Arnold Schwarzenegger and President Donald Trump haven’t always had the warmest of relationships, but the former California governor appeared to take up for the Commander in Chief while appearing on CNN Monday.
The Terminator star, 78, spoke with the network’s Jake Tapper about gerrymandering – a cause he has held dear for years.
Schwarzenegger – who held office as California’s 38th governor from 2003 to 2011 – was asked if he thought that Republicans were behind the efforts to rearrange districts to the party advantage.
Tapper appeared to place the brunt of the blame on President Trump: ‘As you’ve acknowledged, this all started because of redistricting in Texas – and this was Trump pushing Republican-controlled states to throw out their current congressional maps so as to cook the books.’
Tapper suggested that the current efforts were ‘so that … it is less likely for Democrats to retake control of the House during the next year’s midterm.’
Tapper continued: ‘I mean, is it fair to argue that – do you believe that the Republican Party is starting this?’ to which Schwarzenegger said, ‘No, Jake.’
Arnold Schwarzenegger, 78, and President Donald Trump, 79, always haven’t had the warmest of relationships, but the former California governor appeared to take up for the Commander in Chief while appearing on CNN Monday talking to Jake Tapper, 56, about gerrymandering
The Austria-born star pointed out two states were Democratic efforts to gerrymander had clearly been effective.
‘There is such extreme gerrymandering going on that in a state like Massachusetts, it has like 40 percent of the people voting for Trump, they only – they have zero representatives,’ Schwarzenegger said.
Schwarzenegger added that ‘the Republican Party has zero representatives sent to the House – think about that.’
The veteran action star also said Democratic efforts to gerrymander in the Southwestern United States had worked.
‘In New Mexico, 45 percent of the people voted for Trump and vote Republican, and zero [are] sent to the House – zero representatives from the Republican Party,’ Schwarzenegger said.
The FUBAR actor said that it was clear both parties had engaged in the practice, which needed to cease.
‘There’s gerrymandering – crazy gerrymandering – going on all over the country, and we wanted to try to stop it in California, and we did stop it in California,’ Schwarzenegger said.
Trump and Schwarzenegger following the CNN Republican presidential debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum on September 16, 2015, in Simi Valley, California
President Donald Trump, accompanied by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, pictured Monday on Air Force One
The Total Recall star told Tapper gerrymandering wasn’t a particularly partisan problem
The Total Recall star told Tapper the issue wasn’t particularly a partisan one: ‘I think this whole thing about finger pointing … that’s not really the way to go.’
The True Lies actor – who appeared to be conducting the interview from Gold’s Gym in Venice Beach, California – said that he feels ‘one party should perform the other party’ in elections moving forward, adding that ‘it should be performance.’
Schwarzenegger – who attended Oktoberfest proceedings last month in Munich, Germany – pointed out political trends in responding to Tapper’s concerns about next year’s midterm elections.
‘When it comes to midterm elections, as you know, always the party that is not in the White House usually wins by 20, 25, 30 seats,’ he said.
Schwarzenegger last month said rearranging districts in California – after Trump made moves in Texas to garner five extra districts prior to next year’s midterms – would ultimately ‘take the power away from the people.
‘It is insane,’ Schwarzenegger said. ‘It doesn’t make any sense to me that because we have to fight Trump, to become Trump. Two wrongs don’t make a right.’
