Nikki Haley is hoping to go
into New Hampshire
with new momentum
as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis
drops out of the Republican race.
Joining me now
to talk about this, actor, producer,
filmmaker Rob Reiner.
Your latest project, an in-depth
look at Christian nationalism
in this country,
its effect on politics,
among other things.
I want to talk about that
in just a moment.
But I guess, Rob, your reaction
to just Santos dropping out.
What do you think?
Well,
I mean, he knew
he was going to lose anyway.
He was going to lose big
in New Hampshire.
The thing that I find odd is that is
he's making a calculation
now that since Trump is the way he runs
the party, it's Trump's party,
that somehow he's going to
ingratiate himself with Donald Trump.
But a friend of mine
who's a former Republican strategist,
Rick Wilson, said everything
Trump touches dies
so it may be transactional,
maybe for the time being,
but if he's angling for either
a Cabinet position or
or vice presidential on the vice
president's ticket, I think he is.
He's signing his own death warrant here
because it's
not going to lead to anything good.
Yeah.
And Rob,
I know you've been a tough critic
of Donald Trump for a long time now.
Did you.
Did you ever think
that we would be back in this place
where Trump is on the verge
of wrapping up this nomination?
Of course, people have to go out and vote
in New Hampshire.
We'll see what happens on Tuesday.
But that seems to be the path
that he's on right now.
Yeah, no, I never I never thought it.
I mean, the one thing
that we've seen over the course of
from 2016 till now is that
the courts have held that
any time it gets to
an adjudication,
they vote, they rule against Trump.
So the hope is that at a certain point
that will come to the fore
with all of these
federal charges that that are, you know,
that are being heaped on them.
Now, the problem is the only one
that it has a chance of
coming to fruition is possibly
Jack Smith's January 6th case.
And Trump is doing everything he can
to push it on down the road.
The reason he's doing that
is because he wants to stay out of jail.
This is not about me.
You know,
I want to be the president
because I'm going to make this country
great again.
Or I think this is pure
and simple for him.
I got to get out of jail so the hope is
you can push that trial off till after
the election in November.
Then maybe even if he gets convicted
he can pardon himself.
Because the fact of the matter is,
if he does get convicted before
November, then
he's going to lose the election.
They're going to
they're just not going to be people.
They're going to say,
yes, I'll vote for a convicted felon.
He's not going to lose his base.
His base will stay with them.
But there'll be plenty of people that say
enough's enough.
Well, and the Republican Party
is, by and large,
lining up behind Donald Trump
at this point.
The head of the Republican Senate
Campaign Committee
announced earlier today
that he thinks that the party
should start coalescing
behind Donald Trump
and that the primary process
is effectively over.
And one of the reasons
why we're seeing a lot of
that is a lot of
leading Republicans in this country are
just getting behind Donald Trump.
And lo and behold,
it was Ron
DeSantis himself who was criticizing
a lot of this just a week ago.
Let's listen to that
and talk about on the other side
And so for Donald Trump,
he's running a candidate.
He's running a campaign
about putting himself
and his issues first.
That's what he cares about.
You can be
the most worthless Republican in America,
but if you kiss the ring,
he'll say you're wonderful.
You can be the strongest most dynamic,
successful Republican
and conservative in America.
But if you don't kiss that ring,
then he'll try to trash you.
You know what?
You deserve a nominee
that's going to put you first,
not himself first.
And yet, Rob, in
his announcement earlier
today, DeSantis got behind Trump
Yeah, he did a swift one 80.
They all seem to be doing that.
But I, I think
we're coming down to an election
whether we're going to make a choice.
We, they're going to choose democracy
or we're going to choose fascism.
Autocracy.
And I think history
is going to treat these people
very badly.
For, for, for supporting Trump.
You know, he's a politician.
He's going to say one thing.
He's going to say another.
Nikki Haley,
if she loses,
she's going to wrap her arms around
Donald Trump.
All that stuff's going to happen.
Maybe she wants to run
and be a vice president. Who knows?
But ultimately, it's not going to help.
And none of this is going to help.
And he'll turn on a dime against them
as soon as he doesn't like
what they say about him.
And Rob, one of the reasons
why Trump has been
so dominant is because of the way
he's been able to
get his his base back behind him
once again.
And part of that coalition, obviously,
are evangelical voters.
Let's talk about this documentary
that you've you've produced
God and Country,
that looks into the growing movement
of Christian nationalism in the U.S.
Let's hold on politics.
Let's take a look at a clip.
Evangelical
enterprises raise billions of dollars.
We're not talking about millions
or even hundreds of millions anymore.
But billions of dollars in mostly
ten to $25 contributions.
Well, the way you get those contributions
is by ginning up
fear and anger
When I was an activist
on the religious right,
I would meet with fundraisers.
I would hear from them.
You've got to give me a plenty
of fear and anger.
I need to make your people as mad as hell
and frightened to go to sleep at night.
Because when they're that afraid,
they're going to send you a lot of money.
Yeah.
Rob, tell us a little bit
about the gentleman
we just saw there and the message
that you're trying to get
across with this documentary.
Rob Schenck, he's a pastor.
He's an evangelical.
And I think it's important
that we point out
we're not trashing Christianity
with this film.
It's the exact opposite
because what we have is
we have
very prominent conservative
Christian leaders
speaking out
against Christian nationalism.
Because they think it undermines
the teachings of Jesus
and the teachings of Christianity
and the church.
They see Christian nationalism
not only as a danger to democracy see,
but as a danger to Christianity itself.
And it's not me saying
that I'm a liberal.
People know that I'm a liberal.
It's not me saying that
you watch the documentary.
You'll see that
a very, very respected
conservative Christian leaders
talking about the danger
of Christian nationalism, which is not a
religious movement.
It's a political movement.
It's all about politics
and gaining power.
And it is a very dangerous
not only for the country
but for Christianity itself.
And so what do the president,
President Biden, his team, Democrats,
the Democratic Party
candidates, on on the Democratic side
and in Senate and House races?
What do they need to do
to get their message out?
Because I know
that you're very prominent
in politics out in California.
We have you on from time to time
to talk about this stuff.
Are you confident
the president can win reelection?
Yes. Yes.
I think the only
wild card in all of this is third
party candidates.
Everybody knows that
it's not a national election.
It's run state by state.
There are only going to be between
five and eight states in play
in this next election.
And the question
is, in those states that are very narrow,
one way or the other
is a third party candidate
like No Labels, like Robert Kennedy Jr.
Are they going to draw more
votes from Trump or from Biden?
Polls show
that they will draw more from Biden.
So if in a very close race in Arizona,
Nevada, Michigan,
Wisconsin, Pennsylvania,
that's the states
we all know are battleground states.
If those third party candidates
can shave enough votes, Trump
losing the popular vote
by up to 10 million votes,
which is very possible.
He lost the last one by 7 million votes.
He could lose ten by 10 million votes
and still win the election.
That's the trick
Other than that,
as it's
head to head up and down
between Trump and Biden,
I don't think Trump has a chance.
All right, Rob Reiner, great
to have you on as always.
Thanks so much. Appreciate time.