Obamas were due to meet the Reiners on the night they were killed, Michelle reveals

Former first lady Michelle Obama has revealed she and her husband Barack were due to have dinner with Rob and Michele Reiner on Sunday night before the Hollywood couple were found dead that afternoon.

Director Reiner, 78, and his wife Michele, 68, were found stabbed to death at their Los Angeles home. Reiner was a long-time liberal activist and a friend of the former president and his wife.

“We’ve known them for many, many years and we were supposed to be seeing them that night – last night and we got the news,” Obama told Jimmy Kimmel on Monday.

President Donald Trump has sparked widespread criticism for a post about Reiner, blaming his death on “Trump Derangement Syndrome” and later claiming the director was “very bad for our country”.

While Obama did not specifically mention Trump’s post, she took a jab at the comments on Kimmel’s show.

“Let me just say this, unlike some people, Rob and Michele Reiner are some of the most decent, courageous people you ever want to know,” she said.

“They’re not deranged or crazed. What they have always been are passionate people in a time when there’s not a lot of courage going on, they were the kind of people who were ready to put their actions behind what they cared about.

Police arrested Rob and Michele Reiner’s son Nick, third from right, after their bodies were found (Reuters)

“They cared about their family, they cared about this country and they cared about fairness and equity and that is the truth, I do know them.”

Reiner was known for being outspoken against the Trump administration, describing Trump as “mentally unfit” and “unqualified” to be president.

“He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump,” the president’s post on social media platform Truth Social said.

President Donald Trump has doubled down on his comments about the Reiners (Getty)

A number of prominent GOP members, including former Trump ally Marjorie Taylor Greene condemned the president’s words as “inappropriate” and “disgraceful”, calling for the “dreadful” message to be taken down.

When pressed about the comments, President Trump doubled down.

“Well, I wasn’t a fan of his at all,” he told reporters. “He was a deranged person, as far as Trump is concerned … I thought he was very bad for our country.”