Fed Holds Rates Steady Despite Trump's Wishes and GDP Rebound, Khalil Legal Showdown： AM Update 7⧸31
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Summary
Heavy pushback on his decision to keep interest rates steady as the latest GDP numbers surpass expectations. New York City mayoral candidate Zoran Mamdani calls for more gun control in the wake of the Midtown Manhattan mass shooting. Is that the answer? All that and more coming up in just a moment on Your AM Update.
Transcript
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It's Thursday, July 31st, 2025, and this is your AM Update.
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We should be the lowest interest rate, and we're not.
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Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell meeting heavy pushback
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as the latest GDP numbers surpass expectations.
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You've got the immigration stuff, and then you've got a normal case,
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but the normal case is messing with the immigration case.
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Why can't the Trump administration boot Columbia student agitator
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And New York City mayoral candidate Zoran Mamdani
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calls for more gun control in the wake of the Midtown Manhattan mass shooting.
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All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM Update.
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On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell
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bucking the president's intense public pressure campaign,
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In support of our goals, today the Federal Open Market Committee
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decided to leave our policy interest rate unchanged.
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We believe that the current stance of monetary policy
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leaves us well-positioned to respond in a timely way
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That decision facing backlash, not just from the Trump administration,
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which argues the positive economic trends justify lowering rates,
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but also from fellow members of the Fed's Board of Governors.
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Not one, but two members of the Fed's powerful Board of Governors,
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but this is the first time we're seeing two governors dissent since 1993.
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he's not just facing pressure from the White House to cut interest rates,
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he's also facing pressure from some of his colleagues inside this building.
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President Trump, Wednesday from the Oval, slamming Powell's decision.
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You know, each point that this gentleman keeps up
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Now, he's got a meeting today, but I hear they're going to do it in September.
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But Europe, as you know, cut their rates 11 times in the last short period of time.
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But the good news is we're doing better than anybody anywhere in the world.
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Nobody's doing anything even close to us, even with the higher rates.
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because people can't go out and get a loan or refinance their house.
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The announcement coming just hours after the release of new data showing GDP grew 3% in
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the second quarter, beating expectations and marking a rebound from the first quarter
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Director of the National Economic Council, Kevin Hassett, over the moon about the latest numbers.
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It's really one of the best GDP announcements or releases that you could imagine because
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there's blockbuster growth way above expectation.
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And there's also a real, real almost collapse in inflation.
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It went down by about a percent and a half all the way down to 2.1%, which is the Fed's target.
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And so to have high growth with low inflation and also high income growth, personal income
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That's just like about a sweet spot for a GDP release.
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And I will add that all of this happened while $127 billion in tariffs was raised,
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which is clearly not harming the American consumer.
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And we've been downsizing government in order to be more fiscally responsible.
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There was a 5% reduction in federal government spending while all this was going on.
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Coming up, Columbia University student agitator Mahmoud Khalil has become a media darling,
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And far-left socialist candidate for New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani uses the Midtown Manhattan
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Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University student agitator and Algerian citizen,
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at the center of a high-profile deportation fight with the Trump administration,
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hitting the media circuit, enjoying the spotlight since his release from ICE custody in June.
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ICE officials arresting Khalil, who has a student visa and a green card, in March,
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the Trump administration seeking to remove him under a law that states, quote,
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An alien whose presence or activities in the U.S., the Secretary of State has reasonable ground to believe
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would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States, is deportable.
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio making that determination about Khalil,
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given his role in the Columbia University apartheid divest group.
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Khalil worked as a student negotiator for that organization,
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which reportedly sympathizes with terror groups like Hamas and Hezbollah,
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This as it occupied Colombia's campus, setting up an encampment and seizing academic buildings,
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demanding the university cut ties with Israel or else.
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The State Department also arguing Khalil was dishonest on his visa application,
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accusing him of omitting past work with the Hamas-linked UN Relief and Works Agency
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in order to secure his green card in the first place.
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Khalil's ICE arrest, kicking off a multi-front legal battle as the government
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tries to deport this guy, and his team of lawyers pretend he has a legal right to stay here.
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Following his arrest, the DOJ transferring Khalil to an ICE detention center in Louisiana to await deportation.
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Khalil's legal team filing a separate case, called a habeas corpus petition,
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That case was assigned to the Biden-appointed Michael Farbiage.
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A habeas proceeding challenges one's detention.
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This federal judge then ordering Khalil's release as his habeas case plays out.
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In addition, Judge Farbiage attempting to rule that the immigration judge cannot deport Khalil,
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based on Secretary Rubio's finding that Khalil is hurting U.S. foreign policy,
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which is an extraordinary ruling in that Khalil's deportation is up to the immigration courts.
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The federal district court should only be considering whether he's being properly detained in the meantime.
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Investigative journalist at The Federalist, Margot Cleveland, who has been closely tracking this story,
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So you have the New Jersey judge whose lawsuit only involved a claim called habeas corpus,
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And you have that New Jersey judge now telling an immigration judge how to do his job.
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And kind of the simple way to think of it is they're two totally separate cases.
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There is a normal process by which immigration cases are decided.
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It starts with the case going to an immigration judge.
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From there, it goes to the Board of Immigration Appeals.
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And from there, it goes to a circuit court, not a district court.
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His attorney spent one running back to the district judge in New Jersey,
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and asked the judge to enter a revised preliminary injunction.
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And what the judge did is ordered the Trump administration to go to the immigration judge and say,
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So as you can see, there are a lot of different machinations going on
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with the court in New Jersey and the immigration proceedings in Louisiana.
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But the bottom line is that the judge in New Jersey is acting completely beyond his jurisdiction
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and entering orders dictating what another judge, the immigration judge, can and cannot do.
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In response, the Trump administration filing an appeal with the Third Circuit Court of Appeals,
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arguing this New Jersey district judge is way out of bounds.
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There is no way that this New Jersey judge will be allowed to micromanage the immigration proceedings
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That is so far beyond his authority, an authority that Congress expressly limited.
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So I think the Trump administration is very likely to win because they're right,
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just for the same reason that the Supreme Court has stayed and given Trump a victory in,
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But even if the Third Circuit sides with the Trump administration,
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Cleveland says Khalil's deportation is still a long way off.
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So right now, it's at the immigration stage, at the IG stage,
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then it goes to a Board of Immigration Appeals, and then it goes to the Fifth Circuit.
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And from the Fifth Circuit, he could seek to go to the Supreme Court.
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So this case and his deportation is very far off in the future.
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Now, the reason that his attorneys are fighting so hard is because they don't think they're going to win
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for the immigration case because immigration courts have discretion that is very hard to challenge on appeal.
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Cleveland's saying this case is likely to have major ramifications on immigration proceedings besides Khalil's.
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So this case is actually just one of many involving immigration proceedings
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that are wrongly being brought in federal district courts.
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We are seeing virtually every immigration case that would typically go through the process Congress set up,
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which is immigration judge, Board of Immigration Appeals, circuit case,
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And in fact, that's why Congress said that district court judges do not have jurisdiction
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This case provides an opportunity for the federal appellate courts to make clear
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when and when the district courts do not have the power to wade into immigration issues.
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As all of that drama plays out, Khalil now filing a claim seeking $20 million in damages
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against the Trump administration, which means the federal taxpayers,
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which could potentially lead to another lawsuit claiming he was falsely imprisoned
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In recent weeks, Khalil launching a full-blown media blitz,
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appearing across several friendly outlets fielding questions from a typically fawning media.
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However, in mid-July, one CNN interview going slightly off the rails
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Just to be clear here, though, do you specifically condemn Hamas,
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a designated terrorist organization in the United States,
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I condemn the killing of all civilians, full stop.
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No, I am very clear with condemning all civilians.
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But it's disingenuous to ask about condemning Hamas
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while Palestinians are the ones being starved now by Israel.
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But it is fair to ask you about whether you condemn Hamas
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because the Trump administration has claimed that you are Hamas' sympathizer.
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So it's very important to actually ask that question in this broad conversation.
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Yeah, I simply asked and protested the war in Palestine.
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The State Department says that answer should be disqualifying
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And America should not be admitting people into the United States
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who will refuse to acknowledge a terrorist organization
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That, to me, should be a very standard way to screen out individuals
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who will harm the foreign policy interests of the United States.
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Democrat nominee for New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani
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speaking publicly for the first time following the Monday mass shooting
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One NYPD officer and three civilians killed in the rampage.
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On Tuesday, Mamdani posting in memory of the slain NYPD officer,
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Dideril Islam, drawing fierce backlash and accusations of hypocrisy
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since he really clearly wants to defund the police.
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Critics referencing those previous calls and resurfacing an old tweet
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nature is healing to a post about a police officer seen crying in his car.
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Mamdani, fresh off a plane from his native Uganda,
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for his extravagant wedding flanked by tons of security,
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Do you wish you hadn't said some of those things a few years back?
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and the inability to deliver on what Eric Adams, of all people, described
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as the right for all of us to be able to enjoy safety and justice
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Mamdani also using the tragedy as an opportunity to call for more gun laws.
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And as New Yorkers across the five boroughs and Americans across the country
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it appears Mamdani wants to both take away the cops
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which was completed before the shooting event on Monday,
00:18:49.500
crosstabs revealing Mamdani's intense popularity
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live on SiriusXM Triumph Channel 111 at noon east,
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Is the technology such that it's going to go up?
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She's the executive vice president of Enbridge Inc.