Actor Robert De Niro called supporters of Donald Trump "low lifes" at a Tuesday press conference organized by President Joe Biden's reelection campaign outside the Manhattan courthouse where closing arguments are taking place in the former president's paperwork trial.
According to video posted on X by The Post Millennial, De Niro called Trump supporters "low lifes" as a car honked repeatedly in the background and said he didn't "even know how to deal with" a heckler who said the two former Capitol police officers standing behind him "lied under oath."
Michael Fanone and Harry Dunn were Capitol police officers during the breach of the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, Axios reported.
De Niro then accused Trump, a fellow native New Yorker, of wanting to destroy New York City and the United States, as well as the world.
"I owe this city a lot," De Niro said, and "that's why it's so weird that Donald Trump is just across the street."
"He doesn't belong in my city," De Niro said. "I don't know where he belongs, but he certainly doesn't belong here."
According to De Niro, New Yorkers used to "tolerate" Trump when he was "just another grubby real estate hustler masquerading as a big shot" or "a two-bit playboy lying his way into the tabloids."
The actor added that Trump was "a clown," but said the city is "pretty accommodating" for clowns, as "it's part of the culture."
Responding to Trump supporters yelling outside the courthouse, De Niro said, "These people over here, it's kinda crazy."
"It's really crazy, and this thing, Donald Trump, has created this," he said. "He should be telling them not to do this, but he's just, he wants to sow total chaos which he's succeeding in some areas and places to do."
De Niro said no one took Trump seriously until people around the country, "who didn't know him as we did," started supporting him and "bought into his bull****." The former president "bought their votes with outrageous lies and empty promises," he said.
The actor then predicted that the United States' form of government "will perish from the earth" if Trump wins a second term in November.
"I don't mean to scare you, no wait, maybe I do mean to scare you," he said. "If Trump returns to the White House, you can kiss these freedoms goodbye that we all take for granted. And elections, forget about it. That's over, that's done. If he gets in, I can tell you right now, he will never leave."
Biden Communications Director Michael Tyler sought to highlight the differences between the Joe Biden and his predecessor to the gathered media scrum.
"We're not here today because of what's going on over there," Tyler said, according to Axios. "We're here today because you all are here."
"We're here primarily because of the threat that Donald Trump poses to the United States of America and to our democracy," he said.
Tyler also claimed that the "looming threat of MAGA extremism has only grown stronger since Jan. 6th and said "we're gonna campaign on the president's record, on his vision, and we're gonna run against the extremism embodied by Donald Trump as he sits in that building or anywhere else across the country."
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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