Rob Reiner, his wife’s death, and what we know so far
USA TODAY’s Will Carless described the scene outside Rob Reiner’s home when news of the beloved director’s death broke the night before.
Michelle Obama revealed that she had planned to meet Rob and Michelle Reiner on the same day they were found dead in their California home.
The 61-year-old former first lady appeared on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” On Monday, Dec. 15, she said she and former President Barack Obama have known the acclaimed filmmaker couple “for many years.”
“We were scheduled to meet them last night,” she said. “And then we got the news. Let me just say this: Unlike most people, Rob and Michelle Reiner are some of the most decent and courageous people you’ll ever want to know.”
The Los Angeles Police Department announced on December 15 that an initial investigation determined that Nick Reiner, the son of Rob Reiner and Michelle Reiner, 32, was “responsible” for their deaths. He has been charged with murder, and the case is scheduled to be submitted to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office for review on Tuesday, December 16th.
Although Obama did not directly address President Donald Trump, he also addressed a controversial Truth Social post that criticized Reiner the day after the president was killed.
President Trump wrote on Dec. 15 that the “Princess Bride” director died “from the anger he provoked in others as a result of his suffering from the enormous, indomitable, and incurable disease that paralyzes the mind known as Trump Derangement Syndrome.” Although Reiner was an outspoken critic of Trump, there is no indication that politics played any role in his death.
Trump later doubled down on his comments about Reiner amid widespread criticism. “I thought he was a very bad guy for our country,” he said.
President Obama clearly responded to President Trump’s comments, telling Kimmel that Rob and Michelle Reiner are “not crazy or out of their minds.”
“They’ve always been passionate people in a time when there wasn’t a lot of courage,” she says. “These were people who were willing to put what they cared about behind their actions. They cared about their families, they cared about this country, they cared about fairness and fairness. That’s the truth. I know them.”
Kimmel also accused Trump in his Dec. 15 monologue of “insulting a man who had just been murdered, leaving behind his children, without any knowledge of what actually happened.”
“It’s so hateful and vile. When I first saw it I thought it was fake,” the comedian said. “My wife showed it to me this morning. I thought it seemed too much, even for him. But nothing is ever too much for him.”
