Trade association rescinds honour awarded to Robert De Niro after comments against Donald Trump

Los Angeles: A trade association has decided not to give a planned award to veteran actor Robert De Niro after he spoke out against Donald Trump outside the former president's criminal trial in New York.

De Niro, whose last big screen release was Killers of the Flower Moon, was scheduled to accept a leadership award from the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) next week in Washington, DC.

A spokesperson for the broadcasters association told American newspaper The Hill that the event was 'proudly bipartisan'.

“While we strongly support the right of every American to exercise free speech and participate in civic engagement, it is clear that Mr De Niro’s recent high-profile activities will create a distraction from the philanthropic work that we were hoping to recognize. To maintain the focus on service of the award winners, Mr De Niro will no longer be attending the event,” the statement read.

On his part, De Niro -- a vocal critic of Trump through the years -- said he wished the association well.

“I support the work of the NAB Leadership Foundation and would like to express my appreciation and gratitude for what the Foundation has done and will continue to do for the good of us all, and I wish them well for their continued good work,” The Hill reported him as saying in the statement.

In a historic verdict, a panel of 12 Manhattan jurors on Thursday said they unanimously agreed Trump, 77, falsified business records to conceal a USD 130,000 hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels to influence the 2016 US presidential contest.

De Niro, the multiple Oscar-winning actor, recently attended a campaign event for US President Joe Biden outside the Manhattan courtroom with two former law enforcement officers who were at the US Capitol when it was attacked by Trump supporters on January 6, 2021.

At the event, De Niro had urged people to not vote for Trump.

“I don’t mean to scare you. No no, wait, maybe I do mean to scare you. If Trump returns to the White House, you can kiss away these freedoms that we take for granted, and elections, forget about it … He will never leave,' the longtime supporter of the Democratic Party had said.