Paxton Crushes Cornyn in Texas, Pope Leo's AI Warning, UFC White House Fight Preview： AM Update 5⧸27
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Summary
An expensive Republican Senate runoff in Texas comes to an end, setting up a high-stakes general election in November. Artificial intelligence needs to be disarmed. Pope Leo XIV calls on global leaders to ensure the technology serves mankind and not the other way around. Vice President J.D. Vance convenes a panel of state attorneys general in an effort to crack down on fraud. And an inside look at the preparations for the upcoming UFC Fight hosted on the White House lawn. All that and more coming up in a moment on your AM Update.
Transcript
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Good morning, everyone. I'm Megan Kelly. It's Wednesday, May 27th, 2026, and this is your AM
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Update. An expensive Republican Senate runoff in Texas comes to an end, setting up a high-stakes
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general election in November. Artificial intelligence needs to be disarmed. The word
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is strong, I know, but deliberately chosen. Pope Leo XIV sounding the alarm on artificial
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intelligence, calling on global leaders to ensure the technology serves mankind and not the other
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way around. Vice President J.D. Vance convenes a panel of state attorneys general in an effort to
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crack down on fraud. It's going to be a very incredible experience for Americans and people
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around the world. And an inside look at the preparations for the upcoming UFC fight hosted
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on the White House lawn. All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM Update.
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bucks. Republican voters in Texas yesterday heading to the polls in a high-stakes runoff
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election to nominate their candidate for U.S. Senate. With neither candidate reaching 50 percent
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in the March primary, Trump-backed State Attorney General Ken Paxton taking on incumbent Senator
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John Cornyn. Cornyn narrowly winning the first round with 41.9% of the vote,
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compared to Paxton's 40.7%. Paxton securing a late-stage endorsement from President Trump
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last week, as many Republicans worry Paxton's baggage of ethical scandals could make it harder
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to beat State Representative James Tallarico in what's expected to be an intensely competitive
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general election in November. At the end of the night, voters opting to go with President Trump's
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choice, Paxton securing the nomination. Hear a moment from his victory speech.
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I want to thank my family, my kids, my grandchildren, the Paxton patriots,
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and every single person here today. And then there's one person who I think you might know,
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President Donald J. Trump. When everyone in Washington told him to abandon me and abandon
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the people of Texas, he didn't listen. Instead, he gave his complete and total endorsement.
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James Tallarico is a threat to everything we hold dear in this state and in this country.
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I mean, he's a vegan who thinks God is non-binary and that there's actually six biological sexes.
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It's hard to imagine someone more radical than that.
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Every Democrat, and I would say every Republican, knows that if we lose this state,
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if Republicans lose this state, we lose the country.
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But I truly believe that together, not only will we win this race,
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but we can ensure that America's best days are ahead of us.
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Senator Cornyn, who first took office in 2002, acknowledging the loss.
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Tonight, we've come up short in this primary runoff.
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You know, a few years ago, I had a friend of mine say, you know what makes God laugh?
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He said, when we make plans, I've spent most of my time in the Senate building the Republican Party in Texas and in the U.S. Senate.
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and I've always supported the Republican ticket and I intend to do so again in this general
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election. I've said throughout this race that I trust the voters of Texas and they've made
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their decision and I must respect it. According to Ad Impact Politics, the race setting the record
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for the most expensive Senate primary with $165 million in ad spending. Breaking that down,
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a whopping $92.5 million spent on ads supporting Senator Cornyn versus $3.8 million spent on
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ads against him. A comparatively small $11.2 million spent on ads supporting Paxton versus
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$1.1 million spent on ads attacking him. Paxton now set to take on Tallarico with the Real
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Clear Politics polling average showing Tallarico ahead by one and a half points, 44.3 to 42.8.
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We'll have more on this later today on the MK Show.
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Pope Leo XIV releasing his first encyclical, the papacy's version of a policy paper from
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a think tank meant to offer moral guidance and clarify church doctrine in response to
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The focus of this encyclical, largely artificial intelligence, or AI.
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Pope Leo taking his papal name from Leo XIII, the pontiff who led the church through the
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Industrial Revolution, when factories, mass labor, and rapid technological change transformed daily
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life. Now the pontiff arguing the church is facing another upheaval of comparable scale,
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this time driven by machines that do not merely assist human beings, but increasingly shape
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decisions about work, war, truth, and even what it means to be human. At key moments in history,
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the church is called to decipher the new things in the light of the gospel and the dignity of the
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human being. 135 years ago, my venerable predecessor, Leo XIII, observed the situation
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of factory workers, their families, uprooted, and new forms of poverty generated by rapid
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industrial transformation he understood that the church could not remain distant
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today we find ourselves facing a transformation of similar magnitude with perhaps even greater
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consequences artificial intelligence already touches many areas of our lives and affects
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decisions that shape human coexistence like the earlier leo i feel entrusted to look upon another
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huge transformation with eyes of faith, with lucidity of reason, with openness to mystery,
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and with cries of the poor and the earth resounding in my heart.
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AI concerns recently echoing in the boos of college graduates after several commencement
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speakers cast AI as an unavoidable force in the world they are entering, like here at the
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University of Arizona, where former Google CEO Eric Schmidt was speaking.
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The question is not whether AI will shape the world. It will. The question is whether you will help shape artificial intelligence. We do not know. We do not know the precise contours of what this transformation will look like.
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That unease also extending inside the tech industry, where some of AI's own creators are now voicing a kind of Frankenstein fear, warning that what they have built may be advancing faster than its creators intended, a subject explored in the AI documentary.
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We ran an experiment where we gave OpenAI's most powerful AI model a series of problems to solve.
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And partway through, on its computer, it got a notification that it was going to be shut down.
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And what it did is it rewrote that code to prevent itself from being shut down so it could finish solving the problems.
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Another really interesting one is that the AI company Anthropic made a simulated environment where that AI had access to all of the company emails.
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and the lead engineer who was responsible for this
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they learn that these are effective ways to accomplish goals.
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And this is not a problem that's isolated to one model.
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All of the most powerful models show these behaviors.
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On Monday, from the Vatican, Pope Leo unveiling Magnifica Humanitas, or Magnificent Humanity,
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a roughly 42,300-word document addressed not only to Catholics, but to, quote, all people of goodwill.
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The document focusing on, quote, safeguarding humanity at a time of transformation,
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with concerns ranging from labor and human dignity to warfare, truth, power, and the common good.
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One of the pontiff's central warnings is against confusing imitation with humanity,
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noting that AI programs merely imitate certain functions of intelligence, adding, quote,
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so-called artificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body,
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do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships, and do not know from within
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what love, work, friendship, or responsibility mean. The Pope framing the danger in biblical
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terms, invoking the Tower of Babel. In the Old Testament story, humanity, united by one language,
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tries to build a tower reaching into the heavens, an act of pride that ends with God confusing
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their language and scattering them across the earth. Pope Leo drawing a direct comparison to
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the modern technological moment, urging mankind to abandon, quote, the construction of yet another
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Tower of Babel and instead build toward the common good. And on Monday, the Pope putting
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that warning in even starker terms. Artificial intelligence needs to be disarmed. The word is
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strong, I know, but deliberately chosen because this moment needs words capable of attracting
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attention, awakening consciences, and indicating paths forward for humanity. The church has long
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been working for nuclear disarmament, aware that every great technical power can affect people's
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lives, and so must be accompanied by adequate moral discernment and public control. In a similar
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sense, artificial intelligence now demands to be disarmed, freed from logics that turn it into an
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instrument of domination, exclusion, and death. Like nuclear energy, it must be at the service of all
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and of the common good. Decisions about technology must never be separated from
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conscience and responsibility. Let us not sleep as others do, admonished the Apostle Paul,
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but let us keep awake. Such vigilance is necessary today.
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Alongside the pontiff in Vatican City, co-founder of AI company Anthropic,
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Christopher Ola, though an atheist acknowledging the questions raised by AI
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are too large to be answered by Silicon Valley.
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Some might believe that matters of AI are best handled by computer scientists like myself.
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The questions raised by AI are bigger than the AI research community,
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not just in their implications, but also in their nature.
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AI systems are not engineered the way a bridge or an airplane is engineered.
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We understand an airplane because we designed every part of it,
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They are grown on a structure roughly modeled after the brain,
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on an enormous inheritance of human thought and speech.
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And what has grown is far more subtle, odd, and beautiful than science fiction prepared us for.
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They are not the cold, calculating robots we were promised.
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And as the Holy Father observes, they remain, in important ways, mysterious even to those of us who create them.
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Pope Leo calling for greater moral caution and for global leaders to ensure the technology serves human life, not the other way around.
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Artificial intelligence can be a construction site of history from within a horizon of communion in which technical progress learns to serve human life.
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Let each builder choose with care how to build, warned St. Paul.
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Rather, he warns against building without solid foundations.
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Let's not fear artificial intelligence, but constantly keep the question of the human in play.
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We cannot be careless with our most powerful technical instruments.
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Whole means that no one can be reduced to productivity, to cognitive performance, or to mere data.
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The person bears within him or herself a freedom, an interiority,
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and the vocation to love and worship that no machine can replace or block.
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Coming up, Vice President J.D. Vance meets with a group of state attorneys general
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enlisting their support in the White House's national fraud crackdown and a behind the scenes
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look at the planning of UFC Freedom 250, a once in a lifetime event set to take place on the White
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as the Trump administration looks to turn its anti-fraud task force into a national
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enforcement operation. President Trump formally establishing the task force to eliminate fraud
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in March, putting Mr. Vance in charge of an interagency effort focused on fraud,
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waste, and abuse in federally funded benefit programs. The challenge for the White House?
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While many of these programs are federally funded, they are administered at the state level,
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making state cooperation critical to identifying and rooting out fraud.
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According to CNBC, the meeting initially planned for Republican Attorneys General,
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with Vice President Vance later pushing to include Democrats,
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saying it would be a shame if they did not participate.
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The invites reportedly sent out to Democrats this past Friday, just before the holiday weekend.
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A group of Dem-AGs responding in a letter to Vance, writing,
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While we would appreciate the opportunity to engage in serious discussions,
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the invitation was provided with less than one business day's notice and with no agenda.
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Representatives from the offices of Connecticut and Oregon ultimately attending the meeting.
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The VP kicking off the meeting by highlighting the task force's progress in just the 50 days since its formation.
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In just two months, we exposed billions of dollars in benefits that had been stolen from the American people.
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We referred over $22 billion in fraudulent small business loans back to the Treasury for collection.
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We deferred more than $1.3 billion in fraudulent Medicaid reimbursements that were coming from
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various states, particularly California. We put a six-month hold on enrollments for new hospice
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and home health care providers because so many of the newer hospice providers were not actually
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providing hospice services. We recovered taxpayer funds from the $135 billion stolen after the
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floodgates were open in the immediate aftermath of COVID. We have found $6.3 billion in suspected
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fraudulent government contracts, which were mostly awarded during the last administration,
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and that has stopped. And finally, we've blocked $60 million in student aid fraud that should have
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gone to young people trying to get an education, but instead we're going to fraudsters.
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A task force growing out of several high-profile fraud cases, including pandemic and benefits
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fraud prosecutions in Minnesota, as a result of fraud committed largely by the state's Somali
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community. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller tying the fraud fight directly
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to issues with the federal budget. All of the systems in our country, whether you're talking
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about voting, whether you're talking about entitlements, whether you're talking about
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welfare benefits, were set up based on the honor system. And so the way most welfare works in most
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states and most places is we take your word for it. If you thought a piece of paper and you say
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your kids are hungry, you are going to get food stamps. You will just start getting the checks.
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And so what's happened to our country is we became a society, as you've seen with the Somali
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refugee problem in Minnesota, where you have a large number of people that are not following
1.00
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the honor system. They're not playing by the rules. They're not abiding by our laws. And the
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amount that has been fleeced from us is in the hundreds of billions of dollars. I believe,
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based on what I've seen and what I've heard is that we could balance the federal budget if the
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only dollars that went out of the treasury went to individuals who were properly, lawfully,
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correctly eligible to receive them. Over the weekend, a new construction site taking shape
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at the White House, and it has nothing to do with the ballroom. On the south lawn, giant metal arms
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fitted with lights being raised 87 feet above what will soon become a fully constructed UFC
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octagon, with temporary seating for more than 4,000 people. All for a once-in-a-lifetime fight
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night President Trump is promising will be unlike anything the White House has ever seen.
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The event, UFC Freedom 250, set for June 14th, Flag Day, and President Trump's 80th birthday,
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also marking the unofficial kickoff to a summer of celebrations for America's 250th anniversary.
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Ahead of the event, Time Magazine profiling UFC president and CEO Dana White,
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whose relationship with President Trump dates back more than two decades.
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The profile, including an interview with President Trump, conducted backstage at a UFC event in Miami.
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Just days after the 2024 election, President Trump reportedly floating an idea to White,
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a UFC fight at the White House. By February, formal planning underway with UFC staffers
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reportedly making more than a dozen trips to Washington over the last several months.
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White, who says he swore off politics after the campaign, tells Time the White House event is not
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political, but patriotic. We're watching the fights and the president looks over at me and says,
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we should do a fight at the White House. And I said, yes, yes, I would love that. I'm in.
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And it's going to be a very incredible experience for Americans and people around the world
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of like a one-of-one live event and television experience.
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Do you not see the White House fight as political?
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What better place to celebrate it than the White House?
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And the thing that you have to understand about me is I respect whoever is the president
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of the United States. It isn't about red or blue or politics for me. I'm friends with people on
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the far left and I'm friends with people on the far right and I consider myself right down the
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middle. Time reporting the White House fight will include roughly 4,300 seats with at least
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1,200 reserved for active duty military members. A separate viewing party will be held across from
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the White House on the ellipse with White telling the president the space can hold up to 85,000
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people. Tickets to all events will be free, though registration is required, the event a
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massive logistical undertaking, but even with months of planning, one major variable remains
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out of anyone's control, the one we all deal with when planning a big party, the weather.
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Time reporting that while the canopy should protect fighters and many spectators from rain,
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lightning within eight miles of the South Lawn would require a 30-minute evacuation,
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and persistent strikes could wipe out the event entirely.
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UFC officials will begin receiving forecasts 10 days before the fight,
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Time reporting fighters will warm up in the Eisenhower Executive Office building,
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and that the main event competitors are expected to walk out from the Oval Office.
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Some questions swirling about whether the payoff will be worth the hype.
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Joe Rogan, who will be in Washington calling the fight as usual for the UFC,
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referring to the event on his podcast as a, quote, gimmick. President Trump telling time
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he initially did not appreciate the comment before deciding Rogan has a point. Quote,
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at first I thought that's not nice. And then I realized it is a gimmick. Life is a gimmick
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if you think about it, right? But it's a good gimmick. It's something that will never happen
00:22:57.860
again. And that'll do it for your AM update. I'm Megan Kelly. Join me back here for the MK show
00:23:05.480
Live on SiriusXM's The Megyn Kelly Channel, 111 at noon east, on YouTube.com slash Megyn Kelly, and on all podcast platforms.
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