Sports analyst Stephen A. Smith has joined the list of public figures who have condemned President Donald Trump after he scathingly rebuked Rob Reiner following the filmmaker’s killing.
Smith, on his Straight Shooter show on Monday, warned that Trump’s hostile behavior and actions could “end up costing the GOP.”
Reiner, 78, and his wife, Michele, 68, were fatally stabbed in their Brentwood home on Sunday, December 14. Rob was an outspoken Trump critic, and he stated on multiple occasions during his first term that the president was “mentally unfit” and “unqualified” to hold the nation’s highest office.
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Following the couple’s murder, Trump, 79, took to Truth Social to rebuke Rob. “A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday.
“Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS.”
Trump also claimed that Rob was “known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before.”
Despite the backlash that came his way over his social media post, Trump was unapologetic when he was later asked about his comments. The president talked about the deceased filmmaker again while he was in the Oval Office on Monday, ABC7 reported.
“Well, I wasn’t a fan of his at all. He was a deranged person as far as Trump is concerned,” Trump said about Rob. “He became like a deranged person. Trump derangement syndrome. So, I was not a fan of Rob Reiner at all in any way, shape or form. I thought he was very bad for our country.”
Smith, 58, emphasized that Trump’s comments were unwarranted and could negatively impact the Republican Party.
“It’s stuff like this that’s going to end up costing the GOP,” Smith said, per the Daily Mail. “And I want to state [that] it’s not because of them. Plenty of them have come up and spoke out against the president. But it’s disgusting rhetoric like this – there’s no place for it.”
Smith then made reference to Charlie Kirk’s assassination and how people like him and others stated that it wasn’t justified.
“When Charlie Kirk got assassinated, people like myself and various others were like: ‘Yo! He got killed. Don’t come to us with the rhetoric that you believe he was spewing online or when he was going to college campuses,” he said.
Smith added: “All of that is up for debate in terms of what he said, how offensive it was and all that other stuff. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about prioritizing a core level of decency.”
The 58-year-old also emphasized that “when somebody gets killed, that ain’t the time to be sticking out your chest and basically indicating that they brought it on themselves – when there should never be any place for violence.”
Smith then went ahead to register his displeasure with Trump’s response to Rob’s murder.
“And you think that our commander-in-chief, the president of the United States of America, would know this better than anybody. But, evidently, this man does not,” he said.
Smith also said that Trump’s rude behavior was overshadowing conversations and debates about his performance as president.
“This is the kind of stuff that pisses me off. Because, guess what, I want a healthy debate about Trump, in terms of, are the tariffs working? Did he do the right thing with the border? How’s the economy? What about the Affordable Care Act? That’s what I would like to be debating and discussing,” he stated, per the Daily Mail.
“So, when a president talks about how great he is and all these things that he’s done, I’d like to focus on that. And when he’s right, I’d like to give him credit for that and when he’s wrong I’d like to say he’s wrong.”
Smith said that Trump’s off-field actions could make people not recognize the successes he may have chalked up as president.
“But it’s stuff like this, where all of that gets shoved aside because of the classlessness, the juvenile tendencies, the lack of statesmanship that he exercises and puts on display time and time again,” Smith said.
Rob and Michele’s son, Nick Reiner, 32, was arrested later on Sunday, December 14 in connection with his parents’ killing. He’s facing murder charges.
