Schwarzenegger denies Hitler allegations ahead of governor recall election
ABC News and The New York Times said the actor told an interviewer during filming of the bodybuilding documentary, Pumping Iron, in 1975 that he admired Adolf Hitler's rise to power from humble beginnings.
"I don't remember any of those comments because I always despised everything that Hitler stood for," Schwarzenegger said, calling the Nazi leader a "disgusting villain".
Earlier in the day Schwarzenegger addressed allegations in the Los Angeles Times, which reported the claims of six women who accused him of sexually harassing and groping them between 1975 and 2000.
"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 now I recognise that I offended people. Those people I have offended, I want to say to them I am deeply sorry and I apologise because that's not what I'm trying to do," he said.
Polls show voters are ready to oust Democratic Governor Gray Davis in the October 7 recall election, with Schwarzenegger as the front-runner to replace him. Davis declined to discuss the stories, but Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante, who is running second to Schwarzenegger, said the allegations were "should be resolved".
Another major challenger, state Senator Tom McClintock, said he was sceptical of what he called a "last-minute character assassination", but Schwarzenegger should drop out if the allegations were proven true.
Several women's organisations have planned a press conference to call upon the Los Angeles district attorney's office to launch a criminal investigation into the groping allegations.
Some political analysts said the revelations could change voters' minds.
"This is not just philandering or adultery this is stuff that people get fired for pretty regularly," said Bruce Cain of University of California.
"If Arnold is saying he can grope women because people on movie sets play by a different set of rules, I don't know that people will buy that."
ABC and The New York Times obtained copies of an unpublished book proposal with the 1975 interview by Pumping Iron director George Butler.
who said he stood by a recollection of Schwarzenegger playing Nazi marches and mimicking SS officers, but said the actor was an immature young man involved in the outlandish bodybuilding culture of the 1970s.
Schwarzenegger grew up in Austria where his father was a member of the Nazi Party. He has faced charges of Nazi sympathising before but has worked hard to refute them.
