The Megyn Kelly Show - Trump Sets GOP Agenda, DOGE Staffer Assault Arrests, Brennan Referred to DOJ: AM Update 10/22

Episode Date: October 22, 2025

President Trump hosts Republican senators for a White House lunch, touting legislative wins and outlining priorities once the government reopens. Two more teens arrested in connection with the brutal August assault and attempted carjacking of DOGE staffer Edward “Big Balls” Coristine in Washington, DC. House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan issues a new criminal referral against former CIA Director John Brennan, accusing him of lying to Congress about the Steele Dossier. Oxford Union President-Elect George Abaraonye ousted in a no-confidence vote after celebrating Charlie Kirk’s assassination on social media. Hallow: Download Hallow for free for 3 months at https://hallow.com/megyn Herald Group: Learn more at https://GuardYourCard.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Megan Kelly. It's Wednesday, October 22nd, 2025. And this is your AM update. I'll tell you, it's amazing what we've done. President Trump hosts GOP senators for lunch at the White House, celebrating legislative victories so far and looking ahead to what's next. He was then attacked by multiple suspects who then punched him repeatedly, causing significant injuries to him. two more suspects arrested in connection with the August attack on a Doge employee. Former CIA director John Brennan criminally referred to the DOJ for possible charges again. And the vile president-elect of the Oxford Union Debate Society loses a vote of no confidence following his remarks celebrating Charlie Kirk's assassination. All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM update. I'm excited to share a new partner of the show. It's called Hello, and it's the number one Christian prayer and meditation app. If you haven't heard of it, Hallow has more than 10,000 audio guided prayers to help you find peace and grow closer to God. Prayer is more important than ever. In the past month, we've seen a surge in people turning to faith. Sales of the Bible are through the roof right now. People are wanting more prayer, more church attendance, and a real spiritual revival.

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Go to hallow.com slash Megan to get three months free. That's ha-l-l-O-W.com slash Megan. President Trump hosting GOP Senators for lunch at the White House Rose Garden yesterday, celebrating legislative wins and laying out the next round of priorities once the government reopens, that is. And in a move that signals his transparency since taking office, the strategy session was broadcast for all to see. For those who have not been keeping track,

this is the third week since Congress failed to pass a spending bill, putting the government in shutdown. Republicans have repeatedly offered a continuing resolution to simply maintain current spending levels. Democrats want to add spending. Neither side is budging, round and round we go. Mr. Trump providing the senators with lunch and a pep rally of sorts. We've taken out 1,700 career criminals and people that came in through an open border.

They came in through Biden's open border. And we've taken them out. The thing having to do with all of the elements in the great big, beautiful bill, I'll tell you, it's amazing. What we've done, $200 billion in costs for medical, what we've done, $50 billion for rural, hospitals. And remember, no tax on tips, no tax on social security. Mr. Trump also congratulating Senate Majority Leader John Thune for pushing through a wave of nominees for posts in his administration, made possible by a recent rule change, allowing lower-level nominees like ambassadors, general councils, and undersecretaries, to be approved in bulk, clearing a significant backlog.

And after your pivotal changes to the Senate rules last month, As a result, this is what you did, the unprecedented obstruction by the Democrats. We've confirmed more than 175 public servants, people that are phenomenal to keyposts, and that's just been over the last couple of weeks. It's an unbelievable thing, and you pass the Lake and Riley Act to throw illegal alien criminals out of our country. You pass the Genius Act and the Take It Down Act with the support of our wonderful first lady. She got, by the way, she got actual support from the other side.

It was bipartisan. President Trump calling on Republicans to next pass Kate's law, named after Kate Steinley, a 32-year-old woman killed in 2015 while walking with her father in San Francisco. She was shot by an illegal immigrant who had been deported from the U.S. five times. President Trump and many others outraged in 2017 when a San Francisco jury found him not guilty of murder. after defense lawyers argued the shooting was unintentional. Another one I'm going to ask you to vote for, and it's in the house now, it's Kate's law, a young lady named Kate Steinler, I remembered so well.

She was holding hands with a father on the San Francisco pier looking out into the water. It's beautiful, everything was beautiful. And she went down and she looked at her father, daddy, daddy, something happened, something happened. It was so sad, such a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful person. They wanted to pass what they call Kate's law, and it's now again in Congress. And basically, very simply, it says that if you're an illegal alien and you come in and you get thrown out, if you come back and get caught, you have to spend 10 years in jail.

Very simple. If they would have had that, Kate Steinley would be alive today. With midterm elections just about a year away now, the president's message on that, a mix of confidence and caution, warning the senators that even with this success, History is rarely on the incumbent party's side. We should do fantastically well in the midterm. The only thing wrong with the midterms is that statistically, when you look, a president gets elected, and for some reason, and nobody, even the great John Thune, cannot explain to me,

for a summary, even if he's a reasonably good president, and we've had success like nobody, but for some reason, you lose the midterms. I don't know why. I mean, the odds are tremendously against, like, 92% percent. or something. I don't know what it is, but we have to win the midterms. Otherwise, all of the things that we've done, so many of them are going to be taken away by the radical left lunatic. Midterm elections set for November 3, 26. Two more young adults arrested and charged with the August attempted carjacking, robbery, and

beating of Doge employee Edward Corristine, known affectionately as big balls in D.C. U.S. Attorney for D.C., Janine Piro on Monday announcing the arrest of 19-year-old Lawrence Cotton Powell and 18-year-old Anthony Taylor for their alleged role in the attempted carjacking of Khoristine, and a separate robbery that occurred just minutes before. According to Piro, the teens, among a larger group of friends that night, approaching 22-year-old Ethan Levine just before 3 a.m. outside of a gas station, attacking him. Cotton Powell and Taylor both charged with assaulting Levine. Cotton Powell accused of stomping on Levine's head, the group robbing him of his sneakers and

his watch before taking off down the street. Ms. Piro describing what happened next. The group then walked in the direction of where another crime occurred. Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old Doge person who was working in the administration, was walking a young woman to her car. approximately 10 suspects approached him and as they did he pushed the young woman into the car and he was protecting her from the group before he was then attacked by multiple suspects who then punched him repeatedly causing significant injuries to him they got him on the ground and as they were doing so they demanded the car from the woman who was inside the car and it already locked the car. They were banging on the car. They were pulling the car door, trying to get

the car open, and were telling the woman in the car to hand over the keys. And the woman was, as I said, able to lock the car door so they were unable to gain entry. The investigation into the gas station assault, eventually connecting Cotton Powell and Taylor to that attack. Piro holding up Cotton Powell as a case study in the failure of the D.C. City Council's Soft on Juvenile crime laws and the judges refusing to demand accountability. On April 3rd of this year, Lawrence Cotton Powell was sentenced for a felony attempted robbery. My office asked for jail time. Judge McLean made a decision to give Cotton Powell probation. By May 4th, Powell re-offense. That same Judge McLean comes back and releases Cotton Powell

and tells him basically be a good boy. And on July 25th, another judge to suspend his sentence and decides that he should be on probation. So after a felony of attempted robbery conviction, after a violation of probation, after a second crime, after a second conviction, after no compliance with Csosa, the judges say do better and they let him go. Guess what? Within 10 days, he's added again with Ethan Levine and Edward Koresstein. Unbelievable. Juvenile crime exploding in D.C., the Washington Post reporting teens are responsible for about half of all robbery arrests, with about 60% of all carjacking arrests from January to April of this year committed by teens. Under D.C.'s Youth Rehabilitation Act, criminal defendants under the age of 25 can potentially,

petitioned the court to be tried as a juvenile. Last week, two other teenagers involved in the Khoristine attack, pleading guilty to simple assault charges. The 15-year-old male and female sentenced by a D.C. court judge to probation. Biden appointed Judge Kendra Briggs, telling the criminal duo she really hopes they learn from this experience. Piro slamming the D.C. Council and judges assigning them some blame in allowing the violence to continue. And you've got the D.C. Council that past laws that make it almost impossible to sentence young offenders. And one of the defendants in this case, who was convicted of a felony, my office asked for jail time, the judge gave him probation.

So this revolving door is apparently the common scenario in D.C. And we are fighting, fighting to make these young people accountable and also to make judges accountable. Then we've got young offenders who are absolutely convinced that they can commit these crimes and get away with it because they have. We are covering and coddling these young criminals and they are going out in gangs or crews in D.C. and beating the hell out of people.

And judges are basically saying, oh, be better next time. This is not the way the government should be run. Cotton Powell and Taylor charged with two counts of robbery and assault with intent to commit robbery. Those crimes carry up to 15 years per count. They also face an attempted carjacking charge, which carries a reported maximum.

of five years in prison, though if recent history is any guide, they're more likely to be sentenced to a slap on the wrist. The pair of defendants do in court in early November for a preliminary hearing. Coming up, former President Obama's CIA director John Brennan referred to the DOJ for a criminal investigation accused of lying to Congress regarding the widely debunked Steele dossier. And the Oxford Union Debate Society's president-elect loses a no-confidence vote following vicious remarks made in the wake of Charlie Kirk's assassination. As President Trump is settling into his new administration, one of the top Democrats in Congress aiming to undermine the Trump agenda is Democrat Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois.

And according to our sponsor, the Electronic Payments Coalition, Senator Durbin has a new plan, a government takeover of your credit card. Today, Americans have thousands of choices. and credit cards, but they say Senator Durbin's plan will result in less competition and less security, which means more risk for your credit and your identity. You can learn more for yourself at guard your card.com. And you could consider telling your senators to stop Dick Durbin's government takeover of your credit card before it's too late. Former CIA director under President Obama, John Brennan, referred to the DOJ for investigation into whether criminal charges are appropriate by House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan. He's accused of

making false statements to Congress. Chairman Jordan, accusing Brennan of lying when he denied that the CIA relied on the steel dossier, a Clinton-funded piece of APO research, while crafting the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment or ICA in the waning days of the Obama White House. That document produced at President Obama's request stating Russia, quote, developed a clear preference for Donald Trump and, quote, aspired to help him win the 2016 election, neither of which is actually supported by the available intel at the time. The ICA becoming the basis for years of frenzied reporting, eventually leading to the Mueller probe and years of congressional investigations.

Chairman Jordan's letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi citing multiple allegedly false statements by Director Brennan, stemming from a May 23 transcribed interview before the Judiciary Committee, originally relating to the Hunter Biden laptop probe. Congressman Matt Gates pressing Brennan on his Russian disinformation expertise, quote, you were involved with analyzing the steel dossier. Brennan responding, quote, no, I was not involved in analyzing the dossier at all. I said the first time I actually saw it, it was after the election. And the CIA was not involved at all with the dossier.

It was in the FBI's purview, their area, not ours at all. We learned this summer from newly declassified documents that senior CIA intel officials objected to referencing the Steele dossier at all in the Intel Community Assessment, citing its serious credibility problems. Director Brennan overruled them, allegedly saying, yes, but doesn't it ring true? Chairman Jordan also citing a later exchange in which Brennan testified, quote, the CIA was very much opposed to having any reference or inclusion of the steel dossier in the intelligence community assessment. That's true if you don't count the opinions of the CIA's

director, Mr. Brennan, a rather material exclusion. Jordan writing, quote, ultimately, according to documents declassified by the Trump administration, the decision to incorporate information from the steel dossier in the ICA was jointly made by the directors of CIA and FBI. Brennan made the ultimate decision, along with then FBI director James Comey, to include information from the dossier in the ICA, and Brennan overruled senior CIA officers who objected to the inclusion of the dossier material. Brennan is reportedly already under FBI investigation following a criminal referral from current CIA director John Ratcliffe, also relating to the 2016 Trump-Russia collusion narrative. Mr. Brennan has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

Oxford Union, President-elect George Aberronier, fails a no-confidence vote following comments he made celebrating Charlie Kirk's assassination during a September campus event. The Oxford Union is one of the world's oldest and most respected student societies at the University of Oxford in England, known for championing free speech and hosting spirited discussions on politics, culture, and current affairs, which is why many were shocked and disgusted when the the president-elect immediately celebrated the September assassination of the free speech icon Charlie Kirk with a comment on Instagram, quote, Charlie Kirk got shot, L-O-L. And another on WhatsApp, quote, Charlie Kirk got shot. Let's effing go. Aberronier himself debated Kirk just a few months before, a moment of that here. And what is your solution to bring about male happiness in the West? Mine is men get married, have children, and provide. What is yours?

That's a big question. I think an affirmation of their emotions, their emotional states. We've tried that. I think men are free to live single, men are free to be in gay relationships. I mean, respectfully, you're scrambling for an excuse to get away from the truth that's right in front of you. Maybe men should get married and have children. Because it's worked for 2,000 years. Charlie wiped the floor with him respectfully but devastatingly,

and this small little man couldn't get paid. past it. The union initially releasing a milk-toast statement condemning the comments last month, quote, the reported words and sentiments expressed by the president-elect do not represent the Oxford Union's current leadership or committee's view. That's it? Those are the best sentiments a debating society could find? Aberronier elected president of the society in June, but not set to take office until 2026. Oxford College announcing no disciplinary action would be taken against Aberronier, calling the comments, quote, abhorrent, but stating they do not violate policies on free speech, quote, or any other relevant policy. Is there one

requiring you to be like a decent human being? In a separate statement, the union more forcefully sticking up for Aberronier, who is black, quote, we are deeply disturbed by and strongly condemn the racial abuse and threats that the president-elect has faced in response. No individual should ever be attacked because of the color of their skin or the community they come from. Following pressure from prominent U.S. lawmakers, including Senator Ted Cruz, former union leaders and more, the union then releasing yet another statement, days after Charlie's murder, saying they do not, quote, possess executive powers to summarily dismiss a president-elect. However, the complaints filed against the president-elect have been forwarded for disciplinary proceedings

and will be addressed with the utmost seriousness. After a protracted dispute over procedural issues, the vote of no confidence against Aberronier passing on Monday, the final tally 1228 in favor of his ouster versus 501 against. Aberronier is contesting the results, claiming he is still president-elect. Okay, Stacey Abrams. The timeline on next steps, not yet clear. 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 noon east on YouTube.com slash Megan Kelly and on all podcast platforms.