💬 My advice for Jimmy Kimmel

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Toughest week of shows in my entire career

I've been doing The Rubin Report for a decade now, and the last week-and-a-half of shows have been the toughest I've ever done. It's been difficult on one hand to mourn the loss of Charlie Kirk, a good friend, and balance that with commenting publicly on his killing as well as the range of reactions across the political spectrum to his assassination.

We tried all week to strike the right tone and began working a little humor back into the show. I think it's important to not let the assassin win, so with that in mind ...

I didn't have it on my bingo card that ABC would suspend Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show indefinitely this week. Maybe I should have.

Kimmel stopped doing comedy long ago, and has been nothing more than a mouthpiece for Democrats, a guy who spews hate at Trump and his supporters. Remember all the things he said during the pandemic, about letting the unvaccinated die?

You don't even need to go back that far. Just look at what the worthless bastard said earlier this year about Tesla, and the vandalism and violence against Tesla car owners and dealerships in response to Elon Musk's work with DOGE. He celebrated the stock price going down (it's way up right now, Jimmy), laughed at and cheered the vandalism.

If Kimmel had even a decent track record over the last 20 years, poking fun at both sides and simply being silly and funny, he likely would survive this controversy. Really, the misleading comments about Charlie Kirk’s shooter were just the last straw.

Now, despite him being such a prick for all these years, I think I did something really magnanimous for Kimmel this week. It looks like he's going to be out of a job permanently, so I gave Jimmy a little free advice on how to start his own independent show without his $16 million salary and ABC's massive budget. Spoiler alert: One thing he's going to have to get used to doing is shopping at Target.

Oh, and one other nugget of advice for Jimmy: this week might've been especially stressful, maybe added years to his life. Jimmy -- go ahead and check out our sponsor this week and use code RUBIN15 at checkout. I have a feeling you're going to need those supplements.

Obviously, trying to make sense of Charlie's killing is no easy task to begin with, but it's even harder if you pay attention to how the mainstream media frames the coverage.

Last weekend, details began to emerge about the alleged assassin's live-in boyfriend being someone who's in the process of transitioning from male to female. News outlets like CNN did all they could to avoid that angle of the story. It wasn't until Utah Gov. Spencer Cox hit the Sunday morning shows and spoke the words out loud that the mainstream media began covering that aspect of the story. Because they were forced to cover it.

But look at CNN's anchor Dana Bash's first question to Cox after he confirmed the suspected gunman is dating someone who's transitioning: "How is that relevant to the investigation when it comes to the motive?"

Excuse me, Dana. How is it not?

I know all the trans stuff can be confusing to people like Dana -- did she happen to hear the question Charlie was in the middle of answering when he was fatally shot? Did she see the engravings on the bullets? Over and over, Dana Bash continues to prove what a 🤡 🤡 🤡 she is.

So, trans issues could clearly be a motive -- one certainly worth investigating. This sort of obfuscating of facts that might indicate the shooter's motive is exactly why trust in mainstream media is at historic lows.

Also, it's worth pointing out that Charlie was against parents and doctors enabling children to change genders, which is something millions of Americans agree with. But the idea that Charlie hated trans people -- if it turns out that was the shooter's motive -- just ain't true.

And acknowledging the truth is one of the most critical aspects of this country trying to come together after this tragedy. One of those truths, which I talked at length about on the show this week, is that people like Kirk's alleged shooter are being radicalized by mainstream members of the Democratic party. People who are the most vocal members of the party in some cases, like AOC.

It’s all apparent in this recent YouGov poll showing that younger and more liberal people are increasingly OK with political violence. They’re just fine with it, according to this poll.

As JD Vance said when he was hosting Charlie's podcast this week, the truth right now is a "mountain." He talked about the same YouGov poll.

Yes, those numbers on the conservative side are too high, but they are nothing compared to what’s happening on the liberal side right now.

RFK Jr. back on top in our Trump administration power rankings

We skipped doing our weekly Top Trump Peeps poll last week out of respect for Charlie Kirk and the overall gravity of the situation surrounding his death. But the week before, you all sent RFK Jr to a resounding win, with Marco and Tom Homan taking second and third place. Much has happened since the last time you voted. Get your vote for next week’s ranking in ⬇️

Tweet of the week

What to know

• I’m going “down under” for the next leg of the Don’t Burn This World tour next month! I’ll be appearing at the Capitol Theatre in Melbourne on October, 18, and then at the Concourse in Sydney on October, 21. And I’ll be wrapping up the tour at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre on October 27. For more info and to get tickets, click here.

• Not surprisingly, the death of Charlie Kirk was the topic of discussion on this week’s episode of Actual Friends. Sage, Russell and I took a forward-looking approach to the conversation. Where do we go from here? How does the nation move forward? We also did look backward a little at that insane take by has-been talk show host Montell Williams in which he tried to portray the assassination of Charlie Kirk as the collateral damage in some twisted transgender love story. Unbelievable. Check out the new episode here, and make sure you’re subscribed so you don’t miss any episodes.

• Even if you're not that old (or haven’t had as bad a week as Jimmy Kimmel has), you might be starting to feel the effects of aging slowly creeping up on you. There’s an easy way to counteract that with Qualia’s Senalytic supplements. Click here to take advantage of the exclusive offer for readers of my newsletter.

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Until next week … — Dave