💬 The Rubin Recap: The Sunday return to normalcy

Clowns talking to members of Congress

I spend most of my time each Sunday in your inbox talking about how the country has been journeying back to normal ever since Trump was on his way to winning the 2024 election, and especially since he returned to office. However, every now and then, there are reminders — some of them subtle and others that are like a roundhouse directly to the face — that America has not yet achieved full normalcy.

This week, we had one of those reminders take place during a congressional hearing. It was a full-blown 🤡 show and all caught on tape. As we used to say back in the day, total bananas moment.

The House Committee on Education and Workforce held a hearing Tuesday on the impact of DEI inside medical schools, and one of the people addressing the concerns of the committee was the chancellor of the medical school at the University of California San Francisco, Dr. Sam Hawgood.

If you watched the show this week, or were scrolling social media, you saw the remark he made that went mega-viral.

“The vast majority of pregnancies are in women,” Hawgood said, in response to a line of questioning from U.S. Representative Mary Miller of Illinois. His statement literally made her jaw drop.

And it was not the only bonkers comment he made during the hearing. If you missed it, or any of the other ridiculous remarks he made, watch the video. We did a full recap of it.

I cannot believe this gender insanity is still happening in America in the year 2026. This is the stuff of 2021.

Now, this man — Sam Hawgood — is not an idiot. He can’t be. He’s a highly-decorated medical professional with a sterling resume. He’s a medical doctor. So why is he saying such idiotic things? He even admitted he has “absolutely no problem with using the word pregnant women.” Why then is his school advising students to use a term like “pregnant people?”

I wish the news cameras could’ve gotten some sort of side-angle view at the hearing that showed some blue-haired Antifa leftist holding a gun to Hawgood’s back as he made these absurd statements. Because that is the only logical reason I can come up with to explain why a medical doctor — who by every other indication is a smart, rational and normal person — would be spewing this sort of anti-science nonsense during a congressional hearing.

What we saw this week is an example of the metaphor I just described above. There are still corners of America being held hostage by woke extremists. Yeah, the gun mentioned above is a metaphor, but sometimes these wackjobs use real guns. American college campuses are probably the leading U.S. institution where wokeists still have a stronghold.

The fact is, Trump is not a king. He’s a president and there’s only so much he can do to help America get back to normal. There’s only so much I can do talking about it on the show all the time. Only so much Elon Musk and others can do highlighting the issue on X.

At some point, people like Sam Hawgood need to reach down within themselves, summon a little bit of courage, and show some real leadership. Anything less is, as Mary Miller aptly put it directly to Hawgood, ridiculous. And it sure as hell isn’t normal.

James Lindsay on the state of MAGA and the threats posed to Trump’s movement

James Lindsay made his return to The Rubin Report to discuss all things MAGA, the insidious threat that could unravel Trump’s movement and much more. James touched on divisions within the MAGA base and analyzed Tucker Carlson’s perplexing arc over the last year or so. Has the former Fox News host been tricked? And where are all of his clicks and views really coming from? Lindsay also talked about Charlie Kirk — can’t believe it’s been nearly a year since Charlie was taken from us — and the major issue that had Charlie worried about for the future of Talking Points USA as well as the MAGA movement as a whole. Charlie was beginning to warn about it when his voice was silenced last September. Always a thought-provoking conversation when sitting down with James — check it below. 🤔