“Buonassera tutti,” east New York Mayor Bill de Blasio Trump’s fiercest critic Robert De Niro welcomed the event this week as he opened the three-hour “Paisans for Kamala” virtual dinner in support of Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential candidacy.
De Blasio co-hosted the event with Paul Mercurio, a comedian who works on Stephen Colbert’s CBS late-night show.
During the livestream eventAt the event, which included several high-profile Italian Americans, many dinner guests praised Harris while criticizing former President Trump’s immigration policies from the perspective of children or grandchildren of Italian immigrants.
De Blasio said he had purposely visited the childhood home of a similarly prominent Italian-American official.
“We just made a little pilgrimage … to Little Italy in Baltimore – to the house of Nancy D’Alessandro-Pelosi“That’s a house that she grew up in,” he said. The former mayor also highlighted the trip to X, posing at Pelosi’s former home with Maryland state Sen. James Rosapepe, D-Laurel.
“The dinner expresses who we are — we want to be a family as Italian-Americans — (and) brings everybody together for these wonderful candidates,” de Blasio said.
De Niro claims Trump could ‘destroy the world’
Former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. (Yana Paskova/Getty Images)
Mercurio added Tell that to De Niro Trump has “captured something” among his supporters that has rallied him to his side.
De Niro, who once wished that “Punch (Trump) in the face,” He responded that he has, in fact, listened to some of Trump’s supporters.
“I can very well see that he has a path that’s more to him than Trump, because Trump doesn’t offer anything,” the actor said.
“We have seen this before in other countries and other societies… they think they can control someone like him… God forbid he becomes the ‘boss’, all those people who thought they could control him will find out otherwise.”
Later, former Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, who said his maternal side is “totally Italian,” joined the dinner wearing a “White Dudes for Harris” hat and spoke about the values he thinks Harris brings.
De Blasio soon produced a slice of pizza and began eating it with a fork — an apparent nod to the controversy that erupted in 2014 when he ate a similar meal in Staten Island.
De Blasio argued that he was correct to say that was the proper way to eat pie.
East CIA Director Leon Panetta He later came out and said he supported Harris because Trump supports isolationism, remarking that such behavior “didn’t work before World War II.”
“It’s important for presidents to stand up to tyrants, not appease them,” he said.
Later, actor Steve Buscemi said that as a descendant of immigrants, Harris made the right point.
WATCH: Debate between de Blasio and Sean Hannity
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during the second presidential debate at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia on Tuesday. (Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“The vast majority of immigrants are simply looking for a better life, for better opportunities, and they don’t deserve to be punished for pursuing that dream,” Buscemi said. “Kamala Harris is smart, strong, compassionate and inclusive.”
When Pelosi came to the dinner, she explained how her family has lived there for several generations in the Little Italy neighborhood The location in Baltimore that de Blasio visited.
“My grandfather and his contemporaries came here thinking the streets would be paved with gold — but they didn’t know when they got here, they would find the streets paved with gold,” said Pelosi, whose father and grandfather, both named Thomas D’Alesandro, were Baltimore mayors.
“This is an important election (because of Trump’s attitude towards immigrants) and for many other reasons. We should not take this election lightly,” he said.
Click here to get the Fox News app
Anthony Scaramucci was the White House communications director for less than two weeks. He was removed from his position after making derogatory comments on-the-record about other members of the Trump administration. (Reuters/Joshua Roberts)
Pelosi cited a speech by former President Reagan, highlighting the fact that she was quoting a Republican, and said she understood from the speech that the Statue of Liberty was a “beacon of hope.”
He claimed he recited this quote to Republicans who did not applaud: “I said, ‘They don’t applaud Ronald Reagan?'”
Near the end of dinner, One of Trump’s former officials — who had broken with the president several years earlier — came forward.
former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci quitsAddressing de Blasio, he said, “Can you imagine me, you and (former Republican Vice President) Dick Cheney coming together to support Vice President Harris?”
“Yes, I can imagine that, because each of us understands the systemic threat associated with the potential re-election of Donald Trump,” he said, before pledging $5,000 to the Pysons for Harris.
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
