Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn took a break Tuesday from promoting his new TV series about the Watergate scandal and, during a luncheon at Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, sat down with Fox News anchor Bret Baier to promote support for Ukraine and unity for the United States.
Penn was in Ukraine in February to film a documentary about President Volodymyr Zelenskyy when Russia launched its invasion. He went back two weeks ago to continue shooting the film, which he said has evolved into a war documentary, and to support the work of his aid group CORE, which is assisting some 5 million Ukrainian refugees who’ve fled to nearby countries.
Sean Penn, Bret Baier, and Robert C. O’Brien discussed the war in Ukraine from the East Room of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. Penn was recently in Ukraine filming a documentary about the Russian invasion. (Courtesy of Nixon Foundation)
In Tuesday’s interview with Baier, Penn called for harsher sanctions against Russia and for more direct U.S. support to Ukraine, including sending over fighter jets. When Baier mentioned concerns that such a move could escalate tensions with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is threatening to use nuclear weapons, Penn said we have to operate on the belief that, “within the Russian leadership, there is more than one finger that’s gotta push a button, and that there is some recognition of what that means.”
Echoing that line of thinking was Robert O’Brien, a former National Security Advisor to President Donald Trump who took the stage with Penn. O’Brien said if we don’t halt Putin in his tracks now, he won’t stop trying to rebuild the Soviet empire, while any signs of success could invite aggression by China in the Indo-Pacific region.
“We’ve gotta get in there and do the right thing and not be a nation that succumbs to intimidation and fear,” Penn said.
It was a message that drew loud applause from the largely conservative crowd of nearly 200 people, who’d paid $125 to attend the lunchtime interview in the Nixon Library’s East Room. The room’s gold curtains and massive chandeliers make for a detailed replica of the White House East Room, which is where President Richard Nixon and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev signed the 1973 Agreement on Prevention of Nuclear War.
Penn ended up on the Nixon Library stage due to an unlikely alliance he made several years ago with O’Brien, when both men were working to help free journalist Austin Tice, who was kidnapped in Syria in 2012.
Given Penn’s well-known liberal views and upcoming Watergate-themed TV series, the mix of host and guests, crowd and venue might seem an odd one. But while it made for some good-natured jokes between the men on stage, such as when Baier asked Penn if he wanted to be “on the right or the left” as they went to take their stools, Penn said he’s been intentional about trying to reach across the aisle and to “stop being cynical about the possibility that we can understand each other’s ideas.”
“We’ve become so divided,” he said. More than anything else, he said his time in Ukraine shed a light on what we’ve been missing. “People who have every bit the diversity, and the polarization of ideology, who are able to work together and to fight together and to have common courage.”
Penn, a grandson of Russian-Jewish immigrants, said the clear mission to preserve Democracy in Ukraine makes it easier for progressives and conservatives alike to rally around this cause. But he said we can’t pretend skin color isn’t a factor, with Baier himself making a comment earlier in the discussion about Ukrainian refugees being “just like us.” Penn said he hopes the attention that’s now on Ukraine will “parlay” into a culture shift where Americans care more about victims of war and refugees the world over.
Penn, 61, has a history of ending up in the thick of disasters and conflicts around the world.
Sometimes he takes on the role of reporter, such his 2003 visit to war-ravaged Iraq, or his controversial 2015 interview with drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán for Rolling Stone magazine. Other times his focus is on humanitarian relief, such as when he helped rescue people during Hurricane Katrina or when he stayed in Haiti for months after the country’s devastating earthquake in 2010.
While some relief organizers initially dismissed Penn’s relief work as a publicity stunt — and some critics are taking similar jabs at his work now in Ukraine — many changed their tunes after seeing how Penn and his team helped provide medical care and other resources to tens of thousands of Haitians.
His team’s efforts in Haiti grew into a nonprofit now called Community Organized Relief Effort, or CORE. The organization currently has teams on the ground in Poland and Romania, helping Ukrainian refugees.
Penn said he was inspired to make a documentary about Zelenskyy after the comedian-turned-president gained international attention for a 2019 phone call with Trump. That call, where Trump asked Zelenskyy to investigate Hunter Biden in order for the U.S. to fulfill its commitment to deliver defensive weapons to Ukraine, led to Trump’s impeachment.
Guests at the luncheon got to see a brief clip from the documentary. It was shot the day after the Russian attacks started, with Penn’s team holed up in a hotel-turned-bomb shelter. Penn had called O’Brien for advice. In the clip, Penn says O’Brien told him to “get the f— out.” O’Brien, who became the highest-ranking Mormon in U.S. government when he served in the Trump administration, clarified those weren’t his exact words, drawing laughter from the crowd.
When Baier asked for a release date on the documentary, Penn said they’re still figuring out what shape the unabashedly pro-Ukraine film might take. And he said they want to be sure they have something meaningful to add to the conversation before putting it out into the world.
Meanwhile, Penn’s latest acting project is transforming himself into Nixon’s Attorney General John Mitchell in a series with Julia Roberts called “Gaslit,” slated to air April 24 on the Starz network. Lunch guests got to see an extended clip from the series, and Penn discussed how he’s been interested in the cast of characters around the Watergate scandal since he watched it unfold on TV as a kid.
As guests left the lunch, they were largely praising what Penn had to say. Linda Gudzunas, who’s lived in Yorba Linda for 52 years and now volunteers at the Nixon Library, said that even though Penn is “very liberal,” she appreciates the work he’s doing, his calls for unity, and how he helped her feel more connected to what’s happening in Ukraine.
Despite discouraging news Tuesday of Putin launching a new offensive in eastern Ukraine, Penn said he’d “wager everything” that Ukraine will eventually stop Russia. The question, he said, is this:
“How many lives did we let them lose … to be able to win that fight for us?”