During an appearance on the Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Monday, Michelle Obama revealed that she and her husband, former President Barack Obama, were scheduled to meet filmmaker Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele, on the night they were fatally stabbed.
Rob, 78, and Michele, 68, were longtime friends with the Obamas. They succumbed to stab wounds in their Brentwood home on Sunday.
Michelle Obama, 68, paid tribute to the deceased couple and touched on their friendship while discussing the fatal incident with Kimmel.
“We’ve known them for many, many years. And we were supposed to be seeing them that night, last night, and we got the news,” the former first lady said, per ABC7 Los Angeles. “And let me just say this, unlike some people, Rob and Michele Reiner are some of the most decent, courageous people you ever want to know.”
Michelle also emphasized that the deceased couple was “not deranged or crazed.” She further stated that Rob and Michele were consistently “passionate people in a time when there’s not a lot of courage going on.”
“They were the kind of people who were ready to put their actions behind what they cared about,” Michelle continued. “And they cared about their family. And they cared about this country. And they cared about fairness and equity. And that is the truth. I do know them.”
Though the former first lady had good things to say about the deceased couple, the same couldn’t be said for President Donald Trump, as he took to Truth Social on Monday to rebuke Rob.
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.
“A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood,” Trump, 79, 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 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.”
Rob and Michele’s son, Nick Reiner, 32, was arrested later on Sunday in connection with his parents’ killing. He’s facing murder charges.
