The Megyn Kelly Show - DOJ Weighs Releasing Maxwell Transcript, Trump on Third Term, Titan Disaster Report: AM Update 8/6

Episode Date: August 6, 2025

The Justice Department is considering whether to release a transcript and audio from Ghislaine Maxwell’s closed-door interview with Deputy AG Todd Blanche. In a wide-ranging CNBC interview, President Trump floated names to replace Fed Chair Jerome Powell, detailed a potential trade deal with China, recounted being de-banked after leaving office, and reiterated he “probably” won’t run for a third term. The Coast Guard releases a scathing 335-page report on the Titan sub disaster, blaming CEO Stockton Rush’s negligence and catastrophic engineering failures for the fatal implosion.Riverbend Ranch: Visit https://riverbendranch.com/ | Use promo code MEGYN for $20 off your first order.All Family Pharmacy: Order now at https://allfamilypharmacy.com/MEGYN and save 10% with code MEGYN10 

Good morning, everyone. I'm Megan Kelly. It's Wednesday, August 6th, 2025, and this is your AM update. The DOJ weighs releasing a transcript of the Galane Maxwell interview with Deputy A.G. Todd Blanche last month. Are you going to run again? The Constitution... No, probably not. President Trump, once again addressing the possibility of running for a third term in office, saying he's probably not going to do it. Stockton Rush came from the wrong industry, and he chose the wrong materials and the wrong approach. The Coast Guard drops its report on the series of colossal failures leading up to the implosion of the Ocean Gate Titan sub, tragically killing five people, including the company's CEO.

All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM update. I've been talking a lot about River Bend Ranch Stakes lately, and for good reason. The ranch is just a few miles. from West Yellowstone, Montana, where we go in the wintertime, and their steaks are so flavorful and surprisingly tender. Even someone like me, who does not know how to cook, can make it taste delicious. It's thanks to the quality of the beef. A lot of our listeners have been writing and sharing similar feedback. Abigail Fine and will not stop talking about River Bend Ranch. And I feel the same. So these guys raise Angus cattle, but they've taken it even further. For 35 years now, more than three decades,

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And let me know what you think. Riverben Ranch.com promo code, Megan. The Department of Justice reportedly weighing whether to release a transcript of the Galane Maxwell interview conducted by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in late July. Three senior DOJ officials telling CNN, the administration also has an audio recording of the two-day meeting with Jeffrey Epstein's convicted associate. Some officials within the White House reportedly believe releasing the transcript could bring the Epstein story back into the spotlight at a time when many officials believe the public has largely moved on. Some sources saying any release of the audio or transcript would happen sooner rather than later, another saying it could take weeks. Maxwell currently appealing a 20-year prison sentence for her role in both abusing and sex trafficking victims for Jeffrey Epstein. She was moved last week to a lower security prison camp in Texas,

an apparent concession for her cooperation. President Trump weighing in Tuesday from the White House. Did you personally approve the prison transfer for Galane Maxwell that your Justice Department... I didn't know about it at all, no. I read about it just like you did. And do you believe that she's... It's not a very uncommon thing. Do you believe that she's credible to be listening to? Your Deputy Attorney General sat down with her recently. Well, let me tell you, he's a very talented man.

His name is Todd Blanche. She's a very legitimate person, very high, I just have very highly thought of person, respected by everybody. And I didn't talk to him about it, but I will tell you that whatever he asks would be totally appropriate, and it's not an uncommon thing to do that. And I think he probably wants to make sure that, you know, people that should not be involved or aren't involved or not hurt by something that would be very, very unfortunate, very unfair to a lot of people. Separately, the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday morning, officially issuing subpoenas for 10 individuals, including former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former FBI directors James Comey and Robert Mueller, and former attorneys general from both sides of the aisle,

Merrick Garland, Bill Barr, Alberto Gonzalez, Jeff Sessions, Loretta Lynch, and Eric Holder. The subpoenas compelling each individual to appear before the committee for depositions across a range of dates from mid-August to mid-October. It is unclear if these witnesses will appear before the committee or challenge the subpoenas through legal proceedings or whether they might invoke their Fifth Amendment right not to testify. The Oversight Committee also issuing a subpoena to Trump's DOJ, compelling the release of of key Epstein files to Congress as part of the ongoing investigation into Epstein, Maxwell, and the DOJ's handling of their cases. Those files are due to the committee by August 19.

President Trump on Tuesday morning, dialing into CNBC for fun, resulting in a free-willing interview covering a wide range of subjects. Mr. Trump offering hints on the shortlist to replace Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Powell has indicated he will serve through the remainder of his term, which expires in May of 2026, despite the president's repeated calls to either lower interest rates or step aside. Mr. Trump's saying he is considering four possible replacements, former Fed overseer Kevin Warsh, director of the National Economic Council, Kevin Hassett,

and two more candidates. Not on the list, Treasury Secretary Scott Besson. Well, I love Scott, but he wants to stay where he is. I will. I'll take him off them because I asked him just last night, is this something you want? Nope, I want to stay where I am. He actually said, I want to work with you. It's such an honor. I said, that's very nice. I appreciate that. But no, Scott wants to do what he's doing. He's doing a great job. And he wants to do what he's doing. So I'd just take him off. He does not want it. President Trump also discussing the possibility of meeting Chinese President

Xi Jinping as the August 12th deadline to strike a trade deal looms. We have a very good relationship, but I didn't call for the meeting. He called for the meeting. fake news announced. Donald Trump wants a meeting with China. No, I didn't want it. No, he asked for a meeting, and I'll end up having a meeting before the end of the year, most likely, if we make a deal. If we don't make a deal, I'm not going to have a meeting. I mean, you know, what's the purpose of meeting if we're not going to make a deal? But we're getting very close to a deal. China is very reliant on the United States. My relationship with him is very good. I think we'll make a good deal. It's not imperative, but I think we're going to make a good deal.

they had a thing that Donald Trump really wanted to go there. No, I don't know. It's an 18, it's a 19-hour flight. It's a long flight. But at some point in the not too distance, which I will, and just to end this conversation in China, I have a very good relationship with president. She always had. In recent years, many conservative activists reporting they've been debanked after speaking out politically. The administration reportedly crafting an executive order aimed at protecting consumers. Mr. Trump saying he was a victim himself of debanking after leaving office in 2021. I had J.P. Morgan Chase. I was loaded up with cash. And they told me, I'm sorry, sir, we can't have you. You have 20 days to get out. I said, you've got to be kidding. I've been with you for 35, 40 years.

And it's not like, gee, you're defaulted on a loan. You know, geez, I couldn't understand that. That's different. I ended up going to small banks all over the place. I mean, I was putting, 10 million here, 10 million there, did 5 million, 10 million, 12 million. The banks discriminated against me very badly. But they discriminated against many conservatives. And I believe what they did is they went to the regulators. You know, banks are not afraid of anything but a regulator.

They're regulators and their wives. The high IQ people that are radical left, I believe they told the banking commission, do everything you can to destroy Trump. And that's what they did. And guess what? I'm president. How did that happen? No word yet on when that order will be announced.

President Trump saying, despite his polling, he probably won't run again. I get the highest vote in the history of Texas, a record that they say won't be beaten unless I run again. Are you going to run again? No, probably not. Okay. Probably not. And you're not going to fire Jay Powell. We'll go talk about all the stuff that.

Hey, Becky, I'd like to. run. I have the best poll numbers I've ever had. Later on Tuesday, President Trump predicting to reporters a dream team of Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will carry on the MAGA movement. Coming up, the Coast Guard dropping a damning report on the Ocean Gate Titan sub, outlining several points of failure and negligence leading up to the fatal implosion. You know the feelings. someone in your family gets sick, and then you're stuck waiting for a doctor's appointment,

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This is health care that works for you. The Coast Guard releasing a blistering 335 page report on the 2023 Ocean Gate Titan submersible disaster that led to the deaths of all five on board. Those who lost their lives were the Ocean Gate CEO, Stockton Rush, Titanic expert Paul Henri Narjale, British businessman Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shazada Dawood, and his 19-year-old son, Suleiman Dawood. On June 18, 2023, the explorers embarking on a deep-sea mission to explore the wreckage of the Titanic, resting approximately 12,500 feet beneath the surface of the Atlantic ocean. At approximately 1047 a.m., the Titan Communications and Tracking Team, monitoring from a ship

on the surface, heard a bang. For days, the nation watched and prayed as it remained not entirely clear whether the vessel had imploded or simply malfunctioned and lost contact. On June 22nd, debris found on the ocean floor confirming the loss of the sub and the lives of all on board. The Coast Guard determining the cause of the incident, quote, was the loss of structural integrity of the Titan's carbon fiber hull. This loss caused the sudden catastrophic implosion of the hull. The word failure appearing 99 times in the report, painting a devastating picture of what led to the tragedy, a, quote, toxic workplace environment, critical engineering failures, and a series of ignored safety warnings. According to the report, Ocean Gate CEO

Stockton Rush was negligent in the events leading up to the disaster, noting that Rush's dual role, CEO of the company and Master of the Titan, carried a heightened legal responsibility. to ensure the safety and seaworthiness of the vessel and its occupants. Had he survived, criminal charges may have followed. The report also finding that before the fatal trip in 2023, Ocean Gate had continued using the Titan sub even after, quote, a series of incidents that compromised the integrity of the hull. Director of the epic film, Titanic, and deep sea submersible expert, James Cameron,

last year on 60 Minutes Australia, explaining the Titans' construction was a recipe for disaster from the very start. Do you have a particular individual, Stockton Rush, he was enamored of the sort of the glamour and the exoticism, and he was attracted to it, but he came from the wrong industry. He came from aeronautics, and aeronautical engineering is fundamentally different, and he chose the wrong materials on the wrong approach because of the carbon fiber. And there's another issue which is mating dissimilar materials together at a high price. pressure mating surface. When you put titanium up against carbon fiber, they have a differential

bulk modulus. I don't want to get too tactically. But it means they contract and expand at different rates, which causes slippage and stress and strain at that interface. Which under that pressure? Talking about a lot of pressure. And you're talking about certain rules you can't break. And those rules were broken. Despite longstanding concerns about the safety of carbon fiber under deep sea pressure, A new Netflix documentary, Titan, the Ocean Gate submersible disaster, explores why Rush remained fixated on using it. He believed it could revolutionize the industry by slashing costs and

expanding access. When I looked at the cost of operating a sub, it's the ship. The two things that drive the cost of submersible operations. It's not the replenishing the oxygen or the carbon-to-access cover, but that's nothing. It's all about the ship, and the next most important thing is mobilization. How do you get the stuff from one location? to another. That's 90% of your cost. If you can realize that dream of a carbon fiber submersible, you can drop the price, you can suddenly have fleets of these submersibles operating around the world. The Coast Guard report also found, quote, Ocean Gates' safety culture and operational practices were critically flawed, and at the core of these failures were glaring disparities

between their written safety protocols and their actual practices. One example of that breakdown relayed by former Ocean Gate Director of Engineering, Tony Nissen, who worked for the company from 2016 until he was fired in 2019. Nissen testifying in September 24 to the Coast Guard's Marine Board of Investigation about a 2018 lightning strike to the vessel. I believe it got compromised by that event that's very difficult to detect. I mean, took a lightning strike and it went through all the testing. So at that point, and at that point did you cancel the 2018? Titanic Expedition?

Had to, yeah, because we gutted it, changed all the electronics in it. We weren't going to be able to do the deep diving that we needed in time. There's no path to get there. It would have had to leave. I think it had to leave the Bahamas to go to Newfoundland sometime in May, I think it was. Yeah, and they couldn't get there. At that time, did you believe that the lightning strike affected the actual carbon fiber hall? Yeah, I told Stockton.

And so there's probably a good chance that that hole is compromised for sure. And what did he say? Did we okay? So nothing was done to the hall itself from that point. You didn't make a new hall. It wasn't. The new rapport also finding Rush was able to push the Titan project forward by capitalizing on the company's favorable reputation to evade regulatory scrutiny.

Quote, by strategically creating and exploiting regulatory confusion and oversight challenges, Ocean Gate was ultimately able to operate Titan completely outside of the established deep sea protocols. Ocean Gate suspended operations in July 2023. And that'll do it for your AM update. I'm Megan Kelly. Join me back here for the Megan Kelly show live on SiriusXM Triumph Channel 11 at New Neatest on YouTube.com slash Megan Kelly and on all podcast platforms.