Rob Reiner thinks Archie Bunker would have ditched Trump after January 6th.
Rob Reiner: Archie Bunker Would Have Jumped Off the Trump Train After Jan. 6
“All in the Family” introduced Archie Bunker as one of television’s most iconic right-wing characters, but Rob Reiner believes the January 6 attacks would have been too much for the patriotic patriarch, causing him to withdraw his support for Donald Trump.
During a CNN interview with Jim Acosta on Saturday, discussing “All in the Family” creator Norman Lear’s 100th birthday, Reiner addressed Lear’s New York Times op-ed. In the piece, Lear suggested that while Bunker might have supported Trump initially, he would have been appalled by the violence against Capitol Police during the Washington D.C. insurrection. Reiner wholeheartedly agreed, saying Lear “expressed it perfectly.”
Reiner added, “I believe Archie would have been deeply disturbed by the sight of insurgents beating police officers. Learning that Trump orchestrated the entire event would have pushed him to abandon Trump, much like Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger,” referencing the two Republican members of the Congressional committee investigating Trump’s role in the attacks.
On “All in the Family,” Reiner played Michael Stivic, Archie Bunker’s liberal son-in-law. Their frequent clashes over politics and generational differences reflected the societal tensions of the 1960s and ’70s. Archie’s dismissive nickname for Michael, “meathead,” has been repurposed by Trump supporters against Reiner himself, as he has become a prominent Hollywood critic of the former president on Twitter.