🔵 The Rubin Recap, Issue 9 | 7.11.25

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ALL SORTS OF STORIES PINGING ON THE RUBIN RADAR THIS WEEK

Hello, again, and welcome back to The Rubin Recap. Summer is flying by, and I’m now less than three weeks away from my annual off-the-grid August. More on that below, but right now I’m laser-focused on what’s happening in the news, and this is a newsletter — so let’s get to some of the news stories that were pinging on my Rubin radar this week. Unlike some people, you can count on me to not plead the Fifth on what’s happening in the news …

WHAT'S UP, DOC? BIDEN'S WHITE HOUSE PHYSICIAN PLEADS THE FIFTH 14 TIMES DURING CONGRESSIONAL DEPOSITION

You know that the autopen was working just fine during the Biden administration, even if Joe Biden, the man who pretended to be president for four years, was barely working at all. Even though people like me screamed about it from the rooftops for years, the mainstream media just got around to covering the story of Biden's mental decline, and now members of the House Oversight Committee are probing whether there was a White House cover-up about Biden's mental state. This week, they deposed Kevin O'Connor, Biden's former White House doctor.

During the deposition, O'Connor invoked the Fifth Amendment as well as doctor-patient privilege 14 times. When members of Congress asked O'Connor whether he'd ever been asked to lie about Biden's mental acuity, he pleaded the Fifth at the advice of his lawyer, who I’m certain didn’t use Shortform while in law school. He pleaded the Fifth 14 times in a matter of 20 minutes. Watch a quick compilation of each time he pleaded the Fifth right here.

The relationship between a doctor and a patient is certainly one that's protected, as it should be. And there's an argument to be made that O'Connor shouldn't betray that confidentiality. However, there's a counter-argument to be made that the President of the United States is not an ordinary patient, and Biden, who was above the age of 80 during his presidency, should have had his health scrutinized more closely than, say, a president in his 40s or 50s. But the fact that this doctor could not answer the question about whether he was asked to lie about Biden's condition tells you all you need to know. The question was simple: Were you told to lie? And he couldn't just say no. What -- was this his interpretation of the old Bill Clinton "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy from the '90s?

There is an extraordinary scandal here, and right now, this is looking like other scandals — think Fauci with COVID or everyone behind the "Russia, Russia, Russia" hoax — where the people who perpetrated them never pay a price. We don't know who the President of the United States was for four years, although this story is slowly being chipped away at.

Now, we do know who the White House press secretary was for part of the time Biden pretended to be president, and I have to imagine Karine Jean-Pierre is kicking herself after watching Kevin O'Connor, wishing she'd come up with the idea to plead the Fifth instead of going on a tour of cable news shows saying silly stuff like this.

JD VANCE EMERGING AS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION'S EXPLAINER-IN-CHIEF

As you know, we've got this Trump administration power rankings poll going, and JD Vance has had several solid showings in it so far -- more on who topped the rankings this week below -- and this is one of the reasons people have been impressed with the job he's doing as vice president: Vance is able to articulate ideas in a way that's a little more cerebral, a little more in-depth than the way Trump tackles an issue. Trump speaks in bumper-sticker slogans, which is great. It's why he resonates with such a huge slice of the electorate. But Vance can take philosophical deep dives on what's causing the political landscape in America to shake and shift.

If you're struggling at all to understand the rise of Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old communist candidate who's leading the polls in the NYC mayor's race, it will help to avail yourself of some varied perspectives. I like to take a look at a high-brow perspective and a low-brow perspective to keep things balanced. Let’s start with the high-brow.

Consider what JD Vance had to say over the Fourth of July weekend during a speech at The Claremont Institute’s Statesmanship Award Event about the Zorhan Mamdani phenomenon. He explained how several different factions of leftists, which seemingly might be opposed, can unite -- not around an ideology, but around an enemy — and how Mamdani is sort of the flavor of the week under this mindset.

“What unites Islamists, gender studies majors, socially liberal white urbanites, and big pharma lobbyists? It isn't the ideas of Thomas Jefferson or even Karl Marx," Vance told the audience. “It’s hatred. They hate the president of the United States. And, most of all, they hate the people who voted for that president of the United States in the last election in November.”

JD has been sort of overshadowed because, as our poll has been indicating, some other top Trump administration officials have been up to some big things recently. But don't take you're eye off JD Vance. Trump may be the commander-in-chief -- but, particularly for issues like what’s driving Zohran Mamdani’s rise, JD is the explainer-in-chief.

Of course, if you have a high-brow perspective on an issue, you need to balance that out with a low-brow perspective, which can be equally as enlightening. For that, I turn things over to performance artist Crackhead Barney, who caught up with Mamdani on the streets of New York and confronted him about some of his wildest lies:

EPSTEIN FILES INTRIGUE ECHOES IN D.C. AND BEYOND

With the Justice Department coming forward this week to claim that disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein did commit suicide while incarcerated in a New York jail and that he did not maintain a list of clients, intrigue across Washington, D.C., and beyond ramped up. And this is an emotional issue for some people, but, as I always try to do, I am covering this story in a measured way, taking a wait-and-see approach. Much of the controversy stems from an interview Pam Bondi gave earlier this year, in which she said Epstein's client list was sitting on her desk. Bondi this week said she was speaking more broadly about case files concerning Epstein, and wasn't referencing a specific list of clients or some kind of smoking gun evidence.

But that still didn't get her out of hot water. At Trump's cabinet meeting this week, a reporter also asked her whether Epstein was an asset of either the American or foreign intelligence community, and what was interesting was how Trump jumped in and answered that question. She was also questioned about the 10-hour-long jailhouse video the Justice Department released, which Bondi says proves no one entered Epstein's cell and that he did kill himself, was missing one minute of footage. Here's her answer to that -- and again, I'm not going to take part in wild speculation as some others may be doing. If more comes out, we'll certainly cover it. 

NEW SUPERMAN MOVIE SET TO BE A SUPER BOMB?

It's interesting -- I watched the original Superman movie recently, the one starring Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder, and there was a line that caught my attention from a scene that really centers on the romance budding between Superman and Lois Lane. Lane, who's interviewing Superman, asks him, "Why are you here?" Superman responds, saying, "I'm here to fight for truth, and justice and the American way." Obviously, that’s an iconic movie line, but there’s some real meaning to it. It wasn’t just a throwaway line in the script. Keep in mind, Superman is actually an alien who arrived on Earth as a baby -- but he wholesale and unapologetically adopted American values when he grew up.

Think about that in the context of how the new Superman movie is being discussed. I’m not sure if the people involved in making the latest Superman movie remember that unapologetically American aspect of the character. The trailer for the new Superman movie looks pretty good, and maybe the movie is good. But the people involved in making the movie are spouting woke catchphrases and trying to politicize the movie, because God forbid anyone in Hollywood can openly embrace traditional American values, or just let a movie be a movie rather than a vehicle to score political points. The things that are being said about this movie remind me of the all-female version of Ghostbusters that came out in 2016. And that movie was a box office bomb. I don't even know why they're making a new Superman movie -- why not just re-release the old one into theaters? Marlon Brando as Jor-El -- that movie would clean up. Anyway, here's some of the rhetoric being attached to the new movie, which opens this weekend:

RUBIO THREE-PEATS IN ‘TOP 10 TRUMP PEEPS’ POLL — GET YOUR VOTE IN FOR NEXT WEEK

For the third week in a row, Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed the top spot in The Rubin Report’s "Top 10 Trump Peeps" power rankings, outpacing RFK Jr. and Tom Homan, who tied for second place. You have to wonder what Rubio’s domination of this very informal power rankings poll could mean for any White House aspirations he may hold. Also, Scott Bessant’s showing in this poll for the last two weeks has been strong. And, as I mentioned above, don’t go to sleep on JD Vance. With that in mind, get your vote in below — leave a comment if you’d like — and see the results on next Thursday’s episode of The Rubin Report.

CONGRESS IN THE HOUSE FOR FRIDAY RUBIN REPORT ROUNDTABLE

Chairwoman of the House GOP, Rep. Lisa McClain of Michigan, and Rep. Beth Van Duyne of Texas joined me on the Friday roundtable for a discussion on the upgrades to the ICE budget provided by Trump’s signing of the '“big beautiful bill,” why Stacey Abrams’ comments about the border crisis prove how out of touch Democrats are with voters, Anderson Cooper of CNN spreading baseless rumors about Kristi Noem holding up FEMA’s disaster relief to the areas hit by the catastrophic Texas flooding, Donald Trump’s blunt response to news of a criminal investigation being launched to look into James Comey and John Brennan, and much more. Watch:

TWEET OF THE WEEK

WHAT TO KNOW

• All week on the show, we covered various aspects of the flooding tragedy that unfolded over Fourth of July weekend in central Texas, including some of the ways the catastrophe has been politicized by some on the left and in the mainstream media. Above all, let’s not forget about the victims and survivors of the disaster. If you want to contribute to those who survived the flooding as well as the rescue and recovery efforts, make a donation to the Kerr County Flood Relief Fund. I made a donation myself earlier this week — every little bit helps.

• I’m less than three weeks from my annual off-the-grid August! This will be the 9th straight year that I’ve gone off the grid — no internet, no connection to the news cycle for an entire month. You know the drill by now. But now that we have the newsletter, we’re planning something different for August while I’m off the grid. So be ready for the newsletter to shift to a Monday-Friday schedule. That’s right — five newsletters a week during August. How am I going to do it? More details on that coming soon.

• Cases and cases of Copal continued to ship this week. The first batch is officially sold out, but if you want to get on the waiting list for the second batch, which is being made now, you can do so at drinkcopal.com. In the meantime, follow Copal on Instagram here to stay up to date, and newsletter readers will be notified first when the next batch is ready. And that reminds me, a viewer named Shelly had a great question in this week’s Community Q&A. She’s not a tequila drinker, but ordered a bottle of Copal and asked, “Should it be room temperature or cold or on ice? Can it be mixed in coffee or anything else?” Of course, Copal is great for margaritas and mojitos, but I’ve never tried spiking my coffee with tequila. So, I’m going to look into it, Shelly, and get back to you. And newsletter readers — maybe some of you have tried a shot of tequila in your coffee and can weigh in?

• Also, during this week’s Community Q&A, Marcus asked, "Now that we know how not to ‘trust the experts’ after all the COVID lies, do you find yourself more skeptical regarding health advice you see online?" It’s a great question, and my response is simple — I'm not giving anybody health advice on anything. I know that the carnivore diet has largely worked for me, but the same may not be true for everyone. Pay attention to your body, because it can talk to you. Be skeptical, try things, see how your body feels about things, and adjust accordingly from there.

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

• A new episode of Actual Friends came out at 3 p.m. on Friday and we discussed all manner of controversy, including Charlize Theron’s remakrs on the Call Me Daddy podcast, the slur that sank a Love Island USA contestant, and Elon Musk launching a new political party — subscribe here and tap that notification bell so you don’t miss any episodes.

• Don’t forget about Shortform, this week’s sponsor, which has a terrific offer exclusively for readers of this newsletter: Sign up and get 20% off.

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Until next week … — Dave