Filmmaker Spike Lee this weekend compared former President Trump to Adolf Hitler in a video accepting an award for his new short film, “New York, New York.”
“We’re at a crossroads now, and everybody please be safe. This is not a game. These people got guns with ammunition,” Lee said in a video recorded on Jan. 6, the same day as the deadly Capitol riot. The video was played during the virtual annual ceremony for the New York Film Critics Circle, reports The Hollywood Reporter.
Lee added, “I hope to God that I’m wrong, but people are gonna get killed behind this bullshit. This president, President Agent Orange, will go down in history with the likes of Hitler. These guys — all his boys — they’re going down on the wrong side of history.”
Lee has lobbed pointed criticism at Trump multiple times in the past. In an interview with GQ magazine last year, Lee said Trump will “go down in history as the worst president of the United States of America.”
When accepting his first Academy Award in 2019, Lee indirectly spoke against Trump’s reelection without naming the then-president.
“The 2020 presidential election is around the corner. Let’s all mobilize,” said Lee when accepting his award. “Let’s all be in the right side of history. Make the moral choice between love versus hate.”
Trump tweeted in response to Lee’s speech, “Be nice if Spike Lee could read his notes, or better yet not have to use notes at all, when doing his racist hit on your President.”