CNN panelists Van Jones and Pete Seat said on Tuesday that President Donald Trump is paying a “political price” on his own side of the aisle over his response to Hollywood director Rob Reiner’s death.
Trump blamed the deaths of Reiner and his wife, Michele, on driving people crazy with their Trump Derangement Syndrome in a Truth Social post on Monday and later doubled down on his statement. Jones and Seat, a former spokesperson for former President George W. Bush, said on “CNN News Central” that Trump’s response hurt him politically and showed a failure in character.
“And it was very interesting, the Republicans spent a lot of time beating up those Democrats, a minority, who were criticizing Charlie Kirk, basically kicking the corpse of Charlie Kirk and saying horrible things about him while they were still mopping up the blood,” Jones said. “That is out of bounds. And to see the leader of that same party, the Republican Party, a few months later, doing the same thing and then doubling down, I think he has failed character test after character test. But this one, in an age of rising violence, of political violence, is an F minus minus.”
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Seat said that his statement is “beneath the presidency” and has caused other Republicans to publicly condemn him.
“He’s paying a price with Republicans criticizing him, and rightfully so,” Seat said. “I think anyone with a heart should criticize the comments that were made by President Trump there beneath the office of the presidency. We should not calculate the worth of a man based on his politics. Unfortunately, this president and far too many of our fellow Americans do exactly that.”
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Republican Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Mike Lawler of New York criticized Trump’s response, calling it “wrong” and “inappropriate.”
“Regardless of how you felt about Rob Reiner, this is inappropriate and disrespectful discourse about a man who was just brutally murdered. I guess my elected GOP colleagues, the VP, and White House staff will just ignore it because they’re afraid? I challenge anyone to defend it,” Massie said.
Greene stated that Reiner’s death should be politicized.
“Rob Reiner and his wife were tragically killed at the hands of their own son, who reportedly had drug addiction and other issues, and their remaining children are left in serious mourning and heartbreak. This is a family tragedy, not about politics or political enemies,” Greene said.
Authorities arrested Reiner’s son, Nick, in connection to his parents’ deaths and is being held on a $4 million bail. The couple’s daughter, Romy, discovered them in their home with lacerations on the neck consistent with a knife.
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