Showbiz
Iana Murray
Jan 11, 2021
Getty
Arnold Schwarzanegger has denounced last week’s riots in Washington, DC, and compared the mob that stormed the US Capitol to the Nazis.
In a seven minute long video that he shared on Twitter this weekend, the actor and former governor of California drew parallels between the destruction that took place at the Capitol building and the early rise of Nazi Germany.
He also compared the Proud Boys, the far-right extremist group, to the Nazis.
“I grew up in Austria,” he says. “I’m very aware of Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass. 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,” he continues. “The broken glass was in the windows of the United States Capitol. But the mob did not just shatter the windows of the Capitol. They shattered the ideas we took for granted.”
The actor also reflects on his childhood in the aftermath of the Second World War and the impact it had on men who participated in the Nazi regime, and notes that Americans today are similarly being “misled with lies”.
As for Donald Trump, Schwarzenegger said that once he leaves office, he will “go down in history as the worst president ever” and that he will become as “irrelevant as an old tweet”.
Schwarzanegger’s sword from Conan the Barbarian also made a special appearance, as he compared American democracy to a sword which grows stronger when it is tempered.
The video has been viewed almost 30 million times after just one day, with many praising Schwarzanegger for his strong message on American democracy. He can also count Joe Biden among his supporters, as the president-elect also retweeted the video.
Only Arnold Schwarzanegger could cite Conan the Barbarian and make it extremely moving.
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