Robert De Niro says the Capitol Police officers who worked on Jan. 6, 2021 are among those he considers “heroes.”
“I think of the Capitol Police,” the “Goodfellas” star told Stephen Colbert on “The Late Show” on Thursday, when asked if he had an “American hero.”
“The Metropolitan Police,” the 81-year-old actor added of Washington’s police department, before naming a number of officers, including Michael Fanone, Harry Dunn, Aquilino Gonell and Daniel Hodges.
“And everybody else who was involved, and affected and hurt by that,” De Niro said of the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol by supporters of President Trump who attempted to stop the certification of the 2020 election results.
More than 100 police officers were injured during the attack.
“Can you imagine being Capitol Police now and watching those people marching past you who want to deny that you served them that day?” Colbert asked De Niro.
“Yup,” he responded.
“It’s something,” he said, before an extended silence between the CBS host and performer.
Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of all the Jan. 6 defendants last month, just hours into his second term in office.
De Niro has been one of Trump’s most outspoken Hollywood critics.
Last May, the Academy Award winner appeared alongside Dunn and Fanone on behalf of President Biden’s campaign outside the New York City courthouse where Trump’s hush money trial was taking place. Biden exited the White House race about two months later.
“If Trump returns to the White House, you can kiss away these freedoms that we take for granted, and elections, forget about it,” De Niro said at the time.
“He will never leave,” De Niro said.
