US President Joe Biden would be a better candidate than his predecessor Donald Trump to hold office, even if he was completely incapacitated, iconic American actor Robert De Niro has suggested.
In an interview with Rolling Stone on Wednesday, De Niro, 80, responded in the affirmative when asked if he thought Biden would be the “right guy” to defeat Trump, who is widely seen as the GOP frontrunner in the 2024 presidential election.
“I think that if Biden was on a gurney and couldn’t move anything but his eyes to blink ‘yes’ or ‘no’, he’s our person. There’s no way that he’s not the guy to take Trump down,” the Oscar-winning actor said.
According to De Niro, Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, who used to serve as US ambassador to the UN under Trump, could also come in and “at least throw him off,” and become the GOP’s nominee. “But Biden is the best person at this point,” he said, adding that “we need anything to get rid of Trump.”
The world-renowned actor, who won two Oscars for his roles in ‘The Godfather Part II’ and ‘Raging Bull’ and is also known for his performances in ‘Goodfellas’ and ‘Casino’, has been a fierce critic of the 45th US president.
In 2018, he famously dropped an expletive on Trump during the Tony Awards, receiving an ovation from the audience. This November, he accused the ex-president of being a “charlatan” who lied to Americans “more than 30,000 times during his four years in office.”
A month earlier, he also warned the US against reelecting Trump – whom he described as an outright “evil” person – saying that “democracy won’t survive the return of a wannabe dictator.”
In December, the former US president hit back, calling De Niro a “total loser,” condemning his “foul and disgusting language” and advising him to “focus on his life, which is a mess, rather than the lives of others.”
Despite the actor’s fierce criticism, several recent polls have suggested that Trump would beat Biden in a potential rematch, with this month’s Morning Consult and Bloomberg News survey showing that he was leading his archrival in seven swing states.