Did any news outlets or fact-checkers quote Rob Reiner's original X post verbatim?
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Executive summary
Major news outlets and mainstream fact-checkers quoted President Trump’s and the White House’s posts about Rob Reiner verbatim or provided extended direct quotations of those posts; reporting repeatedly reproduces Trump’s wording such as that Reiner “was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump” and that his death was “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” (examples in Reuters, Axios, Forbes and others) [1] [2] [3]. Available sources do not mention any fact-check organization refusing to quote the original post or paraphrasing it instead; most outlets cited here reproduce lines from the post verbatim when documenting the backlash [1] [4] [5].
1. News organizations printed the post’s wording as evidence of what was said
Major outlets covered the controversy by quoting the president’s Truth Social/X output directly. Reuters reproduced sections of the Truth Social post — including Trump’s claim that Reiner died “reportedly due to the anger he caused” and the characterization of Reiner’s politics — as part of its account of bipartisan backlash [1]. Axios published sizable verbatim excerpts as well, reporting the exact phrasing that Trump used about “TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME” and that Reiner “was known to have driven people CRAZY” [2]. Forbes likewise quoted the post’s distinct language when outlining how Trump doubled down and how commentators reacted [3].
2. U.S. press framed verbatim quotes alongside context and reaction
Wire services and national papers that published the post’s lines also situated the quotes next to immediate political reaction and the facts of the ongoing homicide investigation: The Washington Post and The Guardian reported the president’s words while noting police had arrested Reiner’s son and that motive remained under investigation — making clear the administration’s claim was unsubstantiated even as they printed the language [6] [7]. That pattern — reproduce quote, report protest and state limited official facts — is consistent across the sources reviewed [6] [7].
3. Fact-checkers’ presence — not found in current reporting
The set of sources provided does not include traditional fact-check organizations (PolitiFact, FactCheck.org, AP Fact Check) explicitly analyzing whether outlets quoted the original post verbatim. The news outlets cited generally treat the post itself as primary source material and reproduce its wording; available sources do not mention any fact-checker declining to quote it or issuing a ruling about quoting practice (not found in current reporting).
4. Why outlets quote verbatim: evidentiary record and public scrutiny
Wire services and national outlets often quote incendiary or newsworthy social-media posts verbatim so readers can judge tone and content for themselves; Reuters and Axios followed that approach here by publishing the president’s phrasing that linked Reiner’s politics to his death and invoked “TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME” [1] [2]. Those verbatim passages become the focal point of bipartisan condemnation reported immediately after the post appeared [8] [4].
5. Alternative perspectives and implicit agendas
Outlets that reproduced the post also emphasized the unproven nature of the causal claim and presented pushback from Republicans and Democrats — indicating editorial intent to document both the quote and its contestation [6] [8]. Opinion-driven outlets and partisan social posts amplified outrage; for instance, CNN and HuffPost foregrounded moral condemnation of the president’s tone while wire services tended to present the quote plus reactions more neutrally [4] [5]. Readers should note each outlet’s selection and framing of quoted passages can serve differing political or editorial aims.
6. Bottom line for researchers and readers
If your goal is to see exactly what was posted, multiple mainstream outlets in this package printed extended verbatim passages from the post [1] [2] [3]. If your question is whether any fact-checker refused to reproduce the original wording, the sources provided do not report that; they show news organizations quoting the post while also reporting that the claim linking Reiner’s politics to his killing was unsubstantiated and widely condemned [6] [8].