RFK Jr. Clashes With Dems on the Hill, Hero High School Principal, SantaCon Fraud: AM Update 4/17

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0:32Good morning, everyone. I'm Megan Kelly. It's Friday, April 17th, 2026, and this is your AM Update. You've got a lot of misinformation there. There's a global measles epidemic. We've done better and prevent it than any country in the world. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the Hill in back-to-back hearings defending his agency. Former Virginia Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax involved in a shocking murder-suicide amid messy divorce proceedings. He'd saved a lot of people today and he's a good man. An Oklahoma principal receiving praise from the community after tackling an armed school shooter.

1:09And Santa's naughty list just got a little longer. The president of New York City's infamous SantaCon pub crawl arrested for allegedly pocketing the event's donations for himself. All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM Update.

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2:48And listen, if you currently do not have all your policies in one place, you got this broker and that broker and this policy, they will help you with that too. They can help you consolidate everything. So it's in one place and they will run interference for you. Okay. So check it out. Supersure.com slash Megan paid for by Supersure Insurance Agency, LLC, a licensed insurance agency. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. yesterday sitting for two of seven oversight hearings set to take place over the next week, defending the Trump administration's annual budget proposal. The plan aiming to cut costs and restructure federal health spending, Secretary Kennedy framing the changes as a return to gold standard science, while Democrats continue to push back on his agenda, including proposed changes to the childhood vaccine schedule.

3:38The hearings turning combative, with repeated clashes over vaccine policy, research funding, and staffing across the agency. At the first hearing, in front of the Ways and Means Committee, Democrat and ranking member Richard Neal's opening remarks setting the tone for the day. We watch daily as the threats to this health care system that we have constructed, whether it's talking about measles and vaccinations, we remember what it was like before Dr. Salk's polio vaccine. My mom, who was a devotee of the Kennedy family, she said the way we prevented polio in the 50s was to stay out of fresh water in August.

4:15Let me say this, nothing has changed about the science of vaccines. We need people not to be preyed upon by demagoguery, and there should not be a politicization of these very issues. Secretary Kennedy avoiding mention of vaccines in his opening statement, highlighting positive change within the agency since last January, echoing a warning from his uncle, JFK. We are ending the era of federal policies that fueled the chronic disease epidemic and replacing them with policies that put the health of Americans first. This year, HHS and USDA issued new dietary guidelines that put real whole food at the center of the American plate.

4:58More than 40 percent of the food industry is committed to phase out petroleum-based dyes by year end, and many have already eliminated them. At HHS, we are prioritizing patients with ultra-rare diseases and their families or protecting children from sex-rejecting procedures that expose them to irreversible harm. The President's budget puts all these priorities in action. It invests in prevention because preventing disease costs less and delivers better outcomes than treating it. As my uncle President John F. Kennedy said, progress is a nice word, but change is its motivator. and change has its enemies.

5:38Significant portions of the hearing centering on vaccine policy. Prior to taking office, Secretary Kennedy working as one of the leading vaccine safety advocates, challenging pharmaceutical companies and government agencies in court through his organization, Children's Health Defense. Since taking office, RFKJ repeatedly emphasizing that the best way to prevent measles is through vaccination. Congresswoman Linda Sanchez, a Democrat from California, questioning the secretary about a measles outbreak that began in January 2025. The anti-vaccine rhetoric you ran on and the anti-vaccine actions you have taken over the last year clearly correlates with the dramatic increases, again, in preventable diseases.

6:22You've got a lot of misinformation there. There's a global measles epidemic. We've done better in preventing it than any country in the world. There is no country that has seen a bigger percentage increase. That's not true. Mexico has three times our measles and they have one-eighth of our population. Did President Trump approve your decision to end the CDC's pro-vaccine public message? Canada has doubled the measles and they have one-eighth of our population. Did he approve that? We've done better at preventing measles than any country in the world. The second hearing of the day taking place in front of the Appropriations Committee.

6:56Democrat Congressman Steny Hoyer of Maryland questioning RFKJ on the scope of staffing changes within the department. How many full-time employees do we have in HHS now, which includes? Last year when I talked to you, there were 62 ,000 down from 82 ,000. We are now at 72 ,000 and we're hiring 12 ,000 new employees. We will have made up all the employees that we lost. We've replaced them with a better group of people who are actually going to address chronic health. Your judgment is that the other 20 ,000 that were reduced were not capable, were not motivated? It's not my judgment. It's the record.

7:39They presided over the biggest decline in health in the history of the world. They did nothing to prevent the food ties, the bad food, all the things that are making us sick. They failed at their job. We did what we had to do to change the culture at these agencies so they're now doing what they can do to protect what they were hired to do, which is to protect the health of our country and restore us once again to the healthiest country in the world. Toward the end of the hearing, ranking member and Democrat Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut making clear Democrats on the committee have no intention of backing the proposed budget cuts.

8:19The Trump administration and Republicans in the Congress passed a law last year to cut Medicaid and nutrition assistance by$1.2 trillion. The president's budget is proposing to cut funding for health agencies by$16 billion next year. Public health programs by$3 billion. Energy assistance by$4 billion. Mental health services by$500 million. Workforce training programs, including nurses training, by more than$600 billion. And I said to you, and I think it was very clear, Mr. Secretary, we're not going to do that. And maybe that's what you are relying on, but we're not going to do that. We can't in good conscience do that.

9:03This is an agency that has an enormous portfolio, all of it geared toward saving lives. I believe you want to do that. I believe that this budget is contrary to doing that. Secretary Kennedy responding. First, I want to thank this committee for its civility and its congeniality. It is way different than going in front of any other committee, and I'm happy to come back here anytime. So second of all, we're not cutting Medicaid. The CBO report came out. Medicaid increased by 47 percent over the next 10 years. So there is no cut to Medicaid. And number three, it's easy to demonize OMB and RussVote, but RussVote is looking out for our country.

9:54We have a$39 trillion debt. Each child born in this country is paying$6 ,600 before they pay a single health bill,$25 ,000 for a family of four. Russ is trying to make sure that these programs are alive for future generations, and that's what the president wants. Five more rounds of this coming soon. Former Democrat Lieutenant Governor of Virginia Justin Fairfax killing his wife Serena Fairfax and then himself early yesterday morning at their home, according to the Fairfax County Virginia Police Department. Shortly after midnight, officers responding to the Northern Virginia home, locating Serena deceased in the basement and Justin dead in the master bedroom.

10:40Both of the Fairfax's teenage children, a son and a daughter, were home at the time of the incident. The son calling 911. Hear audio of the dispatcher communicating with police, arriving on scene. Clark's thinking that his dad might have stabbed his mom. She's laying on the ground bleeding. Can see holes in her shirt. I think this is going to be our subject. He's got a firearm with himself inflicted gunshot wound to the head. The Fairfaxes, married in 2006, were separated in 2024 and going through divorce proceedings at the time of the murder-suicide, according to Fairfax County Chief of Police Kevin Davis.

11:16The couple both living in the four-bedroom, two-bathroom home, staying in separate bedrooms. Chief Davis at a press conference describing what is known so far about the incident. From what I understand, this early stage, former Lieutenant Governor Fairfax was recently served some paperwork associated with an upcoming court proceeding. That apparently led to this incident last night. It seems like the murder took place in the basement. It's described to me as a finished, unfinished basement in the home. at some point after Justin shot and killed his wife. He runs upstairs in the home and into the primary bedroom, apparently, and shoots and kills himself.

12:04Serena reportedly shot multiple times. The divorce proceedings up to that point reportedly rather messy, with the former lieutenant governor at one point calling police to the house. Chief Davis with those details. In January of this year, Mr Fairfax calls the police and alleges that his wife assaulted him. We responded to that scene. There are several cameras set up inside the house. Apparently Mrs Fairfax at some point during these divorce proceedings set up a lot of cameras inside the home. We reviewed those cameras and we corroborated that the alleged assault never occurred. So there was no arrest made.

12:46There was a report written, but the allegation that Mr. Fairfax made in January that Mrs. Fairfax assaulted him was proven to be untrue. Justin, a former prosecutor, served as lieutenant governor from January 2018 to January 2022 under Democrat Governor Ralph Northam. In 2019, Fairfax accused by two women of sexual assault in separate incidents dating back to the early 2000s. He denied both allegations, claiming they were part of a conspiracy to force him from office. At the time, Governor Northam was reeling from a political scandal due to an unearthed photo of someone believed to be Northam appearing in blackface, according to the New York Post.

13:27Or he might have been the one in the Ku Klux Klan outfit. We never really knew. Neither Fairfax nor Northam resigned in the wake of the scandal, though Fairfax's political future never recovered. He unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2021, finishing fourth in the primary. Since the end of his political career, just in working as an attorney in private practice, Serena had been working as a dentist. Coming up, a high school principal hailed as a hero for tackling a school shooter, stopping a tragedy in its tracks. And the president of New York City's Santa Con pub crawl arrested for allegedly stuffing his own stocking with donations intended for charity.

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14:53Plus, Shopify provides world-class expertise in everything from managing inventory to international shipping to processing returns, all with 24-7 award-winning support. Sign up for your$1 per month trial today at Shopify.com slash Megan. Go to Shopify.com slash Megan. That's Shopify.com slash Megan. An Oklahoma high school principal praised as a hero last week after tackling a gunman arriving on his campus. Last Tuesday, a 20-year-old former student arriving at Paul's Valley High School near Oklahoma City carrying two semi-automatic handguns. According to court documents seen by local station KFOR around 2.19 p.m., the suspect seen on security footage approaching the school's locked glass front doors.

15:43As the shooter approaches, an unidentified passerby opening the door to let him in. The passerby is not believed by authorities to have been working with the shooter. The shooter entering the lobby attempting to fire, but the gun jams. He briefly hides out behind a vending machine, then steps back out ordering people to the ground and fires a shot. One female student immediately runs away. The suspect then aims at a second student seated on a bench who raises his hands and pleads not to be shot. It's at that moment that Principal Kirk Moore comes bursting through his office door, tackling the shooter into the bench as the second student makes a break for it.

16:23At some point in the seconds between Principal Moore arriving in the lobby to when he tackles the shooter, the principal sustaining a shot to the leg. Principal Moore's hand, seen grabbing the wrist of the shooter's hand, which had the gun, when seconds after the tackle, the assistant principal, appearing from the office, grabbing hold of the gun and bringing it into the office away from the threat. According to the arrest affidavit, also reviewed by local outlet KFOR, the shooter telling investigators Principal Moore is someone he, quote, did not like. The shooter telling investigators he intended to, quote, conduct his own school shooting like the Columbine shooters did, specifically targeting Principal Moore as well as other students and faculty members before killing himself.

17:08The firearms belonged to the shooter's father and were taken without permission, according to investigators. The shooter now held on$1 million bond. Principal Moore, who has worked in the district for more than 35 years, is expected to make a full recovery. In a statement last Friday, Principal Moore thanking the community for, quote, an outpouring of love and support, adding, quote, I am grateful that my instincts and training, as well as God's hand, were available to me. Two seniors at Paul's Valley High praising their beloved Principal on KFOR last week. He's a good guy. He helps a lot of students.

17:45He's very face-to-face with everything. He doesn't just kind of tell you what to do. He helps you through everything, even if it's not school-related. He saved a lot of people today, and he's a good man. The president of New York City's Santa Khan pub crawl arrested Wednesday, charged in a wire fraud scheme allegedly targeting participants and host venues. Federal prosecutors out of the Southern District of New York say 50-year-old Stefan Pildes raised at least$2.7 million for charity between 2019 and 2024, then diverted more than half of the proceeds to a slush fund, spending hundreds of thousands more of the remaining money on personal expenses.

18:30What is SantaCon, you ask? Why, it's the least wonderful time of the year for New Yorkers outside of their early to mid-20s. The annual pub crawl described by the Village Voice in 2013 is, quote, a day-long spectacle of public inebriation, somewhere between a low-rent Mardi Gras and a drunken fraternity party. Every year, up to 25 ,000 people dress as some version of Santa pouring into the streets of New York City, participating in the ticketed event ostensibly for charity. Tickets are granted in exchange for a donation, typically ranging from$10 to$20, allowing special deals at participating bars and restaurants.

19:06According to investigators, the participating venues, donate a portion of their food and beverage sales during the event, typically between 10 to 20 percent, to Participatory Safety Inc. That's the company controlled by Pildes that organizes SantaCon. From the SantaCon website, quote, your money will be split between the various charities listed on this page, as well as local neighborhood charities along Santa's route. According to the indictment, among the alleged personal expenses pilfered, quote, Pildas spent SantaCon proceeds on extensive renovations to a lakefront property in New Jersey, luxury vacations in Hawaii, Las Vegas, and Vail, extravagant meals, and a luxury vehicle.

19:48Santa would not approve. He faces one charge of wire fraud, carrying a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and forfeiture of connected assets. Pildas pleading not guilty on Wednesday, released on$300 ,000 bond, with the condition that he not contact any of the other SantaCon organizers. The DOJ now urging past drunken Santas or participating restaurants who feel they may have been victimized to fill out a form on the FBI's website. 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 Megan Kelly Channel, 111 at noon east, on youtube.com slash megankelly, and on all podcast platforms.

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