Midterm Warning Signs For GOP, UK Terror Suspects Released, Cornell Case Reopened: AM Update 9/29

0:00Law transforms agreement into reality. A word becomes an agreement. An agreement becomes a contract. A contract becomes law. Today, Harvey, the AI platform for legal work, is writing the next chapter. More than 200 ,000 lawyers and 80 % of the AMLA 100 are building with Harvey, accelerating review, sharpening negotiations, and more. This is how the future of agreements is being crafted now. Harvey. Learn more at Harvey.ai. Harvey does not provide legal advice. Users should always independently review and verify any output from Harvey. Good morning, everyone. I'm Megan Kelly. It's Tuesday, September 29th, 2026, and this is your AM update.

0:39The levy has been breached. The blue wave is coming over the wall. New midterm data giving Republicans agita, even in states President Trump, won handily. Five men arrested near a U.S. bomber base in the U.K. as investigators examine a possible connection to Iran. A New York prosecutor reopening an investigation into an alleged gang rape at a Cornell fraternity house nearly two years after his office declined to bring charges. There's no benefit that came out of you putting me in those schools. There's no benefit at all. 1619 Project creator Nicole Hannah-Jones confronted by her daughter over the education opportunities her mother kept from her to make a political point.

1:20All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM Update.

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2:56Asked in the Oval Office yesterday for his message to midterm voters, Mr. Trump pointing to the border and the economy. We have great people and we're running against communists, lunatics, socialists, and we have a strong border. We have the best economy, the biggest investment in the history of our country, think of that,$21 trillion is being invested. We have Iran, we'll never have a nuclear weapon. We're going to win that war very soon. That'll be over. And the gas prices will come tumbling down. The Wall Street Journal reporting Republican candidates, strategists, and lawmakers growing worried about November, despite the president's confidence.

3:37One reason for their concern, a new journal poll finding just 37 % of registered voters approve of Mr. Trump's job performance. That's the lowest rating for a president approaching a midterm in journal polling dating back to 1990. 11 % of his 2024 voters report that they regret their vote. CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten comparing the president's standing in key house districts with his position before Democrats won the chamber back in 2018. The levy has been breached. The blue wave is coming over the wall, Speaker Johnson and President Trump. And you can see it here. You can just look at President Trump's approval ratings.

4:15Isn't that approval ratings in the year's key House districts? You know, back in September of 2018, when Democrats easily won back the House, President Trump was at minus eight points. Not very good. His disapproval rating was eight points higher than his approval rating. But look at this year. Look at the key districts this year. President Trump is even worse. He's twice as unpopular in this year's key races and the key districts this year than he was back in 2018 when Democrats easily got back majority. He's now 16 points underwater in the key House districts. Simply put, mathematically, this equals a Democratic majority for the House of Representatives.

4:48Democrats need to gain just three seats to take control of the House. The Cook Political Report now shifting 15 race ratings toward Democrats. At present, 17 Republican-held seats rated toss-ups. Just five Democrat-held seats get the toss-up label. The Senate map also giving Republicans reason for concern. In Texas, Democrat State Representative James Tallarico leading Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton by 2.9 points in the Real Clear Politics polling average. A New York Times opinion discussion with 12 Texans who voted for Mr. Trump in 2024, finding sharp criticism of Paxton among voters considering Tallarico or unsure whether they will vote in the Senate race at all.

5:31Asked for their impressions of Paxton, participants, including Republicans, calling him a, quote, crook, amoral and disgusting. Tallarico drawing mixed reviews, some describing him as, quote, fresh or inspiring, while others object to his extreme views on social issues. One voter arguing Republicans picked the wrong candidate in Paxton. On prediction market Kalshi, traders giving Tallarico a 60 % chance of winning compared with 40 % for Paxton. In South Carolina, Republican Senator Darlene Graham, the late Senator Lindsey Graham's sister, facing Democrat Annie Andrews in a state President Trump carried by nearly 18 points in 2024.

6:10Still, Graham leading by just 2.6 points in the Real Clear Politics polling average. Calci traders showing considerably more confidence in Graham's chances, with Graham trading at an 87 % chance of victory and just 13 % for Andrews. Calci is actually a sponsor of this show. Give it a try by using code MEGAN KELLY or clicking the link in the description. All new users get$25 free when they trade$25. Earlier this month, President Trump holding a first-ever Republican midterm convention in Dallas, hoping to give GOP candidates a lift. RealClearPolitics' Tom Bevin summing up the post-convention polling this way, quote, GOP's midterm convention bounce plus 2.5 for the Democrats.

6:57Five men arrested near a UK base used by US bombers over a suspected terror plot now out on bail. UK counterterrorism police say the men have not been charged but remain under investigation. The case beginning early Sunday near Royal Air Force Base Fairford in southwest England. Police reporting an initial call about three suspicious vehicles around 1245 in the morning. A local farmer, also calling authorities after finding three vans blocking a village road. Here, she tells Sky News about the moment. We suddenly saw a large group of men, and they were panicking. And I think the reason, well, I suppose they're panicking because anyone saw them, but our vehicle is quite similar to the patrol vehicles that they use.

7:41And we had our lights on main beam because there wasn't another car. So I think we sort of dazzled them and they started to run it's such a flash moment of seeing them but there were definitely more than five we think maybe between eight and ten of them were there at that point and a lot of them would have their faces covered they were all wearing like it looked like similar almost you'd have thought perhaps it was like what they've been told to wear quite similar like slim fitting clothes. So then I realized this was probably something a bit more unusual than undercover policemen parked in some vans.

8:20The farmer saying armed officers arrived within minutes of her call, arresting five men in Welford near the base on suspicion of explosives offenses. Investigators later saying the men were also suspected of preparing a terrorist act. Asked whether officers were looking for anyone else, Gloucestershire Police Chief Maggie Blythe saying she believed the incident was, quote, contained. Police identifying the five arrested as British nationals from London, ages 23 to 25, but have not yet publicly identified them in accordance with the law. Investigators examining the three vans as bomb disposal crews were called in, and roughly 85 nearby households were evacuated.

9:01Police have not said publicly what, if anything, was found in the vehicles. After questioning the men through Monday, UK counterterrorism chief Lawrence Taylor announcing their release. I can confirm that following extensive interviews and inquiries, the five men who were arrested are being released on police bail this afternoon. To be very clear, this does not mean that the investigation is over. They are subject to stringent conditions on their movement and contact with others. They absolutely remain under investigation as we explore multiple lines of inquiry. Police say the men had been held under the UK's Police and Criminal Evidence Act instead of under terrorism laws.

9:46The Wall Street Journal reports the law allows police to impose bail restrictions while continuing their investigation potentially for weeks. In contrast, detention under the UK's terrorism laws generally requires authorities to charge a suspect or release him without bail within two weeks, according to the Journal. Royal Air Force Fairford serves as a launch point for U.S. bombers flying missions in the war with Iran. Iran's Revolutionary Guards warning in July that any base used to launch those strikes would be considered a legitimate target, specifically citing Fairford. President Trump on Sunday praising the arrests, saying the U.S.

10:23had been investigating the men alongside U.K. authorities and believed they intended to do major damage. Yesterday from the Oval, Mr. Trump reacting to the suspect's release. I'm surprised if they released him, I wouldn't have done that. Look, they've been very good. They worked with us very closely. We know everything about them. We would not have released them. The Journal reporting investigators are examining a possible connection to Iran or an Islamist group. Coming up, prosecutors reopening an investigation into an alleged gang rape at Cornell after a former student files a civil lawsuit against seven fraternity members and the university.

11:04And activist Nicole Hannah-Jones' daughter confronts her over a virtue-signaling school enrollment choice that left the child struggling to catch up in high school.

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12:01Text the letters MK to the number 989898 and get a free info kit and some solid info. The midterms are going to be here before you know it. Text MK to 989898. An Ithaca, New York district attorney reopening a 2024 investigation into an alleged gang rape at a Cornell University fraternity house. The decision follows a civil lawsuit filed this month by a former student identified as Jane Doe, who was 20 years old at the time of the alleged incident. Doe filing the civil suit in New York County Supreme in Manhattan, suing Cornell, seven members of its Chi-Fi fraternity, the overarching fraternity and her own sorority organizations, and other parties over what she alleges happened in October 2024.

12:48She is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. Doe alleging she went to the Chi-Fi house to see a friend after drinking at two bars. She alleges she was already visibly intoxicated when she arrived and that two fraternity members then pressured her to use a substance they described as ketamine. According to her complaint, they also gave her marijuana and more alcohol before several men repeatedly had sex with her, she says, without her consent over the course of the night. The lawsuit, including a screenshot of a message allegedly sent by Kifi member Jonathan Newell to the fraternity's Snapchat group at 1.42 a.m., telling members there was, quote, free P-word upstairs.

13:30Doe accusing two members of taking her to another room later that night, where she says they gave her more ketamine and sexually assaulted her while she was incapacitated. Doe reported the alleged incident to campus police three weeks later, but no charges were filed. Her lawyer says the alleged assault caused her to leave Cornell. In a written statement yesterday, Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten pointing to a six-page statement Doe signed in November 2024. Tompkins County covers Ithaca. He writes that she recounted events substantially differently than she does now in her civil lawsuit.

14:07According to the DA's summary of that earlier account, Doe described agreeing to sexual activity and knowingly taking drugs. She also described refusing some sexual contact, with Van Houten writing that the men stopped when she asked them to stop. He argues prosecutors could not bring charges based on the facts they were given at the time. Van Houten saying, quote, to be clear, the credibility of the woman who described the facts in excruciating detail was never in question. Van Houten has not publicly released Doe's signed statement, Van Houten acknowledging, however, to ABC News that his office relied on Cornell University police and did not conduct an independent investigation.

14:49He says prosecutors were never given the Snapchat screenshot now included in the lawsuit. Jane Doe's attorney, Thomas Jifra disputing the DA's description of the original account, telling CNN in a written statement that Doe's police report was, quote, not materially different from the allegations in her lawsuit. He writes that after Doe spoke to the officer who took her initial report, no one from the DA's office or anyone trained to interview sexual assault survivors contacted her. Jifra also telling ABC News that Doe did give campus police the Snapchat messages in 2024. In a written response reported by CBS News New York, Jiffra describes Jane Doe as traumatized and struggling to process what had happened when she first spoke to police.

15:35He writes, quote, it is challenging for me to understand how a thorough criminal investigation could have been conducted. Jiffra says Doe will cooperate with the reopened investigation. The Ithaca Police Department, as opposed to the Cornell Police, telling CBS it never received a report about the alleged incident. The lawsuit also alleges Cornell did not treat the allegations seriously enough, claiming that the accused students were offered an opportunity to submit essays to reduce their discipline. According to the court filing, Cornell temporarily suspended the seven students and the Chi-Fi chapter when Doe reported the incident on November 8, 2024.

16:14Cornell began its Title IX investigation around January 2025 and held at least 12 hearings that May, per the suit. Cornell responding in a statement that its Title IX investigation involved multiple days of hearings and resulted in sanctions, including suspensions and expulsions. Doe's attorney noting two of the seven accused students were expelled. The university writing, quote, none of the individuals charged were offered the opportunity to write essays as a sole consequence of their involvement. Cornell says it closed the Chi-Fi chapter in 2024 and continues to bar it from campus. The national fraternity telling CBS it condemns sexual violence but cannot discuss the specific allegations during litigation.

16:58An attorney for a former student is disputing the allegations against his client, Jeremy Saland, representing Scott Kretschmar, saying Kretschmar never sexually assaulted or even touched Doe. Saland acknowledging Kretschmar made a separate, quote, immature comment on Snapchat, but accuses Doe of, quote, intentionally victimizing an innocent person for a money grab. Van Houten, the DA, says he is planning to present Doe's testimony and any new evidence to a grand jury and let it decide whether or not to indict, saying if the grand jury does so, his office will, quote, zealously prosecute the case, but giving no timeline for when that will happen.

17:391619 Project creator Nicole Hannah-Jones confronted by her own daughter over the schools in which the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist chose to enroll her. 16-year-old Najah Hannah-Jones challenging her mother in a This American Life podcast interview, asking why her mother sent her to schools that left her struggling to keep up. In a widely discussed 2016 New York Times Magazine essay, Hannah Jones the Elder describing choosing a predominantly black, low-income Brooklyn public school for NAJA. Now, in a follow-up essay out earlier this month, Hannah Jones writing that she is, quote, overcome with regret and that NAJA, quote, deserved better.

18:19In the new essay, Nicole writing that she enrolled NAJA in algebra tutoring only to learn her daughter had major gaps in elementary school math, including long division and fractions. The tutoring center warning that catching NAJA up would require intensive help. In the interview, Hannah Jones arguing it would have been wrong to give Naja an escape from schools other Black children could not leave. Naja rejecting the idea that her education should have been the sacrifice. It's like, why should my child be the one that's rescued? Like, you should escape what we consign so many other kids just like you to?

18:57I just would never feel right about that. Why? Why? It makes no sense. You're talking about, oh, I'm just going to give you the horse just because it's not fair that you, I didn't actually be born. All you're supposed to do is just like put me in a good school. Like, oh, well, I didn't want to put you in a great school and have you have advantages over other kids. Isn't that what you want? Isn't that what you want me to have? Is that not a normal thing you want me to have? Everyone's not your kid. You can't save everyone who doesn't want to be saved. There's no benefit that came out of you putting me in those schools.

19:30There's no benefit at all. Hannah Jones later letting Najah choose her own high school, Najah selecting a competitive public school with mostly white and Asian students, a choice Hannah Jones described as, quote, the exact opposite of her life's work. The two returning to the question of what their years at Najah's earlier schools had accomplished. We've talked about, like, over and over, like, our lives are the products of people who didn't just say we think segregation is wrong, We think injustice is wrong. Like, they were willing to put themselves, their families, their children on the line for that.

20:07So you put me on the line to help a school, but it didn't work. Yeah, I put you on the line in hopes of making a change, yeah. I think I'm fine because I'm in the school I am now. I feel like if I picked a different choice that you wanted me to, I don't think I would be fine. And that'll do it for your AM Update. I'm Megan Kelly. Join me back here for the MK Show, live on SiriusXM's The Megyn Kelly Channel, 111 at noon east, on YouTube.com slash Megyn Kelly, and on all podcast platforms.

20:58accelerating review, sharpening negotiations, and more. This is how the future of agreements is being crafted now. Harvey. Learn more at Harvey.ai. Harvey does not provide legal advice. Users should always independently review and verify any output from Harvey.