Actor Rob Reiner explained Donald Trump’s support by saying that “there are a lot of people who are racist.”
On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Thursday, Willie Geist asked Reiner, “How do you explain the millions and millions of people who do not watch this show, who actually like what there a hear from Donald Trump and aren’t taking messages and orders from us in the media, but they listen to what he says for themselves and vote for him? How do you explain that?”
“Well, there are a lot of people who are racist,” Reiner insisted.
“Oh, my God. Did you just say that?” Scarborough replied.
“I’m not saying,” Reiner tried to claim before being cut off by Scarborough, “No, you just said that.”
“Well, that’s true. .. they’re not all racist,” Reiner said.
“You lead with that, though,” Scarborough said.
“I said there are a lot of people who are. There’s racism in this country that has been submerged for a long, long time and all of a sudden there’s a man —” Reiner said.
“So he’s unearthed it?” co-host Mika Brzezinski asked.
“He’s unearthed a lot of it,” Reiner replied.
Scarborough retorted, “Could this not be about working class Americans being left behind by a Republican Party that’s always talking about —”
“Yes,” Reiner said. “And let me say this to that, there are those following Bernie Sanders that feel the same way.”
Brzezinski interjected, “They’re racists?”
“No. Do you see any racist people at the Bernie rallies? Do you see any skinheads?” Reiner asked.
“I can’t see into their hearts,” Scarborough replied.
“Well, no, but you can see if somebody’s got a tattoo with a swastika and stuff,” Reiner said.
“If you’re a candidate and you’ve been one and you are standing there and there are people in your rally who are KKK members, members of the Aryan Nation, white supremacists, if I were you, I would say, you know, I don’t really want that support. That’s hate speech. That’s hate mongering. I don’t want that support. I don’t see Donald Trump saying ‘I don’t want that support.'”
Later, Reiner argued, “There’s a strain of racism there” in Trump’s supporters.
Geist replied, “But they’re not all racists.”
“No, they’re not all racists. They’re not all racists, but there is a strain there,” Reiner claimed.