The Megyn Kelly Show - Scientific Establishment vs Trump Over CDC, Lisa Cook Fights On, Failing City Schools: AM Update 9/2

Episode Date: September 2, 2025

President Trump and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. move to overhaul America’s vaccine policies, from ending mandates and reshaping advisory panels to firing the CDC director, sparking fierce resistance from the public health establishment. Fed Governor Lisa Cook takes her fight to court to block President Trump’s attempt to remove her for cause over mortgage fraud allegations. An explosive investigation into Baltimore City schools reveals systemic grade-changing, manipulated data, and dismal proficiency rates, failures Investigative Reporter Chris Papst, author of "Failure Factory," says are driving the city’s crime crisis. All Family Pharmacy: Order now at https://allfamilypharmacy.com/MEGYN and save 10% with code MEGYN10 Riverbend Ranch: Visit https://riverbendranch.com/ | Use promo code MEGYN for $20 off your first order.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Megan Kelly. It's Tuesday, September 2nd, 2025, and this is your AM update. There's a lot of trouble at CDC, and it's going to require getting rid of some people over the long term. It's the Trump administration versus former CDC officials over new vaccine guidelines and more. The claim that this might be clerical error or just a mistake, that's not going to fly. Fed Governor Lisa Cook continues her legal battle to keep... her job, despite mounting allegations of mortgage fraud against her, and a deep dive into the failing schools in Baltimore, and why it's fueling the crime epidemic in the city. You know, the one their Democratic governor won't acknowledge? All that and more coming up in just a moment

on your AM update. Who's really on your side when it comes to your health? Insurance companies, bureaucrats, pharmacies that refuse valid prescriptions? Not so much. Too many parts of our health care system are working against you. Blocking proven treatments, jacking up prices, making you jump through hoops that are unnecessary. This is why I want to tell you about all-family pharmacy, an independent pharmacy that's on your side, fighting for your medical freedom, making it simple to get the treatments you trust without the insurance run around. Just order online. A licensed doctor will review your request and your medication ships straight to your door.

It's fast, simple, and secure. Right now, Ivermectin and Mavendazol are 25% off, starting at just two bucks a capsule. And you can save another 10% off with code Megan 10. Choose from over 200 medications, antibiotics, hydroxychloroquine, NAD plus, antivirals, and more, all with a prescription included. Go to all family pharmacy.com slash Megan and use the code Megan 10 to save today. That's all family pharmacy, where your health and your choice, matters. It's all-out war between President Trump's Department of Health and Human Services

and the Old Guard establishment scientific figures. Last week, Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., announcing a series of actions to end COVID-vaccine mandates, demand more studies from the vaccine companies, and an end to the emergency use authorization, which means boosters will still be widely available for seniors and high-risk groups, but no longer automatically authorized for mass use. It's the latest in a series of moves aiming to fundamentally restructure the department he says is too entrenched in bureaucracy and no longer meeting the scientific gold standard. In July, HHS announcing a substantial restructuring, consolidating and eliminating

various departments. In June, RFKJ dismissing the entire advisory committee on immunization practices, the group that develops and sets vaccine guidance for the nation, the group that failed to make clear that the vaccine had a real risk of causing myocarditis particularly in teens, even though they knew. Yeah, that group. Last week, the Trump administration also firing CDC director Susan Menares only about a month after her Senate confirmation amid a vaccine policy dispute. Menares's lawyers saying she refused to, quote, rubber stamp unscientific, reckless directives and to fire dedicated health experts. The White House citing Menares's clear refusal to implement Make America Healthy Again directives as the reason for her dismissal.

Four top-ranking CDC officials resigning in the wake of Monares's ouster, clearly trying to generate buzz and create a firestorm around RFKJ's management of HHS. Secretary Kennedy responding to the fallout on Thursday at an event in Texas. The CDC is an agency that is very troubled for a very long time. And anybody who lives with a COVID pandemic, all of these bizarre recommendations that were not science days, all the misinformation understands that the CDC has on its website today. There's a lot of trouble at CDC,

and it's going to require getting rid of some people over the long term in order for us to change the institutional culture. Dr. Dmitri Daskalakis, who when not posing for magazine covers in a leather pentagram harness, or taking R-rated pictures in BDSM wear, or lecturing us on how the proper term is pregnant people, not pregnant women, when he was not doing that, he was overseeing the vaccine recommendations program. He took to ABC over the weekend to sound the alarm about the failure to fight. follow the science.

I only see harm coming. I may be wrong. But based on what I'm seeing, based on what I've heard with the new members of the advisory committee for immunization practices or ACIP, they're really moving in an ideological direction where they want to see the undoing of vaccination. They do want to see the undoing of MRNA vaccination. They have a very specific target on COVID, but I do fear that they have other things that they are going to be working on. Nine former heads of the CDC, including Rochelle Walensky, best known for her public crying during the pandemic, and her open lamentations about how scared she was, about the impending doom we were facing if people did not take the COVID vax, writing in a New York Times op-ed yesterday, quote, what Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has done to the CDC and to our nation's public health system over the past several months. culminating in his decision to fire Dr. Susan Menares as CDC director days ago is unlike anything we have ever seen at the agency and unlike anything our country had ever experienced.

Last week, Secretary Kennedy announcing September 18th and 19th as the next meeting of the newly appointed Vaccine Advisory Committee, that committee now headed by Dr. Martin Koldorf, an expert in vaccine safety, like a real expert, and a former longtime Harvard Medical School professor who says he was fired last year over his stance on COVID vaccine mandates. Along with now NIH director Dr. J. Badacharya, Kaldorf was part of the Great Barrington Project, correctly arguing against mass lockdowns early in the pandemic, a recommendation that was correct, but for which he was attacked by Dr. Fauci and Francis Collins, who headed up the NIH, with orders that he be smeared as some sort of fringe doctor. Republican senator from

Louisiana, Bill Cassidy, whose health, education, labor, and pensions committee provides oversight of HHS, and who almost tanked the RFKJ nomination, calling for this meeting to be canceled in a statement, quote, serious allegations have been made about the meeting agenda, membership and lack of scientific process being followed for the now-announced September meeting, the meeting should not occur until significant oversight has been conducted. If the meeting proceeds, any recommendations made should be rejected as lacking legitimacy, given the seriousness of the allegations and the current turmoil in CDC leadership. President Trump, writing yesterday on True Social, quote, it is very important that the drug companies justify the success of

their various COVID drugs. Many people think they are a miracle that saved millions of lives. Others disagree. With CDC being ripped apart over this question, I want the answer and I want it now. I have been shown information from Pfizer and others that is extraordinary, but they never seem to show those results to the public. Why not? I want them to show them now to CDC and the public and clear up this mess one way or the other. I hope Operation Warp Speed was as brilliant as many say it was. If not, we all want to know about it and why. President Trump's Operation Warp Speed helped bring COVID vaccines to the market in record time, though not without controversy. Under Trump 2.0, the administration is focusing on bringing greater transparency and requiring

more transparency from the drug companies too, Big Pharma, despite the professed panic of the scientific establishment. Fed overseer Lisa Cook fighting in court this week to retain her position on the semi-independent Federal Reserve Board after President Trump fired her for cause amid multiple mortgage fraud allegations. At stake, when a president can remove a person who oversees the Federal Reserve for cause. The Fed, the body that sets interest rates for the nation, described in May by the U.S. Supreme Court as a uniquely structured quasi-private entity with a distinct historical tradition. The agency operates independently of the executive branch, though board members are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate for 14-year terms.

Ms. Cook was nominated by President Biden and narrowly confirmed her term set to expire in 2038. Last Friday, Cook's lawyer, Abby Lowell, asking Biden appointed D.C. District Court judge Gia Cobb to block Ms. Cook's removal, to declare her termination illegal and define the term for cause. Judge Cobb, not issuing a ruling on Friday, instead giving Cook's attorneys until today, to respond to a legal brief filed by the DOJ shortly before Friday's hearing. The DOJ arguing, quote, the president retains broad discretion to remove a governor for cause, even if it were subject to any judicial review,

that review would have to be highly deferential, lest it intrude into the president's constitutional authority over principal officers. The filing also noting, Cook has yet to offer any counter to the allegations against her. Indeed, we have yet to hear a denial. To the contrary, her lawyers argued, week that at least one of the allegedly fraudulent actions was merely, quote, an error, not that it didn't happen. In August, the nation's top housing finance regulator Bill Pulte

submitting two criminal referrals against Cook, alleging fraud on mortgage loan applications across three different properties, where Cook allegedly wrongly classified the purpose of the properties, potentially to secure more favorable financial terms. Cook's legal team pointing to President Trump's highly public battle with the Fed as the true motive for her firing. Attorney Lowell, also arguing the incidents occurred before her term began in 2022 and therefore somehow do not qualify as proper cause for termination. Even CNN's senior legal analyst, Ellie Honig, skeptical Cook's arguments will hold up in court. Thus far, and I find this really notable, in the briefs that have been submitted by Lisa Cook's lawyer, she was the plaintiff here. She

filed the opening brief, no explanation of what she did, how this happened. There's some reference to maybe it's a clerical error. Today, in court, Abby Lowell, very good lawyer, again, no explanation of how this happened. And the claim that this might be clerical error or just a mistake, that's not going to fly because Lisa Cook is one of the most established, accomplished financial and economic experts in this country. Who has to show what here? I think that the allegations on their face could be enough for a judge to say, look, I'm going to defer to the president on cause. For now, Cook remains on the Fed board pending a decision from the judge. A ruling in favor of the Trump administration could reshape the independence of agencies across the executive

branch. However, the Supreme Court's clarification of the Fed's unique status may throw a monkey wrench into any Trump plan to interfere with the Federal Reserve. Coming up, as President Trump clashes with Maryland Governor Westmore over crime in Baltimore, a local investigative reporter says the real problem fueling this crisis is a broken education system. That's next. So I've been talking a lot about River Bend Ranch lately because I love their stakes. River Bend Ranch has taken Black Angus beef to a whole new level. For the last 35 years, River Bend Ranch has been creating a very elite Angus herd by using ultra-ben ranch. By using ultra-Benzhoues, Sound to select genetically superior cattle with a focus on flavor and tenderness.

When you purchase from River Bend Ranch, you are not only supporting the 64 cowboys and cowgirls and their families who work on the ranch, but you're also supporting over 260 other U.S. ranches and the hundreds of American families who work on them. It's born in the USA, it's raised in the USA, it's processed in the USA. It is aged to perfection for 21 days and shipped directly from the ranch to your home. This is not your average black angus beef. So order from Riverbendranch.com, use the promo code Megan to get $20 off your first order, and let me know what you think.

Riverbendranch.com promo code Megan. A once great American city, Baltimore, now plagued by entrenched poverty, persistent violence, and failing institutions. Just last week, President Trump and Maryland Governor West Moore, a Democrat, publicly clashing over city safety, as President Trump floats the idea of mobilizing the National Guard into crime-plagued cities around the country. Donald Trump, if you are not willing to walk our communities, keep our name out of your mouth. Westmore was telling me he wants, I want to walk with the president.

Well, I said, I want to walk with you too someday. But first you've got to clean up your crime because I'm not walking in Baltimore right now. Baltimore is a hellhole. For years, Baltimore spiraling downward. with seemingly little hope for recovery. Fox 45 investigative reporter Chris Pabst says much of this is due to the failure of Baltimore City schools. Papsed uncovering widespread grade-changing and data manipulation, exposing a system where

thousands of students are unable to read, write, or do basic math, and yet are still graduating. We spoke with Pabst about his findings, chronicled in his new book called Failure Factory, how Baltimore City public schools deprived taxpayers and students of a future. So I started digging through test scores for Baltimore City. And there's about 160 schools, 165 individual schools in the city at the time. And I just made a massive spreadsheet of all of the data. I found that there were six schools in Baltimore City that did not have a single student that was proficient in any state testing, not necessarily.

math, not English. These six schools could not produce one student who could pass any state test. And at the time, Baltimore City Public Schools was the third or fourth most funded large school system in America, according to federal numbers. Following that report concerned parents and students reaching out to PAPS, saying the problem goes much deeper. In his reporting, PAPS uncovering thousands of instances of grade-changing, failing grades lifted to a passing 60%, allowing students to advance despite not meeting proficiency standards. City schools also adopting a so-called one-fail policy, meaning a student can only be held back one time before ninth grade, regardless of whether he or she meets academic

standards and regardless of whether they deserve to move on, even if desperate parents beg for their child to be held back. Pabst here explains the inverted incentives leading to such dismal outcomes. School systems prioritize data and money over everything else. The reason that these kids are getting pushed through the school system without getting the education that they need is because of the funding. Student enrollment determines funding for a school and the more kids that you have enrolled, the more money you get. So as long as these kids are passing through the school system. And they're going from grade to grade, it doesn't matter if they can read. It doesn't matter if they can do basic math. The school system is going to get the money for that kid.

That's why in Baltimore City and many other cities and school systems around the country, we are seeing a lack of education because money, the quality of education that a kid gets does not have anything to do with the amount of money the school gets. The money they school gets, it's based on enrollment and kids passing, not learning. It's about passing more students so the data looks better. Despite poor student results, Baltimore City Public Schools are among the most highly funded districts in the nation. As funding increases, outcomes are getting worse, PEP says. The school system academically is in a worse place now than it was eight years ago. But the school system financially is in a much better place.

In 2017, Baltimore City Public Schools was getting a $1.3 billion budget. In 2024, which is eight school years later, it had a $1.7 billion budget. The school system is getting $400 million more dollars than it was eight years ago. And the student outcomes are worse. The other thing is extremely important to look at is enrollment. You have 6,500 fewer students in that school system. So the school system is getting more money to educate fewer students, and the outcomes are getting worse.

Pabst finding data fudging goes beyond academics. Baltimore City schools over a 12-year period or a 10-year period saw a 98% drop in arrests. Most people would look at that, and they would say, wow, Baltimore City schools, schools is really getting safer. But we know when we look at crime data in the city, we look at murders in the city at the time when that was happening, when the drop of arrest were happening in schools, the crime in Baltimore was skyrocketing. And Baltimore City was labeled the most dangerous city in America, but there was a 98% drop in the number of kids being arrested in schools. And it was simply because the school system decided, we're not going to arrest

students anymore. Pabst contends that the crime problems facing Baltimore are directly related to the failing school system. The problem is the failing school system that the people that are coming out of the school system don't have the skills that are needed to take care of their families. That's the problem. That's what needs to be fixed. The greatest hurdle preventing systemic change? There is no public official that I'm aware of inside Baltimore City that is screaming for the school system to educate the students better. The only elected Republican in America that has any jurisdiction over Baltimore City is Donald Trump and J.D. Vance. Every other elected official in Baltimore City is a Democrat. It is one-party rule to the greatest possible extent. There is nobody who is standing

up to my knowledge, at least they're not doing it publicly, who is saying to the school system, if we're going to keep giving you $1.7 billion, you cannot have 10% of students who are proficient in math, which is the data from 2024, a $1.7 billion budget, 10% of students in the entire school system who are proficient in math. And I've spent the last eight years going to politician from politician to politician saying, do you find this acceptable? And there is simply nobody who is willing to come out publicly and demand better for the students of Baltimore City, for the parents of Baltimore City, for the taxpayers, nobody's willing to do it. The problems facing Baltimore plaguing inner city schools across the nation, Detroit, Cleveland,

Chicago, thousands of children across America failed by the public school system. Pabst identifies two immediate steps that could write the ship, not just in Baltimore, but in public schools in other failing cities. The first one is they have to increase the expectations of the students. For decades, we've been lowering the academic bar. Students will achieve the level that the adults set for them. And if the adults are setting a low bar, that's what the kids are going to achieve. you have to raise the bar. Now, in the short term, what's going to happen is you're going to have a lot more kids failing. But in the long run, those kids are going to adapt and they're going to raise their level of

education to be able to meet the standard the adults set for them. The second thing to improve the schools is you have to address the violence. You cannot learn in a school system when they are continually being disrupted by fights and disorderly kids. That has to change. We asked Baltimore Public Schools for comment on PAPS claims and have not yet heard anything back. And that'll do it for your AM update. I'm Megan Kelly. Join me back here for the Megan Kelly show. We have Ben Shapiro for the full show today, live on Sirius XM Triumph Channel 11 at noon east on YouTube.com slash Megan Kelly and on all podcast platforms.