The Megyn Kelly Show - April 17, 2026


RFK Jr. Clashes With Dems on the Hill, Hero High School Principal, SantaCon Fraud： AM Update 4⧸17


Episode Stats


Length

20 minutes

Words per minute

154.3253

Word count

3,163

Sentence count

212

Harmful content

Misogyny

4

sentences flagged


Summary

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

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the Hill in back-to-back hearings defending his agency. Former Virginia Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax involved in a shocking murder-suicide amid messy divorce proceedings. An Oklahoma principal receiving praise from the community after tackling an armed school shooter. And Santa s naughty list just got a little longer. All that and more coming up in a moment on your AM Update.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
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00:00:30.000 Good morning, everyone. I'm Megan Kelly. It's Friday, April 17th, 2026. And this is your AM
00:00:38.640 Update. You've got a lot of misinformation. There's a global measles epidemic. We've done
00:00:43.760 better in preventative than any country in the world. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on
00:00:49.440 the Hill in back-to-back hearings defending his agency. Former Virginia Lieutenant Governor Justin
00:00:55.500 in Fairfax involved in a shocking murder-suicide amid messy divorce proceedings.
00:01:00.980 He'd saved a lot of people today, and he's a good man.
00:01:04.020 An Oklahoma principal receiving praise from the community after tackling an armed school shooter.
00:01:09.800 And Santa's naughty list just got a little longer.
00:01:12.620 The president of New York City's infamous SantaCon pub crawl arrested
00:01:17.600 for allegedly pocketing the event's donations for himself.
00:01:21.680 All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM Update.
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00:03:09.780 HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. yesterday sitting for two of seven oversight hearings set
00:03:18.540 to take place over the next week, defending the Trump administration's annual budget proposal.
00:03:23.820 The plan aiming to cut costs and restructure federal health spending,
00:03:27.740 Secretary Kennedy framing the changes as a return to gold standard science,
00:03:31.900 while Democrats continue to push back on his agenda,
00:03:34.940 including proposed changes to the childhood vaccine schedule.
00:03:38.400 The hearings turning combative, with repeated clashes over vaccine policy, research funding, and staffing across the agency.
00:03:45.760 At the first hearing, in front of the Ways and Means Committee, Democrat and Ranking Member Richard Neal's opening remarks, setting the tone for the day.
00:03:52.860 We watch daily as the threats to this health care system that we have constructed, whether it's talking about measles and vaccinations, we remember what it was like before Dr. Salk's polio vaccine.
00:04:06.480 My mom, who was a devotee of the Kennedy family, she said the way we prevented polio in the 50s was to stay out of fresh water in August.
00:04:15.800 Let me say this.
00:04:16.920 Nothing has changed about the science of vaccines.
00:04:20.600 We need people not to be preyed upon by demagoguery, and there should not be a politicization of these very issues.
00:04:29.500 Secretary Kennedy avoiding mention of vaccines in his opening statement,
00:04:33.600 highlighting positive change within the agency since last January,
00:04:37.440 echoing a warning from his uncle, JFK.
00:04:40.180 We're ending the era of federal policies that fueled the chronic disease epidemic
00:04:44.940 and replacing them with policies that put the health of Americans first.
00:04:50.340 This year, HHS and USDA issued new dietary guidelines
00:04:54.440 that put real whole food at the center of the American plate.
00:04:57.700 More than 40 percent of the food industry is committed to phase out petroleum-based dyes by year-end, and many have already eliminated them.
00:05:07.040 At HHS, we are prioritizing patients with ultra-rare diseases and their families.
00:05:12.720 We're protecting children from sex-rejecting procedures that expose them to irreversible harm.
00:05:19.260 The president's budget puts all these priorities in action.
00:05:22.180 It invests in prevention because preventing disease costs less and delivers better outcomes
00:05:27.600 than treating it. As my uncle President John F. Kennedy said, progress is a nice word,
00:05:33.880 but change is its motivator and change has its enemies.
00:05:38.280 Significant portions of the hearing centering on vaccine policy. Prior to taking office,
00:05:43.180 Secretary Kennedy working as one of the leading vaccine safety advocates,
00:05:46.840 challenging pharmaceutical companies and government agencies in court through his
00:05:51.580 organization, Children's Health Defense. Since taking office, RFKJ repeatedly emphasizing that
00:05:57.460 the best way to prevent measles is through vaccination. Congresswoman Linda Sanchez,
00:06:02.600 a Democrat from California, questioning the secretary about a measles outbreak that began
00:06:07.320 in January 2025. The anti-vaccine rhetoric you ran on and the anti-vaccine actions you have taken
00:06:15.200 over the last year clearly correlates with the dramatic increases again in preventable diseases
00:06:21.360 you've got a lot of misinformation there there's a global measles epidemic we've done better in
00:06:27.060 preventing it than any country in the world no country that has seen a bigger percentage
00:06:32.320 that's not true mexico has three times more measles and they have one eighth of our population
00:06:37.480 your decision to end the cdc's pro-vaccine public message Canada has doubled the measles
00:06:43.640 and they have one-eighth of our population.
00:06:46.740 Did he approve that?
00:06:48.760 We've done better at preventing measles
00:06:50.480 than any country in the world.
00:06:52.620 The second hearing of the day
00:06:53.820 taking place in front of the Appropriations Committee.
00:06:56.860 Democrat Congressman Steny Hoyer of Maryland
00:06:59.100 questioning RFKJ on the scope of staffing changes
00:07:02.680 within the department.
00:07:04.000 How many full-time employees do we have in HHS now?
00:07:08.260 Which includes...
00:07:09.320 Last year when I talked to you,
00:07:10.800 there were 62,000 down from 82,000. We are now at 72,000, and we're hiring 12,000 new employees.
00:07:19.780 We will have made up all the employees that we lost. We've replaced them with a better group
00:07:25.580 of people who are actually going to address chronic health. Your judgment is that the other
00:07:31.540 20,000 that were reduced were not capable, were not motivated? It's not my judgment. It's the
00:07:39.120 record. They presided over the biggest decline in health in the history of the world. They did
00:07:46.180 nothing to prevent the food ties, the bad food, all the things that are making us sick. They failed
00:07:52.720 at their job. We did what we had to do to change the culture at these agencies so they're now
00:07:59.200 doing what they can do to protect what they were hired to do, which is to protect the health of
00:08:05.600 our country and restore us once again to the healthiest country. Toward the end of the hearing,
00:08:10.940 ranking member and Democrat Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut making clear Democrats on the
00:08:16.020 committee have no intention of backing the proposed budget cuts. The Trump administration
00:08:20.900 and Republicans in the Congress passed a law last year to cut Medicaid and nutrition assistance by
00:08:26.960 1.2 trillion dollars. The president's budget is proposing to cut funding for health agencies by
00:08:32.580 $16 billion next year. Public health programs by $3 billion. Energy assistance by $4 billion.
00:08:40.980 Mental health services by $500 million. Workforce training programs, including nurses training,
00:08:46.900 by more than $600 billion. And I said to you, and I think it was very clear,
00:08:53.320 Mr. Secretary, we're not going to do that. And maybe that's what you are relying on,
00:08:58.260 But we're not going to do that. We can't in good conscience do that. This is an agency that has an enormous portfolio, all of it geared toward saving lives. I believe you want to do that. I believe that this budget is contrary to doing that.
00:09:20.200 Secretary Kennedy responding.
00:09:22.300 First, I want to thank this committee for its civility and its congeniality.
00:09:27.800 It is way different than going in front of any other committee, and I'm happy to come back here anytime.
00:09:34.120 So second of all, we're not cutting Medicaid.
00:09:36.600 The CBO report came out, Medicaid increased by 47% over the next 10 years.
00:09:42.700 So there is no cut to Medicaid.
00:09:44.500 Um, and number three, it's easy to demonize OMB and Russ vote, but Russ vote is looking out for
00:09:53.680 our country. We are the $39 trillion debt. Each child born in this country is paying $6,600
00:10:00.340 before they pay a single health bill, 25,000 for a family of four. For us, it's trying to make sure
00:10:07.300 that these programs are alive for future generations. And that's what the president wants.
00:10:13.540 Five more rounds of this coming soon.
00:10:17.560 Former Democrat Lieutenant Governor of Virginia Justin Fairfax killing his wife Serena Fairfax
00:10:23.660 and then himself early yesterday morning at their home, according to the Fairfax County
00:10:28.820 Virginia Police Department.
00:10:30.860 Shortly after midnight, officers responding to the Northern Virginia home, locating Serena
00:10:35.900 deceased in the basement and Justin dead in the master bedroom.
00:10:40.260 Both of the Fairfax's teenage children, a son and a daughter, were home at the time of the incident.
00:10:46.180 The son calling 911.
00:10:48.080 Hear audio of the dispatcher communicating with police arriving on scene.
00:10:52.900 Clark's thinking that his dad might have stabbed his mom,
00:10:55.760 saying that she's laying on the ground bleeding, can see holes in her shirt.
00:10:59.700 I think this is going to be our subject.
00:11:00.960 He's got a firearm with himself inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
00:11:05.600 The Fairfaxes, married in 2006, were separated in 2024 and going through divorce proceedings at the time of the murder-suicide,
00:11:13.540 according to Fairfax County Chief of Police Kevin Davis.
00:11:17.060 The couple both living in the four-bedroom, two-bathroom home, staying in separate bedrooms.
00:11:22.300 Chief Davis at a press conference describing what is known so far about the incident.
00:11:26.640 From what I understand, in this early stage, former Lieutenant Governor Fairfax was recently served some paperwork associated with an upcoming court proceeding that apparently led to this incident last night.
00:11:41.800 It seems like the murder took place in the basement.
00:11:46.560 It's described to me as a finished, unfinished basement in the home.
00:11:51.600 At some point after Justin shot and killed his wife, he runs upstairs in the home and into the primary bedroom, apparently, and shoots and kills himself.
00:12:04.680 Serena reportedly shot multiple times.
00:12:06.940 The divorce proceedings up to that point reportedly rather messy, with the former
00:12:11.340 lieutenant governor at one point calling police to the house. Chief Davis with those details.
00:12:16.880 In January of this year, Mr. Fairfax calls the police and alleges that his wife assaulted him.
00:12:25.060 We responded to that scene. There are several cameras set up inside the house. Apparently,
00:12:31.120 Mrs. Fairfax, at some point during these divorce proceedings, 1.00
00:12:34.100 set up a lot of cameras inside the home.
00:12:37.520 We reviewed those cameras
00:12:38.780 and we corroborated that the alleged assault never occurred.
00:12:43.840 So there was no arrest made.
00:12:45.900 There was a report written,
00:12:46.900 but the allegation that Mr. Fairfax made in January
00:12:50.220 that Mrs. Fairfax assaulted him was proven to be untrue.
00:12:55.240 Justin, a former prosecutor,
00:12:57.040 served as Lieutenant Governor from January 2018
00:12:59.600 to January 2022 under Democrat Governor Ralph Northam. 0.83
00:13:04.100 In 2019, Fairfax accused by two women of sexual assault in separate incidents dating back to 0.57
00:13:10.260 the early 2000s. He denied both allegations, claiming they were part of a conspiracy to
00:13:15.080 force him from office. At the time, Governor Northam was reeling from a political scandal
00:13:20.080 due to an unearthed photo of someone believed to be Northam appearing in blackface, according to
00:13:26.000 the New York Post. Or he might have been the one in the Ku Klux Klan outfit. We never really knew.
00:13:31.680 Neither Fairfax nor Northam resigned in the wake of the scandal,
00:13:35.560 though Fairfax's political future never recovered.
00:13:38.820 He unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2021, finishing fourth in the primary.
00:13:43.560 Since the end of his political career,
00:13:45.240 just in working as an attorney in private practice,
00:13:48.280 Serena had been working as a dentist.
00:13:51.980 Coming up, a high school principal hailed as a hero for tackling a school shooter,
00:13:57.320 stopping a tragedy in its tracks.
00:13:59.160 and the president of New York City's SantaCon Pub Crawl arrested for allegedly stuffing his
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00:15:16.720 An Oklahoma high school principal praised as a hero last week after tackling a gunman
00:15:22.600 arriving on his campus. Last Tuesday, a 20-year-old former student arriving at Paul's
00:15:28.520 Valley High School near Oklahoma City carrying two semi-automatic handguns. According to court
00:15:34.080 documents seen by local station KFOR around 2.19 p.m., the suspect seen on security footage
00:15:40.720 approaching the school's locked glass front doors. As the shooter approaches, an unidentified
00:15:46.080 passerby opening the door to let him in. The passerby is not believed by authorities to
00:15:51.620 have been working with the shooter. The shooter entering the lobby, attempting to fire, but the
00:15:56.440 gun jams. He briefly hides out behind a vending machine, then steps back out ordering people to
00:16:02.740 the ground and fires a shot. One female student immediately runs away. The suspect then aims at
00:16:09.040 a second student seated on a bench who raises his hands and pleads not to be shot. It's at that
00:16:14.800 moment that Principal Kirk Moore comes bursting through his office door, tackling the shooter
00:16:19.740 into the bench as the second student makes a break for it. At some point in the seconds
00:16:24.660 between Principal Moore arriving in the lobby to when he tackles the shooter, the principal
00:16:29.660 sustaining a shot to the leg. Principal Moore's hand, seen grabbing the wrist of the shooter's
00:16:35.380 hand, which had the gun, when seconds after the tackle, the assistant principal, appearing from
00:16:40.640 the office, grabbing hold of the gun and bringing it into the office away from the threat.
00:16:46.320 According to the arrest affidavit, also reviewed by local outlet KFOR,
00:16:50.720 the shooter telling investigators Principal Moore is someone he, quote, did not like.
00:16:55.580 The shooter telling investigators he intended to, quote, conduct his own school shooting,
00:16:59.920 like the Columbine shooters did, specifically targeting Principal Moore,
00:17:03.600 as well as other students and faculty members, before killing himself.
00:17:08.820 The firearms belonged to the shooter's father and were taken without permission,
00:17:12.680 according to investigators.
00:17:14.360 The shooter now held on $1 million bond.
00:17:17.660 Principal Moore, who has worked in the district for more than 35 years,
00:17:21.340 is expected to make a full recovery.
00:17:23.920 In a statement last Friday, Principal Moore thanking the community for, quote,
00:17:27.480 an outpouring of love and support, adding, quote,
00:17:30.740 I am grateful that my instincts and training, as well as God's hand, were available to me.
00:17:36.280 Two seniors at Paul's Valley High praising their beloved principal on KFOR last week.
00:17:41.840 He's a good guy. He helps a lot of students. He's very face-to-face with everything. He doesn't just kind of tell you what to do. He helps you through everything, even if it's not school-related.
00:17:54.480 He saved a lot of people today, and he's a good man.
00:17:58.600 The president of New York City's Santa Khan Pub Crawl arrested Wednesday, charged in a wire fraud scheme allegedly targeting participants and host venues.
00:18:09.780 Federal prosecutors out of the Southern District of New York say 50-year-old
00:18:13.820 Stephan Pildes raised at least $2.7 million for charity between 2019 and 2024,
00:18:21.420 then diverted more than half of the proceeds to a slush fund,
00:18:25.000 spending hundreds of thousands more of the remaining money on personal expenses.
00:18:29.860 What is SantaCon, you ask?
00:18:32.520 Why, it's the least wonderful time of the year for New Yorkers outside of their early to mid-20s.
00:18:37.280 The annual pub crawl described by the Village Voice in 2013 is, quote,
00:18:41.540 a day-long spectacle of public inebriation, somewhere between a low-rent Mardi Gras and
00:18:46.800 a drunken fraternity party. Every year, up to 25,000 people dress as some version of Santa
00:18:52.080 pouring into the streets of New York City, participating in the ticketed event,
00:18:56.240 ostensibly, for charity. Tickets are granted in exchange for a donation,
00:19:00.720 typically ranging from $10 to $20, allowing special deals at participating bars and restaurants.
00:19:06.980 According to investigators, the participating venues donate a portion of their food and beverage sales during the event,
00:19:13.440 typically between 10 to 20 percent, to Participatory Safety Inc.
00:19:17.500 That's the company controlled by Pildes that organizes SantaCon.
00:19:21.720 From the SantaCon website, quote,
00:19:23.140 Your money will be split between the various charities listed on this page, as well as local neighborhood charities along Santa's route.
00:19:31.520 According to the indictment, among the alleged personal expenses pilfered, quote,
00:19:35.640 Pildes spent SantaCon proceeds on extensive renovations to a lakefront property in New Jersey,
00:19:41.940 luxury vacations in Hawaii, Las Vegas, and Vail, extravagant meals, and a luxury vehicle.
00:19:48.480 Santa would not approve. He faces one charge of wire fraud carrying a maximum sentence of
00:19:53.820 20 years in prison and forfeiture of connected assets. Pildes pleading not guilty on Wednesday,
00:19:59.140 released on $300,000 bond with the condition that he not contact any of the other SantaCon
00:20:05.540 organizers. The DOJ now urging past drunken Santas or participating restaurants who feel
00:20:11.460 they may have been victimized to fill out a form on the FBI's website.
00:20:17.860 And that'll do it for your AM update. I'm Megan Kelly. Join me back here for the MK show live on
00:20:22.800 Sirius XM's The Megan Kelly Channel, 111 at noon east on youtube.com slash Megan Kelly and on all
00:20:28.620 podcast platforms.