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Podcast Episode Notes: "LUDICROUS!" Rob Reiner Says Kamala Harris LIED About Him In Book
Episode Overview In this episode of *Piers Morgan Uncensored*, Piers Morgan interviews Hollywood legend Rob Reiner, discussing his new book about *Spinal Tap*, free speech in the current political climate, and various controversies surrounding political rhetoric.
Key Themes and Discussions
Introduction to Rob Reiner
- Rob Reiner is a renowned filmmaker known for his significant contributions to cinema in the 80s and 90s.
- His latest book, *A Fine Line Between Clever & Stupid*, covers insights related to *Spinal Tap*.
Free Speech and Political Rhetoric
- Reiner expresses horror over the murder of Charlie Kirk and discusses the unacceptable nature of violence in political discourse.
- The conversation touches on the comparison of Donald Trump to Hitler, which Reiner finds crosses an unacceptable line.
- He emphasizes the importance of starting discussions based on agreed-upon truths, asserting that alternative facts hinder productive dialogue.
The Bill Maher Discussion
- Reiner recounts a previous discussion with Bill Maher regarding engaging with opposing political views.
- While both agree on the need for dialogue, they diverge on whether to engage with those who propagate misinformation.
- Reiner argues for a baseline of shared facts before discussions can be productive, while Maher suggests the importance of understanding differing perspectives.
Kamala Harris and Jake Tapper's Books
- Reiner refutes claims made by Kamala Harris and Jake Tapper that he blamed Doug Emhoff for political failures during a fundraiser event.
- He insists that his frustration was directed at the overall situation, not at Emhoff personally, calling the allegations ludicrous.
The State of the Democratic Party
- Reiner discusses the current challenges facing the Democratic Party, reflecting on the need for a unifying figure reminiscent of Bill Clinton.
- He believes that the focus should be on preserving democracy and unity around constitutional principles rather than partisanship.
Media and Censorship
- The episode discusses the role of media in political discourse, including the recent controversies surrounding late-night hosts like Jimmy Kimmel and the perceived bias in their programming.
- Reiner and Morgan critique the censorship issues faced by individuals during the Biden administration, drawing parallels to past events under Trump.
Legacy and Reflection
- Towards the end, Reiner reflects on his body of work, expressing that *Stand By Me* is the film he most wishes to be remembered for, due to its emotional resonance and personal significance.
Key Takeaways
- Free Speech: The conversation emphasizes the complexities and challenges of free speech in the current political climate.
- Engagement: Engaging with differing views is crucial, but there must be a foundation of shared truths for discussions to be meaningful.
- Political Accountability: Both Reiner and Morgan stress the importance of accountability in politics and the dangers of hyper-partisan rhetoric.
- Media Influence: The role of media in shaping political narratives and public opinion is debated, highlighting the need for diverse perspectives in entertainment.
Conclusion This episode of *Piers Morgan Uncensored* delves into significant political topics through the lens of Hollywood and personal experience, presenting a nuanced view of the challenges facing free speech, political engagement, and media responsibility today.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Rob Reiner:LinkedIn is pretty amazing at helping you grow your small business.
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0:30Rob Reiner:I say 2 plus 2 is 4, and the other person says 2 plus 2 is Thursday. There's no real way to have a discussion. You can't talk to people who don't acknowledge certain realities.
0:45Piers Morgan:But calling him Hitler or calling his supporters Nazis, I think crosses every acceptable line because he hasn't murdered 12 million people.
0:54Rob Reiner:No, no, no, no. You're crossing the line here. Donald Trump trying to find ways. That's what authoritarians do.
1:01Piers Morgan:Rob Reiner has screamed at him, we're going to lose our fucking democracy and it's your fault. First of all, did you say that?
1:10Rob Reiner:Are you allowed to use the F4? Yes. Oh, that's right. Uncensored. I said something like, it's all over. We're fucked. We're going to lose. But I never, ever said to Doug Emhawk, it's your fault. That's ludicrous. How could it possibly be Doug Emlock's fault?
1:30Piers Morgan:Rob Reiner is indisputably a Hollywood legend. His string of smash hits in the 80s and 90s may have been the first and best example of what's now referred to as a generational run. He's written a new book on the iconic spinal tap called A Fine Line Between Clever and Stupid. Ironically, that's how many commentators feel when they're interpreting the words of President Trump, a man for whom Reiner famously has, well, very limited tolerance. and Rob Reiner joins me now. Rob, great to see you again. I don't think I've interviewed you probably for about 14 years when I was at CNM. Is that how long it's been?
2:05Piers Morgan:I think so, yeah. Something like that. Yeah. Well, it's great to see you. It's nice to see you. As always, you're making a lot of news. I watched with great interest your chat with Bill Maher on his podcast last week, which was really enjoyable, really interesting. But there was a moment in that, which I'll come to in a moment, relating to how the left and right can somehow bring it upon themselves to come together to deal with the obvious toxicity in public discourse in America. But first, I just want to ask you, when you first heard about the murder of Charlie Kirk, what was your immediate gut reaction to it?
2:47Rob Reiner:Well, horror. Absolute horror. And I unfortunately saw the video of it, and it's beyond belief what happened to him. And that should never happen to anybody. I don't care what your political beliefs are. That's not acceptable. That's not a solution to solving problems. And I felt like what his wife said at the service at the memorial they had was exactly right. And totally, I believe, you know, I'm Jewish, but I believe in the teachings of Jesus. And I believe in doing to others. And I believe in forgiveness. And what she said to me was beautiful. And absolutely, you know, she forgave his assassin.
3:43Rob Reiner:and I think that is admirable.
3:47Piers Morgan:So that leads me to the Bill Maher thing because one of the more interesting exchanges you had was obviously everyone knows that Bill went to have dinner with Donald Trump at the White House and I was on his show the week after when he first talked about it and it was really interesting, the reaction. He got pasted by many people on the left and he got lauded by people on the right that he often vehemently disagrees with but he felt, and he said this to you, that it was certainly something he was glad he did, doesn't regret doing it, and that actually you have to do this, that everyone can refuse to have anything to do with the other side and hate each other, and that leads really to nothing.
4:27Piers Morgan:It just leads to endless division. You pushed back at that. You said that you didn't have to do that.
4:34Rob Reiner:No, no, no. What I said to him, you know, if you listen to the whole thing, And what I said is I'm happy to talk to people I don't agree with. I do it all the time. I mean, I'm open completely to doing that. But what I said to him is when you're having a discussion, and I just watched the discussion you had with the ambassador, it was really interesting. I mean, and I admire your ability to, in a way, it wouldn't be mine if you were one of the people helping to solve that situation there, because you had some very good points about, you know, releasing the hostages. But what I say is, I'm happy to talk to anybody who I disagree with.
5:20Rob Reiner:And I've been on, you know, Tucker Carlson's show. I've been on, you know, Laura Ingraham. You know, I will do that. But when I have a discussion with somebody I disagree with, we both have to at least start with two plus two is four. If we both agree on that, then let's let the discussion start. But if I say two plus two is four and the other person says two plus two is Thursday or whatever, or two plus two is five, whatever, there's no real way to have a discussion. You can't talk to people who don't acknowledge certain realities.
6:03Piers Morgan:Right, but that was the point. That was really what I was getting at. And what was interesting, Bill pushed back at you because he said, actually, that's exactly when you need to engage with people because you don't know where they've got their information. They may have seen it on social media. They may have seen a TikTok, whatever it may be. People get led down rabbit holes. They get to see a certain version of an interpretation of facts that may not be yours. No, you're right. So I was going to ask you just a question. And just now you've had time to think about that chat with Bill, whether he gave you cause to just perhaps rethink that.
6:40Piers Morgan:Because I found myself siding with Bill there and I've got a lot of respect for both of you. But I felt I sit down with people who I believe their interpretation of fact is completely skewed. I do all the time, but I do think it's important to try and have a rational conversation with them about it.
6:56Rob Reiner:Yeah. No, no. But you just said something interesting. Their interpretation of fact. Right. fact is fact. I mean, there's no such thing as alternative facts.
7:10Piers Morgan:Well, let me give you an example of what I mean. So I was on... OK, go ahead. I was on a political show called Question Time, BBC's big political panel show in the UK last week, and Bonnie Greer was on it, who's a very long, experienced left-wing commentator. And she has repeatedly called Donald Trump in the last few weeks Adolf Hitler and his supporters Nazis. Now, I would still sit down with her and I would have a conversation with her and I would try and debate with her. I did it in public on that panel. And yet there's no way anybody in the world will ever persuade me that what she is saying about Trump with those categorizations is factual.
7:49Piers Morgan:So by your yardstick, by your yardstick, I shouldn't sit down with Bonnie Greer or try and have an argument with her.
7:56Rob Reiner:No, no, you should. Because here's the thing. that's not fact right you know she may think it's a fact
8:07Piers Morgan:but she thinks it is is the point right
8:08Rob Reiner:so my thing about the interpretation
8:12Piers Morgan:aspect is that
8:13Rob Reiner:I hear what you're saying Piers and I understand that and I think you should be able to engage in that and try to convince people that what you think is fact is in fact not fact you can have that conversation and you should.
8:30Piers Morgan:And that's the point I think Bill Maher was making to you, which I thought was really interesting, because I believe that. Listen, I get people on this show all the time who vehemently disagree with each other. But I think there is a valuable public service in having all the arguments ahead, all the sometimes outrageous and completely obviously wrong interpretations of facts, but having people challenge them in real time and the viewer hopefully reaching a place where they can see reality unfurl before their eyes, rather than what has become, I think, fueled by social media, so much toxic tribalism, where people disappear into their tribe.
9:12Piers Morgan:They exist in kind of these weird echo chambers where they only follow people who agree with them. And they start to become very self-righteous about their worldview. And I think that is a path to real danger.
9:26Rob Reiner:When you want your spring break to feel like and your kids pool day to feel like and your hotel bed to feel like and room service to feel like because at Hilton hospitality feels like
9:45Piers Morgan:your cabana's ready would you like fresh towels?
9:48Rob Reiner:it matters where you stay book now at Hilton.com Hilton for this day No, it's not only a path to danger, but it's where we are. Right. I mean, unfortunately, it is where we are right now. And it is unfortunate. And we should be able to have that discourse with somebody who you totally disagree with. And what you're trying to do, hopefully, is come either have them come around to your beliefs or find some place in the middle, like you were doing with the ambassador just now, to find a place where you can come to an agreement. And there are places where we all can agree, you know, and I think those are the things that we have to build off of.
10:35Rob Reiner:For instance, recently we saw the thing with Jimmy Kimmel where he was taken off the air and then shortly after he was put back on the air. And that was about First Amendment right, freedom of speech. And in our Constitution, the federal government is not allowed to meddle in freedom of speech. It's why you're allowed to be on the air to talk about what you want. And we're talking now and I can say what I want. And we can all agree on that. We can all agree that we, especially in American democracy, according to the Constitution, we all have a right to freedom of speech. And we can all agree on that.
11:17Rob Reiner:So from there, let's say, and we also know that, you know, you can't yell fire in a crowded theater because that's not free speech. That's violent speech, you know, that causes, you know, violence and death and all that. So we can all agree on that. And there are other things in the Constitution that we can all agree on. But the first thing we have to agree on is that we have this Constitution that says these things. Now, you want to change them, you can change it. There's provision in our law that allows you to change it. But you can't just say, I'm not paying attention to that part of the Constitution.
11:59Rob Reiner:I don't like that part, so I'm going to act as if it's not there. And that's one of the problems that we're having right now. We're having an administration that is basically thumbing their nose. And even Donald Trump said, I don't know if I agree with the Constitution. That's fine. You don't have to agree with it. You're allowed to amend it. The founding fathers were smart enough to know that they weren't completely right about everything and that they could be wrong about things. and we've seen the Constitution amended many, many, many times. You see, I agree with you.
12:33Piers Morgan:Look, I agree with you wholeheartedly about free speech and how important it is to be... ..and to be aggressively protected. But the Kimmel thing, for me, I watched Joe Rogan last night and he says some interesting things about Kimmel, which I think are correct, which is... And all these things can be true at the same time. But he said, you know, Jimmy Kimmel, when Tucker Carlson got fired from Fox, for example, or Roseanne Barr got fired by his own network. Different circumstances, but they got fired. Jimmy Kimmel, you know, gleefully trampled on their career grades on his show in a way that made it very clear that he has a personal political bias, which is then proven by...
13:15Piers Morgan:I'm going to show you a graph here, which was... No, I think you're right about that. Yeah, let me just show you the graph. The graph I'm showing here, Rob, This shows you how few conservatives ever appear on late-night shows anymore, right? I mean, literally, it's like a tiny handful, including on Kimmel. And I remember there's a brilliant documentary, I'm sure you've seen it, the one about the late-night sort of history. And you go back to Johnny Carson. Johnny Carson never let anyone know what his politics were. He had everybody on from all the parties. He didn't care. He just wanted to make people laugh.
13:53Piers Morgan:And then slowly, and I think Donald Trump has accelerated this phenomenon, but it seems to me now that the late-night guys, they see it as part of their remit to be political activists, both in the choice of guests and the way they talk about Trump and the other things. And I don't think that's healthy. What do you think about that?
14:14Rob Reiner:Well, I mean, it's their platform. They can say whatever they want to say, you know. They're allowed to do it, but do you think it's right? I mean, do I think it's right? Yeah. Yeah. It's right to have the freedom to say whatever you want. I mean, Johnny Carson, you're right. Johnny Carson was not political. He never went into the political. But, you know, you cited all those late night shows. You know, John Oliver has a certain point of view. John Stewart has a certain point of view. The people that hire them and put them on allow them to do that. When you talk about talk radio, when it first came to be, most of the talk radio shows lean to the right.
15:01Rob Reiner:And so whoever put those shows on decided those are the shows they wanted on. It's okay as long as the people who are hiring are saying we're okay with this. What's not okay is when the federal government tells you what you can and can't.
15:20Piers Morgan:I agree. I agree. And I would feel the same way, by the way, what I'm about to say the other way around. In other words, you mentioned John Oliver. He skews to the left. Jon Stewart skews to the left. Jimmy Kimmel skews to the left. Unashamedly, they're very open about it. Stephen Colbert skews to the left. Seth Meyers skews to the left. The common theme is they all skew to the left. There's an interesting moment recently where Greg Gutfeld from Fox News appeared on Jimmy Fallon. And it was such a refreshing thing to watch these two guys. You completely probably disagree about most political issues, but they had a very nice convivial conversation.
15:54Piers Morgan:The ratings were through the roof, because the other common thread of the late-night thing is all their ratings have been tanking. And I don't think the two things are necessarily, you know, independent, because I think if you only appeal with a show like that to one section of America, and you eliminate everybody who voted Republican automatically, I don't think that is a sensible strategy, never mind anything else. And my view is borne out by ratings.
Read the full transcript
16:22Rob Reiner:In terms of economics is what you're saying. Yeah. Yeah. But here's the thing. You know, it's a little bit different with John Oliver and John Stewart, but with, you know, Jimmy Fallon or Stephen Colbert, They're not, I don't know how to say this, they're not, if they were to have on somebody who disagrees with them on the right, this show is supposed to be not about fighting or arguing points, it's about entertainment. So the question is, what entertainers or people that are of the right could they have on? I mean, you look at Joe Rogan, Joe Rogan, you know, he's kind of, you know, he skews right, but he's kind of in the middle.
17:13Rob Reiner:Yeah, he is. A lot of times he'll go to the left, a lot of times he'll go to the right. But he's also positioned his show as an issue-oriented show. These shows are not really issue-oriented. Your show is. Certain shows on Fox News and certain shows, you know, on MSNBC and CNN, these are issue-oriented shows. Those are the hosts that need to engage in the back and forth and difference of ideas, not entertainment shows.
17:41Piers Morgan:But what was interesting about the Jimmy Fallon, Greg Gutfeld one, was they didn't really talk about politics. They actually talked about a time they were in a bar together and all that kind of thing. That's what made it very watchable and entertaining, which is, I totally agree with you, should be the criteria.
17:58Rob Reiner:That's good. I mean, that's good. And if it's fun and they're having laughs, And then what you're saying is people may not even know where Gutfeld stands. Right. Because they're in their little silos. Yes. They're not watching Fox News. Yes, exactly. There's a guy that just comes on and then he says hello and then whatever the bi-play is, it is. But what you're talking about is, you know, you don't want to have those shows become issue-oriented shows. No, I agree. They're entertainment shows.
18:27Piers Morgan:Yeah. My issue with them, and I say this as somebody who's always, identified as a liberal. My issue with them is I think they've just become too partisan, and it's become too obvious. And one of the reasons I think the Kimmel thing with Charlie Kirk blew up so big was because it seemed to confirm to everybody on the conservative right in America that that was the bias, and there it was laid bare. Now, I don't want to get into the subtleties of what Jimmy actually meant or whatever. He's accepted that people interpreted it a different way. But we were talking earlier. You mentioned your Jewish upbringing, and we were talking earlier about Bonnie Greer and the use of Hitler and Nazi about Trump and so on.
19:07Piers Morgan:Interestingly, while we've been talking, you've got Senator Ted Cruz has come out and said that people should stop using the Nazi rhetoric. And I feel very strongly about this. I think that you can absolutely go after Donald Trump in an aggressive way and hold him to account for a number of things. I agree with some of the things he does. I disagree vehemently with other things he does. But calling him Hitler or calling his supporters Nazis, I think, crosses every acceptable line because he hasn't murdered 12 million people and he hasn't waited a holocaust against Jewish people. When Ted Cruz says...
19:46Piers Morgan:Well, not only that. Do you agree with that, Rob?
19:48Rob Reiner:Well, not only that, but it doesn't get you where you want to be. Right. Which is, if you're opposing Donald Trump, which I do, And I don't really know very many things that I agree with him on, except for the fact that I do agree. I did agree with him on the warp speed on the vaccine for COVID, which now he's kind of I didn't say that. I never I don't know. I don't know what COVID. I don't you know what I mean? He's like distancing himself from that. I don't agree with that. But I also feel that if you go name calling like that, it's not going to get you what you want. You have to rally people around the things that you agree with that are in disagreement with Donald Trump.
20:37Rob Reiner:And to me, the one area that, again, we both agree on is the freedom of speech in the Constitution, First Amendment. And when you have your head of your FCC doing that, see, that's his appointment. That's Donald Trump's appointment. No, I agree with you.
20:54Piers Morgan:I think he's totally wrong.
20:55Rob Reiner:So that's something that we can all rally around, Republicans and Democrats, to say, no, no, no, no, you're crossing the line here. And I think you're going to see a bit of that. And I think what we're seeing is Donald Trump trying to find ways to take these federal agencies, whether it's the Justice Department and going after his, you know, his political enemies. That's an authoritarian type thing. That's what authoritarians do. They use their levers of power to go after. They do. But let me throw something.
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22:51Piers Morgan:Flights, school runs, or just relaxing at home. For those seeking intense comfort in more formal attire, take a look at their everywhere pant. Lightweight, breathable, ludicrously flexible, but still polished enough to wear out. If you're ready to look sharp and feel great, go to CozyEarth.com and use code PIERS, P-I-E-R-S, for up to 40 % off joggers, pants, shirts, everything. And remember to tell them that I sent you. Cozy Earth, built for real life. Interestingly, yesterday, there was a huge Kimmel story, everyone talking about it, many millions of liberals ecstatic he was brought back, and the victory for free speech, and all this kind of thing, terrible Trump for trying to get involved in curtailing his free speech.
23:36Piers Morgan:And yet, interestingly, yesterday, a massive story dropped, in my view, far more significant in many ways, that Google stroke YouTube had been bullied by the Biden administration into severe censorship of many, many people for expressing honestly held views about COVID, and that they were admitting this and they were going to correct it and they were going to have new standards and practices going forward to prevent this happening again. You know, that to me is, you know, people talk about an administration censoring free speech. There you have the Biden administration literally bullying a tech company into suppressing many Americans' free speech, and yet the people screaming loudest about Jimmy Kimmel don't seem to be too bothered by it.
24:25Piers Morgan:And that to me says there is a double standard and it works both ways. But there is a double standard there because actually everyone who's annoyed about Jimmy Kimmel being suppressed should be really annoyed about what the Biden administration told Google to do.
24:42Rob Reiner:Well, first of all, you're telling me something that I have no knowledge of. So I can't really argue what the Biden administration did or didn't do with regards to that. I would have to make myself more familiar with that. But, and because I don't know about that, if Biden did exactly what Trump has done in ordering or having the FCC step on freedom of speech, I think you'd see outrage. I don't know that that happened.
25:15Piers Morgan:But that's interesting.
25:17Rob Reiner:And the point is, this is a whataboutism thing. We are where we are now, and we know what we know now.
25:23Piers Morgan:No, but I think it's really interesting that you don't know about this because it hasn't been given the same media coverage as the Jimmy Kimmel story. But I bet when you go away and read about it, now I've told you about it, you will, I think, given your views about free speech and about political interference, you will conclude, as I have done, I think dispassionately, I don't come at these things from a partisan point of view at all, but I think that it was pretty egregious.
25:49Rob Reiner:Let me ask you, because I will look into it after we get off, but can you tell me that, just briefly, can you tell me that the Biden administration had a federal agency go in and browbeat YouTube or whatever?
26:07Piers Morgan:Well, the report is extensive, but what is crystal clear is that the Biden administration bullied Google into... In what way? How did they do that? I'll tell you, into suppressing people accounts who were talking about COVID in a way the Biden administration did not agree with. In other words, they were basically suppressing free speech about COVID.
26:32Rob Reiner:I understand the point you're making, but what levers did they push to make that happen? Did they use a federal agency to make that happen, or did they just suggest? I'm just asking because I don't know that.
26:45Piers Morgan:Look, I would say to you, I don't know the exact way that it was done, but there's an extensive report. I've read the top line findings. I'll check it out. It's definitely well worth looking at.
26:56Rob Reiner:I will look at it. But what I do know is that the the federal, you know, the head of the FCC did make these statements that we know. We saw it on, you know, Twitter or whatever. And we saw make these statements. So we know that happened. Everybody knows that happened. And because we know that happened, we can address it. You're telling me something that I don't know what federal agency, the Biden administration, used to try to suppress speech.
27:28Piers Morgan:Let's turn to another thing that's got you in the news, which is Kamala Harris's book, in which she talks about you guys being at a fundraiser in Los Angeles watching the now infamous Trump-Biden debate, which obviously led to him then stepping down. And the book says Doug, her husband, at a watch party with Hollywood donors was getting an earful. Rob Reiner has screamed at him, we're going to lose our fucking democracy and it's your fault. First of all, did you say that?
28:07Rob Reiner:I'll tell you exactly what I said because it's also in Jake Tapper's book. Yes. It says the same thing. Jake called me and asked me what I said. I didn't tell... Are you allowed to use the F word? Yes. Can I... We're unsensitive. OK, good. Oh, that's right, unsensitive. behind you every second saying that. No, this is exactly what I said. First of all, when I saw Biden give that answer, it was that really disjointed answer. I can't remember what the question was. I said, we're fucked. We are fucked. And I went really on a rant, and I said something like, it's all over. We're fucked. We're going to lose.
28:54Rob Reiner:I don't know if I said we'll lose a democracy, but I said we're going to lose and we're fucked. But I never, ever said to Doug Emhoff, it's your fault. That's ludicrous. Really? Now, no, because, listen, Jake Tapper said the same thing that I said that. How could it possibly be Doug Emhoff's fault? I'm not that unsophisticated to know how people get, you know, decide to run or not decide to run. I was screaming at the whole the whole world there. And Andy Beshear was at this thing. J.B. Pritzker was there. Who else? Oh, Jane Fonda. But no, there was a governor of Michigan. I'm blanking on the name for a second.
29:48Rob Reiner:She was there. We were all there, and I was screaming at the world. I never direct... And Doug was definitely there. He was hearing all of that. I didn't say to him, it's your fault. It makes no sense. Why would I say it's his fault? It's not his fault. How could it be? So have you... I'm fairly politically sophisticated. I would know that it's not Doug Emhoff's fault that Joe Biden is, you know, making a mess out of a debate. Why would Kamala Harris put this in her book? I don't know. And why would Jake Tapper put it in his book? Well, a reporter... I told him, and I talked to Jake three different occasions, and I said, it makes no sense.
30:33Rob Reiner:Why would I tell Doug Emhoff it's all your fault? How could it be Doug Emhoff's fault?
30:40Piers Morgan:Well, I presume that the implication was him and his wife's fault, in the sense that they must have known that Biden was incompetent.
30:51Rob Reiner:Well, she might have known, but I'm not going to blame Doug Emeloff for that. If anything, if I did say it's all your fault, I would have said it to Kamala. She wasn't there. I wouldn't say it was his fault. How could it be his fault? It makes no sense. Do you think it was Kamala's fault? I think there were a lot of people who enabled Joe Biden, and I don't know whether it was Kamala, his wife, advisors. I had conversations with many of his advisors, and everybody assured me that he was fine. And listen, he did a lot of great things when he was president, and I applaud the infrastructure bill, the build back better, and all of those things.
31:38Rob Reiner:I applaud what he did, but I didn't know how, you know, compromised he might have been or how weak he might have been. I had no idea about that. And I don't know who did know and who didn't know. I really don't.
31:57Rob Reiner:This is a test of the Reese's broadcast system. If you're currently eating Reese's, this is just a test. Continue living the dream. If you aren't, oh boy, drop what you're doing. Go. Get Reese's now. Do not stay calm. Push people out of the way.
32:10Piers Morgan:I mean, the repercussions of the Democrats not taking action about Joe Biden a lot earlier, and you could argue not having a kind of more open convention and seeing who emerged strongest, you know, were devastating for the party. Their polling has never been lower. Donald Trump got reelected, their big nemesis, and is now doing pretty much everything he said he was going to do. People can't say they weren't warned. So it's been a pretty calamitous period for the Democrats. Rob, you know, you've been a Democrat... Do you identify as a Democrat still? Absolutely, yeah. So what is the way out for the Democrats now?
32:51Piers Morgan:What's the future? Do you look at somebody like Mamdani in New York and think that they've got to go that way? Do you look at AOC and see that? Do you look at Gavin Newsom? I mean, who is the person? Because it seems to me what the party desperately needs, I think, is somebody like a Bill Clinton to emerge or an Obama figure, somebody a little bit, you know, left to centre, but who's very generally electable. But I'm not sure I see anybody there.
33:17Rob Reiner:Well, I agree with that. I don't think somebody who's on the hard, hard, hard left is going to be able to, you know, have the country coalesce around them. I agree with that. And we don't know who's going to emerge. At the time when Clinton emerged, the country didn't know very much about him. I mean, he came out of a Southern state and, you know, it was the new Democrats, you know, the third way and all of that. And we don't know what's going to emerge. Right now, we have something much more immediate, which is, do we preserve the democracy? Are we going to be able to have free and fair elections in 2026 and 2028.
34:03Rob Reiner:That we don't know. First thing we have to do is unite the country behind the Constitution and the rule of law. Those are the things we have to do. And then we can argue about policies and whether or not you believe that climate change is a hoax or not. I mean, I think the jury's in on that one, but you know, you've got Trump still screaming about that. But all the issues that we all disagree on, that we can have that debate. But the first thing you have to do is unite the country around things that we all can agree upon, which is the Constitution and the First Amendment. Right now, you've got a president that doesn't necessarily agree with those things.
34:55Rob Reiner:So that's the first thing we have to do. And that's going to be in the 2026 election and whether or not the Democrats or a consensus of people take over to be able to at least start the process of healing and start the process of hearings and to get to the bottom of some of these things. Because I don't think it's about Democrats or Republicans anymore right now. Right now, it's about whether or not we preserve 250 years of this wonderful experiment that we've started on, that we've messed up fits and starts over the years, but creeping towards better and more perfect union as we have, or that goes away.
35:39Rob Reiner:Because as you know, democracy is fragile. And strongmen and autocracy, once it takes route, it's very hard for democracy to rebound after that. So that's to me where that is where we are right now. So we have to first thing, it's not about Democrats or Republicans. Can we secure our democracy first? Once we've done that, then we can have the discussions of which issues we agree or disagree on.
36:13Piers Morgan:Maybe the big mistake was to abandon a monarchy, Rob, and you should go back to British rule. You might be on to something there. We've had a pretty good run of it with our with our monarchy. While we've been talking, while we've been talking, my team have been checking out the question that you raised about the Google issue. So Google's letter to the House Judiciary Committee cites, quotes, senior administration officials and senior White House officials as exerting pressure to censor specific accounts it blamed for COVID and political misinformation. So pretty clear there.
36:53Rob Reiner:Say that again. They're blaming. They were doing what?
36:58Piers Morgan:They're saying they were censoring. So they were they were they were exerting pressure on Google to censor specific accounts that it blamed for COVID and political misinformation. In other words, suppressing...
37:11Rob Reiner:But who was putting pressure on Google?
37:15Piers Morgan:In their letter, they cite senior administration officials and senior White House officials. Were pressuring Google. Were exerting pressure specifically on Google to censor specific accounts on YouTube that it blamed the administration for COVID and political misinformation. Now, I would have thought, given that, that you would, if you're applying the Kimmel rule, that is clear evidence of political interference from an administration to a tech company to censor people from giving their honest opinions on YouTube.
37:52Rob Reiner:Right. But they didn't force Google to do that, did they? Well, they used the word bullying. Well, Bully, I mean, the point is you can lobby anything you want. You can lobby. It's when you exert actual, not just pressure, but actually taking somebody off, you know, making Google whatever. Yeah, but they did.
38:16Piers Morgan:But here's the point, Rob, they did. Google did censor those accounts. So they did. So they did. The parallel is pretty clear. I mean, it's the same thing. And why did Google censor those accounts? Because the Biden administration bullied them into doing it.
38:33Rob Reiner:Well, but I mean, did Google have anything to lose?
38:36Piers Morgan:Well, you could argue that about the Kimmel situation with ABC, Disney and all of them. But I just think I just think that people are going to be intellectually honest about all this. They've got to be consistent. Right. And I think I agree with that. I think that what the Biden administration did with Google is not dissimilar to what people on the left are rightly saying is inappropriate pressure exerted by the Trump administration in the Kimmel case. And I think you've got to be, to me, everyone's got to be clear headed and say they're both wrong.
39:11Rob Reiner:Right. So let me look more at what you're saying. You know, I'm hearing what you're telling me. Let me look into it a little bit more because I'm not sophisticated about it. And I don't know who those officials were. I'll have to look at it. And if you're right and they did exactly what Trump did, you're right. But we can all agree that what we all know, the public knows, that his FCC guy did come on the air and say these things. Yeah, no, it was completely inappropriate. And so we know that that's wrong.
39:45Piers Morgan:Yeah, I agree. Spinal Tap 2, The End Continues, Out Now Cinemas. It's brilliant. I just wanted to ask you one question before I let you go, because so many of your movies I've absolutely loved, you know, from A Few Good Men to... Particularly When Harry Met Sally and so on. You know, we just saw Robert Redford very sadly die, one of my favourite actors. He made so many of my favourite movies. And I had the privilege of asking him once, what was his favourite Robert Redford movie? And he said it was Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. And he gave a great answer as to why. It was where they filmed it, filming with Paul Newman.
40:24Piers Morgan:He said everything apart from the damn song, which he hated, everything else he loved.
40:29Rob Reiner:He's exactly right. And I'll tell you something, it was the only thing. I loved that movie. And then the song, to me, and I want to tell you something, because I was a very dear friend with William Goldman, Bill Goldman, who wrote Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, He also wrote The Princess Bride and The First Draft of Misery, two movies I made. And Bill told me two things. One was, he said, it was originally called The Sundance Kid and Butch Cassidy. That was the name of the film. But when they got Paul Newman, who was a bigger star at the time, they switched it and became Butch. And I can't even imagine the movie being called The Sundance Kid and Butch Cassidy.
41:08Rob Reiner:It doesn't work. It doesn't work. The other thing he always said to me is you should every scene that you do in a movie should attach to the spine of the story, whether it's moving the plot along or developing the characters more. And he says you never want to take a detour off that spine unless you've got the best tap dance history of the movie business and then quickly get back on. To me, I look at that song, it's a bad example of a great tap dance because it goes off the edge and you go, oh, please don't do that. And then, you know, we have to get back. But you know what?
41:45Piers Morgan:I was in Saint-Tropez this summer having a lovely dinner, open air restaurant, beautiful views, and the DJ suddenly put on that song. And I absolutely loved it because it took me straight back to that movie.
42:00Rob Reiner:The song is good.
42:02Piers Morgan:in the middle of that movie. But my question, my reason for mentioning all this was simply, and I'm not expecting this to happen anytime soon, Rob, you're looking at a fine, healthy figure of a man. But should the moment come and we need to remember the work of Rob Reiner, how would you, which is the one for you of everything you've ever done that you would most like to be remembered for?
42:26Rob Reiner:Well, I mean, you know, listen, people have their favourites. the cliche, we love all our children, even the bad ones. But I always say Stand By Me to me is the one that meant the most to me. I don't know that it's the best. It's for other people to decide. But it's the one that meant the most to me because it really is an extension of my personality and my sensibility. It has a mixture of humor and melancholy and emotion. And it's something that is closest to me of all the films I've done.
43:05Piers Morgan:Mine of yours would be When Harry Met Sally. I think it's almost a perfect movie.
43:10Rob Reiner:Well, you want to hear something about that movie? People tell me, and I've heard this, that they'll put the movie, they put the movie on at 11, at 10.30 at night, because the movie's an hour and a half, and then they time it to New Year's Eve. so that when Billy Crystal is professing his love to Meg Ryan at the stroke of New Year's Eve, it'll be timed at that point. That's when they watch the movie. I love that.
43:36Piers Morgan:I love it. It's a great film and just beautifully acted, beautifully produced, directed, all of it. Everything about that's perfect. And the music's fantastic. You didn't even have the Redford problem in Butch Cassidy with the music.
43:49Rob Reiner:No, no, no, we integrated it. It was brilliant.
43:51Piers Morgan:Rob, I could talk to you for hours. I sadly have to leave it there. Thank you very much. It's been great catching up with you again.
43:57Rob Reiner:Nice to talk to you. Maybe it'll be... What was it, 20 years ago? How long ago?
44:01Piers Morgan:I think it was about 13, something like that. 13. Well, I'll see you in another 13 years. I'll be very happy if I'm still around. Cheers, Rob. Good to talk to you. OK. All the best. Bye. Bye. I'm Piers Morgan. I'm a black lesbian. Hollywood has been trying to remove masculinity for it seems like the last decade. There were tears that ran down my face, but I did not cry. I mean, that's crying.
44:32Piers Morgan:Your tweet about a sex tape coming next is quite... Inevitable. And incredibly... Inevitable.
44:38Rob Reiner:Americans are fat pigs and British people have effed up teeth.
44:41Piers Morgan:But we're allies. When we say good jeans are the ones that... What a load of crap. I saw Beyonce do a jeans ad. Everybody drooled over it. Should trans athletes have their own category now? We'll see you on soon.
45:23Rob Reiner:Tap to learn more about elevating your influence, your credibility, and your career with Kelly's program. Learn more at kelly.iu.edu.
From the publisher
Hollywood legend Rob Reiner had a string of smash hits in the 80s and 90s and has now written a new book on the iconic Spinal Tap, called ‘A Fine Line Between Clever & Stupid’.
He joins Piers Morgan to talk about free speech in today’s political climate, drawing on the death of Charlie Kirk and the leftwing rhetoric of comparing Donald Trump to Hitler.
He also tells Piers the things said about him by Kamala Harris and Jake Tapper in their books are not true and reveals the movie he’d most like to be remembered for.
Piers Morgan Uncensored is proudly independent and supported by:
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