Rob Reiner: Hollywood’s ‘Job’ Is To Explain Democracy and Warn Americans That Trump Is An ‘Autocrat’

Velshi: “Look, you’re an important voice here because you you’ve been political for a long time. There are a lot of things that have been going on in the last few years that have really had an impact on Hollywood and the entertainment industry. We’re crossing into a world that feels a little McCarthy era-esque.”
REINER: “Yeah, it’s — it’s beyond McCarthy era-esque. I mean, that feels quaint compared to what’s going on in America right now. I mean, your whole first part of your show is about these ICE agents and national troops that are going into these cities to ‘curtail violence.’ This is just the beginning. And people have to understand: our democracy is being taken away from us, and we only have about a year. You know, just to be clear about this — and people, you know, you’re doing a great job and a lot of other people are doing a good job to tell people what is actually happening in this country, but make no mistake, we have a year before this country becomes a full-on autocracy and democracy completely leaves us. And we’re looking at the election in 2026, and Donald Trump knows, he knows that in a free and fair election, he will lose. He will lose the House. The House will flip and will become into Democratic hands. There will be committee chairs that will be able to hold hearings. And this is the last thing he wants. So this little — you know, these ICE agents and the National Guard, and now he’s called the military in from all over the world to talk to them about — don’t be surprised when polling booths are surrounded by American military in the guise of making sure that the elections are fair and that nobody is tampering with anything. And when you see violence breaking out, which there’ll be protests, there’ll be inciting violence, there’ll be some violence and they’ll keep at it, then you’ll see the commandeering of voting machines, ballot boxes, to make sure that that election is secure. Well, what that means is that he will then commandeer the election. So we have to make the public absolutely aware that their democracy is being taken from them, and we have to do everything we can to make sure people understand that. People don’t — it’s a vague term, democracy, it’s like, what does that mean, the Constitution? We don’t know what that means. People care about their pocketbook issues, the price of eggs, they care about their health care, and they should. Those are the things that directly affect them. But if they lose their democracy, all of these rights, the freedom of speech, the freedom to pray the way you want, the freedom to protest and not go to jail, not be sent out of the country with no — with no due process, all these things will be taken away from them. And we have to educate the public that this is what’s happening right now in America.”
Velshi: “In fact, your industry, Hollywood exists by virtue of the fact that we have democracy and free speech, and that leads to creativity. Bollywood in India is suffering. Everybody in Bolywood says the same thing, that they’ve fallen under the thumb of government influence, because there are just things that don’t even get tried anymore because people know they’ll be censored, they’ll be attacked, things will happen. What — how — I know you get out of your lane sometimes to get involved very directly in politics, but how do you talk to your — your colleagues in Hollywood to say, ‘Don’t let this happen to us, you have a role to play just like the rest of us do?’”
REINER: “Well, Jane Fonda has started the Committee for the First Amendment, and this committee is a reboot of the committee that her father was a part of in the 50s — you mentioned McCarthyism — to push back on McCarthyism. So the Hollywood community is very much aware of their First Amendment rights being impinged. We saw what happened to Jimmy Fallon — excuse me, Jimmy Kimmel. We saw what happened to Jimmy Kimmel. And so we’re well aware of what’s happening. We — but our job now as communicators is to start communicating to the rest of the country to let them know what is going to happen to them. The two big things that an autocrat needs, they need control of the media, which is what they’re trying to do, and they need military control of the streets. And that’s the other thing that we’re seeing. So we’re in it right now, and we’re sliding downhill in a very, very fast way, and we have to find a way to stop it. And I believe the way to stop it is to educate people who may not understand what democracy is, they may not know what the impact of losing it is. We have to explain it. Us storytellers have to explain to them what they’re going to wind up with if an autocrat has his way.”