Outrage After Zohran Hangs with Felons, Schumer Dodges Questions | 7/17/26 FIRST LOOK

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1:17Hey, everybody. I'm Dave Rubin, and this is First Look. Look, it's Friday, July 17th, 2026. We've got a packed show for you today. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer dodges questions about Democrat Senator Ruben Gallego's alleged relationships with House staffers while the scandal piles up. New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani hangs out at a World Cup watch party inside the notoriously violent Rikers Island Jail with over 100 inmates. Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivers a blistering speech calling out communism and the surge of far-left political violence. Let's dive in. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is once again refusing to address a scandal rocking his own party.

2:08When pressed about new allegations against Senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona, Schumer dodged the question entirely and pivoted straight to his planned attack on President Trump's upcoming primetime address. The New York Post dropped a bombshell report that Gallego, while he was still a member of the House, engaged in sexual relationships with at least two Democratic House staffers who did not work for him. House rules don't even prohibit relationships with staffers outside your own office, but But the story has still exploded because of the timing and the people involved. Sources told the Post that the relationships happened while Gallego was unmarried.

2:51When reporters asked Gallego about the allegations, he brushed them off as gossip. His office didn't even bother responding to requests for comment. This is the latest headache for Gallego, who's been floated as a possible 2028 presidential contender. He's already been dealing with fallout from his close ties to former Representative Eric Swalwell, who resigned from the House earlier this year after multiple women accused him of sexual assault, rape, and harassment. Swalwell has denied the claims, but Gallego tried to distance himself anyway. Admitting his tight-knit relationship with Swalwell clouded his judgment about the rumors that had swirled around the ex-Congressman for years.

3:36Gallego even hired former Joe Biden deputy press secretary to handle crisis communications after the Swalwell mess and a now dismissed Senate ethics probe. That probe, triggered by a complaint from Representative Anna Paulina Luna, alleging sexual misconduct and campaign finance violations by Gallego, was tossed out by the Senate ethics committee last month. Gallego called the whole thing right-wing conspiracies peddled by far-right activists like Anna Paulina Luna, the White House, and their allies. Luna didn't waste time firing back after the latest Post report. She posted on X, conspiracy theories, right?

4:20Time to resign. Glad people are going on record about this creep. Schumer's refusal to even comment on this mess tells you everything you need to know about Democrat leadership right now. They're more interested in attacking Trump than cleaning up their own house. New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani took a break from his day to drop in on a special World Cup semifinal watch party inside Rikers Island. More than 100 inmates dressed in their tan uniforms were rewarded with a viewing of the England versus Argentina semifinal because of their model behavior. They sat at tables in a gymnasium facing a big projection screen.

5:01The jail has already hosted about 90 of these watch parties since the tournament started last month, with roughly 4 ,500 of the 6 ,600 inmates on the 400-acre island participating. Correction Commissioner Stanley Richards, a former Rikers inmate himself, praised the program, saying, programs like this equal safety in our jail. What we say to them is that your humanity is seen, heard, and valued. Mamdani, who has vowed to honor the 2019 city law mandating the closure of Rikers, showed up with his sleeves rolled up and immediately started chatting about the tournament. One inmate predicted Argentina would beat England and go on to face Spain in the final.

5:45Mamdani, a self-proclaimed Morocco fan, replied, you never know. At another table, an inmate told the mayor he was getting released later that day. Mamdani patted his back and said, that's amazing. The crowd erupted when England scored first in the second half, with England fans like 53-year-old Ralph Veal cheering while Argentina fans groaned. Veal, incarcerated since November, said he was rooting for England because it's his 20-year-old son's favorite team. He added, I'm sitting at the table with Argentina fans, but it's alright. The energy is real positive in here. When Argentina took a 2-1 lead in stoppage time and won, 39-year-old Victor Caldas, locked up for four months and rooting for Argentina since his home country of Ecuador got knocked out, jumped up hugging and clapping with the others.

6:38He said he appreciated watching uninterrupted without fighting other inmates for the TV in his housing unit. Another inmate, 52-year-old Thomas McCoy, who's been locked up 21 months, just enjoyed the catered buffet. Salad greens, salmon, penne alla vodka, chicken parmesan, and snapple. He said, it's not a sports club, we can't get our drinks on and stuff like that. That's okay though. I've been locked up 21 months, so it's been a long time since I had real food like that. It was a wonderful experience. The whole scene looks like some kind of progressive fantasy camp, until you remember what's actually happening at Rikers.

7:19Just the day before, federal overseer Nicholas Demmel submitted a plan highlighting the ongoing dysfunction. Inspectors walked into one housing unit filled with smoke from fires set by prisoners, blaring alarms and inmates pounding on cell doors. In another incident, prisoners streamed through an unsecured door and brawled after a guard abandoned his post. The report was blunt. Violence remains pervasive, basic correctional practices remain unreliable, and unconstitutional conditions persist. This is the same facility Mamdani claims he wants to close, yet here he is turning it into a World Cup party spot while the real problems fester.

8:03here. Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a powerful and much needed speech Thursday at a State Department ministerial on the resurgence of political terrorism, directly calling out the blind spot in counter-terrorism when it comes to far-left extremism. Rubio opened by saying, for far too long our counter-terrorism doctrine has had a blind spot, a blind spot when it comes to extremist violence from the political left. Even today, the very idea that far-left terrorism could be a serious threat is treated as a right-wing fever dream or worse, as a dangerous fascist conspiracy. It's treated this way by many in the press, by many in academia and our universities, and by many of our legacy institutions.

8:49He didn't stop there. Rubio went after communism itself, which is seeing a sharp resurgence on the American left. He said, one of the criticisms you sometimes hear of communism is that it sounds good in theory, but it never works in practice. That's actually not true. Communism does not sound good in theory. The world that it envisions for all of us is small, flat, gray, leveled of all exception, drained of all that is good and noble in the human soul. The world communism envisions is a world without God. Rubio blamed Cuba for pushing communist propaganda on Americans and inspiring groups like Antifa.

9:30He called on other nations to join the US in confronting this menace. He then laid out the hard numbers on recent violence. More than 80 % of radical violence is now driven by far-left and anarchist actors. Rubio connected the dots to real-world attacks, including the assassination of Charlie Kirk last year, a shooting at a Catholic school carried out by a transgender person, and the multiple attempts to assassinate President Trump. Near the end of his remarks, Rubio got a standing ovation when he told The Room, It is time for the people of the civilized world to defend ourselves. He contrasted those who stand for Western values with those trying to tear them down.

10:12It is easy to destroy great things. It is far more difficult to make them. The enemies of civilization are only capable of the former. They are only capable of destroying great things. All they know is destruction. Treasury Secretary Scott Besant and White House Advisor Stephen Miller also spoke at the conference. This is the kind of straight talk we've been waiting for from the Trump administration, finally treating far-left extremism as the serious threat it is instead of pretending it doesn't exist. And that's your first look this Friday. Quick recap. Chuck Schumer refuses to address the latest scandal involving Senator Ruben Gallego's relationships with House staffers.

10:54Mayor Mamdani parties with inmates at a World Cup watch party inside the violent and dysfunctional Rikers Island Jail. Marco Rubio slams communism and far-left political violence at a major State Department conference on terrorism. We'll keep following all of it. I'm Dave Rubin. Thanks for starting your day with First Look. See you tomorrow. you