(NewsNation) — President Biden’s campaign has made a concerted effort to stay out of Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York City until Tuesday when they chose to weigh in at arguably the oddest time with the oddest spokesperson.
Tuesday morning outside the courthouse in Manhattan, the Biden campaign called on Robert De Niro to make its case against Donald Trump.
“I don’t mean to scare you,” De Niro said. “No, no, wait, maybe I do mean to scare you. If Trump returns to the White House, you can kiss these freedoms, goodbye, that we all take for granted. And elections. Forget about it. That’s over. That’s done.”
Now, if you’ve watched any number of De Niro’s media appearances in recent years, you know he gets vulgar when talking about Donald Trump. And the legendary actor, and now Biden campaign spokesperson, triggered the censors again this morning.
“Around the country, people who didn’t know him, as we did, started to support him,” De Niro said. “They bought into his (expletive). Trump bought their votes with outrageous lies and empty promises.”
But the news conference went off the rails with a heckler who attacked Capitol police officers Michael Fanon and Harry Dunn, who were there as well. De Niro made like his iconic character Travis Bickle in “Taxi Driver” and confronted the heckler all while a car alarm blared in the background.
“They lied under oath? Who lied under oath?” De Niro asked the heckler. “Excuse me. They lied under oath? What are you saying? They’re traitors? I don’t even know how to deal with you, my friend. I don’t even know how to deal with you.”
Putting aside whether you agree with De Niro or not, at least the Trump supporters have shown up have connected their comments outside the courthouse to the trial: “It’s unfair. It’s unamerican, etc.”
De Niro was just giving a campaign speech. Who exactly was he talking to? Whose mind did the Biden campaign think they were going to help change here?
It also reminds me of that De Niro quote from the movie “Casino.”
“There are three ways of doing things around here: The right way, the wrong way, and the way that I do it,” De Niro’s character says.
In this case, I think this may also qualify as the wrong way and leads us to ask, what were they thinking?
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