Woe betide you, Donald Trump and racists everywhere: You’ve gone and pissed off the Terminator.
In a new video, former Republican governor of California and original scary cinematic humanoid Arnold Schwarzenegger excoriated President Trump for his response to the racially charged attack at Charlottesville, in which he said there was violence on “many sides.”
Like many who watched the violence spring from a white-supremacist rally, Schwarzenegger was not having it. “There are no two sides to bigotry,” said the iconic Terminator star. “There are no two sides to hatred. If you choose to march with a flag that symbolizes the slaughter of millions of people, there are not two sides.”
He then said he’d give the speech Trump should have given. “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 flag of the failed Confederacy.”
Turning to a Trump bobble head, Schwarzenegger said: “Was it that difficult? See, I told you.”
Schwarzenegger, who was born and raised in Austria after World War II, said that he knew the “original Nazis” and spoke to them directly: “I have a message to the Neo-Nazis, the White Nationalists and the neo-Confederates,” he said. “Let me be just as blunt as possible: Your heroes are losers. You’re supporting a lost cause.”
He noted he had donated money to the Simon Weisenthal Center, the namesake of “the great Nazi hunter I was proud to call a friend.”
And Schwarzenegger rallied bystanders to activism. “Those of you who have been silent, you must also evolve,” he said. “I’ve learned a long time ago that the only way we can really eliminate hatred is to face it head on.”
“Let’s terminate hate,” he concluded.
You don’t need the government to protect the planet, you can do it yourself — @Schwarzenegger pic.twitter.com/dfO93vy64s
— ATTN: (@attn) August 9, 2017
