Actress Meryl Streep took to her Golden Globe award speech Sunday to launch a biting critique on President-elect Donald Trump’s behaviour and made an impassioned plea for journalists to hold Trump accountable for his actions.
Although she never mentioned the President-elect by name, her entire speech alluded to Trump’s past behaviors.
“There was one performance this year that stunned me,” Streep said. “It sank its hook in my heart, not because it was good. “It was that moment when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter, someone he outranked in privilege, power, and the capacity to fight back.”
Streep, who was awarded a lifetime achievement award, said she was left heart-broken when Trump mocked New York Times reporter Serge F. Kovaleski during a 2015 rally in South Carolina.
Kovaleski has a physical disability. In footage of Trump at his rally, he appears to imitate the reporter to discredit his journalism.
In her speech Streep urged Hollywood to stand strong and support a free press in order to hold Trump accountable. Streep also compared Trump to a bully.
To read a transcript of Steep’s full speech, click here .
“This instinct to humiliate when it’s modeled by someone in the public platform by someone powerful, it filters down into everybody’s life,” Streep added. “Disrespect invites disrespect. Violence incites violence.”
Trump, in a phone interview with the New York Times Monday, said he was not surprised by Streep’s criticism, calling her a “Hillary lover”.
Trump will be inaugurated on Jan. 20 in Washington D.C.
