(CNN) -
In a call for unity after Wednesday's siege of the U.S. Capitol, former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said President Donald Trump will be remembered as the worst president in U.S. history and urged Americans to offer their support to President-elect Joe Biden.
"We need to heal, together, the drama of what just happened," said Schwarzenegger in a seven and a half minute video posted on Twitter.
"We need to heal, not as Republicans or Democrats, but as Americans."
Schwarzenegger recalled his childhood in Austria shortly after World War II, warning of the threat posed by repeated lies and intolerance.
He compared Wednesday's riot on the US Capitol by a pro-President Donald mob to Kristallnacht, also known as the Night of Broken Glass, the uproar of Nazi regime violence against communities, synagogues and businesses. Jews in Germany and Austria in 1938.
"Wednesday was the day of the broken glass here in America," he said, referring to the broken windows in the Capitol building.
But the mob also "smashed the ideas we took for granted" and "trampled on the very principles on which our country was founded," he said.
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My message to my fellow Americans and friends around the world following this week's attack on the Capitol.
pic.twitter.com/blOy35LWJ5
- Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) January 10, 2021
Schwarzenegger said he grew up in Austria surrounded by "broken men who drank guilt over their participation in the most evil regime in history."
Not all were "rabid anti-Semites or Nazis," he said.
"Many just followed, step by step, down the road."
He shared a story about his own father, who was a member of the Nazi Party during World War II.
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"I have never shared this publicly because it is a painful memory, but my father came home drunk once or twice a week, yelled, beat us and scared my mother," Schwarzenegger said.
Men like his father had both "physical pain from the shrapnel in their bodies and emotional pain from what they saw or did."
"Being from Europe, I have seen first hand how things can get out of control," he said.
'Our democracy stood firm'
The former governor and Republican actor then turned his attention to the president.
“President Trump sought to annul the results of an election, of a fair election.
He sought a coup by deceiving people with lies, "he said.
"My father and our neighbors were also deceived by lies, and I know where those lies lead."
"President Trump is a failed leader.
He will go down in history as the worst president of all time.
The good news is that it will soon be as irrelevant as an old tweet.
Schwarzenegger also called the elected officials who empowered the president.
Without naming anyone, he said that several members of his party had not shown "courage" and were "accomplices" of those who carried out the insurrection.
"But it does not work.
Our democracy stood firm, "he said, pointing to the certification of Biden's electoral victory just hours after the assault on the Capitol.
"What a great demonstration of democracy."
In the video, Schwarzenegger picked up a sword, one that he said belonged to Conan the Barbarian, the character he played in the 1982 film of the same name.
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"Our democracy is like the steel of this sword," he warned.
"The more temperate, the stronger it becomes."
As the nation begins to heal, Schwarzenegger asked everyone to join him in a message to Biden: “President-elect Biden, we wish you great success as our President.
If it is successful, our nation will succeed.
We support him with all our hearts as he seeks to unite us.
"And those who think they can repeal the Constitution of the United States, know this," he added.
They will never win.
Arnold Schwarzenegger Donald Trump
