What specific assassination attempts has rob reiner referenced in his public comments?
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Executive summary
Rob Reiner’s recent public comments most frequently referenced the high-profile assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk on Sept. 10, 2025, and he publicly responded with calls for forgiveness and compassion (examples circulated by Turning Point USA and multiple outlets) [1] [2]. Major outlets reporting on Reiner’s death and the political fallout note he had earlier reacted to Kirk’s killing with measured comments that some on the right later highlighted as evidence of his capacity for conciliatory remarks [3] [1].
1. Reiner’s public response to Charlie Kirk’s assassination — the most-cited example
News coverage and social-media excerpts show Reiner responded publicly to the assassination of Charlie Kirk in September 2025, urging forgiveness and compassion; that reaction was shared by Turning Point USA and picked up by outlets noting the contrast with later attacks on Reiner after his own death [1] [2]. Conservative and center-right commentators reposted the clip to underline Reiner’s conciliatory tone after Kirk’s killing, and several outlets say that context shaped the immediate backlash when political figures commented on Reiner’s later murder [3] [2].
2. How outlets documented and amplified those comments
Multiple outlets — from Fox News Digital to Axios and PJ Media — referenced and reposted Reiner’s remarks about Kirk, creating a record of his public stance after that assassination [1] [3] [4]. That amplification meant Reiner’s reaction to Kirk became a focal point in coverage and in political debate after Reiner and his wife were found dead and his son was arrested [5] [6].
3. Political use — why Reiner’s Kirk comments mattered in subsequent debate
When Reiner and his wife were found dead and their son arrested, President Trump and other political figures invoked Reiner’s long record of anti-Trump activism; critics pointed to Reiner’s earlier compassionate words about Kirk to argue against politicizing his killing [7] [8] [3]. Reporting across Reuters, The New York Times and others links those threads: Reiner’s Kirk comments were used by some on the right to claim hypocrisy among critics who had urged restraint after other political violence [3] [8].
4. What the sources do not show — no broader list of assassination references by Reiner
Available sources do not mention any other specific assassination attempts or incidents that Rob Reiner publicly referenced beyond his public response to Charlie Kirk’s assassination [1] [2]. No provided reporting catalogs other assassination attempts Reiner invoked in public comments.
5. Competing perspectives in the coverage
Reporting displays two competing angles: one emphasizes Reiner’s compassionate response to Kirk as evidence he did not celebrate political violence (used by some on the right and center commentators) [1] [2]; the other treats that context as irrelevant to critiques of later political actors who used Reiner’s death to score partisan points, especially given Trump’s post that blamed Reiner’s activism for his death [8] [7]. Outlets including Reuters and The New York Times flagged bipartisan condemnation of politicizing the murder, while Axios and conservative outlets highlighted the contrast to argue for consistency [3] [8] [4].
6. Limitations and what remains unsettled
Contemporary reporting focuses on the immediate news cycle: Reiner’s response to Kirk and the fallout after his murder [3] [5]. Available sources do not provide a comprehensive archive of every public comment Reiner ever made about assassination attempts, nor do they attribute other specific assassination references to him; more exhaustive searches of his past interviews and speeches would be required to assert anything beyond what these outlets report [1] [2].
7. Why this matters — media framing and political leverage
The prominence of Reiner’s Kirk remarks in coverage illustrates how single public comments can be repurposed across political divides: critics of politicization point to his compassion to shame those who mocked his death, while allies of those critics highlight the same comments to argue for ideological consistency [3] [8]. Reporters from Reuters, The New York Times and others document how that tug-of-war shaped immediate reactions to the Reiners’ deaths and the arrest of their son [7] [5].
If you want, I can pull verbatim excerpts of Reiner’s on-camera remarks about Charlie Kirk as quoted in the outlets above or assemble a timeline of how those clips were shared and used across different media accounts [1] [2].