Arnold Schwarzenegger, the former governor of California, has taken it upon himself to give a presidential speech following the white supremacist protests in Charlottesville, Virginia.
In a video for ATTN, he was blunt with President Donald Trump and called out how he handled the situation.
“As president of this great country, you have a moral responsibility to send an unequivocal message that you won’t stand for hate and racism,” Schwarzenegger said.
Schwarzenegger has donated $100,000 to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a global human rights organization in Los Angeles, in an attempt to fight hate after Charlottesville. He encouraged others to do the same in his video. The former bodybuilder also has a message for those who continue to support the Nazi ideology.
“Your heroes are losers and they’re all rotting in hell,” he added.
https://twitter.com/attn/status/898328098529083394
Unlike Trump and other politicians, Schwarzenegger has actual experience with Nazis. The Austrian-born former actor, said he knew Nazis that returned from World War II with regret for what they had done.
“Growing up, I was surrounded by broken men… men who came home from a war filled with shrapnel and guilt. Men who were misled into a losing ideology. And I can tell you that these ghosts you idolize spent the rest of their lives living in shame,” he said.
Schwarzenegger spent some time in the video talking about past events in history that he said should not be glorified. Trump remains on the other side of the argument. Instead of addressing the neo-Nazi issue directly, Trump has publicly said that Confederate leader Robert E. Lee is part of American history, and should not be erased.
Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments. You…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2017
…can't change history, but you can learn from it. Robert E Lee, Stonewall Jackson – who's next, Washington, Jefferson? So foolish! Also…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2017
…the beauty that is being taken out of our cities, towns and parks will be greatly missed and never able to be comparably replaced!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2017
Schwarzenegger even wrote his own version of a speech he believes the president should have delivered.
“As president of the United States, and as a Republican, I reject the support of white supremacists,” he said. “The country that defeated Hitler’s armies is no place for Nazi flags. The party of Lincoln won’t stand with those who carry the battle flags of the failed Confederacy.”
He ended his fabricated address by shaking a Trump bobblehead and asking “was it that difficult?”