Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) compared the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol last week to Kristallnacht.
Schwarzenegger, who was born in Austria two years after the end of World War II, described the paramilitary members and civilians who destroyed synagogues, private homes and Jewish-owned businesses as “the Nazi equivalent of the Proud Boys.”
He said,”Wednesday was the day of broken glass right here in the United States,”
The actor and former governor went on to describe his childhood in postwar Europe, saying, “Growing up, I was surrounded by broken men drinking away the guilt over their participation in the most evil regime in history.”
Not all of those men were committed fascists or anti-Semites, Schwarzenegger said, but “many just went along, step by step, down the road. They were the people next door.”
Schwarzenegger went on to describe the abuse he and his mother suffered at the hands of his father, a former Brownshirt. “I didn’t hold him totally responsible, because our neighbor was doing the same thing to his family, and so was the next neighbor over,”
he said. “Being from Europe, I’ve seen firsthand how things can spin out of control.”
He went on to compare his father to those who stormed the Capitol as a result of the president’s unsubstantiated claims about widespread voter fraud, adding, “I know where such lies lead.”
Schwarzenegger closed his remarks by displaying the sword he wielded in his breakout role in “Conan the Barbarian,” comparing democracy to a sword.
“The more that it is tempered, the stronger it becomes,” he said.
