Rubio Defends the West, El-Sayed Red Flags, Pike Conscious After Botched Execution: AM Update 10/8

Good morning, everyone. I'm Emily Jashinsky, host of After Party and the Megyn Kelly Wrap-Up Show on SiriusXM Channel 111. It's Thursday, October 8th, 2026, and this is your AM Update. Over time, we in the West came to feel ashamed of the very things that made us exceptional. Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivering a sweeping defense of Western civilization from Athens, Greece, warning the West against surrendering the very values that made it strong. I think there's some missed opportunities for him to help us know who he is, help us understand him. We don't know him. New warning signs for Democrats in Michigan. Party insiders and voters raising similar concerns about Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed. Krista Pike awake and talking after surviving Tennessee's attempt to execute her, as her lawyers head back to court and begin what they say will be a long legal fight. And an execution date now set for the Fort Hood mass killer, Nadal Hassan, facing death by. firing squad. 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That's promo code MK at TakeLean.com. Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivering a sweeping defense of Western civilization from Athens Wednesday, the Acropolis rising behind him as he traced America's political and cultural inheritance back thousands of years to ancient Greece. Secretary Rubio arguing the West's extraordinary success grew from qualities first celebrated here, ambition, courage, curiosity, competition, and the relentless pursuit of excellence. For 25 centuries since, the Parthenon has stood. Empires have risen and fallen beneath its shadow. And the progeny of the men who built it, the sons of Athens and Rome, have carried their civilization with them to the ends of the earth. Two and a half centuries after the founding of the American Republic, I stand here to testify to a debt that no lapse of time, no distance of space can ever extinguish. The history of America, the history of my country, is covered with the fingerprints of antiquity. Greece is literally carved into the architecture of our government. In the towering columns, in the domes and the monuments across our capital city, the city where our constitution was born, Philadelphia, is itself a Greek name. The Secretary going on to say too much of the modern West has lost confidence in that inheritance. We felt embarrassed that our achievements set us apart from the rest of the world. Our prosperity somehow became a source of guilt. We no longer believed we deserved and had earned our greatness. The word nationalism became a dirty word. And so we tore down our monuments. We condemned our own history. And in too many places, we taught our children to be ashamed of the countries they would inherit. In the process, we opened our borders and outsourced our industry and allowed our militaries to wither and to decay. And with every passing year, we seemed to outsource more of our sovereignty, transferring our decisions to global bureaucracies far beyond the reach of our control. Secretary Rubio arguing the choice now facing the West is whether to accept that decline or reverse it. Secretary Rubio: The course we take will determine whether the West maintains its place at the head of the world or resigns itself to a future of atrophy and servitude and decline. We will either choose to act now or lose the choice to act at all. Under President Trump, the United States has made its choice. We choose the unapologetic pursuit of national power to take back control of our critical supply chains, to re-industrialize our economy, to rebuild our defense, to fight for dominance of the technologies and industries of the future. Secretary Rubio: We choose to reach for new frontiers in advanced manufacturing and super intelligence, in drones, weapons, and warfare, in chips, minerals, cyber, and every other domain of human possibility, to unleash our energy, to rebuild our factories, to return our astronauts to the moon, and launch a new age of exploration in space. Mr. Rubio then turning to the threats facing the West today, and what he believes its alliances must be built to confront. Secretary Rubio: The threats we face today are every bit as real as they were on the dramatic stage of antiquity. National interest did not vanish in the face of international institutions. War did not disappear simply because we preferred peace. Other states continued to arm, to seek influence, to compete for territory, and technology, and resources, and markets, and energy, and power. There is new competition between great powers, and new powers again. There is vulnerability, aggression, terrorism, a whole universe of new threats and attacks again. And so we must rebuild our institutions and our alliances to face these threats together, understanding that the purpose of these things is not to abolish the sovereignty of the nations that constitute them. It is to defend them. Speaker 1: The speech building on a message the Trump administration has increasingly carried directly to Europe. Vice President Vance, sounding a similar warning in Munich last year about the continent drifting away from its Western inheritance. Secretary Rubio's stop in Athens, part of a three-country swing through NATO allies, beginning in Iceland, continuing through Greece, and wrapping up in Portugal today. New reporting from CNN revealing growing concern among Michigan Democrats about their Senate nominee, Abdul El-Sayed, even as El-Sayed himself predicts he will win the state by seven points. The polling showing a much closer race. The latest RealClearPolitics average, El-Sayed at 48.1%. Republican Mike Rogers at 44.9%. A 3.2 point advantage for the Democrat in a race RCP still rates as a toss-up. The two facing off tonight in their first debate as Republicans contend with voter frustration over the Iran war, high prices, and President Trump's tariffs. Rogers now putting some daylight between himself and the president on those issues, releasing a new ad yesterday calling for an immediate end to the tariff fight with Canada. Reuters noting Rogers had previously defended the president's tariffs, making this his second major break with Mr. Trump in recent weeks, after also calling for an end to the Iran war. Here's some of that ad. "Here in Michigan, we know that Canada is not our enemy. We need to end this tariff war. Now. As Michigan Senator, I'll bring both parties together to lower your prices. That's job number one. And Abdul, he wants to hit Michigan families with a $3,000 tax increase, the biggest in history. I'm Mike Rogers, and I approve this message because we're going to put dollars back in your pocket." Still CNN reporting the bigger concern for some Democrats is whether El-Sayed has fully reunited the party after narrowly defeating the more moderate Congresswoman Haley Stevens in the August primary. One prominent state Democrat telling CNN voters are ready to oppose Republicans but still need El-Sayed to give them a reason to vote for him. That same sentiment surfacing this week during an MSNOW focus group of Michigan voters. One Democrat arguing the party would otherwise be positioned for "extraordinary straight ticket support." "I think this election, if El-Sayed wasn't on the ballot, you'd probably have the highest percentage of straight ticket Democratic votes in this state. Simply because the Democrats are just frothing at the gums to vote anything anti-Trump." CNN reporting some of the most serious concerns are coming from constituencies Democrats traditionally rely on. Black political leaders telling the network El-Sayed still has work to do in their communities. One Detroit leader describing a conversation that left him with the impression El-Sayed's campaign did not believe it had to work as hard for Black votes, saying El-Sayed asked for his support, promised to invite him to a roundtable, and then never followed up. Black Democrats participating in that MSNOW discussion questioning whether El-Sayed is simply assuming their support. "I think there's some missed opportunities for him to help us know who he is, help us understand him. We don't know him." "And I think he's taking advantage that we as Black people are Democratic, and he thinks we're going to vote for him anyway. And I'm like, no sir, I'd like to put 'uncommitted' down on that little circle and move on. If you're going to Congress to represent me, I need you to talk about what's going on in this community." El-Sayed facing a different challenge among some Jewish Democrats. Lansing Mayor Andy Schor, who backed Stevens in the primary, telling CNN he remains uncomfortable with El-Sayed's rhetoric on Israel and will not support him until the two have a conversation. El-Sayed has said Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Schor saying he has yet to hear from the nominee, telling CNN, "If he doesn't need me, he doesn't need me." The private concern described by CNN matching what some Democratic voters are saying publicly. And it's now speaking to Jewish Democrats in Michigan who said they want to support their party's nominee, but remain deeply uncomfortable doing so. I would like everyone to know I support Israel. You know, I support the Jewish people. You know, their right to exist without hatred. Would you believe it? I don't know. Elsayed defending his outreach, telling CNN it would be impossible to spend enough time with every constituency that wants to hear from him, while insisting he has been showing up and listening. Now Democrats bringing in one of their biggest names to help in the closing stretch. Former President Barack Obama set to campaign. Alongside Elsayed in Detroit on October 24th, the first day of early in-person voting in Michigan. Coming up, Krista Pike surviving Tennessee's failed execution and now awake in the hospital as a judge orders the state to preserve evidence from the death chamber. And to date now on the calendar for the execution of the Fort Hood terrorist, Nadal Hassan set to die by firing squad. We are less than a month out. And the midterms are coming at us like a freight train. Make no mistake, if the House flips, it's a big deal for our economy. And it might be the Senate too. That uncertainty is one of the reasons to consider diversifying with gold from Birch Gold Group. 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Death row inmate Krista Pike awake and speaking after surviving Tennessee's attempt to execute her last week as her attorneys begin what they say could become a much larger legal fight over the failed execution. Pike regaining consciousness Tuesday, nearly a week after Tennessee executioners administered two doses of pentobarbital in an unsuccessful attempt to put her to death on September 30th. Pike sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old classmate. And had been set to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years. Her attorneys appearing in Nashville court yesterday, asking Chancellor Ayesha Miles to order the Tennessee Department of Correction to preserve evidence from the execution attempt while they determine what legal action comes next. The state arguing a preservation order was unnecessary. Assistant Attorney General John Ayers saying the Department of Correction had already collected and logged evidence from the death chamber. The hearing also raising the question of whether Tennessee Department of Correction had already collected and logged evidence from the death chamber. Judge Miles asking the state whether it could assure the court Pike's execution would not be rescheduled. Ayers saying he could not, noting any new execution order would ultimately come from the Tennessee Supreme Court. Governor Bill Lee suspending Tennessee's remaining execution this year and ordering an independent review of what happened, while the state's corrections commissioner has announced his resignation. Judge Miles ultimately siding with Pike's attorneys, ordering the state to protect a broad range of physical and electrical data. you