ROBERT DE Niro hit back at critics of his anti-Trump stance in an expletive-laden response that went out live on CNN this past Sunday morning.
The Irishman actor has made no secret of his disdain for the 45th President of the United States, who he previously described as “totally nuts”.
It’s a stance that has seen the Oscar winner court criticism is some quarters, with Fox News among those to single De Niro out for censure.
But speaking to CNN’s to Reliable Sources programme this past weekend, De Niro gave short-shrift to the likes of Fox News.
—@BrianStelter asks Robert De Niro about criticism he gets from Fox for speaking out against Trump.
"Fuck em," De Niro replies. "Fuck em."
Stelter reminds him, "This is cable, so it's not an FCC violation, but it is still a Sunday morning." pic.twitter.com/9IOo1VvXCM— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) September 29, 2019
De Niro began by reaffirming his stance that Trump “should not be president, period”.
“And when you say that, folks on Fox come after you,” host Brian Stelter asked.
Stelter then brought up De Niro’s famous speech from the 2018 Tony Awards when, as the host put it, he “got up there and cursed”.
Quick as a flash De Niro replied: “Fuck ’em.”
“Fuck ’em,” he repeated.
At that point, someone off-screen could be heard to shout: “Whoa!”
A moment of realisation played across De Niro’s face.
“Sorry,” De Niro said. “Sorry.”
“Well, you know, this is cable, so it’s not an FCC [Federal Communications Commission] violation, but it is still a Sunday morning,” Stelter said, before asking: “Why do you choose to go that way?”
“We are in a moment in our lives, in this country, where this guy is like a gangster,” De Niro said. “We say over and over again, ‘This is terrible, we’re in a terrible situation, we’re in a terrible situation,’ and this guy just keeps going on and on and on without being stopped.”
Despite receiving a telling off in the studio, De Niro found plenty of support online, with one Twitter user describing how “he was all of us in that moment.”
De Niro is currently trying track down the long-lost relatives in Ireland.
The 76-year-old actor has always celebrated his Irish heritage.
However, until now, he’s struggled to track down any actual distant living relatives that could help him fill in the blanks when it comes to his family’s long-lost life in Ireland.
It’s a situation that has left De Niro searching for answers but so far unable to find them.
“Yeah, I have Irish roots. My mother’s Dutch, French and German. And my father was Irish and Italian,” he told the Irish Sun.
“I hitchhiked around Ireland when I was about 18, 19.
“I’ve been trying for years to find relatives there.
"For some reason, it’s not easy. Italy was easier.”
