Robert De Niro – who made a surprise campaign appearance for Joe Biden outside of Donald Trump’s trial just two days before today’s guilty verdicts in the hush money case – reacted to the news by saying: “Justice has been done.”
While promoting his new film Ezra Speaking in New York City on Thursday, the actor told Variety: “This should never have come to this. I don’t want to talk, but it makes me so angry. I have to say something. This is my country. This guy wants to destroy it. Period. He’s crazy.”
A jury in New York City found the former president guilty on Thursday of all 34 counts of falsifying business records. The conspiracy was intended to prevent a possible sex scandal that could jeopardize his first presidential campaign. The verdict is scheduled for July 11, a few days before the start of the Republican National Convention.
When asked if he thought this could affect the presidential election, De Niro said, “I think so.”
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The actor went on to admit that he had some concerns about his safety, especially since he had been so vocal about Trump. “Think about it. It makes me even angrier, but I have to be afraid of being intimidated. And that’s why I said: You’re not going to intimidate us. People are fed up and they’re going to fight back. That’s not what we’re about in this country.”
On May 28, De Niro stood outside the courthouse in Manhattan and called Trump a “tyrant.”
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“Now he’s promising to use our own military forces to attack American citizens,” De Niro said at the time. “This is the tyrant, the bully, that he tells us he’s going to be, and believe me, he means it.”
“When Trump ran in 2016, it was like a joke,” he continued. “This buffoon running for president. No, that could never happen. We’ve forgotten the lessons of history that other clowns have shown us who weren’t taken seriously until they became vicious dictators. With Trump, we have a second chance and now nobody is laughing.”
RELATED: See each of the 34 charges in Donald Trump’s hush money trial
De Niro stars alongside Bobby Cannavale and Rose Byrne in Ezrawhich premiered at TIFF last year. It is about stand-up comedian Max Bernal (Cannavale), who lives with his father (De Niro) while trying to co-parent his autistic son Ezra (William A. Fitzgerald) with his ex-wife (Byrne). When he is forced to make difficult decisions about their son’s future – and with Max booked for a show – Jimmy Kimmel Live! However, without reimbursement of flight costs, Max and Ezra embark on a road trip across the country that fundamentally changes both of their lives.
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