On Sunday, actor and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger took it upon himself to directly address the country following the attack on the United States Capitol. In the process, Schwarzenegger condemned President Donald Trump for his failed leadership.
"We need to heal, together, from the drama of what has just happened," Schwarzenegger said in a video on Twitter. "We need to heal, not as Republicans or as Democrats, but as Americans."
Schwarzenegger might be a proud American, he was born and raised in Austria after World War II ravished the country. This led him to compare the pro-Trump riot on Wednesday to the infamous Kristallnacht incident, also known as the Night of Broken Glass.
"Wednesday was the day of broken glass right here in the United States," he explained. He then went on to explain his childhood surrounded by "broken men drinking away the guilt over their participation in the most evil regime in history." He stated that they weren't all "rabid anti-Semites or Nazis," rather they were just men who "went along, step-by-step, down the road."
"I've never shared this publicly because it is a painful memory, but my father would come home drunk once or twice a week, and he would scream and hit us and scare my mother," Schwarzenegger said about his father, who was a member of the Nazi Party during WWII. "Being from Europe, I've seen firsthand how things can spin out of control."
Schwarzenegger then turned his focus to Trump. "President Trump sought to overturn the results of an election, of a fair election. He sought a coup by misleading people with lies," he continued. "My father and our neighbors were misled also with lies, and I know where such lies lead."
"President Trump is a failed leader. He will go down in history as the worst president ever. The good thing is he will soon be as irrelevant as an old tweet," Schwarzenegger said before shaming unnamed "spineless" people and politicians who enabled the president.
Despite Wednesday's events, Schwarzenegger praised American democracy for not falling victim to this coup.
"But it did not work. Our democracy held firm," he said. "And to those who think they can overturn the United States Constitution, know this. You will never win."
