- They have reached
their final stage.
This is literally, of this
era that they're in right now,
this is their final stage
in saying race, racism
race is the problem, race,
black people, race, race, race,
systematic racism, that's
why you're not successful.
Elect us, we will help you.
So this is kind of the
final stage of this.
And if it wasn't, then there
wouldn't be so many voices
like mine, like our
friend, Candace Owens,
like so many other black
voices, Ayanna Pressley.
Our voices are
still black voices.
And there's so many of those
voices that are saying,
wait a minute, this stuff
isn't necessarily true.
(warm instrumental music)
- I'm Dave Rubin, and
this is the Rubin Report.
Do yourself a favor,
everyone, and subscribe
to our YouTube channel and
click that notification bell
so you might just
see our videos.
And joining me today
is an Iraq veteran,
host of Rob Smith
is Problematic,
and the author of the new
book, "Always a Soldier:
Service, Sacrifice,
and Coming Out
as America's Favorite
Black, Gay Republican."
Rob Smith, welcome
to the Rubin Report.
- Thanks for having me, Dave.
- Wordy title, Rob, wordy title.
- It's a wordy title, but
I think the main thing
is always a soldier
and the subheading
is America's favorite
black gay Republican.
I have to put that in there,
peaks people's interest.
- Yes, all right, well,
we're going to talk
about that black gay
Republican thing obviously.
And we've talked
about it before,
and you've been on the
show and we're buddies,
but if I'm not mistaken,
you've been doing
lockdown in Brooklyn.
That's like ground zero
of this, this crazy thing.
How's it going?
- Terrible, actually
New York is, you know,
it is very, very bad.
It's bad for your
physical health,
it's bad for your mental health.
It's a very, very weird
situation that's going on
in New York City right now.
And look, there are some signs
that people are
returning to normalcy.
We've got dining on the
streets, which is nice,
but when you walk around and
everybody's wearing the mask,
it's like you're
in a zombie movie.
And you see people driving
around solo wearing the mask
and you see people walking
around in the fresh and open air
in the mask, it's
just, it's weird.
And it's sort of engenders
this sense of hysteria
that is not
particularly warranted.
- Yeah, does it strike you as
depending whether you're wired
to just sort of
listen to authority
and no matter what they
say, you're going to do it,
or if you're someone
with a little more
of a rebellious streak,
you're going to be
a little more questioning of it.
Is that really just the divide
we have in society right now
when it comes to this?
- That's the divide
because here's the thing.
Now the mask issue has
become so politicized.
So now there's the good people
and the bad people, right?
So if you're good, you're
wearing a mask all the time.
You're always social
distancing no matter what.
I had dinner with a buddy
of mine and his husband
is good, you know, he's good.
And he was just
like, we can't share.
And we have to social
distance, we have to do that.
So it is, and the thing
that strikes me the most
is there are people out there,
not to get too heavily
in the politics,
but the people out here that
utterly hate the government,
hate the administration,
hate all of this stuff.
And yet, yet they will follow
these rules to the tee.
And it's really, it's just
strange to me, it's bizarre.
- Did you just
say you don't want
to get too deep into politics?
Do you know what
show you're doing?
- Oh, I know it show I'm doing,
but I think when I say I don't
wanna get too deep, like,
I don't want to sit here
and talk about the president
for the next 45 minutes, but
just even deeper than that,
it's the rebels that are out
here that are saying, okay,
look, you know, we know
the science of this.
I probably don't
need to wear a mask
when I'm in my car,
driving by myself.
And, that's the divide
that we have, right?
It's strange.
- Do you sense that
people in New York
are going to have some point
where they snap, where they go,
oh, maybe Cuomo wasn't as great
as the media portrayed him
to be at the beginning, and
he sent all those people back
into the old age
homes and the fact
that these rolling lockdowns
continue and everything else?
- I mean, I think that people
are asking the conversation,
but what you have to
understand about Cuomo is that
there is such an infrastructure
protecting him right now.
When you talk about
the mainstream media,
where is most of it based?
Most of is based
in New York, right?
So this is why we have
this narrative right now
that's going on where
it's saying, oh,
well now Florida is the
epicenter of coronavirus.
And the numbers in no
way, shape, or form
when it comes to
hospitalizations,
when it comes to any
of those metrics that
they introduced, you know,
in those 15 days to slow
the spread that ended up
being whatever day
we're on right now.
So Florida is not hitting
any of those metrics at all,
but yet the narrative has
changed to make Florida
the epicenter, to make
Florida the bad guy,
to make Ron DeSantis
the bad guy,
because of course
he's a Republican
and Cuomo is going to be
their kind of great hope,
they think, for 2024 because
I believe that they know
that Biden has
problems and they know
that he's not likely to win.
So they're protecting
Cuomo right now.
It's really unfortunate.
But I think that more people
see through the nonsense
now than before.
So, you know, that gives
me a little bit of hope.
- Yeah, as of our taping this,
'cause we are holding
this for a little bit,
it's something like 10
times the death in New York
than there are in Florida.
It's something around
there, which you would think
maybe the media
would pick up on,
but only those far right
websites are big on that.
- Yeah, those far right.
- I know we could talk
about corona the whole time,
but I have some notes here.
And according to my
paper here you are black.
Is that correct?
- That is correct.
I am black, I'm
a black American.
- Okay, I vaguely remember that
from the last time
were were together.
Let's talk about race
because nobody else
is talking about race.
Let's talk about
race a little bit.
- Oh, nobody else
is talking about it.
- There's a lot of weird
stuff going on about race.
Suddenly, America's
the most evil,
racist nation in the
history of the world.
You've got, you know, the whole,
I would say Democratic
machine is running on the idea
that Trump has just
proliferated racism,
but also the system was
deeply racist before him,
which is quite a condemnation
of Biden and Schumer
and Pelosi, and everybody else
that's been around forever.
What do you feel is the
temperature right now?
Just in a broad sense.
- I mean, I feel like
honestly, the temperature when,
there are two different
worlds here, right?
There's our social media world,
and the social media world
on Twitter and Facebook
and Instagram and
everywhere else
is constantly at
each other's throats.
There's all this
division, there's all this
because the powers that be,
particularly on the left right
now, they want that division.
They think that ginning up that
stuff is going to push them
back into power, but there's
also the real world as well.
And, I think, and maybe this
is just my unabashed optimism
for America, but I think
that there's a conversation
that is happening in the real
world that is nowhere near
as elevated and heightened
as the conversation
in social media.
But look, I think that what
you have going on right now is
the Democrats and the left,
they have reached
their final stage.
This is literally, of this
era that they're in right now,
this is their final stage
in saying race, racism,
race is the problem, race,
black people, race, race, race,
systematic racism, that's
why you're not successful.
Elect us, we will help you.
So this is kind of the
final stage of this.
And if it wasn't, then there
wouldn't be so many voices
like mine, like our
friend, Candace Owens,
like so many other black
voices, Ayanna Pressley.
Our voices are
still black voices.
And there's so many of those
voices that are saying,
wait a minute, this stuff
isn't necessarily true.
And that gives me
hope that there can be
a more elevated conversation,
but let me tell you, I hope,
and I truly do pray that
they lose in November
not because I am praying
so much for the Republicans
and the president is going
to save our republic.
Although there's a
big part of that,
but they have to realize that
this is not the way for power.
This is not the way for votes.
And I think that they
have to get shellacked
a couple of times to
really figure it out.
And there's going to be a
lot of collateral damage
in the form of the minds of some
of the young African Americans
that they are
literally destroying
by selling this message
that racism is the number
one problem in their life
in order to get
votes for Democrats.
It's destructive,
it's insidious.
And I think that people are
starting to wake up to it.
- I like the way
you described that.
'Cause it does feel like
we're sort of getting,
if this is a video game,
we're getting to the big boss.
We're getting to the final
boss where for eight levels
they've just ramped up the
racism, racism, homophobia,
blah-blah-blah, and
now we're there.
Like, this election is it.
And it almost seems to me
that all they've got to run on
is that America is racist.
And if they don't
have that, it's like,
I don't think anyone
buys any of the policies.
And unfortunately, just
the way the media operates
right now, this isn't going to
be an election about policy.
This is an election about
basically racism and socialism
versus capitalism and
freedom, something like that.
- Yeah, you know, it is.
And Dave, the thing
that always strikes me
because I watch some of the
left leaning stuff, and God,
I see this, you know,
never ending clown car of
the black liberals that come
up and they talk about stuff.
So case in point, so
the McCloskey situation
where this couple was defending
themselves from an angry mob
who had by the way, broken
into private property.
And on the left with
the black pundits
that somehow becomes about race.
And that somehow becomes
the idea of these people
inflicting their white supremacy
on these black protesters.
Number one, those protesters
were not peaceful.
Number two, they
were not all black.
And number three, the
last time I checked
the Second Amendment and
the right to bear arms
is for everybody, it's
not just for white people.
So I'm struck when I
see these conversations,
how quickly and how easily
they removed all agency
from black people in America
and from African Americans
in general, all of
our agency is removed
in these conversations.
- Yeah, well, it's
also incredible
because they try to paint
the McCloskeys as evil
for defending their property
as we're watching all
this stuff burn down,
but it's not like the
McCloskeys woke up that morning
and were like, we're
going to go shoot people.
They had those guns
for a long time.
It sounds like they were
actually democratic donors,
at least at one point and
supported Black Lives Matters.
It's not like they were
just sitting there waiting
to start some stuff.
It literally showed
up at their door
and then they
defended themselves.
But that's actually a
good transition to media
'cause you're a media,
what can I call you?
Assassin, I suppose as well.
You've just had it with
the mainstream media, too,
because this is the
stuff they're endlessly
peddling, right?
- Well, it is, and a lot of
people don't realize, Dave,
so I went to Columbia
Journalism School.
I got my master's
degree from Columbia.
I worked in media
production for years
before I decided to come out
and say what I really thought
and do all this for myself.
So I know all the games, dude,
I know about crafting a tweet
and leaving half
of the quote off.
I know what fake news is
because sometimes fake news,
or actually most of the time,
fake news isn't an outright
lie, but more a half truth.
And so you see past
all these games.
When I first came
out as conservative,
one of the first friends that
I lost got deeply offended
when I told him, and not in
a condescending way at all,
told him that I have
been working in this,
at that point, for
about five to six years.
And I know these games and
you're not media literate enough
to see this, and he got
deeply offended by it.
And then that was it and
just like, it's whatever.
But people didn't
realize these games.
And I think the deeper
we get into this,
we see it over and
over and over again.
And folks like, like you and I,
when there is an outright
lie, and I mean a whopper,
it has to be shut down so
quick because if you don't
then it becomes
part of the lexicon
and it becomes common knowledge.
Case in point Trump's
"very fine people" comment,
which has been
debunked so many times,
but it is canon among the left.
And that's because, and that
was a failing on the right,
because they didn't shut
that down immediately,
immediately when
they should have.
- You know, what's
interesting about that one
is that for people that
don't know, a minute,
not even a minute, 30
seconds before Trump said,
"very fine people on both
sides," he absolutely condemned
the Neonazis and the
white supremacists.
But what's really amazing
about it is that Biden,
when he launched his campaign,
that's the video he used,
the very fine people, and
he's talking about America
being racist and
everything else.
And he knows he can get
away with it because nobody
in the media is gonna
do anything about it.
And then yeah, us on
Twitter, we'll hit back,
but he knows CNN and
MSNBC and everybody else
is gonna run cover for him.
- Of course they knew.
And honestly, he knew it
when he played the video.
Look, at a certain point, and
I think that media bashing
is definitely,
it's a fun pastime
that a lot of us like
to do on the right.
But at a certain point,
you can fool some of the
people some of the time,
but you cannot fool all
the people all the time.
And what is going to
happen on the left
is people are going to
start asking questions.
They're going to start
asking bad questions.
They're going to
start asking questions
that they shouldn't
have asked before.
And then they will
be excommunicated
just like you were,
just as I was.
And so I think, and you have
been way at the forefront
of this because you saw
all of this stuff coming
for a long time
before the rest of us.
And so then the
same thinking people
are going to have to figure out,
what do we create that is
new, that is fact-based?
And you can be, look, some of
my best friends are liberals.
You can be a liberal and not
be an insane left, right?
Just like you can
be a conservative
and not be super
crazy far right.
But at a certain point,
the grownups are going
to have to take control
of the conversation here.
And that's what
I'm trying to do.
And I know that's what
you have been doing.
- Yeah, so all right, let's
make this about us for a second.
- Okay.
- So if you take two guys
like us, you take Dave Rubin,
you take Rob Smith and you go,
wait a minute, these guys
sorta seem like what would be,
I think you could call
sort of new conservative,
something like that.
We don't look like, you know,
we're both married to dudes.
That's a little different than,
you know, traditional
conservatism.
- Yeah.
- What do you think
our kind of new role or the
younger, newer conservative role
is within the
conservative movement?
- Okay, so this is what I think.
And I've been, I think about
this a lot and it's like,
everything that I'm
doing from here on out
with everything that we'll be
talking about in a little bit
is about this so it's
like, how do we usher in
the conservative movement
into this new era
where you got more black people,
you got more People of Color,
you got more gays,
you got whatever.
And I think that what we do is
we define a love for country
and a love for America that
is not completely uncritical,
but it is not based in some
sort of idea that it was created
to permanently and perpetually
keep people like us
in some way, oppressed,
because I think that the,
and I was speaking with Lara
Trump earlier about this thing.
So this is about creating
a more perfect union.
So this is not about pretending
that America was always perfect.
This is about
perfecting this union.
And we have to open up this
idea of the American experiment
to everybody because what
the left says right now
to people like you
and people like me
and a lot of different people
is that America
was never for you.
America is not for you,
you cannot survive here.
You cannot exist here,
this system is racist.
And the only way that you will
ever be free or be successful
is if you join with us
in tearing this all down
via socialism, leftism,
whatever you want to call it.
And so our job is to
reach out to not only
to people like us, but also
these mainstream conservatives
that look like your
typical conservative.
Those people make up
a lot of the people
that follow both of us.
And to kind of bring
everybody into this idea
of what is America and
how do we love America
from all vantage points?
- Yeah, I think the hard
part for some people,
when they see what people like
we are doing, people like us,
I think the hard part is
they go, well, wait a minute.
There's still such a strong
religious bent to the right
that this just
doesn't make sense.
They think you guys are
sinners, something like that.
And people will go, well, Rubin,
how can you be
friends with Shapiro?
And it's like, yes,
he has a different view
of biblical marriage,
but he's not trying
to legislate my life.
It does put a cap on
our friendship, right.
I can be friends with you in
a way that I can't be with him
because of that thing, but I
know he's way more tolerant
than all the other people
that are screaming about
tolerance all the time.
But what would you say
to a young gay person
that is trying to
become part of this
or understand this, what would
you say to them about that?
- I would say to them
that, that first of all,
just like, you articulated
it pretty well,
is that a difference of opinion
and actively legislating
against things are two
different things, right?
And, you know, it gets
into the religious freedom
conversation, which is a whole
other conversation as well.
But this is what I say
to the younger gay person
that is reaching out to me that
may be leaning conservative
and that has problems
with religious thing.
First of all, I tell
them, number one,
you know, you're
Jewish, I'm Christian.
I think that the left
and the far left uses,
they use this idea that
most evangelical Christians
are super far right, hate
gay people, all of that stuff
to separate them
from the gift that is
having a connection to
whatever your belief is.
For me, it's that
belief in Christianity
and the belief in God
And they would want to
separate these guys,
these young gays and
lesbians from that,
so that they can worship
at the alter of leftism,
so that they can worship
at the alter of politics,
so that they can
worship at the altar of,
as I always call
it, the LGBTQ cult.
So they want these kids
worshiping at that altar
and not at the altar
of their creator,
whoever they
believe that may be,
if that makes any sense at all.
And I'll tell you, furthermore,
that I have made inroads
with a lot of these
conservative Christians.
And they'll say, look,
I still believe like you
and Ben Shapiro, even
though you and Ben Shapiro
are both Jewish, I'll
have these conversations
with these conservative
Christians and they'll say,
my belief is that marriage
is between a man and a woman.
That is what I believe,
but you go ahead and
live your best life.
And if neither of us are hurting
each other, we can coexist.
And that is tolerant.
- That is tolerance,
that is America.
You know, it's like I spoke
at Liberty University,
the largest evangelical
college in the United States
in front of 14,000 kids.
It was like a true
political rally,
the biggest crowd I've
ever spoken in front of.
And they freaking loved me.
And I went around
campus all day long,
shaking hands and hugging
people and it was great.
And it's like, those are
the intolerant people?
I think we're doing something
backwards over here.
- Yeah, maybe.
And it seems like
nowadays, like, look,
the most intolerant
people are on the left.
These are the people that
are the most intolerant.
These are the people
that are the most likely
to throw out slurs, you
know, homophobe, racist,
Nazi, all of this other stuff.
The people who even
slightly disagree with any
of their stuff, or even gently
call out leftist policies,
This is what they do,
these are shutdown terms.
I hope that they start
to mean less as we move
into this new world
we're trying to get into.
- Yeah, so I know you hate
sort of the phrase community,
whether we were say
the black community
or the LGBT community,
'cause we are all individuals
ultimately.
- Yeah.
- But sometimes we just
need some of these words
to explain situations, but
do you sense a really weird
tension in the black
community related to identity
because of color and
then the sexuality thing?
Because it seems to me, and
we keep seeing videos of this
pop up online, where
there'll be black people
that are suddenly, they're stuck
in this intersectional thing
and they're suddenly going, no,
I have traditional beliefs
and I'm not down with
all that LGBT stuff.
- Yeah.
- And these things
have been sort of morphed
into a very weird thing
where suddenly, you have to be,
suddenly black
trans lives matter.
I'm personally fine with
black trans people, of course,
but suddenly they create this
thing where it's just like,
you have to be for
all of these things
no matter what your
other set of beliefs are.
- So that is the rub right
now with Black Lives Matter
because when you go to
the Black Lives Matter,
the organization's
website, right?
And then I'm not
talking about, you know,
the Don Lemon's one
uncover in the media.
I'm not talking about.
When you go to the
organization's website,
they say things like
they're in favor
of abolishing the
nuclear family,
censoring LGBTQIA+ queer
people, all of this stuff,
all of this stuff
that the vast majority
of regular working class black
Americans are not super into
or even down with so there is
a lot of that tension there.
And this is the problem
with, when you let brands,
organizations, and
corporations define black
because Black Lives Matter
does not define black.
My blackness is not defined
by Black Lives Matter
or any of their founders or
any of the people that have,
you know, put themselves
in the position
to speak for this organization.
Like I said, this
is an organization,
it's a corporation.
This is a business, and
they don't speak for me.
So there is a lot
of tension there.
And furthermore, so
I talk a lot about,
I say LGBTQ cult a lot, right?
So there are gays and
there are lesbians
and there are bisexuals and
there are transgender people,
most of which are law
abiding taxpaying citizens
that just wants to
live their lives
and pretty much be left alone.
Then there is the LGBTQ cult.
And the cultists say
that you will listen
to whatever we say, whatever
we change is the idea.
So if we want to use pronouns,
this is what you call us
or else we will fine you.
If you do not agree with
adding transgender women
to the spaces for actual
women, you are now transphobic.
And it is all of that
stuff that is going crazy.
And it's stuff, and
I break this down.
There's a whole
chapter in this book
called escaping the LGBTQ cult
where I kind of break
all that stuff down.
And that is the stuff that
most people are not down with.
Most people don't care
about gays and lesbians.
We're past that point now, but
they see all the cult stuff
and they think that that
represents all of us.
And it just doesn't.
- Yeah, so let's talk about
the cult stuff a little bit.
'Cause we we've talked about
this privately a bunch,
that the T part of this, the
transgender part, you and I,
as gay people, we have no
more insight into what it is
to be a trans person than
a straight person does.
We were born in the right body.
We have same-sex attraction,
but that's not being born,
in the wrong body that you
identify with, let's say.
Yet the T thing has sort of now
taken over the entire movement.
And you were telling
me last time I saw you
that you think it's
actually rabidly anti-gay.
And I think it's a pretty
interesting theory.
- Yeah, so look, the
transgender movement
as we know it today,
especially the very hard left
transgender movement is one of
the most homophobic movements
I've ever seen in my life
because it is this idea
that if you are a gay man or
even a gay boy, because now,
you know, a feminine little boy
is now being pushed towards
transition and puberty blockers
and all of this other stuff
by the radical left of
this transgender movement.
So it's this idea that if you
are in some way not conforming
to typical standards of gender,
then you must be the
other gender, right?
The literally other sex.
So if you're a
little fem gay boy,
then no, you're really a woman.
If you're a masculine sort
of like butchy, you know,
lesbian then no,
you're really a man.
And from what I've
learned about some of the,
you'll call them, they
call them radical feminists
that are really fighting
against that ideology,
is that this
transgender movement
and the radical elements of it
are affecting teenage
girls the most.
And so you have a high
preponderance of teenage girls
who basically are
just going to end up
being lesbians, right?
Because you realize that
most gay and lesbian tweens,
teenagers who are gender
nonconforming in some way,
upwards of 80% of
them just end up
being regular gays and lesbians.
But the idea is to stop
all of this in its tracks
before puberty is actually done
so that we can create more
transgender people in this.
There are going to be some
people that are watching it
that think that I am
absolutely crazy, right,
but this is happening
before our very eyes.
And the mainstream
media is so afraid
to stand up against that
lobby they do not report that.
I worked very hard
on that chapter
in my book that deals with this.
And there are documented
stories about, God,
when you want to
talk about women
who are born men
in women's prisons,
sexually assaulting
female inmates documented.
And you have somebody
like Joe Biden
that is literally running on,
your gender is
what you say it is.
And if that's so then
they should be put
in women's prisons.
And this is something that
Joe Biden has literally said.
It's in the book.
- Yeah.
- It's a real thing,
and it's another way
the media is running
cover for them, right?
- Yeah, just to keep going
with that for a second.
The twisted part of it is
that they, in many ways
are the ones who are
conforming more so
to traditional ideas of gender
because they're the
ones that are going,
oh, if you're a boy, but you
act a little more feminine.
So you're five years old.
And instead of playing
with G.I. Joes, as I did,
you play with Barbie, well,
then we must transition
you to a girl.
So oddly, it's their view
of gender that in many ways
is more traditional than
someone just saying,
okay, he's a boy,
he plays with Barbie
and he'll grow up to
love whoever he loves.
- It's true, and you know what?
The more insidious thing about
the far-left trans movement
that's going on right
now is that they have,
they are starting to
align themselves with
the more hardcore
homophobic elements of
the religious right.
So we're talking far right.
The people that haven't really
gotten over their homophobia
because in some of
these people's minds,
they would rather have
a transgender daughter
than a gay son, right?
They would rather
have a trans son
than just a daughter
that is lesbian.
And you see a lot of that
stuff happening right now.
So there's this very
weird sort of alignment
that's happening on the
fringes on the very far left
and the very far
right, it's homophobic.
It has obviously no
basis in real science.
And look, I take a lot of stuff,
when I really dig deep into
this, but I've fought, okay,
for the rights of gays and
lesbians for my entire career.
And I just want these young
gay and lesbian teenagers
to be comfortable
with who they are
because they're being set down
a path that is going to lead
down to nothing but
permanent unhappiness
and the physical
destruction of their bodies.
And this idea that
somehow transitioning
is going to make them happy.
And look, the
post-transition suicide rates
do not bear that out
They're very, very high.
So if this was really,
truly making people happy,
then why did the
suicide rates go up
post-transition instead of down?
- Did you watch the show
"Transparent" by any chance?
- I didn't, it was just a
little too, I don't know.
I was just like,
I wasn't into it.
- It became pretty
SJW, you know, heavy,
but there was an interesting
moment where, you know,
the story is about the father
of this family transitioning.
And there's a moment where
another trans person says to him
something to the effect of,
this is going to destroy your
whole family and your life.
And he basically was like.
- Wow.
- Well, I'm going to go
ahead and do it anyway.
I thought that was an
interesting, sort of honest,
interesting moment of this,
but that we just
celebrate all this stuff
without thinking what some
of the consequences are.
And again, that's not to be
against someone who genuinely
is trans doing what they
think is right for them.
- Yeah, and I mean, it is.
And it's so funny, that moment,
that sounds like the compelling
moment it had to have come
during the first season
before, because I think
that they did that show--
- Yeah, it was.
I think it was the last episode,
last episode of the first
season, if I'm not mistaken.
- It had to have been because
they were probably creating
the show in like a
creative bubble where
they were allowing themselves
to have those conversations.
And then once something comes
out and then the far left
owns it and then they
dictate what is safe to say
or not to say, they
dictate what conversations
are available to have.
And remember, speaking
of "Transparent"
they got that guy Jeffrey
Tambor, the actor, right?
They got him drug off the
show for whatever reason.
So look, these people
destroy whatever they touch,
first of all, and second of
all, that sounds compelling.
And it's unfortunate that they
went over into SJW territory,
but when the cult gets
their clutches in you
there's nowhere else to go.
- Yeah, let's shift to
something we've talked about
a little bit before, but
let's preempt the haters, Rob.
They're going to
say, wait a minute,
how could the subtitle
of this book be,
America's favorite
gay, black, Republican?
He's using their language.
He's using identity politics.
Rob...
- Oh no.
- What's going on here, Rob?
- You know that is such a common
misconception and critique.
Oh, you say that you're so
against identity politics,
and yet you're America's
favorite black gay Republican.
Okay, so first of all, I use
identity politics in this way
because yes, everybody uses
identity politics, right?
So I use identity politics in
this way so that I can tell
other gay people, other
black people, and some people
that like me or both that they
don't have to be on the left.
They don't have to be Democrats.
They don't have to be liberals.
They don't have to be leftists
just because of their immutable
characteristic that happened
at birth, that they have
zero control over, right?
And so that is the idea,
because if you can get that
broken down in people's minds,
then we can actually
start talking about ideas,
and we can start talking about,
what are the best solutions
on the path toward American
prosperity or American success
or the American evolution,
whatever you want to talk about.
But the more, the more the
left is able to engage people
that look like me, that have
my same sexual orientation,
whatever, the more that the
left and leftism is able
to reign them in their clutches
based purely on these
immutable characteristics.
I think the weaker that
we become as Americans
and the further we get from
that identity as Americans,
that I'm trying to push us.
So that is why I use identity
politics in this way.
That is why I call myself
America's favorite
black gay Republican.
For anybody that has
any problems with that,
you don't have to support me.
You don't have to buy the book.
You don't have to
do anything at all.
- Look at you.
You're not going to force
people to support you.
You truly are a liberty lover.
- Truly, truly.
- So remember all the way
back when to like February,
when we were pre-pandemic
and we were having those
democratic debates,
do you remember
that time of life?
- It was a long time.
- Oh my God.
It seems like a million
years ago at this point.
- So there was one of the
debates when the Democrats
were all going on and
on, Bernie and Elizabeth
and the whole crew about
how racist America was.
And I tweeted out something
to the effect of, I said,
you know, I think
it sounds crazy,
but Trump's going to get
30% of the black vote
and they know it and that's
why they're freaking out.
Because before the pandemic,
we know that black unemployment
was at an all-time low.
There was that crazy moment
at the State of the Union
where he actually, Trump
actually says that,
and you watch the members of
the Congressional Black Caucus
sit there like this as
if this is a problem.
I thought that's why
they have their caucus
because we want people to
be prosperous and all that.
Then we have now these
months of race stuff.
What do you think
is going to happen?
Which way do you think the
black vote is going to break
at the end of all of this?
- Well look, I think that
pre-pandemic, honestly,
things were going so
well for everybody.
If would have asked me
that question pre-pandemic,
I would have said, oh yeah,
you know, 30, 40%, whatever.
You know, that was
probably a little high
even before pre-pandemic.
But I think that what
you're saying right now,
this race war that the
left is fully behind
and really wants to happen.
And all of this idea of
race and all this stuff,
you have to understand that
these people are freaking out.
They are terrified
that black Americans
are really starting to
see past their game.
When you look at a
millennial like me,
I have lived through
a little bit of this
and I used to be on the left
and I've made no bones
about that, but it just gets
to the point where you've
seen this all before.
So you've seen
this story play out
over and over and over again.
So when you get to the
point where you're like me
and you're post-30 and you're
just looking at this stuff
and then you start
saying, wait a minute.
And you start
thinking differently.
And then you amass a platform
where people actually start
listening to your thoughts.
And there are people
like me and God,
there's so many
people out there.
There's me and then
Candace and Brandon Tatum.
And there's more than I can
count right now, which is great,
which is a good thing.
And that freaks the left out
because they can only control
the black people
that they've ushered
into positions of power
and in their sort of media
control groups, right?
So the CNNs and the
MSNBCs of the world,
but there's a lot of
conversation that is
happening with us.
And I will tell you,
Dave, my social media,
when all of these riots
and all of this stuff
started happening, exploded.
And when I tell you the
following in all platforms
just completely exploded.
And it tells me that
people are hungry
for a different perspective.
So back to the black vote,
I think we're looking
at somewhere between, and
to be completely honest
and 100% real, I think
we're looking at somewhere
between 12 and 15%.
And even if we get to 12%,
that's a 33% jump from 2016.
And if you get to 15
and 16%, that is double,
all right, what he did in 2016.
And Democrats can not
win national elections
without upwards
of 90% of the African
American vote, they know this.
This is why they did not win
in 2016 because black people
just stayed home because
they didn't want to vote
for Hillary because of a
lot of different reasons.
And yet they do the same thing.
They trot out another
deeply unpopular,
super establishment candidate
that's been around for forever
and say that this is going
to be our change candidate.
So they make these same mistakes
over and over and over again.
- The guy who's gonna change
all of the systemic racism
is the guy that was in the
Senate for like 30 years
and was vice president
for eight years.
This time he's going to do
it right, it's incredible.
Yeah, this time he's
gonna do it right.
And it's the same guy that
didn't want integration
in schools because he said
that it would turn schools
into a, quote "racial jungle."
Yes, Joe Biden said
that, look it up.
- Yeah, what a weird thing.
Do you sense the gays are
going to have a similar crack?
- Dude.
- The gays.
- Oh, the gays, ah Dave,
the gays, the gays.
I try my best with the gays.
I honestly really don't know.
Okay, so you can only judge
by the following that you get
and you can judge by the
DMs and the emails and stuff
that I get, but also I'm
in Florida right now.
The gays are generally
more conservative leaning.
I think that there is a subset,
and there always has been,
of gays and lesbians
that are working
and law abiding
citizens, and they look
at some of this stuff and it
just doesn't jive with them,
you know, and I hope and I
pray that the gays wake up.
I think that a lot
of them privately
are not into the cult stuff.
I think that a lot of them
privately either don't vote
for liberals or possibly
even vote for Republicans,
possibly even vote for Trump,
but they would never dare say it
because they would never
want to be excommunicated.
Like I said, which is what
happened to you and I, so...
- Yeah, I think we talked
about this last time,
but I honestly can't remember.
The closet thing, you know,
coming out as a gay person
versus coming out as
conservative or on the right
or basically anything
non-woke at this point.
Which was harder for you?
- It was, so when you come
out as gay nowadays, right,
you know, everybody loves
it and it's so accepting.
And it's all good
and it's whatever.
Coming out as
conservative, it was one
of the most disruptive life
events I've ever had in my life.
And you're talking
about somebody,
you're talking to somebody
that's been to war, right.
So coming out as conservative--
- [Dave] Right, literally, yeah.
- Literally,
literally been to war.
So coming in as conservative
was such a disruptive
life event.
And I talk about
this a little bit.
Losing all your friends,
having some family members say,
what are you doing?
People that were at my wedding
no longer talk to me, all right?
The best man at my wedding
no longer talks to me.
So it's just, it's a
very disruptive event.
So if I had to say which
one was harder for me,
it was coming out
as conservative
because you're coming out
as gay people are just like,
oh, okay, well, you know,
sometimes there's a
problem with that.
Most times there's not in 2020,
but when you come out
as a conservative,
this stigma that is
thrown on your shoulders
is that you are
basically Hitler.
You are basically supporting
the worst, most racist,
xenophobic, homophobic,
the worst of humanity
as I was called on social media.
And so that is very disruptive.
And you have to have a
very strong sense of self
to come out of it
on the other side.
That's why I so
openly share my story
that people get fired
from their jobs.
It was the most
heartbreaking thing.
One of my followers on
Facebook reached out to me
and her two grown adult children
called her a racist Nazi
and completely cut her
out of their lives.
And those stories
make me so sad.
- Yeah, I mean, I get
many of those messages.
And the best you can do is try
to slowly bring people back
or you can live on
your knees forever.
And in many ways, that's
what they want you to do.
I just don't think it's a
good way for people to live.
But those are your only choices.
- Yeah, I mean, according
to the left that's it.
Either you agree with
me in every single way,
in every single capacity on
every single thing that we say
on all issues or
you'll one of them
and you're excommunicated,
you're kicked out.
And I say this all the time.
When some leftist
comes for me on Twitter
and I decide to engage, I
say, watch out, all right,
because one day you're going
to have a problematic
thought, right?
You're going to think
something different.
You're going to think
something that is outside
of this orthodoxy that
you've been boxed into
and they'll come for you, too.
- That really is it.
That in many ways
is the one thing
that'll wake everybody up.
You're going to have some
flicker of individual thought.
And no matter how religiously
progressive you are,
if you dare say it, it's
going to turn on you
and then you're
going to go, whoops,
maybe I shouldn't have
called all those people
self-hating black people,
self-hating gay people,
and the rest of it.
You just said the
word problematic.
You've got a podcast coming out.
- I did.
- Another podcast?
There's another
podcast coming out.
Rob Smith is Problematic.
- Seriously.
- What are you going to be doing
on the Rob Smith is
Problematic podcast?
- Oh, first of all, I'm going
to be being problematic.
So problematic, if some
of your viewers are,
if you're not so up
to the terminology,
problematic is what a lot of
people on the left like to call
people who step outside these
boxes of liberal orthodoxy.
So, you know, I'm
deeply problematic.
Look, I'm a black
gay Republican.
I'm about as problematic
as you get, right?
And so what I want
to do is I want to,
number one, take that word back.
I want to have
problematic conversations
about what is going
on in the world.
And I got this community, we
call them the Problematics
because a lot of people
that follow both you and I
are problematic in some
way, shape, or form.
So it's time for us to own
that, have real conversations.
And by the way, this
is not particularly
a conservative thing
because I'm very problematic
to a lot of people on the
right as well because I am gay.
And so I wanted to
create this space
to have these conversations,
to also define
what being problematic is,
make people proud of
being problematic,
and also dig a little bit
deeper into these things
that really sort of
interest me and a lot of us
talking about the LGBTQ cult,
talking about school choice
or black kids, talking
about the black vote.
And I think that there is a
way to have this conversation
that is not angry.
We're not going to be
doing on the podcast,
is I'm not going to be railing,
I'm not going to be talking
about what political BS
happened this week,
between who said what
in the halls of
Congress or this bill
because people don't care.
They care about their lives
and they care about
the big ideas.
And I want to give people
something they can use.
I want to give them, in
the leftist terminology,
a safe space to be problematic.
- Oh Lord, oh Lord,
safe space, problematic.
You're going to put
a trigger warning?
- I should.
- You should put
a trigger warning.
You know, speaking
of problematic,
last time you and your
husband were at our house,
you brought over several
bottles of champagne.
We were going with wine
and then suddenly tequila
shots got involved.
I haven't had a
hangover in about,
I don't know,
probably eight years.
I was extremely hung over.
I hope you're happy about that.
- You know, I did not give
you that tequila. (laughs)
And as a matter of fact,
if you remember correctly,
did I do tequila?
Oh no I did because I was super
hung over the next day, too.
- Yes, because I had
Golden Girl shot glasses.
- That's what it was, God.
You're always bribing me with
The Golden Girls shot glasses.
And we went to Palm
Springs the next morning.
I was so hung over that
entire day, it was awful.
Like, red wine to champagne
to tequila, bad move.
You should know that's
a rookie mistake, Dave.
You should know better.
- Well, that's what I'm saying.
The whole thing was problematic.
- Yeah.
- That's the point.
- It's a problematic mixture.
- Rob, where can people
find the book, Rob?
Promote yourself.
- Yes, promote myself.
So you can find this
book, "Always a Soldier:
Service, Sacrifice,
and Coming Out
as America's Favorite
Black, Gay Republican"
wherever books are sold,
but seeing as how I
am so problematic,
gonna have an easier time
finding it on Amazon.
- (laughs) For as long as
Amazon will let it be there.
All right, Rob--
- For as long as Amazon
will let it be there.
- It was good talking to you.
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