During the heat of the election, Robert DeNiro took part in some get-out-the-vote video or promotion, only his speech about Donald Trump was too awesome to make it into the actual GOTV promo. So the group released it separately, and it went viral instantly. Here it is again:
DeNiro has long been a Democrat and a progressive ally, so the fact that he was against Donald Trump didn’t come as a shock. What did surprise people was that he was so disgusted, so openly repulsed by the very idea of Trump. So what is DeNiro’s reaction to Trump’s victory? He compared his feeling to September 11th.
“I feel like I did after 9/11,” Robert De Niro said of the election of Donald Trump during an interview on Nov. 10 for Awards Chatter, The Hollywood Reporter’s awards podcast, which will post in its entirety early next week. He continued, “And we’ll just see what happens. There will be many, many, many, many, many people watching.”
There was a meme going around following the election, that the day of the election – 11/9 – was the worst day America has had since 9/11. I found that meme both gross and an ill-suited comparison, quite honestly. September 11th was the most devastating terrorist attack in American history. Donald Trump’s election – while just as cataclysmic and devastating for our country – comes from within, from the vile hatred, privilege and bigotry within so many Americans. 9/11 was an ax murderer rampaging through a sleepy, unprepared city. 11/9 was the call coming from inside the house.
Meanwhile, DeNiro also appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live last Wednesday, the day after Trump’s win. Kimmel asked him how he was feeling and if he would still punch Trump in the face. At one point, DeNiro looks like he’s about to cry.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.
Me too, Bob, me too.
Me too. This “we’re all on the same team” mantra can only go so far before we get into Nuremberg defense territory. And ARE we all on the same team? I thought we were before this election, now I’m not so sure.
So True, So True.
Anyone who loves our country feels his pain. We are in a position we have never been in before and every day will be a scary mystery. The Raging Bull is far from alone.
I understand the hurt and the pain over this election, but people actually lost family members during 9/11. Thousands of people died. It’s so disrespectful to compare them. You are allowed to hut and to grieve over this election 100000%, but please have some respect for the fallen.
I agree.
I think the level of depression might be the same despite the difference in context. I feel like that’s what people are referring to. There’s a certain level of sadness everybody is feeling that I can’t recall during any other election, not even when Bush won.
I don’t think the actual events are being compared, but the feeling of sorrow.
All due respect, more people than that are going to die during a Trump administration if Obamacare is gutted, it there are wholesale raids on immigrants and also due to the violence and hatred Trump has fomented.
Yes.
People will die because of the outcome of this election. Whether it’s in country, with hate crimes or women seeking illegal abortions or dying during pregnancy/labour, or the millions of people sent back to their home countries, or the millions who cannot seek refuge in the USA because they don’t pass the test.
Millions.
Exactly.
“I feel like I did after 9/11,”
The man is only expressing how he feels. We don’t own his emotions and if that’s how he feels, that’s how he feels. He didn’t say this is worse than 9/11 or this is like 9/11, therefore he’s not comparing but only saying how he feels.
So much this. He’s not telling you how to feel, he’s not saying we should all feel like we did after 9/11 or that it’s the same or worse than 9/11. He’s simply sharing his feelings, and I understand where he’s coming from. I feel like I’m grieving a death.
Exactly!
He just said how he feels. Who are we to say “nope, you are not, because 9/11 was worse!”?
Both days were/are turning points in American history. Both days left people to be afraid and insecure about what is to come next. Instead of denying someone’s feelings, we have to acknowledge that he feels how he feels.
@v4real exactly thank you
+1
Give him a break. These are unsettling, confusing times and people feel vunerable, we’ve got enough to think about without picking at each other.
Absolutely. I admit I cried election night, and pretty much all morning Wednesday. But this is not remotely the same. It is disrespectful to the victims of 9/11 to compare.
It is the same. Terrorists have taken over your government. The KKK is there, Russia is there.
They are doing far worse to you, and will every single day for the next 4 years, unless of course they abolish elections and stay in control. Which they can do because they own your government.
Wake up. Wake up America. It’s not hyperbole. It’s happening. The victims of 9/11 are small number compared to those yet to come. You think otherwise, you are burying your head.
WAKE UP
I don’t mean WAKE UP, as in wake up you idiots.
I mean WAKE UP. The feeling I get from reading and listening is your country is sleeping. In some slumber of disbelief. You need a leader, now, a strong one. The Democrats need someone NOW to get everyone moving in one formation.
Wake up wake up wake up. Get up. Don’t wait and see. Don’t stop.
@HappyMom Like I said right above he is not comparing the two. Do you guys even know what it is to compare?
Robert is only expressing how this election made him feel. We don’t own his emotions and if he felt the same way he felt on 9/11, that is his feelings. He is not comparing it to 9/11. He didn’t say this is worse than or like 9/11. That would be comparing. He is just sharing how this made him feel.
What I said below is comparing.
Not every thought or feeling people have need to be expressed or “shared” either. Just because he felt devastated at the outcome doesn’t mean he needs to invoke 9/11 in a public statement. I stand by my original comment.
Stand by it all you want but it still doesn’t change that he is not comparing but expressing.
Your first comment was not about him sharing his feelings but comparing it to 9/11. Now you want to change it to not every person need to share their feelings. And you should follow your own advice and not share how you feel about his comment since you don’t think he should share how he feels about the election. Maybe you shouldn’t share that you cried election night. That’s a bit hypocritical don’t you think?
Very well said Original Kay. Wake up, speak up and organize. I’m generally a take the high road kind of person but I don’t think will work – unfortunately we need to get a lot dirtier.
Look at what he and Bannon are doing to the press – they are making the media the country’s enemy and people don’t realize or care. Media needs to realize that they are getting played and take a different approach. Don’t engage with Trump, don’t ask his opinion, print facts and organize.
Can the feelings police just allow people to feel what they feel without judging and dissecting? Feelings are very very subjective, so there’s really no point. Geesh.
This is going to be way more detrimental to America. Far more. And are death and other terrible outcomes going to be any better for the people who are impacted privately rather than as a mass? Original Kay is right – there are now foreign elements in our government. The KKK has been given a voice. That is no less bad than a terrorist attack.
Actually people will die because of this but not as many white men.
@Saras Exactly.
Dani
You don’t have to agree or like or understand how Deniro FEELS about the election (or how he feels about 9/11). PLEASE keep your phony outrage about acceptable reactions to this and “respect” for those lost out of it.
For many people 9/11 was a heartbreak that never healed. And this election is in many ways a reminder of the dark dare I say evil undercurrents in this world. And so for some of us, it DOES feel as painful and horrific- complete with SHOCK AND AWE- as 9/11
Like I said on a previous post as stated by another person our entire country
just got Lucilled by Trump.
It’s like taking a bat to the head.
I agree. I think hee=
Well what happened there??? I will blame it on the full blown moon!!! V4Real, we sure did get Lucilled, although we never saw it coming like Glenn did. I can imagine there are a lot of people who don’t watch the Dead thinking that we are out of our minds! I love you Daryl…….
Nancy I know some people won’t get that reference but if they watch “The Walking Dead”, they will definitely get it.
I feel you Bobby. I am trying to avoid Trump news but I broke my own rule when I logged onto this site and now I feel like crap again. I don’t know how I’ll survive the next four years.
Is that his daughter in the pics?
Yeah, with his first wife.
To each their own.
(I intend to become an activist against this despicable man, Trump. I know there has always been an undercurrent of hate, sexism, racism in this country but Trump let the genie out of the bottle and these people now think it’s OK to act this way. Trump wants to continue his rallies, they feed his enormous ego, well those of us who don’t align with his thought processes can also voice our opinions. I hope people don’t become complacent.)
Wait, why is that comparison gross? It’s saying SINCE 9/11, not compared to 9/11. And a lot of people may lose their lives or their sense of livelihood if Trump/Pence and their goons have their way. I definitely think it was the worst day since 9/11. Finding out half the country is racist, sexist, homophobic was an incredibly sick feeling.
Agreed. Allies shouldn’t be picking apart each other’s every emotion and thought right now anyway. It’s counterproductive. Accept that this is a rough time for a lot of people who are processing it differently. And that’s ok.
Yes, this was the call that comes from inside the house. There’s been a horrible breach, the lunatic is in here, and now it’s a test of whether this nation survive for four to eight years without being spiritually, socially and financially gutted beyond recognition.
I’m so sad…….
I felt the same way. I just kept watching TV news and couldn’t believe that this was happening.
I also put in another thread that I hadn’t felt this despondent since my mother died.
I felt the same way too, because it’s the same feeling of no longer feeling safe in your own country. It’s that same feeling of hopelessness and dread about the future.
I am not American but I firmly believe trumps win is the most worrying thing to have happened to worldwide peace and stability since 9/11.
Also all De Niros 6 kids have black mothers. No doubt he’s also personally worried about their future in a racially divided America. With a president who appoints a white nationalist in one of the most important positions, everyone who isn’t outright racist should be worried.
I think it’s a pretty apt comparison. I live far from NYC and don’t know anyone that died in 9/11, so I don’t have any personal connection, and got the same feeling watching it on TV as election night. Utter shock, disbelief, fear, and the knowledge that everything was about to change in a very big way.
I’m a New Yorker. I lost several close friends on 9/11. And I understand 100% what Mr. DeNiro is saying. He’s not comparing the two incidents – they are apples and oranges. He’s saying he FELT the same way following both. As did I. That feeling of fear and dread and not knowing what was going to happen next. The scariest part about this election is that whatever comes next will be coming from WITHIN, not WITHOUT. And that makes it all the more insidious.
Can someone please explain to me how the American policymaking system. Is it that a president can make any arbitrary policy as long as parliament supports it? Im curious because I’d think if Donald decided to deport any and all immigrants that would be struck down on unconstitutionality?
When the same party – in this case Republican – controls both the White House and Congress (House and Senate), it is very difficult to stop any legislation they want to enact. The Supreme Court rules on existing laws and can strike down those they deem unconstitutional, but it can sometimes take years for a court case to move through the system and even be heard in their court. Trump will also get to name a justice to that court – one of the Justices passed away last year and his seat is still vacant. The Republicans blocked Obamas nominee just in case they won the White House this election. It might just swing the court enough that some of Trumps policies/laws could stand.
Trump wants to deport ALL ILLEGALS, not all immigrants. Get your facts straight.
@Jetlagged thanks for clearing that up.
@Mare I know he said illegal, i was trying to use an absurd example to ask hypothetically (hence I said ‘if’) whether it would stand just because its supported by representatives or could the Supreme Court overturn it regardless.
there is also a presidential power called an “executive order” , as well as the president exercises executive enforcement of law.
go back in time to Andrew Jackson, the architect of the Indian Removal Act and a president who appealed to settler white supremacy populist vote, re-elected in landslide hell bent on removing Cherokee from GA for gold–his political platform. he pushes the Indian Removal Act through legislation, the Cherokee Nation fights it in the Supreme Court with two cases, Cherokee v. Georgia (Court rules they are not a sovereign nation but under the trust relationship with the federal gov–setting up the patronizing relationship between Native Nations and feds) and Worcester v. Georgia (the state of GA does NOT have the power to remove the Cherokee, keeping Native Nations as a gov to gov relationship with Feds but NOT states) in the Supreme Court under Justice John Marshall. Prez Jackson is furious with this ruling and says, “John Marshall has made his decision; let him enforce it now if he can.” Jackson forces hand of Cherokee with a forced treaty to remove and deploys the army to first imprison the nation in an internment camp in Georgia to open up Cherokee lands then the Trail of Tears.
deportation and genocide of a group of people as promised in an election…sound familiar?
@Nene also, unfortunately the U.S. forgets its own history of mass deportation and internment. we have the perpetual manipulating of laws, treaties and the constitution to commit genocide against Indigenous Nations to America. and there were also the Japanese internment camps of the WWII era, even when many Japanese American men fought as U.S. soldiers (while their families were imprisoned). this did not, of course, happen to German Americans in WWII. here’s where it gets scarier, Korematsu v. U.S., 1944–Japanese American man argues that internment camps are unconstitutional. The Supreme Court rules 6-3 against Korematsu—time of ‘war, uncertainty’ this allows for racist ideas to subvert individual civil liberties.
https://www.change.org/p/electoral-college-electors-electoral-college-make-hillary-clinton-president-on-december-19
I don’t know what to do. I even got a role I auditioned for but still feel like crying all the time. When will that stop? Sending Hillary a thank-you- postcard has helped a litte.
Trump winning is like a punch in the gut! Still sick about this unforgettable regrettable moment in history.
Contact the electoral college voters, people. Beg them to vote their conscience.
And…
MIDTERMS. You don’t like what the parties usually offer up? Get involved now and VOTE in every election. Part of the mess here is that all three branches are in R hands because so many Democrats didn’t vote.
I felt the same way and was afraid to voice it.
From the outsider’s perspective, 3000 people died almost immediately, with hundreds of thousands, if not more affected by the immediate loss, and the entire country affected by this act of war on a country who has not had a foreign boot on its soil since they themselves were boot.
But many are going to die. More than 3000, when health care is axed. When this climate warming denying buffoon takes action to back out of agreements or deny them entirely. And these are just two things. I worry about my LGBT friends across the pond, and their families, and my PoC friends who will surely encounter even more heightened homophobia and racism. Women will die when the very right-wing government cracks down on Planned Parenthood. These deaths will not happen immediately. But if Trump, or worse, his VP, PENCE, make good on their promises, it’s going to be bad. This is holodomor to the holocaust, though I really hate to invoke Godwin’s law here.
9/11 was horrid. I was a 10-year-old kid on the other side of the globe when it happened, and I was mortified even then. But I fear for Trump/Pence more. Because these deaths will not be remembered, these deaths will not get memorials nor remembrance days.
People absolutely will die, in the US, and globally because these jokers are now major players on the global politics scene. And no one will remember them the way they remember those who perished in a very obvious act of war. Trump/Pence’s administration is also an act of war, coming from the inside.
And before anyone tells me to stuff my pipe because I’m not American, let me tell you, I’ve seen this in action. So have my parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. We have seen what happens when people like Trump and Pence get elected. It was the beginning of the end, and countless people paid for it with their lives, though it was never a bloody massacre. It was quiet, miserable, and inexorable.
All my thoughts to those who will suffer. My thoughts and the little I can give in terms of actual resources are with anyone who’ll need it.
Thank you for your succinct and truthful comnent! I’m also not American but a British Canadian and I’m petrified at the ramifications of all this! This is not meant to make America Great again, this is to make America white again and it’s the scariest,saddest event to ever witness! I am white, my family is all white but never,in my wildest thoughtsould I want this or have foreseen this! His two appointees so far are so dangerous and radical that I cannot fathom even the Republican party being on board with this? This,to me is a highjacking of even their beliefs and mandates! If this was some small country with a new portending dictatorship, I’d be saddened but Good Grief! This is America, the country who has an impact on everything and everyone in this world! -we all grew up with heroic American films, John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart etc, where is that grandeur and patriotism now?? This is downright scary, it’s a veiled communism unveiled, its censorship and repatriation and denying of rights and fear and loathing amongst its populace, it’s unkindness and lack of decency made normal! It’s a license to vilify and attack your fellow man…the list goes on! I was in total disbelief and a state of horror watching this, but it’s getting worse! – an American President elect being hailed by the KKK??? And the worst of white Supremisists ? A genie he’s incapable of stuffing back in the bottle! My family enjoy Florida holidays, we enjoy Disneyworld, we enjoy meeting Americans on these trips, I have good American friends,some Republicans…but at this time I have no desire to walk amongst them or in this country again! – and Yes, I’ve cried a lot too.
Offended folks, read again. Read as many times as it takes for you to understand that he’s talking about his own feelings, not trying to dictate yours. He’s saying that the sense of fear,shock, and helplessness are tantamount to what he felt after 9/11. He’s not comparing the election TO 9/11.
I’m so tired of people telling others how they should feel. There are times when it’s warranted, to get people to reexamine their beliefs. This is not one of them.
God, that statement resonates for me. I didn’t notice the similarities until he said it, but now …. yeah. That totally sums up my emotional state. Shaken, all paradigms shifted, afraid, confused. This is a tragic time.
I did not feel this level of existential dread on 9/11. That was sad. This is terrifying. I never saw those attacks as a threat to our constitution or way of life. Turns out the intelligence committee used it as an excuse to attack both. But I feel this election is more dangerous. I honestly believe in the exceptionalism of the consistution as a living document. It is the greatest social contract ever agreed upon. It has withstood so much, and proven flexible enough to be amended, sometimes erroneously. Will it withstand 4 years of attack by a tiny handed orange dictator who believes he knows better than some of the most illustrious thinkers the world has ever known and 250 years of collective wisdom? We’ll see.
What people fail to see is that there will be a body count under this regime that won’t even involve war or terrorism. Men and women being denied health care, the LGBTQ being bullied and discriminated against, minorities being harassed and assaulted. I think of these beautiful souls like Leelah Alcorn and how she came to her decision at a time before Trump was even in the picture. Despair has always been present but imagine the impact it is having on everyone already struggling. I weep for Leelah but a part of me is thankful she never knew this reality.
I’m a Canadian person. I know I shouldn’t be weighing in, but please, please, please don’t give up hope! Keep protesting, keep making your voices heard! Be more involved so you can keep him and the government in check!! Never forget that government is for the people, by the people!