Arnold Schwarzenegger Confirms He Is Not A 'Closet Democrat'

In 2004, bodybuilder-turned-actor-turned-politician Arnold Schwarzenegger famously called Democrats “Girlie Men,” as his party looked to unseat them that year in the November elections.

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At the time, Schwarzenegger was the Governor of California and an outspoken Republican. These days, Schwarzenegger has returned to acting, and the former “Governator” is championing the issues of environmental protection and stem cell research, which are usually affiliated with the Democratic Party.

During a recent interview with Huffington Post Live, host Ricky Camilleri asked Schwarzenegger if he was becoming a “closet Democrat.”

Schwarzenegger replied, “No, not at all. The Democratic Party has done a good job in grabbing some of those issues, so you think they're Democratic issues. Those are people's issues. I don't see the environment as a Democratic issue or as a Republican issue."

He then pointed out that Republicans Teddy Roosevelt fought to protect public land and created the U.S. Forest Service, and Richard Nixon created the EPA.

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Schwarzenegger then commented on  the widespread denial of global warming among members of his Party. He said, “There's a lot of Republicans who don't believe in it, in global warming. But remember, this is why I always say it's a matter of communicating. Global warming goes sometimes over people's heads. What does not go over people's heads is when you say, ‘We are right now killing 7 million people in the world because of pollution. Do we want to continue with that pollution or do we want to go the other way?’ Then all of a sudden, Republicans and Democrats say, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa. I want to stop this pollution.’ You see, you've got to communicate differently of what it is that people really care about.”

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