Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger isn’t thrilled that the 2024 presidential election is looking like a rematch between former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden.
“I’m a big believer in new blood and a new generation,” he told Axios. “But if that’s what it needs, if that’s what this country needs, to have that kind of a showdown again and to finally find out, you know, that Biden is, you know, the legitimate president, then so be it.”
However, his strong preference would be to see new front runners emerge out of the primaries.
“The bottom line is, I think we need to find new leaders,” the “Terminator” star said about potential Commander-in-Chiefs.
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, playing practical jokes on his fans, dressed up as The Terminator. pic.twitter.com/YLVUln9iF9
— All The Right Movies (@ATRightMovies) November 17, 2023
“To me they’re both flawed and I just think we’re at a time now where we need someone strong, where we need visionaries, and not people that tinker around with little Mickey Mouse stuff.”
Schwarzenegger said that the current state of American politics is “embarrassing” on the world stage.
“They’re [politicians in Washington] killing themselves to get just a simple budget going,” he elaborated.
“I mean, where are we now? You know, it’s just, it’s embarrassing to the rest of the world the way we kind of, like, can’t get things done.”
He noted that immigration, health care, infrastructure, and the national deficit are all issues that politicians have been unable to solve.
Schwarzenegger told the outlet that he’s receptive to a third-party candidate shaking up the race.
“I’m open to anything, I’m open to someone fresh coming in and someone new kind of taking over,” he commented. “That’s what I’m interested in.”
The “Conan the Barbarian” star believes that poll numbers, which see Trump ahead of Biden by 4% according to the latest survey from Emerson College Polling, are “premature” to be discussing.
“We don’t know where is Trump going to be, legally,” he remarked.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen with Biden, if he really is going to stay in. We don’t know if there’s not a third candidate coming.”
“So I think all of this is premature, to talk about poll numbers, to talk about any of this stuff,” Schwarzenegger commented.
A new national poll found that Trump was holding steady at support from 47% of registered voters, while Biden’s numbers fell two percent from last year’s survey to 43%.
Currently, in another contest between the 45th and 46th presidents, 10% of respondents were undecided.
However, when independent hopefuls Robert Kennedy Jr., Cornel West, and Jill Stein were added to the mix, Trump lost five points, while Biden tanked by seven.
Biden’s support amongst minorities has also slipped from the same time last year.
While he still holds a majority lead among Black voters, the president took a 15-point hit from 2022, from 61% to 47%.
Despite allowing a surge of migrants to flood into the country this year, he lost 11-points from Hispanic voters.
While the majority of voters are very excited about the upcoming 2024 presidential election, Trump’s base is significantly more stoked.
46% of the former president’s supporters are very excited, while only 29% of Biden voters reported the same enthusiasm.
According to Schwarzenegger, who immigrated from Austria in 1968, participation in the electoral process is the key to Democracy.
“I came over here because it’s a country with a great democracy, it’s a country that is free, it’s the country that has the greatest opportunities and there’s a great political system,” he told the Axios.
“Democracy, as they say, it’s not a bystander sport. You have to go in there and participate,” he encouraged voters.
“We have seen our vulnerabilities in 2020 and we have to kind of make sure that those things don’t happen again.”