SCOTUS Hands Trump ICE Victory, Biden Autopen News, Assassination Attempt Trial Start: AM Update 9⧸9
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
158.34355
Summary
Another win for the Trump administration as the Supreme Court allows ICE to resume roving patrols in Los Angeles. New reports indicate dissent within the Biden DOJ on the controversial pardon process as an oversight committee investigation into the auto pen nears the final stage in the case against the man accused of attempting to assassinate then-candidate Donald Trump. And you ll never guess which cabinet secretary reportedly challenged another Trump official to a fistfight. All that and more coming up in a moment on Your AM Update.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
Good morning, everyone. I'm Megan Kelly. It's Tuesday, September 9th, 2025, and this is your
00:00:08.180
AM Update. Our agents are enforcing immigration law as it is on the books. You know, these are
00:00:13.620
targeted enforcement actions. Another win for the Trump administration as the Supreme Court
00:00:18.880
allows ICE to restart roving patrols in Los Angeles. These pardons and executive orders,
00:00:24.940
I think they're in legal jeopardy. New reports indicate dissent within the Biden DOJ on the
00:00:31.200
controversial pardon process as an oversight committee investigation into the auto pen
00:00:35.920
nears the final stage. Jury selection begins in the case against the man accused of attempting
00:00:41.640
to assassinate then-candidate Donald Trump. And you'll never guess which cabinet secretary
00:00:47.060
reportedly challenged another Trump official to a fistfight. All that and more coming up in just a
00:00:52.900
moment on your AM Update. You know all those fad diets? Half of Americans do them. And if you do
00:01:02.480
it enough, you could be at risk of diabetes, liver damage, heart attack, and stroke. Oh, joy. Weight
00:01:07.620
cycling is when you lose 10 or more pounds, but then you put the pounds back, plus a couple more.
00:01:13.160
That puts tremendous strain on your organs and leads to serious health issues over the long haul.
00:01:18.540
Bottom line, most people need help to stop weight cycling. And this is why I want to tell you about
00:01:24.200
non-prescription lean created by doctors. Now, lean is an oral supplement. It's not a GLP-1 injectable.
00:01:32.340
It uses studied ingredients, which lean says target weight loss in three powerful ways. One, maintaining
00:01:39.580
healthy blood sugar. Two, helping control appetite and cravings. And three, burning fat by converting it to
00:01:48.220
energy. And of course, burning fat helps keep the weight off. So if you want to lose meaningful
00:01:52.400
weight at a healthy pace and keep it off, consider adding lean to your diet and exercise lifestyle.
00:01:59.100
Get 20% off when you enter MK at TakeLean.com. That's code MK at TakeLean.com.
00:02:06.880
The Supreme Court on Monday delivering a win for the Trump administration's immigration crackdown
00:02:15.040
in LA, clearing the way for ICE raids to resume. In an unsigned order, the justice is pausing a ruling
00:02:21.880
that restricted ICE stops in much of Southern California as the case works through the courts.
00:02:28.020
A group of immigrants and advocacy organizations suing the government, arguing the raids violated the
00:02:34.260
Fourth Amendment's ban on unreasonable searches and seizures, raising concerns about racial profiling
00:02:39.980
and discriminatory targeting of the Latino community. In July, Biden appointed federal judge
00:02:46.440
Mame Uwusi Mensa Frimpong, barring agents from making stops based on any combination of the following
00:02:53.200
factors, apparent race or ethnicity, speaking in Spanish or accented English, being at a location where
00:02:59.880
illegal aliens are known to gather and working specific jobs like construction. In early August,
00:03:05.800
the Trump administration appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court after the Ninth Circuit Court of
00:03:10.440
Appeals declined to pause the order. Justice Brett Kavanaugh joining the majority and also writing a
00:03:15.920
separate concurring opinion, concluding, quote, apparent ethnicity alone cannot furnish reasonable
00:03:21.980
suspicion. Under this court's case law regarding immigration stops, however, it can be a relevant
00:03:27.640
factor when considered along with other salient factors. The justice continuing, quote, here,
00:03:33.180
those circumstances include that there is an extremely high number and percentage of illegal
00:03:38.100
immigrants in the L.A. area, that those individuals tend to gather in certain locations to seek daily
00:03:43.560
work, that those individuals often work in certain kinds of jobs such as day labor, landscaping,
00:03:49.020
agriculture and construction that do not require paperwork and are therefore especially attractive to
00:03:54.340
illegal immigrants and that many of those illegally in the Los Angeles area come from Mexico or Central
00:04:00.180
America and do not speak much English. National Border Patrol Council President Paul Perez explaining
00:04:06.840
Monday on Fox News how officers determine if there is enough reasonable suspicion to
00:04:12.380
constitutionally stop an individual. Our agents are enforcing immigration law as it is on the books.
00:04:17.980
You know, these are targeted enforcement actions. You know, we use a number of factors to determine where
00:04:25.640
we're going to go and who we're going to go after. And many of these people, they run as soon as our
00:04:30.300
agents and officers get there. So that as well is an articulable fact that can be used for reasonable
00:04:35.960
suspicion. And we can go after them, we can chase them down. And then our investigation begins to
00:04:41.580
determine whether this person's legally or illegally in the country. And then we take them into custody based on,
00:04:46.720
you know, the answers that they give. You know, Karen Bass and those other Democrats that are
00:04:51.420
demonizing our agents, they need to stop because it makes it a lot more dangerous for our agents to
00:04:56.500
do the job that they were trained and swore to do. Justice Kavanaugh also issuing yet another rebuke
00:05:02.480
of judicial overreach, writing, quote, federal judges may have views on which immigration policy
00:05:08.240
approach is better or fairer, but judges are not appointed to make those policy calls. We merely ensure
00:05:14.840
in justiciable cases that the executive branch acts within the confines of the Constitution
00:05:20.260
and federal statutes. Three liberal justices, all dissenting, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor writing,
00:05:27.120
quote, the Fourth Amendment protects every individual's constitutional right to be
00:05:30.960
free from arbitrary interference by law officers. After today, that may no longer be true for those who
00:05:36.840
happen to look a certain way, speak a certain way, and appear to work a certain type of legitimate job
00:05:42.840
that pays very little. Attorney General Pam Bondi posting on X, quote, another massive victory at
00:05:48.700
the Supreme Court from the DOJ attorneys, this time defending ICE. Now ICE can continue carrying out
00:05:54.920
roving patrols in California without judicial micromanagement. California Governor Gavin Newsom
00:06:00.560
releasing a statement, quote, Trump's handpicked Supreme Court majority just became the grand marshal for
00:06:06.120
a parade of racial terror in Los Angeles. Trump's private police force now has a green light to come
00:06:11.600
after your family, and every person is now a target. The case is expected to eventually be back before
00:06:17.220
the U.S. Supreme Court as the appeals process plays out. The House Oversight Committee moving
00:06:24.320
into the final stages of its investigation into the Biden administration's use of the auto pen.
00:06:30.460
This is a new report reveals concern among Biden White House officials about the pardon process adopted in
00:06:36.200
the final weeks of his presidency. According to internal emails obtained by Axios, quote,
00:06:41.960
high-ranking officials repeatedly questioned and criticized how the president's team decided on
00:06:47.200
controversial pardons and allowed the frequent use of an auto pen to sign measures late in his term.
00:06:53.760
Under President Biden, 4,225 people were granted clemency, Pew Research finding 95 percent of those
00:07:01.440
actions occurring in the last three and a half months of his term. Among the controversial acts,
00:07:07.320
37 death row sentences converted to life without parole. A January 17th statement attributed to Mr.
00:07:14.140
Biden, reading, quote, I am commuting the sentences of nearly 2,500 people convicted of nonviolent drug
00:07:21.060
offenses who are serving disproportionately long sentences. These acts of clemency all signed with the
00:07:27.480
auto pen, a mechanical device used to replicate the president's signature. Axios reporting that
00:07:33.100
multiple senior DOJ officials within the Biden administration raised concerns about the process
00:07:38.980
created by the White House Counsel's Office. A DOJ ethics attorney at the time writing a memo calling
00:07:44.640
the recipients nonviolent was untrue or at best misleading, writing, quote, unfortunately, and despite
00:07:52.020
repeated requests and warnings, we were not afforded a reasonable opportunity to vet and provide input
00:07:58.180
on those you were considering. The lawyer then providing a list of violent offenders who received
00:08:03.940
clemency from Mr. Biden, including a man who pleaded guilty to killing a woman and her two-year-old
00:08:08.960
daughter. Congressional investigators also reviewing executive orders and other directives signed by good
00:08:15.180
old auto pen, raising questions about the validity of a wide range of those actions. In July, former
00:08:21.400
President Biden admitting to the New York Times that he did not sign off on each pardon, but rather
00:08:26.660
on broad sets of criteria. Last week, investigative journalist John Solomon reporting on a separate
00:08:32.880
Trump White House-led inquiry into the Biden administration's use of the auto pen to grant
00:08:38.120
clemency, finding there were four meetings from December 2024 through January 2025 in which President
00:08:45.280
Biden was said to have given, quote, verbal approval to proceed. However, Solomon reports,
00:08:51.400
the National Archives, responsible for maintaining documents from administrations past,
00:08:57.340
possessed no staff notes that could confirm President Biden attended any of those meetings.
00:09:02.940
Congressman James Comer reacting to that reporting late last week on Fox.
00:09:07.340
One thing that is consistent with all the memos and with all the emails that we're receiving from
00:09:12.820
the National Archives, as well as the testimony from the Biden inner circle, is the fact that no one
00:09:18.340
in the White House saw Joe Biden very often, especially during the last six months of his
00:09:22.820
presidency. One of the things that Andrew Bates said that is consistent with everyone else is even
00:09:27.520
though he was one of Joe Biden's top deputies, he would only see Joe Biden once a month. And that
00:09:33.360
included seeing him in the hall or seeing him from a distance. As far as up close, face-to-face
00:09:40.280
interaction, it was very seldom, maybe even, you know, a couple of times a year. That's consistent
00:09:46.680
with what Ian Sams told us in our last transcribed interview. He said that he only saw Joe Biden
00:09:52.320
two times in two years. These people in the Biden White House covered for Joe Biden's cognitive decline.
00:09:59.700
I think that these pardons and executive orders, especially in the last few months of the Biden
00:10:04.560
presidency, I think they're in legal jeopardy. The oversight committee set to interview former
00:10:10.300
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and former White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients in
00:10:15.420
the coming weeks. Chairman Comer previously indicating the investigation could result in criminal referrals
00:10:21.420
to the DOJ. Coming up, day one of jury selection in the trial of the man accused of attempting to
00:10:29.040
assassinate President Trump. And it's already a spectacle. And seemingly mild-mannered Treasury
00:10:35.760
Secretary Scott Besson reportedly challenging another Trump official to a fight. The details next.
00:10:47.000
Cozy Earth's pajamas and blankets are soft, breathable, and so cute. You're going to start
00:10:52.180
planning your evenings around them. Let's talk about the bamboo stretch-knit pajamas. The fabric is
00:10:57.280
insanely soft, sketchy, and lightweight. You can wear it way past bedtime. It could be your all-day cozy
00:11:03.640
uniform. Confession, it has been mine many days. Then there's the bubble cuddle blanket. This thing
00:11:10.400
transforms your couch or your bed. The plush, textured faux fur is not just stunning, it's nap-inducing.
00:11:18.220
Abigail Finan and I argued over the one we had. Binge sessions, she won. I mean, I love her. Book reading,
00:11:25.240
chilly nights, it elevates all of it. And here's the best part. Cozy Earth backs everything with a
00:11:31.660
100-night sleep trial and a 10-year warranty on blankets. Lifetime guarantee on apparel. How about
00:11:37.600
that? Go to CozyEarth.com, use code MEGAN at checkout for up to 40% off your new favorite
00:11:43.600
pajama set and blanket. That's CozyEarth.com, code MEGAN. And if you get a post-purchase survey,
00:11:49.540
be sure to let them know you heard about Cozy Earth right here. Elevate your downtime with Cozy Earth.
00:11:58.360
Jury selection underway in the federal trial of Ryan Ruth, the suspect accused of attempting to
00:12:03.860
assassinate then-candidate Trump last September at Mr. Trump's West Palm Beach golf course.
00:12:10.000
The defendant, though not a lawyer, opting to represent himself. He faces five total charges,
00:12:16.220
including the attempted assassination of a presidential candidate, assaulting a federal
00:12:20.120
officer, being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammo, and possession of a firearm with an
00:12:25.860
obliterated serial number. Federal Judge Aileen Cannon agreeing to allow Ruth to represent himself,
00:12:31.620
though ruling his public defenders, must serve as standby counsel. The trial is taking place in the
00:12:37.360
Southern District of Florida. That's the same court where Judge Cannon oversaw other Trump-related
00:12:41.920
cases. If the pretrial phase is any indication, Judge Cannon may have her work cut out for her in
00:12:48.040
her courtroom. At the final pretrial hearing, Ruth filing a motion laced with inflammatory language,
00:12:54.420
at one point requesting, quote, a round of golf with the racist pig. Apparently a reference to
00:13:00.340
President Trump. He wins. He can execute me. I win. I get his job. Sorry, hillbilly Vance. Oh boy.
00:13:08.560
If convicted, Ruth faces up to life in prison. He has pleaded not guilty. Former assistant U.S.
00:13:14.600
attorney Andy McCarthy Monday on Fox News warning Ruth could attempt to turn the trial into a
00:13:19.900
spectacle. It'll be an attempt to sow chaos. I'll have to say attempt because I would assume that
00:13:26.240
if Ralph was not capable of, you know, forming coherent thoughts, he wouldn't be on trial. And you
00:13:32.800
have a constitutional right to represent yourself, but it doesn't change the rules of the trial.
00:13:38.560
So he will try to make it chaotic, make it incoherent, make it very hard to proceed. The judge will
00:13:46.620
have to try to keep that reined in while allowing him to represent himself. And the Justice Department
00:13:52.500
prosecutor is going to have to be very professional and just play it by the book. She can sanction him
00:13:57.800
if he operates outside the rules. He's capable of representing himself. The lawyers are there to be
00:14:03.260
consulted with and to do things like if he decides to testify in his own behalf, they can put the
00:14:09.200
questions to him as he directs. But their role in the case is really consultation. It's not to actually
00:14:16.220
defend him as lawyers. Ruth arriving to court yesterday morning wearing a gray suit with a red
00:14:21.580
striped tie, his ankles cuffed, preparing to interview prospective jurors. Can you imagine?
00:14:27.080
NPR reporting Judge Cannon rejecting some of Ruth's proposed questions, including some about jurors'
00:14:33.760
attitudes toward Palestine and a proposal that the U.S. purchase Greenland, noting the, quote,
00:14:39.740
politically charged nature of those inquiries. Prosecutors say Mr. Ruth set up a sniper hideout
00:14:46.180
near Trump International Golf Club on the morning of September 15th, where then-candidate Trump was set
00:14:51.100
to play golf later that day. In the early afternoon, Secret Service agents spotting the barrel of a rifle,
00:14:56.640
poking out of the bushes along the course. Agents opening fire, the suspect escaping, though,
00:15:02.200
through the trees. Approximately 40 minutes later, authorities apprehending Mr. Ruth on the
00:15:07.040
interstate. Police recovering handwritten notes with dates of venues where Mr. Trump had appeared or was
00:15:13.360
scheduled to, two cell phones and a handwritten letter titled, Dear World, stating, quote,
00:15:19.080
this was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump, but I am so sorry I failed you. Opening statements are
00:15:25.380
scheduled for Thursday. The trial expected to last two weeks. Two top Trump officials reported the
00:15:33.320
clashing at a private dinner party in Washington last week, a confrontation that, according to
00:15:38.280
Politico, nearly turned physical. About 30 guests gathering in the ultra-exclusive new executive branch
00:15:45.980
members-only club, co-founded by Donald Trump Jr. in Georgetown, for its inaugural dinner. The guest list,
00:15:52.760
a who's who of MAGA world officials and tech insiders, from cabinet secretaries to agency heads.
00:15:59.120
According to one eyewitness and four others familiar with the events, Treasury Secretary Scott
00:16:05.080
Bessent lashing out at the nation's top housing chief, Bill Pulte, accusing him of bad-mouthing
00:16:11.220
Bessent to President Trump. The exact nature of the allegation is unclear. Political reporting,
00:16:17.360
Secretary Bessent confronting Bessent, saying, quote,
00:16:19.940
quote, why the F are you talking to the president about me? F you! I'm gonna punch you in your effing
00:16:25.060
face! There was dramatic, a dramatic reenactment for you there. I don't know the tone. When club
00:16:30.960
co-owner, Omid Malik, stepped in to quiet the outburst, Secretary Bessent allegedly saying, quote,
00:16:36.980
it's either me or him. You tell me who's getting the F out of here, or we could go outside. I really
00:16:44.640
think my acting lessons when I did the blonde origin are coming back to help me. Pulte, who the
00:16:49.760
eyewitness described as looking stunned, replying to Bessent, quote, to do what? To talk? Going
00:16:56.860
outside to chit-chat? No, said Secretary Bessent, quote, I'm gonna beat your effing ass. This is a
00:17:04.320
colorful character. This might come as a surprise to anyone used to watching the soft-spoken secretary
00:17:09.160
defending President Trump's economic policies on the Sunday shows or who watched him skillfully
00:17:15.100
answering questions at his confirmation hearing. But it's not the first time Mr. Bessent made
00:17:20.100
headlines for a heated confrontation with another top Trump official. In April, reports surfacing of
00:17:26.400
a shouting match between the secretary and then-special government employee Elon Musk, a witness telling
00:17:32.900
Axios, quote, it was two middle-aged men thinking it was WWE in the hall of the West Wing.
00:17:38.580
Elon Musk posting the political report about this latest alleged confrontation between Bessent and
00:17:45.460
Pulte to his ex-account with the caption, quote, hmm, hmm, indeed, Elon. Secretary Bessent, Mr. Pulte,
00:17:54.660
Mr. Malek, and the White House officially declining to comment.
00:17:59.520
And that'll do it for your AM update. I'm Megyn Kelly. Join me back here for The Megyn Kelly Show,
00:18:04.180
live on Sirius XM Triumph Channel 111 at noon east, on youtube.com slash Megyn Kelly, and on all podcast platforms.
00:18:11.060
Your business doesn't move in a straight line. Some days bring growth, others bring challenges. But what
00:18:22.120
if you or a partner needs to step away? When the unexpected happens, count on Canada Life's flexible
00:18:28.280
life and health insurance to help your business keep working, even when you can't. Don't let life's
00:18:33.760
challenges stand in the way of your success. Protect what you've built today. Visit CanadaLife.com
00:18:39.820
slash business protection to learn more. Canada Life. Insurance. Investments. Advice.