Michael Feinberg (8:10)

The man is a pygmy unsuited for the office. What he posted on Truth Social was morally vacuous and intellectually insipid, as evidenced by the fact that even some of his normally most staunch allies spoke out at how horrendously inappropriate it was. Rob Reiner was not a particularly objectionable person. He made a string of films which were not only box office sensations, but also legitimately well crafted and produced. And to the extent that he had political causes with which the President may disagree, he never pursued them in a malicious, vindictive, or slanderous way the President does. But rather through reasoned public debate and emotional support of causes that were dear to his heart. The way he and his wife perished was horrible. And to have the President just picking at the scabs before they've even begun to heal over is something less than our country deserves.

Nicole Wallace (9:27)

Here's Rob Reiner reacting to news of Charlie Kirk's tragic assassination.

Rob Reiner (9:34)

That should never happen to anybody. I don't care what your political beliefs are. That's not acceptable. That's not a solution to solving problems. And I felt like what his wife said at the service, that the memorial they had was exactly right and totally, I believe, you know, I'm Jewish, but I believe in the teachings of Jesus, and I believe in doing to others and. And I believe in forgiveness. And what she said to me was beautiful and absolutely, you know, she forgave his assassin, and I think that that is admirable.

Nicole Wallace (10:19)

Now, the producer of the Charlie Kirk show tweeted out that video. That's how it sort of went viral again today, and said this quote, rob Reiner responded with grace and compassion to Charlie's assassination. This video makes it all the more painful to hear of he and his wife's tragic end. Michael Fenberg, you said something in the immediate aftermath of another tragedy we covered together. I think you and the Rev spoke in tandem about not lowering ourselves to Trump's level, but Trump has lowered himself into this moment in a way that I think people are. I mean, I'll just pull back the curtain. I think we're all struggling with how to honor Rob Reiner and his wife, how to cover the serious nature of a manhunt for the shooter on a college campus, how to begin to cover the scourge of anti Semitism that led to this heinous massacre. And Donald Trump, you know, sort of like, you know, I don't know, I have little kids, so I'm thinking of, you know, homemade slime just sort of seeping into all these serious crises with unserious and nasty statements. What do we do with that?

Michael Feinberg (11:37)

Well, look, you and I both started our professional careers on the right side of the aisle as political conservatives, and one of our core tenets was that character matters, that the way a leader, whether political, cultural, social, presents him or herself to those who follow them and to their communities actually matters. I have a young child, too. He's too young to watch television, but if he was old enough, I wouldn't let him look at the screen when Donald Trump was on, because this is simply not a man that any of us, even his supporters, would ever want our children to emulate. So the way I deal with it and what I encourage other people is when he does something about which you are well informed and in a position to do so, push back, advocate for the opposite, and preach decency. And at all other times, do the most sensible thing to do to anyone like him, which is to ignore him.

Nicole Wallace (12:47)

Yeah. It's a tricky balancing act. I want to show you how generous Rob Reiner has been with all of us here at this network. Here he is with my friend and colleague Ali Balsi, just in October on the importance of protecting democracy.

Rob Reiner (13:07)

We have to make the public absolutely aware that their democracy is being taken from them. And we have to do everything we can to make sure people understand that. People don't. It's a vague term, democracy. It's like, what does that mean, the Constitution? We don't know what that means. People care about their pocketbook issues, the price of eggs, they care about their health care, and they should. Those are the things that directly affect them. But if they lose their democracy, all of these rights, the freedom of speech, the freedom to pray the way you want, the freedom to, to protest and not go to jail, not be sent out of the country with no, with no due process, or all these things will be taken away from them. And we have to educate the public that this is what's happening right now in America.

Nicole Wallace (14:02)

Ted, he was as generous with those of us that cover politics as he was was reported to have been with people inside the movie and film industry. So his loss and the loss of his wife just being felt and reverberating around all the world's in which he participated and made his impact.

Ted Johnson (14:27)

Yes, yes. And if I can just to a note of irony with Rob Reiner. In an interview in 2017, he was asked, have you ever met Donald Trump? And he said, I did once. I was with Billy Crystal and we were courtside at a boxing match at one of the Trump casinos in New Jersey. And his impression was, I, I can't believe how much Trump makes everything about him. So I just found it a little ironic that even in death, you know, Rob Reiner, I mean, the President has made this about him. This is such a shocking loss for Hollywood. People are still coming to terms with actually just what happened, because Rob And Michelle Reiner, they were so much a part of the entertainment industry. If you look at just his film career, that record a string of box office hits in the 80s and the 90s, perhaps unmatched by a few other directors, but also in a political sense, Rob Reiner and his wife, they both had an impact on politics. It wasn't just about fundraising. It wasn't just about showing up for an endorsement with issues like early childhood development. They got a ballot initially initiative that passed in 1998, and then after California passed Proposition 8 in 2008, that was the ban on same sex marriage, Reiner and his political advisor, Chad Griffin, kind of hatched this unique way of filing a lawsuit. And they enlisted Ted Olson, a conservative, and David Boyes, a liberal who had once been legal foes, and they financed a legal challenge to the proposition and they ultimately won in the Supreme Court. There are very few celebrities who can say that their activism led to that kind of a meaningful result.

Nicole Wallace (16:42)

Ted just tell us what we understand about what happened.

Ted Johnson (16:47)

Well, the police have arrested and as I understand, are ready to charge Rob Reiner's son Nick, who has struggled with addiction for quite some time. In fact, a decade ago, Rob Reiner and his son made a movie about it that was kind of based on what father and son had been through. There have been reports that there was some kind of an argument that took place earlier in the weekend at a party at Conan o' Brien's house. And the LAPD says that the Reiners bodies were discovered mid afternoon on Sunday by one of his daughters and another person. They haven't identified that person. But very quickly there was some suspicion about the involvement of the Reiner's son. People magazine actually had reported it quite early, but it was confirmed this morning by the lapd.

Nicole Wallace (17:54)

Claire A lot of us got to be in his presence and he was as warm and humble and generous as a guest as he was to everybody who was speaking out today who got to work with him in the entertainment world.

Claire McCaskill (18:15)

Yeah, truly a nice guy, easy to talk to, you know, was a great listener. He, he, he put his time and energy behind things that would help other people, not himself. He wasn't that kind of Hollywood guy. I certainly urge everyone he has said in his interviews that the movie that he didn't, he said, I think in the interview he wasn't sure it was his best movie, but the one he related to the most was Stand, which is one of my favorites. I certainly urge everyone to take a moment and watch that movie. It will fill your heart. And it will remind you what kind of man this guy was. Also, I think it would be important for people, especially young people, Nicole, that haven't seen all in the Family to watch some episodes of all in the Family because what that show was about was satirizing prejudice and satirizing folks who look down their nose at people who were different than they were. And it really was a startling reminder when you look at it now that we're hearing echoes of that. We have a president that is incapable of leading anything other than a parade for him. And the lack of character, as our other panelists have said, is stunning in this moment. If you can't have empathy. And it turns out it appears from the allegations that this is a family tragedy, it is a violent, horrible end to their lives, made even worse by the fact that that this is allegedly their own son. And to make it about Donald Trump and to make up stuff about why he was murdered, to make it about him is really just, I mean, I keep thinking we've seen the bottom of the barrel in terms of disgusting. And then he goes further. It's astounding.

Nicole Wallace (20:31)

Well, and we're just taking a break, but you know, he's being rebuked by folks deep inside the conservative movement, including Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie. But the deranged nature of what he posted was to suggest that this was an act of revenge for someone that didn't support him, which is untrue. As everyone just pointed out, it is alleged, it is believed by law enforcement that it was his son who struggled with addiction. That's a point Marjorie Taylor Greene makes. And his his deranged, inaccurate information is a horrific sentiment as well, as well as wrong and inaccurate from someone with a massive social media platform. We'll deal with that and the consequences of what he has done. On the other side of the break, we have much more on this tragic trio of stories that everyone's grappling with today. Also ahead, we are monitoring the active manhunt in Providence Road Island. Two students at Brown University have lost their lives. Nine others have been injured. The very latest on what is known as we await a briefing from officials there at the top of the next hour. Plus, I talked to a dear friend of this program who, tragically, we've had to turn to way too many times after things like what we're talking about today have happened. Fred Guttenberg will be our guest. And what going forward looks like for so many families through the most unimaginable loss. And later in the broadcast, the Hanukkah attack in Sydney, Australia, is being called an act of terrorism as the world watches another deadly tragedy and targeted attack on a Jewish community. We'll get to all of that and much more. Stay with us. Deadline White House continues after a quick break.

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Nicole Wallace (22:33)

The American people are basically telling the President that they are not okay with any of this.

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Rob Reiner (22:48)

The original ending of the film that we had was that Harry and Sally didn't get together because I had been, I'd been married for 10 years, I'd been single for 10 years and I couldn't figure out how I was ever going to be with anybody. And that gave birth to when Harry Met Sally. And I hadn't met anybody. And so it was going to be the two of them seeing each other after years talking and then walking away from each other. I met my wife Michelle, who I've been married to now 35 years. I met her while we were making the film and I changed the ending. So we owe that tear jerking ending, and I say that in the highest.

Fred Guttenberg (23:28)

Form of phrase, to Michelle.

Rob Reiner (23:30)

That's right.

Nicole Wallace (23:33)

We're back with Michael, Claire, Ted and Basil. So Basil, that huge sort of hug of a man and brilliant creative genius, a tribute that has to be intermingled with these horrific things that Trump has said which have the extraordinary combination of being untrue and the lie being almost worse than the truth of what happened.

Basil Smichel (24:01)

Yeah. And you know, he makes it seem as though if you don't support me, this is the kind of thing that's going to happen to you. And add to the, I think Michael's earlier word, incipedia, which it is, and it's, it's incredibly narcissistic and that's tame. And I don't even know if there's a stronger word for that. But I had the opportunity to meet him, Rob Reiner, here in the green room. And you know, I just had to say hello to him. Cause I was like, we're just two kids from the Bronx. His dad went to school, I think a half a mile from where I grew up. And you know, Claire hit on a point earlier that I want to elevate because I know people are going to talk about his films. But all in the Family, to me, was must see viewing when I was young, because, yes, it talked about bigotry, but there was something a bit deeper than that.

Nicole Wallace (24:47)

Let me just stop. Here's Basil. On my way.

Basil Smichel (24:50)

It was a great moment. We got to just like two kids from the Bronx. And because it wasn't just about bigotry, it was, if you dig deeper, it was about a moment in time where, if you didn't know that there was a Northern civil rights movement and that there was segregation in the north, this show talked about the issue of white flight and how this old, older white man and his friends were pushing back and becoming angry about African Americans moving into their neighborhood. And Rob Reiner's character, Mike, was the one sort of talking through why this iswhy he's like that and how they should not be afraid of change. So in some ways, it kind of elevated for so many people a kind of progressive politics in the midst of this really difficult thing that was happening. And I'm a child of that. Growing up in the Bronx, I saw this white flight as it was occurring and experience some of that same kind of anger. But what was also profound is being able to watch that show with my mother, who just turned 80. God bless her. Happy birthday.

Nicole Wallace (25:53)

Happy birthday.

Basil Smichel (25:54)

But watching that show with my mother and being able to ask questions, why is this happening? What does this mean? And I wonder. I doubt that a show like that could ever be on the air today, because what it does. Because what it does, what that show did, was encourage us to talk to each other and to talk through these differences and. And try to explain why these things are happening today. In a Trump era, there is no talking. There are divisions even within families. And so that ability to kind of come together and be able to talk through these issues, I think is. I don't want to say it's a bygone era, because I do hope it comes back, but it's really not the moment we're in right now. So when he tweets something like this, I'm like, not only is this horrible, but it's so emblematic of the moment that we're in in this country, largely because of him.

Nicole Wallace (26:44)

Yeah, I want to share the rebukes just because there. It's still notable when MAGA Republicans rebuked Donald Trump. Thomas Massie tweeting this quote, regardless of how you felt about Rob Reiner, this is inappropriate and disrespectful discourse about a man who was just brutally murdered. I guess my elected Republican colleagues, the vice president and white House staff will just ignore it because they're afraid. I challenge anyone to defend it. Marjorie Taylor Greene posted this. Rob Reiner and his wife were tragically killed at the hands of their own son, who reportedly had drug addiction and other issues. And their remaining children are left in serious mourning and heartbreak. This is a family tragedy, not about politics or political enemies. Many families deal with a family member with drug addiction and mental health issues. It's incredibly difficult and should be met with empathy, especially when it ends in murder. Claire McCaskill, it is still notable not just that Republicans are speaking out, but where are the others that haven't? You know, these rebukes are important and that's why we're covering them. But where is literally everybody else? Dina Powell is just on a stage with him in Pennsylvania. Corporations that have paid to help him demolish the east wing of the White House. I didn't see any statements from any of them. Law firms that capitulated are now doing work for the Donald Trump Commerce Department. I didn't see any statements from them. Jeff Bezos, who stood shoulder to shoulder with Donald Trump and is now making documentaries about his wife, Melania. I didn't see any statements from him. No one has said anything about the character of this person today. Yeah.

Claire McCaskill (28:28)

And this is the norm now. He does something that is outrageously inappropriate. It offends your sensibilities. You know, we are all human beings and we have things in common. We all understand when a tragedy occurs, whether it's on the beach in Australia, whether it's in a classroom at Brown University, or whether it's in someone's home in Brentwood, all of us understand it. And the inability of Republican officeholders to speak to this tragedy with empathy is an indictment on all of them. And frankly, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie are already out there. They are on the island of we are going to do this to some extent. There's a couple of members of the Senate that have done it. But the vast majority of elected office holders in this country are too afraid to show their humanity at this moment, and that is terribly depressing.

Nicole Wallace (29:29)

Michael Feinberg, Claire McCaskill, Ted Johnson, thank you for being here today and being part of this conversation. Let me come back. Head coach of the Golden State Warriors, Steve Kerr, has spoken out with an emotional push after another insane, senseless tragedy, a mass shooting at a school, talking about how this country must act and do something to prevent it from happening again. We'll show it to you next.

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Nicole Wallace (30:16)

The American people are basically telling the president that they are not okay with any of this.

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Nicole Wallace (30:32)

After another totally unavoidable tragedy in this country, a shooting, this time on the campus of Brown University, some of the most powerful public calls for change across the country are once again coming from prominent figures in the world of sports. Head coaches are pausing in the middle of press conferences, whether they're asked about the shooting or not, to say that what is happening is bigger than sports, bigger than the games they're about to play or have just played, and saying that enough is enough. Here was USC women's basketball coach Lindsey Gottlieb, a Brown University graduate, over the weekend.

Mia Treta / Zoe Weissman (31:05)

I came out from the game and had a million text messages about a mass shooting at my alma mater, Brown. So that's hard. Doesn't need to be this way, you know, sending thoughts and prayers to my teammates who have kids there, to the parents who have to worry about their children. I'm just gonna end it with that. But just to say, we're the only country that lives this way. The college football cycle has been in the news a million times, and are we gonna report about this like it's the guns? We're the only country that lives this way.

Nicole Wallace (31:42)

I also want to show you what Golden State warriors head coach Steve Kerr had to say on the same topic yesterday at the end of his pregame news conference with his latest. He's been consistent, but his latest demand that we do something about gun safety.

Steve Kerr (31:58)

Nobody asked me about it today. I didn't expect anybody to ask me. I doubt we're going to do a moment of silence out there because it's human nature just to not want to deal with this stuff. And it's human nature just to just to think, you know, this is so horrible. Let's just not even think about it. But we have to think about it. I just want people out there. It doesn't matter if you're Democrat or Republican or gun owner, non gun owner. I just want people thinking, what if it were my child? What if it were my brother or sister? Would you be willing to stand up to your representatives and say, you know what? Enough. I'm not going to vote for you unless you are going to stand up for gun violence prevention through common sense laws that the vast majority of Americans agree on or are we just going to continue to let the gun lobby run us over and not do anything to. To protect each other, to protect our children, to protect our future. We have to make that decision. And so don't just look the other way. Even though that's human nature and I understand it. Think about it. Think about, do you want something done? Do you want your child to go to school terrified every day? Or do you want to actually take action? Because that's what a democracy is about.

Nicole Wallace (33:29)

Joining our coverage is our friend, fearless advocate gun safety legislation. Fred Guttenberg's here. His daughter Jamie was murdered almost eight years ago in a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Basil's still here. Fred, we've been through a lot of tragic stories together and I've been pulling back the curtain. Today I'm gonna do it one more time. I didn't reach out to you because I think at some point re traumatizing you every time this happened felt like an exploitation of our friendship. But you reached out to me this time and I'm so glad to have you here. And I wonder first what your thoughts are about all the families at Brown University.

Fred Guttenberg (34:22)

I'm going to start off talking about a young man that I saw interviewed yesterday on Belshi, I think his name is Jack, who talked about what he is holding on to most right now, which is this feeling of love that he's receiving and of all of the help. And so my message to the families that are reeling right now is remember that message from Jack because it is all of the love that my family received and it is all of the help that we received from people who we knew, from people who we didn't know. That honestly, Nicole carried us through the worst minutes, hours, weeks, months and years of our lives. And so if I could say one thing to these families who are now dealing with the fact that their children aren't coming home for the holidays. They won't graduate, they won't have careers, they won't get married, they won't have future birthdays. It is to embrace the love that is out there for you and to be open to help.

Nicole Wallace (35:33)

You always make me cry. I want to show you what some of the kids because I think you brought it back to where we should center the story, what we're doing to our kids. This is mia Treta, a 21 year old brown junior.

Mia Treta / Zoe Weissman (35:49)

I'm scared like everyone else on this campus, especially as someone who's already Done this before. When I was 15 years old, a boy I didn't know came into my high school and shot me in the stomach with a.45 caliber ghost gun. He killed two people before killing himself. And one of the people that he killed was my best friend, Dominic. It's the most confusing and terrifying, and it's the worst possible thing that you can imagine. And to have to go through that once, let alone twice, is horrific.

Nicole Wallace (36:28)

We talk a lot about raising a generation of kids that have done active shooter drills since they were three, but we're actually raising a generation of kids that have endured more than one mass shootings and in the case of Mia, been shot in one of them. What are we doing to these kids, Nicole?

Fred Guttenberg (36:48)

As soon as I heard about the shooting, the first two phone calls I made were to me and her family and to Zoe Weissman and her family. I know them and their families, unfortunately, really well. Mia is a fierce, fierce, fierce advocate. And the idea that this incredible young adult who has been shot in the stomach, whose best friend was killed by her side, essentially is now living through a second school shooting, is if. If that doesn't wake up the conscience of this country, that I'm not sure what else will. However, I'll say this, and I'm going to be just crazy political for a second. It doesn't need to be this way. And it's so utterly simple. We do know what works. And I say that because during the Biden years, and as you know, I was working on this stuff, we had the Office of Gun Violence Prevention, we passed the bipartisan Safer Communities act, we had real leadership at the atf, and gun violence went down to historical. But unfortunately, in the past year, this White House has chosen to undo and unravel all of that. And in fact, the news out of the White House this week is they're doing a soft rollout of a new office out of the Department of Justice, Department of Civil Rights, to protect the Second Amendment, as if that's what needs protecting. I will only say this, and again, I'm going to be utterly political America, ignore everything about this White House because they are utterly useless and they are utterly deficient and only focus on the enablers who are letting them do what they do. The enablers are up for election in 26, and let's fire every damn one of them.

Nicole Wallace (38:49)

Yeah, I mean, we've got the list. You helped us put it together. They have shut down the White House Office of Gun Violence Protection, issued an executive order, gut gun crime and safety policies Repealed the zero tolerance policy that tasked the bureau of ATF with revoking the licenses of gun dealers who willfully violated federal law and created a task force advancing the gun lobbies guns everywhere agenda to put more guns in the hands of more places. The list goes on and on. They got a grant funding for among domestic violence prevention programs. They settled in a case to essentially legalize machine guns. The one big beautiful bill act made it cheaper and easier to buy some of the most dangerous and highly regulated weapons including silencers, short barreled rifles and shotguns and other easily concealable firearms. Exactly what America doesn't need. I have to sneak in a break. Fred, stay with us. I want to bring Basil into our conversation on the other side.

Mia Treta / Zoe Weissman (39:47)

I'm actually from Parkland and I survived the shooting there. And so I was like, I just. That's where my brain immediately went and I was like, tell me if there's a shooting and term for me. And so ever since then I've just been staying in my room. I've been on the phone with my family, my friends and just keeping updated. I think mentally, you know, I feel like I'm 12 again. This just feels exactly like how I felt in 2018. But honestly, I'm really angry. I'm really angry that this is happening to me all over again. And I'm just in shock.

Nicole Wallace (40:24)

That was a 20 year old brown University sophomore, Zoe Weissman, who Fred just mentioned. She was also tragically in school right next door to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. We're back with Fred and Basil.

Basil Smichel (40:37)

You know, I'm glad that Fred in particular, but all of us are lifting up the voices of young people. When I was young, growing up in the Bronx, as you talked about before, I was a victim of gun violence, as were some others. And I remember going to college upstate New York at Cornell. And everyone not from New York could always say they recognized someone from New York because every time we walked outside we just looked different, we got stiffer. We always looked both ways and so on. That's kind of situational, like vigilance, right? We call it that situation awareness, right. That we had to have to just get through, get in through a moment is something that was built into us. So I always think about young people in these moments that there were generations of kids grow up with having to internalize that behavior, which I think creates a sort of tautness of their spirit. Do they have the desire to kind of go out and reach out and embrace people because they may be in a situation and have to grow up in a way that it just makes them afraid to engage. And that's what I worry about.

Nicole Wallace (41:37)

It just drives them hotness of their spirit. That has to be our next conversation. Wow. Basil, Fred, I love you for being here today. Thank you so much for being part of this conversation. Basil, thank you for spending the hour with me. One more break. We'll be right back. Tomorrow, the full House of Representatives. Isn't that a pretty picture there of Congress will receive a classical a classified briefing on the Trump administration's actions regarding the boat strikes by the United States States military in the Caribbean and the Pacific. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are expected to be present at that briefing. To date, the military has conducted at least 22 strikes, which have killed 87 people. The Trump administration has yet to provide any legal justification for their actions. It's unclear if, as part of this briefing, members will see the full video of the military's actions from that now highly controversial September 2nd boat strike, which included multiple strikes on shipwrecked sailors, which a bipartisan group of lawmakers have called for. One more break. When we come back, we'll turn our attention to the shooting and manhunt underway at Brown University. A news conference is expected to get underway a few minutes from right now. Much more after the break. We'll be right back.

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Nicole Wallace (43:19)

The American people are basically telling the president that they are not okay with any of this.

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