Scientific Establishment vs Trump Over CDC, Lisa Cook Fights On, Failing City Schools: AM Update 9/2

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1:02Good morning, everyone. I'm Megan Kelly. It's Tuesday, September 2nd, 2025, and this is your AM update. There's a lot of trouble at CDC, and it's going to require getting rid of some people over the long term. It's the Trump administration versus former CDC officials over new vaccine guidelines and more. The claim that this might be clerical error or just a mistake, that's not going to fly. Fed Governor Lisa Cook continues her legal battle to keep her job despite mounting allegations of mortgage fraud against her. And a deep dive into the failing schools in Baltimore and why it's fueling the crime epidemic in the city.

1:41You know, the one their Democratic governor won't acknowledge. All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM update.

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3:03It's all-out war between President Trump's Department of Health and Human Services and the old guard establishment scientific figures. Last week, Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announcing a series of actions to end COVID vaccine mandates, demand more studies from the vaccine companies, and an end to the emergency use authorization, which means boosters will still be widely available for seniors and high-risk groups, but no longer automatically authorized for mass use. It's the latest in a series of moves aiming to fundamentally restructure the department he says is too entrenched in bureaucracy and no longer meeting the scientific gold standard.

3:42In July, HHS announcing a substantial restructuring, consolidating and eliminating various departments. In June, RFKJ dismissing the entire advisory committee on immunization practices, the group that develops and sets vaccine guidance for the nation, the group that failed to make clear that the vaccine had a real risk of causing myocarditis, particularly in teens, even though they knew. Yeah, that group. Last week, the Trump administration also firing CDC Director Susan Menares only about a month after her Senate confirmation amid a vaccine policy dispute. Menares' lawyers saying she refused to, quote, rubber stamp on scientific, reckless directives and to fire dedicated health experts.

4:31The White House citing Menares' clear refusal to implement Make America Healthy Again directives as the reason for her dismissal. Four top-ranking CDC officials resigning in the wake of Menardez's ouster, clearly trying to generate buzz and create a firestorm around RFKJ's management of HHS. Secretary Kennedy responding to the fallout on Thursday at an event in Texas. The CDC is an agency that is very troubled for a very long time, and anybody who lives through the COVID pandemic, all of these bizarre recommendations that were not science-based, all the misinformation, understands that the CDC has on its website today.

5:13There's a lot of trouble at CDC, and it's going to require getting rid of some people over the long term in order for us to change the institutional culture. Dr. Dimitri Daskalakis, who when not posing for magazine covers in a leather pentagram harness, or taking R-rated pictures in BDSM wear, or lecturing us on how the proper term is pregnant people, not pregnant women. When he was not doing that, he was overseeing the vaccine recommendations program. He took to ABC over the weekend to sound the alarm about the failure to follow the science. I only see harm coming. I may be wrong, but based on what I'm seeing, based on what I've heard with the new members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, or ACIP, they're really moving in an ideologic direction.

6:05where they want to see the undoing of vaccination. They do want to see the undoing of mRNA vaccination. They have a very specific target on COVID, but I do fear that they have other things that they are going to be working on. Nine former heads of the CDC, including Rochelle Walensky, best known for her public crying during the pandemic, and her open lamentations about how scared she was about the impending doom we were facing if people did not take the COVID vax, writing in a New York Times op-ed yesterday, quote, what Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has done to the CDC and to our nation's public health system over the past several months, culminating in his decision to fire Dr.

6:49Susan Menares as CDC director days ago, is unlike anything we've ever seen at the agency and unlike anything our country had ever experienced. Last week, Secretary Kennedy announcing September 18th and 19th as the next meeting of the newly appointed Vaccine Advisory Committee. That committee now headed by Dr. Martin Kulldorff, an expert in vaccine safety, like a real expert, and a former longtime Harvard Medical School professor who says he was fired last year over his stance on COVID vaccine mandates. Along with now NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Kaldorf was part of the Great Barrington Project, correctly arguing against mass lockdowns early in the pandemic, a recommendation that was correct, but for which he was attacked by Dr.

7:43Fauci and Francis Collins, who headed up the NIH, with orders that he be smeared as some sort of fringe doctor. Republican Senator from Louisiana, Bill Cassidy, whose Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee provides oversight of HHS and who almost tanked the RFKJ nomination, calling for this meeting to be canceled in a statement, quote, serious allegations have been made about the meeting agenda, membership, and lack of scientific process being followed for the now announced September meeting. The meeting should not occur until significant oversight has been conducted. If the meeting proceeds, any recommendations made should be rejected as lacking legitimacy, given the seriousness of the allegations and the current turmoil in CDC leadership.

8:28President Trump writing yesterday on Truth Social, quote, it is very important that the drug companies justify the success of their various COVID drugs. Many people think they are a miracle that saved millions of lives. Others disagree. With CDC being ripped apart over this question, I want the answer and I want it now. I have been shown information from Pfizer and others that is extraordinary, but they never seem to show those results to the public. Why not? I want them to show them now to CDC and the public and clear up this mess one way or the other. I hope Operation Warp Speed was as brilliant as many say it was.

9:03If not, we all want to know about it and why. President Trump's Operation Warp Speed helped bring COVID vaccines to the market in record time, though not without controversy. Under Trump 2.0, the administration is focusing on bringing greater transparency and requiring more transparency from the drug companies too, Big Pharma, despite the professed panic of the scientific establishment. Fed overseer Lisa Cook fighting in court this week to retain her position on the semi-independent Federal Reserve Board after President Trump fired her for cause amid multiple mortgage fraud allegations. At stake, when a president can remove a person who oversees the Federal Reserve for cause, The Fed, the body that sets interest rates for the nation, described in May by the U.S.

9:53Supreme Court as a uniquely structured quasi-private entity with a distinct historical tradition. The agency operates independently of the executive branch, though board members are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate for 14-year terms. Ms. Cook was nominated by President Biden and narrowly confirmed her term, set to expire in 2038. Last Friday, Cook's lawyer, Abby Lowell, asking Biden-appointed D.C. District Court Judge Gia Cobb to block Ms. Cook's removal, to declare her termination illegal, and define the term for cause. Judge Cobb not issuing a ruling on Friday, instead giving Cook's attorneys until today to respond to a legal brief filed by the DOJ shortly before Friday's hearing.

10:38The DOJ arguing, quote, the president retains broad discretion to remove a governor for cause. Even if it were subject to any judicial review, that review would have to be highly deferential, lest it intrude into the president's constitutional authority over principal officers. The filing also noting Cook has yet to offer any counter to the allegations against her. Indeed, we have yet to hear a denial. To the contrary, her lawyers argued last week that at least one of the allegedly fraudulent actions was merely, quote, an error, not that it didn't happen. In August, the nation's top housing finance regulator Bill Pulte submitting two criminal referrals against Cook, alleging fraud on mortgage loan applications across three different properties, where Cook allegedly wrongly classified the purpose of the properties potentially to secure more favorable financial terms.

11:30Cook's legal team pointing to President Trump's highly public battle with the Fed as the true motive for her firing. Attorney Lowell also arguing the incidents occurred before her term began in 2022 and therefore somehow do not qualify as proper cause for termination. Even CNN's senior legal analyst, Ellie Honig, skeptical Cook's arguments will hold up in court. Thus far, and I find this really notable, in the briefs that have been submitted by Lisa Cook's lawyer, she was the plaintiff here. She filed the opening brief. No explanation of what she did, how this happened. There's some reference to maybe it's a clerical error.

12:07Today, in court, Abby Lull, very good lawyer. Again, no explanation of how this happened. And the claim that this might be clerical error or just a mistake, that's not going to fly because Lisa Cook is one of the most established, accomplished financial and economic experts in this country. Who has to show what here? I think that the allegations on their face could be enough for a judge to say, look, I'm going to defer to the president on cause. For now, Cook remains on the Fed board pending a decision from the judge. A ruling in favor of the Trump administration could reshape the independence of agencies across the executive branch.

12:45However, the Supreme Court's clarification of the Fed's unique status may throw a monkey wrench into any Trump plan to interfere with the Federal Reserve. Coming up, as President Trump clashes with Maryland Governor Wes Moore over crime in Baltimore, a local investigative reporter says the real problem fueling this crisis is a broken education system. That's next.

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14:14A once great American city, Baltimore, now plagued by entrenched poverty, persistent violence, and failing institutions. Just last week, President Trump and Maryland Governor Wes Moore, a Democrat publicly clashing over city safety as President Trump floats the idea of mobilizing the National Guard into crime-plagued cities around the country. Donald Trump, if you are not willing to walk our communities, keep our name out of your mouth. Wes Moore was telling me he wants, I want to walk with the president. Well, I said, I want to walk with you too someday. But first you got to clean up your crime because I'm not walking in Baltimore right now.

14:53Baltimore is a hellhole. For years, Baltimore spiraling downward with seemingly little hope for recovery. Fox 45 investigative reporter Chris Pabst says much of this is due to the failure of Baltimore city schools. Pabst uncovering widespread grade changing and data manipulation, exposing a system where thousands of students are unable to read, write, or do basic math and yet are still graduating. We spoke with Pabst about his findings, chronicled in his new book called Failure Factory, How Baltimore City Public Schools Deprive Taxpayers and Students of a Future. So I started digging through test scores for Baltimore City, and there's about 160 schools, 165 individual schools in the city at the time.

15:40And I just made a massive spreadsheet of all of the data. I found that there were six schools in Baltimore City that did not have a single student that was proficient in any state testing. Not math, not English. These six schools could not produce one student who could pass any state test. And at the time, Baltimore City Public Schools was the third or fourth most funded large school system in America, according to federal numbers Following that report concerned parents and students reaching out to Pabst, saying the problem goes much deeper. In his reporting, Pabst uncovering thousands of instances of grade changing.

16:24Failing grades lifted to a passing 60%, allowing students to advance despite not meeting proficiency standards. City schools also adopting a so-called one-fail policy, meaning a student can only be held back one time before ninth grade. regardless of whether he or she meets academic standards and regardless of whether they deserve to move on, even if desperate parents beg for their child to be held back. Pabst here explains the inverted incentives leading to such dismal outcomes. School systems prioritize data and money over everything else. The reason that these kids are getting pushed through the school system without getting the education that they need is because of the funding.

17:10Student enrollment determines funding for a school. And the more kids that you have enrolled, the more money you get. So as long as these kids are passing through the school system and they're going from grade to grade, it doesn't matter if they can read. It doesn't matter if they can do basic math. The school system is going to get the money for that kid. That's why in Baltimore City and many other cities and school systems around the country, we are seeing a lack of education because money, the quality of education that a kid gets does not have anything to do with the amount of money the school gets.

17:48The money a school gets is based on enrollment and kids passing, not learning. It's about passing more students so the data looks better. Despite poor student results, Baltimore City Public Schools are among the most highly funded districts in the nation. As funding increases, outcomes are getting worse, Papp says. The school system academically is in a worse place now than it was eight years ago. But the school system financially is in a much better place. In 2017, Baltimore City Public Schools was getting a$1.3 billion budget. In 2024, which is eight school years later, It had a$1.7 billion budget.

18:32The school system is getting$400 million more than it was eight years ago, and the student outcomes are worse. The other thing that's extremely important to look at is enrollment. You have 6 ,500 fewer students in that school system. So the school system is getting more money to educate fewer students, and the outcomes are getting worse. Pabst finding data fudging goes beyond academics. Baltimore City Schools, over a 12-year period or a 10-year period, saw a 98 % drop in arrests. Most people would look at that and they would say, wow, Baltimore City Schools is really getting safer. But we know when we look at crime data in the city, we look at murders in the city, at the time when that was happening, when the drop of arrests were happening in schools, the crime in Baltimore was skyrocketing.

19:32And Baltimore City was labeled the most dangerous city in America. But there was a 98 % drop in the number of kids being arrested in schools. And it was simply because the school system decided, we're not going to arrest students anymore. Pabst contends that the crime problems facing Baltimore are directly related to the failing school system. The problem is the failing school system, that the people that are coming out of the school system don't have the skills that are needed to take care of their families. That's the problem. That's what needs to be fixed. The greatest hurdle preventing systemic change?

20:09There is no public official that I'm aware of inside Baltimore City that is screaming for the school system to educate the students better. The only elected Republican in America that has any jurisdiction over Baltimore City is Donald Trump and J.D. Vance. Every other elected official in Baltimore City is a Democrat. It is one party rule to the greatest possible extent. There is nobody who is standing up, to my knowledge, at least they're not doing it publicly, who is saying to the school system, if we're going to keep giving you$1.7 billion, dollars. You cannot have 10 % of students who are proficient in math, which is the data from 2024.

20:55A$1.7 billion budget, 10 % of students in the entire school system who are proficient in math. And I've spent the last eight years going to politician from politician to politician saying, do you find this acceptable? And there is simply nobody who is willing to come out publicly and demand better for the students of Baltimore City, for the parents of Baltimore City, for the taxpayers, nobody's willing to do it. The problems facing Baltimore plaguing inner city schools across the nation, Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago, thousands of children across America failed by the public school system. Pabst identifies two immediate steps that could right the ship, not just in Baltimore, but in public schools in other failing cities.

21:41The first one is they have to increase the expectations of the students. For decades, we've been lowering the academic bar. Students will achieve the level that the adults set for them. And if the adults are setting a low bar, that's what the kids are going to achieve. You have to raise the bar. Now, in the short term, what's going to happen is you're going to have a lot more kids failing. But in the long run, those kids are going to adapt and they're going to raise their level of education to be able to to meet the standard the adults set for them. The second thing to improve the schools is you have to address the violence.

22:23You cannot learn in a school system when they are continually being disrupted by fights and disorderly kids. That has to change. We asked Baltimore Public Schools for comment on Pabst claims and have not yet heard anything back. And that'll do it for your AM Update. I'm Megan Kelly. Join me back here for The Megan Kelly Show. We have Ben Shapiro for the full show today, live on SiriusXM Triumph Channel 111 at noon east, on youtube.com slash Megan Kelly, and on all podcast platforms. In the U.S., there's a break-in every 26 seconds, but when intruders step near, SimpliSafe Home Security steps up.

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