Kentucky Republican U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie called President Donald Trump’s comments following the deaths of Hollywood director Rob Reiner and his wife, producer Michele Singer Reiner, “inappropriate and disrespectful discourse.”
Massie on Monday also questioned if other Republicans would join him in decrying Trump’s statement.
Trump blamed the couple’s deaths on the director having a case of “TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME” in a lengthy Truth Social post earlier that morning.
Massie’s criticism soon followed in an X post.
“Regardless of how you felt about Rob Reiner, this is inappropriate and disrespectful discourse about a man who was just brutally murdered,” Massie wrote. “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.”
The Reiners were found dead Sunday at their home in Los Angeles. Nick Reiner, a son of the couple, was in police custody Monday morning and “booked for murder,” Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said in a press conference. The director was known for supporting progressive causes.
Trump’s comments included that Reiner, “a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star,” and his wife had died “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.” However, police have not released a motive in the case as of Monday.
The “syndrome” is a pejorative used by the president and his supporters to describe those who they say oppose anything Trump does.
Massie has opposed Trump and gained his ire on various issues this year, including leading the charge to release the federal investigation files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Trump has vowed to unseat Massie and backed a primary challenger to the Northern Kentucky incumbent, Shelbyville Republican Ed Gallrein, in the 4th Congressional District.
Georgia Republican U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who too has been politically opposed by Trump in recent months, joined Massie in criticizing the president’s comments and said the Reiners’ deaths are “a family tragedy, not about politics or political enemies.” Greene plans to resign from office in January.
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Written by McKenna Horsley. Cross-posted from the Kentucky Lantern.
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