Former actor and mayor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has compared the US attack on the Capitol to Kristallnacht.
Calling Donald Trump “the worst president ever”, Schwarzenegger spoke of his Austrian heritage and said that the broken glass in the States, was the “shattered” ideas” we took for granted.”
“I grew up in Austria. I’m very aware of Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass,” he said in a seven-minute video on Twitter.
“It was a night of rampage against the Jews carried out in 1938 by the Nazi equivalent of the Proud Boys.
“Wednesday was the Day of Broken Glass right here in the United States. The broken glass was in the windows of the United States Capitol.
“But the mob did not just shatter the windows of the Capitol. They shattered the ideas we took for granted.”
My message to my fellow Americans and friends around the world following this week's attack on the Capitol. pic.twitter.com/blOy35LWJ5
— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) January 10, 2021
The 73-year-old then recalled a story from his childhood, recollecting the aftermath from World War II.
“Now, I’ve never shared this so 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.
“I didn’t hold him totally responsible because our neighbour was doing the same thing to his family, and so was the next neighbour over.”
Schwarzenegger also said that after growing up in Austria, he knew what it was like to see “how things can spin out of control”.
As for President Trump, the Terminator star called him 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,” and said that he “sought a coup by misleading people with lies”.
“My father and our neighbours were misled also with lies, and I know where such lies lead,” he said.
On January 7, the US Capitol building, home to the House of Representatives and the Senate, had been flooded by angry, flag-waving “patriots” who rushed through the police lines to take up seats in the symbolic offices of power.
The predominantly white, predominantly male group of masked extremists knew the eyes of the world were upon them and chanted claims straight from the Twitter feed of Donald Trump.
The attacks left one woman dead, many arrested and Twitter, Instagram and Facebook all officially banning Trump from their platforms.