Joining a group of Biden campaign members outside former President Trump's N.Y. criminal trial, Tuesday, actor Robert De Niro slammed Trump as a "danger" to Americans while being shouted at by nearby protesters. While closing arguments are underway inside the courtroom, Fox News contributor Karl Rove argued De Niro's "over-the-top" remarks were a "stupid mistake" for the Biden team on "America's Newsroom."
ROBERT DE NIRO CLAIMS TRUMP ‘COULD DESTROY THE WORLD’ OUTSIDE MANHATTAN COURT
KARL ROVE: Stupid mistake by the Biden campaign. ... While all the cameras were there, they wanted to get their moment in the sun. And it was a big mistake. It politicizes the trial. Better to have waited. And then what was said, with all due respect to Mr. De Niro, who's a wonderful, wonderful actor... "Donald Trump wants to destroy New York, destroy America, and destroy the world. And if you reelect him, he's never going to leave office. He's going to make himself a tyrant for life." Are those the kind of credible statements that are going to cause people who don't like Biden and don't like Trump, but are trying to figure out who to vote for, are they going to cause people to say, ‘well, geez, you now told me you wanted to destroy our country.’ Of course he did. The people who believe that are already in the Biden camp. That's not who they should be trying to reach out to. He came close in a moment of talking about January 6th and talking about the two officers, but that might have had an impact. But this was so over-the-top as to simply be useless. And what a stupid mistake on the part of the Biden campaign. More reason why Democratic leaders are probably going to be concerned that he's the likely nominee of their party.
As closing arguments were heard in the former president's criminal trial, the Biden-Harris team held a press conference outside the Manhattan courtroom where the actor made his thoughts about the 45th president clear.
"Donald Trump wants to destroy not only the city, but the country. And eventually he could destroy the world," he said.
"I owe this city a lot. And that's why it's so weird that Donald Trump is just across the street because he doesn't belong in my city. I don't know where he belongs, but he certainly doesn't belong here. We New Yorkers used to tolerate him when he was just another grubby real estate hustler masquerading as a big shot," De Niro added.
The actor was joined by the Biden campaign's communications director, Michael Tyler, who called Trump a "chaos agent," as well D.C. Metropolitan Police Department Officer Michael Fanone and former Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, who was present in the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
President Biden and Vice President Harris were not present during the event.
The Trump campaign held a separate press conference Tuesday, following the Biden campaign's presser with De Niro, where Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller slammed De Niro as a "washed up actor."
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Trump's highly-controversial N.Y. criminal trial served as the backdrop for the dueling press conferences.
The former president is facing the end of his trial in Manhattan, where he faces 34 counts of falsifying business records. Prosecutors are working to prove that Trump falsified business records to conceal a $130,000 payment to former pornographic star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election to quiet her claims of an alleged affair with Trump in 2006.
Fox News' Emma Colton contributed to this report.
