Robert De Niro claimed on Monday that his anti-Trump comments were removed from his Gotham Awards speech, so he found his version and read it anyway.
The legendary actor realized his words were switched-= out in the middle of addressing the audience during the live ceremony, so he quickly pulled out his phone, back-tracked and slammed the awards show for trying to censor him.
“I just want to say one thing … the beginning of my speech was edited, cut out, and I didn’t know about it. And I want to read it,” the 80-year-old Oscar winner said. “History isn’t history anymore. Truth is not truth. Even facts are being replaced by alternative facts, and driven by conspiracy theories and ugliness.”
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De Niro was at the awards ceremony representing his new film, “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which was produced by Apple — a company with a record of supporting modern-day slavery.
“I’m going to go back. I’m sorry. Okay, there was a mistake in this. I’ll keep going. Just keep scrolling,” he said, as he reverted to the unedited version of his speech on his cell phone.
He went on to repeat cherry-picked left-wing claims about Florida that black academics from the state have disputed.
“In Florida, young students are taught that slaves developed skills that could be applied for their personal benefit. The entertainment industry isn’t immune to this festering disease,” he said.
“The Duke, John Wayne, famously said of Native Americans, ‘I don’t feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them. There were great numbers of people who needed new land and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.'”
De Niro then shook his head and glanced at the audience as he passionately lashed out against Donald Trump.
“Lying has become just another tool in the charlatan’s arsenal. The former President lied to us more than 30,000 times during his four years in office,” he said. “And he’s keeping up the pace in his current campaign of retribution. 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.” (RELATED: ‘This Is All Nonsense!’: Robert De Niro Reportedly Lashes Out During Court Hearing On Alleged Workplace Abuse)
“Filmmakers, on the other hand, strive — this is where I came in and I saw that they edited all that,” the iconic star noted.
De Niro also angrily blamed Apple and the Gotham Awards for messing with his speech.
“I don’t feel like thanking them at all for what they did. How dare they do that, actually,” he said.