After becoming a political target in a bomb scare last fall, Robert De Niro has a message for anyone who resorts to violence to get their message across.
“Good triumphs over evil, light triumphs over darkness, it’s that simple,” De Niro told CNN on Wednesday, while promoting the upcoming Tribeca Film Festival.
De Niro was among those targeted by Cesar Sayoc, a Florida man who admitted to sending 16 pipe bombs to individuals and organizations he viewed as critical of President Trump. Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, Sens. Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, other high-profile Democrats and CNN’s New York and Atlanta offices were also sent pipe bombs from Sayoc.
None of the devices detonated and no one was injured. Sayoc pleaded guilty last month to 65 felony counts, including using weapons of mass destruction in an attempted domestic terrorist attack, interstate transport of explosives and illegal mailing of explosives with the intent to kill or injure. Sayoc wrote a two page letter to US District Court Judge Jed Rakoff stating that, “The intention was to only intimidate & scare,” and that the pipe bombs were “not ever meant to work.”
“There are people out there who just don’t get it and they don’t have a higher interest, if you will, in the betterment of the country even,” De Niro said in reference to Sayoc. “It’s just about them and they’re a minority and they’re dangerous and they’re given a voice and everybody is entitled to have a voice but not when it’s a voice like that. I’m sorry, then you’re wrong. Then you have to either be quiet or learn that you are not right when you want to hurt other people and come after them with the white supremacy and all that other stuff and that hate, you’re wrong.”
Jane Rosenthal, De Niro’s producing partner and co-founder of the Tribeca Film Festival, said that De Niro and their team will remain steadfast in their work.
“[The bomb scare] also made us, as we say, ‘Tribeca Strong.’ Bob will continue to speak out about this administration and we will all continue to speak out about it. That’s our right and if somebody is going to take a crazy shot, so be it.”