Robert De Niro kicked off the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City Wednesday by praising the press and ranting about “madman” President Donald Trump.
“Look at all the fake news writers here today,” De Niro joked at a press luncheon, according to Deadline.
Robert De Niro speaks at the “We Stand United” rally on the eve of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration outside Trump International Hotel and Tower in New York on January 19, 2017 in New York. (Photo: BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP/Getty Images)
“The country has had a bad year, and you — the press — have taken a lot of hits. America is being run by a madman who wouldn’t recognize the truth if it came inside a bucket of his beloved Colonel Sanders Fried Chicken,” he added. “When he doesn’t like what he hears, he dismisses it by saying it’s un-American and damning it as ‘fake news.’ But we know the truth. All thinking people do.”
“Your job is difficult enough without being attacked by our lowlife-in-chief,” he continued. “The press has done an admirable job this past year. We’re looking at journalists as our saviors, in the same way we used to look at our political leaders.”
Several of the movies that will be featured at this year’s festival have a political theme. One of those movies is called “The Fourth Estate” by documentary film director Liz Garbus that looks “at how The New York Times covered President Trump’s first year in office.”
Earlier in the day, De Niro explained that because of Trump he has been forced to “speak out” and be more political active than he has ever been in his life.
“I have never been this active,” the actor shared during his appearance on the “Today” show. “But when I see what’s going on with this guy, you have no choice but to be active.”
“It’s past the point of being passive,” he added. “People have to speak out. They have to speak out over and over and over again. This guy, this administration, is beyond belief. It has to stop.”
