Rome - Hollywood star and former Republican governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, said in a Tuesday interview that Donald Trump's disrespectful attitude to women influenced his decision not to support his presidential run.
On Saturday, after a 2005 video in which Trump made explicit comments about groping women was leaked to the media, Schwarzenegger wrote on Twitter that he would not vote the Republican presidential candidate "for the first time" since becoming a United States citizen in 1983.
"What I want to say is that I don't think it is acceptable for anyone to hold positions that diminish the efforts, role and presence of women [in society]," the Austrian-born actor told Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper.
"I have been no saint as a man, my mistakes are public, I sometimes had to apologise to women, but respect between the two sexes is the fundamental basis of social and personal relations," added Schwarzenegger, a former bodybuilding icon.
As proud as I am to label myself a Republican, there is one label that I hold above all else - American. My full statement: pic.twitter.com/biRvY8S3aZ
— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) October 8, 2016
Schwarzenegger said he had not yet decided whether to vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton, but insisted that his disavowal of Trump did not amount to "an invitation not to vote" in the November 8 elections.
"I have to think, and a lot, about who I will vote for. For me and for many Americans from several generations it is a time of hard and crucial choices," he said.
dpa