Arnold Schwarzenegger stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live to promote his new film, The Man With the Bag, and took the opportunity to reflect on being a Republican in today’s political climate.
Kimmel asked the movie star and politician if he is still a Republican early on in their conversation. “Yeah I’m a Republican, absolutely,” Schwarzenegger confirmed, explaining that a “traditional Republican is someone that admires the Republican party for having free the slaves.”
“This is the history,” he explained of the party. “This is what I’m about. Someone that has given those slaves American citizenship and has given them the right to vote is Republican.”
“This sounds like all of the opposite things the Republican party stands for now though, doesn’t it?” Kimmel responded.
“It doesn’t mean I have to change my philosophy,” Schwarzenegger said. “I have my philosophy. The Ronald Reagan philosophy, who created the air resources board in California so we can regulate our own air and reduce our greenhouse gases and pollution in California. That was done by Ronald Reagan, by a Republican. Nixon created the EPA. … So those are the kind of Republicans that used to go and work together with the Democrats and got things done. This is the kind of Republican that I am.”
“Unfortunately I think you’re the only one of them left,” Kimmel noted.
“No, I don’t think I’m the only one left,” Schwarzenegger acknowledged. “But this doesn’t mean that we should give up. The bottom line is we have just seen now what some people call the blue wave. I call it a tidal wave or a tsunami. It’s not really a wave anymore. But the bottom line of that is that now the Democrats go in there and they have the majority. And then the Republicans will go in there and they have the majority. And this is how it goes back and forth and back and forth.”
He added, “And it has been going back and forth like this for the last 20 years. And what happened in the last 20 years? None of them did true immigration reform. So we are still fighting over immigration. None of them participated in reducing our debt. None of them created a health care system where where everyone is insured.”
Schwarzenegger explained that if one party tries to do something by themselves it’s “bogus.” “What you have to do is the Democrats and the Republicans have to work together like we did when I was governor of California,” he said. “This is the only way you can accomplish something rather than always pointing fingers and accusing each other of things and calling each other names. No. You have to get together and accomplish and be a public servant rather than a party servant. There’s a difference.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Schwarzenegger reflected on Donald Trump asking for his support in 2016 when he initially ran for president. The former California governor explained that he felt he couldn’t endorse Trump’s campaign because they disagreed about certain issues, including climate change and pollution.
