The Megyn Kelly Show - Comey's Post Targeting Trump, South African Refugees in Spotlight, SCOTUS Fireworks： AM Update 5⧸16

00:00:00.000 Good morning, everyone. I'm Megyn Kelly. It's Friday, May 16th, 2025, and this is your AM

00:00:08.500 Update. A disturbing Instagram post from former FBI Director James Comey, seemingly aimed at

00:00:15.080 President Trump, sets off a firestorm. The president is making a special exception for

00:00:20.460 a group of 59 white South Africans. Outrage from Democrats and the media after the Trump

00:00:25.640 administration grants refugee status to a group it says is facing racial persecution in South

00:00:31.160 Africa. The practical problem is that there are 680 district court judges. Sometimes they're wrong.

00:00:37.360 The Supreme Court takes up sweeping questions about judicial power and President Trump's

00:00:42.020 challenge to birthright citizenship. And cross-examination begins on the star witness

00:00:47.000 in the Diddy trial. All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM Update.

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00:01:51.560 Former FBI director and longtime Trump critic James Comey on Thursday posting, then deleting,

00:02:01.500 a bizarre photo to his Instagram account. Seashells arranged to resemble the numbers 86, 47.

00:02:09.580 In gang slang, 86 means to get rid of or kill someone. 47, of course, an apparent reference to

00:02:15.560 President Trump, the 47th president. Director Comey captioned the image,

00:02:20.000 cool shell formation on my beach walk. Donald Trump Jr. Posting, quote,

00:02:24.720 just James Comey casually calling for my dad to be murdered. This is who the Dem media worships,

00:02:30.460 demented. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich posting on X, quote,

00:02:35.120 while President Trump is currently on an international trip to the Middle East,

00:02:38.820 the former FBI director puts out what can clearly be interpreted as a hit on the sitting president of

00:02:45.020 the United States, a message etched in the sand. This is deeply concerning to all of us and is being

00:02:50.780 taken seriously. About three hours later, Mr. Comey deleting the offending post, uploading a new one

00:02:57.120 that reads, quote, I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw on a beach walk, which I assumed were a

00:03:03.680 political message. I didn't realize some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never

00:03:09.180 occurred to me, but I oppose violence of any kind, so I took the post down. Some of Mr. Comey's

00:03:15.220 defenders say 86 is just restaurant slang for canceling something or getting rid of something.

00:03:21.960 Um, yeah, that too implies murder. In any event, the former FBI director is certainly aware of commonly

00:03:28.920 known gang terminology and the elevated threat environment surrounding President Trump,

00:03:34.000 who has survived at least two assassination attempts. FBI director Kash Patel writing on X,

00:03:39.780 quote, we are aware of the recent social media post by former FBI director James Comey directed at

00:03:44.980 President Trump. We are in communication with the Secret Service and Director Curran. Primary

00:03:50.160 jurisdiction is with the Secret Service on these matters, and we, the FBI, will provide all necessary

00:03:55.280 support. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard with an unsparing view of this behavior

00:04:01.200 on Fox News with Jesse Waters last night. Any other person with the position of influence

00:04:07.640 that he has, people who take very seriously what a guy of his stature, his experience, and what the

00:04:15.020 propaganda media has built him up to be, I'm very concerned for the president's life. We've already

00:04:21.000 seen assassination attempts. I'm very concerned for his life, and James Comey, in my view, should be

00:04:27.060 held accountable and put behind bars for this. We will continue to monitor the story, reporting the

00:04:32.220 latest on Monday. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa criticizing the white South Africans who left

00:04:41.280 his country seeking refuge in the U.S. President Ramaphosa saying, quote, we don't run away from our

00:04:47.700 problems. We must stay here and solve our problems. When you run away, you're a coward, and that's a

00:04:53.940 real cowardly act. On Monday, the Trump administration welcoming 59 refugees from South Africa, saying

00:05:00.580 they're facing discrimination in their home country. The arrivals fast-tracked following a February

00:05:05.660 executive order granting refugee status to Afrikaners, citing racial persecution and land seizures

00:05:11.920 there. President Ramaphosa signing the Expropriation Act of 2024. It's a controversial law allowing the

00:05:19.300 government to seize land, in some cases, without compensation to the owner, when it's equitable and

00:05:25.400 in the public interest. The law defines public interest as, quote, the nation's commitment to land

00:05:30.940 reform and to reforms to bring about equitable access to all South Africa's natural resources in order to

00:05:37.980 redress the results of past discriminatory laws or practices. Supporters of the law say it's a step

00:05:43.720 toward long-overdue land reform following the apartheid legacy. Critics call it abject racial

00:05:49.440 discrimination, warning of a dangerous encroachment on property rights. President Trump's executive

00:05:54.960 order granting refugee status to white South African Afrikaners, framing them as victims of racial

00:06:01.260 persecution by their own government. That government, the African Congress, issuing a statement saying,

00:06:07.720 these are not refugees fleeing persecution, but are fleeing justice, equality, and accountability for

00:06:14.480 historic privilege. Radio host Buck Sexton, Tuesday on the Megyn Kelly show, describing race-based laws

00:06:20.520 targeting South Africa's white minority. You have explicit quotas in South Africa. You have, you must have,

00:06:27.640 I think, 85 percent of your company must be black employees or must, the managerial, managerial set must be

00:06:35.300 black. If you want to get certain loans, you have to actually be black or at least partner with somebody

00:06:40.460 who is black. There's all of these rules and laws that explicitly disenfranchise the roughly 7 percent

00:06:46.900 of South Africa that is white. And the 7 percent of the country that is white has not only state-sponsored

00:06:55.060 disenfranchisement going on now, but there's also an unwillingness to police and protect, particularly

00:07:02.420 these farms, that have been the subjects of clearly anti-white violence of the most gruesome and horrific

00:07:09.780 kind. This small batch of white refugees waving American flags, wearing American flags upon arrival

00:07:16.380 in the U.S., sparking outrage amongst the leftist media commentators. A dramatic shift in attitudes from

00:07:23.020 the one toward the millions of refugees arriving under the Biden administration, often under false or

00:07:29.240 loose claims of asylum. Examples here of coverage from ABC, MSNBC and CNN.

00:07:35.620 Well, the Trump administration has made it virtually impossible for many refugees to come to the United

00:07:40.040 States, but the president is making a special exception for a group of 59 white South Africans.

00:07:46.120 So deeply and morally wrongheaded and repulsive. These are the descendants of the people who created the

00:07:54.660 most diabolical system of white supremacy in human history, apartheid. So if the Afrikaners don't

00:08:00.100 actually like the land, they can leave that country. They are. They're leaving to come here. No.

00:08:05.260 These refugees are coming here. They can actually leave and go to where their native land is, which is

00:08:09.740 probably Germany. Are you against them coming here? Holland probably. Holland. They are being given special

00:08:14.740 treatment when there is not a genocide happening in South Africa, and they just don't like the law of the land.

00:08:19.200 Small historical note, Afrikaners descend primarily from Dutch settlers arriving in South Africa almost

00:08:25.420 400 years ago. Many settling regions that were sparsely populated or uninhabited at the time.

00:08:31.820 The next G20 conference set for November in Johannesburg. The Washington Post citing anonymous

00:08:37.160 sources reporting the National Security Council has ordered all U.S. agencies and departments to suspend

00:08:43.340 work on that upcoming conference. In April, Mr. Trump posting to Truth Social, quote,

00:08:48.260 How could we be expected to go to South Africa for the very important G20 meeting when land

00:08:53.500 confiscation and genocide is the primary topic of conversation? In recent years, reports of white

00:08:59.600 farmers brutally murdered in rural South Africa, prompting claims that they are being targeted on

00:09:04.860 a racial basis, critics accusing the government of turning a blind eye. On Monday, President Trump

00:09:10.740 again describing white South African farmers as victims of a genocide. South African officials strongly

00:09:16.640 deny the accusation. President Ramaphosa set to visit the White House next Wednesday.

00:09:22.620 Coming up, the Supreme Court takes up nationwide injunctions in a case involving Trump's move to end

00:09:28.340 birthright citizenship. And cross-examination begins on the star witness of the Diddy criminal trial.

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00:11:01.600 The Supreme Court on Thursday hearing oral arguments in cases where lower courts blocked

00:11:06.740 President Trump's executive order purporting to end birthright citizenship, with the justices

00:11:11.960 focusing on whether a single district judge can issue a nationwide injunction stopping the full

00:11:18.260 force and effect of a law or an executive order. U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer's opening argument

00:11:24.320 made the case that judges should only be able to issue rulings that apply to the parties in the case

00:11:30.060 before them. Since January 20th, district courts have now issued 40 universal injunctions against

00:11:35.940 the federal government, including 35 from the same five judicial districts. This is a bipartisan

00:11:42.400 problem that has now spanned the last five presidential administrations. Universal injunctions

00:11:48.800 exceed the judicial power granted in Article 3, which exists only to address the injury to the

00:11:54.040 complaining party. They transgress the traditional bounds of equitable authority, and they create a

00:11:59.720 host of practical problems. Such injunctions prevent the percolation of novel and difficult legal

00:12:05.600 questions. They encourage rampant forum shopping. They require judges to make rushed, high-stakes,

00:12:11.960 low-information decisions. Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor stepping on Mr. Sauer with a rapid-fire

00:12:17.940 round of questioning, getting called out by the Chief Justice Roberts for her interruptions.

00:12:23.340 That's rare. The Solicitor General arguing that if a lot of people are affected by a policy,

00:12:28.680 they should file a class-action lawsuit instead of asking one judge to block the policy for the whole

00:12:34.220 nation. Both the Supreme Court and no lower court can stop an executive universally from violating

00:12:45.260 that holding, those holdings by this court. We are not claiming that because we're conceding that there

00:12:50.700 could be an inappropriate case. Only a class, only by a class. Can I hear the rest of his answer?

00:12:55.700 Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, who has previously written about the court's impending

00:12:59.840 need to address the use of nationwide injunctions, questioning the history of this practice.

00:13:05.380 General, when were the first universal injunctions used?

00:13:13.360 We believe that the best reading of that is what you said in Trump against Hawaii,

00:13:17.460 which is that Wurtz in 1963 was really the first universal injunction. There's a dispute about

00:13:22.220 Perkins against Lukens Oil going back to 1940. And of course, we point to the court's opinion that

00:13:27.200 reversed that universal injunction issued by the D.C. Circuit and said it's profoundly wrong.

00:13:32.740 So when the court has considered it and addressed this, it has consistently said you have to limit

00:13:36.900 the remedy to the plaintiffs who are appearing in court and complaining of that remedy.

00:13:39.840 So we survived until the 1960s without universal injunctions?

00:13:44.920 That's exactly correct. And in fact, those are very limited, very rare, even in the 1960s. It really

00:13:49.560 exploded in 2007.

00:13:51.560 Joe Biden appointee Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson appearing to support nationwide injunctions,

00:13:58.120 saying they encouraged the government to work quickly toward the Supreme Court.

00:14:02.200 I would think we'd want the system to move as quickly as possible to reach the merits

00:14:07.760 of the issue and maybe have this court decide whether or not the government is entitled to do

00:14:13.720 this under the law. Wouldn't having universal injunctions actually facilitate that? It seems to me

00:14:21.160 that when the government is completely enjoined from doing the thing it wants to do, it moves quickly

00:14:26.620 to appeal that, to get it to the Supreme Court. And that's actually what we would want.

00:14:33.160 Percolation of novel, sensitive constitutional issues is a merit of our system. It is not a

00:14:39.660 not a bad feature of the system.

00:14:42.200 Conservative Justice Samuel Alito appearing to favor limiting the use of nationwide injunctions,

00:14:47.080 questioning New Jersey Solicitor General Jeremy Feigenbaum, arguing on behalf of a coalition

00:14:52.840 of Democrat states challenging the birthright citizenship order.

00:14:56.120 The practical problem is that there are 680 district court judges, and they are dedicated and

00:15:02.700 they are scholarly, and I'm not impugning their motives in any way. But you know, sometimes they're

00:15:07.900 wrong. And the Court of Appeals gives it the back of the hand. And then the case comes immediately to us

00:15:14.280 in the context of an emergency application. And some of us have said, well, we don't think we should

00:15:19.980 do anything in those situations unless it is indisputably clear that the court below was wrong.

00:15:28.920 The high court expected to issue a decision by the end of June.

00:15:33.800 Day four of the Sean Diddy Combs criminal trial in New York. Federal prosecutors accusing the rapper of,

00:15:39.720 quote, creating a criminal enterprise whose members and associates engaged in and attempted to engage in,

00:15:46.540 among other crimes, sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of

00:15:52.540 justice. Star witness Cassie Ventura on Thursday taking the stand for the third day, this time for

00:15:57.980 cross-examination. The defense attempting to portray a complicated yet consensual relationship

00:16:03.780 between Cassie and Combs. Ms. Ventura telling the defense she loved him for 11 years, believing Mr.

00:16:10.520 Combs truly loved her too. The defense team presenting an email exchange between the couple

00:16:15.340 from January 2008. Mr. Combs, quote, it makes me so happy that you would fly to Atlanta just to see me.

00:16:22.240 I'm a very lucky man. I love you. I miss you. Can't wait to hold you. Ms. Ventura replying,

00:16:28.060 quote, I'm a very lucky woman. I miss you so much. I'd fly wherever you needed me, whenever. I love you.

00:16:33.780 The witness saying that was early in the relationship. Ms. Ventura describing the beginning of the

00:16:39.600 relationship as, quote, very sweet, saying Mr. Combs was a, quote, charismatic big personality that

00:16:45.040 everyone really loved. The defense presenting a 2009 text from Ms. Ventura referencing the so-called

00:16:51.380 freak-offs, the bizarre sex rituals they participated in together, quote, the last time was a mistake,

00:16:58.180 but since has made me feel a little dirty and grimy as opposed to sexual and spontaneous.

00:17:04.240 That's the only reason why I go back and forth in my mind with wanting and not wanting to do it.

00:17:10.020 Ms. Ventura writing in 2017 to Mr. Combs, quote, I love our freak-offs when we both want it.

00:17:16.520 Ms. Ventura on the stand dismissing the text as, quote, just words at that point. The defense also

00:17:22.340 referencing a 2017 message from Mr. Combs planning an upcoming freak-off. Mr. Combs writing,

00:17:28.160 didn't hear from you, so I just put some plans in motion. Let me know to stop. Just let me know if

00:17:34.220 I'm headed in the wrong direction so I can cancel. The defense aiming to portray the relationship and

00:17:39.780 the sex behavior as consensual. Cross-examination set to continue today. Mr. Combs faces up to life in

00:17:47.120 prison if convicted. On Sunday, Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio set to

00:17:54.900 attend Pope Leo XIV's inaugural mass at the Vatican. The first American pope born in Chicago as Robert

00:18:03.060 Prevost elected last week to head up the Catholic Church and its 1.4 billion Catholics. As a cardinal,

00:18:10.300 Prevost running a Twitter account that occasionally shared content critical of the Trump administration's

00:18:14.980 immigration policy, calling out J.D. Vance specifically. The vice president, an adult

00:18:19.960 Catholic convert, responding last week. You know, people are asking, is he a conservative or is he a

00:18:26.000 liberal? Well, he's attacked, you know, President Trump and J.D. Vance on certain things and hasn't

00:18:31.140 attacked Democrats on other things. And I guess my response to this is it's very hard to fit a 2,000-year-old

00:18:39.360 institution into the politics of 2025 America. I try not to do that. I am a Catholic convert. And so

00:18:47.360 I come at this maybe with a slightly different perspective. But I try not to play the politicization

00:18:53.000 of the pope game. I'm sure he's going to say a lot of things that I love. I'm sure he'll say some

00:18:56.920 things that I disagree with. But I'll continue to pray for him in the church, despite it all and

00:19:01.760 through it all. And that'll be the way that I handle it. This will be Mr. Vance's second trip to

00:19:06.400 the Vatican since taking office. He was the last American official to visit with Pope Francis

00:19:11.480 before the late pontiff's passing on Easter Monday. And that'll do it for your AM update.

00:19:16.820 I'm Megyn Kelly. Join me back here for The Megyn Kelly Show, live on SiriusXM Triumph Channel 111

00:19:21.700 at noon east, on youtube.com slash Megyn Kelly, and on all podcast platforms.

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The Megyn Kelly Show - May 16, 2025

Comey's Post Targeting Trump, South African Refugees in Spotlight, SCOTUS Fireworks： AM Update 5⧸16

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