Trump commits huge mistake as new scandal erupts - Another Day - Brian Tyler Cohen

BTC: The guy who couldn't stoop any lower just stooped to a new low. This is just another day.

Sadly, this past weekend was one filled with immense tragedy. The anti-Semitic attacks at Bondi Beach in Australia, the horrific school shooting at Brown University, and then last night's shocking murder of Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer. It is just awful piled on top of awful. And it feels like everyone is still dealing with their shock and sadness with all of this except for one person.

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Dana Bash: I want to read how the president of the United States responded publicly to this news. Here's what he posted. Quote, "A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood. Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away together with his wife Michelle, 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, sometimes referred to as TDS. He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness. And with the golden age of America upon us, perhaps like never before. May Rob and Michele rest in peace.

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BTC: He just can't not do it. This was not prompted by a question. No one asked him to weigh in. This is simply the genuine unsolicited reaction from the supposed leader of the free world to the news that a couple was tragically murdered in their own home. I mean, truly, what the actual fuck? Even President Snow is like, "Look, I'm an evil, sinister bastard, but that's just too much for me." See, here's how humans responded:

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Dana Bash: It just it it could not get any more tragic.
Unidentified on Morning Joe: So, well, such a heartbreaking weekend all all around.
Mika: And it's terrible.
Harris Faulkner: You know, a lot of people are talking about the history of this great actor and director, Rob Reiner, and I just want to visit for a moment the impact that having lived in Los Angeles, many people will tell you that he had on the industry as a whole.
Dana Bash: I mean, this is beyond uh, you know, sensitive, not to mention horrific.

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BTC: Yeah, that feels correct. That feels like the normal response. empathy, sympathy, disbelief, you know, emotions most of us experience because we have um souls. And in case you were wondering if when given a chance, Donald Trump would back off those despicable remarks?

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Reporter: A number of Republicans have denounced your statement on Truth Social after the murder of Rob Reiner. Do you stand by that post?

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BTC: All right, here it is. A second chance, an opportunity to put his mouth in reverse and take back his truly heartless statement. A moment for the man who occupies the highest office in the land to show Americans that people can make mistakes, people can overstep and when they do, those people can apologize and make things right.

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Trump: Well, I wasn't a fan of his at all. He was a deranged person as far as Trump is concerned. He said uh he liked he knew it was false. In fact, it's the exact opposite that I was uh a friend of Russia controlled by Russia. You know, was the Russia hoax. He was one of the people behind it. I think he hurt himself in career-wise. He became 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.

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BTC: I got to be honest, seeing that level of moral degradation, it's almost fascinating. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm burning white hot with rage and simultaneously nauseous with disgust, but a part of me feels like I'm on something similar to a whale watching excursion where if you wait long enough and you're just quiet enough, you'll get to see one of the rarest forms of life on Earth, the absolutely morally bankrupt billionaire president of the United States. And that's what Trump is. Because this is not a case of people on the right or conservative media. This is one man who is so devoid, so bereft of decency and empathy that he literally cannot help himself.

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Caitlin Collins: I was surprised by this. Some of President Trump's most rabid supporters who are the trolls of social media were out there from last night into this morning saying, "We didn't agree with anything that Reiner stood for politically, but this is a horrible thing."

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BTC: You hear that? Even the trolls thought that was a bridge too far. And they made that decision on their own, not pressured by friends because they don't have any. Now, I'm not sure why we ever expect anything different from this man who is more than happy to shit on the graves of anybody who he disagrees with, including American war hero Senator John McCain.

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Trump: I endorsed him at his request, and I gave him the kind of funeral that he wanted, which as president I had to approve. I don't care about this. I didn't get (a) thank you. That's okay. I was never a fan of John McCain and I never will be.

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BTC: If only all eulogies could be so touching. You know, though it may be hard to believe, in times of great tragedy, our country has the ability to put our differences aside and come together to be at least briefly not pieces of shit. Yes, many of us could not be further apart politically. Yes, we have wildly different opinions on a whole host of issues. And sure, half the country is exhausted by this whole 6-7 craze, while others are happy to see it continue for another, let's say, somewhere between 5 and 8 years. But the thing is, some events are so gut-wrenchingly horrific that we hit pause. We lay down our swords or our microphones or our increasingly callous posting thumbs, and we're just fucking decent to one another. But not this piece of shit. Nope. While the rest of us learn of tragic events and see empathy headed toward us, welcoming it with open arms, Donald Trump treats empathy like his White House and will find any way to destroy it because he needs the fight. Donald Trump views himself as a wartime president. And in order to will that war into existence, he has to create it. And so he has to dump fuel on the fire and fan the flames. He is the biggest inciter of conflict and the biggest beneficiary of that conflict. Civility and decency--these things are an anathema to this man. This is where he thrives.

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Trump: I don't want them in our country. I'll be honest with you. Okay? Somebody say, "Oh, that's not politically correct. I don't care. I don't want them in our country. Their country is no good for a reason. Their country stinks."
Trump: Let me just tell you, you are an obnoxious a terrible actually a terrible reporter.
Trump: But we always take people from Somalia, places that are a disaster, right? filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime. The only thing they're good at is going after ships.

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BTC: Donald Trump needs people who were born in America to hate immigrants. He needs white people to hate brown and black people and vice versa. He needs people to hate reporters and journalists regardless of how well of a job they're doing. It is his fuel. In the same way at the end of the first Back to the Future, Doc Brown had a machine that could power the DeLorean with bananas and beer cans called Mr. Fusion, Trump has Mr. Fission, a machine built to divide things. And it lives inside this motherfucker. And no matter what you put into it, it will figure out a way to use it to sow division. Natural disasters, school shootings, family tragedies, whatever you throw at him, Trump will find a way to use it to his advantage because he needs the war to keep raging. That's what a demagogue does. That is the biggest tool in their tool belt when it comes to hanging on to power.

And what is an undeniable shame is how much Rob Reiner's passing has become about Donald Trump's truly disgusting remarks. And that is not okay because letting the words of an asshole overshadow the memory of one of society's most treasured directors, producers, and actors is exactly what that asshole wants to happen. The loss of this man and his wife is heartbreaking, and our hearts go out to their family and friends, and everybody close to them.

Rob Reiner spent decades advocating and fighting for progressive causes in America. Causes like legalizing gay marriage and taxing the rich to provide for universal preschool. and he spent even more time making some of our cultures most hilarious, touching, and relevant movies. Movies like The Princess Bride, Stand by Me, and A Few Good Men. And what occurred to me is while these three movies could seemingly not be further apart in terms of tone, they all carry a very similar theme, which is people standing up to bullies. Inigo Montoya stands up to the six-fingered man. Gordie Lachance stands up to Ace, and Lieutenant Daniel Caffey stands up to Colonel Jessup. In his politics and his movies, Rob Reiner saw injustices in the world and wanted to show us what courage looked like. That standing up to people bigger and more powerful than you was a worthy endeavor. And that is pretty fucking admirable. We may be wildly divided as a country, our political discourse and hyperbolic rhetoric on pretty much everything, constantly driving a wedge between us all. But if you can't look at Donald Trump's response today and know in your heart that our nation deserves a better leader than this, well, then you can't handle the truth.