The Megyn Kelly Show - Trump-Slotkin Feud Escalates, Massive Ohio Chemical Leak, Fake Polling Scandal： AM Update 10⧸22

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00:00:30.000 Good morning, everyone. I'm Emily Jashinski, host of After Party and the Megyn Kelly Wrap-Up

00:00:36.780 Show on SiriusXM Channel 111. It's Thursday, October 22nd, 2026, and this is your AM Update.

00:00:43.780 She's a lightweight, by the way, total lightweight. That stupid person. 1.00

00:00:48.100 President Trump and Democrat Senator Alyssa Slotkin trading blows after she threatens 1.00

00:00:52.840 young Americans not to work for his administration.

00:00:55.580 When my nose started burning, I knew it was definitely something different.

00:01:00.660 It was the smell was so bad.

00:01:03.840 A massive chemical leak in Ohio forcing thousands to evacuate or shelter in place

00:01:09.020 as officials work to contain the potentially dangerous release.

00:01:12.840 A new report raising pay-for-play questions after former Trump attorney Alina Habba

00:01:17.020 landed a $50 million contract from the family of a billionaire who was seeking a presidential pardon.

00:01:22.640 And a polling company caught fabricating election surveys, now claiming it was all a social experiment after investigators started asking questions.

00:01:31.520 All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM Update.

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00:02:33.860 President Trump and Democrat Senator Alyssa Slotkin of Michigan trading barbs in an escalating political feud.

00:02:39.480 after Senator Slotkin called for investigations into Trump administration officials

00:02:43.760 and warning young Americans against working for the president.

00:02:47.860 The former CIA analyst and potential 2028 presidential contender

00:02:51.520 previously joining five other Democrat lawmakers in a video last year

00:02:55.760 urging military and intelligence personnel to refuse unlawful orders.

00:03:00.760 The group dubbed by some on the right as the Seditious Six

00:03:03.940 after President Trump accused them of sedition,

00:03:06.540 and now Senator Slotkin once again finding herself at the center of a confrontation with the president.

00:03:12.300 The latest dispute beginning last week at the University of Chicago,

00:03:15.820 where Slotkin outlined her vision for holding Trump administration officials accountable if Democrats regain power.

00:03:22.060 I want young people coming out of school to say, should I go work for the Trump administration?

00:03:27.640 I want them to be like, Lord, that might be buying myself a ton of problems that I don't want.

00:03:33.880 And so let me avoid participating in that.

00:03:37.320 I want that deterrence message sent.

00:03:40.200 The remarks sparking outrage among Republicans who accused Senator Slotkin of threatening

00:03:44.980 political retaliation against young Americans simply for working for the president.

00:03:49.600 Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah calling her comments disgraceful.

00:03:53.980 Senator Slotkin defending her remarks Monday on CNN.

00:03:57.540 If you commit a criminal act, if you use taxpayer dollars in a way that violates the

00:04:03.600 law, you should be held accountable no matter who you are. That was the point I was making.

00:04:09.180 And they've sort of manufactured outrage about it because they want to talk about anything but

00:04:13.900 what's going on right now in places like Kansas or Michigan.

00:04:17.580 President Trump reacting to the senator's comments Tuesday from the Oval.

00:04:21.880 They want to frighten people, young people, from ever working in the Trump administration or

00:04:27.880 a Republican administration. I heard it without commentary, and I said, well, that's pretty bad.

00:04:34.780 That's pretty bad. She's a lightweight, by the way, total lightweight, stupid person. She's a 1.00

00:04:40.620 person that should be tried for what she did, where she said, no, no, we control government. 0.98

00:04:45.640 You don't have to listen to the president, and we'll see what happens. That's still up in the

00:04:51.140 air. But she made a statement that was very, very dangerous, a very dangerous statement.

00:04:56.500 Senator Slotkin firing back Tuesday night in a video posted to X.

00:05:00.440 President Trump, just a few hours ago in the Oval Office, saying that I should be tried in court.

00:05:06.440 This time, it's because I dared to talk about the corruption coming out of the White House.

00:05:11.160 A president from the Oval Office is weaponizing our justice system against an American who clearly gets under his skin.

00:05:17.940 And if he can do it to me, he can do it to anyone.

00:05:20.880 So if the president wants to investigate and arrest me, and even worse, as so many authoritarian

00:05:25.860 leaders do with their political adversaries, then do it. But I'm not going to be intimidated

00:05:31.040 out of standing up for the rule of law and the country that has given me everything.

00:05:36.200 We spoke with attorney and founder of the Article 3 project, Mike Davis,

00:05:39.640 who sharply criticized Slotkin's comments and accused the senator of trying to portray herself

00:05:44.900 as the victim of a controversy she created. 0.84

00:05:47.280 She said that she wants the Trump officials prosecuted to scare young conservatives from

00:05:56.100 entering public service.

00:05:58.680 And she said this very clearly.

00:06:01.320 She can't deny it.

00:06:03.200 And instead of walking back her comments and apologizing, she's doubling down.

00:06:09.680 She's pretending like she's the victim of some Trump assault against her when she's the bad guy.

00:06:18.640 It's stunning.

00:06:19.880 It's junior varsity CIA tactics that you would expect from a former desk jockey analyst at the CIA.

00:06:28.000 But it's very clear what she said on that tape. 0.94

00:06:30.220 She said that she wants her political opponents prosecuted as a deterrence.

00:06:37.500 And instead of apologizing, she's doubling down and tripling down.

00:06:42.260 Look, no one doubts that if there is criminal misconduct, people should be held accountable.

00:06:48.120 But that's not what she's saying.

00:06:50.480 Senator Slotkin viewed as a possible contender for the 2028 Democrat presidential nomination.

00:06:56.220 Davis questions whether the controversy is helping her political ambitions.

00:07:00.700 I think Alyssa Slotkin's a looney tune. 0.82

00:07:03.340 She's a narcissist, and she thinks that this is good for her, for her public profile. 1.00

00:07:09.160 It's terrible for her and her public profile.

00:07:11.780 Every time she makes any posts on Twitter, on X, she's getting ratioed. 0.91

00:07:18.240 I have not seen so many serial ratios as I have over the last several days

00:07:26.320 than I have on Alyssa Slotkin's Twitter profile.

00:07:29.960 The confrontation unfolding less than two weeks before the midterm elections.

00:07:33.920 Davis arguing the controversy offers voters a glimpse of what could happen

00:07:37.360 if Democrats regain control of Congress.

00:07:40.180 What's amazing to me is Alyssa Slotkin is making this election about Alyssa Slotkin 1.00

00:07:49.840 instead of high diesel prices.

00:07:52.460 It's manna from heaven for conservatives, for Republicans.

00:07:56.260 It's amazing to me that she wants to make this the Democrats' closing argument.

00:08:02.260 And it's just a very good thing for Trump supporters to look at.

00:08:08.400 If we have Democrats running the House and the Senate, they are going to persecute conservatives. 0.81

00:08:15.580 They're going to have lawfare on steroids. 0.93

00:08:18.800 And Alyssa Slotkin's comments make that crystal clear.

00:08:22.460 A massive chemical leak in Toledo, Ohio, forcing nearly 1,000 people to evacuate their homes,

00:08:30.160 as authorities work to contain a potentially dangerous release from an industrial storage tank.

00:08:35.420 The incident occurring late Tuesday night at an MC tank transport facility,

00:08:39.780 sending a plume of chemicals into the air and prompting emergency orders across northern Toledo

00:08:44.700 and parts of neighboring Michigan. Nearly 1,000 residents ordered to evacuate within a one-mile

00:08:50.420 radius of the facility, while more than 50,000 people living within three miles were instructed

00:08:55.480 to shelter in place. Officials initially describing the incident as an explosion,

00:09:00.740 but Toledo Mayor Wade Kapsikavich clarifying Wednesday afternoon that there is no evidence

00:09:05.200 of an actual blast and that authorities are treating the incident as a chemical leak,

00:09:09.640 the damaged tank capable of holding 5,500 gallons of a chemical called glycidylmethacrylate,

00:09:15.420 an industrial substance used in the production of plastics, paints, and coatings.

00:09:19.740 The chemical, normally stored as a liquid, but escaping into the air as a gas, creating a visible plume and a strong odor reported by nearby residents.

00:09:28.680 Exposure potentially causing burning or irritation of the eyes, nose, throat, and skin, along with headaches, dizziness, nausea, and vomiting.

00:09:36.120 One Lucas County Sheriff's deputy reporting feeling ill after responding to the scene, driving himself to the hospital with what officials describe as non-life-threatening symptoms.

00:09:45.640 Toledo resident Lena Ragland describing to CNN the moment she realized something was wrong.

00:09:50.960 Tell us, Linda, how you first figured out something was very wrong.

00:09:54.960 A smell in my room, a strange smell, and a phone call from my auntie asking me, was it smoky over in my area?

00:10:04.280 So I got up and I went downstairs and I assumed the house was on fire because we just recently had that, a house on fire.

00:10:12.400 So I assumed it was a house fire. And when I opened up the door and first peeped out, I realized it was something different.

00:10:20.720 And that's when I grabbed my phone. And then when my nose started burning, I knew it was definitely something different.

00:10:28.260 It was the smell was so was so bad. I literally had to cover my my mouth and my nose. That's how bad it was.

00:10:37.620 Emergency crews initially attempting to stop the leak before determining that approaching

00:10:42.620 the damaged tank could trigger an explosion.

00:10:45.280 During a Wednesday afternoon briefing, Mayor Kapsikavich reporting signs of improvement.

00:10:50.500 About every half hour, they send the drone up.

00:10:52.720 I don't know if you've noticed that.

00:10:53.840 We're doing that about every half hour.

00:10:55.700 And each time the drone comes back, it's clear, looking at the tank in question, that

00:11:00.740 the situation is getting better and better.

00:11:04.140 And by better, I mean the temperature has gone down significantly.

00:11:07.300 Every time the drone comes back, the temperature seems to be down a little bit.

00:11:11.820 And the amount of gas that's being vented is significantly lower than it was.

00:11:18.500 According to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, the leak resulting from an error during the transfer of chemicals,

00:11:24.580 although officials have not disclosed precisely what went wrong.

00:11:27.280 Coming up, a New York Times investigation raising questions about former Trump attorney Alina

00:11:34.240 Haba's lucrative contract with the family of a billionaire who received a presidential pardon

00:11:39.340 and a polling company admitting its election surveys were completely made up after its fake

00:11:45.000 numbers made their way into major news outlets and political forecasts.

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00:12:27.640 card processing, routing transactions over cheaper, untested networks with weaker security and fewer

00:12:32.660 protections. Find out more for yourself at GuardYourCard.com and consider telling Congress

00:12:38.380 to guard your card. A new investigation by The New York Times revealing former Trump attorney

00:12:44.540 Alina Haba Mildon, signed a contract worth more than $50 million with the family of a billionaire

00:12:49.060 seeking a presidential pardon just months before President Trump granted his request.

00:12:54.360 Venezuelan banker Julio Herrera Velutini facing federal corruption charges stemming from an

00:12:59.040 alleged bribery scheme involving former Puerto Rico governor Wanda Vasquez. Herrera reaching a

00:13:04.680 plea agreement with federal prosecutors last year, allowing him to plead guilty to a misdemeanor

00:13:09.380 campaign finance violation rather than face trial on more serious charges. The billionaire then

00:13:14.820 seeking a full presidential pardon, reportedly turning to attorney Christopher Kyes, who

00:13:19.860 previously represented President Trump, to help secure clemency. In October of last year, the

00:13:24.840 family hiring another attorney with close ties to the president, Alina Haba. According to the Times,

00:13:30.320 the Herreras offering Haba $10 million a year, over four years plus additional bonuses, guaranteeing

00:13:36.960 her more than $50 million under the agreement. In exchange, Habba becoming general counsel of

00:13:42.460 Concord Partners, a Florida company established by Herrera's daughter just days before the contract

00:13:48.000 was signed. The Times reporting the company has virtually no public presence, and its business

00:13:53.420 operations remain unclear even to some people familiar with the family's financial empire.

00:13:58.620 Habba finalizing the agreement while still serving as U.S. attorney for New Jersey,

00:14:02.460 before leaving that position in December after federal judges ruled her appointment was unlawful.

00:14:08.480 Habba beginning her work for Concord Partners on January 1st

00:14:11.760 while continuing to serve as a senior advisor to Attorney General Pam Bondi at the Justice Department.

00:14:17.480 Weeks later, President Trump granting Herrera a full and unconditional pardon.

00:14:22.300 People familiar with Habba's contract telling the Times they believe she was hired to help secure the pardon,

00:14:27.580 raising questions about the unusually large compensation

00:14:30.800 and her continued role inside the Justice Department.

00:14:34.660 Habba categorically denying any involvement,

00:14:37.400 saying her private employment was properly disclosed and vetted by the DOJ.

00:14:42.120 In a series of posts on Acts,

00:14:43.940 she accuses the Times of publishing a politically motivated attack

00:14:47.220 just weeks before the midterm elections

00:14:49.440 and pointing to Herrera's original attorney, Christopher Kyes,

00:14:52.740 as the person responsible for securing the pardon.

00:14:55.840 Habba ran in, quote,

00:14:57.060 I was never paid to secure a pardon. I never met with anyone at the White House or DOJ about a

00:15:01.440 pardon. I've never done any work in any capacity whatsoever for a pardon for anyone, period.

00:15:07.320 The Justice Department and the White House backing up Habba's account to the Times,

00:15:11.540 both saying she had no involvement in Herrera's clemency request. The White House maintaining

00:15:16.020 that presidential pardons undergo a review process involving the White House Counsel's Office

00:15:20.500 and the DOJ. Vice President J.D. Vance addressing broader allegations of political insiders

00:15:25.960 profiting from their government connections during remarks yesterday.

00:15:30.100 We're not going to try people in the court of public opinion.

00:15:32.520 We're going to let real facts develop.

00:15:34.600 And that's one thing I'd say to the American people.

00:15:36.320 I see a lot of stories about our administration,

00:15:39.300 and sometimes my initial reaction to them is, I really don't like that.

00:15:44.100 And then when you read the details, you realize that a lot of what's being accused

00:15:49.060 is, one, anonymously sourced, or two, it's just completely fraudulent.

00:15:53.340 But I can tell you, this attorney general and the entire administration, we reject pay-for-play.

00:15:58.800 We reject anybody getting enriched off of their connections to the government.

00:16:02.860 And if we see it happening, whether it's our partisan friends or our partisan enemies, we are going to do something about it.

00:16:10.720 A political polling company whose surveys appeared in major news outlets and election forecasts admitting it fabricated its data,

00:16:17.820 claiming the entire operation was actually a social experiment designed to expose weaknesses

00:16:22.920 in the polling industry. The stunning, quote, admission, coming Tuesday night from Wedgwood

00:16:28.000 Polls, after election analysis website 50plus1 confronted the company with evidence suggesting

00:16:33.860 its surveys were fake. According to 50plus1's investigation, researchers discovering suspicious

00:16:39.640 patterns in the raw polling data provided by Wedgwood, including information that did not

00:16:44.260 match records typically generated by the survey platform the company claimed to use.

00:16:49.020 Rather than answer the investigators' questions, Wedgwood releasing a lengthy statement on social

00:16:53.460 media acknowledging it had invented the numbers behind nearly all of its polls. The company

00:16:58.720 claiming its goal was to demonstrate how easily a fake polling operation could gain credibility,

00:17:04.260 concluding that the process was, quote, far too easy. However, investigators revealing Wedgwood

00:17:09.760 had presented itself as a legitimate polling company for months, even collecting money from

00:17:15.100 donors to fund surveys that were never actually conducted. The fabricated results appearing in

00:17:20.640 coverage from outlets including the New York Times, MSNOW, and Newsweek, and making their way

00:17:25.540 into election forecasting models used to track races across the country. The New York Times

00:17:31.260 removing 15 Wedgwood surveys from its polling database, while Decision Desk HQ scrapping 17,

00:17:38.920 although the company says the removal does not change its projections for control of Congress.

00:17:43.980 The revelation sparking outrage from political candidates whose campaigns were affected by the

00:17:48.520 false numbers. In Michigan, Democrat state Senator Mallory McMorrow accusing Wedgwood of inflicting

00:17:54.080 serious damage on her unsuccessful campaign for the U.S. Senate after publishing a poll showing

00:17:58.780 her support collapsing into single digits. The survey helping fuel a narrative that McMorrow

00:18:03.960 was falling far behind her Democratic primary opponents, including eventual nominee Abdul

00:18:08.600 El-Sayed, whose campaign also sided wedge with polling. In an ex-post, McMorrow describing the

00:18:14.440 devastating impact on her campaign's morale, saying the false numbers undermined her team's

00:18:19.220 efforts and reinforced the perception that her candidacy was collapsing. The controversy

00:18:24.420 prompting criticism from political operatives across the spectrum, who argued that fabricated

00:18:29.220 polls can damage fundraising, discourage volunteers, and distort voters' perceptions of a race.

00:18:35.580 Josh Holmes of the Ruthless podcast yesterday on Fox News.

00:18:39.300 They got their hand caught in the cookie jar by 50 plus one when they started asking questions

00:18:44.780 about their methodology. And instead of just copying to a fake poll, what they did is try

00:18:49.420 to create this illusion that all of this was a social experiment. And nobody should have taken

00:18:55.760 it seriously, but of course they did and included it in polling averages. This is not a victimless

00:19:00.780 crime. I can tell you the problem is when you get these fake polls out in the public, what happens

00:19:05.820 is fundraising starts to dry up, volunteers become dispirited. They create and sort of blunt any

00:19:12.960 momentum a campaign would have with artificial data. In August, an outfit calling itself

00:19:18.980 Median Strategies, acknowledging it fabricated polls in several states, including one showing

00:19:23.860 Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass holding a commanding lead over Democrat challenger Nithya Rahman.

00:19:29.120 The company making that admission only after facing questions from the Los Angeles Times,

00:19:34.240 offering essentially the same explanation that Wedgwood is now using.

00:19:40.920 That'll do it for your AM update. I'm Emily Drushinsky, host of After Party.

00:19:44.740 Go and check out more at afterpartyemily.com. Catch the Megyn Kelly show later today,

00:19:48.540 live on SiriusXM's The Megyn Kelly Channel 111 at noon east on youtube.com slash megynkelly.

00:19:53.860 and all podcast platforms.

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The Megyn Kelly Show - October 22, 2026

Trump-Slotkin Feud Escalates, Massive Ohio Chemical Leak, Fake Polling Scandal： AM Update 10⧸22

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