The Megyn Kelly Show - April 21, 2026


Kash Patel Sues The Atlantic, Promising Cancer Treatment, Becerra Surges in CA Race： AM Update 4⧸21

Topics
Becerra surge in CA race
Hosted by
Megyn Kelly
Mentioned
Kash Patel Trump Xavier Becerra Eric Swalwell Chad Bianco Tom Steyer Steve Hilton Katie Porter JD Vance Galabeuf Maria Caroline Levitt Mohamed Baqir Qalibov Benjamin Netanyahu Vinod Balachandram Sarah Fitzpatrick Download BetMGM Jared Kushner Steve Wyckoff Gavin Newsom and 3 more
SCOTUS Secrets During Dobbs Decision, with Mollie Hemingway, and Meghan Markle's FAILED Australia Tour, with Rob Shuter ｜ Ep. 1299 Trump Extends Ceasefire, Democratic Rep Resigns, Feds Probing Missing Scientists： AM Update 4⧸22

Episode Stats


Length

17 minutes

Words per minute

160.29

Word count

2,839

Sentence count

190

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Iranian negotiations on the verge of collapse as ceasefire deadline approaches, while Israel reacts to a soldier seen smashing a statue of Jesus in southern Lebanon. FBI Director Kash Patel files a $250 million defamation suit against the Atlantic over allegations of drinking and erratic behavior. An experimental vaccine for pancreatic cancer delivers early signs of progress in a small trial, and California s governor race shaken up after disgraced former Congressman Eric Swalwell's exit.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
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00:00:30.000 Good morning, everyone. I'm Megan Kelly. It's Tuesday, April 21st, 2026, and this is your AM
00:00:38.600 Update. Iran negotiations on the verge of collapse as the ceasefire deadline approaches,
00:00:44.520 while Israel reacts to one of its soldiers seen smashing a statue of Jesus in southern Lebanon.
00:00:50.940 Yes, I will, for defamation. And because you know what, Maria, we have to fight back against
00:00:55.260 the fake news. FBI Director Kash Patel filing a $250 million defamation suit against the Atlantic
00:01:02.020 over allegations of drinking and erratic behavior. Pancreatic cancer is the toughest. So our hope is
00:01:10.060 if we can crack the toughest, hopefully we can learn how to crack the rest. An experimental
00:01:14.720 mRNA vaccine for pancreatic cancer, delivering early signs of progress in a small trial.
00:01:20.920 and California's governor race shaken up after disgraced former Congressman Eric Swalwell's exit
00:01:26.780 with a potential dark horse emerging in new polling.
00:01:30.720 All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM Update.
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00:02:42.440 the state of peace negotiations with Iran as precarious as ever. President Trump on Monday
00:02:50.340 telling Bloomberg the ceasefire expires tomorrow evening and it is, quote, highly unlikely that it
00:02:55.940 will be extended without a deal. The president telling PBS, quote, lots of bombs will start going
00:03:01.180 off in the event a deal is not reached. Mr. Trump has repeatedly used bellicose language in an effort
00:03:07.540 to scare the Iranians into making a deal. Vice President J.D. Vance set to lead the talks,
00:03:13.100 according to White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt. Jared Kushner and Steve
00:03:17.180 Wyckoff also slated to attend the meeting in Islamabad. They are set to depart sometime today,
00:03:22.780 per CNN. The New York Times reporting earlier in the day Monday that chief negotiator for the
00:03:28.340 Iranians, Mohammed Bagheer Ghalibov, would attend the talks if Vice President Vance was in attendance.
00:03:34.440 However, late Monday, Galabeuf indicating talks would not take place under current conditions,
00:03:40.520 writing in an ex-post, quote,
00:03:42.200 "...Trump, by imposing a siege and violating the ceasefire, seeks to turn this negotiating table
00:03:47.240 into a table of surrender." Galabeuf writing Iran will not accept negotiations under threats,
00:03:53.900 referring to the U.S. military blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, which remains in effect.
00:03:59.060 CNN reporting yesterday that just 16 ships passed through the strait on Monday,
00:04:04.440 with U.S. Central Command directing 27 vessels to turn around or return to an Iranian port.
00:04:10.820 So will the negotiations take place or won't they? Time will tell.
00:04:16.460 The Israeli Defense Force is confirming on Sunday the authenticity of a photo showing an Israeli
00:04:22.340 soldier smashing a statue of Jesus in southern Lebanon. In the photo, the statue of Jesus seen
00:04:29.380 upside down at the base of a cross, feet extended in the air, with a soldier smashing a sledgehammer
00:04:36.200 into the statue's face. The photo, which began circulating online Sunday, sparking
00:04:41.320 widespread backlash among many Catholics and Christians. On Sunday afternoon, the IDF confirming
00:04:47.520 in an ex-post that an investigation into the incident is ongoing. The IDF views the incident
00:04:53.920 with great severity and emphasizes that the soldier's conduct is wholly inconsistent with
00:04:58.700 the values expected of its troops. The post going on to promise the statue will be restored to its
00:05:04.700 place. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issuing a statement, quote, I was stunned and
00:05:10.660 saddened to learn that an IDF soldier damaged a Catholic religious icon in southern Lebanon.
00:05:16.380 It continues, quote, I condemn the act in the strongest terms. Military authorities are
00:05:20.920 conducting a criminal probe of the matter and will take appropriately harsh disciplinary action
00:05:25.720 against the offender. Head of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land, Cardinal Pierre-Baptiste
00:05:30.760 Pizzaballa, who was recently stopped by Israel from celebrating Mass at the Church of the Holy
00:05:36.100 Sepulchre in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, releasing a statement describing the act as, quote,
00:05:41.720 a grave affront to the Christian faith. The Times of Israel reporting the photo was captured in a
00:05:47.100 Christian village of Debal near the Israeli border. The mayor of Debal telling the New York
00:05:52.460 times, the statue was in the garden of a private home in an area where residents were forced to
00:05:57.800 flee about a month ago by Israel's offensive and to which they have not been allowed to return.
00:06:04.100 Israel and Lebanon are currently observing a fragile 10-day ceasefire while working toward
00:06:08.660 a more permanent security agreement amid the conflict involving the Iran-backed terror group
00:06:13.460 Hezbollah, which is heavily concentrated in Lebanon. The U.S. set to host the next round
00:06:18.620 of talks this Thursday in Washington, D.C.
00:06:22.460 FBI Director Cash Patel filing a defamation lawsuit against The Atlantic and staff writer
00:06:28.540 Sarah Fitzpatrick over a piece published Friday originally headlined, quote,
00:06:33.640 Cash Patel's erratic behavior could cost him his job. The article citing more than two dozen
00:06:38.980 anonymous sources and zero on-the-record sources alleging Director Patel has demonstrated a
00:06:44.640 pattern of unprofessional conduct, at times appearing visibly intoxicated in social settings
00:06:50.200 in D.C. and during trips to Las Vegas. Some sources claiming early morning briefings were
00:06:55.640 occasionally pushed back following late nights by Director Patel. In one incident, the Atlantic
00:07:01.160 reports, quote, a request for breaching equipment, normally used by SWAT and hostage rescue teams to
00:07:07.680 quickly gain entry into buildings, was made last year because Patel had been unreachable behind
00:07:12.560 locked doors, according to multiple people familiar with the request. The article also
00:07:17.640 reporting on a viral moment from February. Director Patel captured on video celebrating
00:07:22.420 with the U.S. men's Olympic hockey team after its gold medal win over Canada,
00:07:27.240 seen drinking and spraying beer in a locker room celebration. Two sources telling the outlet the
00:07:32.560 incident resulted in a phone call to the director from President Trump. However,
00:07:37.580 the administration publicly backing Patel. White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt
00:07:41.760 responding to the report, quote,
00:07:43.180 Crime across the country has plummeted to the lowest level in more than 100 years,
00:07:48.260 and many high-profile criminals have been put behind bars.
00:07:51.520 Director Patel remains a critical player on the administration's law and order team.
00:07:56.380 Director Patel addressing the allegations Sunday on Fox News.
00:08:00.340 If the fake news mafia isn't hitting you personally with baseless information
00:08:03.960 in Washington, D.C., then you're not doing your job. And it's louder than ever.
00:08:07.980 This FBI has the most prolific year in crime reduction in the United States history, a 20 point percent reduction in the homicide rate, a 20 point drop in opiate overdose deaths.
00:08:19.840 We have found and identified 6,300 child victims, 6,300 kids get to call home to their kids.
00:08:25.840 That's a 30 percent increase. Seizing enough fentanyl to kill 180 million Americans.
00:08:30.020 That's a 31 percent increase. Tomorrow you will be dropping a lawsuit against The Atlantic magazine.
00:08:35.860 Yes. Yes, I will. For defamation. And because, you know what, Maria? We have to fight back
00:08:40.440 against the fake news. And if the fake news mafia wants to, you know, ring their drum
00:08:44.300 as loud as they can, they're never going to stop me from completing the mission that
00:08:48.540 President Trump asked me to do, which is safeguarding America. And we're doing it
00:08:51.680 better than ever before. At some point on the same day of that interview,
00:08:55.640 The Atlantic editing its headline from Patel's erratic behavior could cost him his job
00:09:01.260 to, quote, the FBI director is MIA. So which is it? They don't say, and there's no explanation
00:09:08.380 for the change, nor any correction. The lawsuit, filed yesterday morning in U.S. District Court
00:09:13.800 in Washington seeking $250 million in damages, accuses the defendants of publishing what Patel
00:09:19.880 describes as knowingly false claims intended to damage his reputation and force him from office,
00:09:25.980 Patel arguing the piece meets the high legal threshold of actual malice, which requires a
00:09:31.220 public figure suing for defamation to prove that a publisher either knew a claim was false or acted
00:09:36.840 with reckless disregard for its truth or falsity in publishing the story. From the complaint,
00:09:42.440 quote, defendants published the article with actual malice, despite being expressly warned
00:09:47.300 hours before publication that the central allegations were categorically false, despite
00:09:52.000 having abundant publicly available information contradicting those allegations, despite obvious
00:09:57.220 some fatal defects in their own sourcing, and adding The Atlantic has a, quote, well-documented,
00:10:02.700 long-running editorial animus toward Director Patel. The complaint alleges a request for more
00:10:07.960 time to respond to the questions went without a response from The Atlantic. The Atlantic responding
00:10:13.780 in a statement, quote, we stand by our reporting on Kash Patel, and we will vigorously defend The
00:10:18.900 Atlantic and our journalists against this meritless lawsuit. Coming up, an experimental
00:10:25.760 mRNA vaccine for pancreatic cancer, now showing early, very promising results in a small trial.
00:10:33.220 And a post-Swalwell shakeup in California's governor race,
00:10:36.280 with new polling revealing a potential dark horse contender.
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00:12:06.160 A sign of progress in the fight against pancreatic cancer,
00:12:09.680 one of the most deadly forms of the disease, as an mRNA vaccine now shows promise.
00:12:15.780 Fewer than 13% of patients survive more than five years after a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.
00:12:21.840 Without a routine screening test to catch it early, the disease often is not detected until
00:12:26.640 it has already spread, leaving patients with limited treatment options. Only 20% of cases
00:12:32.020 are operable, per NBC News, and for those patients, an important breakthrough now being tested.
00:12:38.900 a personalized mRNA vaccine built from a patient's tumor to help the immune system
00:12:45.200 target lingering cancer cells and destroy those that may form later. Dr. Vinod Balachandram,
00:12:52.060 who is leading the trial at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City,
00:12:56.780 describing the results to NBC. Even at six years, you can find the immune cells
00:13:03.620 made by the vaccine circulating in her blood at very high levels.
00:13:07.640 What kind of difference could this make?
00:13:10.440 Pancreatic cancer is the toughest, so our hope is if we can crack the toughest, hopefully we can learn how to crack the rest.
00:13:19.000 A small phase one trial involving just 16 patients was recently conducted.
00:13:23.840 Of those, eight responded to the treatment with only two seeing their cancer come back.
00:13:29.720 Experts cautioning the results are still early, based on a limited number of patients, and not yet proof the treatment will work at larger scale.
00:13:37.240 Phase two of the trial now underway,
00:13:39.120 backed by vaccine manufacturers Genentech and BioNTech.
00:13:43.180 Dr. Balachandran and his team now studying
00:13:45.680 how the vaccine is working within the immune system
00:13:48.300 to fight the disease.
00:13:51.120 New polling since Democrat and former Congressman Eric Swalwell
00:13:54.700 dropped out of the California gubernatorial race last week
00:13:57.460 amid a wave of sexual misconduct allegations,
00:14:00.660 revealing a potential dark horse contender.
00:14:03.420 Prior to Swalwell's career imploding,
00:14:05.140 he had been routinely performing in the top three, along with Republicans Steve Hilton and
00:14:10.120 Chad Bianco. California's open primary system means the top two candidates on election day
00:14:14.980 advance to the general, regardless of party. Former Biden HHS Secretary Javier Becerra
00:14:21.400 now surging in a slate of new polls. Political consulting firm Gudalunas Strategies, which
00:14:27.140 backs Becerra, finding the former secretary up 11 points since a similar poll preceding
00:14:32.760 Swalwell's exit. The firm reporting Trump-endorsed Republican Steve Hilton leads at 20 percent,
00:14:39.060 Becerra tied for second with billionaire Tom Steyer both at 15 percent, Sheriff Chad Bianco
00:14:44.800 in third at 14 percent, and former Congresswoman Katie Porter bringing up the rear of the top tier
00:14:51.060 I feel like this is unnecessarily argumentative. What is your question?
00:14:54.260 In fourth at 13 percent. The remainder of the field trailing in the single digits.
00:15:00.040 Polling firm Create has Becerra in fourth at 10%.
00:15:03.420 That's up eight points from a month ago.
00:15:05.800 A new poll from Emerson College out late last week,
00:15:08.260 finding Hilton leading the pack at 17,
00:15:10.760 followed by Bianco, who, along with Steyer,
00:15:13.580 is in this poll tied for second at 14%.
00:15:16.520 Becerra and Katie Porter each tied below that at 10%.
00:15:20.840 Outgoing Governor Gavin Newsom yet to endorse any candidates,
00:15:24.420 but the New York Post now reporting the governor's allies
00:15:26.700 are increasingly shifting their attention toward Becerra.
00:15:30.580 CNN on Sunday asking Becerra what he believes is behind the surge.
00:15:34.980 I think folks feel very deceived and voters want to see someone they can trust.
00:15:42.600 It's a tough time in politics.
00:15:44.700 And I believe voters are looking for someone that they can trust.
00:15:47.820 And I believe one thing that makes them have that trust is experience.
00:15:52.420 And I think if I have something, it's experience.
00:15:55.360 Riveting.
00:15:56.540 Tom Steyer, who made his billions as a founder of a San Francisco-based hedge fund,
00:16:01.160 vastly outspending his opponents, booking more than $115 million in ads, according to the AP,
00:16:08.220 nearly 30 times more than his nearest Democrat opponent.
00:16:12.020 Porter, placing in the middle of the pack in most polling, still fighting as well,
00:16:16.000 with this compelling argument last week on KTLA. 0.97
00:16:19.400 I think this is a time for women to lead. I think this is a time for moms to lead.
00:16:23.540 In October, the New York Post reporting on resurfaced documents from Porter's 2013 divorce, in which she was accused of dumping scalding hot mashed potatoes on her then-husband's head, more like mom's beating than leading.
00:16:37.300 Each of the five aforementioned candidates, plus San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, set to take the stage tomorrow night in a debate focusing on the economy, public safety, housing, and the state's future direction.
00:16:50.680 Early voting begins May 5th with the primary set for June 2nd.
00:16:57.220 And that'll do it for your AM update.
00:16:59.200 I'm Megan Kelly.
00:17:00.140 Join me back here for the MK Show, live on SiriusXM's The Megan Kelly Channel,
00:17:03.960 111 at noon east, on youtube.com slash megankelly, and on all podcast platforms.
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00:17:36.660 Download BetMGM app. Make it legendary.
00:17:39.720 Must be 19 plus. Ontario only. Please play responsibly.