In a video played for his acceptance of an award from the New York Film Critics Circle, filmmaker Spike Lee stated that former President Trump would “go down in history with the likes of Hitler.”
The video was created on January 6, the day of the U.S. Capitol breach, and played over the weekend at the virtual awards ceremony where Lee won an award for his new short film “New York, New York.”
Lee stated in the video, “We’re at a crossroads now, and everybody please be safe. This is not a game. These people got guns with ammunition,” The Hill reported.
“I hope to God that I’m wrong, but people are gonna get killed behind this bulls***. 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.”
When he won an Academy Award in 2019, Lee spoke out against Trump, saying, “The 2020 presidential election is around the corner. Let’s all mobilize. Let’s all be in the right side of history. Make the moral choice between love versus hate.”
Trump responded by tweeting, “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.”
In June 2020, speaking with Gayle King of CBS about his movie “Da 5 Bloods,” Lee was asked, “In the movie you include a black Trump supporter complete with a Make America Great Again hat on. Now knowing how vocal you’ve been against the President, I think many people were surprised that you made that decision. How come?”
Lee answered, “Well, there are some negroes that have drunk or will drink the Orange Kool-Aid that’s coming in November, but it’s a very, very small percentage and I needed — we needed that, my co-writer Ken Wilmott and I — to put some tension in the group.”
Prior to that, in March 2020, Lee published an Instagram post featuring several of Trump’s supporters in the black community, including YouTube stars Diamond & Silk, praying over him in the Oval Office. Lee wrote, “Massa, We Love You, Massa. We Gonna Pray Fo’ You Massa. Singing- ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.'”
In February 2020, Lee told MSNBC’s Al Sharpton that senators would “burn in hell” if they acquitted Trump.
“Let me ask you a question,” Lee said, as reported by Fox News. “Did they have to put their hands on the Bible when they took the vow?” “I don’t know if they had a Bible out there but I think that they had the Bible up on the podium,” Sharpton responded. “Why do you ask?” Lee answered, “They’re going to burn in hell if they put their hand on that Bible.”
Lee continued, “I wouldn’t want to be standing [next] to none of those guys because they’re gonna be struck by lightning. History will say they were on the wrong side of history. The wrong side, the wrong side. So everybody — here’s the thing. I’m not speaking for anybody but myself. This is me speaking, everybody. Whoever comes out of the Democratic convention I’m voting for, because we cannot have another four years of Agent Orange.”