‘The View’: Robert De Niro Takes Down Donald Trump During Interview

Robert De Niro appeared on The View on Monday, and he went after President Donald Trump as hard as ever. The actor spoke in favor of the impeachment hearings, saying that he wants the president held accountable for any possible wrongdoing, no matter what. As usual, De Niro pulled no punches against President Trump.

De Niro is one of President Trump’s most outspoken opponents in Hollywood, decrying his policies and his alleged crimes. On Monday, he argued that there is no reasoning that would justify skirting around impeachment proceedings.

De Niro acknowledged that the impeachment hearings were complicated and, from his perspective, pointless in some ways. He said that “we know probably in the Senate [President Trump] won’t get convicted, or whatever,” but said that the process itself was still important.

“We have to do this,” he said. “We have to go through the motions, symbolically, it means something. It’s a taint on his presidency. More than a taint, it’s a stain. One that he deeply deserves. So, yes, we will go through it and take our chances. We have to take our chances no matter what.”

“He’s going to try to use it, then he got ahead of it, then he beat it like a gangster — ‘I beat the rap,’ like the Teflon Don,” he went on, as fans laughed and applauded. “He has to take that punishment, he has to pay the consequences. That’s how I feel.”

Co-host Abby Huntsman asked if De Niro would be in favor of impeachment even if it “risked” giving Republicans some kind of advantage in the election. The actor affirmed that he wanted to see follow-through on the hearings no matter what.

“He did something wrong. He has to pay for it, period,” he said.

Huntsman was raising a theoretical concern some pundits have been voicing that the impeachment somehow negatively effects public perception of Democrats, thereby giving President Trump an advantage in the election. However, that theory was greatly diminished on Sunday, when a new Fox News poll said that the majority of Americans now favor impeachment.

According to the Gallup poll, 50 percent of registered voters said that President Trump should be impeached, convicted in the Senate and removed from the office of the presidency. Another 4 percent said that he should be impeached but not removed from office, while 41 percent said that he should not be impeached in the House.

The same poll showed that voters currently favor Democratic frontrunners over a second term for President Trump in the 2020 election. In a theoretical election among those queried, the incumbent president would lose to Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg or Mike Bloomberg.