Robert De Niro has been denied a prestigious award after making a speech calling Donald Trump a “clown” and a "dictator "outside the former president’s trial.
The actor, 80, joined a Democrat-organised event on Tuesday outside the New York court where Trump was on trial for falsifying business records to cover up an affair before the 2016 presidential election.
Standing by Manhattan Criminal Court, De Niro tore into the Republican - calling him a “monster” - and argued with Trump supporters who he called “gangsters”.
The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) decided to rescind an offer to award De Niro with the Leadership Foundation’s Service to America Award, which he was set to receive on Tuesday.
A spokesperson said the event at which the actor would have received the prize “is proudly bipartisan, uniting those from across the political spectrum to celebrate the impactful work of local broadcasters and our partners”.
They added: "While we strongly support the right of every American to exercise free speech and participate in civic engagement, it is clear that Mr De Niro’s recent high-profile activities will create a distraction from the philanthropic work that we were hoping to recognize.
“To maintain the focus on service of the award winners, Mr. De Niro will no longer be attending the event.”
I’d thought “Bipartisan” mean “we accept people from both side and we literally couldn’t care” and not “woah mate you can’t say something that would hurt the other side”, and “uniting people across the political spectrum” mean “let’s separate art and politics for this award” and not “you’re not allow to publicly said something politically charged outside of the event”.
Yeah, they’re statement is highly suspect, like anyone going “there are bad people on both sides”, and I’d be very interested to see where their funding comes from and who sits on their board because “actor says something political” is hardly uncommon but their reaction is weird.
Bipartisan means both partisans are in agreement