Robert De Niro Has a Fiery Message for Trump and the 'Thugs' He Says Are Messing With Votes

Robert De Niro has a fiery message for Donald Trump and the 'thugs who are messing with our votes,' urging Americans to defend their voting rights ahead of November's midterm elections.

The 83-year-old Hollywood icon and longtime Trump critic said, 'Voting should be easy. You get to decide. That's your right, that's your superpower, but there's a catch. There are some powerful people who want to take away that power.' The Godfather star then delivered a blunt message to those people: 'This is Robert De Niro, and I've got a message for them. No f*cking way.'

De Niro Takes Aim at Trump's Political Agenda

De Niro argues that voters have a choice between candidates he says support Trump's agenda and those he believes would better protect public services and hold powerful figures accountable. 'If you want to elect politicians to prop up a would-be king who gets us into a disastrous war and corruptly profits from it, you can find them,' he says.

'Or, if you prefer candidates who won't cut your healthcare and won't protect pedophiles, there are great choices there, too,' he added. De Niro urges anyone who is 'as furious as I am at all these thugs who are messing with our votes' to find out how they can help through Hands Off Our Vote, a group campaigning to protect voting rights.

'This administration wants to keep us from voting so they can control our elections and seize more authoritarian power,' the group's website states. 'They're doing everything they can to make us feel isolated and powerless. We refuse to accept this. We will decide our future, choose our leaders, and ensure the will of the people prevails.'

Fellow actor Mark Ruffalo also shared De Niro's video on social media, endorsing its voting-rights message. 'My friend Robert DeNiro has a message for you,' he wrote, adding the hashtags #nof*ckingway and #handsoffourf*ckingvote.

DOJ's California Lawsuit Raises Election Concerns

De Niro's warning comes as the Trump administration faces scrutiny over its efforts to investigate suspected noncitizen voter registration and voting ahead of the November midterms. On 15 October, the Department of Justice sued California, asking a federal court to prevent state officials from 'tabulating vote by mail ballots from likely noncitizens in the upcoming federal election until the voter's citizenship status can be determined.'

The lawsuit followed the federal government's delivery of a list of more than 20,000 people it considered likely noncitizens to California officials on 13 October.

Election Experts Warn Against Rushed Voter Purges

Election law expert Rick Hasen described federal pressure on local officials as unusual in American elections in an interview with NPR published on 21 October. He said the approach had contributed to states and localities viewing the federal government 'as kind of an adversary.'

Hasen also cited the National Voter Registration Act, which generally requires states to complete systematic programmes to remove ineligible voters from registration lists at least 90 days before a federal primary or general election, subject to statutory exceptions. The provision is designed to reduce the risk of eligible voters being wrongly removed from the rolls shortly before an election.

Hasen criticised the timing and handling of the request, saying, 'We're getting into the period of in-person early voting—that in this period that the federal government would send on a thumb drive, with the password on a sticky note, the names of 20,000 possible noncitizen voters and ask 48 hours for the state to agree to go through this list and purge voters. I mean, it's just incredible. It's not the kind of thing that ever has happened, that I'm aware of.'

De Niro Urges Americans to Vote Early

De Niro urges Americans to take action amid ongoing political and legal disputes. 'We're fighting them in the courts and standing up to them in the streets,' he says, encouraging viewers to vote early, either by mail or in person. 'And then, no matter what they pull on Election Day, your vote will already be banked.'