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Dinesh D’Souza will let several prominent liberal thinkers have their say in his follow-up documentary to 2016: Obama’s America. The conservative filmmaker told The Hollywood Reporter that the documentary, America, will feature the commentary of Alan Dershowitz, Noam Chomsky, Bill Ayers, Michael Eric Dyson and Charles Truxillo.
“In 2016, we let President Obama’s voice be heard — literally,” D’Souza tells THR. “With America, we also wanted to hear directly the voices of America’s biggest critics. The conservative answer to offensive speech has always been not to silence it, but to listen carefully, consider what’s been said and offer more speech. I was delighted that some of the smartest progressives in America agreed to sit down with me.”
D’Souza wouldn’t name the prominent liberals who declined his request to appear in the film, nor would he disclose what is said by those who do appear, beyond Truxillo’s comments, seen in a video below.
The filmmaker is under indictment for violating campaign finance laws for allegedly using straw donors in order to give more money to a U.S. Senate campaign than legally allowed. His trial begins May 19, but he says his legal problems will not delay the release of America.
STORY: Dinesh D’Souza’s ‘America’ Trailer Released
Several prominent people, including Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, have said that D’Souza is being targeted by political operatives who were upset with 2016, an unflattering look at Barack Obama that used lots of audio and video of the president. The movie also included an interview with George Obama, the president’s half brother in Kenya.
In video of America obtained by THR, Truxillo — a professor of Chicano studies at the University of New Mexico and a leading voice on the far left on the topic of immigration — airs several provocative opinions. In the film, he argues in favor of “North America confederating with Mexico in a country that will be predominantly Latino and Hispanic.”
Truxillo also tells D’Souza that Mexican immigrants have no desire to become like “the white brats in the mall” and adds: “I like the things the Americans have. Who doesn’t? But I don’t necessarily want to be part of their culture. I don’t want to end up in the world of Roseanne Barr.”
As for the other progressive thinkers, Dershowitz is one of the country’s most famous attorneys. Clients of the outspoken liberal have included Mike Tyson, Patty Hearst and O.J. Simpson. His representation of accused murderer Claus von Bulow was the subject of Reversal of Fortune, an Oscar-winning 1990 film in which deceased actor Ron Silver plays Dershowitz.
Chomsky, a philosopher-scientist and professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is one of the most regarded thinkers on the American left. Dyson is a writer, radio host, television pundit and professor of sociology at Georgetown University.
Perhaps the most controversial of the group is Ayers, who co-founded the Weather Underground in 1969. The self-described “Communist revolutionary” group bombed New York City Police Department headquarters in 1970, the U.S. Capitol building in 1971 and the Pentagon in 1972.
Ayers, a retired professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, rose to renewed prominence in 2008 when various media revealed he had a friendly relationship with Obama, who was running for his first term as president. Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin famously said that Obama was “palling around with terrorists,” a reference to Ayers.
Email: Paul.Bond@THR.com
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