Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), “flexing his muscles in an effort to counter President Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, will unveil an ambitious new national effort Friday aimed at providing lawmakers with a comprehensive set of tools to pass substantive climate change legislation at the state and local level,” Politico reports.
Schwarzenegger Wants Kasich to Challenge Trump in 2020
Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) said that Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) “should campaign for the White House in 2020, essentially calling for a primary challenge to his fellow Republican, President Trump,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
Said Schwarzenegger: “He should run in 2020, yes.”
Schwarzenegger Won’t Run for Senate
Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) “won’t be back,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“He said Sunday that he is not interested in running for the U.S. Senate, after rumors bubbled last week that he was considering a campaign for the seat currently held by Sen. Dianne Feinstein.”
Said Schwarzenegger: “I’m deeply flattered by all of the people who have approached me about running for Senate, but my mission right now is to bring sanity to Washington through redistricting reform like we passed here in California.”
Schwarzenegger for Senate?
Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) may be mulling a political comeback, Politico reports.
“The prospect of Schwarzenegger’s return to elected politics in a 2018 U.S. Senate run — possibly as an independent — is generating increasing buzz in state Republican circles, fueled by the former governor’s seeming ability to get under the skin of President Donald Trump on social media.”
Trump Slams Schwarzenegger Again
President Trump doubled down on his criticism of his reality TV replacement, writing on Twitter that Arnold Schwarzenegger “did a really bad job as governor of California” but is “even worse” as the host of The Celebrity Apprentice, Politico reports.
Quote of the Day
“We had tremendous success on The Apprentice. And when I ran for president, I had to leave the show. That’s when I knew for sure that I was doing it. And they hired a big, big movie star, Arnold Schwarzenegger, to take my place. And we know how that turned out. The ratings went down the tubes. It’s been a total disaster… And I want to just pray for Arnold if we can, for those ratings, OK?”
— President Trump, quoted by the Washington Post, at the National Prayer Breakfast.
Schwarzenegger put out a pretty good response.
Quote of the Day
“It’s crazy. It’s crazy and it makes us look stupid when the White House is ill-prepared to put this kind of executive order out there.”
— Arnold Schwarzenegger, in an interview with Extra, on President Trump’s executive order barring citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.
Schwarzenegger Tried the Trump Approach and Failed
Los Angeles Times: “Long before Schwarzenegger inherited the role of firing underperformers on camera, he was the one selling voters on a pledge to fire an underperforming government. Few politicians are better acquainted than Schwarzenegger with the fickleness of an electorate that propels an outsider with an outsized personality into high office.”
“He experienced how swiftly a populist crowd-pleaser could go from harnessing rage to watching it ricochet in the wrong direction. Adoring crowds who reveled in his pledges to restore integrity and common sense to government turned on him when bureaucratic bloat failed to shrink. Much of what is playing out in Washington feels familiar to the Sacramento politicos who endured the tumult of Schwarzenegger’s first years as California governor.”
Trump Follows Schwarzenegger’s Path
Vanity Fair looks back at Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 2003 gubernatorial victory in California and concludes that it wasn’t an aberration, “but proof of concept for the Republican candidate of the future. It was Donald Trump’s road map.”
“Like Trump, Schwarzenegger the Politician just sort of materialized one day. He wasn’t particularly known as somebody who could run for office, though there had been rumblings. He had just been in a Terminator movie; he didn’t need such a low-paying fallback career. So we didn’t think about him very seriously. But then he went on The Tonight Show, and suddenly he was—the recall was, and then he was.”
“He was an action hero, painted in broad strokes, who ran on a name and a catchphrase. And the shock was the same as it is now.”
Schwarzenegger Replaces Trump on ‘Celebrity Apprentice’
Donald Trump has been replaced on NBC’s reality show “Celebrity Apprentice” by another star-turned-GOP politician – Arnold Schwarzenegger, reports the Hollywood Reporter.
The Environment Isn’t a Political Issue
Arnold Schwarzenegger: “When I praise Governor Brown, some people look at me like I’ve lost my mind. I’m a Republican, and he is a Democrat. In our current political climate, we are supposed to be mortal enemies…Here in California, the environment has never been a political issue, and it shouldn’t be…In the United States, 200,000 people die every year from air pollution-related illnesses. They aren’t dying from breathing Republican air or Democratic air. We all breathe the same air.”
“While Washington has been frozen by ideology, we in California have served the people instead of our parties…We know in California that you don’t have to choose between the environment and the economy. In fact, the opposite is true, and we have proven it by being relentlessly committed to our goals…It isn’t my legacy—it’s California’s legacy.”
Wonk Wire: Which city is the most polluted in America?
Retouched Schwarzenegger Portrait Scrubs Out Wife
Three months after California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) “unveiled his official Capitol portrait – and its badly scrubbed-out image of his estranged wife – a less splotchy, retouched version of the painting was hung Friday with little fanfare,” the Sacramento Bee reports.
“Less noticeable on the final installment is the area where an image of Maria Shriver’s face on a lapel pin was deleted.”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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