The Megyn Kelly Show - SAVE America Act Showdown, Vaccine Shakeup Halted, Kouri Richins Found Guilty： AM Update 3⧸18

00:00:00.000 Good morning, everyone. I'm Mark Kalperin, host of Next Up, filling in today for Megan

00:00:06.120 Kelly. It's Wednesday, March 18th, 2026, and this is your AM update.

00:00:10.500 I think it's an important debate to have because it is an issue that is at the very core of

00:00:16.020 elections in this country.

00:00:17.840 The Senate kicking off a high stakes fight over election integrity, moving the Save

00:00:21.360 America Act one step closer to passage as Democrats line up in opposition. A federal

00:00:26.660 judge blocks the Trump administration's sweeping changes to the childhood vaccination schedule.

00:00:31.620 When somebody is working with us that says they didn't think Iran was a threat,

00:00:37.260 we don't want those people. A high-level counterterrorism official resigning over the

00:00:41.760 Iran war and a verdict in the Corey Richens murder trial, the Utah mom of three who allegedly

00:00:46.760 poisoned her husband and then self-published the children's book she says to help her children

00:00:51.540 grieve. All that and more coming up on your AM Update.

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00:02:01.060 The Senate voting yesterday almost entirely along party lines to advance debate on the

00:02:05.280 Save America Act, clearing a key procedural hurdle in a 51 to 48 vote. Senator Lisa Murkowski of

00:02:12.260 Alaska, the lone Republican, to join Democrats in opposing the motion, while Senator Tom Tillis of

00:02:17.760 North Carolina, who previously expressed opposition to the bill, did not vote. The Save America Act

00:02:23.620 passed in the House last month requires proof of U.S. citizenship to vote, mandates photo ID to

00:02:29.240 vote, and imposes new requirements on mail-in ballots, including submitting identification

00:02:34.160 or requesting and casting absentee ballots. President Trump weighing in on True Social

00:02:39.820 yesterday morning, quote, the Save America Act is one of the most important and consequential

00:02:44.180 pieces of legislation in the history of congress and america itself i will never ever endorse anyone

00:02:50.660 who votes against save america debate on the bill expected to stretch through the weekend

00:02:56.260 some republicans calling for eliminating the filibuster which would allow the senate to pass

00:03:00.420 the measure with a simple majority as opposed to the 60 vote threshold the legislation needs to end

00:03:06.020 debate and trigger a final vote senate majority leader john thune however rejecting that approach

00:03:11.380 instead planning a marathon debate session to generate public support and call attention to

00:03:17.100 Democratic opposition. I think it's an important debate to have because it is an issue that is at

00:03:22.660 the very core of elections in this country. And I think this is something that the American people

00:03:28.160 care about. So whether how it ends remains to be seen. There will be a point at which it will end

00:03:34.620 and there will be a series of votes that come with that. And but I'm at the end of the day,

00:03:40.200 I just don't know how you defend a position that you need to be a citizen in this country,

00:03:44.220 not only to register to vote, but also to be able to show an ID when you vote.

00:03:49.020 And we'll see how long the Democrats want to defend that position.

00:03:52.400 And maybe maybe none of them will be won over at the end.

00:03:54.880 That's entirely possible.

00:03:56.000 But I think that the having the fight, having the debate on the floor of the Senate is important.

00:04:01.340 Democrats mounting a unified opposition, suggesting the bill would disenfranchise millions of eligible voters by making it unnecessarily burdensome to vote.

00:04:10.200 Here, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, yesterday from the chamber floor.

00:04:14.620 It could disenfranchise over 20 million American citizens.

00:04:19.660 It would kill online voter registration.

00:04:22.180 It would kill vote by mail.

00:04:24.400 It would kill voter motor registration.

00:04:27.220 It's a naked attempt to rig our elections.

00:04:29.480 The most common ID forms for anyone to register are rejected in the SAVE Act for the first time in just about every state.

00:04:38.200 Not even military IDs would be enough 0.98

00:04:41.740 Can you believe that?

00:04:43.980 That would be radical

00:04:44.860 The SAVE Act is not about protecting the vote

00:04:47.800 It's making it harder to vote

00:04:50.160 And easier to steal an election

00:04:52.780 And we know what the deal is here

00:04:55.180 Donald Trump said

00:04:56.920 Republicans pass the SAVE Act

00:04:58.980 It guarantees his midterm

00:05:00.580 Senate Democrats will never let this rotten bill

00:05:04.140 Move through this body

00:05:05.460 The debate unfolding as polling finds voter ID laws continue to draw broad public support.

00:05:11.600 A recent Harvard-Harris poll finding 81 percent of voters supporting voter ID and 71 percent in favor of the overall Save America Act.

00:05:21.140 A federal judge in Massachusetts temporarily blocking the Trump administration from implementing a sweeping overhaul of the childhood vaccine schedule.

00:05:28.880 Under HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the department rolling out major changes to federal vaccine policy.

00:05:36.040 Last May, Secretary Kennedy announcing the COVID vaccine would no longer be recommended for children and pregnant women.

00:05:42.600 Six medical organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, suing in response, arguing the new guidance is unscientific and harmful.

00:05:50.840 The following month, Secretary Kennedy dismissing all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, also known as ACIP, replacing them with hand-picked medical professionals, including Dr. Robert Malone, one of the original inventors of early mRNA technology.

00:06:08.740 ACIP is the federal body setting vaccine guidance.

00:06:12.280 In December, the newly formed panel voting to drop the decades-old recommendation that every newborn receive the hepatitis B vaccine at birth.

00:06:20.540 Also in December, the president ordering a fast-track review of the childhood vaccine

00:06:24.540 schedule. Then in January, HHS issuing a memo adopting sweeping changes to the vaccine schedule

00:06:30.040 reduced the number of targeted diseases from 17 down to 11. According to the Trump administration,

00:06:36.140 this updated vaccination schedule aligns the U.S. more closely with nations like Denmark.

00:06:41.500 Even under the revised guidance, the vaccines would still be available after consultation

00:06:45.660 with the doctor. As those changes took shape, the lawsuit was expanded to challenge them.

00:06:50.960 Biden appointed District Judge Brian Murphy for the District of Massachusetts on Monday,

00:06:55.580 siding with the medical groups in a preliminary injunction blocking the new vaccine policies

00:06:59.960 from taking effect. Judge Murphy finding the administration's vaccine decisions were, quote,

00:07:04.920 arbitrary and capricious, concluding officials broke from the long-established scientific review

00:07:09.840 process and undermined the credibility of their own actions. Judge Murphy also concluding the

00:07:15.460 new ACIP panel was likely unlawfully appointed, blocking those members from serving and postponing

00:07:21.640 plan meetings today and tomorrow on COVID vaccines and how federal recommendations are set. HHS

00:07:28.300 spokesman Andrew Nixon issuing a statement to the New York Times, quote, HHS looks forward to this

00:07:33.440 judge's decision being overturned just like his other attempts to keep the Trump administration

00:07:37.700 from governing. The Supreme Court last year blocked two rulings by Judge Murphy in a case

00:07:42.740 involving the Trump administration's third country deportations, where an illegal immigrant

00:07:47.220 is deported to a country other than his own. Judge Murphy's decision Monday puts the Trump

00:07:52.500 administration's vaccine policies on hold, but any final decision won't be made until a full trial

00:07:57.780 is held in the case. Coming up, President Trump's top counterterror official quits,

00:08:03.980 alleging outside pressure pushed the U.S. into war with Iran. A fast verdict in a high-profile

00:08:09.860 murder case, we break down what likely swayed the jury and what comes next to the now convicted mom

00:08:15.300 of three, Corey Richens. Our sponsor, the Electronic Payments Coalition, says Washington

00:08:27.860 politicians are always getting in your wallet, and now they're messing with your credit card.

00:08:32.580 They say your credit card and the security it offers are under attack and that Senators Dick

00:08:37.080 Durbin and Roger Marshall want to change the nation's payment system to benefit corporate

00:08:41.920 megastores like Walmart and Target at the expense of everyday Americans. Credit cards can keep your

00:08:47.800 payments secure and provide rewards that families use to help make everyday purchases more affordable.

00:08:53.700 The Electronic Payments Coalition says the Durbin-Marshall mandates would let corporate

00:08:57.960 megastores cut corners on credit card processing, routing transactions over cheaper untested networks

00:09:02.720 with weaker security and fewer protections.

00:09:06.100 Find out more at guardyourcard.com

00:09:08.460 and consider telling Congress to guard your card.

00:09:12.680 Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent,

00:09:15.800 resigning yesterday from his position

00:09:17.440 over his opposition to the war in Iran.

00:09:20.180 The Counterterrorism Center is responsible for tracking

00:09:22.500 and analyzing counterterrorism intelligence

00:09:24.940 across various government agencies.

00:09:27.780 Kent yesterday, posting a letter to the president

00:09:29.820 on social media, stepping down from the Senate,

00:09:32.380 confirmed role. Quote, I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no

00:09:37.860 imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from

00:09:41.600 Israel and its powerful American lobby. Kent is an Army Special Forces combat veteran deploying

00:09:48.380 11 times the Middle East and other high-threat regions, according to his biography. During his

00:09:53.020 service, Kent earning six Bronze Stars for actions in combat. Kent's wife, Navy Senior Chief Petty

00:09:59.480 officer Shannon Kent killed in 2019 by an ISIS suicide bombing in Syria. While expressing support

00:10:06.520 for President Trump's past foreign policy approach, including taking out Iranian Quds Force leader

00:10:11.620 Qasem Soleimani and defeating ISIS, Kent now accusing Israeli officials and pro-Israel voices

00:10:17.460 in the U.S. of misleading the administration and steering the U.S. into war with Iran.

00:10:23.260 Press Secretary Caroline Levitt pushing back on that claim on X, saying Iran had been rapidly

00:10:27.840 expanding its missile capabilities in ways that could threaten global security levitt calling the

00:10:32.880 allegation that president trump was influenced by others quote absurd insulting and laughable

00:10:38.800 president trump himself responding from the oval office i always thought he was a nice guy but i

00:10:43.680 always thought he was weak on security very weak on security i didn't know him well but when i

00:10:50.160 read his statement i realized that it's a good thing that he's out because he said that iran was

00:10:56.160 not a threat iran was a threat every country realized what a threat iran was the question

00:11:02.400 is whether or not they wanted to do something about it and many people many of the greatest

00:11:07.520 military scholars are saying for years that presidents should have taken out iran because

00:11:12.240 they wanted a nuclear weapon they were if we didn't do the attack or if i'll go a step further

00:11:18.480 if i didn't terminate the iran nuclear deal given to us one of the worst deals ever made

00:11:24.000 by Barack Hussein Obama. If I didn't terminate Obama's horrible deal that he made, the Iran 0.93

00:11:30.200 nuclear deal, you would have had a nuclear war four years ago. So when somebody is working with

00:11:38.440 us that says they didn't think Iran was a threat, we don't want those people. Fox News reporting,

00:11:44.720 a senior administration official said Kent was a known leaker and had been removed from

00:11:48.820 intelligence briefing months ago, adding he was not involved in Iran planning. According to Fox,

00:11:54.000 The White House complained to the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, several

00:11:58.000 times before about Kent, but did not specifically request that he be fired.

00:12:03.240 DNI Gabbard, who expressed opposition about military intervention in Iran before joining

00:12:07.720 the administration, posting to X, quote, after carefully reviewing all the information before

00:12:12.660 him, President Trump concluded that the terrorist Islamist regime in Iran posed an imminent

00:12:17.020 threat, and he took action based on that conclusion.

00:12:20.640 Director Gabbard set to testify in front of the Senate Intel Committee later today.

00:12:26.560 Utah mother Corey Richens convicted Monday evening of the March 2022 murder of her husband, Eric Richens.

00:12:33.960 The jury finding the 35-year-old guilty on all five counts, aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder,

00:12:40.100 two counts of life insurance fraud, and forgery.

00:12:43.620 The case drawing national attention after Richens was arrested just weeks after self-publishing a children's book,

00:12:49.100 which she said was meant to help her three young sons cope with the loss of their father.

00:12:54.640 Prosecutors alleging that Richens spiked her husband's Moscow Mule cocktail

00:12:58.560 with nearly five times a lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City.

00:13:04.000 According to court records, Richards handed Eric the drink in their bedroom,

00:13:07.440 then left to comfort one of their sons, returning hours later to find him unresponsive in their bed.

00:13:13.140 Over several weeks of testimony, prosecutors arguing Richens,

00:13:16.720 who was millions in debt due to her real estate business was motivated by access to her husband's 0.54

00:13:21.840 assets and life insurance payouts jurors also hearing evidence of an alleged affair with

00:13:27.040 iraq war veteran robert josh grossman with text messages showing richard's disgust leaving her

00:13:32.080 husband securing millions and starting a new life with him the jury also finding richard's guilty

00:13:37.740 of attempting to poison her husband weeks earlier on valentine's day by spiking his sandwich with

00:13:42.940 drugs. Eric became seriously ill at the time, but ultimately surviving. A housekeeper testifying

00:13:48.960 she helped obtain pills for Richens, telling her she could get fentanyl and later purchasing

00:13:53.860 illicit pills for Richens after she asked her to do so. In closing arguments, prosecutor Brad

00:13:59.640 Bloodworth pointing to Richens' internet search history. This one's the most insightful. If someone

00:14:06.100 is poisoned, what does it go down on the death certificate as? She didn't search if someone

00:14:11.580 accidentally ODs. She doesn't search if somebody is dead for unknown reasons. She searches if

00:14:20.300 somebody is poisoned because that is what happened. The defense suggesting Eric had an addiction to

00:14:26.120 painkillers asking his wife to purchase them for him. Richen's legal team also emphasizing

00:14:31.060 investigators found no fentanyl residue on drinking glasses or straws inside the home,

00:14:36.380 raising questions about how the drug was administered. The defense moving for a mistrial

00:14:40.880 following closing arguments. Your Honor, at this point, we'd like to make a motion for mistrial and

00:14:46.140 make a proffer on it. First of all, at multiple points in the prosecution's closing,

00:14:54.940 he made efforts to dehumanize the defendant, in fact, calling her a black widow, comparing her

00:15:00.340 to a deadly spider, calling her a narcissist when there's been no evidence introduced to support 0.57

00:15:07.380 that, no expert testimony, nothing of the nature. Furthermore, it's completely improper for the

00:15:13.800 prosecution to comment on her demeanor while she sat at counsel table. That's a comment on her 0.99

00:15:20.800 failure to testify, asking the jury to take into consideration facial expressions, which in his

00:15:28.020 opinion may or may not have happened. I don't know what he's basing that on, but it's improper.

00:15:34.920 That motion denied. After about three weeks of trial, the jury deliberating for less than three

00:15:40.740 hours before returning a guilty verdict. Richen's now facing 25 years to life in prison with

00:15:47.040 sentencing set for May 13, 2026. She also faces a separate case involving more than two dozen

00:15:52.940 additional charges related to financial fraud. We spoke to MK true crime contributor Dave

00:15:58.780 Ehrenberg about the trial. He says the prosecution's case was built on a death by 1,000 paper cut

00:16:04.680 strategy. It just was so compelling, all the pieces that came together. I mean, she had means,

00:16:12.480 motive and opportunity. I mean, the motive could not be clearer. Sometimes jurors can get confused

00:16:18.820 over motive. And even though motive is not a required element of a murder case, jurors always

00:16:25.680 want to know the why. But here, the why was easy. She wanted the money. She was deep in debt and she

00:16:31.020 hated her husband, and she had a lover on the side. And the fact that she previously tried to

00:16:37.960 do it through poison and failed just made it so simple to get that she was the one who gave him

00:16:45.960 this huge amount of fentanyl that killed Eric Richens. Ehrenberg reacting to how quickly the

00:16:51.660 jury was able to deliver a verdict. The fact that the jury came back after a multi-week trial with

00:16:57.740 a quick guilty verdict tells you that the jury right away knew that she was guilty and this

00:17:03.640 they just had to pretty much cross their t's dot their i's we asked erinberg for his prediction

00:17:09.280 on the sentencing well because there's premeditation here and you had a prior

00:17:14.840 attempt on valentine's day just a couple weeks before the murder i think she's getting life 0.97

00:17:21.780 without the possibility of parole i mean there was pecuniary motivation here meaning she was doing it

00:17:27.180 with a monetary objective and that makes it worse for her so the the sentencing is going to be 0.88

00:17:33.780 in mid-may and ironically the date is set on may 13th which would have been eric's 44th birthday

00:17:40.760 and that to me is justice it's not full closure for the family because they'll never get eric

00:17:48.100 back but at least there's gonna be justice that'll do it for your am update i'm mark

00:17:55.420 Calper and host of next up catch the Megan Kelly show today live on Sirius XM's

00:18:00.140 the Megan Kelly channel one 11 at noon East or on youtube.com slash Megan Kelly

00:18:05.560 and on all podcast platforms.

The Megyn Kelly Show - March 18, 2026

SAVE America Act Showdown, Vaccine Shakeup Halted, Kouri Richins Found Guilty： AM Update 3⧸18

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