Arnold Schwarzenegger Compares Capitol Riots to the Beginning of the Holocaust
Actor slams Trump and allies during video statement
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Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger blasted President Donald Trump and those who “enabled his lies,” while comparing the recent U.S. Capitol riots to the beginning of the Holocaust in Nazi Germany more than 80 years ago.
In a video, Schwarzenegger recounts his childhood in post-World War II Austria.
The actor then describes the atmosphere as “the ruins of a country that suffered the loss of its democracy.”
“I’m very aware of Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass,” Schwarzenegger says.
“It was a night of rampage against the Jews carried out in 1938 by the Nazi equivalent of the Proud Boys"
"Wednesday was the Day of Broken Glass right here in the United States.”
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Nazi forces descended on Jewish neighborhoods, destroying businesses, burning synagogues before arresting 30,000 Jewish men who were shipped off to concentration camps to meet their fate.
WATCH:
My message to my fellow Americans and friends around the world following this week's attack on the Capitol. pic.twitter.com/blOy35LWJ5
— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) January 10, 2021
Schwarzenegger recalled being “surrounded by broken men drinking away the guilt over their participation in the most evil regime in history," including his father who was believed to have been a member of the Nazi party.
He said Nazi Germany was allowed to “spin out of control" due to “lies” and “intolerance," adding “there is a fear in this country and all over the world” that something similar could happen in the United States.
“Now, I do not believe it is, but I do believe that we must be aware of the dire consequences of selfishness and cynicism.”
Schwarzenegger said the mob that stormed the Capitol “shattered the ideas we took for granted."
“They did not just break down the doors of the building that housed American democracy,” he continued.
“They trampled the very principles on which our country was founded.”
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He then went on to attack President Donald Trump, accusing him of seeking “a coup by misleading people with lies” to overturn a “fair election.”
“My father and our neighbors were misled also with lies, and I know where such lies lead,” he said.
Schwarzenegger predicted Trump would "go down in history as the worst president ever.”
"The good thing is he will soon be as irrelevant as an old tweet.”
Schwarzenegger also blasted “spinelessness” Republicans, alleging they “enabled [the president’s] lies and treachery.”
“They’re complicit with those who carried the flag of self-righteous insurrection into the Capitol,” he said.
Schwarzenegger then wielded what he called “the Conan sword" from the 1982 blockbuster hit, “Conan the Barbarian.”
“Here’s the thing about swords,” he said.
“The more you temper a sword, the stronger it becomes,” referring to a heat treatment process to harden a blade.
“Our democracy is like the steel of this sword,” he added.
“The more it is tempered, the stronger it becomes.”
“I believe, as shaken as we are by the events of recent days, we will come out stronger because we now understand what can be lost.”
