“How this vile, disgusting, and immoral behavior has become normalized in the United States is something our descendants will study in school to the share of our generation,” was how Christian Today editor in chief Russell Moore described President Trump’s criticism of the tragic death of entertainment icon Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele.
Rob Reiner and his wife were found dead in their Los Angeles home Sunday afternoon. Their son, Nick, is being held, without bail, on suspicion of murdering his parents.
Upon learning the news of Rob Reiner’s death, the president leaped to his innate temptation to condemn someone with whom he disagreed. The president’s reaction is typical of how Americans now react to politics. The concept of “hate the sin - love the person” is now void from much of American society. It is now “hate the opinions - hate the person.”
It’s natural to have disdain for those who vehemently disagree with our opinions, but in death to create a scenario where politics is the driving force that caused the death is beyond unacceptable. The shameful comments about Rob Reiner’s death did not come from two drunk guys in a bar - they came from the President of the United States.
President Trump failed again to show any signs of humanity with his attack on Rob Reiner. There’s a time and a place for politics and immediately following one’s death is not one of those times. Trump blamed the death of Rob Reiner and his wife on Reiner’s political beliefs, which are different from the president. Trump said Rob Reiner’s opposition to him was the result of his mental disorder - Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) and basically said that because he’s a liberal Democrat he deserved to die. Did Charlie Kirk deserve to die?
The deaths of Rob Reiner and Charlie Kirk are totally different, but what is not different is the way the right expected people to react to Kirk’s murder which is not the way the president expects people to react to the death of Rob Reiner. Both preached opposing political views and as I said countless times on my talk show on WWL, “Charlie Kirk did not deserve to have his speech, which I often disagreed with, silenced with a bullet. I may not have agreed totally with Charlie Kirk, but I did not want him to die.” It does not appear the politics played a part in the death of Rob Reiner, but that didn’t stop Trump from playing the political card.
Few Republican leaders were brave enough to challenge the president’s comments. Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) were two of the Republicans that did bash President Trump’s opinion that Rob Reiner’s liberal Democrat views ultimately killed him. Trump made the comment about politics being the cause of death before he knew anything about the case and it appears this is a domestic case involving their son. Was he politically-motivated? We don’t know, but that didn’t stop the president from condemning the death of Rob Reiner and his wife.
On my talk show today, I wondered how anyone who considers themselves a Christian could agree with President Trump on this matter.
“This is so SAD to see from President Trump. This is NOT just, ‘Trump being Trump.’ It’s Trump being classless” were the words of Christian Broadcasting Network anchor David Brody, who was quick to condemn the president’s instinctive reaction to the death of someone who criticized the president.
Here are some of the conservatives who disagreed with Trump:
Brit Hume
I don’t care what their politics were or how they felt about Trump, no law abiding human deserves this. We should pray for + send condolences to his loved ones and NOT make it political.
Andy McCarthy
@AndrewCMcCarthy
No words. I mean, "disgraceful," "appalling," "atrocious" -- those are words, but they don't do it justice.
Kennedy
@KennedyNation
Disgusting, unnecessary and inappropriate.
Meghan McCain
@MeghanMcCain
This is awful, cruel and beneath President Trump. Many things in life are more important than politics. The Reiner family is in unfathomable pain - the son slit his parents throats in a grizzly double murder. Why add to the pain?! Let the entire family have peace and privacy.
Erick Erickson
@EWErickson
From my Show Notes today: Just thinking about the President’s reaction to Rob Reiner’s death — a relative last night told me he voted for Trump, he likes Trump’s policies, but he’s exhausted by Trump and embarrassed by the President’s behaviour. He wished the President would just go off the grid for a while. Instead, we have Trump going off on the murder of Rob Reiner. The President is surrounded by an evangelical team that supposedly prays for him and over him. Never mind that his council of spiritual advisors is led by a heretic. There are lots of evangelicals around the man. But they all seem more concerned with what they can get from him and not at all concerned with the state of his soul and where he will spend eternity. Christians are called to be salt and light in the world and to speak truth to power. It does not seem any of the Christians around Trump are willing to do that, lest they lose access to the man. If we know Christians by their love, his behaviour doesn’t seem reflective of the faith, and that goes with his statements that he’s never felt the need to repent of anything and his more recent statements that he doesn’t think there’s anything he can do to get into Heaven, which shows he does not understand the Gospel. God has placed some prominent evangelicals in Donald Trump’s orbit, and they’re going to have to give a full accounting of why they did not do more than they did, because the whole project has descended into getting scraps from the table of power at the expense of the President’s soul.
Rob Reiner wasn’t even a real political foe. Reiner did not have the power to challenge the president on his agenda. Rob Reiner was just an American with an opinion, yet the president made it seem as if he had to condemn a real political foe. It is believed that Donald Trump is not a reader, but someone should let him know that EVERY president has been the target of criticism. Up to this point in our history, no other president has appeared so sensitive to criticism. It’s almost as if the president is truly a fragile, insecure human who cannot tolerate anything said about him that is negative. Maybe because the negative comments are true and hit too close to home.
