Arnold Schwarzenegger slams GOP's 'unjustifiable' assaults on minority voting rights
On CNN's "Smerconish" Saturday, movie star and former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA) tore into decisions by the GOP to restrict voting rights, and explained why he is donating money to resist those efforts.
"I felt strongly that I should invest in our democracy. and that means that I was — I recognize the fact that we had closed so many polling stations since 2013, since the Supreme Court made that decision, that we don't really need Voting Rights Act anymore," said Schwarzenegger. "And since then, they closed 1600 polling stations. And really has an effect, I felt, that was, you know, kind of unjustifiable. That minorities in the South weren't able to vote exactly the same way we were voting everywhere else."
"Look, my friends in Europe, they were laughing about the fact that I had to put in my own money in order to fight for democracy," added Schwarzenegger. "They said, you have the oldest democracy there is in the history, so how can you brag about that when you don't really have the financial means to open up polling places and you don't have laws in place so that there's [no] voter suppression going on especially in the South?"
Schwarzenegger also had harsh words for outgoing President Donald Trump, who lost re-election in spite of voter suppression efforts and has still refused to concede.
"I think with Trump it was very simply, you know, four years ago, they voted for Trump because he promised them a certain amount of things," said Schwarzenegger. "I think the second time, when you get re-elected or want to get re-elected it's more about what promises did you keep. And how did you perform as the leader. And I think that's where, obviously, he fell short. So, this is why he was voted out."
Watch below: