“If Trump returns to the White House, you can kiss these freedoms goodbye that we all take for granted,” De Niro said outside the Manhattan criminal courthouse during Trump’s closing arguments.
As closing arguments in Donald Trump’s historic criminal trial began, the Biden reelection campaign sent actor Robert De Niro and Jan. 6 first responders to speak outside the New York City courthouse where the case has unfolded.
President Joe Biden’s campaign showed up outside the Manhattan criminal courthouse on Tuesday, May 28, amid Trump’s “hush money” trial, which began on April 15. Trump, 77, is facing 34 felony counts of falsified business records related to how he allegedly documented reimbursements for a hush money payment made to former adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
Biden, 81, has stayed quiet about Trump’s trial so far, and according to the Associated Press, a Biden adviser told reporters that the campaign wasn’t there to talk about the trial, but rather to take advantage of the major media focus on the legal proceedings.
“We’re not here today because of what’s going on over there,” Biden 2024 communications director Michael Tyler said. “We’re here today because you all are here.”
The move was an effort to refocus the presidential race on the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to AP.
“I don’t mean to scare you. No, wait, maybe I do mean to scare you,” De Niro, 80, told reporters outside the courthouse. “If Trump returns to the White House, you can kiss these freedoms goodbye that we all take for granted.”
“I love this city. I don’t want to destroy it,” added De Niro, who was born in Manhattan. “Donald Trump wants to destroy not only the city but the country, and, eventually, he could destroy the world.”
“He doesn’t belong in my city, I don’t know where he belongs, but he certainly doesn’t belong here,” he continued, per Fox News. “We New Yorkers used to tolerate him when he was just another grubby real estate hustler masquerading as a big shot, a two-bit Playboy lying his way into the tabloids, pretending to be a spokesperson for himself, calling it as himself for himself, to fool the press into inflating his net worth.”
“A clown, but this city is pretty accommodating. We make room for clowns. We have them all over the city, people who do crazy things in the street, we tolerate it, it’s part of the city, it’s part of the culture, but not a person like Trump who’ll eventually run the country, that does not work and we all know that,” he said.
De Niro’s appearance outside the courthouse comes after the Biden campaign released a new advertisement narrated by De Niro that criticized Trump seeking another White House term and called him “out of control.”
Former Washington, D.C., police officer Michael Fanone and former Capitol police officer Harry Dunn also spoke outside the courthouse on Tuesday, according to AP.
Fanon described his injuries from the riot, which took place two months after Trump lost the 2020 election to Biden and saw Trump supporters storm the Capitol in a bid to overturn the election result as lawmakers gathered inside to certify Biden’s victory.
“I came here today to remind Americans of what Donald Trump is capable of and the violence that he unleashed on all of Americans on Jan. 6, 2021,” Fanone said, per AP.
