'Turn the page and put this junk behind us': Arnold Schwarzenegger endorses Kamala Harris

30 Oct 2024, 17:42 by https://www.facebook.com/17108852506 · AlterNet

Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia Commons
Carl Gibson
October 30, 2024Election 2024

Vice President Kamala Harris just picked up another major GOP endorsement: This time, from former two-term California Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The former governor wrote a lengthy tweet on Wednesday endorsing the Democratic nominee, prefacing it by saying he "doesn't really do endorsements" and doesn't "trust most politicians." However, the bodybuilder and movie star-turned-politician acknowledged that he wasn't just a celebrity but also a "former Republican governor" and that people wanted to hear from him about who he was backing next week.

"My time as Governor taught me to love policy and ignore politics. I’m proud of the work I did to help clean up our air, create jobs, balance the budget, make the biggest infrastructure investment in state history, and take power from the politicians and give it back to the people when it comes to our redistricting process and our primaries in California," he wrote. "That’s policy. It requires working with the other side, not insulting them to win your next election."

Schwarzenegger then explained that he had largely lost faith in both parties, saying that Republicans "have forgotten the beauty of the free market" while Democrats "aren't any better at dealing with deficits." After saying that he "hate[s] politics more than ever" and wants to "tune out," he noted that the upcoming election is too important to not take a side as "rejecting the results of an election is as un-American as it gets."

"To someone like me who talks to people all over the world and still knows America is the shining city on a hill, calling America is a trash can for the world is so unpatriotic, it makes me furious," he tweeted. "And I will always be an American before I am a Republican. That’s why, this week, I am voting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz."

The Terminator and Predator star then tore into former President Donald Trump over his "enemy from within" comments, and reminded his 5.2 million followers on X (formerly Twitter) that the ex-president "won’t respect your vote unless it is for him." He also hit Trump for having "shown no ability to work to pass any policy besides a tax cut that helped his donors and other rich people like me but helped no one else else," and that a second Trump term would "just be four more years of bulls— with no results that makes us angrier and angrier, more divided and more hateful."

"We need to close the door on this chapter of American history, and I know that former President Trump won’t do that. He will divide, he will insult, he will find new ways to be more un-American than he already has been, and we, the people, will get nothing but more anger," Schwarzenegger wrote. "That’s enough reason for me to share my vote with all of you. I want to move forward as a country, and even though I have plenty of disagreements with their platform, I think the only way to do that is with Harris and Walz."

"Vote this week. Turn the page and put this junk behind us," he added.

Schwarzenegger's endorsement — which has already been seen by more than 9.5 million viewers since Wednesday morning — is just the latest endorsement of the Democratic ticket from a longtime Republican. Last month, the New York Times reported that more than 100 national security officials who served in Republican administrations were openly uniting behind Harris, Trump has exhibited "dangerous qualities," including an "unusual affinity" for foreign dictators, like Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.

Click here to read Schwarzenegger's full endorsement.