MRC's Brent Baker caught a nasty attack from Hollywood director Rob Reiner on MSNBC's airwaves Saturday after the news broke that a woman counter-protesting white supremacists was hit and killed by a car backing up at extreme speed. Reiner called Trump an "accessory" to the death for "stoking this stuff" of white resentment. Here's Brent's tweet:
Video: @RobReiner on MSNBC: @realDonaldTrump an “accessory” to the murder in #Charlottesville because “he’s been stoking this stuff” #TTT pic.twitter.com/SSgqHSoJ5E
— Brent Baker (@BrentHBaker) August 12, 2017
Reiner started out with a typical liberal lament, that Trump wasn't calling out white nationalists like other Republican leaders:
ROB REINER He’s looking at the people that got him there, and that’s all he cares about. I mean, you mentioned it earlier, Joy, you had Marco Rubio, Orrin Hatch, Paul Ryan – all saying the right thing. But he’s the president of the United States, and he needs to condemn these groups. He once said, you know, “I could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue, and I wouldn’t lose any support.”
But then he lurched into the blaming the president for the automotive homicide:
REINER: Well, this is like, a person died today, and so, he didn’t shoot him, but you could consider him an accessory, in a sense, because he’s been stoking this stuff for years! So unless he comes out in a full-throated condemnation of what we saw today, then, and risk losing these people, then he’s not the president of what we know as president of the United States.
It's not true that Trump didn't issue a full-throated condemnation of the violence. It's just that Reiner wanted Trump to denounce the initial cause of the violence -- white nationalists protesting Charlottesville taking down a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee. The irony of these protests -- this is the second of what the racists promise will be many -- is that the white racists are lucky to rally with 100 people, and thousands march in counter-protest. The media rush to cover these to prove how deeply racist America remains....when 100 racists show up.
We know what Reiner would say to the charge that Barack Obama was an "accessory" to rioting in Baltimore and Ferguson. The blame for rioting belongs to the rioters, just as the blame for this violence-by-car is on the driver.
Speaking of "stoking stuff," Reiner has a history of intemperate remarks against Trump and conservatives and statements exploiting violent events for liberal messaging. When Rep. Steve Scalise and others were shot at a Virginia baseball field in June, Reiner tweeted an attack on Trump: "The tragedy in Virginia has brought us together. Now we must come together over Russia's attack on our democracy. POTUS, stop obstructing!"
A few days later, Reiner was at it again, preaching the need for all-out war: “When Fox says that DT colluding with the enemy is not a crime, the fight to save Democracy is now an all out war. US-Stay strong. #Treason”
So much for unity and peace.
