"He can’t hide his soul": Robert De Niro reads anti-Trump speech he claims was censored at Gothams

In accepting an award for "Killers of the Flower Moon" the actor noted his teleprompter speech had been changed

By Nardos Haile

Staff Writer

Published November 28, 2023 1:15PM (EST)

Robert De Niro speaks onstage at The 2023 Gotham Awards at Cipriani Wall Street on November 27, 2023 in New York City. (Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Gotham Film & Media Institute)
Robert De Niro speaks onstage at The 2023 Gotham Awards at Cipriani Wall Street on November 27, 2023 in New York City. (Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Gotham Film & Media Institute)

Long-time Democrat and staunch anti-Trumper Robert De Niro said his Gotham Awards speech was edited in real-time to censor his anti-Trump comments.

The actor was accepting a Gotham award for the film “Killers of the Flower Moon” Monday night when he realized there were parts of his speech missing from the teleprompter.

“I’m going to go back. I’m sorry. OK, there was a mistake in this. I’ll keep going. Just keep scrolling,” De Niro said.

De Niro circled back and read the beginning of the speech from his phone: “The beginning of my speech was edited, cut out, and I didn’t know about it. And I want to read it. History isn’t history anymore. Truth is not truth. Even facts are being replaced by alternative facts, and driven by conspiracy theories and ugliness."

His speech highlighted injustices in American history and said, "The former President lied to us more than 30,000 times during his four years in office. 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 continued his anti-Trump comments, "This is where I came in, and I saw that they edited all that."

Ultimately, the actor refused to thank Gotham Awards: “I don’t feel like thanking them at all for what they did. How dare they do that, actually.”


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