Appearing as a guest on Sunday's AM Joy on MSNBC, left-wing activist and film maker Rob Reiner condemned President Donald Trump as a "pathological liar" who is "mentally unstable," and declared that "we're looking at a cancerous presidency that we cannot allow to spread," during a discussion of reports that National Security Advisor Michael Flynn had discussed the issue of sanctions on Russia with the Russian ambassador in December.
Reiner went on to suggest that the issue of the administration's links to Russia was like "seeing a child run into the street and the truck is coming and we have to pull that child out of the street," and suggested that President Trump is worse than President Richard Nixon: "We're seeing the President -- who is now the President of the United States -- go on television and ask the Russians to hack us. Nixon was thrown out of office for trying to cover up some dirty political tricks. This is a man who's actually saying, 'Let's engage in espionage.'" The liberal filmmaker ended up suggesting Republicans would go along with impeaching the President.
At 11:17 a.m. ET, after playing a clip of President Trump denying knowledge of reports General Flynn had spoken with the Russian ambassador, host Joy Reid brought on Reiner and asked why the President would lie about the developments. Reiner slammed the President as he began:
Because he's a pathological liar. I mean, what's interesting here is that we really have a test, and we're being tested as to whether or not our democracy is going to survive. We have somebody who is mentally unstable, who is a pathological liar -- there's no getting around that -- who's running our country. And if we can survive this, that will strengthen us in a strange way.
He then praised the far left Reid for supposedly being one of the few journalists going after Trump aggressively enough as he made his "cancer" comparison:
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And so we're looking at a cancerous presidency that we cannot allow to spread. And so many things come at us with so many lies, and so much, you know, breaking of laws and so on, that it can get you off guard. And not only being that, but the media being attacked as being fake news, as being marginalized, and, you know, I just thank you much for being who you are.
And there are only a handful of you who are really doing real journalism and really looking at the truth. So, because of that, we cannot be distracted by the single one thing that will take this President down. And that is his connection to Russia.
A bit later, during a discussion of whether General Flynn had lied to Vice President Mike Pence about his communications with the Russian ambassador, Reiner further ranted:
We're going to look back into this campaign -- it's right there in front of us. That's what's really frustrating for those of us watching this. We're seeing a child run into the street and the truck is coming and we have to pull that child out of the street before it gets hit by the truck. We're seeing it.
Then came his Nixon comparison as he added:
We're seeing the President -- who is now the President of the United States -- go on television and ask the Russians to hack us. Nixon was thrown out of office for trying to cover up some dirty political tricks. This is a man who's actually saying, "Let's engage in espionage."
Reiner then seemed to predict impeachment:
So these connections between Paul Manafort, Carter Page, Roger Stone, and Michael Flynn, we're going to find out as time goes by because they may try to scrub this stuff, they might try to wipe all this communications clean, but those communications exist. They exist and they will come out. And once they come out, I guarantee Republicans are not going to stand by when impeachment is put on the table.
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Sunday, February 12, AM Joy on MSNBC:
JOY REID: That was Trump on Friday claiming ignorance about one of the biggest developing stories in his own administration. And my next guest says we should not be letting him get away with it. Joining me now is director and activist Ron Reiner. ... So, first of all, that appears to be a lot.
ROB REINER, FILM MAKER: Does that surprise you?
REID: At this point, you know, nothing surprises me anymore. It appears -- at least according to Robert Costa, a reporter for the Washington Post -- "Trump is well aware of the Flynn story and has spoken about it with advisers and friends in recent days, per several [people] close to him." Why would he lie about not knowing about this?
REINER: Because he's a pathological liar. I mean, what's interesting here is that we really have a test, and we're being tested as to whether or not our democracy is going to survive. We have somebody who is mentally unstable, who is a pathological liar -- there's no getting around that -- who's running our country. And if we can survive this, that will strengthen us in a strange way.
(...)
REINER: And so we're looking at a cancerous presidency that we cannot allow to spread. And so many things come at us with so many lies, and so much, you know, breaking of laws and so on, that it can get you off guard. And not only being that, but the media being attacked as being fake news, as being marginalized, and, you know, I just thank you much for being who you are. And there are only a handful of you who are really doing real journalism and really looking at the truth. So, because of that, we cannot be distracted by the single one thing that will take this President down. And that is his connection to Russia.
(..)
REID: So he (Vice President Mike Pence) said he had nothing to do whatsoever with those sanctions. He's now saying, "Well, I relied on Flynn for that."
REINER: Well, either Mike Pence is lying or Flynn is lying. There's no gray area here. And my guess is that Mike Pence is probably lying. And if he isn't, then he's got to be furious at Flynn. Now, this goes a lot deeper than just Flynn talking to some Russian ambassador. These calls are monitored. This man Flynn was the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency
He knows full well that any communication between an American and the Russian ambassador is monitored by many intelligence agencies. So he knows he's being heard. And if he's talking about lifting sanctions as a quid pro quo, this thing is going to go far deeper than that. We're going to look back into this campaign -- it's right there in front of us. That's what's really frustrating for those of us watching this.
We're seeing a child run into the street and the truck is coming and we have to pull that child out of the street before it gets hit by the truck. We're seeing it. We're seeing the President -- who is now the President of the United States -- go on television and ask the Russians to hack us. Nixon was thrown out of office for trying to cover up some dirty political tricks. This is a man who's actually saying, "Let's engage in espionage."
So these connections between Paul Manafort, Carter Page, Roger Stone, and Michael Flynn, we're going to find out as time goes by because they may try to scrub this stuff, they might try to wipe all this communications clean, but those communications exist. They exist and they will come out. And once they come out, I guarantee Republicans are not going to stand by when impeachment is put on the table.
