Co-hosts of Fox News’ The Five seemed irked by Biden campaign surrogate Robert De Niro’s remarks outside Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York on Tuesday—but responded with some especially uninformed criticisms of him and his comments.
An animated Jeanine Pirro, for instance, demanded to know what De Niro—who had just mentioned how he had co-founded the Tribeca Festival following the September 11 terrorist attacks to help lower Manhattan recover—has “done for” his native city.
“My question for Robert De Niro is what have you done for New York City?” she asked, before alluding to the indicted former president’s real estate portfolio. “Is there a building with your name on it? Have you built skyscrapers? Has the skyline of New York changed because of all your vision? No!”
The Tribeca Festival generated an estimated $750 million economic boost to Manhattan through 2020, according to Backstage.
While De Niro, who also owns Tribeca Grill and the Greenwich Hotel, helped launch the film festival to restore the area’s economic and cultural vitality, Trump bragged— incorrectly—about the height of one of his buildings just hours after the Twin Towers came down. During an interview with New Jersey station WWOR that afternoon, he claimed that his building at 40 Wall Street had just become the tallest in New York City.
“40 Wall Street actually was the second-tallest building in downtown Manhattan,” Trump said when asked if it had been damaged, “and it was actually, before the World Trade Center, was the tallest—and then, when they built the World Trade Center, it became known as the second tallest. And now it’s the tallest.”
Pirro wasn’t the only one on The Five whose reaction to De Niro raised eyebrows.
Moments earlier, Dana Perino suggested that the actor’s comments may affect the criminal case against Trump.
“[Biden] sent the campaign to do a speech across the street from the jury trial… and it could be that they could file a lawsuit about that, because I think that it is against the law and against the rights of a defendant and the former president in that it’s tampering with the jury, I would say. That’s my opinion; I will stick to it,” she said defiantly.
De Niro did not talk about the jury at all in his prepared remarks.
What he did do near the lower Manhattan courthouse, though, was condemn Trump for aiming to “sow total chaos,” and warn that his reelection could cause irreversible harm to the country.
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