existing same-sex marriages to stand. Hundreds of protestors converged outside the courthouse to protest when the 6-1 decision was handed down.
Joining me to discuss this and much more is entrepreneur, philanthropist, and the author of the book, “Right on the Money: Financial Advice in Tough Times.” Pat Robertson is back with us.
Pat, good to see you. Thanks for being with us
PAT ROBERTSON, AUTHOR: Great to be with you, Sean. Thanks.
• Video: Watch Sean’s interview
HANNITY: Well, that seat looks familiar. I think I know that studio.
ROBERTSON: That’s right. You ought to come down here again — good to see you — and be with us.
HANNITY: First of all, your reaction to the court ruling?
ROBERTSON: Oh, I think it was — I expected it. I really did. I think that California court is not as nutty as — the Ninth Circuit is bad news. But the California Supreme Court it — had no other choice. The people had clearly voted to amend the Constitution, and what can they say? I think kind of like Solomon. They’d split the baby, you know. They let her existing marriage stand. But the rest they banned. I think it was a good ruling.
HANNITY: Letting it stand seems a little absurd to me. All right, one of the big issues, obviously, the big story of the day is just Sonia Sotomayor, that we had been talking at length about on this program tonight. We read through a lot of views on Judicial Activism. The court of appeals is where policy is made, she has said. And along with her opinion on racism, other issues.
Your initial impression?
ROBERTSON: I think it’s an outrage. I think Obama has reached out to one of the most left-wing judges that there is in the United States.
And you mentioned those New Haven firefighters. Just dismissed the claim of Frank Ricci, who is this dyslexic guy who worked hard and was just sloughed off because he was not black, he was a white person.
And I think it was an outrage. And — but I think if the Republicans want to get her, what they’d better do is focus in on decisions like that and a few others, because she is very vulnerable in what she has done.
HANNITY: You know, one of the things — and you’ve dealt with this issues of nuclear issues, evil in the world, for almost your entire career.
ROBERTSON: Yes.
HANNITY: We have a situation where we’ve got Ahmadinejad pursuing these nuclear weapons in Iran. We saw what Kim Jong-Il has been doing in North Korea.
On a scale of one to 10 how do you assess the reaction of the Obama administration on these issues?
ROBERTSON: About a two. I think that they just aren’t willing to confront what’s out there. You talk about evil.
Ahmadinejad, we’ve studied him, studied what he says. He is a fervent — and I mean this deliberately — he is a fervent believer in the 12th Imam that he calls the Mahdi.
And he believers the Mahdi is living in a well just south of Qum in Iran, and he believes that the Mahdi is going to return to earth during his administration. And the Mahdi will only come after there is universal chaos and great destruction and then he will rebuild, according to their belief.
Now, you say this is nutty, but he is nutty. He’s crazy but he spoke about this at the United Nations. He speaks about it often.
And he would not hesitate to incinerate Israel if he thought it would hasten the coming of the Mahdi.
So no amount of international pressure or trade embargoes or any of that stuff is going to dissuade him from taking that weapon he’s building and using it to blow up some people. He might turn it on Europe. He might turn it on Saudi Arabia. Who knows what he would do? But he is a madman.
HANNITY: Do you think Israel has any option but to take out their nuclear sites?
ROBERTSON: None whatsoever. But he’s made it clear that he wants to destroy them. It’s like Hitler in “Mein Kampf.” He laid out the complete plan what he was going to do. But there was no — no ambiguity whatsoever.
And yet the allies just said, “Oh, well, he’s an Austrian paper hanger, and we don’t take him seriously.”
Well, look what he did. Fifty million people died in World War II because of him. And I think we need — the Israelis have no choice because their very existence is at stake. And if he gets the bomb and he has a delivery mechanism with a long-range rocket, not only could he imperil them, he could imperil Europe and he’s dangerous, extremely dangerous.
HANNITY: I actually think we’re seeing — it’s possible, Pat, somebody of the foreign policy and homeland security that’s worse than Jimmy Carter.
And then on the economy, which is what you’re dealing with in your latest book, you really believe, economically, that the country is economically headed for some very difficult times, and you’re trying to give people warning, admonition, advice. When are you trying to advise people?
ROBERTSON: Well, I’m trying to advise them to get out of debt, to get their fiscal house in order when they’re younger, to begin to save money. You look at the Baby Boomers. You know as they near retirement they have less than $50,000 for retirement. It’s going to be devastating.
Social Security is going bankrupt as is Medicare. I’m telling them to beware. In addition, I think this thing that took place with the subprime and Alt-A mortgages was an example of the worst kind of greed all up the line. The people who had mortgages they couldn’t afford, the mortgage bankers who accepted what were called liar loans. The people on Wall Street who packaged them together. The rating agencies who gave them triple-A ratings and then the people who bought those things across the world.
But America is losing its preeminent position as an economic power because of this. How would anybody trust us anymore if we pull a stunt like on that and essentially bankrupted them.
HANNITY: I’ll tell you, it’s really frightening where we are fiscally speaking the average person doesn’t have even, you know, a month’s salary if they hit hard times, and we’re hitting a lot of them lately. So it’s kind of tough.
ROBERTSON: Well, I’m pointing about — the real key to wealth is the gradual accumulation, it’s something Jesus talked about I call the law of use and you couple with the exponential curve.
That’s the secret of Warren Buffett’s wealth. He has had a com pounding effect of his money in the 25, 26 percent rate every year, and that’s how come he’s now the second richest man in the United States is because of this, the steady buildup of money. If we spend it all and have big high-living extravagant lifestyle we’re going to wind up broke.
And so in my book “Right on the Money,” I’m trying to warn people and to explain to them little by little when they’re young, middle aged and older how to look after themselves and have a financial future. It’s important.
HANNITY: Pat, good to see you, thank you for being with us is. Appreciate it.
ROBERTSON: Thanks, Sean.
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