President Donald Trump’s former senior campaign adviser David Urban slammed the president’s response to the killing of director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Reiner, on Monday, warning of its impact ahead of the midterm elections.
“It’s a terrible tragedy that they’ve suffered here, and the president’s tweets — his Truth Social post — is indefensible by anybody. I don’t know how anyone can defend it,” Urban said on Monday night’s airing of CNN’s “The Source.”
Reiner, a critic of Trump who is best known for directing “The Princess Bride” and “A Few Good Men,” was found dead alongside his wife inside their Los Angeles-area home Sunday, with stab wounds. Their son, 32-year-old Nick Reiner, was booked in connection to their deaths.
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The Reiners’ deaths led to an outpouring of reactions, including from the president. But unlike other people offering condolences, Trump sparked outrage by writing that Reiner 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.”
Urban slammed Trump’s remarks and observed that the “president had the opportunity, was given the opportunity this afternoon, to clean it up” and offer sympathy for the Reiner family.
Trump’s post “rings so badly” following the killing of right-wing podcaster Charlie Kirk, Urban said.
“I thought that one of the few good things that came out of Charlie Kirk’s death was that people came together and recognized that the people who were celebrating Charlie Kirk’s death should be condemned,” he said, noting that Reiner had praised Erika Kirk and condemned the person who fatally shot Kirk.
Urban called Trump’s post “just saddening because the president does a lot of good things, this administration does lots of good things, but yet these kinds of posts, these kinds of actions by the president detract from all of that.”
“I think the president forgot elections are about addition, one plus one plus one, and as we head into the midterms, I’m wondering how many Republicans were added to the voter rolls today. I think none,” Urban continued.
