Academy Award winning actor Robert De Niro went on an anti-Trump rampage after his speech was edited at an awards show.
The 80-year-old actor was on stage to introduce Martin Scorsese’s latest period piece, “Killers of the Flower Moon,” but appeared to have difficulty getting his words out.
De Niro hesitated and stumbled around 30 seconds into the tribute at Monday night’s Gotham Awards, then heavily relied on the teleprompter to read the rest of his speech.
Apparently the “Taxi Driver” star’s advanced age wasn’t to blame for his technical difficulties, as he revealed that the speech he originally planned to give had been altered.
“i have to thank apple and all that but i don’t feel like thanking them at all for what they did. how DARE they?”
robert de niro qas absolutely brilliant during his #gothamawards speech presentation
— lulo | ed teach supporter (@mishajackles) November 28, 2023
According to De Niro, who went off-script at the 1:18 mark, his pre-written remarks were edited to remove politically charged commentary that included an attack on former President Donald Trump.
“I just want to say one thing,” he began. “The beginning of my speech was edited, cut out. I didn’t know about it. And I want to read it.”
“History isn’t history anymore. Truth is not truth. Even facts are being replaced by alternative facts and driven by conspiracy theories and ugliness,” he stated.
“In Florida, young students are taught that slaves develop skills which can be applied for their personal benefit,” De Niro continued. “The entertainment industry isn’t immune to this festering disease.”
He related his remarks back to the film, where he stars as villain William Hale, who perpetrated the murders of the Osage Nation people in in the 1920s, when oil was discovered on their land in Oklahoma.
De Niro shared a quote western film legend John Wayne made about Native Americans to illustrate his point.
“‘I don’t feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them,'” he cited The Duke. “‘There were great numbers of people who needed new land and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.’”
Then naturally, the liberal Trump-hater took a few shots at the 45th president.
“Lying has become just another tool in the charlatans’ arsenal,” De Niro teed up.
“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 his lies, he can’t hide his soul,” the “Raging Bull” star insisted.
“He attacks the weak, destroys the gifts of nature, and shows disrespect, for example by using Pocahontas as a slur.”
Trump repeatedly referred to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., as “Pocahontas” during his 2016 campaign and beyond, after the lawmaker claimed she had Native American ancestry.
President Trump On Elizabeth "Pocahontas" Warren
"She went for a blood test. Remember, what was it 1/1024th? Meaning maybe 900 years ago there was a little action going on. Crazy Pocahontas, she's a nasty one though isn't she?" pic.twitter.com/Rt0eU0gaJP
— The Columbia Bugle 🇺🇸 (@ColumbiaBugle) September 18, 2020
In 2017, he made a crack about Warren while honoring Native American veterans at a White House event.
“You were here long before any of us were here,” he said to the attendees.
“Although we have a representative in Congress who they say was here a long time ago. They call her Pocahontas.”
Warren clapped back on MSNBC shortly after Trump made the remarks.
“Donald Trump does this over and over thinking somehow he’s going to shut me up with it,” Warren stated.
“It is deeply unfortunate that the president of the United States cannot even make it through a ceremony honoring these heroes without having to throw out a racial slur,” she noted.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said it was “ridiculous” to call Trump’s “Pocahontas” nickname a racial slur.
“What most people find offensive is Senator Warren lying about her heritage to advance her career,” Sanders jabbed.
In February 2019, Warren apologized to the Cherokee Nation for releasing the results of a DNA test to prove her alleged Native American ancestry.
“Senator Warren has reached out to us and has apologized to the tribe,” Cherokee Nation spokesperson Julie Hubbard said in a statement at the time.
“We are encouraged by this dialogue and understanding that being a Cherokee Nation tribal citizen is rooted in centuries of culture and laws not through DNA tests.”
Warren walked back her claims prior to launching her 2020 presidential bid.
“I am not a person of color; I am not a citizen of a tribe,” she clarified. “Tribal citizenship is very different than ancestry. Tribes and only tribes determine tribal citizenship.”