James Comey Indicted, Trump Paves Way for American TikTok Deal, NJ Gov Race Tightens: AM Update 9/26

Independent election experts, community groups, and President Obama agree.

Yes, on Prop 50.

As Trump tries to rig the next election by stealing congressional seats, Prop 50 defends checks and balances and reaffirms California's commitment to independent, nonpartisan redistricting.

This November, defend democracy.

Yes, on 50.

Add paid for by Yes on 50, the Election Rigging Response Act, Governor Newsom's Ballot Measure Committee, Ad Committee's top funders, Fund for Policy Reform, and HMP for Prop 50.

Good morning, everyone.

I'm Megan Kelly.

It's Friday, September 26th, 2025, and this is your AM update.

Former FBI Director James Comey indicted.

We wanted to keep TikTok operating, but we also wanted to make sure that we protected Americans' data privacy.

President Trump signs an executive order bringing the U.S.

one step closer to making a deal with China on TikTok.

A new report shows spring economic growth was much stronger than than anticipated.

He wrote that he intended to maximize lethality against ICE personnel and to maximize property damage.

Officials release more information about the motive of the alleged gunmen who opened fire on a Dallas ICE facility.

And the New Jersey governor's race is neck and neck.

Could the GOP flip the state red?

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

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A federal grand jury in Virginia indicting former FBI Director James Comey yesterday on one count of making false statements and one count of obstruction.

The investigation into Comey reportedly centering around alleged lies he told to the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 30th, 2020, regarding the Trump-Russia FBI probe nicknamed Crossfire Hurricane.

The accusation that he authorized leaks of information to the press, then lied about it under oath, and obstructed justice in thwarting Congress's oversight of the FBI.

The charge of lying to Congress has a five-year statute of limitations, meaning prosecutors faced a Tuesday deadline to bring charges against Comey.

Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on social media, quote, no one is above the law, a sentiment echoed by current FBI director Cash Patel.

President Trump responding, quote, justice in America, one of the worst human beings this country has ever been exposed to, is James Comey.

Comey himself posting this video to social media.

My family and I have known for years that there are costs to standing up to Donald Trump, but we couldn't imagine ourselves living any other way.

We will not live on our knees, and you shouldn't either.

Somebody that I love dearly recently said that fear is the tool of a tyrant and she's right but I'm not afraid and I hope you're not either.

I hope instead you are engaged, you are paying attention and you will vote like your beloved country depends upon it, which it does.

My heart is broken for the Department of Justice, but I have great confidence in the federal judicial system, and I'm innocent.

So let's have a trial and keep the faith.

The charge is brought by acting U.S.

Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, 36-year-old Lindsay Halligan, the president's former personal attorney.

Attorney General Bondi appointing Halligan to the job on Monday, despite her lack of experience in the criminal law and in prosecuting cases, to replace Eric Siebert, who left the position last Friday, reportedly over his reluctance to pursue charges against the president's enemies, including New York State Attorney General Letitia James.

Siebert saying he resigned.

President Trump saying last Saturday he fired Siebert.

Later that same evening, Mr.

Trump, in a post on Truth Social addressed to Pam Bondi, writing, quote, What about Comey, Adam Shifty Schiff, Letitia?

They're all guilty as hell, but nothing's being done.

Justice must be served now.

The president's critics, including Maryland Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, Adem, and Connecticut Democratic Senator Dick Blubenthal, sounding the alarm.

This is a political prosecution, pure and simple.

It's exhibit A of the corruption of this Department of Justice and our justice system.

And it comes in line with all the other lawless things President Trump is doing.

Anybody who thinks we're on the way to authoritarianism is wrong.

We are there.

Trump ordered this prosecution.

He is literally weaponizing the Justice Department.

I think we all ought to be frightened today because if Donald Trump can populate the Department of Justice with federal prosecutors throughout the country, nobody is safe.

Hmm.

After Trump was indicted, all three of these lawmakers declared, no one is above the law.

Okay.

President's critics say they're upset this indictment appears to have been at the behest of the president.

Guess they forgot the reporting in the New York Times, April 2022, of the fact that then-President Joe Biden had been pressuring his attorney general before even a single indictment had been sought against Donald Trump to get more aggressive, be more decisive, and to indict Donald Trump, which the DOJ then did twice, not to mention the state prosecutions in New York and Georgia, both of which had federal help.

Attorneys Mike Davis and Dave Ehrenberg will be on the Megan Kelly show later today to unpack the charges, along with just the news journalist John Solomon.

President Trump signing an executive order yesterday clearing the way for American investors to run a separate U.S.-based version of Chinese app TikTok in compliance with a ban signed under the Biden administration.

A deal for the app, one of the most widely used in the world, in the works since the first Trump administration.

President Trump yesterday from the Oval saying, Chinese President Xi Jinping is giving the green light.

I had a very good talk with President

The biggest, you don't get bigger, I don't imagine.

In April of 2024, President Biden signing a bill to ban TikTok unless it was sold to a U.S.

company.

It was a ban first floated by President Trump during his first term.

Upon taking office the second time, President Trump signing an executive order postponing the ban's effective date, allowing the U.S.

more time to make a deal with China.

The law requires ByteDance to divest about 80% of its U.S.

assets.

According to the executive order, TikTok's U.S.

operations and a copy of its highly addictive, highly coveted algorithm will be spun off into a new U.S.-based joint venture.

According to the executive order, ByteDance will own own less than 20% of the company.

The rest of the ownership will be composed of American investors and run by an American board of directors.

American software company Oracle will oversee TikTok data and privacy.

The remaining ownership and just who's on that board, not yet clear.

However, CNN reporting that the ownership is likely to include several companies owned by right-wing billionaires, including Mark and Drayson and the Murdoch family.

Under the deal, these companies would, in cooperation cooperation with the government, monitor the U.S.

algorithm to ensure content is free from improper manipulation or surveillance.

Vice President J.D.

Vance says this will ensure user safety on TikTok.

The fundamental thing that we wanted to accomplish is that we wanted to keep TikTok operating, but we also wanted to make sure that we protected Americans' data privacy as required by law, both because it's the right thing to do, but also because it's a legal requirement of the law that was passed last year by Congress.

But this deal really does mean that Americans can use TikTok, but actually use it with more confidence than they had in the past because their data is going to be secure and it's not going to be used as a propaganda weapon against our fellow citizens.

However, the left wing has other concerns.

CNN putting it this way: quote, chances for potential Chinese manipulation of U.S.

data would be much lower.

Chances for yet another right-wing takeover of a super popular social media app just went up exponentially.

Coming up, Dallas officials release more information about the shooter who opened fire on an ICE facility, pointing to a clear-cut anti-ICE motive.

Will the liberal media report it?

And new polling shows the New Jersey governor's race.

New Jersey is neck and neck.

Could the Garden State actually go red?

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Newly revised spring economic numbers revealing a much stronger economy than previously believed, surpassing expectations.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis now estimating second quarter GDP, the broad measurement of economic growth, increased at a 3.8% rate, up 0.8% from the original report and 0.5% from the previous revision.

This marks the final revision of Q2 data, CNBC breaking down the significance of this report.

Now, on the GDP side, this is our third time around the block on Q2, and we see a really solid revision.

3.8%.

I'm a bit shocked, to be honest.

Usually the revisions as you get to second and third become smaller and smaller.

So 3.8% would be the best quarter going back to, and we have to go back a ways here, to 4.4, and that was the third quarter of 23.

Now, it is important to point out that if you look at the first quarter final, down half a percent, there's a balance there, but the balance is moving in favor, and momentum is moving in favor for better growth.

The growth driven largely by an increase in consumer spending, a key force behind economic output.

This new data showing President Trump's tariffs have not had the negative impact on consumers warned about by opponents to his economic tactic.

Commerce Secretary Howard Luttnick posting on X, quote: Biden's economy could never reach 3%.

President Trump's American First policies added 100 billion and fueled our extraordinary economic growth.

The experts doubted it.

Trump delivered it.

Authorities releasing new details on the motive of 29-year-old Joshua Yan, accused of shooting up an ICE facility on Wednesday in Dallas before taking his own life.

Within hours of the shooting, FBI Director Cash Patel releasing photos of unspent ammo marked with the words, anti-ice.

Many in the media attempting attempting to downplay that information as ambiguous or ignore it altogether.

Acting U.S.

Attorney for Northern Texas Nancy Larson on Thursday said investigators executed multiple search warrants confirming Jan's clear leftist anti-ICE motive.

He called the ICE employees people showing up to collect a dirty paycheck.

He wrote that he intended to maximize lethality against ICE personnel and to maximize property damage at the facility.

He hoped to minimize any collateral damage or injury to the detainees and any other innocent people.

It seems that he did not intend to kill the detainees or harm them.

It's clear from these notes that he was targeting ICE agents and ICE personnel.

He also hoped his actions would give ICE agents real terror of being gunned down, and he did this to induce constant stress in their lives.

He hoped his actions would terrorize ICE employees and interfere with their work, which he called human trafficking.

And this, what he did, is the very definition of terrorism.

Authorities say the attack was planned months in advance.

The gun used in the shooting, a bolt-action rifle, similar to the one used to kill Charlie Kirk, was legally obtained in August.

According to FBI Director Patel, the alleged shooter searched Charlie Kirk shot video multiple times in the days leading up to the attack.

Investigators believe Jan traveled to the facility in his car around 3 a.m., bringing a ladder with him to access the roof.

Around 6:30 a.m., Jan began firing indiscriminately toward the building, shattering windows and striking a van carrying law enforcement officials and ICE detainees.

One detainee killed in the attack and two others were shot.

No law enforcement agents were injured in the shooting, despite the shooter's stated intent.

Director Patel also confirming in the lead up to the attack, Jan used apps to track the movement of ICE agents.

Press Secretary Caroline Levitt posting on X, quote, three months ago, CNN irresponsibly gave free publicity to an app that recklessly shares the location of ICE agents.

Levitt calling the liberal media, quote, complicit in the increased threats and violence against ICE.

ICE Field Office Director Marcos Charles saying the creation of these apps publicly available to anyone is quote no different than giving a hitman the location of their intended target.

And this is exactly what we saw happen in Dallas.

This week's shooting is the fourth attack in Texas this year on an ICE or CBP facility.

With just over six weeks to go until Election Day, the race for New Jersey governor is in a dead heat.

An Emerson College poll showing Democrat candidate and current U.S.

Congresswoman Mikey Sherrill tied with Republican candidate Jack Chitterelli at 43%,

with 11% still undecided.

Chitterelli appearing to surge in recent weeks as Sherrill sits at plus 6.5% in the real clear polling average.

This latest poll surveying 935 somewhat and very likely voters in the two days following Sunday's debate, the first matchup between the two candidates.

Executive Director of Emerson Polling, Spencer Kimball, saying, quote, both President Trump and Governor Murphy are underwater among Jersey voters.

Cheryl is trying to tie Chitterelli to Trump at the national level, and Chitterelli is trying to tie Cheryl to Murphy and the cost of living at the state level.

Chitterelli arguing during the campaign, Governor Murphy's pro-wind energy policies are largely to blame for the rise in energy costs, as Cheryl blames lack of transparency from utility companies advocating for building more green energy sources.

President Trump, who has endorsed Chitterelli, posting to Truth Social quote: Wow, a just-out poll has Jack Chitterelli essentially beating close-to-incompetent Mikey Sherill in the race for governor of New Jersey.

Jack is tough on crime and cutting taxes, two things that people really demand today.

He will be a great governor.

This election marking Chitterelli's third run for governor, narrowly losing in 2021 to Governor Phil Murphy in a 51 to 48 result.

That result coming in much closer than anticipated.

In 2024, President Trump losing the state to Kamala Harris by about 250,000 votes, also a much closer margin than expected.

Cheryl built her political brand on her service as a helicopter pilot in the Navy, her campaign logo containing a chopper, the top of her website featuring the candidate in a flight jacket.

Just hours after the latest polling dropped on Thursday, the New Jersey Globe reporting Cheryl did not walk with her graduating class at the Naval Academy in 1994 amid a massive cheating scandal.

Two dozen midshipmen expelled after the answers to an electrical engineering exam were shared among classmates in 1992.

Cheryl rejected a request to release the records, though telling the Globe, quote, I didn't turn in some of my classmates, so I didn't walk, but I graduated and was commissioned as an officer in the U.S.

Navy.

The candidates face off in another debate on Tuesday next week.

And that'll do it for your AM update.

I'm Megan Kelly.

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

Independent election experts, community groups, and President Obama agree.

Yes, on Prop 50, as Trump tries to rig the next election by stealing stealing congressional seats, Prop 50 defends checks and balances and reaffirms California's commitment to independent, nonpartisan redistricting.

This November, defend democracy.

Yes, on 50.

Add paid for by Yes on 50, the Election Rigging Response Act, Governor Newsom's Ballot Measure Committee, Ad Committee's top funders, Fund for Policy Reform, and HMP for Prop 50.