Ultra-liberal Hollywood actor, director, and writer Rob Reiner was at it again on MSNBC’s Hardball Thursday night blasting President-elect Donald Trump as anti-Semitic and when challenged by host Chris Matthews, he went further into the gutter by comparing Trump to “the Jewish police at the Warsaw Ghetto” that said “okay, you know, march through Germany” to the Nazis.
Reiner arrived at this case of hypocrisy regarding inflammatory rhetoric by ruling that someone doesn’t have to be directly discriminating against minorities if they’re “comfortable with the fact that there are groups who hate” Jews, Latinos, Muslims and women.
Therefore, Trump could fit that bill even though, in his book, the President-elect is “anti-Semitic” in addition to “a misogynist” and “racist.”
“If you are comfortable with having those groups support you, and you don't in a forceful way, say, this is not part of who I am, then you are basically the Jewish police at the Warsaw Ghetto. You're condoning it and I've never heard Donald Trump ever say that he was against any of those groups that are supporting it,” Reiner told to a stunned Matthews.
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Matthews quickly refuted Reiner on the anti-Semitism charges by pointing out that it’s complicated since Trump’s “son-in-law [Jared Kushner] is very observant” in his Jewish faith while his daughter Ivanka converted in marrying Kushner in addition to the fact that “I get the feeling that he's going to be very pro-Israeli.”
The shameless actor chose to double down on the analogy:
I go back to the Jewish police at the Warsaw ghetto. Yeah, there are Jews that were fine with — you know, saying, it's going to be okay, you know, march through Germany, it's going to be fine. There are people like that and there are people who have economic interests that don't have anything to do with holding up certain moral interests.
Bemoaning the lack of progress in American in the decades since the 1960s, he arrived at the election of President Barack Obama in 2008 following a brief history lesson through his liberal prism but then reupped an analogy from Monday night about standing up to Trump marking “the last battle of the Civil War”:
And it's very disturbing to think that the first African-American President is followed by somebody who is supported by the Ku Klux Klan. Very, very disturbing. But in a way, I understand it because we're fighting the last battle of the Civil War. It's the white nationalists hanging on for dear life, and threatened by the idea that the country is moving away from them, and is becoming more diverse and that's what we're talking about here.
Ironically, the segment started with the two liberals talking about Hillary Clinton’s first public remarks since her concession speech and stating that women have much more of an empathy for life than men because, in the words of Reiner, “we also don't know what it's like to have a human being growing inside of us and nurturing a human being.”
Interesting. So it’s not just a fetus or clump of cells but “a human being?” I’ll be sure to remember this for the next time anyone of them tout their abortion credentials.
The relevant portion of the transcript from MSNBC’s Hardball on November 17 can be found below.
MSNBC’s Hardball
November 17, 2016
7:22 p.m. Eastern
ROB REINER: It doesn't matter whether you are discriminating against a black person or a Muslim or a Latino, or a Jew. If you are comfortable with the fact that there are groups who hate Muslims, hate Jews, hate Latinos, hate women — if you are comfortable with having those groups support you, and you don't in a forceful way, say, this is not part of who I am, then you are basically the Jewish police at the Warsaw Ghetto. You're condoning it and I've never heard Donald Trump ever say that he was against any of those groups that are supporting it.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Well, let's talk about the complexity of that because in his, I don't want to say the old, some of my best friends are or any of that stuff, but his son-in-law is very observant. He's Jewish, and his daughter has converted, you know, looks to be his favorite daughter, perhaps. So that's all happening around him. He's also, you know, I get the feeling that he's going to be very pro-Israeli. I don't know if that clicks with you or not, coincides with your thinking about him, but I think he's more complicated than this. I mean, he's talking about picking — some of these guys he's talking about picking — John Bolton?
REINER: I go back to the Jewish police at the Warsaw ghetto. Yeah, there are Jews that were fine with — you know, saying, it's going to be okay, you know, march through Germany, it's going to be fine. There are people like that and there are people who have economic interests that don't have anything to do with holding up certain moral interests. Now, look at what's happened in this country and you've talked about it. I've heard you talk about it, Chris. You have, you know, you had the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, the Loving versus Virginia in 1967, and things were moving in a very good direction. It was difficult, but it was moving in a good direction and then you had in the '70s, with All in the Family, we shone a light on racism. Then you had the '80s and the '90s and you had stars on television, Oprah Winfrey, you had stars in TV and in movies, and culminating with the first African-American President and at that point, I think, what we didn't understand is that that racism that exists in our country, which had been submerged, all of a sudden, through Donald Trump and giving a megaphone, starting with the birther issue, unearthed all of this racism that has bubbled to the surface. And it's very disturbing to think that the first African-American President is followed by somebody who is supported by the Ku Klux Klan. Very, very disturbing. But in a way, I understand it because we're fighting the last battle of the Civil War. It's the white nationalists hanging on for dear life, and threatened by the idea that the country is moving away from them, and is becoming more diverse and that's what we're talking about here. So, you know, we can't sugar coat this. This is really, really rough stuff, but, we do move forward and sometimes you take two steps forward, one step back and it's not a straight line and this, in a way, I think, has shown America where we are and what racism pervades underneath. And hopefully, this will move us forward in the future.
MATTHEWS: Well, it is a dialectic, I completely agree with you and I've given a speech like that to an African-American newspaper in Philly one time years ago and I believe it's a war and a war goes on. It goes back to the Civil War to the Know-Nothings, all the way through the suffragette movement. There's always this left versus right. It's not that neat, but it is a battle about values and who we are. Rob Reiner, I've always considered you an unhyphenated Democrat who knows his values.
