Now Schwarzenegger faces 'Hitler' claims
Hours after being forced to apologise following fresh allegations that he groped women, California governorship candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger was confronted with claims that he had once spoken of his admiration for Adolf Hitler.
ABC News reported last night that Schwarzenegger told an interviewer during the filming of the bodybuilding documentary “Pumping Iron” in 1975 that he admired the Nazi leader.
The revelations came just as the action hero appeared to be picking up steam as the front-runner to replace Governor Gray Davis in Tuesday’s historic election.
Schwarzenegger, with wife Maria Shriver at his side, told a late-night news conference at Los Angeles’s Century Plaza Hotel that he didn’t recall making the reported Hitler remarks.
“I don’t remember any of those comments because I always despise everything that Hitler stood for,” Schwarzenegger said, calling Hitler a “disgusting villain”.
Asked about the new allegations of groping against her husband, Shriver referred to his apology earlier in the day in San Diego.
“As I say to my children it always takes great courage to stand before anybody and apologise and I think that’s what Arnold did today,” Shriver said.
Some political analysts predicted serious harm to Schwarzenegger, whose standing among women voters was poor even before the latest furore.
Schwarzenegger’s apology came at a campaign event kicking off the final leg of his campaign. Taking the stage to chants of “Arnold, Arnold,” he immediately addressed the issue.
“I have behaved badly sometimes. Yes, it is true that I was on rowdy movie sets and I have done things that were not right, which I thought then was playful but now I recognise that I offended people,” he said.
From this point on, Schwarzenegger said, he would prove he is a “champion for the women.” As he made that pledge, the crowd interrupted him with cheers.
The admission came hours after the Los Angeles Times reported the accusations of six women who accused Schwarzenegger of sexually harassing and groping them over the past three decades.
Three of the women told the Times that Schwarzenegger groped their breasts. One said he tried to take her bathing suit off in a hotel elevator, and another said he put his hand up her skirt and grabbed her buttocks. Still another said he pulled her on his lap and asked if she ever had a particular sex act performed on her.
The Times, quoting two of the women by name and the rest anonymously, said the incidents occurred as far back as 1975 and as recently as 2000.
“All is not forgiven. He’s got a pattern of this for 30 years, it doesn’t just go away,” Karen Pomer, a spokeswoman for the women’s group CodePink, said after the apology.
Megan Seely, president of the California chapter of the National Organisation for Women, said: “It’s clear Schwarzenegger is not safe for women.”
But Julie Vandermost, president of the California Women’s Leadership Association, a Republican group that endorsed Schwarzenegger, said she was pleased the actor was truthful, and added that his admission does not mean he is an unworthy candidate for governor.
“I don’t expect Schwarzenegger to be groping people in Sacramento,” she said.
Schwarzenegger’s alleged past indiscretions have been an issue in the campaign since he announced his bid to replace Mr Davis if the governor is recalled. Much of the controversy has surrounded a 1977 interview in Oui magazine in which Schwarzenegger talked about engaging in group sex.
The actor and former world bodybuilding champion has previously said he did not remember that interview and that, in any case, he often exaggerated in those days to promote his sport and his fledgling movie career.
