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Mark Hamill's Sick Controversy, Rubio Meets Pope, Tennessee Redistricting Battle | 5/8/26 FIRST LOOK
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Hey everybody, I'm Dave Rubin and this is First Look. It's Friday, May 8, 2026. We've got a packed show. Mark Hamill posts an image depicting a dead Donald Trump just days after the latest assassination attempt against the President. Marco Rubio meets Pope Leo at the Vatican after President Trump sends a blunt warning about Iran. Tennessee Republicans pass a dramatic new congressional map that could wipe out the state's final Democrat held seat and Democrats absolutely melt down. Lets dive in. We start with a story that's igniting outrage across the country and frankly, for good reason. Actor Mark Hamill, yes, Luke Skywalker himself posted a photo on social media depicting President Trump as dead just days after the latest assassination attempt against him. The image was captioned if only. And Hamill didn't stop there. He followed it up by saying Trump should live long enough to witness his inevitable, devastating loss in the midterms, be held accountable for his unprecedented corruption, impeached, convicted and humiliated for his countless crimes. Now remember the timing here. This comes literally days after authorities say 23 year old Cole Allen attempted to assassinate President Trump at the White House Correspondents Dinner. Allen has now been charged with attempting to assassinate the President of the United States, discharging a firearm during a violent crime, assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon, transporting a firearm across state lines. According to investigators. Allen charged through a Secret Service checkpoint armed with a shotgun and shot an officer in the chest before being taken down. And now, right after that, one of Hollywood's biggest anti Trump celebrities is posting imagery of Trump dead online. The White House immediately blasted Hamill. Spokesman Davis Engel pointed out something important. Just three days earlier, Hamill had appeared alongside Barack Obama in a video celebrating Star Wars Day and the opening of the Obama Presidential center in Chicago. Engel responded, why won't Obama and Democrats condemn this disgusting call to violence? And honestly, that's the real issue here, because this kind of rhetoric has become normalized on the left. You've had constant comparisons of Trump to Hitler, endless threat to democracy, messaging, celebrities fantasizing about violence, media figures openly rooting for his downfall, and then everybody acts shocked when unstable people take it seriously. This is now the third major assassination related incident involving Trump in less than two years. At some point, people need to stop pretending words don't matter. Hamill, meanwhile, has spent years openly attacking Trump supporters. In a 2025 interview, he said he was really ashamed America elected Trump. And after Trump won re election, Hamill claimed he realized there were fewer decent Americans than he thought. In other words, if you voted for Trump, people like Mark Hamill increasingly view you as morally beneath them. That attitude is everywhere in Hollywood, and this latest post crossed the line. Criticize policy all you want, argue politics all you want, but posting imagery of a dead president days after an assassination attempt? That's sick. And Americans are getting tired of watching radical celebrities fuel this kind of insanity while pretending they're somehow the adults in the room. Now to the Vatican, where Secretary of State Marco Rubio held what officials described as friendly and constructive talks with Pope Leo following growing tensions between the Trump administration and the Vatican over Iran. Rubio, who is Catholic, met privately with the Pope Thursday morning in what became the Trump administration's first major engagement with Leo in nearly a year. And the message Rubio brought was very simple. President Trump said this week, iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. That's it. Trump made clear he doesn't particularly care whether the Vatican likes his tone or not. Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Trump said, whether I make him happy or I don't make him happy, Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. The conflict between Trump and Pope Leo has been simmering for months. Back in April, the pope criticized what he described as threats against the Iranian people and appeared to take issue with Trump's aggressive rhetoric surrounding the Strait of Hormuz crisis and potential military escalation. At one point, Leo said, there are certainly issues of international law here but even more so, a moral issue for the good of the entire population. That was widely interpreted as criticism of Trump's pressure campaign against Tehran. And remember, this all comes as Iran continues escalating tensions in the region, threatening U.S. bases and continuing disputes over uranium enrichment. Trump's position has remained completely unchanged. No nuclear weapon. Period. Following Rubio's meeting with the pope, he also sat down with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state. According to the State Department, the talks focused on peace efforts in the Middle east, humanitarian concerns, religious freedom, and broader cooperation between the U.S. and the Holy See. The Vatican described the conversations as cordial and said both sides renewed their commitment to bilateral relations. Now, politically, this matters because Trump and the Vatican have increasingly become symbolic opposites on major global issues. Immigration, nationalism, war, slavery, sovereignty, global governance. But Rubio's trip appears aimed at cooling tensions without backing away from Trump's core message. And that message is not changing. The administration believes a nuclear Iran would destabilize the entire world, and Trump has made clear he's willing to apply maximum pressure to stop it. And finally, absolute chaos erupted in Tennessee after Republicans officially passed a new congressional map that eliminates the state's final Democrat held House seat. And Democrats completely lost their minds. The Tennessee Senate approved the new 2026 redistricting map Thursday, creating a projected nine Republican to zero Democrat congressional delegation. The map now heads to Republican Gov. Bill Lee for signature. And the reaction inside the State Capitol Your meltdown. Democrats blew air horns, waved protest signs, stormed out of the chamber, screamed from the gallery, linked arms on the Senate floor. And one Democratic lawmaker literally stood on her desk holding a banner calling the map Jim Crow. At one point, state troopers had to physically hold protesters back in the hallways. The left wing media immediately framed the move as racist and authoritarian, but Republicans fired right back. State Senator John Stevens openly acknowledged what everybody already knows. This bill represents Tennessee's attempt to maximize our partisan advantage. And frankly, Democrats have been doing exactly that in blue states for decades. Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, California. The difference is Republicans in the south are finally fighting back. The new map dramatically reshapes Tennessee's lone Democrat district, centered in Memphis, currently represented by Democrat Steve Cohen. Instead of remaining compact around Memphis, the district would now stretch hundreds of miles eastward toward Nashville suburbs, diluting Democrat voting strength and heavily favoring Republicans statewide. Now, this fight became possible because of a major Supreme Court ruling last week involving Louisiana. The court ruled that states cannot rely too heavily on race when drawing districts, significantly weakening decades old Voting Rights act interpretations that Democrats had used to preserve majority black districts. And Republicans across the south immediately saw an opportunity. Now Tennessee has acted, Alabama is moving, South Carolina is considering changes, LA is redrawing maps, and other states like Georgia and Mississippi could follow. President Trump has reportedly been personally encouraging Republican led states to redraw districts ahead of the midterms. Why? Because the GOP sees a chance to expand its House majority to significantly before 2026. And honestly, watching Democrats suddenly discover concerns about partisan redistricting after years of doing it themselves is pretty remarkable. One Democratic lawmaker even called Trump the most powerful white supremacist in the United States of America. That's where the rhetoric is now. Meanwhile, Republicans are looking at the electoral map and saying, you spent years racial gerrymandering districts to benefit Democrats. Now the rules changed and the south is fighting back. And that's your first look this Friday. Quick recap. Mark Hamill sparks outrage after posting imagery depicting a dead Donald Trump just days after an assassination attempt. Marco Rubio meets Pope Leo as the Trump administration doubles down on its hardline Iran message. And Tennessee Republicans pass a major redistricting map while Democrats completely melt down on the chamber floor. We'll keep following all of it. I'm Dave Rubin. Thanks for starting your day with first look. See you tomorrow.
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