Oscar-winning actor Robert De Niro became the face of the Biden campaign Tuesday, fronting a tumultuous press conference outside the Manhattan courthouse where former President Donald Trump’s defense team made its closing arguments in the hush money trial.
After weeks of avoiding commenting on the case against Trump outside of jabs on social media, the Biden campaign went big by announcing the press availability “with special guests” on the day of closing arguments, with the jury expected to receive the case on Wednesday.
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“We’re not here today because of what’s going on over there,” Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler disingenuously told reporters, indicating the courthouse. “We’re here today because you all are here.”
De Niro, 80, has already narrated ads for the Biden campaign, and told reporters Tuesday that Trump “wants to sow total chaos” and “destroy not only the city” before expanding his argument to say “eventually he could destroy the whole world.”
“I don’t mean to scare you. No, wait, maybe I do mean to scare you,” he said at one point. “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. If he gets in. I can tell you right now. He will never leave. He will never leave. You know that. He will never leave.”
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In between reading from his prepared remarks, which included calling the 77-year-old Trump a “clown,” a “grubby real estate hustler” and a “tyrant,” the “Raging Bull” star exchanged curses with pro-Trump protesters who chanted “F–k Joe Biden” and “De Niro is a gangster bitch” in an attempt to drown out the presser.
Follow The Post’s live blog for the latest updates on Donald Trump’s “hush money” trial
“You’re a f–king idiot,” the “Goodfellas” actor yelled at one protester who accused De Niro of being a “paid actor for the DNC” and suggested the actor had unsavory ties to convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
De Niro was accompanied by law enforcement officers who battled Trump-supporting rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
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“I came here today to remind Americans of what Donald Trump is capable of and the violence that he unleashed on all of Americans on Jan. 6, 2021,” former DC cop Michael Fanone said.
“Americans need to wake up. This is not a drill,” added former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress as a Democrat in Maryland earlier this year.
Since jury selection in the Manhattan trial began April 15, Trump has gone from leading Biden head-to-head by 0.3 percentage points in the RealClearPolitics national polling average to 1.1 percentage points as of this past Friday.
The persistent polling lead for the 45th president and the perceived stakes of the Nov. 5 election are “creating [a] freakout” in Democratic political circles, Politico reported Tuesday.
“There’s still a path to win this, but they don’t look like a campaign that’s embarking on that path right now,” longtime Democratic strategist Pete Giangreco told the outlet. “If the frame of this race is, ‘What was better, the 3.5 years under Biden or four years under Trump?’, we lose that every day of the week and twice on Sunday.”
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Trump’s press team came to the microphones immediately after Biden’s team left, arguing that the president’s campaign showing up at the courthouse shows that the trial amounts to “election interference of the highest order.”
“Crooked Joe Biden and his campaign are in complete freakout mode, and that’s why they’ve gone back on the word and now they’ve gone in bed with a highly conflicted, conflicted judge, and now they’re making a political mockery of this entire thing,” campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said.
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Trump 2024 national press secretary Karoline Leavitt added that “actors like Robert De Niro” have “no idea the real problems that people in this city and across this country are facing.
“President Trump is backed by the hard-working men and women of this country, and I cannot help but laugh when Joe Biden’s spokesperson actually came out here and accused President Trump of being a threat to democracy. Joe Biden is the real threat to democracy. He is weaponizing our justice system.”
