For the second day in a row, Whoopi Goldberg started The View out by castigating Donald Trump for his comments on the murder of Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, on Tuesday’s (December 16) new episode.
“Heartfelt and emotional tributes keep pouring in over the tragic deaths of Rob and Michele Reiner, but the empathy stops at the White House,” she said. “Here’s how You Know Who is responding to backlash over his shameful post yesterday.” She then presented a clip of Trump doubling down on his controversial comments about Reiner’s death being related to his open criticism of Trump, saying, “Well, I wasn’t a fan of his at all. He was a deranged person as far as Trump was concerned. He said he liked he knew it was false. In fact, it’s the exact opposite, that I was a friend of Russia, controlled by Russia, the Russia hoax. He was one of the people behind it. I think he hurt himself in career-wise, like a deranged person, Trump Derangement Syndrome. So I was not a fan of Rob Reiner at all in any way, shape, or form, I thought he was very bad for our country.”
To that, Goldberg said simply and rhetorically, “You know who is bad for the country?”
After thunderous applause from the live studio audience, Goldberg continued, “I don’t know how you were raised, but this man’s family is in deep mourning, and what you said and what you’ve doubled down on, make you bad for the country. Make you very bad.”
The panel then reviewed footage of some leading conservative voices, including Senator John Kennedy and actor James Woods, reacting with disapproval of Trump’s comments. Cohost Joy Behar also rebutted some online comments she’d seen suggesting Trump’s words were just mirroring the response to Charlie Kirk‘s assassination by playing footage of Reiner himself expressing shock over that death and insisting it was “not acceptable.”
“That’s called grace, right? And the guy in the White House, he has none of the ability to lead, to set a tone for empathy, for sympathy. I don’t know what he’s doing there,” Behar remarked.
Sunny Hostin then pointed to the other tragedies that unfolded over the weekend — including the mass shooting at Brown University and the antisemitic mass shooting in Australia — and said, “When you have the nation grieving about an anti semitic tragedy in one of our allied countries, when you have a nation grieving about a Hollywood icon being killed, what you expect from the president of the United States is to be the consoler in chief. That’s his job. That is the assignment. And he never understands the assignment. I don’t think he is capable because of the lack of moral compass that I believe he has.” She then pointed to the reactions of then-President Barack Obama, who she said “is the best president of my lifetime,” reacting to the Sandy Hook and Mother Emmanuel AME shootings as evidence of how a president should react to tragedies.
Alyssa Farah Griffin praised the Republicans who have spoken out against Trump’s words on Reiner and revealed how close to home the tragedy hit for her. “The son is in custody, but that aspect of the story hit me hard, because I’ve talked a lot about my sister was an addict for over a decade. Addiction has touched two-thirds of American families. It is something that is relatable, because they can get better, and then they can get sick again. And as a parent, as a loved one, as a sibling, there is nothing you want more than for that child to get better.”
Sara Haines said she was troubled by Trump’s reaction because, “It doesn’t even matter that Donald Trump is the president. It’s what it reflects of humanity when political identity trumps moral identity and a common ground of acceptance. And we saw this a lot with Charlie Kirk. We saw it with Luigi Mangione and the man he murdered. We’re seeing it when there’s a mixed reaction to someone tragically being killed. It doesn’t matter if you knew the person, who the person is, it’s just a time we’re living in where that’s the bigger shock to me is that there’s any discrepancy in response that isn’t, ‘Oh my God. My heart breaks for this family.'”
Goldberg closed out the segment by once again condemning Trump’s words and also delivering a message to those Republicans in office who don’t do so themselves. “There is no justification for him to have written what he wrote. There’s no way to justify it. And all of those Republicans who are quiet, damn you all. Damn you all.”
Goldberg, who previously worked with Reiner on the 1996 film Ghosts of Mississippi, said on Monday’s show of Trump’s comments, “I don’t understand the man in that White House because he talked so much about Charlie Kirk caring, and suddenly this is what he puts out. Have you no shame? No shame at all… Can you get any lower? I don’t think so. And what do you have to say about what’s happened around the world? Where is our voice as Americans? Somebody’s got to speak up for us. Our hearts are breaking through all of this — through Rob, through what’s happened at Bondi Beach, what happened at Brown — and you don’t find the time to say, as Americans, ‘We hate what’s happening’? You ain’t my president, man.”
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