The Megyn Kelly Show - Brown Shooting and MIT Murder Suspect Dead, HHS Takes on Child "Trans" Procedures: AM Update 12/19
Aired: 2025-12-19
Duration: 19:01


=== Brown University Suspect Identified (07:28) ===

[00:00:02]  Good morning, everyone.
[00:00:03]  I'm Megan Kelly.
[00:00:04]  It's Friday, December 19th, 2025, and this is your AM update.
[00:00:09]  Tonight, our Providence neighbors can finally breathe a little easier.
[00:00:14]  The suspect in the Brown University shooting found dead as authorities connect him to a second murder taking place days later and miles away.
[00:00:23]  This is not medicine.
[00:00:25]  It is malpractice.
[00:00:26]  We're done with junk science driven by ideological pursuits.
[00:00:31]  HHS officials announcing a set of proposals in an effort to prevent so-called gender-affirming care for minors.
[00:00:39]  Retired NASCAR driver and humanitarian Greg Biffle, tragically killed in a plane crash with his family.
[00:00:46]  The inflation report beats expectations as the White House touts a strengthening economy.
[00:00:52]  All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM update.
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[00:02:11]  They found him.
[00:02:12]  Late yesterday, authorities locating the man suspected of the Brown University shooting.
[00:02:18]  48-year-old former Brown University physics PhD candidate Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Salem, New Hampshire, at a storage unit about 90 miles away from the university.
[00:02:33]  Authorities say Valenti was a Portuguese national and his last known address was in Miami, Florida.
[00:02:40]  Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Narona saying Valenti originally came into the United States on a student visa back in 2000, receiving lawful permanent resident status in September 2017.
[00:02:52]  Providence, Rhode Island Police Chief Oscar Perez describing the police work leading to the storage unit.
[00:02:59]  The police were trying to find a man reportedly homeless seen on videotape who had apparently seen the suspect prior to the shooting.
[00:03:08]  That man, it turns out, took down the suspect's license plate and later provided it to police.
[00:03:14]  Listen.
[00:03:15]  All the new images that we received of this person of interest were shared with the media continuously over the past six days.
[00:03:23]  We looked at financial records, we looked at video footages, and in a specific incident, it was actually a video that provided us with a description of a vehicle.
[00:03:34]  That was corroborated through a tip that was received to the tip center.
[00:03:39]  Then Flock and the LPR was able to provide us with this description of this vehicle.
[00:03:46]  A vehicle was picked up by Flock, which led us to a car rental place in Massachusetts.
[00:03:52]  Through that, the agents and their work as well were able to get us footage of this individual as well as a copy of the agreement which provided his real name.
[00:04:03]  The video of that subject matched the description of that person of interest that this police department was desperate to put handcuffs on.
[00:04:12]  That individual was identified as Claudio Neves Valenti.
[00:04:18]  Brown University President Christina Paxson saying Valenti was enrolled at the university from fall 2000 to spring 2001 to study in the physics PhD program.
[00:04:29]  Valenti taking a leave of absence in spring 2001, then formally withdrawing in July 2003.
[00:04:36]  More here from Paxson.
[00:04:38]  During his time, Brown Nueves Valente was enrolled only in physics classes.
[00:04:44]  The majority of physics classes at Brown have always been held within the Barris and Hawley classrooms and labs.
[00:04:52]  He has no current active affiliation with the university or campus presence.
[00:04:57]  The press briefing beginning shortly after confirmation of Valenti's death, leaving authorities with limited information about the shooter.
[00:05:04]  FBI special agent in charge of Boston, Ted Docs, saying much of the investigative work remains in determining a motive and that the body was discovered near a satchel, two firearms, and evidence matching the crime scene.
[00:05:18]  Chief Perez saying investigators are not yet sure how long Valenti had been dead when they arrived at the storage unit.
[00:05:25]  Authorities saying they believe he acted alone.
[00:05:28]  Yesterday afternoon, reports surfacing of a link between the Brown University shooting and the murder of MIT physics professor Nuno Lerrero, age 47, a husband and father of three, who was shot at his Brookline, Massachusetts apartment building Monday night.
[00:05:46]  U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Leah Foley in a separate press conference saying the suspect and the professor attended the same academic program in Portugal years ago.
[00:05:58]  There is no indication, Foley added, that the gunman knew any of the victims at Brown University.
[00:06:04]  Foley detailing how authorities were able to connect the cases.
[00:06:08]  So investigators identified the vehicle that he had rented in Boston and then drove to Rhode Island.
[00:06:16]  And he was seen, the vehicle was seen outside of Brown and there was security footage that showed a person who resembled him.
[00:06:25]  There was online, there was financial investigations that were going on in the background that linked him not only to that car, but also to the hotels that he had rented and the cars, the car that he had used to not only drive to Rhode Island, but then back to Boston.
[00:06:40]  And then there was the security footage that captured him within a half mile of the professor's residence in Brookline.
[00:06:50]  And there is a video footage of him entering an apartment building in the location of the professor's apartment.
[00:06:58]  And then later that evening, he is seen about an hour later entering the storage unit, wearing the same clothes that he had been seen wearing right after the murder.
[00:07:08]  Foley saying Valenti went to significant lengths to avoid detection, switching license plates and potentially using European SIM cards in his phone to avoid geolocation.
[00:07:19]  She also said she was not aware of Valenti having any criminal record in the United States.
[00:07:25]  Investigators promising more information to be revealed in the days to come.

=== Protecting Children Amidst Politics (08:50) ===

[00:07:30]  Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday unveiling six proposals to prevent so-called gender-affirming care for minors.
[00:07:40]  HHS opting to refer to these treatments more accurately as sex rejecting procedures.
[00:07:45]  Secretary Kennedy on the administration's goals with these policy changes.
[00:07:50]  Doctors assume a solemn obligation to protect children.
[00:07:53]  Yet doctors across the country now provide needless and irreversible sex-rejecting procedures that violate their sacred Hippocratic oaths and danger in the very lives that they are sworn to safeguard.
[00:08:07]  The American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, battled the lie that chemical and surgical sex-rejecting procedures could be good for children who suffer from gender dysphoria.
[00:08:21]  This is not medicine.
[00:08:23]  It is malpractice.
[00:08:25]  We're done with junk science driven by ideological pursuits, not the well-being of children.
[00:08:32]  Under the HHS proposals, hospitals performing these procedures on children under 18 would be banned from participating in Medicare, a government insurance program for the elderly and disabled, and also Medicaid, which is a need-based government insurance program.
[00:08:48]  HHS says nearly all hospitals in America participate in these programs.
[00:08:52]  The proposals would not have any effect on hospitals and clinics that do not participate in these taxpayer-funded programs.
[00:08:59]  Chloe Cole, a girl who underwent this life-altering treatment as a minor before coming to terms with the reality that she could not be a boy, at the conference yesterday describing the lifelong impacts that a few short years of this treatment will have on her.
[00:09:14]  For me, it started with being lied to about who I was by adults outside of my family.
[00:09:20]  My doctors, rather than guiding me, they affirmed my childish misgivings about my developing body.
[00:09:26]  At 13 years old, I was administered puberty blockers and testosterone in high doses.
[00:09:33]  And when I was only 15, they removed my breasts.
[00:09:36]  But that mastectomy ensured that I am never going to be able to nourish whatever children I may have.
[00:09:43]  And this happened before I was even mature enough to understand that one day I would aspire to become a mother.
[00:09:49]  Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program would be prohibited from funding sex-rejecting procedures for patients under 18 and 19 years old, respectively.
[00:09:59]  Secretary Kennedy also signing a declaration stating these procedures do not meet professionally recognized standards of health care.
[00:10:07]  Additionally, the FDA is sending warnings to 12 manufacturers and retailers over marketing breastbinders to little girls who are distressed by puberty and want to suppress natural growth to appear more male.
[00:10:19]  FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty McCary with more information on the harms these things can inflict.
[00:10:25]  Breastbinders are a class one medical device with legitimate medical users such as being used by women after breast cancer surgery.
[00:10:34]  And these binders are not benign.
[00:10:36]  Long-term usage has been associated with pain, compromised lung function from atelectasis collapse and even difficulty breastfeeding later in life.
[00:10:47]  The warning letters will formally notify the companies of their significant regulatory violations and require prompt corrective action.
[00:10:57]  HHS will also move to reverse the Biden-era inclusion of gender dysphoria as a disability.
[00:11:03]  Dr. Mehmet Oz, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on the sinister political forces driving this twisted ideology.
[00:11:13]  We are in a weird place in America where we have mixed politics and medicine.
[00:11:18]  And do you know what you get when you mix politics and medicine?
[00:11:20]  Politics.
[00:11:22]  There is no medicine left.
[00:11:23]  We witnessed that with bizarre statements, predatory actions, and many other activities that I think have forced children to the tip of the spear where they have brunt the burden of this toxic combination.
[00:11:36]  We've been told that permanently altering bodies of children, and the children are told this as well, will bring them lasting peace.
[00:11:42]  few have achieved the inner peace promised by these charlatans and that the talking heads, the media personalities, the social media posts, all these have created a dishonest narrative.
[00:11:54]  And of course, many of these children are left with the most tragic parts of all the treatments that they've succumbed themselves to.
[00:12:02]  The American Civil Liberties Union saying it will take the administration to court.
[00:12:06]  What else is new?
[00:12:07]  Secretary Kennedy saying he is confident the administration will succeed.
[00:12:12]  The number of lawsuits with my name on it right now is almost beyond counting.
[00:12:18]  So we have, you know, we got everything that we do here.
[00:12:23]  We have excellent general counsel.
[00:12:27]  We know what we do, what we're doing is legal.
[00:12:30]  And if people sue us, they're welcome to, but we're going to win the lawsuits.
[00:12:34]  The administration's confidence likely buoyed by the fact that the High Court in June upheld a Tennessee law that prohibits medical professionals from prescribing or administering puberty blockers and hormones to minors seeking to, quote, transition.
[00:12:49]  The justices in that case declining to declare transgender individuals a constitutionally protected class that would trigger heightened judicial scrutiny of any law affecting them.
[00:13:01]  Coming up, a celebrated former NASCAR driver and his family killed in a plane crash in North Carolina.
[00:13:08]  And as the White House promotes a rebounding economy, the inflation report surpasses expectations.
[00:13:18]  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.
[00:13:27]  And according to our sponsor, the Electronic Payments Coalition, Senator Durbin has a new scheme, a government takeover of your credit card.
[00:13:35]  Today, Americans have thousands of choices in credit cards, but they say Senator Durbin's plan will result in less competition and less security.
[00:13:44]  And that means more risk for your credit and identity.
[00:13:47]  Learn more at guardyourcar.com and consider telling your senators to stop Dick Durbin's government takeover of your credit card before it's too late.
[00:13:58]  Retired NASCAR driver Greg Biffle, his wife Christina, and two children, 14-year-old Emma and five-year-old Ryder, killed in a plane crash just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina.
[00:14:10]  Three other people aboard the plane also killed in the accident.
[00:14:13]  The Cessna C-550 jet crashing while landing at Statesville Regional Airport.
[00:14:19]  Shortly after 10 a.m., flight trackers showing the Florida-bound plane taking off, then quickly circling back to the airport.
[00:14:27]  Christina Biffel's mother, Kathy Grossu, revealing on Thursday that those on board appeared to know the plane was in trouble, telling People magazine her daughter sent her a three-word text just before the crash.
[00:14:40]  We're in trouble.
[00:14:42]  Video of the crash site showing the small jet plane fully engulfed in flames.
[00:14:46]  Authorities have not yet identified the cause of the crash.
[00:14:50]  North Carolina State Highway Patrol spokesman Christopher Knox delivering an update on the investigation.
[00:14:56]  The FAA has been on the scene this afternoon and working through their initial phases of an investigation.
[00:15:03]  We've spoken with the NTSB.
[00:15:04]  They will be arriving early in the morning and then they will pick up the investigation taken from there.
[00:15:09]  The State Highway Patrol will remain throughout the night and as long as it's needed to preserve the evidence in this case.
[00:15:17]  As you can see or as you might have heard that the evidence does span throughout airport property and off airport property so we'll be working to secure that evidence and being in place as long as those federal authorities need us.
[00:15:30]  But as follow-up details specific to why the crash happened and those details that are compiled a part of that investigation, that will come from the NTSB in the days and weeks and months that follow.
[00:15:41]  So that's all the details really that I have for you.
[00:15:44]  That's all we're able to put out this time.
[00:15:47]  Biffle winning 19 races at the Cup Series level across his career, including the Trucks Series Championship in 2000 and the Xfinity Series title in 2002.
[00:15:58]  In 2023, Biffle named one of NASCAR's 75 greatest drivers.
[00:16:03]  In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene last September, Biffle flying his personal helicopter to deliver aid and rescue stranded victims.
[00:16:11]  Congressman Richard Hudson of North Carolina, writing in a statement, quote, I'm devastated by the loss of Greg, Christina, and their children, and my heart is with all who loved them.

=== Inflation Beats Expectations (02:39) ===

[00:16:21]  They were friends who lived their lives focused on helping others.
[00:16:25]  The Biffles flew hundreds of rescue missions in western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene.
[00:16:30]  The last time I spoke with Christina, just a couple of weeks ago, she reached out to ask how she could help with relief efforts in Jamaica.
[00:16:38]  That's who the Biffles were.
[00:16:39]  Our prayers are with their family, friends, and everyone grieving this unimaginable loss.
[00:16:47]  After 11 months, our border is secure.
[00:16:50]  Inflation has stopped.
[00:16:51]  Wages are up.
[00:16:53]  Prices are down.
[00:16:54]  Our nation is strong.
[00:16:56]  America is respected.
[00:16:58]  And our country is back stronger than ever before.
[00:17:03]  We're poised for an economic boom, the likes of which the world has never seen.
[00:17:08]  Just a few hours after President Trump's primetime address on Wednesday, the November Consumer Price Index, or CPI, the government's key measure of inflation, showing prices rising at just 2.7% year over year, dropping to its lowest level in months.
[00:17:23]  November's report reflects inflation cooling from September's 3% reading and beating analysts' expectations of an increase to 3.1%.
[00:17:32]  Harvard economist Ken Rogoff, reacting yesterday morning on CNN.
[00:17:37]  I mean, I was surprised.
[00:17:38]  It was a better number than anyone was expecting.
[00:17:42]  Look, inflation's been very high.
[00:17:46]  It's stayed high.
[00:17:47]  It has not been coming down.
[00:17:48]  But, you know, people were expecting it to be above 3%.
[00:17:52]  It was well below 3%.
[00:17:54]  I mean, I think the president will take this as good news.
[00:17:58]  The investors will think that interest rates will get cut more.
[00:18:01]  So, you know, it was a positive news.
[00:18:04]  There's no other way to spend it.
[00:18:05]  November's report marking the lowest inflation reading since July, following months of gradual increases after the administration's April Liberation Day tariffs announcement.
[00:18:15]  While the overall rate of inflation is decreasing, some everyday consumer prices remain high, including beef, coffee, electricity, and used cars.
[00:18:24]  The October report was skipped entirely due to the government shutdown.
[00:18:29]  Markets rising slightly on news of the report after a recent slump.
[00:18:33]  Let's hope this trend continues.
[00:18:38]  And that'll do it for your AM update.
[00:18:40]  We'll be back after the Christmas break with new live programming on Monday, January 5th.
[00:18:46]  In the meantime, join me back here for the Megan Kelly Show, live on SiriXM's PMK channel 111 at Noon East, on youtube.com/slash Megan Kelly and on all podcast platforms.
[00:18:57]  and have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.