House Speaker Mike Johnson was finally forced to condemn President Donald Trump’s social media post blaming iconic director Rob Reiner for his own death.
The president suggested Reiner, 78, and his wife Michele Singer Reiner, 68, were murdered at their Los Angeles home because of “his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.”
Voters, lawmakers, and media personalities on both sides of the aisle blasted the post as “horrible,” “inappropriate,” and “disrespectful.”
Johnson, on the other hand, had carefully avoided weighing in on the president’s comments, even after Trump doubled down on calling the slain director “deranged” and “very bad for our country” while speaking to reporters in the Oval Office.
But during a Wednesday appearance on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Johnson finally had no choice but to respond.
After the speaker insisted that he had “commented at length” on the killing, reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin pushed back, saying he was specifically asking about the president’s comments.
“The president and I address issues differently sometimes,” Johnson said. “That’s not the way I would have done it. It’s not the way I have done it. You know, that’s my comment on it.”
Johnson often goes out of his way to avoid responding to Trump’s most controversial statements and actions by claiming he doesn’t know anything about them.
Speaking to Squawk Box, he complained about always being asked to opine on the president’s outrageous behavior.
“Look, I know I’m asked to give running commentary on everything that the president says every five minutes of the day, as well as all of my colleagues here,” he prefaced his criticism of Trump’s statements on Reiner.
“I don’t communicate the same way,” he added. “I am my own person, and I speak, you know, from my voice.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
Rob and Michele Reiner were found Sunday, stabbed to death. Their 28-year-old daughter Romy was the first person to arrive on the scene, and later their 32-year-old son Nick was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder.
Reiner directed iconic films including Stand By Me, The Princess Bride, and A Few Good Men. He met his wife—who was a photographer and film producer—while making When Harry Met Sally…
The couple shared three children, and Reiner also adopted the daughter of his first wife, the late Penny Marshall.
