Rob Reiner

Rob Reiner

: Photo from Wikimedia Commons / Author of Photo: Franz Richter (User:FRZ)

Overview

  • Wealthy and famous actor, director, producer, and writer in the film & TV industry
  • Longtime supporter of leftwing Democrat candidates & causes
  • A founding member of the Democracy Alliance
  • Has likened Tea Party conservatives to Nazis & Hamas terrorists
  • Harbors deep contempt for Donald Trump & his allies
  • Supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement
  • Opposes election-integrity laws

Background

Rob Reiner is an actor, director, producer, and writer, best known for his role as Archie Bunker’s son-in-law in Norman Lear’s 1970s television series All in the Family. He is also a vocal critic of the Iraq War and Republican policies generally.

Reiner was born to Jewish parents in New York City on March 6, 1947. His father was the celebrated comedic actor Carl Reiner, and his mother, Estelle, played small parts in a number of film productions. When Rob Reiner was twelve, he moved with his family to the Los Angeles area and attended Beverly Hills High School. Five years later he enrolled at UCLA, from which he subsequently dropped out in order to form a comedy troupe.

Political Awakening

In a September 2016 interview with AVclub.com, Reiner said: “I was certainly a child of the ’60s, and I came out of that era, and as a young actor, I got cast as a lot of counterculture hippie types. When I played in All In The Family, you know, playing the liberal adversary to Archie’s conservative. But the thing that got me more engaged, aside from the fact that my parents were always pretty politically engaged, was seeing Norman Lear use his fame and celebrity to be able to make some change in the political arena. That to me was the greatest example for me of what I could be doing.”

Anti-War

Strongly opposed to America’s involvement in the Vietnam War, Reiner — rather than face the possibility that he might be drafted into the U.S. military — persuaded a psychiatrist to write him a note that said, “He’s crazy and would not be helpful to us in Vietnam.” That note earned Reiner a draft deferment. Reiner subsequently stated that, had he been drafted, he would have chosen to go to jail rather than serve in the Armed Forces.

Two Marriages

In 1971 Reiner married the actress/director Penny Marshall, and he adopted Marshall’s daughter from a previous marriage. The couple divorced in 1981.

Reiner met his second wife, photographer Michele Singer, while he was directing the movie When Harry Met Sally. The couple married in 1989 and had three children.

Television & Film Career

After playing the role of Michael “Meathead” Stivic on All in the Family from 1971-78, Reiner in the 1980s turned his attention to producing and directing such films as This is Spinal Tap (1984); When Harry Met Sally (1989); A Few Good Men (1992); The American President (1995); and The Bucket List (2007). for a comprehensive overview of Reiner’s film and television work, click here.

Outspoken Leftist

A devoted Democrat, Reiner has frequently used his celebrity status to endorse leftist political candidates and organizations and, conversely, to criticize their conservative counterparts. “Hollywood has always been way out in front [politically],” says Reiner, “and that’s why we [entertainers] do what we do [speak out on political matters].”

Supporting a Cigarette Tax to Fund Early Childhood Education

In 1998 Reiner publicly supported Proposition 10 — a successful cigarette-tax initiative in California that, by imposing a tax of 50-cents-per-package, collected $700 million for early-childhood education programs statewide.

Supporter of Funding for Museum That Exhibited Sacrilegious Art

In 1999 Reiner joined such luminaries as Norman Mailer, Arthur MillerTim RobbinsSusan Sarandon, and Susan Sontag in signing a letter criticizing Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s effort to suspend funding for the Brooklyn Museum of Art, after the museum had exhibited the artist Chris Ofili’s painting titled The Holy Virgin Mary, depicting a black Madonna covered in elephant dung and surrounded by pornographic images.

Supporting Al Gore over G.W. Bush in 2000

During the 2000 presidential election season, Reiner campaigned heavily for Al Gore, raising more than $4 million for the Democratic candidate and making several campaign stops with him.

In the midst of the infamous Florida recount controversy in the 2000 presidential election, Reiner, at the request of the Democratic Party, traveled to Tallahassee to “educate” schoolchildren about the Electoral College in an event that was staged primarily for the media. The audience was stocked with youngsters who had been coached to ask loaded questions of Reiner, who in turn was prepared to use the platform to portray George W. Bush as a corrupt politician seeking to steal the presidential election. For instance, one eleven-year-old student asked Reiner, “Why won’t they count all the votes?” Reiner replied, “George Bush doesn’t want to count the votes because he says, ‘Hey, I already won.’”

Opponent of U.S. Military Reprisal for 9/11

In the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, Reiner — an endorser of Artists United to Win Without War—  emerged as a vocal opponent of a U.S. military reprisal against those who had harbored and abetted the nineteen Islamic hijackers.

Reiner was an enthusiastic supporter of the anti-war movement during the months preceding the start of the American-led Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. “This is the greatest support we could ever give to our troops, because what we are trying to do is protect them from going into harm’s way needlessly,” he said. “There is no God-awful reason to go to war at this moment. There is no reason to rush into this war …”

In late 2003, Reiner declared: “George Bush said we had to go into Iraq because it had weapons of mass destruction. He lied.”

Supporting Howard Dean in 2004

Early in the 2004 presidential campaign, Reiner publicly endorsed the candidacy of former Vermont Governor Howard Dean. “Governor Dean embodies the absolute best of the Democratic Party ideals,” Reiner said, adding that Dean was “the only major Democratic candidate speaking out against going to war without the support of the United Nations.” Reiner agreed with Dean’s depiction of the Iraq invasion not as America’s response to Saddam Hussein’s protracted defiance of multiple UN Resolutions over a 12-year period, but rather as a “pre-emptive war” that was “wrong for America” and set “a dangerous precedent.”

Praising Michael Moore’s Farenheit 9/11

In June 2004, Reiner praised the Michael Moore film Fahrenheit 9/11, which accused President Bush of having secretly colluded in various ways with the family of Osama bin Laden. “I think this is one of the most important films ever made,” said Reiner. “It has the potential of actually affecting the election, and if it does, it will change the world.”

MoveOn Media Campaign to Defeat Bush in 2004

In the summer of 2004, Reiner directed a television advertisement for a Moveon.org media campaign designed to help John Kerry defeat President Bush’s reelection bid.

Founding Member of the Democracy Alliance

In 2005 Reiner was a founding member of the Democracy Alliance (DA), a a collection of massively wealthy leftists dedicated to funding Democratic Party candidates and causes. Other DA donors have inclued such notables as George Soros and the late Peter Lewis.

Condemning Efforts to Blame Bill Clinton for Allowing Bin Laden to Evade Capture Pre-9/11

In May 2005, Reiner began writing occasional blogs for The Huffington Post, where he expressed his thoughts on a host of topics ranging from politics to the entertainment industry. In a September 2006 blog entry titled “ABC’s Path to Fiction,” Reiner condemned that television network for its decision to air The Path to 9/11, a two-part miniseries that dramatized the events leading up to the September 11th terrorist attacks. Objecting to the fact that the production showed how some poor decisions by the Bill Clinton administration had allowed Osama bin Laden to evade capture or assassination during the 1990s, Reiner wrote: “ABC along with everyone who had anything to do with the production should be ashamed of themselves. I think we all can agree that it’s in everybody’s best interests for the Republicans to be searching out the perpetrators who were complicit in the 9/11 attacks, rather than spending time actively trying to set the blame on the previous administration.”

Supporting a Tax Hike on the Wealthy to Raise Funds for Pre-School

In 2005-06, Reiner lent his support to the promotion of Proposition 82, a June 2006 ballot initiative calling for California to raise the state tax rate on its wealthiest residents — individuals earning more than $400,000, and couples earning above $800,000 — from the existing 9.3% rate, to 11%. The revenue generated by such a tax hike, said Reiner, who helped circulate petitions for the initiative, could be used to fund voluntary preschool for 4-year-olds. “Our education system obviously has been limping along for quite a while,” he stated. “This is the first big step to reform.” “The jury definitely is in on quality preschool,” added Reiner. “It gives young kids a chance to enter school ready to succeed. It levels the playing field. [Ultimately] it reduces remedial education costs, crime costs, welfare costs….”

Scandal of Reiner’s Use of Taxpayer Funds for Political Programs

In 2006, Reiner was forced to step down from his position as the head of the First 5 California Children and Families Commission — which was funded in part by the aforementioned Proposition 10 cigarette tax, and was “dedicated to the education, health and development of children from the prenatal stage to age 5″ —  after it was revealed that First 5 had spent $23 million on a media advertising blitz touting the many benefits that preschool could bring to young children. Those expenditures were problematic because of the appearance of a potential conflict of interest, as the Los Angeles Daily News explained in March 2006:

“Critics accused the [First 5] commission of a conflict of interest after it spent $23 million in state money on an ad campaign that coincided with Reiner’s promotion of an expanded preschool initiative that’s on the ballot this year, known as Proposition 82. The Legislature has asked the state auditor to investigate the commission, and Attorney General Bill Lockyer referred the matter to the Sacramento County district attorney for possible investigation.”

As Republican State Senator Dave Cox of California summarized, “First 5 used taxpayer dollars to fund political programs, which is frankly illegal.”  “Additionally,” says InfluenceWatch.org, “it was reported that First 5, under Reiner, awarded $230 million in public relations and advertising contracts to two firms that had worked to pass Proposition 10, the Reiner-sponsored 1998 initiative that created the $600 million per year tax to fund the First 5 program. Reiner’s actions also led to an audit of the commission’s use of state funds.”

Supporting Hillary Clinton & Barack Obama in 2007-08

In October 2007 Reiner publicly endorsed Senator Hillary Clinton for U.S. President. After Mrs. Clinton was defeated by Barack Obama in the Democratic primaries, Reiner said in a June 2008 interview: “I think Obama will win [the general election] by a landslide. The country is tired of the direction it’s been going in…. I think people are tired of the Republican brand and want a real change. Our stock in the world is as low as it’s ever been, we have a major health care crisis, we have a major economic crisis and we have a major energy crisis. And we need real leadership.”

In 2008, Reiner characterized Hillary Clinton as: (a) “one of the smartest women” he had ever met, and (b) “incredibly capable.”

Supporter of Same-Sex Marriage

In 2008, Reiner lobbied aggressively in an effort to defeat Proposition 8, a ballot initiative seeking to ban same-sex marriage in California. After Prop 8 passed, Reiner co-founded the committee that eventually challenged that measure in federal court.

Comparing Tea Party Conservatives to Nazis & Hamas Terrorists

In an October 2010 appearance on Real Time With Bill Maher, Reiner — likening the “bad economic times” of 1930s Germany to the recent financial downturn experienced by the United States — warned that such economic crises tend to create a climate in which a charismatic tyrant can rise to power. “People were out of work, they needed jobs and a guy came along and rallied the troops,” Reiner said of Nazi-era Germany. “My fear is that the [conservative] Tea Party [movement] gets a charismatic leader. Because all they’re selling is fear and anger, and that’s all Hitler sold. ‘I’m angry and I’m frightened and you should hate that guy over there.’”

In an August 14, 2014 appearance on Ora TV’s PoliticKing with Larry King, Reiner was asked what he thought should be done “about the Gaza situation, and Israel.” In his reply, the actor/director first denounced the Islamic terrorist organization Hamas as an “extreme” and “virulent faction” that was committed to “the destruction of Israel” and “the destruction of every Jew on the planet” — and thus an organization that “you can’t negotiate with.” He then likened Hamas to the Tea Party movement in the U.S.: “You look at the Congress right now in the United States, you’ve got a strong Tea Party group controlling the whole country, because they have a gridlock, they have a gridlock, uh, stranglehold on [Republican House Speaker John] Boehner. Boehner can’t make a move, and so for that reason, nothing gets brought up in the Congress, so anytime you’re dealing with an extreme group, you cannot negotiate with them, and they way to do it is to eliminate it, with the Tea Party, you have to go through political thing, you have to wait till 2020 to redistrict, but, ugh, that is really tough stuff.”

Concerns about Green Energy & Climate Change

In a July 2012 interview with Piers Morgan, Reiner said the following about President Barack Obama, who was running for re-election: “What I’d like to see President Obama do is really focus on clean energy and having a real comprehensive energy policy, because ultimately it is going to be the new industry. There are going to be great new green jobs. It’s going to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and also have an effect on reducing the effects of climate change.”

Reverence for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Election Season

In July 2014, Reiner articulated his deep respect and admiration for Hillary Clinton: “There’s nobody that has ever been more qualified to be president of the United States than Hillary Clinton,” he said. “Now will she run [in 2016]? I hope she does. And if she wants me to help her, I’ll do whatever I can.” “I love Hillary,” Reiner added. “I’ve always loved her. I loved her since she was in the White House at the beginning.”

Reiner’s Hatred for Donald Trump, Republicans, & Conservatives

In 2017, after a multitude of news outlets reported that the iconic film producer Harvey Weinstein had allegedly committed sexual harassment, sexual assault, and even rape against multiple women over the course of decades, Reiner asserted without evidence that President Donald Trump’s treatment of women had been even worse than Weinstein’s. “Yes, Harvey Weinstein’s a bad guy,” said Reiner, “but it’s not equal to the President of the United States.”

Also in 2017, Reiner founded the Committee to Investigate. Until it was disbanded on March 29, 2019 after Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Mueller had issued his long-awaited report, this committee did little more than operate a website, InvestigateRussia.org, which aggregated news related to Russia’s alleged pro-Trump interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The Committee’s chief objectives were to help Americans “recognize and understand the gravity of Russia’s continuing attacks on our democracy,” and to undermine the perceived legitimacy of Donald Trump’s election victory over Hillary Clinton.

During the June 24, 2018 episode of AM Joy, hosted by MSNBC’s Joy Reid, Reiner condemned the “racist” supporters of President Trump’s border and immigration policies. “What we’re doing in the United States of America is inhuman,” Reiner told Reid. “[Trump] launched his [2016 presidential] campaign basically saying, ‘Mexicans are rapists and murderers.’ That’s what he is still selling. It’s the only thing he can sell to that racist base of his. The people who support him are frightened to death of the browning of America.”

On December 31, 2018, Reiner tweeted: “The President of the United States [Donald Trump] is a sick criminal. New Year’s resolution: Get him the fuck out of the White House.” Two days later, he tweeted: “[W]hen the dust settles, we will be rid of this lying malignant narcissistic cancer. Happy New Year.”

On March 19, 2019, Reiner tweeted: “The President of the United States is a racist. He supports and promotes white supremacy & white nationalism. If you are part of this insidious cult, you condone that. Period.”

In a July 2, 2019 tweet, Reiner accused the Trump administration of treating illegal migrants along America’s southern border with great “cruelty.” “The trauma of ripping children from parents & forcing them into cages, living in filth, is just evil,” he added.

On July 29, 2019, Reiner tweeted: “The President of the United States [Trump] is a racist. He’s made it abundantly clear his re-election is based on white nationalism. If you support him, there can be no distinction between you being a racist and a racist enabler. They are the same.”

In the aftermath of an August 3, 2019 mass shooting that killed 23 people and injured 23 others at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, Reiner tweeted: “After the mass slaughter in El Paso in the name of White Supremacy, Donald Trump continues to incite violence with his refusal to end his racist campaign. The President of the United States has no soul. We are staring into the face of evil.”

On September 19, 2019, Reiner tweeted: “Donald Trump has perverted the office of the Presidency. He is defecating on our Constitution. For the love & life of our Country, the time has come to stop fucking around. IMPEACH!”

After President Trump mocked teenage climate alarmist Greta Thunberg when she was being honored with TIME magazine’s “Person of the Year” award, Reiner tweeted on December 14, 2019: “Greta Thunberg is a passionate caring champion for the survival of our planet. Donald Trump is a Soulless Pathologically Lying Malignant Narcissist who cheats to win and pisses on our Constitution and the Rule of Law. So there’s that.”

After the legendary conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, who was terminally ill at the time, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Donald Trump during the latter’s State of the Union speech on February 4, 2020, Reiner tweeted: “Only one thing to say about Rush Limbaugh getting a Presidential Medal if Freedom at The State of the Union: I loathe this fucking man.”

On February 17, 2020, Reiner tweeted: “On this President’s Day let US vow that this Nov. we will elect a POTUS who is not a Malignantly Narcissistic Pathologically Lying Misogynistic Racist. One who believes in The Rule of Law, respects The Constitution, and doesn’t grab women by the pussy.”

On April 13, 2020 — shortly after Senator Bernie Sanders had dropped out of the primary race for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination –Reiner posted a tweet imploring Sanders’ supporters to shift their allegiance over to Joe Biden, the victorious Democrat nominee. Wrote Reiner: “Bernie Sanders has given his full throated support to Joe Biden. If Sen. Sanders’ supporters do the same, Decency, Humanity, Science and Justice will defeat [Trump’s] Ignorance, Racism, Corruption and Incompetence by the biggest landslide in US History.”

In a May 10, 2020 tweet, Reiner heartily endorsed mail-in voting as the method of choice for the upcoming presidential election, predicting that the widespread use of mailed ballots would ensure a “landslide” defeat for President Trump. “He’s gotten away with assaulting women, breaking laws, violating the Constitution and letting US die,” said Reiner. “The vote in Nov. is our last chance to hold him accountable. He knows if we’re allowed to vote by mail, he loses in a landslide. We all know what needs to be done.”

In a pair of July 13, 2020 tweets, Reiner characterized the multitudinous deaths that had been caused by the COVID-19 pandemic as manifestations of President Trump’s ineptitude, corruption, and malice. “Over 135,000 dead and counting,” Reiner wrote. “The President of the United States is killing US. You can trash doctors and scientists. You can try to spin your way out of this. But you can’t spin death.” In a follow-up tweet, Reiner added: “There’s no other way to say this: Donald Trump is murdering Americans.”

On July 16, 2020, Reiner tweeted, without providing any context or elaboration, that “Donald Trump is actively trying to kill our children.”

In an August 10, 2020 tweet, Reiner said that if Trump were ever to deliver a speech accepting his party’s presidential nomination at the historic Civil War battlefield at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, it would amount to nothing more than a tribute to “White Supremacy.” Wrote Reiner: “Trump brilliantly narrows down the location of his acceptance speech. Either break yet another law and do it at the WH, or do it at Gettysburg and celebrate your devotion to White Supremacy.”

In an August 13, 2020 tweet, Reiner said he would be willing to run the risk of contracting the coronavirus by going to an in-person polling place in order to vote against President Trump’s re-election: “No one wants to choose between voting and dying. But to put this Racist Criminal behind bars & save our Democracy, I’d go to the poll.”

On August 24, 2020 — the day on which the Republican National Convention began — Reiner tweeted: “The GOP has finalized its 2020 platform: Allow Donald Trump to continue to promote White Supremacy, reject Science, cozy up to Dictators, commit Federal Crimes, and let Americans die. Oh, and yes continue to be a fucking Sociopathic Ignoramus.”

In an August 26, 2020 tweet, Reiner portrayed President Trump as a “racist,” and his supporters as “white supremacists”: “Because the President is a Racist, White Supremacists are encouraged to kill Black people.”

That same day, Reiner claimed that the reason why some 180,000 Americans had died thus far from COVID-19 was because “the President is Incompetent.”

Characterizing Trump supporters as “white supremacists,” Reiner tweeted on September 8, 2020: “In 56 days we’ll find out if there are enough White Supremacists in this country to elect a White Supremacist. I think not.”

In a September 13, 2020 appearance on MSNBC, Reiner likened President Trump to “Jefferson Davis,” president of the Confederate States during the Civil War:

“Well, this election is going to come down to six or eight states, as you know, Wisconsin being one of them — key battleground state, and we have to win it. We lost it last time, and we have to win it this time. You know, Jonathan [Capehart], you were talking earlier, and you’ve been talking throughout the show about whether this is a fight for democracy versus white supremacy. You’ve been saying this over and over. And that’s true. I believe that is 100% true. The problem we have now is that when we had this Civil War back in the 1860s, we had Abraham Lincoln in the White House. Now we’ve got Jefferson Davis in the White House, and so it’s very scary, the idea that we are engaging in this modern-day civil war and we have the president who now controls the levers of government. That’s my fear.

“We’re gonna get turnout,  we’re gonna win in terms of just the volume of votes, we’re going to get between 5 and 7 million more votes, I believe, than Trump, but the problem is, he controls all the levers of government. He has perverted all of the agencies, whether it’s the Justice Department, State Department, Homeland Security, even our Health Departments, to the point where I’m frightened he is going to try to do anything to pervert this election. He stole it last time with the help of the Russians. But this time, he is doing it on steroids because he has — uh, he controls the government. So that’s my fear. This is all hands on deck from now until election day because the democracy depends on it, and whether or not we sustain the 244 years of self-rule that we have started during the birth of our country. So there couldn’t be more at stake than what’s here at this election.”

In an October 27, 2020 tweet — posted one week before Election Day during the presidential race between Trump and Joe Biden — Reiner claimed that President Trump’s “closing strategy” for his term of office was to cause the deaths of as many of his own countrymen as possible: “Trump’s closing strategy: Blanket the country with [COVID] super spreader rallies and kill as many Americans as possible.”

On November 16, 2020, Reiner tweeted: “The Republican Party is out of its collective fucking mind. And an accomplice to murder.”

As Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock campaigned during a pair of U.S. Senate runoff elections in the state of Georgia — elections whose outcomes would determine which party would thereafter control the Senate — Reiner on December 6, 2020 tweeted his passionate support for Warnock in particular: “I don’t just want Raphael Warnock to win. To drive another stake into the heart of MAGA Fascism, I want Raphael Warnock to win HUGE. Georgia, you can do it. VOTE WARNOCK!” On December 14, 2020, Reiner tweeted in a similar vein: “A vote for Osoff and Warnock is a vote to crush the Trump White Nationalist Autocratic Cult and restore Democracy.”

In a January 27, 2021 tweet, Reiner demanded that the U.S. Senate convict former President Trump in the latter’s upcoming impeachment trial. “Our original sin is at the root of our continuing Civil War,” the actor tweeted. “Donald Trump, the new leader of the Confederacy, heads the Sedition. If he is not held accountable with a Senate conviction, there will be no Appomattox” — a reference to the site of Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s surrender to Union General Ulysses S. Grant in 1865.

In a February 28, 2021 appearance on MSNBC, Reiner disparaged former President Trump and the Republican Party:

“To me, Donald Trump is the greatest gift to the Democratic Party you could ever have. There was a very famous quote by Rick Wilson. He wrote a book called Everything Trump Touches Dies, and his whole life, whether it’s his businesses or his political career, he is a loser. Ultimately, he lost the White House. He was impeached twice. He lost the Senate. He lost the House. He lost seats in Georgia. To me, the Republican Party is being consumed and taken over by this false idol. You talk about a false idol. You see that golden statue moved into CPAC. I mean, they’re bowing down to a false idol.

“It’s the best thing that could ever happen to the Democratic Party. This is the first time we may pick up seats in the midterm because they don’t stand for anything. They have one issue, which is white grievance. They’re the party of white nationalism, and they care only about prying to preserve this somehow image of what America used to be. By the way, that’s their only strategy. The strategy is to keep people of color from voting. That’s the only strategy they have. Preserve America for white people, stop people of color from voting. They’re going to fail. they’re going to keep failing until ultimately they go back underneath the rocks from which they crawled out of.”

In a reference to GOP-backed voter-integrity laws that had recently been passed in states like Georgia and Texas, Reiner tweeted on April 13, 2021: “The Republicans are Secessionists. They stand for nothing except White Nationalism. They refuse to govern. We continue to fight the Civil War. Democrats will have to use all their power to hold our Country together.”

Following Russia’s military invasion of the Ukraine in February 2022, Reiner claimed without evidence that Donald Trump and the Republican Party were hoping that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his forces would prevail. Tweeted Reiner on February 24: “Democratic Ukraine is under attack by a murderous Autocract and Donald Trump and the GOP are rooting for the murderer. God help US.”

During an April 24, 2022 appearance on MSNBC’s The Sunday Show, Reiner characterized Republicans as the party of “autocracy,” saying:

“First off, all let’s dispense with the idea of Republican and Democrat, or conservative and liberal. We are talking about democracy versus autocracy. We see it happening all over the world. That’s one of the reasons Putin invaded Ukraine. He is wanting to destroy democracy.

“We have an election right now in France between Macron and Marine Le Pen, and we don’t know the results yet there, but that is also a test as to whether or not democracy or autocracy will survive in the world. So, you have a man, former president [Trump] of the United States, who led and incited a deadly insurrection [January 6, 2021] to overthrow the United States government. He now is in control of one of the parties in this country. He controls every aspect of what he would now call the Republican Party. I don’t know what it is. This is an autocratic movement. So, if you’re voting for Republicans, you’re not voting for Republicans. You’re voting for autocracy. You’re voting for the man who tried to overthrow the government. So, that is what is at stake here. It’s much more than ‘am I voting for a Republican or a Democrat?’”

Following the death of 19 children and 2 teachers in a May 2022 mass shooting at a school in Uvalde, Texas, Reiner, alluding to the National Rifle Association’s reputed support for Republicans, tweeted: “The blood of every child that dies of gun violence in this country is on the hands of the Republican Party.”

In a tweet that he posted on July 4, 2022, Reiner characterized the United States as an oppressive country where where, because of Republican political initiatives in various states across the country, real independence was a rare commodity: “This 4th, a majority of Americans may feel Independence Is a strange thing to be celebrating. The ugly rise of Authoritarianism has sunk its hooks into our Democracy. But if we want our Union to be more perfect, we must continue to fight! VOTE!!”

After Paul Pelosi — the 82-year-old husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — suffered a fractured skull at the hands of an assailant who attacked him in the Pelosis’ San Francisco home on October 28, 2022, Reiner argued that the attack had occurred because of former president Donald Trump’s repeated assertions that the 2020 presidential election had been rigged against him. Tweeted Reiner: “Donald Trump has been spreading The Big Lie for 2 years. The violent assault on Paul Pelosi and the attempt to murder Speaker Pelosi is directly related to that Lie. Donald Trump is 100% responsible for this and [the Capitol riot of] Jan.6. He must be indicted and never be allowed to hold office.”

During a November 4, 2022 airing of MSNBC’s The ReidOut, anchor Joy Reid said to Reiner: “I think about the things the Republicans are willing to say things you would think would make them impossible for them to win [the upcoming midterm elections]. Mike Lee going in bragging to a bunch of donors he wanted to pull up security, root and branch and get rid of it. He got some applause for it. You have a guy in North Carolina who wants to have rape panels where women have to go before they can get an abortion. You think about this stuff, you think they [the midterm election polls] should not be close. What do you make of the fact that despite [Republicans] saying some of the most outrageous things, why is it close?” Reiner replied: “Because [for] the other side, reality does not mean anything. They [Republicans] are only interested in power. They are only interested, and they will do anything to get the power. And they are willing to kill, literally kill, to get the power. You can’t have a conversation with them. The only thing we [Democrats] can do is try to hold on to the House and a couple of Senate seats. It will be very hard. If we do not do that, this might be the last election we have in a democracy.”

After former President Trump announced that he planned to run against Democrat incumbent Joe Biden in 2024, Reiner tweeted on November 17, 2022: “There’s no other way to put this: Donald Trump is a complete and utter fool. Not to mention a Career Criminal. Time to Indict and put the last nail into his Corrupt Coffin.”

In the wake of damaging revelations that President Biden had been keeping classified documents from his tenure as vice president in various unsecured locations, Reiner gave Biden a pass and compared him favorably to Donald Trump. Tweeted Reiner on January 15, 2023: “The difference between Joe Biden and Donald Trump is: Joe Biden is a decent law abiding person, and Donald Trump is a pathologically lying criminal.”

In response to a mass shooting in which a 28-year-old female-to-male transgender killed six people at a Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee on March 27, 2023, Reiner tweeted: “As long as Republican lawmakers care more about donations from the gun lobby than the slaughter of our children, the more our children will continue to be slaughtered.”

A Proud Democrat Supporting Joe Biden & Kamala Harris

On July 19, 2020, Reiner and fellow celebrities like Barbra Streisand and John Legend participated in “Celebration for Change,” a virtual fundraiser hosted by Jay Leno on behalf of Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.

After Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden announced his selection of Kamala Harris as his vice presidential running mate, Reiner tweeted on August 11, 2020: “Finally a Presidential ticket that looks like America!! Now we all go to work to restore the soul of our Nation. VOTE!!!!”

On the first night of the Democratic National Convention on August 17, 2020, Reiner tweeted: “Watching the singing of our National Anthem gave me chills. So proud to see the real America. So proud to be a Democrat.”

As President Biden delivered his first prime-time presidential address to the nation on March 11, 2021, Reiner tweeted: “Thank God we have a real President. It makes you cry.”

In a July 29, 2022 tweet, Reiner declared that Joe Biden was the best president the United States had elected in nearly six decades: “Screw politics. Screw poll numbers. Joe Biden has a record of accomplishments in the first two years of his Presidency that has gone unmatched for almost 60 years.”

Supporting the Black Lives Matter Movement

When major league baseball players — as a gesture of tribute to the Black Lives Matter movement and its various agendas — knelt during the playing of The Star-Spangled Banner prior to their opening-day games on July 23, 2020, Reiner tweeted: “Watching the Dodger/Giant game. The tribute to BLM with everyone kneeling gives me the chills and makes me proud to be an American.”

Opposing Election-Integrity Laws

In 2021, Reiner opposed the passage of H.R. 1 — a.k.a. the “For the People Act” — legislation that, if signed into law, would, as the Heritage Foundation explained:

  • “seize the authority of states to regulate voter registration and the voting process by forcing states to implement early voting, automatic voter registration, same-day registration, online voter registration, and no-fault absentee balloting.”
  • “make it easier to commit fraud and promote chaos at the polls through same-day registration.”
  • implement “15 days of mandated early voting,” so that “voters who vote early don’t have the same information as those who vote on Election Day [will miss] late-breaking developments that could affect their choices.”
  • “degrade the accuracy of registration lists by requiring states to automatically register all individuals (as opposed to ‘citizens’) from state and federal databases.”
  • “constitute a recipe for massive voter registration fraud by hackers and cyber criminals through online voter registration that is not tied to an existing state record, such as a driver’s license.”
  • “require states to count ballots cast by voters outside of their assigned precincts, overriding the precinct system used by almost all states that allows election officials to monitor votes, staff polling places, provide enough ballots, and prevent election fraud.”
  • “mandate no-fault absentee ballots, which are the tool of choice for vote thieves.”
  • “ban witness signature or notarization requirements for absentee ballots”
  • “require states to allow vote trafficking (vote harvesting) so that any third parties—including campaign staffers and political consultants—can pick up and deliver absentee ballots.”
  • “prevent election officials from checking the eligibility and qualifications of voters and removing ineligible voters.”
  • “ban state voter ID laws by forcing states to allow individuals to vote without an ID [by] merely signing a statement in which they claim they are who they say they are.”

On March 27, 2021, Reiner depicted H.R. 1 as a measure “standing in the way of free and fair elections.”

Outraged by the recent passage of a Georgia voter-integrity state law that implemented voter ID requirements and placed limits on the use of ballot drop-boxes, Reiner on March 26, 2021 posted a tweet expressing his belief that such statutes were nothing more than GOP schemes designed to suppress voter turnout among Democrats: “The Republicans stand for nothing. They know the only way they can win is to keep us from voting. We will not let them. Kill the filibuster to protect the vote. The survival of Democracy depends on it.”

In a reference to GOP-backed voter-integrity laws that had recently been passed in states like Georgia and Texas, Reiner tweeted on April 13, 2021: “The Republicans are Secessionists. They stand for nothing except White Nationalism. They refuse to govern. We continue to fight the Civil War. Democrats will have to use all their power to hold our Country together.”

Supporting Gavin Newsom

In 2021, Reiner opposed the recall effort to remove California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom from office — an effort that grew out of widespread voter dissatisfaction with the governor’s handling of a variety of issues, such as homelessness, COVID-19 restrictions, and the state’s high cost of living. “California this is it,” Reiner tweeted on September 14. “Let’s kick Trumpism in the ass. VOTE NO!”

Supporting Beto O’Rourke

In September 2022, Reiner hosted a fundraising event in California for Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke, a Democrat.

Deep Admiration for Nancy Pelosi

After Nancy Pelosi announced on November 17, 2022 that she would step down as the Democrats’ House leader following the Republican takeover of the House of Representatives in the recent midterm elections, Reiner tweeted: “Speaker Nancy Pelosi: The most effective, accomplished, and consequential Speaker in our lifetime. With love and admiration, Thank You.”

Anger over Elon Musk’s Restoration of Trump’s Twitter Account

When multi-billionaire Elon Musk — who had recently purchased the social media platform Twitter — announced on November 19, 2022 that former president Trump’s Twitter account would be unsuspended, an angry Reiner tweeted: “Elon Musk is letting a man who led a violent Insurrection to overthrow the United States Government back on this platform. Letting the Lies and Disinformation continue to poison the American bloodstream.”

Characterizing Tucker Carlson as a “Cancerous Growth”

When Fox News announced in April 2023 that it was parting ways after seven years with its most popular primetime anchor, Tucker Carlson, Reiner tweeted on April 24: “Cutting out one cancerous growth won’t stop FOX from being riddled with it everywhere else.”

Reiner’s Political Donations

Over the years, Reiner has donated money to the political campaigns of many candidates, all Democrats. These include Tammy Baldwin, Cory Booker, Barbara Boxer, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, John Conyers, Jr., Andrew Cuomo, Tom Daschle, Howard Dean, Christopher Dodd, John Edwards, Rahm Emanuel, Dianne FeinsteinAl Franken, Richard Gephardt, Al Gore, Tom Harkin, Kamala Harris, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Tom Lantos, Patrick Leahy, John Lewis, Ed Markey, Carol Moseley-Braun, Gavin Newsom, Barack Obama, Jon Ossoff, Robert Reich, Bill Richardson, Bernie Sanders, Charles Schumer, Eliot Spitzer, Antonio Villaraigosa, Raphael Warnock, Elizabeth Warren, and Anthony Weiner.

Reiner also has made contributions to organizations such as 21st Century Democrats, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the League of Conservation Voters, the Moveon.org Voter Fund, and Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California.

Director’s Guild of America

Reiner is a member of the Director’s Guild of America’s “Social Responsibility Task Force,” which seeks to use the media as a forum in which to address social issues and shape public opinion.

Reiner’s Enormous Wealth

As of April 2023, reiner’s estimated net worth was approximately $200 million.

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