Never one to hold back, Stephen A. Smith unleashed an impassioned rant against President Donald Trump over his reaction to the deaths of Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer Reiner. "The President choosing to comment on their passing in a disrespectful, acerbic and disgusting manner is beneath the office of the presidency," Smith, 58, said on the Monday, December 15 episode of his Straight Shooter With Stephen A. Smith radio show. Trump, 79, took to social media app Truth Social on Monday, the morning after the legendary director and his wife were found dead in their home, to explain why he believes they were killed. "A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood," Trump wrote. "Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, 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, sometimes referred to as TDS." Celebrities Call Out President Trump's Comments About Rob Reiner's Death "He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before," he continued. "May Rob and Michele rest in peace!" Trump's statement - which he doubled down on later in the day when questioned by the media - has been panned by Democratic and Republican politicians alike. Smith, whose name has long circulated as a potential candidate for political office, called for a "core level of decency" when talking about someone's death. "That ain't the time to be sticking out your chest and basically indicating that they brought it on themselves because of whatever, when there should never be any place for violence," he said. "And you would think our Commander in Chief, the President of the United States of America, would know this better than anybody but evidently this man does not." Smith added that statements like the one Trump made take the discussion away from issues the American people should be debating instead. Late Night Hosts React to Rob Reiner Death, Slam 'Hateful and Vile' Trump "It's stuff like this where all that gets shoved aside because the classlessness, the juvenile tendencies, the lack of statesmanship, the trifling-ass tendencies that he exorcises and puts on display time and time again knows no limits," he said. Smith continued, "Somebody's gotta stand up to the president and say you're not being presidential. You're coming across like a trifling ass. You don't say stuff like this. You don't do stuff like this...
What kind of representative are you for the state of this country to be speaking like that?" Rob, 78, and Michele, 68, were found dead in their home on Sunday, December 14, with the LAPD later confirming that both suffered "apparent stab wounds." Us Weekly confirmed on Monday that the couple's son, Nick, had been arrested and charged with murder. He is currently being held in Los Angeles' Twin Towers jail with no bail. "It is with profound sorrow that we announce the tragic passing of Michele and Rob Reiner," a spokesperson for the family said. "We are heartbroken by this sudden loss, and we ask for privacy during this unbelievably difficult time."