💬 Obama caught in PHONY late-night TV interview, and Rubio is rising

Welcome back to The Rubin Recap. Another week down, time is flying. We’re practically in mid-May. Shoutout at the top to Rubin Report viewer Elizabeth, who this week sent a new Little Dave Rubin, which came holding a miniature bottle of Copal. Elizabeth is a master knitter, and this latest creation happened to arrive in the mail on Cinco de Mayo, a perfect day to sip a little Copal, the official tequila of free speech.

There was so much happening this week, but I really want to focus on two things featuring two high-profile people, and I think these two examples are really symbolic pf America’s divergent paths over the last 10 years or so. I’m talking about former President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. First, Obama:

He turned up on Stephen Colbert’s late-night show for an extended interview, much of which was devoted to massaging his colossal ego. Before I even get to what Obama said in the interview, let’s focus on how choreographed the whole thing was. The Rockettes, I’m sure, don’t put this much choreography into their dance routines.

The interview took place at Obama’s new presidential library in Chicago — yes, the hideous monstrosity — in what was a mostly empty room. A few camera guys, maybe a grip.

Colbert seemed to be reading from a list of questions the Obama team handed him, and when Obama delivered answers, Colbert’s producers seemed to pipe in an applause track. The whole thing was dripping with phoniness, and I haven’t even gotten to some of the remarks Obama made yet.

“I'm worried about the Republican party,” Obama said with a very serious inflection. “I'd love a Republican party that was conservative in some ways, you know, didn't agree with me on a whole bunch of stuff but believed in the rule of law and judicial independence and empirical evidence and science, and wasn't constantly tapping into our worst impulses. And there has been a Republican party like that in the past, and I want to see that returned because I think you have to have two healthy parties.”

Obama also went on to accuse Trump of weaponizing the Justice Department. The whole thing was an exercise in projection. Everything he accused the Republicans of in the interview is exactly what the Democrats are.

It's the Democrats who use political grievance and prosecuted Trump (how many times?) to try to prevent him from returning to the White House. It's the Democrats who don't care about rule of law.

It's the Democrats who aren't into science. Does anyone remember COVID?

It's the Democrats who colluded with big tech to subvert the First Amendment and censor conservatives. And then all of the fake applause to try to legitimize what Obama was saying? Viewers’ BS meters were in overdrive watching this.

You really need to watch it to fully appreciate how bad it was. Go ahead, watch and then I promise to show you something much better after that.

The good news in all of this is that Colbert’s show is in its death throes, and will be off the air by the end of the month — which, with the way time is flying, should feel like only a few more days.

Now, contrast everything you heard from Obama above — who tries to portray himself as someone who is a champion for America — with what we heard from Marco Rubio this week.

Rubio, as I’ve pointed out many times in this newsletter has been absolutely dominating our Trump administration power rankings, and the last time I asked all of you about who you prefer for Republican nominee in ‘28, the majority picked Rubio. And I have a feeling the groundswell that’s been forming under Rubio has a lot to do with what we saw in the White House briefing room on Tuesday. Rubio stepped in for Karoline Leavitt — who’s out on maternity leave and gave birth to a daughter this week (congratulations, Karoline!) — and he put on a masterclass.

He was likable, humorous, informative. And then he was hit with a question that was maybe a little unexpected given how the briefing was going. “What is your hope for America at a time such as this, and how do you, personally, deal with that?” a reporter asked. And Rubio was able to pivot on a dime and, frankly, gave a presidential-sounding answer. I told you I’d show you something better than Obama’s drivel. Watch:

By week’s end, Rubio was in Rome meeting with the pope and then later with the prime minister and other government officials.

And the last thing I’ll mention here is Spencer Pratt, the reality TV star-turned-L.A. mayoral candidate. His campaign ads have struck a chord. Did you see him in the debate this week bringing the heat to current mayor Karen Bass and the rest of the clowns running to be mayor? Pratt is running as a Republican, which is a tough thing to do anywhere in California, let alone L.A. Does he remind you of anyone?

How about Donald Trump? Remember Donald Trump 40 years ago? If someone doesn't fix this thing, I guess I'll have to do it. And Trump eventually went ahead and did it. That’s what’s going on with Pratt, whose home was destroyed in the L.A. fires last year. His parents’ home was also destroyed along with countless others, and the city has been slow-rolling the rebuilding process, which has absolutely infuriated the residents there.

The silver lining about the craziness of the left is that the crazier they go, the more incompetent they become, what actually happens is decent people who really want nothing to do with politics begin stepping up and getting involved. And that’s what’s happening with Spencer Pratt right now, and he’s starting to resonate. He’s even been using A.I. to create his campaign ads — and this one went mega-viral. I think it’s the single-best use of A.I. that I’ve seen in a political context. Check it out here.

Where do you stand on the war with Iran?

Well, I had a technical difficulty with last week’s poll so I don’t have new results to show you this week. And by technical difficulty, I mean I screwed up and put the previous week’s poll in again, which many of you voted in again. 😅 Thank you for that.

Moving right along, I saw this interesting poll that came out earlier this week showing that 74% of Americans believe the U.S. is winning the war with Iran. I find this fascinating because the Democrats in Washington and the mainstream media have everything they can to portray the war as an utter failure. And still three-quarters of Americans think the U.S. is winning. Even 60% of Democrats say we’re winning. It says a lot about how average Americans are able to see through the dishonest narrative pushed by the media, the Democrats and the panicans.

When I asked you about the war after the first three weeks, 83% of Rubin Recap readers responded that they strongly support the war. And a small portion of you responded, “Ask me again in a few months,” so I’m asking again. Have at it below ⬇️

• 🚨 New Rubin Report merch is now available in the merch store 🚨 You saw me wearing a “Normal” T-shirt on the show this week. Well, we released a new shirt as a nod to The Rubin Report’s (relatively) new tagline: A Show For Normal People. It comes in seven colors — five if you don’t count black and white as colors — and nine sizes, so there’s something for everyone. I wore a bright red one on the show this week — went a little out of my comfort zone, but I survived. Go to the merch store and pick one up before they sell out. Those Moron Zamboni T-shirts went like hotcakes last year.

• Tickets are on sale now for the big live “Florida Man” edition of The Rubin Report that you can attend in-person at the Fillmore theater in Miami Beach on June 11 with Gov. Ron DeSantis. Come to Miami for this one-of-a-kind event. Ben Shapiro and Jillian Michaels will also be appearing, and Adam Corolla will be doing standup. Talk about an all-star lineup. Seating is limited and the event is expected to sell out, so don’t wait to get tickets

• I talked about the California gubernatorial debate this week on my show, and I talked about it on Will Cain’s Fox News show this week. That lunatic Katie Porter — how is she still even in this race after the profanity-laced video of her berating a staffer? — said she wants taxpayers to fund free healthcare for all illegal immigrants in California. In case you missed it, here’s what I had to say to Will Cain about the craziness.

• As I said at the top, time is flying and Memorial Day is going to be here before you know it. In two weeks! You’re probably going to be grilling on Memorial Day — not to mention throughout the summer — so I wanted to remind you of my video on how to smoke the perfect tomahawk steak. I give up all my secrets in it, and they work for other cuts of steak, too. Click here to check it out, bookmark it, do what you need to do. You and your Memorial Day guests can thank me later. 🇺🇸

• Make sure you’re listening to First Look, my new morning news roundup. It’s a short news briefing in podcast form that gives you an overview of the headlines as you start your day. You can find it on Spotify, Rumble, and YouTube. And visit the news portion of my website daily. I’ve got the Rubin Report staff keeping tabs on the news I think you should be paying attention to.

• You did it! You’ve reached the end of the newsletter. That’s all for now, but I’ll be back on Sunday with a new edition of The Return to Normalcy.

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Until Sunday … — Dave