Arnold’s New Battle
ABC News
Friday 03 October 2003
Schwarzenegger: ‘I Cannot Remember’ Expressing Admiration for Hitler
San Diego, Calif - Arnold Schwarzenegger was ready to put his California gubernatorial campaign into high gear with five days left before the election, but after facing allegations of sexual harassment he is now trying to explain claims that he praised Adolf Hitler.
ABCNEWS obtained a copy of an unpublished book proposal with quotes from what was called a "verbatim transcript" of an interview Schwarzenegger gave in 1975 while making the film Pumping Iron.
Asked who his heroes are, he is quoted as saying, "I admired Hitler, for instance, because he came from being a little man with almost no formal education, up to power. I admire him for being such a good public speaker and for what he did with it."
He is also quoted as saying he wished he could have an experience, "like Hitler in the Nuremberg stadium. And have all those people scream at you and just being total agreement whatever you say."
The story broke just as Schwarzenegger was kicking off his bus tour of California — an event that was supposed to be the crescendo of his campaign leading up to the Oct. 7 recall election.
The author of the book proposal, Pumping Iron's director, George Butler, told ABCNEWS that the quotes needed to be seen in the context of Schwarzenegger's admiration of powerful men, and that he never said anything anti-Semitic.
In an interview with ABCNEWS, Schwarzenegger said he didn't recall making the remarks, but said he has no admiration for Hitler or the Nazis.
"I cannot remember any of this, all I can tell you is that I despise anything that Hitler stood for," he said. "I despise anything what the Nazis stood for … anything that the Third Reich stood for. Anything that they've done, the atrocities that they've created … and this is why for many many years I've been fighting against prejudice.
He said he has given "millions of dollars" to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and called Wiesenthal "one of my heroes … because he always preaches justice."
Later Thursday evening, at a news conference with wife Maria Shriver at his side, he repeated the denial.
"I don't remember any of those comments because I always despise everything that Hitler stood for," Schwarzenegger said, calling the Nazi leader a "disgusting villain."
This is not the first time Schwarzenegger has had apparently pro-Nazi remarks come back to haunt him. Last week he was reminded of a toast he gave to Austrian President Kurt Waldheim at his wedding. At the time Schwarzenegger gave the toast, it had just been exposed that Waldheim had committed Nazi war crimes.
"That was a mistake, and I know but we can grow and it's always easy to be smart in hindsight," the actor-turned-candidate said.
Sexual Indiscretions
There have also been a growing number of allegations about Schwarzenegger mistreating women.
A front-page story in Thursday's Los Angeles Times, California's largest newspaper, quoted six women who claim Schwarzenegger groped or made sexually offensive remarks to them. One woman told ABCNEWS she encountered Schwarzenegger in the 1970s when he was a bodybuilder.
"The gym was quite full and Arnold was there and I remember him passing by me and groping my breast," Elaine Stockon told ABCNEWS. "And I was just in sheer shock."
Of the six women who spoke to the newspaper, four would not give their names. One claimed that 20 years ago, Schwarzenegger "grabbed and squeezed" her left breast. She told the Los Angeles Times she "just started crying and crying." She said he did not rape her, but he humiliated her.
The Los Angeles Times also quoted a woman, who asked not to be named, and worked on the movie Terminator 2, who claimed Schwarzenegger "would pin me against the corner of the elevator" and try to pull off the straps of her bathing suit.
He confronted the allegations directly Thursday. "I have done things that at the time I thought then was playful but now I recognize that I have offended people. And those people that I have offended, I want to say to them I am deeply sorry about that and I apologize."
On the heels of the recent allegations, a new TV ad attacking Schwarzenegger and urging California voters to vote against the recall is set to hit the airwaves this weekend. The ad is sponsored by moveon.org, the Internet-based political action committee that backs progressive candidates, and other organizations opposed to the recall.
"If you're a woman … or your mother is a woman, you cannot vote for this man," the commercial says in part."Because Arnold Schwarzenegger has a serious problem with women. … Every woman and every man should vote no on the recall."
Gov. Gray Davis, the man Schwarzenegger is hoping to replace as governor, told ABCNEWS he did not feel comfortable commenting on the allegations against Schwarzenegger of sexual misconduct that have appeared in the media because they have not been substantiated, but he said that the former bodybuilder's remarks about Hitler shocked him.
"I don't see how anyone can admire Adolf Hitler. Any decent American has to be offended by that phrase," Davis said. "I am prepared to say that anyone who says they admire Hitler shocks the public conscience, because there's nothing about Hitler that warrants admiration, nothing at all."
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ABCNEWS' Linda Douglass and Brian Rooney contributed to this report.
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