Berlin Islamic Terror Suspect Killed, Troy Jackson’s Abortion Shift, Trump Does WHCD: AM Update 7/27

0:00What if upgrading your windows and doors didn't mean tightening your budget? Scratch that. What if it meant spending nothing today? For a limited time, Renewal by Anderson is offering no money down, no monthly payments, and no interest for 18 months on a minimum of six. That means beautiful, energy-efficient windows and doors while the payments wait. Visit RenewalByAndersonHome.com today and see how easy it is to buy now and pay later. Good morning, everyone. I'm Megan Kelly. It's Monday, July 27th, 2026. And this is your AM Update. We will not allow our way of life and our way of living together to be taken from us.

0:45A known Islamist accused of carrying out a deadly attack near Berlin's Pride celebration, despite already being on authorities' radar. Mainers just can't trust Troy Jackson on abortion. He earned a 100 % rating for Maine Right to Life. Maine Democrats replacing Graham Plattner with longtime party insider Troy Jackson as the new nominee's own abortion record threatens to complicate this campaign against incumbent Republican Senator Susan Collins. Paper dolls with interchangeable genitalia reportedly coming this fall to Minnesota educators and clinicians working with very young children. And President Trump returning for a do-over White House Correspondents Dinner after an armed attack forced the original event to be called off.

1:33All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM Update.

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2:21So you see what's covered and what's not plus a business value calculator. So you can estimate what your business is worth and know what actually needs protecting. Go to supersure.com slash Megan, one super agency, one powerful platform, all your policies in one place. Go to supersure.com slash Megan paid for by supersure insurance agency, LLC, a licensed insurance agency. The suspected Islamist behind Saturday night's deadly attack near Berlin's Pride celebration shot and killed by police Sunday evening, ending a nearly 24-hour manhunt across the German capital. 21-year-old Abdul Balut, a German-born citizen of Lebanese descent, accused of using a rental van and machete to kill one person and injure 29 others in Berlin's Tiergarten Park.

3:11The attack unfolding shortly before 10 p.m. Saturday as the city's Pride Parade and Festival, known as Christopher Street Day, was wrapping up near the historic Brandenburg Gate. Authorities emphasizing the attack did not occur inside the festival, along the parade route, or at its closing party, instead taking place several hundred yards away on a path through the sprawling park. Police say the white van plowed through a group believed to include both Pride Parade attendees and other people visiting the park before smashing into a tree. Some of the victims also suffering wounds from what investigators describe as a, quote, bladed weapon, raising questions about whether Balut carried out the attack alone or had help from others who fled after the van crashed.

3:56Witness Eric Muller describing to Sky News the fear and confusion spreading through the nearby crowds as conflicting accounts raced across the festival grounds. We go to the main station, directly to the main station, and then we saw a big crowd of people come towards us. And at first, we didn't know what happened. We thought maybe the main stage is closed. We saw many faces, sad faces, crying faces. Saw those people crying, running away. I was shocked. So we hear everything. We hear, yeah, there are two cars. There are three persons. and they're naive with a man. And we hear so many information and we don't know what is right, what is wrong.

4:41So it was a really, really crazy time. Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner addressing the city amid early suspicions of an Islamist terror attack. We will not allow our way of life and our way of living together to be taken from us. Reuters reporting more than 2 ,200 officers were deployed across Berlin to protect the Pride festivities, a BBC journalist describing the response at the scene. So this is a massive police response. They have shut down basically the entire park area where this happened in central Berlin, known as the Tiergarten. This is a huge park, similar to Central Park in New York or Hyde Park in London.

5:27It's just right outside the medieval walls of the old Berlin, the former hunting grounds of the Kaiser. This is a very large area right near the Brandenburg Gate for people who know Berlin. So, you know, this is a very intense police response. Nobody is getting in or out at the moment. The manhunt ending around 6 p.m. Sunday evening. Authorities locating Balut in a community garden area in western Berlin. Police say Balut charged towards officers carrying a bladed weapon, prompting them to open fire. Emergency crews attempting to revive him before declaring him dead at the scene. The German-born citizen of Lebanese descent, previously traveling to Lebanon in 2025 while allegedly attempting to reach Syria and join ISIS.

6:20Prosecutors say Balut made contact with people he believed were members of the terror organization before Lebanese authorities arrested him and a military court sentenced him to three months behind bars. German authorities arresting him again after his return to Berlin in November 2025, eventually charging him with preparing a serious act of subversive violence and distributing ISIS propaganda online. Ballut convicted in a juvenile court in May, given a suspended sentence of one year and 10 months after a court concluded he appeared to have distanced himself from the terror group, according to the Associated Press.

6:59CBS News reporting police searched his Berlin apartment on July 3rd over a possible weapons violation, leaving after finding only a toy gun and closing the case. The attack renewing scrutiny of Germany's ability to contain known extremists, following a string of deadly vehicle attacks across the country. International terrorism expert Raphael Bassang, speaking to German outlet DW News, saying these attacks are part of a familiar pattern. I mean, this is about the eighth or ninth attack of this kind in Europe also more broadly. Unfortunately, this kind of improvised method of vehicle ramings is something that has well been a successful strategy ever since the attack in Nice many, many years ago and also 10 years ago, I mean 2013 and 2016 then in Berlin.

7:50I don't want to sound cynical here, but thank goodness this was only a sort of normal car and not like a large lorry as we had 10 years ago. And the Islamic State early on always asked its followers to take any measure possible, improvised attacks, knives, cars, anything they can get their hands on. Despite members of the gay community apparently being targeted in an Islamic terror attack, organizers warning yesterday against using the violence to fuel a broader backlash against Muslims or immigrants. We do not want this deed to be instrumentalized for political ends. We don't want any groups to be placed under suspicion for this.

8:35People are trying to divide our society and set some people against others. As a CSD in Berlin, we will not allow this. Maine Democrats officially selecting former state Senate President Troy Jackson as their new candidate to challenge Republican incumbent Senator Susan Collins in November. Jackson winning the Senate nomination by a vote of 566 to 5 Saturday at a hastily organized party convention. The longtime state lawmaker and fifth-generation logger replacing Graham Plattner, who withdrew from the race after facing multiple sexual assault allegations, allegations he denies. Jackson now trying to win over the grassroots activists who had rallied behind Plattner's lightning rod campaign.

9:20This is the absolute honor of my life to accept the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate. There is a place in this campaign for all of you. There is work for you in this movement, and I will spend every day now through November earning that trust, because today we turn the page. Today, this becomes a general election campaign, And today we win the work of defeating Susan Collins in November. The main Democrat party expected to submit Jackson's nomination to Secretary of State Shanna Bellows when her office opens today. Jackson will then formally be running in one of the country's most closely watched Senate contests, with Democrats viewing Collins' seat as critical to their chances of regaining the majority.

10:09In his Saturday acceptance speech, Jackson outlining his platform. I am running to pass Medicare for all to take on corporate price gouging and build housing that folks in the state can actually afford.

10:25And I'm running to protect Social Security and Medicare. They are not going to touch that.

10:34And give every worker the freedom to organize a union without intimidation or retaliation.

10:45And I will fight to restore abortion rights nationwide.

10:54I'm going to stand shoulder to shoulder with our LGBTQ mainers.

11:03And stand up to Donald Trump and ICE when they attack our workers, terrorize our neighbors, and threaten the freedoms generations of us fought to secure. Jackson now campaigning on a conventional progressive platform, despite facing years of criticism from the left over positions he held earlier in his political career. CNN uncovering candidate questionnaires from 2004 and 2010, showing Jackson once took a sweeping anti-abortion position. Jackson reportedly responding to a 2010 survey at the time he was 42 years old that abortion should never be legal, declining to select exceptions involving rape, incest, fetal disability, or to protect the mother's health.

11:47The questionnaire also recording Jackson's support for requiring women seeking abortions to receive information about the procedure's risks, available alternatives, fetal development, and fetal pain, along with viewing a fetal monitor or ultrasound before proceeding. Jackson's position shifting substantially over the following decade, eventually supporting the creation of a federal right to abortion and earning perfect ratings from Planned Parenthood beginning in 2017 when he was 49. By the time he was Maine Senate president in 2023 at age 55, Jackson was co-sponsoring one of the most extreme abortion laws in the country, allowing the procedure after fetal viability whenever a physician determines it necessary.

12:30Questions about the sincerity and timing of his evolution surfacing earlier this year during Jackson's unsuccessful campaign for the Democrat nomination for governor. A profile published as recently as 2022 in local outlet Maine Public reporting that Jackson had come fully around on same-sex marriage but pointing out he, quote, admits to struggling with abortion. 314 Action Fund, a Democrat PAC supporting his then primary opponent, later using that admission to attack Troy Jackson.

13:22after Roe v. Wade was overturned. Troy Jackson checked the record. Extremely wrong for Maine. Jackson denouncing the ad as false at the time, pointing to what he called his, quote, sterling abortion rights record over the previous decade. CNN noting Jackson's positions during his first decade in office, however, were substantially more restrictive than even Senator Collins' stated views. The long-term Republican senator identifying as an abortion rights supporter, backing bipartisan efforts to codify Roe and calling the decision overturning it, quote, ill-considered. The election now just 99 days away, a University of New Hampshire poll last week finding Jackson with a slight lead at 49 percent compared to Senator Collins' 46.

14:11Coming up, dolls with removable, interchangeable genitalia reportedly coming to Minnesota of professionals working with children as young as four. And President Trump roasting the press and members of his own cabinet during his first uninterrupted appearance as president at the White House Correspondents' Dinner.

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16:16They are set to be made available in some Minnesota classrooms this fall for children ages 4 to 10 years old, according to the Post. The dolls reportedly feature gender-neutral names like Sam, Rory, Avery, and Parker, along with removable internal and external genitalia and more than 100 interchangeable outfits, hairstyles, and accessories. The company promising to, quote, make gender fun while marketing the dolls to mental health providers, pediatricians, school counselors, and educators on its website. The project reportedly originating inside the University of Minnesota Medical School's Institute for Sexual and Gender Health.

16:59Two medical school professors later turning the research project into a commercial venture, including associate professor Diane Berg, a licensed psychologist and co-founder of the My Gender Dolls. Berg, defending the project in a now-deleted article published by the University of Minnesota Foundation's Discovery Magazine, quote, It's really important to address the belief, I'm not a real boy because I don't have these private parts, versus I am a real boy, whatever my anatomy looks like. The Post reporting the university's medical school receives$15 million a year from the state to expand its research capacity, while its Institute for Sexual and Gender Health reportedly operates with a roughly$1.4 million research budget.

17:44It remains unclear whether parents will be notified or allowed to keep their children from participating when the dolls are used in schools. Democrat Governor of Minnesota Tim Walz has yet to comment on the program, but there's little doubt he's likely in favor, given he was the one to declare Minnesota a refuge for so-called trans kids from other states seeking gender surgery over their parents' objections. President Trump appearing at the White House Correspondents Association dinner on Friday night after skipping the event throughout both of his terms until this year. The gathering serving as a scaled-down replacement for the April dinner, which was postponed after an armed man charged toward the venue opening fire before being taken into custody.

18:3031-year-old Cole Thomas Allen is charged with attempting to assassinate the President of the United States, among other charges and faces up to life in prison if convicted. He has pleaded not guilty. Mr. Trump spending roughly an hour at the lectern Friday repeatedly acknowledging the muted response from a ballroom dominated by reporters and media executives deeply hostile to him. The president on several occasions referencing the security breach that derailed the original dinner, including a joke about members of the press refusing bulletproof vests because They would rather die than look 20 pounds heavier.

19:05Mr. Trump also working rapper turned ally Nicki Minaj into his retelling of the panic that followed the gunfire. But after hearing the gunshots, many people yelled, get down, get down, which caused Nicki Minaj to start twerking. Do you believe? Get down. She's the only one that really understood what that meant.

19:32It's quite an evening. But tonight we come back together to answer that heinous attack with unwavering resolve. And every one of us here this evening to show that in America, we do not yield to political violence. We don't. We can't do that. Can't do it. Mr. Trump also taking aim at members of his own administration. I hope that everyone finally got to enjoy their entire very delicious beef tenderloin, very special beef. And I want you all to know that Bobby Kennedy is right here, personally ran over the cow in his car.

20:18And he cut it up and he brought it here for you to eat tonight, so it's very fresh. And Bobby also suggested an appetizer featuring his favorite cut of male raccoon roadkill. But we drew the line at that, Cheryl. We said, no, we're not going to do that. We're not doing that. We love Bobby. I tell you, he's a piece of work. You think it's it is fun, but he is a very different kind of a person. I will tell you. The president closing by saying he plans to return next year, unless that is the press spends the coming months being, quote, really, really nasty. More on this later today on the MK Show.

21:00And that'll do it for your AM update. I'm Megan Kelly. Join me back here for the Megan Kelly Show, live on SiriusXM's The Megan Kelly Channel, 111 at noon east, on youtube.com slash Megan Kelly, and on all podcast platforms.

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