Dems Ignore Garcia Reality, Karmelo Anthony Family Speaks Out, Bernie Flies Private： AM Update 4⧸18
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Summary
Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland again attempts a wellness check on accused MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and miraculously, late last night, posted a casual photo of the two of them together at last. President Trump targets Fed Chair Jerome Powell's decision to leave interest rates where they are. The family of 17-year-old accused killer Carmelo Anthony in Texas speaks out, blaming Trump, oppression, and the media. And Bernie Sanders and AOC, railing against the rich as they travel like the 1%. All that and more, coming up in just a moment on Your AM Update.
Transcript
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Good morning, everyone. I'm Megan Kelly. It's Friday, April 18th, 2025. And this is your
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AM update. Nobody has any communication with him since he was illegally abducted from Maryland
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and sent to Seacott prison in El Salvador. Democrat Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland
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again attempting a wellness check on accused MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia and
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miraculously late last night, posting a casual photo of the two of them together at last.
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President Trump targeting Fed Chair Jerome Powell's decision to leave interest rates where they are.
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Black people in America don't have to pull the race car. It's what we live as a reality every day.
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The family of 17-year-old accused killer Carmelo Anthony in Texas speaks out,
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blaming Trump, oppression, and the media. And Bernie Sanders and AOC railing against the rich
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as they travel like the 1%. All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM update.
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As President Trump begins his new administration, one of the top Democrats in Congress aiming to
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undermine the Trump agenda is Senator Dick Durbin. And according to our sponsor, the Electronic Payments
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government takeover of your credit card before it's too late.
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Democrat Senator from Maryland, Chris Van Hollen, attempting again to access the El Salvador prison
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holding Kilmar Abrego Garcia. The senator persisting in his fight despite newly surfaced evidence
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linking Mr. Abrego Garcia to MS-13 and reports of past domestic violence. The vice president of El
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Salvador on Wednesday, denying Senator Van Hollen access to the terrorism confinement center. On
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Thursday, the senator attempting to enter on his own and denied again, this time at a military
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checkpoint. We just tried to go visit him in prison just to check on his conditions. Nobody has any
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communication with him since he was illegally abducted from Maryland and sent to SICOT prison in El
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Salvador. Today's purpose was just to see what his health condition is. And these soldiers were ordered
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to prevent us from going any farther. And then late last night, a surprise post from the senator on X,
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a photo of Senator Van Hollen sitting with Garcia himself and writing, quote, I said my main goal of
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this trip was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight, I had that chance. I've called his wife, Jennifer, to pass
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along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return. El Salvador
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President Nayib Bukele posting his own message on X, writing, quote, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, miraculously
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risen from the death camps and torture, now sipping margaritas with Senator Van Hollen in the tropical
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paradise of El Salvador. Now that he's been confirmed healthy, he gets the honor of staying
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in El Salvador's custody. Senator Van Hollen and the media clinging to a repeatedly debunked narrative
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that Mr. Abrego Garcia is simply an innocent Maryland dad. Some press even calling him a, quote,
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U.S. man. In reality, Mr. Abrego Garcia is a Salvadoran national. The Trump administration is
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fighting a court battle over his status, maintaining that if returned to the U.S., Mr. Abrego Garcia will
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be promptly deported again, consisting with rulings from not one but two immigration courts finding him
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removable back in 2019, though not to El Salvador. For the last several weeks, Mr. Abrego Garcia's wife
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making her husband's case to the cameras. The Trump administration has labeled him a human
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trafficker, even an MS-13 gang leader. How do you respond to those claims? So everything they're
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saying is wrong. My husband is a loving father, and what I know is he's an amazing husband, an amazing
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father. That's who he truly is. On Thursday, Ms. Vasquez, who married Abrego Garcia in an ICE detention
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center as a bid to prevent his 2019 deportation, confirming the court documents she filed against
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him in 2020 and 2021 from the documents in Ms. Vasquez's own handwriting, quote, I was watching
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on my laptop and he yelled to turn it off. He got angry, reached over to shut and threw my laptop
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onto the floor, and the baby started to cry because he was putting pressure on him. It goes on, quote,
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he then punched me, scratched me on my left eye, leaving me bleeding. Later that day, Ms. Vasquez
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writes, quote, he got angry, started yelling again to the point that he ripped my shorts and shirt
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off, grabbed me by my arm. I have marks on my left arm as well. Ms. Vasquez now saying, quote, things did
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not escalate, and I decided not to follow through with the civil court process. The judge in Mr. Abrego
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Garcia's case against the federal government now, Paula Zinnis, suggesting earlier this week the
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government could face contempt charges for allegedly failing to comply with her order to facilitate the
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return of Abrego Garcia. However, the Supreme Court ordered the government only to facilitate his
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return, not to effectuate it. A.G. Pambandi describing it this way. President Bukele said he was not sending
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him back. That's the end of the story. If he wanted to send him back, we would give him a plane ride back.
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Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller saying there is no future in which Abrego Garcia is allowed to
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stay in the United States. President Trump potentially setting the stage for an unprecedented
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move, firing the chair of the Federal Reserve. The Fed, an independent agency, sets interest rates in
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support of a dual mission, keeping inflation under control and supporting a strong job market. On
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Wednesday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the Fed is holding off on rate cuts while President Trump's
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trade deals play out. For the time being, we are well positioned to wait for greater clarity before
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considering any adjustments to our policy stance. We continue to analyze the incoming data, the evolving
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outlook and the balance of risks. On Thursday, President Trump responding to those comments on
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Truth Social, quote, the European Central Bank, or ECB, is expected to cut interest rates for the seventh
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time. And yet, too late, Jerome Powell of the Fed, who was always too late and wrong, yesterday issued a
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report which was another and typical complete mess. Oil prices are down, groceries, even eggs, are down,
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and the USA is getting rich on tariffs. Too late should have lowered interest rates like the ECB long ago.
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But he should certainly lower them now. Powell's termination cannot come fast enough.
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This latest round of tension between President Trump and Jerome Powell, yet another chapter in a
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long-running and often public friction between them. Mr. Powell first appointed to the position
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by President Trump in 2018, then reappointed by President Biden in 2022. The Fed chair serving
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four-year terms, part of an effort to safeguard the central bank's independence from political influence.
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President Trump's view of Mr. Powell often hinging on interest rate policy, praising the Fed chair when rates
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are cut, slamming him when they're not. Mr. Powell making a point of defending the Fed's independence from the
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executive branch at a press conference in November.
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Some of the president's elect's advisors have suggested that you should resign. If he asked
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you to leave, would you go? No. Do you believe the president has the power to fire or demote you and
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has the Fed determined the legality of a president demoting at will any of the other governors with
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leadership positions? Not permitted under the law. Not what? Not permitted under the law. The president is
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constrained by a longstanding precedent, barring the removal of heads of independent agencies without
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cause. A legal challenge now moving through the courts could change that and is widely expected
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to land before the U.S. Supreme Court. But for now, President Trump's authority remains limited.
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We spoke with Steve Eisman, the investor who famously predicted the 08 financial crash.
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He says now is not the time to cut rates, warning that if Trump's trade deals deliver a surge in growth,
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If I was in charge of the Fed, I wouldn't be doing anything right now. Because if President Trump
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strikes a deal with every single country, the economy will take off and then you would not have
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wanted to have cut rates. On the other hand, if we go into a trade war, there'll be a recession,
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you'll cut rates. The impact of the Fed right now, either way, is marginal.
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The entire stock market and global economy has been narrowed down right now to literally one
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variable, President Trump and what happens in the negotiations that he has with all these
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Coming up, the family of accused teenage killer Carmelo Anthony speaks out, blaming everyone,
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but Carmelo. And Bernie Sanders and AOC railing against the rich as they travel like the 1%.
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The family of Carmelo Anthony, the 17-year-old Texas student accused of killing 17-year-old Austin
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Metcalf in a dispute over a seat at a track meet in early April, is speaking out.
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Dallas activist Dominique Alexander took to the mics first, and he noted that Jeff Metcalf,
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What we've seen at the beginning of this press conference, of the father being at this press
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conference, these are my words, don't quote anybody, is a disrespect to the dignity of his son.
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Next Generation Action Network, from the beginning, has respected the loss of life.
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No matter our opinion of it, we have kept our opinion close.
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Mr. Alexander, whose own rap sheet includes a felony conviction for injury to a child,
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a two-year-old he was babysitting wound up in the ICU with severe brain injuries and what the doctor
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said was clearly child abuse. Now, he's a representative of the Anthony family, after
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Carmelo Anthony allegedly refused to move from a spot at a Texas track meet after Austin Metcalf told
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him he was in the wrong team's tent. Police say Anthony threatened Metcalf, quote,
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touch me and see what happens, that Metcalf then grabbed Anthony to move him, and Anthony stabbed
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Metcalf in the heart. Anthony, who was granted bail and is on house arrest, is claiming self-defense,
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a tough argument given that in Texas, self-defense is not available to one who provokes the attack
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or who uses lethal force against a non-lethal threat. At the presser, Mr. Alexander blamed many
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things, but not his client. While the current occupant sits at 1600 Pennsylvania, black people
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in America don't have to pull the race card. It's what we live as a reality every day. How many of y'all
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have asked a superintendent or one single board of trustees, why didn't you cancel or postpone
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with weather in that magnitude? Anthony's mother also speaking out, lamenting the online vitriol she
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says her family has faced. In wake of this tragic incident, our family has been under attack.
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Whatever you think what happened between Carmelo and the Metcalf boys, my three younger children,
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my husband, and I didn't do anything to deserve to be threatened, harassed, and lied about.
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While Mrs. Anthony and her representative complained about how they've been treated since her son's
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arrest, citing, quote, the black struggle, more than half a million dollars has been raised to support
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Anthony with his defense so far, and he's reportedly been staying in a supporters $900,000 gated community home.
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Campaign finance records showing Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders shelling out big dough on private
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air travel, crisscrossing the country on his fighting oligarchy tour, where he blasts billionaires
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like Elon Musk and President Trump because he doesn't like rich people. The self-described Democratic
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socialist, often flanked by New York Congresswoman and protege Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, spending $221,000
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on private jet charters in just the first quarter of 2025. Fox News Digital reporting the pair
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spotted on Tuesday afternoon in Bakersfield, California, boarding a luxury Bombardier Challenger
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jet, an aircraft reportedly running as much as $15,000 per hour. Wonder what that does to the
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environment, too. The company operating the jet touting, quote, one of the widest cabins of any
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business jet available today, offering, quote, superior cabin comfort for its passengers.
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The Washington Free Beacon, reporting payments to three private jet companies, account for 75%
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of the campaign's total transportation costs. The central theme of the fighting oligarchy rallies,
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the economy only works for the rich, not for working Americans.
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We can either have extreme wealth inequality with the toxic division and corruption that it requires
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to survive, or we can have a fair economy for working people. Trump has a government of the
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billionaires, by the billionaires, and for the billionaires. They have one central economic mission,
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to make billionaires richer at the expense of all of us. We're not going to let the billionaire class
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have all of the power. Senator Sanders' fiery rants about wealth inequality propelling him from
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socialist outlier to a national figurehead during the 2016 election. In the years since,
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his personal fortune soaring, officially reaching millionaire status. He has three homes,
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thanks in large part to what he says were his best-selling book deals about the very
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income inequality he decries. As the senator's campaign coffers swelled, so did his appetite for
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private travel, spending nearly $2 million on private jet travel in the 2020 election cycle.
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AOC previously slamming private jets as symbols of corporate greed. She also doesn't want you to drive
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an SUV. Save the environment. This from a July 2023 rally supporting the writer's strike.
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How many private jets does David Zaslav need? How many private jets do these CEOs need? It is
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insatiable. It is unacceptable. I do not know how any person can say, I need another $100 million
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before another person can have health care. The fighting oligarchy rallies drawing tens of
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thousands at stops across the country, garnering glowing media coverage. Though not all Democrats
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are impressed. Strategist James Carville telling NewsNation, the rallies are not helpful to the
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Democrat party. Let me make a point about Bernie and AOC. Bernie went for president twice. He's lost
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twice. AOC in her kind and this guy David Hall, they want to run against other Democrats. When Bernie ran
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twice as a Democrat, he lost and he lost by a lot. So maybe the Democratic Party is trying to tell
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you something. You lose twice, there's probably a message in there.
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And that'll do it for your AM Update. I'm Megan Kelly. Join me back here for The Megan Kelly Show,
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live on SiriusXM Triumph Channel 111 at noon east, on youtube.com slash Megan Kelly, and on all podcast
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So you can probably email me at the moment and then comment on the topic.
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