Actor and longtime human rights activist Richard Gere delivered a blistering condemnation of Donald Trump whereas talking on the Oslo Freedom Discussion board in Norway on Tuesday, the place he helped current the Vaclav Havel Worldwide Prize for Inventive Dissent.
“We’re residing within the darkest second that I’ve skilled on this planet,” stated the “Fairly Girl” star, who isn’t any stranger to calling out Trump.
“Whoever thought America might flip like this? Whoever thought {that a} maniac like this might be president of the USA?” he added.
Watch Gere’s full commentary on YouTube.
Gere accused Trump of quickly dismantling the nation from the second he reentered the White Home and laid at the very least among the blame on unusual residents who “went to sleep,” “didn’t care,” “didn’t vote” and “didn’t actually pay attention.”
Medios y Media through Getty Photographs
Whereas stressing that he didn’t vote for Trump, Gere stated he bears some accountability for the president’s return to energy.
“I didn’t do sufficient work to skillfully persuade individuals round me, near me, not near me, that this was insane to elect this individual as president of the USA,” he stated.
The actor then drew a stark historic comparability, recalling a current go to to the previous Nazi focus camp at Dachau in Germany.
There, he stated, he seen reveals documenting “the transformation of German society and German authorities” within the Thirties and “how rapidly it occurred there.”
“Good individuals was monsters,” Gere stated.
“And I noticed this course of within the U.S.,” he added, earlier than urging individuals to “be vigilant” in opposition to the fast-moving ascendance of a “dictatorship of monsters.”
“We will’t sit again and go, ‘Ah, life is nice. I’m high quality. I’ve bought meals. I bought cash. Blah blah blah. I bought my home. I bought one other automobile. I’m enthusiastic about this. I’m okay. I do know he’s a nasty man, however it’s okay,’” he stated.
“However it’s not OK,” Gere added. “It’s not OK. It’s by no means OK.”