Biden Doc Pleads the 5th, Former Intel Chiefs Probed, China-Owned Farmland Crackdown: AM Update 7/10

0:00Hey, Chicagoland, the Wayfair store is in your neighborhood at Edens Plaza and Wilmette. Finally, you can feel the fabric, sit on the sectionals, and even open the refrigerators. Plus, our in-store designers will help you bring it all together with free one-on-one design support for any project on any budget. Yep, we said free. Oh, and did we mention the cafe? So what are you waiting for? Come see all that's in store. Visit the Wayfair store today at Edens Plaza and Wilmette. Wayfair, every style, every home. Good morning, everyone. I'm Megan Kelly. It's Thursday, July 10th, 2025. And this is your AM update.

0:39This is unprecedented. And I think that this adds more fuel to the fire that there was a cover up. President Biden's White House doctor invoking the Fifth Amendment in the House Oversight Committee's probe into the potentially criminal cover up of Mr. Biden's cognitive decline. Former Obama CIA Director John Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey facing a criminal investigation in relation to the Russia collusion story. We have adversaries that are buying our land, especially the People's Republic of China. And the Trump administration's plan to crack down on Chinese-owned U.S. farmland and the threat that ownership poses to national security.

1:18All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM Update.

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2:49President Joe Biden's White House physician, Dr. Kevin O 'Connor, on Wednesday, declining to answer questions in a House Oversight Committee probe into a possible cover-up of President Biden's cognitive decline by White House staffers. In a February 2024 medical exam, Dr. O 'Connor describing President Biden as, quote, a healthy, active, robust 81-year-old male who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency. Dr. O 'Connor departing Capitol Hill after a brief meeting with the House Oversight Committee in which the doctor invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to answer questions and potentially incriminate himself.

3:26The meeting compelled by subpoena after Dr. O 'Connor in June refused to sit for a transcribed interview. The doctor's legal team releasing a statement on his behalf, citing doctor-patient confidentiality and a supposed pending DOJ criminal investigation as grounds for declining to answer the committee's questions. In early June, President Trump directing the council to the president in consultation with Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate, quote, whether certain individuals conspired to deceive the public about Biden's mental state and unconstitutionally exercised the authorities and responsibilities of the president.

4:02Whether the DOJ has formally opened an investigation remains unclear. Oversight Chairman Congressman James Comer speaking to reporters moments after the meeting. I'm going to read the first two questions that were asked. Were you ever told to lie about the president's health? He pleaded the Fifth Amendment. He would not answer that question. The second question, did you ever believe President Biden was unfit to execute his duties? Again, President Biden's White House position pleaded the Fifth Amendment. This is unprecedented. And I think that this adds more fuel to the fire, that there was a cover up.

4:42We're going to continue this investigation. We'll move forward. We have several other witnesses that are going to come in for depositions and transcribed interviews. On Wednesday, Next Up host Mark Halperin reacting on The Megyn Kelly Show. I don't know, as I said before, I don't know what crime he might be guilty of. But I do know that he's abusing the public trust. And after four years of participating in the cover-up and arguably the central figure, because he is a doctor and he does have a responsibility both to his patient and the public interest, I just think it's hard to me to see how he's going to sustain this unless the cover-up was even more insidious than we knew it to be.

5:23In other words, one thing that hasn't been acknowledged by anybody on the inside, and he'd be considered on the inside, is that they knew how bad it was and they covered it up. Their premise is we didn't really know if it went that far. Again, I don't know that that's a crime, but it's a political crime and it's a policy crime. And it's a it's an irresponsible action for a doctor who's supposed to have an obligation to the American people to have done. Fox News reporting Tuesday evening, the DOJ is investigating former CIA director John Brennan and former FBI director James Comey. Sources saying the Brennan investigation includes allegedly making false statements to Congress in relation to the Trump-Russia collusion probe.

6:06Those DOJ sources declining to share specifics of the Comey investigation, but revealing a bit more on the Brennan one. The criminal referral of former Director Brennan, made by current CIA Director John Ratcliffe, coming after the release of a CIA review last week pertaining to the intel community's assessment regarding potential Russian interference in the 2016 election. President Trump's first term hamstrung by accusations of collusion between the Trump 2016 campaign and Russian President Vladimir Putin to influence the election. Those claims later debunked by multiple investigations. The assessment ordered in the waning days of President Obama's administration, concluding in part that President Putin, quote, aspired to help then-candidate Trump win the election.

6:53The review ordered this past May by Ratcliffe finding multiple anomalies with Brennan and others' work, including, quote, excessive involvement of agency heads who created, quote, a politically charged environment that triggered an atypical analytic process. Those same agency heads forcing inclusion of the now debunked Steele dossier in the Intel Assessments Annex, which the main report referenced, thus, finds Ratcliffe implicitly elevating unsubstantiated claims over the objections of the two senior CIA leaders responsible for Russian intelligence. Those agents warning the information in the dossier, including salacious allegations involving Mr.

7:35Trump and Russian prostitutes, did not meet, quote, even the most basic tradecraft standards. Ratcliffe revealing that the CIA deputy director for analysis had warned Brennan in an email on December 29th, 2016, that including the Steele dossier in any form risked, quote, the credibility of the entire paper. Director Brennan ultimately stating, quote, my bottom line is that I believe that the information warrants inclusion in the report. Months later, in a May 2017 House hearing, former Director Brennan testifying that the CIA did not rely on the dossier. You know, if the Bureau ever relied on the Steele dossier as any, as part of any court filings, applications, petitions, pleadings?

8:21I have no awareness. Did the CIA rely on it? No. Why not? Because we didn't. It wasn't part of the corpus of intelligence information that we had. It was not in any way used as a basis for the intelligence community assessment that was done. It was not. In May 2023, former Director Brennan testifying to Congress, the CIA was very much opposed to having any reference or inclusion of the Steele dossier in the intelligence community assessment, but it was included in the annex and referred to in the main report. Ratcliffe explains why, quote, when confronted with specific flaws in the dossier by the two mission center leaders, one with extensive operational experience and the other with a strong analytic background, Brennan appeared more swayed by the dossier's general conformity with existing theories than by legitimate tradecraft concerns.

9:14Fox reporting, quote, the full scope of the criminal investigations into Brennan and Comey is unclear, but two sources describe the FBI's view of the duo's interactions as a conspiracy, which could open up a wide range of potential prosecutorial options. Coming up, what's up with the Chinese buying up so much U.S. farmland? The Trump administration says that's about to stop.

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10:19You'll get a free consultation, and if you qualify, they may even be able to reduce or eliminate what you owe. More importantly, they will help protect you from wage garnishments or bank levies. So don't wait for the next IRS letter. Call 800-958-1000 or visit tnusa.com slash Megan to talk to a real expert at Tax Network USA. Take the pressure off. Let Tax Network USA handle your tax issues. On Tuesday, Agricultural Secretary Brooke Rollins, joined by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Attorney General Pam Bondi, counselor to the president Peter Navarro and several state governors, announcing a comprehensive plan to protect U.S.

11:04farmland and food supply from foreign adversaries. American agriculture is not just about feeding our families, but about protecting our nation and standing up to foreign adversaries who are buying our farmland, stealing our research, and creating dangerous vulnerabilities in the very systems that sustain us. No longer can foreign adversaries assume we're not watching and we're not paying attention and we're not doing something about it because we are. Our National Security Division is actively monitoring foreign threats to American agriculture. FBI has opened over 100 bio-smuggling investigations in recent years.

11:41We will prosecute you. We will hold you accountable. It is a national security issue when a country cannot provide for itself, and we will never let any other country control our food supply or control our people. The United States is no longer going to tolerate the attacks on our agricultural system, not just the land, but the supply chain as well. Key elements of the Seven Point Plan include emphasizing the strategic importance of agriculture and a ban on farmland sales to Chinese nationals and other foreign adversaries. In recent years, foreign-owned U.S. farmland sparking concerns over spying, sabotage risks near military installations, and agricultural intellectual property theft.

12:24Secretary Rollins saying more than 265 ,000 acres in the U.S. are owned by Chinese nationals. We spoke to the director of America First Policy Institute's China Policy Initiative, Adam Savitt, about the national security concerns posed by Chinese-owned U.S. farmland. He says this initiative is long overdue. Well, this announcement by Secretary Rollins was really nothing short of revolutionary. And that's because nothing has been done on this issue at the federal level for decades. There was a reporting mechanism put in way back in 1978. It's called AFIDA. And this is requiring the USDA to put out a report every year which records the foreign purchases of agricultural land.

13:09Now, that's all foreign purchases. Now, for example, there's no issue with allied countries owning foreign land. The Canadians own a lot of timberland, for example. This was put into place, again, in the 70s to keep track of this foreign ownership. But the thing is, it is not up to date for the modern era when we have adversaries that are buying our land, especially the People's Republic of China, of course, ruled by the Chinese Communist Party, the CCP. And while they do not have a huge amount of land in acreage per se, of course, as they're an adversary country, they have the potential to use all of the land that they do own for surveillance and sabotage.

13:48And again, compared to a country like Canada, which is the top ownership of foreign land, it's actually not that much. But it is a whole lot when you're talking about a place to station drones, a place to have listening posts, a place to station CCP agents that go and scout military bases and other functions that they can do right under our nose because they have a platform right here in the United States, agricultural land. In June 2024, the New York Post identifying 19 U.S. military bases located in close proximity to land bought up by Chinese entities. Savitt says some of these land purchases may seem harmless because they're in remote locations, but they could pose very serious threats to national security.

14:32To talk about the military installations more, people think that these purchases are innocuous, like, you know, they're outside of cities, so they're sort of beyond most people's view. But these purchases are one of the earliest ones that came to national attention in 2019 was a purchase of 10 ,000 acres of designated agricultural land on the Texas-Mexico border. This was near Lachlan Air Force Base. A Chinese billionaire came in and was trying to purchase this land, which he would turn into a wind farm, which would also be connected to the Texas power grids where he could potentially use nefarious means to, let's say, overload that grid or in other ways interfere with it.

15:13Again, also near flight paths near this Air Force Base, which can be monitored. So here's this huge swath of land in the middle of nowhere, essentially. No one really lives by. So this goes under the radar. Another high profile case, Fufang bought an agricultural processing plant other side of the country up in North Dakota. This was in a few miles of Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota. This is where our B-1 bomber fleet, or at least part of it, our B-1 strategic bombers are based. This would give them a perch for surveillance and sabotage very close to this Air Force Base. On Tuesday, Secretary Rollins also announcing she will join the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S.

15:56Savitt explains why this move is critical. Now, to go to the federal level and who's supposed to be protecting us from this? No, this is a bureaucracy in D.C. It's called CFIUS, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. CFIUS. Until now, it has not involved the Secretary of Agriculture because this has gone under the radar. People didn't perceive agriculture as a security threat. One big part of the announcement yesterday that Secretary Rollins made is that she has now been designated as a member of CFIUS, this board. CFIUS is across the board surveying incoming purchases from foreign countries which may affect national security.

16:34Now that agriculture in the person of Secretary Rawlins will be sitting on Sipius, when an agricultural case comes in, when there's an inbound purchase of land by an adversarial country like China, agriculture will be able to sit on that decision, will be able to inform that decision. That's an important modifier that happened with this announcement. Savitt says the threats posed by Chinese-owned U.S. farmland go far beyond spying on U.S. military bases. Chinese entities are increasingly gaining access to America's agricultural data and proprietary technology, though not through espionage, but through business acquisitions of agricultural companies operating inside America.

17:14Now, many of these are overtly, you know, directly listed, or if you look into it, if you look just barely beneath the surface, these are state-owned enterprises of the Chinese government. One of those is called Syngenta. That That is an agrochemical company. It used to be a Swiss owned company. It was acquired by the PRC in the 2010s. A lot of farmers rely on this. It's a multibillion dollar company. It provides chemicals, pesticides, seed technologies, things that, you know, people who are not in the ag industry like me, we don't think about this. Right. But this is essential to what these farmers do.

17:52They need seeds that are adept to their type of soil. They need seeds that are adapting to their environment and their crop needs. So a lot of these farmers are used to this name, Syngenta, right? And they trust this name for decades. A Chinese company called ChemChina acquires Syngenta. And then the Chinese government has full access to this technology that they're developing, the data that they collect, access to the land. In this case, we're actually talking about intellectual property theft. And so in that way, it kind of goes under the radar. In other cases, it is subsidiaries. It is hidden, you know, shell companies four and five steps down where, yes, it has it has an English sounding name.

18:34And you would have no idea that there was a Chinese interest four or five rungs up the ladder. That is either a state owned enterprise or it's related to the state. Now, here's an important thing that the listeners need to know is that no company of any size or any importance in China is not tied in some way to the CCP. As for clawing back land already owned by foreign adversaries, Savitt says the states will need to lead the way. This is a very difficult question. This comes down to state law. The states have been doing, I should mention, the states have been doing amazing work while the federal government was getting its act in order.

19:12and now finally has some sort of an ordered plan here under the Trump administration. The states were doing this good work. Dozens of states were sort of really, I would call it, experimenting with laws because agricultural sectors differ state to state. Property law differs state to state. But I mentioned Arkansas put in a law that they enforced and pushed out Syngenta. So they, under their state law, they were able to eject Syngenta and also penalize them with a monetary value. But again, state by state, this gets very sticky as far as ownership and how to rescind that ownership. Political reporting in April, quote, more than two thirds of states, primarily controlled by Republicans, have enacted or are considering laws limiting or barring foreign ownership of land.

20:00And that'll do it for your AM update. I'm Megan Kelly. Join me back here for The Megyn Kelly Show, live on SiriusXM Triumph Channel 111 at noon east, on youtube.com slash Megyn Kelly, and on all podcast platforms.

20:33Yep, lease that free. Oh, and did we mention the cafe? So what are you waiting for? Come see all that's in store. Visit the Wayfair store today at Edens Plaza in Wilmette. Wayfair, every style, every home.