Robert De Niro is known to be terse in interviews but in a recent sit down with NBC Nightly News, the Oscar-winner and staunch liberal was discussing his Tribeca Film Festival but eventually got political. He pulled no punches in describing his disgust with Republican antics in addition to Donald Trump joining the birther movement.
Via The Huffington Post: Discussing the recently averted — for now — government shutdown, De Niro expressed disgust with what he considers games being played by politicians, especially the Republicans, and the political jockeying’s impact on working Americans.
“I think of the possibility of the government being shut down, and I say, ‘How did we get to this point?’” he said, acording to Movieline. “I remember it happened years ago. And I just say, ‘How did we ever get to that point?’ Because the people who suffer are the one who have jobs where every week, they’ve gotta make these payments. How did we get there? What is this about? This is crazy. And I know Obama was trying to bridge the gap. His intentions are really good. Maybe some things are not as good as we all would like, but his intentions were right. A lot of these guys, their intentions are not even good. They’re just playing the game. And they’re playing with people’s lives.”
The star also seemed to be hitting out at Republican birthers who doubt President Obama’s birth certificate, among other accusations.
“I won’t mention names, but certain people in the news the last couple weeks, just, what are they doing? It’s crazy. They’re making statements about people that they don’t even back up,” De Niro alluded. “Go get the facts before you start saying things about people.”
When Williams asked him if he was talking about potential GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump — “Any of those people have shows on my network on Sunday night?” he inquired — De Niro confirmed that, indeed, Trump, who has been on a national campaign questioning the President’s birth certificate, was who he was talking about.
“It’s like a big hustle. It’s like being a car salesman. Don’t go out there and say things unless you can back them up. How dare you? That’s awful to do. To just go out and speak and say these terrible things? Unless you just wanna get over and get the job. It’s crazy.”
Thoughts?