Robert De Niro compared Donald Trump to a ‘gangster’, saying he’s unfit to be president in a recent interview with CNN.
The 76-year-old actor has been a vocal critic of Trump, accusing him of being a ‘racist’ in the past.
In the recent interview, live on CNN on a Sunday morning, De Niro said Trump was ‘crazy’ and, when asked how he deals with criticism from people who support Trump, De Niro responded bluntly with a few F-bombs.
You can watch it here:
Echoing his sentiments from last years’s Tony Awards, De Niro simply said ‘Fuck them’ when CNN host Brian Stelter asked how he deals with Trump’s supporters at Fox News.
De Niro apologised for swearing, however he went on to explain his stance further regarding the president and the recent move to begin impeachment proceedings.
The actor said:
We are in a moment in our lives, in this country, where this guy is like a gangster. We say over and over again, ‘This is terrible, we’re in a terrible situation, we’re in a terrible situation,’ and this guy just keeps going on and on and on without being stopped.
Speaking about the impeachment inquiry, De Niro said ‘it has to happen’, and ‘we’re in a crisis situation, period.’
Last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a formal impeachment inquiry after a whistleblower said Trump had pressured the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky into investigating Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
Before De Niro’s interview on CNN, the Connecticut Post had suggested Trump should step down as president amid all the allegations against him.
Speaking about whether he feels the same way, the actor said he doesn’t think that would happen.
De Niro said:
I don’t think he’s capable of resigning. He will say it’s rigged or this or that. The day after he was elected, I said, well, give him a chance. You never know. You will see. But he is the — he’s worse than I ever could have imagined.
The actor also suggested Fox News is responsible for backing Trump and propping him up, saying: ‘Some of these other pundits on Fox … I can’t believe that they would actually buy into this craziness.’
De Niro apologised for the F-bombs during the interview, though he clearly meant them. When he dropped similar language at last year’s Tony Awards, he received a standing ovation.
If you have a story you want to tell send it to UNILAD via story@unilad.com
Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.