After the assassination of Charlie Kirk, hundreds of people were fired, suspended, or publicly shamed for comments deemed celebratory or callous. Phrases like “zero sympathy,” “this made me giggle,” or even literary quotes about reading obituaries with satisfaction were enough to cost people their jobs. Conservatives largely applauded those punishments, insisting that celebrating or rationalizing political violence crossed an unforgivable line. Now consider what happened this weekend. Actor and director Rob Reiner and his wife Michele were brutally murdered, reportedly by their own son. It is a horrific crime. Whatever anyone thinks of Reiner’s politics, (he was an outspoken critic of President Trump), there is no moral universe in which implying he somehow deserved this is acceptable. And yet that is exactly what President Trump did. In a Truth Social post, he suggested that Reiner’s “hatred” and so-called “Trump Derangement Syndrome” contributed to his death. He doubled down on that when asked by reporters. Strip away the phrasing and the message is unmistakable: this is what happens to hateful people. This is what Matthew Dowd was fired from MSNBC for. Here’s the problem. President Trump just did the very thing his supporters demanded liberals be canceled for after Charlie Kirk’s death. Free speech principles don’t change based on who’s speaking. You can defend Trump’s right to say it but you cannot defend the double standard. The post Celebrating Death, Condemned — Until Trump Did It appeared first on Redacted.