Arnold Schwarzenegger stopped by The View today, where the actor and former politician shared a rather dire outlook on today’s politics. The two-term California governor decried Washington’s bipartisanship, telling the Hot Topics table that both sides of the aisle need to come together to work on immigration reform.
“Why can we not come together?” Schwarzenegger asked, later urging politicians to be “public servants,” not “party servants.”
“There’s a difference,” he said. “In Washington right now, we only have party servants. They only want to serve the party. They don’t think about the people. When they think about the people, they only think about getting reelected.”
Schwarzenegger boldly proclaimed, “I think this is the evil of all evils,” before continuing, “Yes, you can go and identify, ‘I’m more Republican philosophically,’ or ‘I’m more Democratic philosophically,’ that’s perfectly OK. … The bottom line is, it needs leadership. Someone has to come to Washington and bring the people together to let them know that we need both parties to make this country great.”
Schwarzenegger then compared the country to a sports team, arguing that politicians are acting like athletes refusing to “pass the ball to you if you’re a Republican.”
“There’s no such thing,” he said. “[Athletes] all work together. That’s how the team wins. America can only win if we all work together.”
Earlier in his appearance on The View, Schwarzenegger revealed the one job in politics that’s out of his grasp: President of the United States. While arguing for immigration reform, he proclaimed, “It is a stupid system! The system is set up to commit a crime … there’s so many hardworking people that to contribute to this country, and they’re doing such a great job.”
After Alyssa Farah Griffin asked Schwarzenegger — who was born in Austria and later moved to the U.S., barring him from ever becoming POTUS — “Would you have wanted to seek higher office?” he quipped, “Yeah, but that’s why I’m saying, ‘comprehensive immigration reform!'”
His remark earned him plenty of laughter and a round of applause from the panel, as Griffin told her guest, “I love that.”
The View airs weekdays at 11/10c on ABC.