The Megyn Kelly Show - Nick Reiner Appears In Court, MIT Professor Murdered, FCC Chair Carr on the Hill: AM Update 12/18
Aired: 2025-12-18
Duration: 18:37


=== FCC Hearing on Free Speech (13:59) ===

[00:00:02]  Good morning, everyone.
[00:00:03]  I'm Emily Drushinsky, host of After Party and the Megan Kelly Wrap-Up Show on SiriusXM Channel 111.
[00:00:10]  It's Thursday, December 18th, 2025.
[00:00:13]  This is your AM update.
[00:00:15]  There are very, very complex and serious issues that are associated with this case.
[00:00:22]  Nick Reiner appearing in court for the first time after being charged with murdering his parents, Director Rob Reiner and wife Michelle.
[00:00:30]  FCC Chairman Brendan Carr in the hot seat on the Hill.
[00:00:34]  Senators grilling him over his role in the Jimmy Kimmel suspension.
[00:00:38]  It's scary to be in Brookline.
[00:00:41]  It's supposed to be the safe town.
[00:00:43]  An MIT professor shot in his home.
[00:00:46]  Police investigating as a homicide.
[00:00:48]  And President Trump preparing to reclassify marijuana to a lower level.
[00:00:54]  All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM update.
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[00:02:12]  Nick Reiner appearing briefly in court yesterday morning after being charged with murdering his parents, legendary director Rob Reiner and wife Michelle.
[00:02:21]  32-year-old Nick originally sent to appear on Tuesday, but was not medically cleared for transfer from the jail to the courthouse in Los Angeles.
[00:02:30]  The judge allowing cameras in the courtroom, but saying they are not allowed to show Nick, who appeared in court wearing an anti-suicide smock.
[00:02:38]  Nick waiving his right to a speedy arraignment.
[00:02:41]  His criminal defense attorney, Alan Jackson, addressing reporters outside the courthouse yesterday morning.
[00:02:47]  This is a devastating tragedy that has befallen the Reiner family.
[00:02:52]  We all recognize that.
[00:02:53]  Our hearts go out to the entire Reiner family.
[00:02:57]  There are very, very complex and serious issues that are associated with this case.
[00:03:04]  These need to be thoroughly but very carefully dealt with and examined and looked at and analyzed.
[00:03:12]  We ask that during this process you allow the system to move forward in the way that it was designed to move forward.
[00:03:19]  Not with a rush to judgment, not with jumping to conclusions, but with restraint and with dignity and with the respect that this system and this process deserves and that the family deserves.
[00:03:32]  So with that, we are set for January 7th for an arraignment.
[00:03:37]  This was a continuance of arraignment.
[00:03:39]  Nothing happened today substantively.
[00:03:41]  We'll be back for an arraignment in the same department on the 7th of January.
[00:03:46]  Nick will remain in custody without bail at least until that next hearing.
[00:03:50]  Prosecutors charging Nick with two counts of first-degree murder with a special circumstance of multiple murders, an enhancement allowing prosecutors to seek life without parole or the death penalty.
[00:04:03]  Nick also charged with a special allegation of using a dangerous and deadly weapon, that being the knife he allegedly used to stab his parents to death.
[00:04:13]  LA County District Attorney Nathan Hockman saying on Tuesday, prosecutors have not yet decided if they will pursue the death penalty, but will take surviving family members' wishes into consideration.
[00:04:26]  California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, issuing a moratorium on executions in 2019, but prosecutors are still allowed to seek the death penalty.
[00:04:37]  The New York Times, citing a source close to the family, reporting daughter Romy discovered her father's body on Sunday.
[00:04:44]  Romy receiving a call from a massage therapist saying there was no response at the gate for a scheduled appointment.
[00:04:50]  Romy and her roommate then going to the house where she fled after seeing her deceased father.
[00:04:56]  The roommate placed the 911 call.
[00:04:58]  Romy did not see her mother, but was later told by paramedics that Michelle too was deceased.
[00:05:04]  Romy and brother Jake issuing a statement on Wednesday, quote, the horrific and devastating loss of our parents, Robin Michelle Reiner, is something that no one should ever experience.
[00:05:15]  They weren't just our parents.
[00:05:16]  They were our best friends.
[00:05:18]  We now ask for respect and privacy, for speculation to be tempered with compassion and humanity, and for our parents to be remembered for the incredible lives they lived and the love they gave.
[00:05:31]  Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, Brendan Carr testifying yesterday in front of the Senate Commerce Committee, along with Olivia Trustee and Anna Gomez, both FCC commissioners.
[00:05:43]  Carr making headlines earlier this year by publicly commenting on whether ABC should discipline Jimmy Kimmel in the wake of the host's comments about Charlie Kirk's murder on his late night show.
[00:05:54]  Carr saying on the Benny Johnson podcast, quote, we can do this the easy way or the hard way.
[00:05:59]  These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there's going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.
[00:06:08]  Later that day, Nexstar, the largest owner of local TV stations in the U.S., announcing it would preempt Kimmel's show.
[00:06:15]  Sinclair, another large station operator, also following suit, blacking out Kimmel in millions of homes.
[00:06:21]  ABC then suspending the host for six days.
[00:06:25]  Broadcast networks, like ABC, which use public airwaves, are subject to FCC oversight and required to operate in the public interest.
[00:06:35]  The FCC can yank a company's license if it violates laws and regulations.
[00:06:40]  Carr at the time, and again in yesterday's hearing, maintaining he was not threatening to pull ABC's license if it did not fire Kimmel, rather was encouraging other companies to choose not to air the show if they deem that best for the business.
[00:06:55]  That subject taking much of the hearing's time.
[00:06:58]  Senator Gary Peters of Michigan, a Democrat, challenging Carr.
[00:07:02]  I'm just going to ask you just a simple yes or no question.
[00:07:06]  Will you commit here today that you will not move to revoke any media license for broadcasters or retaliate in any way against broadcast companies merely for choosing to host content that is critical of the president or says something that he may not like?
[00:07:24]  Yes or no?
[00:07:25]  Very simple.
[00:07:26]  Senator, any broadcaster that complies with the public interest standard is not in any risk at all.
[00:07:32]  If a broadcaster is engaging in broadcast hoax or violation of news distortion policy or political equal opportunity, there's going to be work for the FCC potentially there.
[00:07:42]  You will not revoke licenses so we can go back that you will do that.
[00:07:44]  You won't revoke licenses or retaliate if they're simply engaging in free speech.
[00:07:50]  There is no First Amendment right to an FCC license.
[00:07:55]  And the Supreme Court has said that the FCC enforcing the public interest standard on licensees is not a violation of the First Amendment or censorship.
[00:08:02]  Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, a Republican who roundly criticized Carr's pressure campaign in September, questioning the chairman on free speech.
[00:08:12]  Democrat or Republican, we cannot have the government arbitrating truth or opinion.
[00:08:21]  Mr. Chairman, my question is this.
[00:08:22]  So long as there is a public interest standard, shouldn't it be understood to encompass robust First Amendment protections to ensure that the FCC cannot use it to chill speech?
[00:08:37]  Yes, Senator, I agree with you there.
[00:08:38]  So first and foremost, we have to make sure the FCC is hewing to precedent.
[00:08:42]  Similarly, we saw Democrats in Congress write letters to cable companies pressuring them to drop Fox News, OAN, and Newsmax because they disagree with the political perspectives of those cable channels.
[00:08:54]  And there, again, it was cable.
[00:08:56]  No broadcast license, no public interest standards.
[00:08:59]  So the FCC has to write within the four corners of our precedence to be consistent with the Communications Act and the First Amendment concerns as well.
[00:09:08]  In an exchange with Democrat Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Carr expanding on the FCC's role in regulating broadcast networks.
[00:09:16]  Well, my position on this is pretty clear.
[00:09:18]  We have a public interest standard that Congress has put into the law, and there's a number of very specific rules and doctrines that flow from that, the broadcast hoax rule, the news distortion rule.
[00:09:28]  So my position, and I think the Trump administration position, is that we should be enforcing those rules and policies.
[00:09:34]  If Congress wants to change it, you're free to change it.
[00:09:37]  Carr also making waves when questioned about the FCC's independence from the White House.
[00:09:43]  In this round, was Senator Benre Luhan, Democrat from New Mexico.
[00:09:47]  Chairman Carr, yes or no, and please, yes or no?
[00:09:50]  Is the FCC an independent agency?
[00:09:53]  Well, there's a test for this in the law in the key portion of that test.
[00:09:56]  or no, Brendan?
[00:09:57]  The key portion of that test is...
[00:09:59]  Okay, I'm going to go to Commissioner Trustee.
[00:10:00]  So just so you know, Brendan, on your website, it just simply says, man, the FCC is independent.
[00:10:06]  This isn't a trick question.
[00:10:07]  Okay.
[00:10:07]  The FCC is yes or no.
[00:10:09]  It's not.
[00:10:09]  Okay.
[00:10:10]  It's not.
[00:10:10]  So is your website wrong?
[00:10:12]  Commissioner Olivia Trustee expanding on the answer.
[00:10:15]  Senator, thank you for the question.
[00:10:17]  The president is the chief executive vested with all executive power in our government, and FCC commissioners are not.
[00:10:23]  We do not have four cause removal protections, which means that we aren't independent.
[00:10:26]  So is your website lying?
[00:10:28]  I can't speak to the website.
[00:10:29]  I've not seen that.
[00:10:31]  Those comments generating a flurry of headlines, as some online noted the language on the FCC's website changing in real time to remove references to the agency's independence under the second Trump administration, the president moving to oust officials from a number of executive agencies long viewed as operating with a degree of independence from the White House.
[00:10:53]  Some of those removals triggering legal battles that went all the way to the Supreme Court, where the justices have so far generally sided with the president with the preliminary rulings on the so-called emergency docket.
[00:11:06]  The High Court expected to rule on the merits of Trump's ability to fire agency heads this spring.
[00:11:13]  Coming up, an MIT professor shot in his home, police investigating it as a homicide.
[00:11:19]  And President Trump reportedly set to reclassify marijuana.
[00:11:28]  As President Trump is settling into his new administration, one of the top Democrats in Congress aiming to undermine the Trump agenda is Senator Dick Durbin.
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[00:12:07]  Professor and director of MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center, Nuno Lerrero, age 47, found shot inside his Brookline, Massachusetts apartment Monday night.
[00:12:18]  Lerrero dying at the hospital on Tuesday morning.
[00:12:21]  Police now investigating the shooting as a homicide.
[00:12:24]  An upstairs neighbor in the apartment building, located in an affluent neighborhood in the Boston area, hearing multiple gunshots around 8.30 p.m.
[00:12:33]  The Boston Globe reporting the neighbor then opened her front door to see Lerrero lying on his back inside the building's entrance.
[00:12:41]  She called police.
[00:12:42]  Lerrero's wife and another neighbor also reporting the incident.
[00:12:46]  Other neighbors describing the event to local outlet Boston25.
[00:12:50]  I heard three loud bangs.
[00:12:53]  I thought at first it was somebody in our apartment kicking in a door or something.
[00:12:57]  It's really a surprise.
[00:12:59]  And a shooting in a state where it's so hard to even have a gun?
[00:13:03]  It's scary to be in Brookline.
[00:13:05]  It's supposed to be the safe town.
[00:13:07]  It's terrible.
[00:13:08]  I mean, I don't know what happened or why it happened.
[00:13:11]  It's very scary, though.
[00:13:13]  We're living in such terrible times right now that seems like violence is just happening everywhere.
[00:13:19]  Special agent in charge of FBI Boston, Ted Docs, saying Tuesday there does not appear to be any connection between this shooting and the Brown University shooting, which occurred about 50 miles away.
[00:13:30]  Police saying yesterday morning, no suspects are in custody.
[00:13:35]  The professor joining the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2016, MIT News writing, quote, his research on magnetized plasma dynamics, magnetic field amplification, and confinement and transport in fusion plasmas helped inform the design of fusion devices that could harness the energy of fusing plasmas, bringing the dream of clean, near-limitless fusion power closer to reality.

=== Cannabis Links to Psychosis (03:58) ===

[00:14:02]  Investigators have not yet identified a motive in the attack, and it remains unclear why Lerrero may have been targeted.
[00:14:09]  Lerrero is survived by his wife, Inez, and three children.
[00:14:14]  President Trump reportedly expected to sign an executive order reclassifying cannabis, the marijuana plant, from a Schedule I to a Schedule III drug as soon as this week.
[00:14:25]  Under DEA guidelines, Schedule I drugs, including heroin, ecstasy, and LSD, have, quote, no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.
[00:14:37]  Schedule III drugs like Tylenol with codeine, testosterone, and ketamine have, quote, a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence.
[00:14:47]  The reclassification would not legalize marijuana at the federal level, which would require an act of Congress.
[00:14:54]  President Trump, Monday from the Oval, discussing the move.
[00:14:58]  A lot of people want to see it, the reclassification, because it leads to tremendous amounts of research that can't be done unless you reclassify.
[00:15:07]  So we are looking at that very strongly.
[00:15:09]  Mr. Trump referencing the FDA's ability to study marijuana for medical purposes.
[00:15:14]  Four people with knowledge of the order telling NBC News the executive order is expected to direct federal officials to formally conclude the rescheduling process, which is currently ongoing, and move to redirect the cannabis to Schedule 3.
[00:15:30]  President Trump campaigning on the issue in 2024, supporting a ballot measure in Florida to legalize the drug for recreational use, and emphasizing a focus on research for medical uses.
[00:15:42]  40 states in DC currently allow medical use of marijuana.
[00:15:45]  24 of those states and DC allowing recreational use according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
[00:15:53]  Washington State and Colorado becoming the first states to legalize recreational use in 2012.
[00:16:00]  Journalist Alex Berenson for years sounding the alarm on health risks associated with increased potency of the drug since its legalization.
[00:16:10]  As marijuana use has become normalized, THC concentration, the chemical that induces the high in many cannabis products, skyrocketing.
[00:16:20]  Here are two examples of Berenson on Fox, the first from last week and the second from 2019.
[00:16:27]  You have this really high potency cannabis that used to be, you know, maybe it was 1 to 3% THC.
[00:16:32]  Now if you smoke it, it's 20 or 30% THC.
[00:16:35]  And again, you can have extracts that are basically pure THC that are really easy to smoke.
[00:16:40]  You're not even smoking it, you're just inhaling the vapor, or you're eating gummies, edibles.
[00:16:45]  And so it's easy for people who consume a lot of THC.
[00:16:49]  And THC is addictive.
[00:16:50]  Cannabis is addictive, even though the people who back it say it's not.
[00:16:54]  It turns out that there is a proven link between cannabis and psychosis.
[00:16:59]  There's a very, very strong risk that if you smoke too much when you're in your teens, you're more likely to develop schizophrenia, which is really a devastating mental illness for people.
[00:17:10]  Awful for not just for the people who suffer, but their families.
[00:17:12]  It destroys families.
[00:17:15]  And furthermore, there's a downstream link between psychosis and violence.
[00:17:19]  So reefer madness basically is real.
[00:17:22]  While President Trump now supports increasing research on medical marijuana, Mr. Trump has often urged everyone to abstain from drugs and alcohol altogether, as in this 2019 clip from Take Your Child to Work Day.
[00:17:36]  And while I have you, never take drugs, don't drink alcohol, don't smoke, enjoy your life, okay?
[00:17:46]  No drugs, no alcohol, no smoke.
[00:17:50]  You don't need it.
[00:17:51]  It causes a lot of problems.
[00:17:52]  So just remember that if you learn one thing.
[00:17:58]  And that'll do it for your AM update.

=== Trump's Anti-Drug Message (00:36) ===

[00:18:00]  I'm Emily Jashinsky, host of Afterparty.
[00:18:03]  Catch the Megan Kelly 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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