Noem vs. Dems, Abrego Garcia Released For Now, Tyler Robinson Smiles in Court： AM Update 12⧸12
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Summary
As President Trump is settling into his new administration, one of the top Democrats in Congress is aiming to undermine the Trump agenda is Senator Dick Durbin. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem clashes with Democrats in a fiery hearing on Capitol Hill. President Trump pushes for Lindsey Halligan s nomination for U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, after a judge rules her temporary appointment to the post is invalid, and Charlie Kirk s accused killer appearing in court yesterday for the first time.
Transcript
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Good morning, everyone. I'm Megan Kelly. It's Friday, December 12th, 2025, and this is your AM Update.
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Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem clashing with Democrats in a fiery hearing on Capitol Hill.
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Abrego Garcia is present in our country illegally. He is a proven human trafficker.
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The infamous Maryland man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, scores a win from a U.S. district judge ordering his immediate release.
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But the Trump administration says it's not over yet.
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President Trump pushing for Lindsey Halligan's nomination for U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia,
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following a judge ruling her temporary appointment to the post, is invalid.
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And Charlie Kirk's accused killer appearing in court yesterday for the first time, smiling.
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All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM Update.
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As President Trump is settling into his new administration,
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one of the top Democrats in Congress aiming to undermine the Trump agenda is Senator Dick Durbin.
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And according to our sponsor, the Electronic Payments Coalition,
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Senator Durbin has a new scheme, a government takeover of your credit card.
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Today, Americans have thousands of choices in credit cards,
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but they say Senator Durbin's plan will result in less competition and less security.
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And that means more risk for your credit and identity.
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and consider telling your senators to stop Dick Durbin's government takeover of your credit card before it's too late.
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Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other top counterterrorism officials on the Hill
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defending President Trump's strict immigration enforcement
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in a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on threats to the nation.
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The president's immigration crackdown, an attempt to conduct the largest mass deportation effort in history,
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quickly becoming a top political target for Democrats
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and drawing dozens of lawsuits throughout the nation.
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Secretary Noem arguing the open border policies of the Biden administration necessitates the aggressive approach.
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What keeps me up at night is that we don't necessarily know
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all of the people that are in this country, who they are and what their intentions are.
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We think up to 15 to 20 million people came in under the Biden administration
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Our parole programs, our asylum programs, our visa programs were all exploited.
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And the integrity was demolished under Joe Biden and the leadership of the Department of Homeland Security.
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And frankly, the entire department was neglected.
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And that is why we are so aggressive at making sure that we're going out
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and doing investigative work, finding those violent criminals,
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finding those people who shouldn't be in this country to begin with
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and those that want to go after and to harm our American citizens.
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Director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent,
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with a stark warning on what counterterrorism analysts have uncovered.
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We just recently put out a warning, warning of the heightened risk of terrorist attacks
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posed to the homeland by terrorists pretty much of all stripes,
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NCTC has been crunching the numbers and going through the sheer volume
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of known and suspected terrorists that are in the country
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So far, NCTC has identified around 18,000 known and suspected terrorists.
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These are individuals who, under normal circumstances,
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But yet, the Biden administration not only let them into the country
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just like the entry of the Afghan terrorists who committed the terrorist attack
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killing one of our National Guard members and wounding another.
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Democratic lawmakers largely focusing on attacking Secretary Noem throughout the hearing.
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You lied on the record and you lied to members of this committee.
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Secretary Noem, you, Gregory Bovino, and your ICBP and DHS deputized agents
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have waged an unaccountable, unlawful, unconstitutional war
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Do a real service to the country and just resign.
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It's clear you have no interest in countering real threats in the homeland.
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You've devoted the past 11 months to violent raids,
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In a moment of political theater, Congressman Seth Magaziner of Rhode Island
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holding up an iPad with a man on Zoom to confront the secretary.
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He is a United States Army combat veteran who was shot twice
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Like many veterans, he struggled with PTSD and substance abuse after his service.
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He was arrested in the 1990s for some minor drug offenses, nothing serious.
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a country he hasn't lived in since he was seven years old.
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Will you join me in thanking Mr. Park for his service to our country?
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Sir, I'm grateful for every single person that has served our country and follows our laws.
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Will you commit to at least looking at Mr. Park's case to see if you can help him find a pathway
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back to this country that he sacrificed so much for?
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Secretary Noem taking a moment to respond to the Democrats'
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Every day we're able to go out and encounter and bring to justice individuals
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who are raping our children, murdering our mothers, our grandmothers,
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And I'm shocked at the Democrats' constant defense of these individual criminals
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I think it's shameful to see the defense of individuals who break our laws.
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If we are not a nation of laws, we're no nation at all.
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And that is what we are doing every day is following those.
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A federal judge ordering the release of Kilmar Abrego-Garcia from ICE custody yesterday.
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Obama appointed judge for the District of Maryland, Paula Zinnis,
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ordering the Salvadorans' immediate release from the Pennsylvania Detention Center,
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Abrego-Garcia entering the national spotlight back in March
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when ICE agents arrested him at a traffic stop,
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shortly thereafter putting him on a flight to El Salvador,
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igniting a legal battle and international outcry
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in support of the accused serial abuser the media affectionately calls Maryland Man.
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arguing he was unlawfully returned to his home country
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in violation of a withholding of removal order.
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ICE officials conceding Abrego-Garcia was inadvertently included on a flight manifest
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that should have only included people cleared for deportation to El Salvador.
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the DOJ providing heaps of documents clarifying Abrego-Garcia's status and deportability,
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Abrego-Garcia admits to illegally entering the country in 2011 at the age of 16.
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In 2019, he was arrested while associating with known MS-13 gang members.
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Prince George's County, Maryland police records from the arrest
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describe Garcia as wearing gang-associated clothing
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and a reliable informant identifying Mr. Abrego-Garcia as an active MS-13 member.
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That same year, an immigration judge granting Abrego-Garcia withholding of removal to El Salvador,
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which means he was deportable but could not be sent back to his home country
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After months of legal back and forth, with even the Supreme Court weighing in,
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the government of El Salvador in June returning Abrego-Garcia back to the U.S.
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following a Tennessee arrest warrant charging him with alien smuggling
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in which prosecutors say Abrego-Garcia was transporting
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claiming they were traveling from a construction site in St. Louis to Maryland.
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No charges were pursued at that time as federal officials under the Biden administration
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Also, it turns out, Abrego-Garcia's wife previously sought multiple orders of protection
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One 2020 filing claiming he bragged he could kill her and, quote,
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This one alleging that Abrego-Garcia punched, scratched, and grabbed his wife,
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Yesterday, Judge Zinnis, finding the government did not actually have
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Judge Zinnis outlining multiple hearings in which DOJ officials were asked to provide the order
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allowing for the government to deport Abrego-Garcia to any country other than El Salvador,
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ICE officials whose job it is to effectuate removal orders,
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candidly admitted to having never seen one for Abrego-Garcia.
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The judge writing the government's argument that the prior withholding of removal decision
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Attorney and senior counsel at the Article 3 project, Will Chamberlain,
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there be an order of removal as a prerequisite,
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Press Secretary Caroline Levitt yesterday slamming Judge Zinnis,
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opposed this activism from a judge who is really acting as a judicial activist,
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which we've unfortunately seen in many cases across the country.
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Abrego-Garcia is present in our country illegally.
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And as you saw from the Department of Homeland Security,
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they issued a statement saying they'll continue to fight this legal battle in court.
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Odds are, the government will just seek an order of removal from a new immigration court.
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There's no doubt he's here illegally and is deportable.
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Coming up, President Trump pushing ahead with Lindsay Halligan's nomination
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for U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia
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after a judge ruled her acting appointment was unlawful.
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And Charlie Kirk's accused killer appearing in person in a Utah courtroom for the first time
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President Trump seeking to confirm Lindsay Halligan as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
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Halligan yesterday submitting a 28-page questionnaire to the Senate Judiciary Committee,
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summarizing her background and professional qualifications,
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the first step following her nomination to the post on September 30th.
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Halligan filling the post in an acting capacity after her predecessor, Eric Siebert, left the position,
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reportedly under pressure to bring charges against former FBI Director James Comey
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and New York State Attorney General Letitia James.
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Within days of assuming the job, Halligan indicting Comey,
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with just days left to spare under the statute of limitations relating to accusations he lied to Congress.
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Letitia James later indicted on mortgage fraud charges.
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the judge ruling in a pair of nearly identical opinions that Halligan was never lawfully appointed.
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Halligan's nomination process already facing a steep uphill battle due to the Senate's blue-slip process,
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a Senate tradition giving senators effective veto power over which judges and U.S. attorneys will be nominated in their state.
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Without earning the blue slips, the nominee traditionally does not get a vote.
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The two Virginia senators, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, both Democrats,
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already signaling they will not approve Halligan's nomination, effectively rendering it dead on arrival.
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This whole thing is an attempt to just end-run around the Senate and end-run the Judiciary Committee.
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President Trump, yesterday on True Social, railing against the blue-slip process, saying,
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Blue slips are making it impossible to get great Republican judges and U.S. attorneys approved
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to serve in any state where there is even a single Democrat senator.
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If they say no, then it is over for that very well-qualified Republican candidate.
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The administration targeting the Senate tradition for months as it faces roadblocks in moving
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Last month on Fox, Vice President J.D. Vance saying as the administration moves ahead in
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seeking accountability for the weaponized DOJ under the Obama and Biden administrations,
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Eventually, we need certain subpoenas that have to be issued by a court.
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Eventually, you need local prosecutors, U.S. attorneys, to go after some of these people
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If you can't get a U.S. attorney appointed because the Democrat won't give you a blue-slip,
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or you can't get a judge confirmed because the Democrats are gumming up the work of the Senate,
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Republicans have got to open up their perspective a little bit.
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Why do we let the blue-slip process make it impossible for Donald Trump
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The Democrats are stalling that, and we're going to wake up in a couple of years if we
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don't have more U.S. attorneys approved, if we don't have more judges approved, we're going
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to wake up in a couple of years and realize that we've done a lot of great work at the
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Trump administration, but justice is not being meted out as it should be because we don't
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Senate Majority Leader John Thune yesterday on Fox defending his record in moving nominees
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through the process, saying blue-slips are here to stay.
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We have moved his nominees through the process at a record rate.
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We will, by the end of this year, have a record number of his nominees approved to the executive
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branch, got his cabinet confirmed at the fastest rate possible.
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We'll continue to work on the judiciary, Dana, but this is a procedure that's been in place
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for a long time that both Republicans and Democrats support because it gives them some input,
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particularly in those judges, the judicial appointments that are made in their individual
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states, some input into that decision-making process.
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And like I said, there are Republicans on the Judiciary Committee and off the Judiciary
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Committee, for that matter, who support this and support it strongly.
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Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old charged with murdering Charlie Kirk on September 10th, appearing
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in a Provo, Utah courtroom yesterday in person for the first time since his arrest the following
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Judge Tony Graff previously ordering that Robinson is allowed to appear in street clothes but
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Robinson, dressed in a light blue button-up shirt and matching tie, seen smiling at times
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with his legal team, chatting and appearing relaxed while seated at the courtroom table.
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The pre-trial hearing focusing on transparency and public access issues, beginning with how much
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of a closed hearing from October should be made public.
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The judge clearing the courtroom for that portion of the proceedings.
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Upon returning to the record, Judge Graff noting a violation of media rules had occurred,
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with the camera picking up Robinson's shackles on the live stream.
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The defense also objecting, stating that their papers were potentially visible to the live
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stream and their side conversations could be overheard on the feed.
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Judge Graff determining the live stream would be allowed to continue for the day, but putting
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I find that excluding the cameras from the courtroom would be disproportionate for this hearing.
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The transmission cannot begin until court is in session and must end as the court ends
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the session and cannot be filmed before or after.
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I want to immediately address any possible transmission of shackles, as previously stated by counsel,
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and remove the possibility of capture of screens of the computers at defense counsel's table as well.
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In addition, if there is further violations of the standing de quorum order, this court does have the right
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and will exercise termination of broadcast of these proceedings.
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While the court believes in openness and transparency,
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it needs to be balanced with the constitutional rights of all parties in this case.
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The hearing also covering future media access and procedures.
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With the question of cameras in the courtroom still outstanding.
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Judge Graff announcing he will issue his decision on the outstanding issues
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in a virtual hearing set for December 29th, with Robinson to appear remotely.
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Erica Kirk, Charlie's widow, also recognized as the designated victim representative,
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meaning she will serve as the official voice for Charlie in court,
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just as she's been since he was murdered in September.
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He is charged with one count of aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm,
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obstruction of justice, two counts of witness tampering,
00:19:29.020
and commission of a violent offense in front of a child.
00:19:43.860
Join me back here for the MK Show, live on SiriusXM's The Megan Kelly Channel,
00:19:48.000
111 at noon east, on youtube.com slash megankelly, and on all podcast platforms.
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