Which outlets first claimed Rob Reiner said he wished Trump were dead, and what evidence did they cite?
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Executive summary
A viral claim that Rob Reiner once said he “wished” the would‑be assassin of Donald Trump “hadn't missed” appears to have originated and spread on social media and partisan sites, not in mainstream interviews or verified reporting; fact‑checkers who searched news archives found no evidence he ever made that statement [1]. Major news outlets instead reported and condemned President Trump’s post mocking Reiner after the director’s death; those outlets cited Trump’s Truth Social post and public comments, not any verified Reiner remark endorsing violence [2] [3] [4].
1. What was actually reported first in mainstream outlets
Within hours of the Reiners’ deaths, mainstream outlets including Reuters, AP, BBC, Forbes and CNBC focused on President Trump’s remarks that linked Rob Reiner’s politics to his killing and on official developments in the homicide investigation; those stories cited Trump’s Truth Social post and his later public comments as the source of the controversy rather than any prior Reiner endorsement of violence [2] [4] [5] [3] [6]. Coverage emphasized that Trump provided no evidence for the linkage between Reiner’s political activity and the killing, and that law enforcement had not established a political motive [2] [6] [5].
2. Where the “Reiner wished the shooter hadn’t missed” line appears to have come from
Fact‑checking reporting traces the specific claim — that Reiner said he wished the 2024 Pennsylvania shooter “hadn’t missed” Trump — to social posts and a circulated graphic on platforms such as Facebook, not to televised interviews or published articles; Snopes’ searches of major search engines and archived versions of Reiner’s public profiles turned up no interview or media account in which Reiner said that, and flagged the claim as unfounded [1]. That pattern — a social‑media graphic making a sensational claim, then amplified by partisan amplifiers — fits other examples of viral misattribution noted by the Snopes analysis [1].
3. Partisan and gossip sites that amplified the rumor
Right‑leaning outlets and gossip sites republished and amplified Trump’s attack and, in some corners, mixed it with other unverified material; for example, Gateway Pundit republished Trump’s post and commentary that recycled unverified assertions and tabloid reporting about family tensions [7]. But available reporting does not show a credible mainstream outlet sourcing an original quote from Reiner endorsing the assassination attempt; instead, partisan or social posts appear to have generated the assertion later debunked by fact‑checkers [7] [1].
4. What evidence supporters of the claim cited — and why it falls short
Proponents of the assertion pointed to a graphic and isolated social posts and sometimes to old interviews where Reiner criticized Trump — the latter used as insinuation that he could have celebrated violent action — but Snopes’ archival searches found no direct interview or post where Reiner said he wanted the shooter to succeed, and no archived X (formerly Twitter) post or media interview corroborating the quote [1]. Mainstream news organizations instead cited Trump’s own Truth Social post and public remarks as the provable source of inflammatory commentary about Reiner’s death, making explicit that no law‑enforcement evidence tied Reiner’s politics to motive [2] [4] [6].
5. Caveats, alternative viewpoints and reporting limits
Reporting shows clear disagreement about tone and culpability: Trump and his allies framed Reiner as a provocateur (documents of Trump’s post are cited in multiple outlets) while critics across the political spectrum condemned the president for politicizing a family tragedy [2] [8] [9]. The limits of this analysis are that the provided reporting does not include every social‑media post or private message trace; Snopes’ methodology relied on searches of public archives and major search engines and concluded no verifiable source for the attributed quote exists in the public record [1]. If proprietary or deleted social posts existed, they are not surfaced in the cited sources.
Conclusion
No mainstream news organization is shown in the available reporting to have been the original publisher of a Rob Reiner quote saying he wished the would‑be assassin “hadn’t missed”; the claim traces back to social‑media graphics and partisan amplification and was flagged as unfounded by Snopes after archival searches failed to locate any primary source [1]. Major outlets instead documented and criticized President Trump’s own public comments about Reiner and noted the absence of evidence tying Reiner’s politics to the homicide [2] [4] [5].