Robert De Niro slammed the Gotham Awards for allegedly editing out anti-Trump comments from his speech.
The actor, 80, appeared on stage at the annual award show Monday to present a tribute to his film “Killers of the Flower Moon,” Martin Scorsese’s historical drama about a string of murders targeting the oil-rich Osage Nation.
De Niro seemed flustered as he read his remarks from a teleprompter, which scrolled back and forth as he tried to find his place. After a short video played, the Oscar winner claimed that part of his introduction had been removed without his consent.
“The beginning of my speech was edited, cut out and I didn’t know about it. And I want to read it,” De Niro said, pulling out his phone. “History isn’t history anymore. Truth is not truth.
“Even facts are being replaced by alternative facts and driven by conspiracy theories and ugliness. In Florida, young students are taught that slaves were taught skills that could be applied for their personal benefit. The entertainment industry isn’t immune to this festering disease.”
He went on to call out alleged racist comments by Hollywood icon John Wayne and former President Donald Trump.
“Lying has become just another tool in the charlatan’s arsenal,” the “Taxi Driver” star continued. “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.
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“But with all his lies, he can’t hide his soul. He attacks the weak, destroys the gifts of nature and shows disrespect, for example, by using ‘Pocahontas’ as a slur,” a reference to Trump’s nickname for Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
He earned hearty cheers through the fiery speech, which ended with harsh words for the Gotham Awards as well as Apple, a producer and distributor of “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
“This is where I came in and I saw that they had edited all that,” De Niro said. “So I’m going to say these things but to Apple and thank them and all that. Gotham, blah blah blah, Apple. But I don’t really feel like thanking them at all for what they did. How dare they do that, actually.”
De Niro has been a longtime critic of the former president, calling him “crazy” and a “gangster.”
Later on, when he appeared in the press room with Leonardo DiCaprio and stars from the movie, Page Six asked him what happened.
“They screwed it up,” he told Page Six exclusively. “I don’t know what happened, they cut it.”
A spokesperson for De Niro and the Gotham Film Awards did not reply for comment.
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