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Actor Robert De Niro voiced his frustration at the 33rd Gotham Awards when anti-Donald Trump comments he had prepared were unexpectedly removed from the teleprompter without his knowledge. During his speech about his latest film, Killers of the Flower Moon, directed by Martin Scorsese, De Niro expressed his dismay at the censored segment.
Following his prepared remarks as displayed on the teleprompter, De Niro addressed the audience, revealing the deletion of the initial part of his speech and expressing his intention to read it. He then retrieved his phone and proceeded to share the omitted portion.
De Niro's speech condemned the distortion of history, truth, and facts in the current era. He highlighted concerning educational narratives in Florida, mentioned John Wayne's controversial remarks about Native Americans, and shifted focus to former President Donald Trump, vehemently criticizing Trump's prolific lying, disparaging behavior, and use of derogatory terms like "Pocahontas."
You can hear what he said in the video below.
“KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON” Receives The Gotham Historical Icon & Creator Tributewww.youtube.com
De Niro said:
“History isn’t history anymore. Truth isn’t truth, and even facts are being replaced by alternative facts and driven by conspiracy theories and ugliness."
“In Florida, young students are taught that slaves developed skills which could be applied for their personal benefit. The entertainment industry isn’t immune to this festering disease."
"The Duke, John Wayne, famously said of Native Americans, ‘I don’t feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.’”
He then turned his attention to "charlatan" Trump, whom he's criticized multiple times in the past:
“Lying has become just another tool in the charlatan’s arsenal. The former president lied to us more than 30,000 times during his four years in office, and he’s keeping up the pace in his current campaign of retribution."
"But with all of his lies, he can’t hide his soul. He attacks the weak, destroys the gifts of nature and shows his disrespect for example, by using ‘Pocahontas’ as a slur.”
After noting that that was the end of the part of his speech that was omitted, the actor criticized Apple, his film's distributor, and the Gotham Film & Media Institute directly, expressing his reluctance to thank them:
“This is where I came in, and I saw that they edited all that. So, I’m gonna say these things but to Apple and thank them and all that, Gotham, blah, blah, blah, Apple."
"But I don’t feel like thanking them at all for what they did. How dare they do that, actually?”
Many praised De Niro for speaking out and criticized the event organizers for their actions.
De Niro's speech comes more than a month after he delivered a hard-hitting message aimed at Trump during The New Republic's "Stop Trump Summit" in New York City. De Niro was not physically present at the event due to his recovery from COVID-19. Instead, he had former Trump administration official Miles Taylor read his remarks to the audience.
In his message, De Niro made a passionate case, drawing on his extensive experience playing various film roles, including gangsters and criminals. The essence of his message was that Donald Trump is not merely a bad figure but an evil one.
DeNiro said Trump, who was twice impeached, is "still a fool." But he nonetheless warned Americans that evil "thrives in the shadow of dismissive mockery, which is why we must take the danger of Donald Trump very seriously."
Americans have one "last chance" to save their democracy, he said, because it "won’t survive the return of a wannabe dictator" and it "won’t overcome evil if we are divided."