Somali Fraud Probe Widens, Infant Hep B Vax Guidance Changes, Netflix's WB Mega-Deal： AM Update 12⧸8
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Summary
Minnesotans of Somali descent have been charged with fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud. Of the 86 people already charged in connection with these schemes, all but eight are members of Minnesota s Somali community, according to the New York Times and the Manhattan Institute's City Journal.
Transcript
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When I got a great deal on a great gift at Winners, I started wondering,
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could I get fabulous gifts for everyone on my list?
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Ooh, European chocolate for the crossing guard.
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Either fix this in 60 days or start looking under your couch for spare change.
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Federal scrutiny of Minnesota public programs increasing amid reports of widespread fraud
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It's a really sad day for science and vaccines and immunology.
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A federal panel votes to revise the hepatitis B newborn vaccine schedule, triggering a barrage
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Netflix announces a major deal to purchase Warner Brothers, a move expected to shake up the entire
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entertainment landscape with massive ramifications.
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And President Trump now feuding with a Democrat congressman he just pardoned a few days ago.
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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, one of the top Democrats in
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Congress aiming to undermine the Trump agenda is Senator Dick Durbin.
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And according to our sponsor, the Electronic Payments Coalition, Senator Durbin has a new
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scheme, a government takeover of your credit card.
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Learn more at guardyourcard.com and consider telling your senators to stop Dick Durbin's
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government takeover of your credit card before it's too late.
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Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS,
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on Friday putting Minnesota on notice, finding 14 additional services within the state's Medicaid
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program show, quote, high-risk indicators of fraud, following the discovery of more than
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$1 billion in fraud connected to several other welfare programs in the state.
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The vast majority of these fraud schemes connected to Minnesota's large, politically active Somali
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City Journal and the New York Times reporting on widespread fraud largely connected to a
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meals program, a housing program, and an autism therapy program.
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Of the 86 people already charged in connection with these schemes, all but eight are members
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of Minnesota's Somali community, according to the Times.
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Multiple federal agencies and a congressional committee now formally investigating Minnesota's
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Dr. Oz in a social media video expanding on early findings.
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When CMS became aware of the housing program situation, Minnesota insisted it could clean up
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So we stepped in to shut down the fraud-infested housing initiative.
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Today, we're taking action on more than a dozen other programs, which I've outlined in the
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Either fix this in 60 days, or start looking under your couch for spare change, because
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we are done footing the bill for your incompetence.
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Dr. Oz calling out the Somali community specifically, and accusing Democrat Governor Tim Walls of being
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too afraid of potential political backlash to do anything to stop the alleged fraud, saying
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Minnesota politicians get elected with Somali votes and keep the money flowing.
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Fox News reporting Friday that whistleblowers told lawmakers the total amount of fraud could
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Treasury Secretary Scott Besant overseeing a probe into whether any of the stolen money made
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its way to Al-Shabaab, an Islamic terror organization based in Somalia.
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This follows reporting from the Manhattan Institute's City Journal that, quote,
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Minnesota's Somali community has sent untold millions through a network of hawalas, informal
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clan-based money traders, that have wound up in the coffers of Al-Shabaab.
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Multiple sources telling the outlet that Somalis in the U.S. send money back to their home country,
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Many defenders of the Somali community, including Minnesota's most famous Somali, Congresswoman
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Ilhan Omar, saying there's no evidence of that.
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How confident are you that that's a false claim?
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I'm pretty confident at the moment because there are people who have been prosecuted and
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If there was a linkage in that the money that they had stolen going to terrorism, then that
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is a failure of the FBI and our court system in not figuring that out and basically charging
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The Congresswoman also says Somalis are the real victims here.
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Of the 87 people charged, all but eight are of Somali descent, and that has added to the
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spotlight being put specifically on your community.
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Why do you think this fraud was allowed to get so widespread?
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Well, I want to say, you know, this also has an impact on Somalis because we are also taxpayers
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We also could have benefited from the program and the money that was stolen.
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And so it's been really frustrating for people to not acknowledge the fact that we're also,
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as Minnesotans, as taxpayers, really upset and angry about the fraud that has occurred.
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Secretary Besson, also yesterday on CBS, warning the absence of proof today does not mean investigators
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Okay, but you have no evidence of that money being used to fuel terrorism at this point,
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which is what some conservative rioters are alleging.
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But I can tell you that, you know, it's terrible.
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You know, Representative Omar tried to downplay it.
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So, you know, when you come to this country, you got to learn which side of the road to drive
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on, you got to learn to stop the stop signs, and you got to learn not to defraud the American
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The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, ACIP, the federal body that sets vaccine
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guidance, voting Friday to drop the decades-old recommendation that every newborn receive the
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Hepatitis B is a liver disease caused by an extremely contagious virus.
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The panel voting 8 to 3 to give mothers who test negative for the virus more discretion
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over the timing of their infant's hepatitis B shot, now advising those parents to wait
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for the baby to be at least two months old before receiving the first dose, if at all.
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Since hep B is transmitted sexually or through IV drug use, Dr. Martin Kulldorff, chairman of
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the CDC's Vaccine Advisory Committee, saying in June that unless the mother is hep B positive,
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an argument could be made to postpone this vaccine.
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FDA Chief Marty McCary explains, it may make more sense to wait until kids are approaching
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Quote, a lot of parents wait until the children are 10, 11, or 12.
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Prior to the Advisory Committee vote, the schedule calling for a day-one dose, and then a second
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round at one to two months, and a third from six to 15 months.
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The immediate vaccination policy still applying to infants whose mothers already have hepatitis
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B or whose status is unknown, which Dr. McCary says makes sense.
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The CDC first recommended this vaccine in 1982 for people deemed at high risk, drug users,
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pregnant women, and infants born to hepatitis B positive mothers.
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By 1992, the CDC shifted the recommendation to all newborns due to, quote, the difficulty
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The goal was to eliminate hep B entirely, which didn't happen, probably because the CDC says
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Insurers say the vote will not change the availability of this vaccine, according to CNN, and parents
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who want it for their child will still be able to get it at no cost.
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Prior to the vaccine becoming ubiquitous in the 1990s, the U.S. saw about 20,000 cases of hep B
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in newborn babies each year, out of about 4.1 million babies born in, for example, 1991.
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The number then dropping to about 20 after the vaccine introduction, according to U.S. Senator
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from Louisiana, Bill Cassidy, a Republican medical doctor.
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The vote, coming after years of growing parental concern about the number of vaccines, many
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of which contain aluminum, given to day-old newborns, and questions about the need for
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a day-one vaccination against a disease most newborns are at extremely low risk of contracting.
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News of the vote sending legacy media and Democrats into a tailspin.
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Reuters reporting the new ACIP panel, appointed by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. earlier
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this year, after firing the entire board, has now, quote, turned back the clock on disease
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prevention, citing former ACIP member Dr. William Schaffner.
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Here's a sampling from MS Now and CNN, beginning with Dr. Dimitri Daskalakis, who resigned from
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He might remember the doctor from his appearance on the cover of HIV Plus magazine, wearing an unbuttoned
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He's a big fan of preferred pronouns and of the term pregnant people, because, you know,
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It's a really sad day for science and vaccines and immunology.
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But it's really been, since he's taken office, death by a thousand cuts.
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Say that I and my colleagues couldn't sleep last night because we know that all of this movement
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and these recommendations represent a broken promise to American families.
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The Vaccine Advisory Committee, handpicked by RF Kennedy Jr., did exactly what everyone
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worried about when the anti-vaxxer was first named health secretary.
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Because let's be clear, what happened today was politics.
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Senator Cassidy, who voted to confirm Senator Kennedy, posting on X, quote,
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This change to the vaccine schedule is a mistake.
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The birth dose is a recommendation, not a mandate.
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Ending the recommendation for newborns makes it more likely the number of cases will begin
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ACIP member Dr. Tracy Beth Hogue, the acting director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation
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and Research, taking issue with the safety studies used to approve the hep B vaccine at the
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The U.S. is an outlier in recommending a universal birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine compared
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And the data that we used to approve the hepatitis B vaccines, they're for infants, were based
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on studies that had very short-term follow-up and no control group.
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We would never approve a vaccine based on data like those today.
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So we are working with very low-level evidence here, and we have very limited confidence in
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what we say when we say these vaccines are safe.
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And so we have established that it does cause anaphylaxis, rarely fever, reactogenicity.
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And so I think that I agree with Retsev that we need to be humble when we're saying that
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we have the evidence that the benefits outweigh the harms here of giving this vaccine.
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And again, I think that there's a reason that peer nations to the United States do not recommend
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Acting CDC Director Jim O'Neill will now decide whether to approve the panel's recommendation.
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Shortly after the panel vote on Friday, President Trump posting on social media,
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I have just signed a presidential memorandum directing the Department of Health and Human
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Services to fast-track a comprehensive evaluation of vaccine schedules from other countries around
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the world and better align the U.S. vaccine schedule so it is finally rooted in the gold standard
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The memorandum pointing to other developed nations, Denmark, Japan, and Germany, each of
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which vaccinates against fewer diseases than the U.S.
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Coming up, Netflix announcing a deal to buy a major Hollywood studio in a major industry
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And President Trump slamming a Democrat congressman he pardoned less than a week ago.
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We talk a lot about personal responsibility on this show.
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And I'm not talking about following whatever the experts recommend.
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Your ability to go to the movie theater with a buttered popcorn and snow caps just got a
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little more endangered this weekend, thanks to an old-school movie-making giant getting
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Yes, Netflix and Warner Brothers Discovery announcing on Friday an agreement for the streamer to purchase
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the media companies' film and TV studios, including HBO Max, the streaming service, and HBO, the cable channel.
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One of the big five movie studios, a relic of old Hollywood, now moving under a streaming platform,
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Warner Brothers shareholders set to receive a mix of cash and Netflix stock in the $82.7 billion transaction.
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Other Warner Brothers Discovery properties, including CNN, HGTV, and the Food Network,
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set to be spun off in 2026 into a separate company to be called Discovery Global.
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Major intellectual property, or IP, including Game of Thrones, the DC Comics universe, Harry Potter,
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The Sopranos, classics like Gone with the Wind, and much more will now operate under the
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Netflix saying it plans to maintain Warner Brothers' operations, including theatrical releases, for now.
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The New York Times, reporting a group of anonymous film producers, sent a letter to Congress on Thursday
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expressing, quote, grave concerns about the purchase.
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Quote, Netflix views any time spent watching a movie in a theater as time not spent on their platform.
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They have no incentive to support theatrical exhibition, and they have every incentive to kill it.
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The move comes amid a years-long decline in movie theater ticket sales, which accelerated during the COVID pandemic.
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Screen Rant, reporting that this year, when adjusted for inflation, was the worst box office summer since 1981.
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Not because we wouldn't go see really good ones if they would make them.
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Netflix securing the deal after a weeks-long bidding war against Paramount Skydance and Comcast.
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The transaction expected to close in 12 to 18 months.
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It will require regulatory approval from the Trump administration.
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If the deal collapses, Netflix will pay Warner Brothers a $5.8 billion breakup fee.
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News of the deal raising skepticism among culture observers on what it will mean for a legacy studio to be absorbed by a streaming giant.
00:17:15.980
With streaming, there is no free market pressure, no quality control.
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You don't have to motivate people to leave their homes.
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And best of all, you can ignore the silent majority that has tuned you out long ago.
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Hate the trans agenda being shoved down everyone's throat?
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Your boycotts are a drop in the bucket at Netflix.
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We spoke with the host of the Hollywood in Toto podcast, Christian Toto, about how this deal could affect the cultural landscape.
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He points out Netflix is primarily interested in making money and points to one bright spot.
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There was that time with Netflix and Dave Chappelle.
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Sasha has a real eye on Hollywood and knows what she's talking about.
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The one thing I'll throw into the situation is that Netflix came into a pretty tough situation a few years ago with Dave Chappelle.
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And at that particular point, they could have said, OK, we're going to take the Dave Chappelle special, which some deemed to be offensive, off our platform.
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But they stuck by him, even though there was a lot of noise and anger against him and against what he said on that particular special.
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And that was a cultural moment where Netflix realized that there's money to be made by reaching out to a whole different group of audiences where you didn't have to just play to the woke crowd.
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You could reach out to right of center fans and themselves.
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So while I understand what Sasha Stone says about what this change will bring to Hollywood, I also think Netflix at the business level understands that they've got a lot of people to entertain and a bigger tent means more money for them.
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Despite Netflix's stated commitment to continuing theatrical releases, Toto believes ultimately that business model may not prove to be effective, leading to the end or a drastic scaling down of movies in theaters from Warner Brothers.
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In an effort to keep theaters alive, many actors and filmmakers now marketing the theater experience itself, practically begging audiences to go see their movie rather than waiting for the streaming services to pick it up.
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Legendary filmmaker Steven Spielberg in this ad, pushing audiences to see Hamnet, which he produced and Chloe Zhao directed.
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It's really important for audiences to go see a film like Hamnet in theaters because of the audience.
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Because an audience means more than four people.
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The way I see an audience, it is a large congregation of people who perhaps are not at all like-minded.
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We sit in a room and we share an experience together as strangers.
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We feel the room and we feel the audience and we hear the laughs and we feel the tears and we share emotion.
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And that doesn't happen when you're just a half dozen people watching something on a 50-inch screen.
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Toto tells us the possible loss of the theater-going experience is not something to take lightly.
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I do mourn the potential loss of a theatrical experience.
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I think when you look at the younger generation, they're wrapped up in their phones.
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They're playing with their friends online with video games.
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And I think there is something lost from a cultural perspective if the theaters go away or whether they're diminished in a significant way.
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You know, whether it's the mall culture where teens hang out and they talk to their friends and they flirt with girls and guys, there is something about being in the presence of other people that it seems crazy to say, but we're losing that element of that bigger picture.
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But, you know, I think to lose that would be significant.
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This may be inevitable, but I don't think we should lose it or push it away lightly.
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Less than a week after issuing Democrat Representative Henry Cuellar of Texas and his wife a pardon, President Trump now slamming the congressman.
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The Biden DOJ indicting Congressman Cuellar and his wife in May of 2024 on 14 counts, including bribery, wire fraud, and money laundering.
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Prosecutors accusing the Cuellars of accepting $600,000 in bribes from an oil company owned by the government of Azerbaijan and a Mexican bank.
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The couple's trial was set to begin April of 2026.
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The Cuellars pleading not guilty to the charges, arguing the case amounted to political retaliation after the congressman who represents a border district criticized then-President Biden's immigration policies.
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Last week, President Trump announcing the pair of pardons in a Truth Social post, quote,
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Sleepy Joe went after the congressman and even the congressman's wonderful wife, Imelda, simply for speaking the truth.
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I am hereby announcing my full and unconditional pardon of beloved Texas Congressman Henry Cuellar and Imelda.
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Henry, I don't know you, but you can sleep well tonight.
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Mr. Trump attributing the decision, which was reportedly made without Mr. and Mrs. Cuellar's advanced knowledge,
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to a letter written by the congressman's daughters to the president on behalf of their parents.
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Later that same day of the pardon, despite speculation that he might switch parties,
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Mr. Cuellar filing the paperwork to run for re-election as a Democrat.
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Yesterday morning, President Trump sharply criticizing the move on Truth Social, quote,
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I never spoke to the congressman, his wife, or his daughters, but felt very good about fighting for
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a family that was tormented by very sick and deranged people. I signed the papers and said to
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people in the Oval Office that I just did a very good, perhaps life-saving thing. God was very happy
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with me that day. Then it happened. The Post continuing, quote, Congressman Henry Cuellar announced
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that he will be running for Congress again, in the great state of Texas, as a Democrat,
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continuing to work with the same radical left scum that just weeks before wanted him and his wife
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to spend the rest of their lives in prison, and probably still do. Such a lack of loyalty,
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something that Texas voters and Henry's daughters will not like. Oh well, next time,
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no more Mr. Nice Guy. Mr. Cuellar, Sunday on Fox, responding to the criticism.
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Let me just say this. I was at church this morning with my wife. I prayed for the president.
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I prayed for his family. And I prayed for the presidency, because if the president succeeds,
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the country succeeds. And again, as probably the most bipartisan individual, I don't vote party.
00:23:31.380
I vote for what's right for the country. And I am a conservative Democrat, but I will work with the
00:23:37.800
president. I've reached out to his administration. The Texas Tribune reporting Cuellar has yet to draw
00:23:43.240
a serious primary contender ahead of the March primary election, the general election set for
00:23:48.540
November 3rd, 2026. And that'll do it for your AM update. I'm Megan Kelly. Join me back here for
00:23:57.100
the MK Show, live on SiriusXM's The Megan Kelly Channel, 111 at noon east, on youtube.com slash
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