🔵 The Rubin Recap, Issue 2 | May 23, 2025

YES, THIS IS THE NEWSLETTER. AND IT’S NEW. NO, THAT’S NOT HOW I NORMALLY WEAR MY GLASSES

Welcome to the second edition of the new Rubin Report newsletter, called The Rubin Recap! It’s revamped, redesigned, rethought, and, as of last week, relaunched. It’s a newsletter, so there will be discussion of things in the news — and more. Here’s what to expect.

Now, why am I wearing my glasses like that? Well, I was compelled to give some style advice to one of our nation’s top government officials. It was part of a busy week at the Rubin Report, and those who were watching this week also learned that I do not, in fact, wear shoes while doing the show. With all of that in mind, on to some of the highlights of what we covered this week …

MONDAY: 'THEY KNOW THAT WE KNOW THEY ARE LYING. AND STILL THEY CONTINUE TO LIE'

People in the mainstream media keep complaining about all the chaos Trump has brought since he was inaugurated in January, but what they call chaos, I call multi-tasking. The chaos, by the way, was the four years of Joe Biden's presidency. Border chaos. Inflation. Chaos around the world with war erupting between Russia and Ukraine, and the Hamas terror attack against Israel. And we may never know the full extent of the chaos of the Biden administration.

But we do keep learning more and more as it was revealed that Biden was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Almost no one believes he just happened to have learned of the diagnosis over the weekend. The timing is highly suspect -- the announcement came less than 48 hours after audio from Special Prosecutor Robert Hur's 2023 interview with Biden about classified documents surfaced and it portrayed Biden as a senile old man, as Hur had described less than two years ago when he issued his report explaining why he chose not to prosecute him. 

At this point, we can't believe any claims that come from Biden world. On the show this week, we played a clip that we've shown on the Rubin Report before of Biden in 2022 at a press conference in Delaware actually telling reporters he had cancer. The strange thing is, at the time, myself and many others attributed the remark to his apparent dementia, which caused him to be confused and say he had cancer. Who knows? Maybe the dementia actually caused him to tell the truth in that moment? There's been so much lying going on about Biden for so long, it's almost impossible to tell what the truth is.

And, of course, the mainstream media did nothing to look into Biden's mental decline and other potential health issues. Instead, they helped with the cover-up of it all. The media had an airlock in place right up until the airlock was busted almost a year ago at the debate. All of this calls into question basically everything that happened during the Biden presidency. Every speech he gave. Every denial he made. Every executive order he “signed” with an autopen. 

It's so bad, top Democrats don't even want to acknowledge the cover-up. They literally won’t answer questions on the topic. In a recent interview, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer refused to answer a question about whether he believed Biden's mental acuity was suffering based on his in-person interactions with Biden. 'We're looking forward,' is all he would say. 

And not only was Schumer evasive in the interview, he was a smug elitist. So, I decided to offer Chuck some free stylistic advice: Stop wearing your glasses on the end of your nose when you're on TV, Chuck. It's fine to do in a dimly lit restaurant if you're having trouble seeing the menu. But on TV, it makes you look like you're talking down to people. Frankly, it makes you look like an elitist asshole. 

Also, Schumer’s refusal to even address the scandal surrounding Biden was almost a perfect personification of a quote from the late Russian author and Nobel prize-winner Alexander Solzhenitsyn that I believe articulates what happened certainly throughout the Biden administration, but also for about the last 10 years here in America. 

“We know they are lying.

They know they are lying.

They know that we know they are lying.

We know that they know that we know they are lying. And still they continue to lie.”

TUESDAY: A MOMENT OF CLARITY ON THE TELEVISED MENTAL INSTITUTION KNOWN AS MSNBC

As I mentioned above, the Trump multi-tasking has been extraordinary. The media will continue to try frame everything he's doing as "chaos," but just look at all the good that's been accomplished -- even just over the last couple of weeks. He had a successful tour through the Middle East where he sought to make peace with countries that have historically been America's enemies -- which is hard to do. It's easy to make peace with your friends. Just this week, in a moment that showed Trump at his best, he negotiated the release of Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old from New Jersey who was the last living U.S. hostage being held captive by Hamas since the Oct. 7 terror attack. Trump held a call with Putin and has been pushing for an end to the Russia-Ukraine war. Peace negotiations could even be held at the Vatican, as Trump said the new pope offered to host the talks. Every time the media and the Democrats tell you Trump is a "chaos" president, remember -- that accusation is a confession about what Biden actually was.

And that brand of authoritarianism that has become pervasive on the left is now being acknowledged by some of the left's most prominent figures. Bernie Sanders this week admitted that the Democratic Party has become a threat to Democracy. Sanders made the admission on comedian Andrew Schultz's Flagrant's podcast and reluctantly agreed when the hosts brought up how the Democratic Party rigged the 2016 primary against him and in favor of Hillary Clinton. The moment was so revealing, it spontaneously sent me into one of my Bernie impressions, which you need to see right here.

I can't believe I did it, but I had to give some credit to one of the anchors on the televised mental institution known as MSNBC. In the wake of the Biden cancer revelation, Joe Scarborough, who last year insisted Biden was "sharp as a tack," acknowledged that there's likely no way Biden just learned of his prostate cancer diagnosis within the last week. He interviewed a doctor who said that it was likely Biden had cancer at the start of his presidency in 2021 given the prostate cancer’s advanced stage. It was a remarkable moment of clarity on a cable network that is known for spewing nothing but pure propaganda -- watch it:

WEDNESDAY: AN EXTRA CHAPTER FOR JAKE TAPPER

The Jake Tapper book, Original Sin, that purports to be an investigation of the Biden administration's cover-up of Biden's mental decline has been stirring up plenty of attention, so naturally, we've been talking about it on the show. And my good friend Megyn Kelly had Tapper on her show and grilled the CNN anchor about his own role in the cover-up -- and played him clips of himself lecturing Lara Trump about having the temerity to question Biden's mental acuity. Megyn was devastating doing journalism 101. And Tapper came off looking even worse than he's looked on CNN, if that's possible. 

The irony here is that the thesis of Tapper's book is that there was a massive cover-up in the Biden administration, in the Biden White House and with the Biden family and people around them as it pertains to Joe Biden's mental acuity, but it fails to recognize the other entity that was complicit in the cover-up. Now, I know the book has been published and thousands of copies have been printed. But Jake -- I'd like to offer you an idea for an extra chapter that maybe you could do for the audiobook. The chapter could center on a new thesis about the media's role in the cover-up -- in which case, Jake, you would just need a mirror.

THURSDAY: IT’S A NEWS AMBUSH

When the mainstream media all start using the exact same word at the same exact time, that's a major tell that the news coverage of Donald Trump is a coordinated takedown. This week, the word almost all the media used to describe President Trump's Oval Office meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was "ambush." Trump confronted Ramaphosa with questions about allegations of the targeted violence and murder of white farmers in South Africa. Then, he played a video showing some of the claims that have been made about white farmers in South Africa being killed and having their land forcibly taken from them.

The media coverage was shocking but not surprising, since we've seen this playbook before. Remember a couple of months ago when they were all repeating the buzzword "Constitutional Crisis"? Well, this week the buzzword was "ambush" and practically everyone got in on the action. Watch this compilation of news anchors and reporters all using the exact same language to frame the story. And then below, look at the screenshot of all the headlines that used the word "ambush" as well.

Makes you think the only thing getting ambushed here is common sense in mainstream media newsrooms.

FRIDAY: THE DOCTOR IS IN

Dr. Drew that is. My good friend Dr. Drew Pinsky spawned in from Los Angeles for a one-on-one roundtable to discuss all of the medical angles surrounding the cover-up of Biden’s mental acuity and the timing of Biden’s prostate cancer diagnosis. Dr. Drew has not only survived prostate cancer, he’s helped treat many patients who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer, so his analysis comes with layers of experience.

An anonymous spokesperson for Biden said this week, as skepticism mounted about the timing of Biden’s prostate cancer diagnosis, that Biden’s last prostate cancer exam occurred back in 2014 while he was still vice president at the age of 71 — and that the testing was discontinued because that is the protocol for men over the age of 70.

Dr. Drew threw cold water on the notion that men over the age of 70 should stop undergoing tests for prostate cancer, especially if they hold an office as significant as U.S. president. “It doesn’t make sense that the President of the United States wouldn't be screened at the highest level of what’s available for any individual,” Dr. Drew said. He went on to add that the recommendation to cease prostate screening over the age of 70 was the standard for a time in the medical community, but is now antiquated, given new research in recent years. He was also skeptical about the official narrative around how Biden’s prostate cancer was diagnosed, saying it was more likely for someone like Biden, who has access to sophisticated medical care, that the discovery would be made through other forms of testing.

We also touched on the highly anticipated MAHA report released on Thursday, in which RFK Jr. pinpointed the various chronic diseases and health problems plaguing millions of American children, and what he and his team at the HHS believe are some of the underlying causes. Watch the full discussion here.

TWEET OF THE WEEK

MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND GRILL HACKS

Memorial Day is just about here, and as you ease into the weekend and pay tribute to all of the brave Americans who have died serving in this great nation’s military, be sure to check out my step-by-step tutorial on how to smoke a perfect Wagyu tomahawk steak. You all know how much I love a perfectly-cooked steak, and, because everybody is always asking me about my meat, my team and I put together this short masterclass video on how to cook the perfect steak. Having people over this weekend for a barbecue? Watch this video first and be sure to serve your guests only the best.

It’s all here for you — tips on preparation, what seasoning to use, how long to cook the tomahawk to get the perfect crust, and, crucially, how long to wait to slice into it before serving. Follow these steps — even just some of them, and with any cut of beef — and I promise everyone will be asking you about your meat, too. After all, isn’t that what we all want in life?

WHAT TO KNOW

• The Don’t Burn This World Tour starts next week. My first two stops are in Budapest, Hungary, before I move on to Israel for two more dates. Learn more and pick up tickets here. The tour continues later this year in Australia.

• Have you seen my new show Actual Friends yet? New episodes come out Fridays at 3 p.m. eastern time — the third one is out today. Subscribe on YouTube, and follow on X. Last week, Russell Brand and I debated whether Kanye West should be censored for his controversial new song.

• People keep asking about my tequila, and I finally have a release date. The tequila goes on sale next month, on my 49th birthday. More details to come as the date gets closer.

• If you missed me debating independent journalist Tara Palmeri about free speech earlier this month during the Media and Democracy Summit held at the University of Delaware's Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration, you’ll want to check that out right here.

• Get all your Rubin Report merch at our online store here.

• Have a question that you want featured in a Community Q&A? Get in touch here.

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Until next week … — Dave