DOJ Charges Tren De Aragua, Kamala Courts Progressives, Daredevil Lovebirds in NYC: AM Update 7/2

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0:39It's Thursday, July 2nd, 2026, and this is your AM Update. As America turns 250 years old, we look at this remarkable man, and we recall that with effort, determination, and drive, there is nothing that Americans of competence cannot do. President Trump traveling to the North Dakota Badlands to honor Theodore Roosevelt, drawing lessons from the former president's life ahead of America's 250th birthday. We have seen specifically as it relates to Trende Aragua, a 519 % increase in arrests. The DOJ announcing new charges against eight alleged Trende Aragua gang members. Former Vice President Kamala Harris quietly courting the Democratic Party's progressive wing.

1:22Amid increasing speculation, she is preparing another run for the White House. and two lovestruck daredevils climbed to the tip of the Empire State Building, pulling off a sky-high proposal that ends with a ring for her and cuffs for them both. All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM Update.

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2:22At supersure.com, you can access tools like fine print facts, which translates your current policy into plain English. So 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. President Trump traveling to the North Dakota Badlands yesterday, becoming the first official visitor to the newly completed Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library.

3:02The president making the trip aboard the new Air Force One, taking the Qatari-donated Boeing 747 on its inaugural presidential flight. Upon his arrival in Medora, the presidential motorcade escorted across the prairie by a ceremonial troop of Rough Riders on horseback. The original Rough Riders were the Volunteer Cavalry Regiment commanded by Theodore Roosevelt during the Spanish-American War, earning lasting fame in the 1898 Battle for the San Juan Heights in Cuba. The library offering an artificial intelligence version of Roosevelt, allowing visitors to question the former president. Mr. Trump asking his digital predecessor whether the Panama Canal was his greatest accomplishment, the virtual Roosevelt taking pride in the canal while also pointing to his conservation record, public health reforms, and other achievements.

3:49The president later delivering his remarks with the modern-day Rough Riders standing behind him, dressed in blue shirts, tan suspenders, bandanas, and Roosevelt's signature wide-brimmed hats. Unlike the standard Trump rally address, the president devoting much of the speech to Roosevelt's extraordinary life and the lessons he believes it offers the country as America approaches its 250th birthday. Mr. Trump presenting Roosevelt as part of a longer American tradition, one built by men and women willing to take on challenges others considered impossible. As America turns 250 years old, we look at this remarkable man and we recall that with effort, determination, and drive, there is nothing that Americans of competence cannot do.

4:35Nothing. From winning our independence to laying the The railroads taming the West and planting our flag on the moon. Nothing great that America has ever done has come without staggering effort. And it has never come easy. This country was built on the conviction that just because something is hard to do, that only means that Americans try even harder and they succeed almost all the time. because whatever the obstacle, whatever the challenge, it's no match for American grit. President Trump then using the Roosevelt connection to celebrate a major Supreme Court victory handed down earlier this week, the U.S.

5:20Supreme Court allowing the president in a 6-3 decision to fire Rebecca Slaughter from the Federal Trade Commission, giving presidents far more control over independent federal agencies. We had something that gives back tremendous power to the president of the United States. And we won that, I think, six to three. And it was taken away from another Roosevelt. It was taken away from FDR in 1932. It was taken away. And for almost 100 years, that's been up for grabs. Slaughter, it was called. The slaughter case. And a lot of people didn't think it would ever be won. and we won it two days ago in the Supreme Court, it gives power back to the president at a time where the president really needs power.

6:11It's a great decision. It was the most important, and we want some others to, it was the most important decision of all of them, I think. The president ultimately weaving five lessons from Roosevelt's life throughout the address, arguing those principles remain just as important to America's next 250 years as they were during Roosevelt's rise more than a century ago. First of all, the life of Theodore Roosevelt reminds us that Americans never give up. We don't give up. And second, Theodore Roosevelt reminds us all that to be a great nation and to be a free nation, we must have courage. Without courage, you have nothing.

6:50As TR once put it, freedom is not a gift that lasts long in the hands of cowards. How about that? Third, Theodore Roosevelt believed in the America that really works and worked. He refused to accept failure, mediocrity, corruption, decay or decline, and neither should we. Fourth, Theodore Roosevelt believed in an America that thinks big. He thought big. He was a big thinker. Finally, Theodore Roosevelt understood that whatever our background, we are all Americans. We're Americans first united under one flag. The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library officially opening to the public this Saturday, America's 250th, July 4th.

7:42Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, FBI Director Cash Patel, and other top DOJ officials providing an update yesterday on the Trump administration's campaign against Venezuelan gang Trende Aragua, or TDA. The department announcing two separate indictments charging eight alleged TDA members with a pair of brutal kidnappings and murders in Texas and Illinois. TDA beginning as a prison gang in Venezuela before expanding into a transnational criminal organization with operations across Latin America and the U.S. Federal authorities tying its members and associates to murder, kidnapping, sex trafficking, drug and weapons trafficking, robbery, and sophisticated financial crimes.

8:23All eight men charged in the new cases are Venezuelan nationals who, prosecutors say, entered the U.S. illegally between December 2021 and April 2024. President Trump on his first day back in office ordering his administration to begin the process of designating Trende Aragua and several other cartels and gangs as terrorist organizations. The State Department formally adding TDA to the Foreign Terrorist Organization list one month later on February 20, 2025. That designation gives federal authorities additional tools to target the organization's members, finances, and support network. A.G. Blanche outlining the administration's progress since President Trump returned to office.

9:02These violent crimes and murders happened because under the Biden administration, open border policies left our borders wide open and hundreds of suspected and now convicted TDA terrorists poured through those borders into our country. Now, President Trump stopped this madness on January 20th of last year. That same day, President Trump designated TDA as a foreign terrorist organization. In the 18 months since January 20th, and President Trump did that, nearly 350 members and associates of TDA have been charged and or convicted of horrific violent crime, Murders, sex trafficking, kidnappings, along with weapons charges, drug trafficking, robbery, ATM jackpotting, and other widespread financial crimes.

9:55FBI Director Cash Patel describing a dramatic increase in enforcement against the gang. Gangs are the reason why so many drugs, guns, and violence are deployed onto our streets and onto our community and take so many innocent lives. We have seen specifically as it relates to Trende Aragua, a 519 percent increase in arrest. As the attorney general laid out, you've seen hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of Trende Aragua, violent gangsters and thugs picked up and arrested and taken off our streets permanently for crimes ranging from kidnapping to murder to drug trafficking to firearms, violence and more.

10:31We are safeguarding American citizens and American communities because President Trump decided to put law enforcement first, give us the resources that we need to do our jobs and safeguard our communities, and make sure that the details that you're about to hear never happen again to another community in Dallas or Chicago or anywhere else. The first indictment arising from the alleged August 2024 kidnapping of a father and two children in the Dallas area. Northern District of Texas U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybold describing the alleged crime leading to the indictment. On August 24, 2024, in the middle of night, a man and two kids had their hands zip-tied and were kidnapped by TDA members who demanded that they pay them money.

11:14Once the TDA members realized the man could not pay them any money, they pulled over by a bridge in Dallas and told the man to jump off. When he refused to do so and attempted to flee, a TDA member gunned him down, execution style, in front of the two children. The Farmers Branch police found the man on the side of the road, abandoned and bleeding from the head because of a single gunshot right between his eyes. This led my office to initiate an international investigation of this transnational criminal organization. A federal grand jury in North Texas now charging five alleged TDA members with participating in a racketeering operation stretching across state lines and international borders.

12:01The indictment accusing the group of murder, kidnapping, and ATM jackpotting, a scheme in which criminals install or deploy malware that forces cash machines to dispense money on command. The second indictment coming out of Chicago, where federal prosecutors are charging three alleged TDA members with conspiracy to commit kidnapping and carrying out a kidnapping that resulted in death. Northern District of Illinois U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros describing what prosecutors allege happened less than two months ago. On a spring afternoon in May of this year, just less than 60 days or so ago, a victim was walking with two other men near a particular park in Chicago.

12:40which houses a large green space on the south side of Chicago with three playgrounds, a basketball court, and a baseball field. The defendants captured the victim and then forced him into a car where he was initially driven to a Chicago apartment. There, the defendant and their co-conspirators bound the victim's wrists behind his back, held him against his will, and kept him in there for hours. They later exited this apartment with the victim, where now the victim's hands were tied behind his back. They transported the victim to an abandoned building in Chicago, where he was shot multiple times in the head and in the body.

13:22The victim's lifeless body was left face down in the bathroom, partially in the bathtub, in an abandoned unit. A.G. Blanche, emphasizing that all eight men charged in the two cases allegedly crossed the southern border illegally during the Biden administration. Coming up, former Vice President Kamala Harris reaching out to key figures on the Democrat left. In the latest signs, she may be laying the groundwork for another White House campaign. And two daredevil lovebirds scale the Empire State Building, unfurling a peace banner and getting engaged before getting arrested.

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14:41They are supportive enough to stand in all day, yet cozy enough to forget you are wearing them. With easy returns and a lifetime warranty, it's comfort worth upgrading to. This spring, give yourself the kind of comfort that lives with you all day, not just the moment you get home. Head to CozyEarth.com. Use my code MEGAN for an exclusive 20 % off. That's code MEGAN for an exclusive 20 % off. And if you see a post-purchase survey, tell them that you heard about Cozy Earth right here. Comfort lives here. In the latest indication, Kamala Harris may be preparing to run for president again, the former vice president reaching out to some of the Democrat Party's most powerful progressives, including socialist New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani and activists who opposed the Biden administration's handling of the war in Gaza.

15:28Axios first reporting, Harris privately called Mamdani last Thursday to discuss the future of the party, with the two planning a longer conversation. The call coming is Harris reportedly works to strengthen, and in some cases repair, relationships with the left ahead of a possible 2028 campaign. Gaza emerging is one of Ms. Harris' most persistent political problems during the 2024 campaign, with anti-Israel demonstrators repeatedly interrupting her events. And he intends to end the Affordable Care Act. You know what? If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that, otherwise I'm speaking. The protests reflecting broader frustration on the left over Harris' refusal to put greater distance between herself and then-President Biden's support for Israel.

16:11In her 2025 campaign memoir, Harris claimed she privately urged Mr. Biden to show greater empathy for Palestinian civilians. The former vice president also reportedly reaching out to activists connected to the Uncommitted movement, which formed in opposition to the Biden administration's policy toward Israel and the war in Gaza. Many of its supporters feeling abandoned by the party, dividing over whether to support Ms. Harris against President Trump, the movement ultimately declining to endorse Ms. Harris, even as several of its most prominent members announced they would vote for her over President Trump.

16:45Last week, Ms. Harris meeting in Detroit with uncommitted movement co-founder Abbas Alaouia, now a Democratic candidate for the Michigan State Senate. During the 2024 campaign, Alaouia telling CNN he personally planned to vote for Harris while explaining that a formal endorsement from the movement would require a major change in her policy toward Israel. You were voting for Harris, but your organization not exactly endorsing Harris. What's the difference there? Yeah, in our view, an endorsement is a very specific thing. And we made a public offer to Vice President Harris that if she embraces a different approach, if she endorses a policy that would truly implement U.S.

17:26law and stop the flow of weapons to Netanyahu for his mass killing campaigns, killing babies to the tune of over 16 ,000 babies, then we would come out and publicly endorse, and that would mean we would mobilize people here in the state of Michigan and elsewhere. Ms. Harris reportedly meeting in April with Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat Socialist from New York, during the Power Rising Conference in Chicago, a three-day gathering organized for Black women and their allies. All of it adding to speculation that Harris is attempting to rebuild the progressive coalition she would need for another White House campaign.

17:59With less than two years before the first presidential primary votes are cast, Vice President Harris remaining the early national frontrunner. The current RealClearPolitics polling average placing her at 27.3%, followed by California Governor Gavin Newsom at 17%, Pete Buttigieg at 12.6%, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez at 11%, Josh Shapiro at 6.6%, and Mark Kelly at 5.6%. Two daredevils arrested yesterday after scaling the Empire State Building without permission or safety equipment. The pair emerging around noon, dressed head to toe in black and wearing masks. The woman completing the look with a pair of sharply pointed Catwoman ears.

18:38Together they climbed to the top of the building's antenna, 1 ,454 feet above the streets of Midtown Manhattan. Once there, the couple unfurling a massive black banner reading, quote, When the power of love beats the love of power, the world knows peace. The message whipping through the wind as news helicopters circled and New Yorkers below tried to figure out what exactly they were watching. Apparently in no rush to return to solid ground, the two knuckle-headed lovebirds lingering at the top of the antenna before beginning their descent. Then, after reaching a slightly less terrifying platform at the base of the spire, the stunt taking a romantic turn, as narrated by ABC News.

19:18Oh dear God, Kira, this guy is getting down on a knee, perhaps proposing to this individual? Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh, Aaron. I think that's exactly what could be happening. I wish WABC would just move a little bit more around so we could see what he's doing down on his knee. This is crazy. Well, I would imagine if it's a proposal, it's an elaborate one. And I hope she said yes, but it is undoubtedly going to end in their arrest. Correct on all counts. The pair embracing, kissing, and posing for pictures more than a quarter mile above the city. The newly engaged couple eventually making their way back to street level, greeted by New York's finest, and placed into custody shortly after 1 p.m.

20:02The two identified as Russian climbers Angela Nikolo and Yvonne Birkus, the stars of the 2024 Netflix documentary Skywalker's A Love Story. Love is like heights. The fear never goes away. You just get better at facing it. Sometimes I would look down at the city and I couldn't believe how we had gotten here. Illegally climbing buildings. Known as rooftopers, their videos are exploding across the internet. This extreme life, this expanded state of mind, it's essential for me. Vanya made it into a career, but I had the creative touch. As an artist, you need to express yourself. Now we were more than just daredevils.

20:46Now we were telling a story, a love story. The couple reportedly living together in East Orange, New Jersey. Nicolope hosting her own close-up of the ring on Instagram before beginning the rest of her descent, holding her newly decorated hand against the Manhattan skyline. Still unclear is how the pair managed to carry their camera equipment and enormous banner through the building, then make their way onto the restricted antenna, as visitors and their belongings are required to pass through security screening. A source familiar with the incident telling the New York Post the couple allegedly breached a mesh gate on the 102nd floor, allowing them to reach the 103rd floor, a restricted level used exclusively for maintenance.

21:26Police sources telling CBS News the pair could face trespassing and reckless endangerment counts. No injuries reported. The Empire State Building assuring visitors the unauthorized climb never placed its tenants, tourists, or observation deck guests in danger. The landmark operates public observation decks on the 86th and 102nd floors, its representatives reminding any other romantics tempted to follow the couple's lead that scaling the antenna is not actually necessary. Quote, it is to be emphasized that the Empire State Building Observation Deck atop the world's most famous building in the center of New York City does offer a practical way for the most memorable marriage proposals.

22:08That'll do it for your AM update. I'm Emily Droschinski, host of After Party. Catch the Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM's The Megyn Kelly Channel, 111 at noon east on youtube.com slash megynkelly and all podcast platforms.

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