Sponsored message
Audience-funded nonprofit news
radio tower icon laist logo
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Subscribe
  • Listen Now Playing Listen
News

Schwarzenegger Shares 'Painful Memory' About Post-WWII Childhood. Calls For Supporting Biden

Truth matters. Community matters. Your support makes both possible. LAist is one of the few places where news remains independent and free from political and corporate influence. Stand up for truth and for LAist. Make your year-end tax-deductible gift now.

Arnold Schwarzenegger has released a seven-minute video on Twitter denouncing Wednesday’s events at the Capitol, and comparing the acts of the Proud Boys and others involved in that day’s violent mob to the acts of the Nazis during Kristallnacht.

He said, in part:

“I grew up in Austria, 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. The broken glass was in the windows of the United States Capitol.”

The actor and former governor of California went on to describe the effects of that night in 1938 on his family and neighbors. It created, he said, a generation of “broken men, drinking away that guilt over their participation ... not all of them were rabid anti-Semites and Nazis. Many just went along, step by step, down the road.”

One of those men, he said, was his father.

Schwarzenegger went on to note that the events of Kristallnacht and the Nazis’ genocidal regime were started by “lies, and lies, and lies, and intolerance,” similar to the lies told by President Trump in an effort to overturn the results of the election.

Calling Trump a “failed leader,” Schwarzenegger added that the former host of The Apprentice “soon will be as irrelevant as an old tweet,” and appealed to both members of his own Republican party and Democrats to join forces in working with President-elect Joe Biden.

Sponsored message

“I ask you to join me in saying to President-elect Biden, ‘We wish you great success as our president. If you succeed, our nation succeeds.”

Our news is free on LAist. To make sure you get our coverage: Sign up for our daily newsletters. To support our non-profit public service journalism: Donate Now.

You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our connected community. We are free to tell the full truth, to hold power to account without fear or favor, and to follow facts wherever they lead. Our only loyalty is to our audiences and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen our community.

Right now, LAist has lost $1.7M in annual funding due to Congress clawing back money already approved. The support we receive before year-end will determine how fully our newsroom can continue informing, serving, and strengthening Southern California.

If this story helped you today, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.

Your tax-deductible donation keeps LAist independent and accessible to everyone.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief

Make your tax-deductible year-end gift today

A row of graphics payment types: Visa, MasterCard, Apple Pay and PayPal, and  below a lock with Secure Payment text to the right