Exclusive — Sen. J.D. Vance: De Niro’s Biden Appearance Outside Trump Trial ‘Mask Off Moment for Biden Regime’ Similar to Hillary’s Deplorables Attack

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), a leading possible contender for former President Donald Trump’s running mate, answered several key questions from Breitbart News for this exclusive question-and-answer written interview about Hollywood star Robert De Niro’s appearance at the behest of Democrat President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign outside the Manhattan courthouse where Trump is being tried.

The moment, one of the most consequential of this 2024 presidential election so far, represents a significant escalation by the incumbent president of the United States against his political opponent. It’s also a moment that Vance, who may end up being Trump’s vice presidential pick, thinks political prognosticators will look back on as similar to failed 2016 Democrat presidential candidate former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s infamous speech where she attacked Trump’s supporters in 2016 as being “irredeemable” people she considered in the “basket of deplorables.”

That’s because De Niro, on Biden’s behalf at the formal Biden campaign event outside the courthouse, attacked Trump’s supporters as “gangsters” and “clowns.”

Vance’s written interview here also gives critical insight into electoral victory strategy for Trump, and how the former president should continue on working class and rust belt voters in states like Vance’s Ohio and nearby Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and more. Vance’s advice for Trump on how he strengthens his already “powerful” connection with such working class voters is key for the former president as he embarks on an effort to pull off the greatest political comeback in the history of mankind.

HAHAHAHA https://t.co/L1up5wLWFw

— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) May 28, 2024

Most importantly, too, Vance argues that this incident with De Niro at the Biden campaign event outside the Manhattan courthouse demonstrates once and for all what Trump and his supporters have long been saying: Biden is behind these political prosecutions of Trump, and weaponized the government either through his own administration or through his allies including Democrat, George Soros-funded prosecutors like Alvin Bragg in Manhattan or Fani Willis in Atlanta.

Vance called this a “mask off moment for the Biden regime” and his insights on this in particular are revealing.

So, without further ado, here is a full transcript of the back-and-forth Breitbart News had with Sen. Vance on Tuesday afternoon in between fundraising events for Trump on this in the aftermath of De Niro’s big Biden campaign moment.

BREITBART NEWS NETWORK (BNN): What do you think of the Biden campaign decision to bring out of all people Robert De Niro and on of all days the day of closing arguments to stage a press conference outside the Trump trial courthouse?

SEN. J.D. VANCE: Well first of all, what business does the president have at the show trial of his chief political rival? The impartial administration of justice requires that jurors not feel intimidated. Would you feel intimidated if the president sent a bunch of hacks to yell outside of the courtroom? The Biden administration’s entire argument up to this point is that this is a local case in New York. They’re not involved at all. So they decide to show up during closing arguments and stage a campaign rally?

De Niro is of course a joke. His wild gesticulation, what he said. He’s a washed up actor campaigning for a washed up president. We’ve been saying this entire trial is political theater for Joe Biden. And he decides to send a literal actor to a campaign rally on the day of closing arguments? It’s like the Democrats are trying to make our argument for us.

BNN: De Niro at various points during his public appearance today called Trump supporters “clowns” or “gangsters.” Is this eerily reminiscent of when Hillary Clinton called Trump supporters in the “basket of deplorables” who are “irredeemable”?

VANCE: That’s exactly what I thought. It’s rule one of American politics: attack the candidate, attack their campaign, attack their policies, but don’t attack the voters. The whole idea of an election is to persuade voters, not insult them. So you have a rich actor stand before a courthouse and call people names? That’s the Biden administration’s campaign strategy? It’s no wonder they’re flailing.

The contrast with the Trump campaign is really incredible.

A week ago Trump goes to the South Bronx to campaign in a traditionally Democratic area. His message? We’re all Americans. We’re all on the same team. Joe Biden has failed you, and I want to help you.

Oh, brother. pic.twitter.com/hIevpJQd5S

— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) May 28, 2024

The Biden campaign’s message is: don’t believe your lying eyes. Inflation isn’t bad. America isn’t losing our place in the world. Everything’s fine. And if you disagree, you’re a clown or a gangster.

The Trump campaign treats Americans with respect and dignity. The Biden campaign treats us like children. We’ll see which approach works in November.

BNN: While all of this is happening, the Biden team is not focusing on the concerns of working class Americans in rust belt states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, et cetera. Just today, the Democrat County Executive of Macomb County in Michigan announced he is not supporting Biden this year. Do you think the tone deafness of the Biden operation provides an opening for Trump to reconnect with these rust belt voters and flip these states back to being red in November?

VANCE: One of the things that occurred to me as I watched De Niro make a fool of himself is that Trump voters, and especially rural white people, are the last group of people in the country it’s OK to insult. Can you imagine if De Niro called any other group of voters “gangsters”? It would be a career ending move.

I think it does give Trump a huge opening. His connection to these voters has always been very powerful, and I think it rests on two things. The first is that Trump says what he thinks. Agree or disagree with him, it’s obvious he’s not selling a load of bullshit. Working people are blunt because they respect one another to be honest and direct. The second thing Trump has going for him is that people can tell he actually likes them and respects them as human beings. For a long time, a lot of Democrat and even many Republican politicians were ashamed of normal Americans. They think their values are backwards, their patriotism is tacky, and their jobs are part of the old economy. But here’s the thing people are waking up to: if a politician disrespects you, is he ever going to fight for you, your job, or your family? A campaign that dispatches an actor to call you a gangster doesn’t give a shit about you. When they ship their job to China they won’t even feel guilty about it.

Trump has an opportunity to say: I am your champion. I am the guy who will fight for your wages, your job, your public safety, your local community. Don’t entrust the guy who insults you with more power. Entrust me, the guy who actually respects you. It’s a huge opportunity for him to sweet working class voters in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.

BNN: Having a Hollywood elitist like De Niro of all people — famous for his roles as a mobster in films like The Godfather, Casino, The Irishman, and more — lecturing tens of millions of Americans on the stakes of the 2024 election while calling them “gangsters” seems especially ironic but perhaps even more incredible in the sense that it shows the various sides in this election quite clearly. You’ve got Hollywood elitists, Wall Street bankers, and connected, high-powered career politicians on one side, and the working class union workers and families struggling due to Biden’s inflation and immigration policies on the other. What say you about the contrast here?

VANCE: Yeah it’s ironic. De Niro has gotten rich playing gangsters on the big screen and now he wants to call the people who build our buildings and make the things we use every day gangsters?

Sometimes we overcomplicate this stuff. Robert De Niro and other Hollywood elitists like illegal immigration because they gets cheaper servants at their mansions without ever having to meet a normal citizen of their own country. Wall Street likes cheap labor because they get rich from it. And Democrat politicians get more votes.

Normal Americans get fentanyl in their communities, illegal criminals on their streets, and lower wages for their work.

Donald Trump stands for higher wages and safer streets. Joe Biden stands for cheap labor and fentanyl. We need to take that message all the way to November.

U.S. actor Robert De Niro speaks in support of U.S. President Joe Biden outside of Manhattan Criminal Court as former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump attends his criminal trial in New York City, on May 28, 2024. (CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images)

BNN: Most amazingly about this moment, though, perhaps is the fact that after years of denying it, the Biden campaign’s decision to do this seems to confirm what we all knew all along which is that Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the Democrats are behind this political prosecution for political purposes. What do you think about the optics of the Biden campaign engaging in a political stunt like this? Is the cat out of the bag now for good?

VANCE: As you know, Matt, I’m not afraid of a partisan fight. Some issues really are Democrats versus Republicans. But this is about whether we’re a corrupt country. Do we want the standard to be that you can try to throw your political opponents in jail for winning elections they should have lost? Do we want the president sending his attorneys to a local prosecutors office to go after his rival? And then following it up with a campaign rally on jury instruction day? If this isn’t political, why hold a campaign rally the day the jury deliberates on the verdict?

This is a mask off moment for the Biden regime, and I use that word carefully. For the first time in my life, we have an administration that is willing to shred nearly three centuries of legal tradition to gain power. Our ancestors fought, bled, and died to give us the kind of country where “equal justice under the law” meant something. Biden and his cronies are willing to throw it all away to win an election.

I’m optimistic because I don’t think it will work. I really do think Trump will win. But then we need to have courage as Republicans to make sure that those who corrupted our system of justice are punished for it. If these guys suffer no consequences for what they did to Trump, they will eventually do it to every Republican elected official in the country. That’s how banana republics work. It never stops with just the guy on top.