Arnold Schwarzenegger refuses to get drawn into anti-ICE sentiment on The View after being challenged on immigration issues
appeared to ignore an attempt from Joy Behar to stir up anti-ICE sentiment on The View on Tuesday.
The star, 77, was quizzed on his thoughts about the ongoing immigration issues in the U.S. during his appearance on the show.
Behar asked him: 'You are an immigrant yourself - an immigrant of the country. Did you have a visceral reaction to what they're doing - what ICE is doing [in LA]?'
Schwarzenegger - after begging Democrats and his fellow Republicans 'to come together and solve' the issue - offered a lengthy, thoughtful response.
At points, co-host Sunny Hostin physically attempted to interrupt the conservative by grabbing his arm, but he calmly continued with his opinion.
Schwarzenegger said: 'Let me tell you - you said "immigrant" - I'm so proud and happy that I was embraced by the American people like that. Imagine - I came here at the age of 21 with absolutely nothing. And then to create a career like that.
'I mean, in no other country in the world could you do that. Every single thing - if it's my bodybuilding career, if it's my acting career, becoming governor, the beautiful family that I've created. All of this is because of America.'
The assertion was met with applause after which the star criticized the certain 'foreigners' who were fouling up the one place that welcomed them with open arms.
He said: 'This is the greatest country in the world, and it is the land of opportunity. And because I'm such a proud American, and a proud immigrant... the key thing, is we need to do things legal.'
He went on to brand immigrants 'doing illegal things in America' as 'not smart', adding: 'Because when you come to America, you're a guest. And you have to behave like a guest.
'Like, when I go to someone's house and I'm a guest, then I will do everything I can to keep things clean. Everything that is the right thing to do rather than committing a crime or being abusive.'
He declared that immigrants' mindsets should be more along the lines of 'I am going to America to use the great opportunities that America has - in education, jobs, creating a family, all of those kind of things'.
Schwarzenegger added: 'Then you have to think, "If I get all of those things from America, I have to give something back".
'You have a responsibility as an immigrant to give back to America and to pay back America, and to go do something for your community for no money whatsoever.'
The actor also advised onlookers to 'give something back to afterschool programs, the special Olympics, or whatever it is. Make this country a better place'.
Schwarzenegger added separately: 'Democrats and Republicans have to come together and solve [immigration reform] if they really want to be public servants. If they want to be party servants. It won't happen.'
On Monday, President Donald Trump ordered a new blitz on Democrat cities that will see huge numbers of illegal immigrants rounded up for the 'largest mass deportation in history'.
It comes amid the Los Angeles protests after ICE agents attempted to arrest alleged illegal immigrants, sparking major violence in the city.
That prompted Trump to respond by sending in the National Guard and hundreds of Marines.
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'A tornado passes over Tehran,' he wrote. 'Symbols of government are being bombed and destroyed — from the Broadcasting Authority and soon other target — and crowds of residents are fleeing. This is how dictatorships collapse.' Katz, speaking to senior military officials yestereday, said that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei could suffer the same end as Saddam Hussein of Iraq. Iran has arrested five suspected agents of Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, on charges of 'tarnishing' the country's image, Iranian news agencies have reported. 'These mercenaries sought to sow fear among the public and tarnish the image of the sacred system of the Islamic Republic of Iran through their calculated activities online,' the Tasnim and ISNA news agencies said, quoting a statement from the Revolutionary Guards. The arrests were made in western Iran. 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Israel's new bombing campaign against Iran began with strikes on nuclear facilities and military commanders on Friday and has continued with daily attacks on missile launchers, air-defence systems and even a state television channel. Iran has responded by firing salvoes of ballistic missiles at Israel, including some that have penetrated the Iron Dome missile-defence system, sending the population hurrying for shelter at the sound of air-raid alerts. • How the conflict unfolded The Israeli army said it had struck Iran's centrifuge-production and weapons-manufacturing sites in overnight strikes. 'More than 50 air force fighter jets, guided by precise intelligence from the intelligence directorate, completed a series of strikes on military targets in the Tehran area in recent hours,' the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said. The army said a centrifuge-production site in Tehran used by Iran to expand the scope of its uranium enrichment was attacked. 'As part of the broad effort to disrupt Iran's nuclear weapons development programme, a centrifuge-production facility in Tehran was targeted.' In what it described as a 'wave of attacks', Israel struck several arms factories it claims were producing raw materials and components for assembling ground-to-ground missiles. 'Additionally, sites producing systems and components for ground-to-air missiles designed to target aircraft were attacked. These targets were struck as part of the IDF's effort to disrupt the Iranian regime's nuclear-weapons programme and its missile-production industry,' the IDF wrote on X. Please enable cookies and other technologies to view this content. You can update your cookies preferences any time using privacy manager. Israeli strikes have killed at least 585 people across Iran and wounded 1,326 others, according to a human rights group. The Human Rights Activists, based in Washington, said it had identified 239 of the dead as civilians and 126 as security personnel. Iran has not published regular death tolls during the conflict. Its last update, issued on Monday, put the death toll at 224 people killed and 1,277 wounded — however, the regime has minimised casualties in the past. Human Rights Activists provided detailed casualty figures during the 2022 protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for allegedly violating rules requiring women to wear the headscarf. The group cross-checks local reports in Iran against a network of sources it has developed in the country. The US embassy in Jerusalem said it will close until Friday. It directed government employees to shelter in place as the air war between Israel and Iran continued. In a statement posted to its website, the embassy said on Tuesday evening that the closure was 'a result of the current security situation and ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran'. It added: 'Given the security situation and in compliance with Israel Home Front Command guidance, the US embassy in Jerusalem will be closed tomorrow (Wednesday, June 18) through Friday (June 20).' Iran claims to have fired hypersonic missiles at the Israeli city in the latest round of overnight strikes. In retaliation for attacks on Tehran overnight Wednesday, Iran told residents of Tel Aviv to prepare for an attack, with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claiming its hypersonic Fattah-1 missiles were 'repeatedly shaking the shelters' in the city. 'The 11th wave of the proud Operation Honest Promise 3 using Fattah-1 missiles' was carried out, the Guards said in a statement broadcast on state television early Wednesday. Hypersonic missiles travel at more than five times the speed of sound and can manoeuvre mid-flight, making them harder to track and intercept. Iran also sent a 'swarm of drones' towards Israel, according to the army. Israeli warplanes targeted Tehran in a predawn raid on Wednesday as the air war entered its sixth day. The Israeli military issued a warning on social media for civilians in an area of the Iranian capital known as District 18, near the city's international airport, to evacuate. Iranian state media reported explosions ricocheting in the Piroozi, Sabalan and Sayyad areas of Tehran. Overnight, at least 60 Israeli air force jets carried out 'an extensive wave of strikes in the heart of Iran', targeting ballistic missile launchers that were aimed at Israel, according to the country's military. President Trump demanded an unconditional surrender from Iran and warned its supreme leader that he was an 'easy target' who would not be killed 'at least for now'. Increasing pressure on Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, while weighing up bombing raids on Iran's nuclear facilities, Trump said America's patience with the regime was running out. He aligned the US with Israel, boasting that 'we' have 'total control of the skies over Iran'. Trump posted: 'We know exactly where the so-called 'Supreme Leader' is hiding. He is an easy target, but is safe there — We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now. But we don't want missiles shot at civilians, or American soldiers. Our patience is wearing thin.' Germany's foreign minister has appealed to Iran's leaders to make credible assurances it is not seeking a nuclear weapon and to show it is willing to find a negotiated solution as fears mount of further military escalation. 'We are still ready to negotiate a solution. However, Iran must act urgently … it is never too late to come to the negotiating table if one comes with sincere intentions,' Johann Wadephul Germany's chancellor, Friedrich Merz, expressed strong support for Israel and its strikes against Iran, saying: 'This is the dirty work Israel is doing for all of us.' Germany's foreign minister has appealed to Iran's leaders to make credible assurances it is not seeking a nuclear weapon and to show it is willing to find a negotiated solution as fears mount of further military escalation. 'We are still ready to negotiate a solution. However, Iran must act urgently … it is never too late to come to the negotiating table if one comes with sincere intentions,' Johann Wadephul Germany's chancellor, Friedrich Merz, expressed strong support for Israel and its strikes against Iran, saying: 'This is the dirty work Israel is doing for all of us.' Israeli troops have raided two Palestinian refugee camps in the occupied West Bank. The IDF told the AFP news agency that at 'around 4am Israeli forces entered Balata camp', near the northern city of Nablus, for 'a routine counterterrorism operation'. It added that the troops had been deployed to the nearby Askar camp prior to the operation in Zaki, head of the services committee of Balata camp, said: 'They closed all entrances to the camp, seized several homes after evicting their residents, and ordered the homeowners not to return for 72 hours. These homes were turned into military outposts and interrogation centres.'
The Independent
35 minutes ago
- The Independent
OutKick co-founder tells Rep. Ilhan Omar to ‘go back to Somalia' in Hannity interview
Conservative pundit Clay Travis has told Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar to 'go back to Somalia ' following her recent scathing criticism of the United States under President Donald Trump 's leadership. Travis, co-founder of the Fox-owned sports and political commentary website OutKick, appeared on Sean Hannity 's Fox News show Tuesday evening and reacted angrily to footage of the congresswoman being interviewed by Democracy Now! and saying the U.S. was becoming 'one of the worst countries' in the world under Trump. 'When I see a clip like that, Sean, presumably Ilhan Omar is a citizen of two different countries,' Travis fumed. 'I'm not, I'm a citizen of one country, I happen to think it's the best in the history of the world, so I'm not going anywhere, but why doesn't she go back to Somalia? If she's now looking at the United States, thinks it's an awful place, presumably she's still a citizen of Somalia.' He continued: 'If I hated the country that I was in and I had dual citizenship, wouldn't you go to the other one? I mean, I don't give Rosie O'Donnell a lot of credit for anything, but she decided she didn't like the United States anymore and she left and went to Ireland.' The conversation then pivoted to mockery of O'Donnell, the chat show host and actress who recently relocated to the Republic of Ireland rather than endure four more years of Trump. The Independent has contacted the congresswoman for comment. Omar made the remarks that so infuriated the right-wing duo in response to Trump's crackdown on anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles, which saw the president send in the National Guard and Marines to support local law enforcement, against the wishes of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass. 'I grew up in a dictatorship and I don't even remember ever witnessing anything like that,' Omar said, alluding to her early years in Somalia before she arrived in the U.S. as an asylum seeker aged 12. 'To have a democracy, a beacon of hope for the world, to now be turned into one of the, you know, one of the worst countries, where the military are in our streets without any regard for people's constitutional rights, while our president's spending millions of dollars propping himself up like a failed dictator with a military parade, it is really shocking. 'And it should be a wake up call for all Americans to say this is not the country we were born in, this is not the country we believe in, this is not the country our founding fathers imagined, and this is not the country that is supported by our Constitution, our ideals, our values, and we should all collectively be out in the streets rejecting what is taking place this week.' Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul previously offered to buy Omar 'a ticket to go visit Somalia' back in 2019, suggesting that 'maybe after she's visited Somalia for a while, she might come back and appreciate America more.' The progressive congresswoman has long been a hate figure to conservatives, who have often targeted her over her willingness to criticise Israeli lobbying interests in Washington, D.C. Travis, for his part, describes himself as a 'radical moderate' and claims to have been a lifelong Democrat until Trump appeared on the scene a decade ago. He co-hosts the talk radio program The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, which replaced Rush Limbaugh 's long-running broadcast in 2021, a huge influence on the emergence of the present populist American media environment dominated by Trump, MAGA, and Fox.
