Los Angeles Times

Schwarzenegger Tells Backers He 'Behaved Badly'

He calls a Times report detailing sexual allegations by six women 'trash politics.' But he goes on to offer a general apology.

By Peter Nicholas, Gregg Jones and Michael Finnegan
Times Staff Writers

October 3, 2003

Sexual misconduct allegations against Arnold Schwarzenegger roiled California's gubernatorial recall race Thursday as the Republican apologized for having "behaved badly" toward women while insisting he would champion their cause.

Responding to a Los Angeles Times story on accusations by six women that he touched them in a sexual manner without their consent, Schwarzenegger dismissed the report as "trash politics," but went on to acknowledge unspecified wrongdoing.

"I always say that wherever there is smoke, there is fire," he told several hundred cheering supporters at a San Diego rally.

"So I want to say to you, yes, I have behaved badly sometimes. Yes, it is true that I was on rowdy movie sets, and I have done things that were not right, which I thought then was playful. But I now recognize that I have offended people. And to those people that I have offended, I want to say to them, I am deeply sorry about that, and I apologize."

Asked later about the specific incidents in an interview on CNN, Schwarzenegger said: "I don't remember so many of the things that I was accused of having done."

Pressed further, he said: "I would say most of it is not true."

He also sought to shift blame to his opponents. "It's very interesting that since I'm ahead in the campaign ... all the things are coming out," he said. "I'm very pro-women. I'm very much into equality. Those things are not coming out."

Schwarzenegger's campaign was also knocked off balance Thursday by reports in the New York Times and on ABC's "Nightly News" that during the 1970s he had expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler.

The Austrian-born actor denied the accusation and called Hitler a "disgusting villain" at an evening news conference in Los Angeles with his wife, Maria Shriver.

"I always despised everything Hitler stood for," said Schwarzenegger, whose father was a Nazi. "I hate the regime, the Third Reich and all of those whole Nazi philosophy, have always fought against that."

Political strategists differed on how much the sexual misconduct allegations might affect Tuesday's election. For now, however, they clearly interfered with Schwarzenegger's campaign plans, just as polls were showing voters inclined to toss Gov. Gray Davis from office and replace him with the Republican challenger.

The turn of events made an already tumultuous campaign even more so.

At one Schwarzenegger event Thursday, a Los Angeles woman, Gail Escobar, told reporters about an alleged confrontation with the actor many years ago. Her account could not be independently confirmed. She was accompanied to the event by fellow members of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees union, which opposes Schwarzenegger in the election.

A prominent radio psychologist, Joy Browne, detailed on her program an incident of alleged sexual harassment of her by Schwarzenegger.

The disclosures also affected an appearance by Davis at the Santa Monica Pier aquarium. After a reporter asked the governor to comment on The Times story, another suggested ushering out the 30 Santa Clarita first-graders on hand to witness the governor's signing of four environmental bills. The children were led from the room before questioning resumed.

Davis, however, took pains not to publicly gloat over Schwarzenegger's situation. He called the allegations of groping and other misconduct "a matter between the voters and their conscience."

"I would just rather leave this matter to the voters of this state," Davis said the bill-signing ceremony. "They will digest it. They will decide what importance to attach to it."

But Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, the only Democratic officeholder running to replace Davis, seized on Schwarzenegger's apology as a new weapon against his chief Republican rival.

"These charges of sexual battery and harassment are serious and recent," Bustamante said at a Compton Community College campaign stop.

He read an excerpt from the California Penal Code, saying, "Any person who touches an intimate part of another person against the will of the person touched" is guilty of misdemeanor sexual battery.

Some Republicans, meanwhile, accused The Times of partisanship and excused Schwarzenegger's behavior; others expressed outrage over his admission of misconduct.

The actor's major Republican recall opponent, state Sen. Tom McClintock of Thousand Oaks, said he viewed the claims against Schwarzenegger "with a high degree of skepticism," given the timing of their emergence so close to the election.

But "if true, these acts are reprehensible and inexcusable," he said. "And as the father of a 13-year-old daughter, I'd say to him, 'Get out of the race.' "

The Times article on Thursday quoted women as saying Schwarzenegger had groped and humiliated them in incidents as early as 1975 and as recently as 2000. Three described their surprise and discomfort when Schwarzenegger grabbed their breasts. Another said he reached under her skirt and gripped her buttocks, while another said he tried to remove her swimsuit in a hotel elevator.

Four of the women spoke on condition of anonymity. Three said they feared Schwarzenegger's power in the entertainment industry where they worked, and the fourth said she did not want to be exposed to public humiliation. None of the women had filed formal complaints against the actor, but their accounts were confirmed by friends or relatives in whom they had confided well before the recall.

The Times did not learn of any of the six women from Schwarzenegger's opponents in the recall campaign, and none of them approached the newspaper on her own.

E. Laine Stockton, who said Schwarzenegger had reached under her T-shirt to touch her breast at a Venice Beach gym in 1975, said Thursday that Schwarzenegger should apologize personally to each of the women.

"He didn't do it to us as a group," she said. "He did it to us in public places. As far as I'm concerned, I want a face-to-face apology, or at least to say my name publicly and to my ex-husband, [bodybuilder] Robby [Robinson]. I will accept nothing less."

A woman who had told The Times that Schwarzenegger pulled her onto his lap and whispered a lewd comment said she was upset that Schwarzenegger had coupled his apology with an attack on "trash politics."

"It kind of discounts the apology a little bit and puts the shame on the person it happened to," she said. "The wording seemed to suggest that what happened to me is part of some larger political scheme that's in the gutter, even though it's not something I did. It's the truth about something he did."

Another woman quoted in the Times story — a former waitress who said Schwarzenegger asked her to stick her finger in her vagina — said Thursday that the actor's apology was too narrow: "Not everyone he offended was on a movie set. I was a waitress refilling his coffee cup."

Although she had earlier asked not to be named in The Times investigation, the woman, who is now a motivational speaker for women, decided to publicly disclose her name, Nicole Alpert.

"I have chosen to pour the proverbial hot pot of coffee on his head," Alpert said. "As a woman who speaks out for herself and other women, if somebody offends you in any way, no matter who they are — Mr. Famous Actor or Mr. Governor of California — speak up for yourself. You may find out that two things happen: One, you protect your honor and, two, you get an apology. How great is that?"

The Times report quoted Schwarzenegger spokesman Sean Walsh denying that the candidate had engaged in improper conduct toward women. But Schwarzenegger contradicted his spokesman in his apology Thursday morning at the San Diego Convention Center rally, an event that kicked off a four-day campaign bus tour.

"You know when you get into politics they try to tear down your character and tear down everything you stand for, and, as you know, this morning they have begun with the tearing down," Schwarzenegger told the crowd. "Yes, absolutely. But I know — I know that the people of California can see through these trash politics. Yes. And let me tell you something — a lot of ... what you see in the stories is not true."

But he then apologized and added: "When I'm governor, I want to prove to the women that I will be a champion for the women. A champion for the women. And I hope that you will give me the chance to prove that. Now let's go from the dirty politics back to the future of California."

When he finished speaking, the blue curtains behind him parted to reveal the bus that will take him on a "California Comeback Express" tour. He climbed up the steps and as the bus drove around the Convention Center perimeter, he leaned out the door, beaming and giving a thumbs-up.

Later, at a boisterous Orange County Fairgrounds rally in Costa Mesa, Schwarzenegger vowed to "destroy the car tax," which the Davis administration has tripled to help close a multibillion-dollar budget gap.

"In the movies, when I played a character and I didn't like someone, you know what I did? I destroyed it," he told the crowd. "I'll show you exactly what we're going to do to the car tax."

A crane then dropped a giant weight onto an Oldsmobile Cutlass, crushing the vehicle.

"Hasta la vista, car tax," Schwarzenegger said as the rock anthem "We're Not Gonna Take It" blasted through loudspeakers.

But that rally, too, was disrupted by the sexual allegations as an angry confrontation erupted between Schwarzenegger's supporters and roughly half a dozen female protesters carrying signs saying: "Hey, Arnold. Stop Harassing Women Now."

A supporter ripped in half a sign reading "No Groper for Governor." An elderly man shouted at the protesters: "You're too stupid to get respect!"

On Wednesday night, the Republican front-runner also was forced to respond to reports that quoted from an unpublished book proposal in which Schwarzenegger, then a bodybuilder, allegedly cited Hitler as one of his heroes.

"He came up from being a little man with almost no formal education ....I admire him for being such a good public speaker and for what he did with it," Schwarzenegger was quoted as saying in a "verbatim transcript" of a 1975 interview he reportedly gave while making the documentary "Pumping Iron."

At the news conference with Shriver, Schwarzenegger said he could not remember making any such statements.

"I cannot imagine I've ever said anything favorable on those things," he said.

Shriver said the sexual misconduct allegations "show why really good people don't want to go into politics anymore."

"I don't get into specifics," she said. "As I say to my children, it always takes great courage to do — stand before anybody and apologize," she said. "I think that's what Arnold did today. I think he handled it and his statement speaks for itself."

Many political strategists in both parties largely dismissed the impact of The Times report, saying the late-campaign timing of the revelations, as well as Schwarzenegger's swift apology, should mitigate the fallout. That is, they said, barring new developments that advance the story or keep it alive through the weekend.

For voters backing the recall at this point, "Heaven and Earth is not going to move them to 'no,' "said Gale Kaufman, a Democratic strategist who is not involved in the race.

Arnold Steinberg, a GOP strategist also watching from the sidelines, said much the same thing.

"There's an increasing skepticism among voters toward last-minute charges in any campaign," he said. At this late stage, "Voters look to reinforce their views and discard information that contradicts that view," he added.

Others suggested that the revelations — if not the exact details — were hardly new or surprising. Allegations of Schwarzenegger's untoward behavior toward women circulated widely more than two years ago in a Premiere magazine article published as the actor was weighing a run against Davis in the 2002 election.

Still, some conservative activists said the allegations could erode Schwarzenegger's support among Republicans.

Steve Frank, a conservative leader who worked for former GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon Jr., said Schwarzenegger "may have brought down the whole recall."

"The conservatives didn't like Bill Clinton for doing this, and we would be hypocrites to approve of Schwarzenegger doing this," he said.

Meanwhile, a new accusation surfaced from Escobar, a 41-year-old Los Angeles wife and mother and a waitress at a restaurant in the Fairmont Miramar hotel in Santa Monica. In an interview with The Times, she said Schwarzenegger had threatened to assault her when she was a teenager in the late 1970s.

When she was a 16-year-old student at Santa Monica High School — then named Gail Kay — she and a school friend were drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes at a coffee shop in a small hotel across from the school.

They were sitting at the counter when Escobar's friend noticed that Schwarzenegger and another bodybuilder were seated at a booth. After the two men finished eating, Schwarzenegger left the restaurant but the other body builder came over to Escobar and said Schwarzenegger wanted to see her, Escobar said.

"I told him if Arnold wants to see me, he can come back inside and see me," Escobar said. "He then proceeded to pick me up out of my seat and drag me out of the restaurant, through the lobby to the parking structure."

Escobar said her friend was amused by this and followed voluntarily. The other bodybuilder held Escobar there until a vehicle pulled up to where she was, she said. Schwarzenegger was in the passenger seat, she said. He "rolled down the window and said, 'We are going to rape you girls tonight,' " according to Escobar. "Then the bodybuilder who was holding me let me go and I ran. At that age, I was scared. Looking back today, I'm infuriated."

Times staff writers Mark Z. Barabak, Richard Fausset, Matea Gold, Joel Rubin and Nancy Vogel contributed to this report.

THis is not normal, people, wake up.

Why didn't the women file charges? Some of this stuff happened 25 years ago.

However, it IS normal for a very desperate Davis to join with his willing accomplices in in main stream press to bring out these things 5 days before an election. Are the citizens of California smart enough to see that Davis is behind this and is just trying to save his own ass? We'll see, but it's doubtful.. These are the same idiots who put him in office in the first place.

This same old tired trick is getting old. Right when POLITICAL campaigns start, these old bags come out of the woodwork (30 years!), complaining about being groped. Uh huh. We know its not for money, since they could have come out when Terminator 3 came out, or just about any of his movies for that matter. No, its purely an attempted "smear" campaign aimed at a not-so-gullible California votership. Something else....quite obvious....ESCOBAR? Sounds hispanic to me, but what do I know? Ask Bustamante.

KOBE SBM would be praising the Los Angeles Times for its investigative journalism if the article dealt with exposing Bill Clinton's sexual misconduct.

But since its Arnold Schwarzenegger, a REPUBLICAN, I guess that makes things O.K. for him to grope and sexually assault women.

HYPOCRITE

I actually VOTED for Bill Clinton! Ne-Con is not the same as Republican at all. Arnold Swarzeneggar is a Neo-Con, just as Bush is. We are something new, and there are vast differences between the GOP and modern neo-conservatism. That is a whole other thread completely.

I think the same tactic used on him (Clinton) was equally as pathetic. Its always the same. Some unattractive "trick" comes out of nowhere, claiming that so-and-so screwed her and such-and-such groped her. SO FUCKING WHAT? Why did they wait so long? Taking one look at Paula Jones and that other knee bending bitch Monica Lewdinsky told the story: They were sluts ready for groping. Arnold is a handsome man. I bet those beotches were just HOPING that he would pay them the time of day.

Are you just mad because he wouldnt grope you too?

here's more dirt showing how ned lyle, kobe and compnla are one and the same

The vast majority of Californians oppose the ridiculous "Mexican Driver License" game Davis was playing. Hopefully, the Federal Government will intervene and throw out the recent legislation. Also, I think that Arnold appeals to the majority of Californians in helping to stem illegal immigration. CLOSE THE FUCKING BORDERS! Or at least make the INS do its job in policing them.

This latest smear campaign using sluts will not work, and Arhold is going to be the next Governor of California. WATCH!

Is there a thread on no subject you are not willing to turn into an anti-KOBE thread?

Sheesh.

You remind me exactly of a small child who has to be the center of attention, always yelling, "Hey, everybody! Look at ME!"

Pathetic need for attention.

> Is there a thread on no subject you are not willing to turn into an anti-KOBE thread?


And you remind me of a troll with no life who spends his time posting under several different handles and sucks support from places like kobehq.com and LGF to prop up your personas

I've stated my tactics - any post where the handle kobe appears will be followed by dirt on him, all other posts by known or suspected trolls will be ignored - any exception will only be to either post more dirt on kobe or to clairify this

...blah, blah, blah.

"And you remind me of a troll with no life..."

I'm not the one spending hours collecting IPs, buddy.

"...who spends his time posting under several different handles..."

You keep trying to sound like you figured that out all on your lonesome, yet I've freely admitted it...before you had your "Eureka!" moment. And yet the difeerecne between me and the standard imc imposter is that I use my different handles consecutively...not concurrently. Search the archives...you've got nothing better to do, it seems...and you'll find that none of my handles were used concurrently with each other, unless they were being imped.

"...and sucks support from places like kobehq.com and LGF to prop up your personas"

The only time I visited kobehq was to look at the lovely ladies he posts in his galleries. I never went to his message boards; I'm not interested. Nor do I need to "suck support" from anyone to "prop up my personna (note usage of the singular)". That's because I don't spend my life on line, trying to "prove" people are other people, making up proof when I can't find any, and taking every opportunity to hijack the conversation.

"...any post where the handle kobe appears will be followed by dirt on him..."

And all this does is soak up bandwidth. la-imc's host is thankful for the bandwidth costs this is incurring. No other result is possible, because no one else even cares about KOBE...just you and Captain Steve.

By the way...still waiting for that proof that I'm KOBE duke.

Ah-nold for Governor of California!

> how did this Arnold thread turn into a Hex Fest?

here's the original untouched screen capture showing ned lyle with compnla e-mail posting a death threat as kobe, just as his long history shows this exact same connection between ned & kobe and as kobe's long history of posting such threats shows

if it's an x-kobe member is inmaterial - it still goes back to kobe due to the long history of exactly these kinds of posts and such threats must be investigated

This same old tired trick is getting old. Right when POLITICAL campaigns start, these old bags come out of the woodwork (30 years!), complaining about being groped. Uh huh. We know its not for money, since they could have come out when Terminator 3 came out, or just about any of his movies for that matter. No, its purely an attempted "smear" campaign aimed at a not-so-gullible California votership. Something else....quite obvious....ESCOBAR? Sounds hispanic to me, but what do I know? Ask Bustamante.

I hate to dissapoint you KOBE SBM, but most of the women accusing Governor Groper of sexual battery are white.

RECALL ARNOLD!

Great quotes from people attending Arnold's political rallies:

"Gray Davis groped me while reaching for my wallet."

and an attractive young lady had this to say:

"Arnold can grope me any time."

None of the Cheap Labor Conservatives are bothered by the sexual history of Arnold. They believe that women are here for only one reason to pleasure and please their man regardless of what she wants. On a consistent basis they treat women on a second class citizen basis. Trying to outlaw abortion,making women akin to brood mares, constant budget cutting of child literacy and welfare programs(which hurts alot of single parent moms). And since women only make about 70 per cent of what a man would make she and her children tend to fall into poverty more easily. I guess Arnie's slogan should be"Leave No Pussy Behind".

I dont care what race these sluts are. Its the tactic which is so familiar. Even the movie industry has it down pat. The LOSER candidate analyzes his or her enemy, then when they realize that they need an edge that cannot be achieved by honest debate or by charisma, they resort to the old "trot out the slut who gave him a blowjob" trick, or the still older "eeewe, he touched my breast once without asking....30 YEARS AGO" trick. Cmon!

The only candidate standing to gain from a smear campaign is Bustamante. Such tactics are to be expected from him, since it seems that Arnold and Bustamante have emerged as the only two players left. At least that bitch Arianna Huffington left in a "Huff"!

You hinted that by virtue of the fact one of the women accusing Arnold of sexual battery is "hispanic," that Bustamante was behind this.

You zeroed in on her because of her race. What does her race have to do with the merit of her allegations KOBE SBM?

And by the way, calling these women "sluts" for resisting Arnold Schwarznegger's unwanted sexual advances is ironic.

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER IS THE SLUT HERE.

HE'S THE PIG.

AND HE WILL BE RECALLED!

KOBE SBM, Fresca, nonanarchist, Rational Normal Person, daveman, Bush admirer etc.

Who care what think a stinky human being like your?

Who cares? If you don't care, then don't comment bitch.

Should he become gov, Arnold won't be recalled. As a new governor, unlike Davis who was a re-elected governor, he'll get the traditional year honeymoon from the press. If a recall goes forward, it would take a year to mount, and by that time the real election would only be another year away, so there would be no point.

Really?
so ,
davis sux
who care?

"Who care what think a stinky human being like your?"


Um....okay....whatever. Us adults are having a political discussion here, sweetie. Please go play with your dolls, or better yet, go play with my power tools in the garage. The power drill, table saw and soldering iron are especially fun to play with. Be sure to plug them in.

Funny
so
who care?

Who care? Who care what stinky say your? Me Tarzan you Jane????

Where the fuck are you from, the Paleozoic Era? You can barely post at all, and the 10 or less words you post sound like an ape using a sign language translator. GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE.

This is funny
KOBE said:
" GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE" [??]
like anyone here even wants YOU on this board, dickwad.
And then it has the temerity to criticize someone else's use of english.
Big baby, wah wah. Control your temper tantrums or change your diapers because that rash is nasty.