On Sunday, President Donald Trump ordered 300 California National Guard troops to Portland, which Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) called “authoritarian conduct” and he added: “We are taking this fight back to court.” In an interview with Ali Velshi on MSNBC on Sunday, director Rob Reiner cited Trump’s National Guard moves as an example that the U.S. has moved “beyond McCarthy era-esque.” Trump moved to federalize the National Guard in Chicago as well. Over the weekend in Chicago, video emerged of a federal agent deploying canisters of tear gas on citizens outside an elementary school, and the U.S. Border Patrol shot a woman.
Reiner made a call to action for those who have a voice and reach to speak out. “The Hollywood community is very much aware of their First Amendment rights being infringed. So, we’re well aware of what’s happening,” he said. “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 outspoken Democratic donor and activist predicted that “we have a year before this country becomes a full-on autocracy, and democracy completely leaves us.” He continued: “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.” Reiner also predicted that military will be present at polling locations for the 2026 midterms.
“The two big things that an autocrat needs: They need control of the media, which is what they’ve been trying to do, and they need military control of the streets, and that’s the other thing that we’re seeing,” Reiner noted, referring in the first instance to what happened to Jimmy Kimmel when his show was temporarily suspended following remarks he made about Charlie Kirk’s killer and a threat from President Donald Trump’s FCC chair, who called for broadcasters to pull Kimmel’s show.
During the MSNBC interview, they discussed the recent Jane Fonda-led relaunch of the Committee for the First Amendment, which more than 550 actors, writers, directors, writers, and musicians have joined to “stand together in defense of our constitutional rights,” according to a statement from the group. “The federal government is once again engaged in a coordinated campaign to silence critics in the government, the media, the judiciary, academia, and the entertainment industry. We refuse to stand by and let that happen.”
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Reiner told MSNBC that the fight starts with informing everyone of what’s at stake.
“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,” he said. “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.”
