All the panelists on Fox News’ “Special Report” uniformly shamed Donald Trump for mocking the murder of Rob Reiner and his wife, saying the president’s remarks about the beloved filmmaker were completely out of line.
“Rob Reiner was a very liberal Democrat who had very strong criticism of President Trump,” Fox News’ Howard Kurtz said during the Monday segment. “And yet, I have to say, that for the president of the United States to take this family tragedy in which both Reiner and his wife were killed and say that it’s because of ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome,’ I thought was well beneath him and beneath the office. And I think it would have been better if the president had made no comment.”
Before the panel discussed further, host Brett Baier shared some of the “pushback” Trump garnered from his fellow party members, including from right-wing activist Robby Starbuck and Sen. John Kennedy.
Fox contributor Guy Benson chimed in to defend those speaking out against Trump’s comments.
“There’s a time and place for politics and for trolling,” Benson said. “A man being viciously murdered along with his wife, allegedly, at the hand of their own son, is not that time or that place. And for the president to have put this out the way that he did achieves nothing and reflects poorly.”
Watch the clip below.
Baier mentioned that regardless of how many negative reactions he’s stirred up, Trump has stood firm on his remarks about Reiner.
“Trump has continued to double down on his comments despite hearing from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle who have been pretty clear in condemning the president’s tone,” Stef Kight from Axios said. “And it is unfortunate to have the president of the United States taking a tragedy like this and inserting politics into a situation as sad as the one that led to the Reiners’ death, especially after the year we had, especially after political violence has been such a big issue this year. Whether it was the killing of the state lawmakers in Minnesota earlier this year to the killing of Charlie Kirk, this has been a conversation.”
Trump drew swift backlash online Monday after claiming in a Truth Social post that filmmaker Reiner and his wife Michele were killed because of Reiner’s opposition to him in what he called an “incurable” case of “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
Reiner and his wife were found dead in their Brentwood home on Sunday with wounds consistent with a knife attack, one source told TheWrap on Sunday. Police arrested the couple’s son, Nick Reiner, on Sunday night, according to media reports.
