Trump-Putin Summit Today, Newsom Gerrymandering Plan, Biden Trip Scrapped Over Steps: AM Update 8/15

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Good morning, everyone.

I'm Megan Kelly.

It's Friday, August 15th, 2025, and this is your AM update.

All I want to do is set the table for the next meeting, which should happen shortly.

President Trump's set to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin today, face to face in Alaska, the most significant step so far in the effort to end the war in Ukraine.

California Governor Gavin Newsom faces a crowd of tens,

unveiling a plan to gerrymander California in response to Texas's redistricting battle, an initiative facing a tough uphill battle.

That's more evidence that the staff around Joe Biden sheltered him and tried to hide the fact that he was in a massive mental and physical decline.

Newly released emails reveal Biden White House staffers canceled a planned tour of a large ship because there would be too many steps, but they couldn't keep up with him behind the scenes, they swear.

All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM update.

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President Trump set to meet one-on-one today with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Elmendorf Richardson Military Base in Anchorage, Alaska, the most high-stakes effort yet to bring a resolution to the war in Ukraine.

The meeting set for 11:30 a.m.

local time, that's 3.30 p.m.

Eastern.

Each leader reportedly accompanied only by a translator.

For what it's worth, your humble reporter has been alone with Vladimir Putin without anything but translators.

And let me tell you, he understands English very well, better than he lets on.

The translator almost feels unnecessary.

After the two leaders' initial meeting today, a broader working lunch is planned between the two delegations, the summit expected to conclude with a joint press conference.

This, the first face-to-face meeting between President Putin and any Western leader since the war began in February 2022, marking President Putin's first trip to U.S.

soil in nearly a decade.

President Trump Trump indicating Thursday from the Oval, this meeting is simply to take full stock of Mr.

Putin's intentions.

three minutes, four minutes, or five minutes, like we tend to find out whether or not we're going to have a good meeting or a bad meeting.

And if it's a bad meeting, it'll end very quickly.

And if it's a good meeting, we're going to end up getting peace in the pretty near future.

Today's summit, following months of failed attempts to negotiate a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine.

In recent weeks, President Trump publicly doubting Mr.

Putin's sincerity in reaching a settlement, setting a deadline of last Friday to reach a ceasefire.

On August 6th, two days before that deadline, Mr.

Trump ordering 50% tariffs on imports from India, aimed at punishing India for its purchases of Russian oil in hopes of putting a stop to them, a move designed to financially squeeze Moscow and push Mr.

Putin toward a deal.

Those tariffs set to kick in August 27th.

The same day as the secondary sanctions were announced, the Kremlin reportedly reached out to the White House requesting a meeting between the two leaders.

President Trump on Wednesday threatening additional punitive measures if progress is not made.

There will be consequences.

I don't have to say there will be very severe consequences.

Treasury Secretary Scott Besson on Fox Business Thursday challenging European allies to increase financial pressure on Russia as well.

I want to say that it is time for our European counterparts to put up or shut up.

They keep saying, oh, the U.S.

should do this, U.S.

should do that.

President Trump has put secondary sanctions or secondary tariffs on India because of their consumption of Russian oil, and the Europeans haven't done that yet.

As a matter of fact, the Europeans are buying the refined products that the Indian refiners make.

So we need some coordination here.

So if we are going to have a united front which will give President Trump maximum leverage, then I think that our European counterparts need to do their part.

Secretary Besson going on to say all options are on the table, including secondary tariffs on Chinese goods sold in America at commensurate levels to China's purchases of Russian oil.

Following today's events, President Trump planning to call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, then other European leaders to report on progress.

Russia currently occupies about 20% of Ukraine's territory.

President Zelensky consistently emphasizing Ukraine will not accept any deal that involves giving up additional territory.

The Trump administration repeatedly maintaining any deal will likely have to include land swapping, though what that means exactly has not been made clear.

On a Wednesday call between Presidents Trump and Zelensky and other European leaders, Mr.

Trump reportedly saying he does not intend to discuss dividing territory with President Putin without Mr.

Zelensky's participation in the discussion.

Political reporting, President Trump also told the European leaders the U.S.

is willing to contribute security guarantees for Ukraine if a ceasefire is reached with some conditions, so long as that arrangement is separate from NATO.

NBC reporting on Thursday evening, Mr.

Putin sounding positive ahead of the summit, saying he believes President Trump is making, quote, quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the fighting and reach agreements that are of interest to all parties involved in this conflict.

Mr.

Putin then adding the efforts are intended to, quote, create long-term conditions of peace between our countries and in Europe and in the world as a whole, end quote, particularly if the negotiations are extended to cover strategic offensive weapons treaties, aka nukes.

President Trump has on multiple occasions suggested after the war in Ukraine he would like to focus on denuclearization.

Critics of the summit arguing it amounts to a reward for Mr.

Putin, a sampling here from CBS, MSNBC, and CNN.

This is someone who actually is seizing this moment for domestic propaganda value.

Given that Russia used to own Alaska and given the significance of joint-based Elmendorf Richardson and Russian-American relations, it's almost like it was chosen to make Putin feel special or something.

You know, it's a personal meeting, but I think it gives advantage to Putin.

He would love to be able to run the country in the way that Putin runs Russia.

He would love to have this authoritarian, very strong hand and do whatever he wants to do.

And I think he just sort of looks up to the way that Putin runs things.

President Trump Thursday from the Oval reacting to that criticism.

No, I don't think it's a reward.

I think that what we have is a situation that should never have started, should have never started.

It didn't start under me, and for four years it wasn't even discussed.

And I could see it was going to happen after I left.

I could see what was happening.

Everything that we did was wrong.

Everything that was done was wrong.

Everybody's to blame.

Putin's to blame.

They're all to blame.

This is a war that would have never happened.

We'll bring you what happens at this historic summit on Monday.

Coming up, California Governor Gavin Newsom becoming the first Democrat governor to officially roll out a plan aimed at gerrymandering his own state in response to the Texas DOJ-ordered redistricting effort.

And newly released emails reveal Biden staffers canceled the president's plans to tour a large ship because it involved too many steps for the man they told us was the best Biden ever.

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Democrat Governor of California Gavin Newsom, speaking to tens of listeners, unveiling a plan to redraw his state's congressional map yesterday in response to Texas's push to approve a new map that would add five GOP-leaning House seats.

Governor Newsom calling for a special election on November 4th to approve new congressional maps through 2030.

If successful, the maps could erase as many as six GOP House seats in the Golden State.

Query how fair that would be to California's Republican voters, who, while comprising nearly 40% of the state's electorate, thanks to previous gerrymandering there, currently hold less than 20% of California's U.S.

House seats.

Typically, California's maps are drawn by an independent redistricting commission.

Newsom's plan would effectively override the commission for the next three election cycles, picking back up again after the 2030 census.

Newsom, at a Thursday press briefing, casting the effort as a righteous response to President Trump's threat to democracy.

This is the difference between what's happening in Texas and what's happening happening here in California.

We didn't receive a phone call from the President of the United States to then quietly go in the back room and start drawing maps and legislatively try to jam them through against the consent of the people.

We're doing precisely the opposite.

We're working through a very transparent, temporary, and public process.

We're putting the maps on the ballot and we're giving the power to the people.

This will be the first redistricting that's ever done.

That's the difference.

The governor saying later in the day he will drop the bid if red states considering redistricting drop their plans as well.

The state legislature is expected to vote next week on the governor's initiative.

Politico reporting, Democrat leaders in the state say they have the legislative votes necessary to approve the measure.

The plan, however, does not appear to have the support of the governor's constituents.

Politico's polling finding voters overwhelmingly prefer the state's independent redistricting commission by a nearly 2 to 1 margin.

Just 36% of voters support returning redistricting authority to state lawmakers.

The National Republican Congressional Committee responding in a statement, quote, Gavin Newsom's latest stunt has nothing to do with Californians and everything to do with consolidating radical Democrat power, silencing California voters, and propping up his pathetic 2028 presidential pipe dream.

Former Republican governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who spearheaded the creation of the independent commission, reportedly ready to fight the measure as well.

A spokesperson for Schwarzenegger telling political, quote, he calls gerrymandering evil, and he means that.

He thinks it's truly evil for politicians to take power from people.

He's opposed to what Texas is doing, and he's opposed to the idea that California would race to the bottom to do the same thing.

Outside of the event in Los Angeles, Border Patrol agents conducting a large-scale enforcement operation in the Sanctuary City and making several arrests.

Mayor Karen Bass blasting the Border Patrol saying, quote, there is no way this was a coincidence.

There was no reason in the world for them to come here.

This is a complete provocation.

This has nothing to do with safety.

This is the exact opposite of keeping our city safe.

It happens as the Trump administration vows to ramp up enforcement in sanctuary cities.

Recently uncovered emails from the Biden administration revealing Team Biden scrapped plans for the then president to visit the National Security Multi-Mission Vessel, a large ship ship at an event in a Philly shipyard because it would require too many steps.

The event planned for July 2023, just a few weeks after Mr.

Biden tripped and fell on the stage of the Air Force graduation ceremony, a fall the White House dismissed as the fault of a poorly placed sandbag.

Nothing to do with age, you see, but instead, as the Guardian later put it,

a minor accident that could have befallen any one of us.

In an email dated July 17th, 2023, an event coordinator writing, quote, no visit to the NSMV vessel is planned after the White House realized how many steps were involved to get on the ship.

A former Biden official telling Fox News the size of the massive shipyard would be considered in the planning of such events, adding that the email references steps and not stairs specifically.

How does that help again?

Fox News reporting on records obtained by nonprofit watchdog group protect the public's trust.

The concern over the president's physical capability, currently part of the House Oversight Committee investigation into a possible conspiracy among Biden staffers to cover up the true mental and physical state of the president, allegedly while usurping the powers of the presidency via the auto pen, a mechanical pen used to replicate the president's signature.

Head of the Oversight Committee, Congressman James Comer of Kentucky, telling Fox Business the latest revelation bolsters his investigation.

The new emails that have emerged show that they didn't want Joe Biden to go take one walk around a ship because they didn't feel that he could actually make enough steps without tripping or falling down.

That's more evidence that the staff around Joe Biden sheltered him and tried to hide the fact that he was in a massive mental and physical decline.

And there were a very small group of people that were around Joe Biden that shielded him from cabinet secretaries, they shielded him from the press, they shielded him from the American people, and yet these are the same few staffers that operated the autopin.

As part of the investigation, Chairman Comer so far interviewing several former Biden staffers, some, including former White House physician Dr.

Kevin O'Connor, pleading the fifth.

The next interview set for next week with former Biden spokesperson Ian Sams.

In September, former Press Secretary Corrine Jean-Pierre and former chief of staff Jeff Zeintz are scheduled.

Congressman Comer saying the basis of the investigation is to determine whether Biden's executive orders and pardons can be nullified in court if he can prove President Biden was not the one making the final decisions.

And that'll do it for your AM update.

I'm Megan Kelly.

Join me back here for the Megan Kelly Show, live on Sirius XM Tribe Channel 111 at Noon East, on youtube.com/slash Megan Kelly and on all podcast platforms.

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