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Watch Meryl Streep Excoriate Donald Trump At The Golden Globes
(Photo via Getty Images)
Meryl Streep has received more Golden Globe nominations than anyone in history, so no one would blame her if she phoned it in on Sunday night when she received the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement. But Meryl Streep is everything, and she has never phoned in anything in her life. The 67-year-old national treasure (and eight-time Golden Globe winner!) out-Meryl-ed herself in greatness tonight, with a brilliant, ballsy speech that spoke truth to power, excoriated President-elect Donald Trump for his "performance" mocking a disabled reporter, advocated empathy and ended on a message of hope.
Streep, who spoke faintly but powerfully after losing her voice, called attention to the "performance" of the year that had lingered with her above all others, one that was especially chilling because it wasn't from a movie or television show, but rather real life. Streep was referring to the November 2015 incident when Trump publicly mocked The New York Times' Serge Kovaleski, a disabled reporter.
The portion of that Meryl Streep speech that stunned and silenced the Golden Globes. pic.twitter.com/QIcQfTqDqB
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) January 9, 2017
"There was nothing good about it, but it did its job," Streep said of Trump's "performance" during speech. "It kind of broke my heart when I saw it, and I still can't get it out my head because it wasn’t in a movie, it was in real life. That instinct to humiliate when it’s modeled by someone in a public platform, it filters down into everyone’s life because it gives permission for others to do the same."
"Disrespect invites disrespect, violence incites violence," she added. Streep also called on the press to stand up to Trump, and closed her speech by quoting the late Carrie Fisher with the final words, "Take your broken heart, make it into art." Amen.
It's now only a matter of time before the President-elect mocks her on Twitter (good luck with that!). In the meantime, you can watch her full speech below (and read the transcript here):
Meryl Streep gets political with anti-Trump message: "Join me in supporting the committee to protect journalists" https://t.co/0PpcjaEsi6 pic.twitter.com/Sc2GkmoMKO
— Hollywood Reporter (@THR) January 9, 2017
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