Jimmy Kimmel pushed back on former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday when the actor and politician proudly touted that he “absolutely” still identifies as a “traditional Republican.”
The late night host, a devout critic of President Donald Trump and his MAGA-led Republican Party, asked Schwarzenegger exasperatedly, “What does that even mean anymore?”
Met with the answer that “a traditional Republican is someone that admires the Republican Party for having freed the slaves,” Kimmel all but guffawed.
“Yeah, they don’t get credit for that anymore, c’mon now,” Kimmel interjected.
“I know, but this is the history. This is what I’m about. Someone that has given those slaves American citizenship and given them the rights to vote,” Schwarzenegger argued.
Raising his voice a bit, Kimmel questioned whether those morals exist at all in the Republican Party as it’s known today.
“This sounds like all the opposite things that the Republican Party stands for now though, doesn’t it?” Kimmel asked. Schwarzenegger responded that the changing party “doesn’t mean I have to change my philosophy,” to which Kimmel conceded, “I see, that makes sense.”
“I have my philosophy, you know, the Ronald Reagan philosophy who created the Air Resources Board in California so that we can regulate our own air and reduce our greenhouse gases and pollution in California, that was was something by Ronald Reagan, a Republican. [Richard] Nixon created the EPA,” the actor continued. “He created the Environmental Protection Agency to protect our environment, the water and the air.
“So those are the kind of Republicans that used to go and work together with the Democrats and got things done,” he concluded, stirring applause from Kimmel’s live studio audience. “This is the kind of Republican that I am.”
Kimmel couldn’t let the point slide without some punchy ribbing, however.
“Unfortunately, I think you’re the only one of them left,” he quipped.
“I don’t think I’m the only one left,” Schwarzenegger said. “ But look, this doesn’t mean that we should give up.”
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