Actor and director Rob Reiner is the latest high-profile Democrat to urge Joe Biden to step down as the Democrats candidate in the 2024 presidential election.
“It’s time to stop f—ing around. If the Convicted Felon wins, we lose our Democracy. Joe Biden has effectively served US with honor, decency, and dignity. It’s time for Joe Biden to step down,” the Princess Bride director wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday.
Reiner, who has a long history of supporting and campaigning for the Democratic party, joins others who have previously demanded Biden step down as the 2024 Presidential election gets closer. Biden has maintained that he intends to run against former President Donald Trump.
Reiner’s X post comes a week after he hosted a campaign fundraiser for Vice President Kamala Harris at his house in Brentwood on June 29, according to Deadline. The event took place just a few days after 81-year-old Biden and 78-year-old Trump’s debate on CNN, during which Biden at times appeared at a loss for words, leading many to question his competence to continue on in office.
Some of Reiner’s past support for the Democratic party includes the time he hosted a virtual live reading with the cast of Princess Bride and other celebrities to fundraise for the Democratic party of Wisconsin.
Reiner was also a big supporter of Al Gore’s 2000 Presidential campaign, although Gore ultimately lost to George W. Bush. In 2008, Reiner endorsed Hilary Clinton, who ultimately lost the Democratic nomination to President Barack Obama.
Rob Reiner Joins Stephen King and Others Asking Biden to Step Down
Other prominent Democrats that have been vocal about wanting Biden to step down include iconic horror writer Stephen King, whose book Misery was adapted into a 1990 directed by Reiner.
Also Read: Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker: Rob Reiner
“Joe Biden has been a fine president, but it’s time for him — in the interests of the America he so clearly loves — to announce he will not run for re-election,” King wrote on X Monday.
Others who have shared that same sentiment publicly Lost and The Leftovers screenwriter Damon Lindelof, Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, and Abigail Disney.
In addition to The Princess Bride, Reiner has also directed the 1984 comedy mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap — which was his feature direcotiral debut — as well as the 1986 movie Stand By Me, the 1992 movie A Few Good Men, and the 1989 rom-com When Harry Met Sally.
As an actor, Reiner has appeared in Sleepless in Seattle, The Wolf of Wall Street, the Spinal Tap films, Throw Mama From the Train, The First Wives Club, and All in the Family, on which he played Michael “Meathead” Stivic, the liberal son-in-law of conservative character Archie Bunker.
Earlier this year, Reiner co-produced the documentary God & Country about the dangers of Christian Nationalism.
“Seeing the rise of Trump, seeing the movement supporting this corrupt, failed pathological liar, I was very curious as to why this was happening,” Reiner told Rolling Stone. “Why were they choosing this guy? In the past, evangelical Christians were big supporters of the Republican party – I understand that. But why support Donald Trump over Jeb Bush, who is an actual evangelical?”
When All in the Family creator Norman Lear died in 2023, Reiner commended him for staying politically active against Trump until the end.
“I just hope that we get rid of Trump so that we preserve our democracy. All those people in the Second World War worked hard to defeat fascism, so the idea that we would slip into fascism less than 80 years later is unfathomable. He [Lear] fought this his entire life,” Reiner told Rolling Stone. “Everything he did was to fight for a more perfect Union. And Norman and I had these discussions hundreds of times, and he couldn’t recognize the country he fought for. “
Main Image: Rob Reiner at the Montclair Film Festival in 2016, Wikimedia Commons
Editor’s Note: Corrects date.