Vance on "5-Year-Old Detained by ICE" Story, Jack Smith Grilled, Barron Saves Woman: AM Update 1/23

0:02Good morning, everyone. I'm Megan Kelly. It's Friday, January 23rd, 2025. And this is your AM update. When I think to myself, oh my God, this is terrible. How did we arrest a five-year-old? Well, I do a little bit more follow-up research. Vice President J.D. Vance brings a dose of reality to Minneapolis in a visit designed to increase cooperation between local business leaders and federal immigration enforcement. NYPD officers seeking emergency medical treatment say they were treated like pariahs by hospital staff who confused them for ICE agents. So my final question is, Do you believe that you made any mistakes?

0:38Do you have any regrets as to how you conducted this investigation? Former counsel Jack Smith, pressed by Republicans at a House Judiciary hearing, probing his investigations into then-candidate Trump. And Barron Trump, President Trump's youngest child, credited with saving a woman's life, will tell you the story. All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM Update.

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1:45Find out more at guardyourcard.com and consider telling Congress to guard your card. Vice President J.D. Vance arriving in Minneapolis yesterday to participate in a roundtable discussion with local business leaders and law enforcement. The visit coming amid weeks of violent protesters clashing with and obstructing ICE officers. Mr. Vance seeking to ease tensions and increase local collaboration with federal immigration efforts. The VP speaking to reporters following the briefing, describing the dangerous and hostile atmosphere even off-duty ICE officers face in the Twin Cities. Did you know that within the last, I think, week or so, maybe even more recently than that, you had a couple of ICE officers who were off duty, who had been doxed online, who were sitting and having a meal at a restaurant in Minneapolis when a bunch of agitators showed up, locked the door, made them feel like they were in danger for their lives.

2:40And then, of course, it was federal law enforcement officers who had to come up, lower the temperature on the situation, and actually get those two off-duty officers to a point of safety. Now, imagine if you would, your life and your perspective on law enforcement if you can't even go to a restaurant without some agitators locking the door and making you feel like your life is in danger. That is the environment that has been created. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Fry repeatedly criticizing the Trump administration for surging in thousands of federal agents, accusing the government of pulling a political stunt.

3:17VP Vance pushing back, arguing the heavy federal presence is a direct result of the lack of cooperation from state and local officials. You go to Austin, Texas or Memphis, Tennessee, you do not have this level of chaos. The reason why things have gotten so out of hand is because of failure of cooperation between the state and local authorities and what these guys are trying to do. We have a ton of resources, a ton of ICE agents in this city right now. I'd love to send those guys home. They're not even doing targeted immigration enforcement. They are trying to protect ICE officers who are doing immigration enforcement because when a crowd surrounds them and these guys call 911, the local officials, the local cops have been told to stand down.

4:02The vice president's visit coming amid viral reports that ICE, quote, detained a five-year-old boy in Minneapolis. The New York Times writing, quote, detention of five-year-old by federal agents incenses Minneapolis. ABC News, quote, five-year-old asylum seeker detained as ICE expands enforcement in Minnesota. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton weighing in, posting on X, quote, enforcing the law is one thing. Terrorizing a population using children as pawns is another. My heart aches for Liam Ramos and his family. Kamala Harris posting, quote, Liam Ramos is just a baby. He should be home with his family not used as bait by ICE and held in a Texas detention center.

4:44I am outraged and you should be too. J.D. Vance weighing in on some of the misinformation out there on this case yesterday. I'm a father of a five-year-old, actually a five-year-old little boy. And I think to myself, oh my God, this is terrible. How did we arrest a five-year-old? Well, I do a little bit more follow-up research. And what I find is that the five-year-old was not arrested, that his dad was an illegal alien. And then they went when they went to arrest his illegal alien father, the father ran. Are they supposed to let a five year old child freeze to death? Are they not supposed to arrest an illegal alien in the United States of America?

5:19If the argument is that you can't arrest people who have violated our laws because they have children, then every single parent is going to be completely given immunity from ever being the subject of law enforcement. That doesn't make any sense. No one thinks that makes any sense. DHS writing on X, quote, ICE did not target, arrest a child, or use a child as bait. ICE law enforcement officers were the only people primarily concerned with the welfare of this child. The agency explaining that the boy's father ran. His alleged mother refused to accept custody of the child, and DHS alone was left to care for the boy while trying multiple times to get the alleged mother to take him, even assuring her that she would not be taken into custody.

6:03Finally, ICE catching the father, who DHS says decided he wanted the child to remain with him. Officers abided by the father's wishes, even getting the child McDonald's and playing his favorite music for him. DHS explaining that parents have the choice to keep their children with them upon removal or to have them placed with a safe person of the parents choosing, consistent with the policy of past administrations. DHS also allows parents being removed to use the CBP Home app, which gives them a free flight back to their native country and$2 ,600, and reserves them the right to try and come back the legal way.

6:41Late yesterday, the family's attorney, claiming that the family, from Ecuador, has been seeking asylum through the protocol established by the Biden administration. Proper asylum seekers are not technically considered illegal immigrants. We asked DHS about that claim, and they referred us to their earlier statement, which refers to this man as an illegal immigrant, presumably disagreeing with the assertions about asylum. A disturbing report out of New York City. Three plainclothes NYPD detectives arriving at NYU Langone Cobble Hill Hospital in Brooklyn last Friday, seeking medical treatment for minor injuries following a struggle with a drug suspect, according to the New York Post.

7:23Hospital officials telling the detectives they could not enter the emergency room while armed prompting one officer to agree to hold his partner's firearm while the first officer was being treated. Hospital staff then approaching the second detective in the waiting room, instructing him to leave because he was armed. At that point, the NYPD tells the Post, quote, the two detectives heard members of the hospital staff say something to the effect of believing they were ICE and that they should seek care elsewhere. A source familiar with the incident telling the Post hospital staff were, quote, nasty toward the officers, accusing them of being ICE agents.

7:59The Detectives Endowment Association, the Detectives Union, announcing it is actively investigating the incident, writing in a statement it will, quote, pursue all available remedies to ensure our members are treated with the dignity, respect, and professionalism they have unequivocally earned. New York City Mayor Zoram Mamdani, who earlier this week appeared on The View, calling for the abolition of ICE, telling reporters on Wednesday he was not aware of the incident. NYU Langone releasing a statement following a discussion with Police Commissioner Jessica Tish expressing regret for how the situation was handled, quote, and reaffirming our commitment to continue providing the highest quality care to the NYPD and all law enforcement agencies.

8:42In 2025, they went on, NYU Langone was proud to provide care to nearly 1 ,000 NYPD officers across all our emergency departments. The statement does not indicate any disciplinary action has been taken against the staff involved in this incident. Coming up, former special prosecutor Jack Smith faces heat from the GOP in an appearance before the House Judiciary Committee and the story of a woman who credits Barron Trump with saving her life.

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9:55And burning fat helps keep the weight off. If you want to lose meaningful weight at a healthy pace and keep it off, consider adding lean to your diet and exercise lifestyle. Get 20 % off when you enter mkattakelean.com. That's code mkattakelean.com. Former special counsel Jack Smith appearing before the House Judiciary Committee yesterday, defending his collapsed cases against President Trump as Republicans accused him of overreach, secrecy, and abuse of prosecutorial power. Former Attorney General Merrick Garland appointing Smith in 2022 to oversee two investigations into then-candidate Trump, the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case and the 2020 January 6th case, both cases falling apart in 2024.

10:42Throughout the hearing, Democrats repeatedly coming to Smith's defense, praising his conduct and portraying him as a principled public servant always acting in good faith. Here, Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland, Eric Swalwell of California, and Joe Naguse of Colorado. Now, Mr. Smith, you're one of America's great prosecutors. While others may have devoted their lives to corrupt self-enrichment, you have devoted your life to the rule of law and to public service. We are grateful for your service to this country. We appreciate your fidelity to the rule of law. Mr. Smith, I want you to have the utmost confidence in what you did.

11:19You did everything right. You, unlike many here, are a man of honor. We spoke to Julie Kelly, reporter for Declassified on Substack, who has closely followed these cases from the very beginning. She says the day did not go well for Jack Smith. I think it was a disaster for Jack Smith. I think Democrats and Jack Smith himself and the media were preparing for him to really school the committee on all of Donald Trump's criminality. Then but for the president winning, he would have been able to easily convict the president in both of those documents case in J6. But that just did not happen. And I think you can tell, Megan, by the response, you know, of the media and even Democrats on the panel that this did not go well.

12:06So they had to spend every all of their time talking about Donald Trump, how he tried to steal, you know, overturn the 2020 election. And all of them would say on behalf of my state or my district, thank you so much for your service, your 30 years of service, because they recognize that I think most people view Jack Smith and the entire special counsel's operation as nothing more than a political witch hunt to try to damage and destroy Donald Trump before the election. Republicans walking through Smith's record, challenging his methods, focusing in particular on his decision to secretly subpoena the phone records of multiple GOP members of Congress.

12:45In other words, members of a co-equal branch of government to the executive, which employed Jack Smith. Those records obtained under non-disclosure orders, preventing the phone companies from notifying their customers that their records had even been turned over to prosecutors. Congressman Brandon Gill of Texas questioning Smith on non-disclosure orders Gill says Smith secured to obtain then House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's records. You did. And let me ask you, Mr. Smith, at the time you secured those non-disclosure orders, was Speaker McCarthy a flight risk? The nondisclosure order was based on concerns about...

13:23Was Speaker McCarthy a flight risk? He was not. Then why did your nondisclosure order refer to him as a flight risk? Sir, when securing a nondisclosure order, the risks don't have to be associated... You think the Speaker of the House is a flight risk? You think he's going to hop on a plane and leave the country? No. What I was trying to explain is with respect to a nondisclosure order, The risks aren't necessarily associated with the subscriber to the phone. They're the risks to the investigation. I think that you were using, this was clearly in reference to Speaker McCarthy, and you were using clearly false information to secure a nondisclosure order to hide from Speaker McCarthy and from the American people the fact that you were spying on his toll records.

14:09According to Kelly, Smith faced little resistance from the judges overseeing his probes. They were the ones who were signing off as chief judges of the D.C. District Court. Beryl Howell and then Jeb Bosworth took over as chief judge in the spring of 2023. They are both Obama appointees. They both have a long track record of anti-Trump animus or animus towards the president and January Sixers. I mean, Jeb Bosworth called January 6th an insurrection in a court or in a few court orders. So they were only too happy to act as a rubber stamp for first the DOJ, then Jack Smith and whatever they wanted.

14:50Kelly argues those approvals came with little concern for future scrutiny because these prosecutors and judges never expected Donald Trump to return to power. They never foresaw what happened in 2024. Republicans again taking over the legislative branch and Donald Trump back in the White House. They thought this would stay under wraps forever, or by the time this was disclosed, no one would care. There wouldn't be anything that anyone could do. And that's just not the case here, which is why Jack Smith stumbles around trying to give a good answer as to why he sought these NDOs. Elsewhere in the hearing, Congressman Daryl Issa of California pressing Smith on potential political motivations for seeking these records.

15:33To what end would conversations between the Speaker of the U.S. House and the President, In what basis would it be any of your business, you, like the president's men for Richard Nixon, went after your political enemies? Maybe they're not your political enemies, but they sure as hell were Joe Biden's political enemies, weren't they? They were the enemies of the president, and you were their arm, weren't you? No. Well, did you mention that you were spying on seeking records so you could find out about when conversations occurred between the U.S. Speaker of the House and the President? Did you inform the judge or did you hold that back?

16:14My office didn't spy on anyone. Time has expired, but we're going to let the witness answer your question because it's an important question. We did not provide that information to the judge when we requested a nondisclosure order consistent with the law and consistent with the... Mr. Chairman, the amazing thing here today is that we have an admission. Congressman Kevin Kiley from California tying it all together, demonstrating a larger pattern in which Smith repeatedly pushed legal boundaries. You also sought orders from judges, making it so those who were having their records seized would not know about it.

16:51Similarly, you issued a gag order against President Trump that the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated as overbroad. Is that correct? Well, the D.C. Court of Appeals, in passing on that order, found that it was justified. They narrowed the order, but because it was overbroad. In addition to that, you saw an early trial date that the district court rejected, and when you presented your prosecution memo to Attorney General Garland, it's been reported that he was visibly unimpressed and expressed First Amendment concerns. So, Mr. Smith, looking at the record, I see that you were reversed and rebuked by the Department of Justice itself, by the attorney general, by the solicitor general, by multiple district court justices, judges, by the Court of Appeals, and by the U.S.

17:33Supreme Court itself. So my final question is, do you believe that you made any mistakes? If I have any regret, it would be not expressing enough appreciation for my staff who work so hard in these investigations. Kelly says these failures reflect a broader pattern across Smith's entire career. Jack Smith has actually a terrible record before higher courts. He had a lot of luck in Washington, D.C. because he had two Democrat chief judges who were happy to give him whatever he wanted. And, of course, then bringing up the 8-0 reversal of Jack Smith's conviction of former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell and his wife.

18:13Also, he got a hung jury when he tried to try John Edwards the first time. I mean, this is one of the biggest prosecutorial losers of all time. Yet he wants to sit up there and act like he has a stellar 30 year career as a prosecutor and is above reproach. And that's just not the case. Barron Trump credited with helping to save a woman's life last year after witnessing an alleged assault over FaceTime and alerting UK authorities. Prosecutors on Wednesday playing a recording of a 999 call, the UK's version of 911, during the London trial of Matvei Rumyansov, a former MMA fighter accused of assaulting and raping his ex-girlfriend, who cannot be named under UK law.

19:03According to prosecutors, the incident occurring in January 2025, when then-18-year-old Baron Trump received a FaceTime call from a female friend in London and witnessed her being attacked. In the emergency call transcript obtained by UK outlet Metro, the younger Trump telling the operator, quote, I'm calling from the US. I just got a call from a girl. She's getting beat up. Barron then gives the woman's address, continuing, quote, I just figured out how to call someone. It's really an emergency. The operator presses him for details on how they met. Barron, focusing on the girl, says, I don't think these details matter.

19:41She's getting beat up. But okay, fine, I met her on social media. The operator accuses him of being rude with that comment and again demands to know how he and this woman met. I met her on social media, he repeats. Barron says again how badly this young woman is getting beaten up and expresses his concern, then tells the operator, so sorry for being rude. So sweet of him to say that. Authorities only learning of Trump's identity after arriving at the scene, the woman dialing Trump asking if he called the police. Trump's voice heard on body cameras telling authorities, quote, I just saw a ceiling and could hear screaming.

20:19I could see a guy's head on the phone and then the camera turns to her crying and getting hit. In court on Wednesday, the woman telling jurors, quote, he helped save my life. That call was like a sign from God at that moment. The trial remains ongoing. 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.