Robert DeNiro blamed Apple for cutting his criticisms of Donald Trump from his Gotham Awards speech.
“History isn’t history anymore. Truth isn’t truth, and even facts are being replaced by alternative facts and driven by conspiracy theories and ugliness,” De Niro said onstage. “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. 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.’”
He continued, “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, and he’s keeping up the pace with his current campaign of retribution. With all of his lies, he can’t hide his soul. He attacks the weak, destroys the gifts of nature and shows his disrespect, for example, using ‘Pocahontas’ as a slur,” referencing Trump’s popular nickname for Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
The actor then informed the audience that this is where his speech resumed and seemingly blamed Killers studio Apple for cutting part of his speech.
If DeNiro’s remarks about Trump were cut, it is a sign that Apple is more interested in its own profits than protecting democracy.
What big corporations like Apple fail to understand is that they will be some of the first casualties if Trump returns to power and American democracy perishes. There is no such thing as a free market in authoritarian regimes.
The largest corporations may think that their vast wealth will inoculate them from the decline of American democracy, but they are wrong.
Censoring criticism of Trump enables his attack on democracy.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
