“He sought a coup by misleading people with lies.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger has condemned last week’s violence at the US Capitol.
In doing so, the Hollywood star and former Governor of California laid the blame at President Donald Trump.
He also likened the US Capitol insurrection to Kristallnacht, a wave of anti-Semitic violence perpetrated by the Nazi Party and its sympathisers in 1938.
Schwarzenegger began his seven-minute speech by recalling events in his birthplace of Austria.
He said: “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.”
Those involved in the attempted coup undermined democracy and the fundamental principles underpinning the United States, Schwarzenegger said.
“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.
“They did not just break down the doors of the building of American democracy. They trampled the very principles on which our country was founded.”
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 said he witnessed, first-hand, similar events occurring in his homeland after the breakdown in democracy surrounding the Second World War.
“I’ve never shared this because it’s a painful memory, but my father would come home drunk … and he would scream and hit us and scare my mother.”
“It all started with lies and intolerance,” Schwarzenegger said, adding “there is fear … something like this could happen right here”.
Schwarzenegger then took a swipe at Donald Trump, whom he blamed for instigating the uprising.
“President Trump sought to overturn the results of an election, and of a fair election.
“He sought a coup by misleading people with lies.”
Trump refused to accept Joe Biden as the presidential election’s projected winner on November 7th, and has constantly referred to the election as “fraudulent”.
No evidence of this has ever been proven, but it is Trump’s ‘Stop The Steal’ march which preceded Wednesday’s insurrection at the US Capitol.
Despite admitting that there would be a new administration in place on January 20th, Trump has refused to completely condemn the violence perpetrated by his supporters.
Schwarzenegger concluded his video by reminding Americans to “look past ourselves, our parties and our disagreements”.
He then sent President-Elect Joe Biden his best wishes, adding “we wish you a great success”.
