“You Have A Responsibility To Give Back To America” – ‘The View’ Poses Immigration Question To Arnold Schwarzenegger, & It Completely Backfires

Well that didn’t go how The View thought it would…

As you very well know, nothing can happen in the world without the “world class” commentary of The View stepping in and giving their thoughts on things. The show aired originally aired in 1997 and has covered pop culture news and other noteworthy items ever since. Almost hard to believe it’s gone on that long, am I right?

The members of The View‘s panel, which I used to recognize but now have no idea who they are, consist of Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin, Sara Haines, Alyssa Farah Griffin and Ana Navarro. I don’t feel like I have to clarify this, but just in case it’s not common knowledge at this point, the co-hosts pretty much all dislike Donald Trump and everything he’s doing with his second term as president (and his first term for that matter). If you’ve never seen the show, just imagine you’re listening to a handful of Boomers and a couple of middle aged moms ignorantly gossip at a beauty parlor about current events and important political issues. Do they have any clue what they’re talking about? No, of course not… but people still tune in to watch. I assume they’re hate watching at this point, but who knows…

One of the big points of contention – as you are probably well aware at this point – are Trump’s sweeping and aggressive deportation tactics using Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The View panel was discussing that very matter when they had Arnold Schwarzenegger on the show – who was born in Austria, and immigrated to the United States in 1968. He became a world class body builder, Hollywood actor and even the Governor of California, and has continuously praised the United States for giving him such wonderful opportunities.

Joy Behar pointed out that the actor and former Governor of California is an immigrant himself, and basically assumed because of that, he’d be upset about current deportation practices. She asked if he had a “visceral reaction” to seeing the videos of immigrants being gathered up and deported by ICE, and here’s how he first started to answer that question:

“I’m so proud and happy that I was embraced by the American people like that. Imagine… I came over here at the age of 21 with absolutely nothing. And then to create a career like (I had). In no other country in the world could you do that.

Every single thing, whether it was my bodybuilding career, or my acting career, becoming governor, the beautiful family that I’ve created – all of this is because of America. I’m so happy to see firsthand that this is the greatest country in the world. It is the land of opportunity.”

Though he didn’t exactly answer the question there, you can trust me when I say that the former Republican governor was getting around to it.

But first, Schwarzenegger shared that he had been asked to give a keynote speech at Mount Vernon during the 250th celebration of America in a specific part of the proceedings that honored immigrants. Being a very successful immigrant himself, and someone who takes pride in America’s history of welcoming immigrants, he was honored to be asked to speak at the event that will culminate with immigrants being sworn in that day to become citizens.

Then, he finally got to answering Joy Behar’s question about his response to the ICE raids, and let’s just say, it backfired… completely.

“The key thing is also, at the same time, we’ve got to do things legal. That is the important thing. You’ve got to do things legal, and those people that are doing illegal things in America… the foreigners, they are not smart. Because when you come to America, you’re a guest. And you have to behave like a guest…

When you become an immigrant, you come to America because (you say), ‘Okay, I want to use America for the great opportunities that America has – in education, jobs, creating a family… all those kinds of things.

They have to think about, ‘Okay, if I get all of those things from America, then I have to give something back.’ You have a responsibility as an immigrant to give back to America and pay back America and to go and do something for your community.”

Watch Sunny put her hand on him, almost as if to tell him to stop talking:

Welp… that’s not how Joy Behar or any other members of the The View’s panel thought that question would go. You can see the look if sadness and despair on all their faces as he details what should be an extremely NON-controversial point of view. Do it legally, don’t commit crimes, participate in your community, give back, and do something to make this country a better place… what’s the problem?

Good on Arnold for sticking to his guns, and something tells me he ironically won’t be back on the daytime talk show anytime soon.The post “You Have A Responsibility To Give Back To America” – ‘The View’ Poses Immigration Question To Arnold Schwarzenegger, & It Completely Backfires first appeared on Whiskey Riff.