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In a special segment, we welcome JB McCuskey, West Virginia’s newly sworn-in Attorney General, to discuss his vision and priorities for the state. He takes us through his commitment to advocating for energy independence, defending constitutional rights, and the critical role state attorney generals play in fighting for justice and upholding public values. As political tides turn, our episode also explores the significance of state-level action in supporting a national agenda fraught with complexity and opportunity.
SPEAKER 04 :
Today on Sekulow, Karine Jean-Pierre blocks her rival from a critical final press briefing.
SPEAKER 05 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 04 :
Hey folks, welcome to Sekulow. We are taking your calls to 1-800-684-3110. That’s 1-800-684-3110. I’ve been traveling around, you’ll see why in a second, with different inaugurations going on, seeing some ACLJ alumni be inaugurated, which is great, into big and important positions to know that we’ve helped along the way and trained some of those folks is great. And of course, the bigger inauguration, of course, I think everybody’s ready and waiting for in Washington, D.C. on Monday and events leading up to that. We want to take your phone calls. Don’t 1-800-684-3110 because these administrations that are on the way out and I think a lot of these people would have been on the way out regardless of who won this election because I can’t imagine even a Harris keeping on a Karine Jean-Pierre at all I think she would have already had her own people and gone through the transition but we saw the final Karine Jean-Pierre press conference and now we’re hearing that she she wanted to be all about her how many press conferences she gave how many like questions I think she answered or I don’t know how many days and things like that and I talked about her personal sacrifices and talked about Biden but would not let John Kirby come in and actually provide some news which is I think important at the end of your administration the fact that this Israel Hamas deal we’ll see if it’s able to to actually come together it’s always you know it sounds great and it looked like it was something to celebrate but it’s never done until it’s done and this one has multi-parts to it so even the first part is not done until it’s done but she didn’t want kirby coming in to even speak about that So he had to make the rounds basically on all the networks and get out. And of course, he’s been very clear that the Trump negotiating team, President Trump, the incoming team, was there and also a part of these negotiations because they have to actually implement it. You know, this is going to be implemented by the president and the State Department and the people who are in the top negotiators. Remember, President Trump has negotiations. put in place a special envoy and team just for these issues out in the Middle East and to end this conflict they of course need to be a part of it because every one of these is fraught with issues never perfect and also not done until it’s actually done I mean and so you’ve even got issues coming up today we’ll talk about as well about you know will we even get to part one of this three-part deal that has been laid out before us and we’ll go to Will Haynes because Will the issue it was they even though Biden had his time last night to speak to the American people It was not really even about Biden. It was about her. That was bizarre. It was about a press secretary and not wanting to even talk about one of the bigger co-accomplishments, however you want to brand it. But you’d have to say that the Trump team was also part of it. So she didn’t want to do that much. And so she just said people can go on some phone call later and get info.
SPEAKER 06 :
That’s right. And as you look at the end of this, it was very bizarre that typically I’ll give her this. Typically, the final press briefing is kind of a chummy situation with the reporters that you’ve spent years with and thanking them. Not typically do you have a very large news item. that the people want to hear from the White House about, even if they’re only the White House for a few more days. And instead of having the normal people that would be there for that press briefing, people from the State Department, people like John Kirby, who is the spokesman for the National Security Council, She didn’t have any of them. And we’re going to talk to Rick Grinnell about this in the next segment. But it was such a selfish press conference to say, even though there’s something huge the American people need to know about, I’m not going to do my job on the last day. I’m just going to make this about me.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. All right, folks. 1-800-684-3110. Let’s join the broadcast. Rick Grinnell joining us next. We’re going to be talking about that. We’re going to be talking about the confirmation hearings and how we see those going. I will tell you this. A lot of these Democrat senators who have never gone on Fox News and have only gone on friendly news channels did not know what they’d be up against with how prepped people are who do live television and how locked in they are to conversations. I’ll leave it there. We’ll be right back on Sekulow with Rick Grinnell. All right, welcome back to Secular. We are joined by, again, someone who really gives us a lot of insight into all these Washingtons going on. That’s Rick Grinnell. He’s been a cabinet member in the intel world at the State Department. And, Rick, it’s always great to have you. I know you’ve been covering closely to what’s been happening in California and the fires there. But I want to first ask you about the press conference yesterday. the white house i mean usually these are there’s not something really big to talk about i mean so a lot of times this wouldn’t even be covered so heavily outside of kind of the washington media world of you know everybody you know back and forth and just kind of saying goodbye but there is something major to talk about where two teams on opposite sides of the political spectrum were able to get to a negotiated deal and assist that between Hamas and Israel. They’ve been clear that both the Biden negotiators and the Trump negotiators played a key role in that. Of course, the Trump team has to implement this deal, which is, you know, until it starts even being implemented, Rick, you know, is always right. You know, it could crumble at any moment. But she didn’t want to talk about that, which could have been a way to kind of go out on a success campaign. from these press conferences. Instead, it was about her and she wouldn’t even let John Kirby come speak.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, look, I think there’s real big trouble within the Biden administration. They don’t like each other. She undercut the State Department spokesman. She acted like she didn’t even know who it was. And then she said he speaks for himself. When he was speaking at the State Department podium, he complimented the Trump administration. She’s barring Kirby from coming in. She thinks that she’s successful in kind of creating enemies from within her team. But I can tell you that her reputation is taking a big hit. People will remember this later. And she’s proven to be a disastrous candidate. spokesperson for a disastrous administration. But let me just say one other thing, Jordan, you and I have talked about this in the past, but the Trump team, we handed the Biden team peace around the world. We literally handed them peace. They created multiple wars, one in the Middle East, one in Europe. They’re escalating. They’re not even getting better. We’re now going multiple years And it’s getting worse on both accounts. I get angry that we have to dig them out of this hole because there are no good options left. And so when we come up with a measure like a peace deal that clearly Donald Trump is the reason for this peace deal, it is not a perfect deal. But it’s because we have hostages that have been held for more than a year of escalating war. We are in a terrible situation because of the Biden team. We’re in a hole. And so I get angry that there’s critiquing of of our ideas. When the Biden team has put us into this hole, there are no good options left because of them.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, that they put everybody in a very tough spot who’s coming in. And this fact that they didn’t even want to acknowledge that this will have to be implemented, that this… again imperfect deal that we hope again leads to more families some families being reunited some families even you know getting the closure we don’t know how many people are actually alive how many people with these names that in the first release we represent a couple of them that were on that list and there’s no indication whether they’re going to be returned bodies or are they going to be returned alive and will we even get to that first stage of this deal so I wanted to talk to you about that too the idea here that I mean it right now as it stands yes the Biden team is still in office and of course that’s true until Monday when President Trump takes the oath and his team enters But I think what people are really seeing is when you’ve got these complications around the world, the Trump team wasn’t just transitioning. I mean, they were having to start negotiating well before President Trump takes the oath on Monday and making decisions about these deals that are never going to be perfect, certainly when you didn’t have any control of how you got to this point.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, and let’s remember, we never would have been in a war in Europe in a war in the Middle East if Donald Trump had been president these last four years. That’s just a fact. We delivered peace. We were having deals between the Arabs and the Israelis that were peace deals. Joe Biden delivered us war, and so now we’re trying to dig out from that. But let me give a little bit of context over the last year. The Israelis have had to ignore the Biden administration and make some very tough decisions they’ve been able to successfully take out the leadership of Hamas and really degrade this terrorist organization. The Iranians are back on their heels. This may be the time to take a vulnerable deal, to step out and be vulnerable, is my point. Time will tell. History will show if it’s the right thing. This deal is not perfect. But the reality is, We have not been put into a perfect position because of Joe Biden. And the choices are stark. And so I think the Israelis are recognizing they’ve been successful against Hamas. Maybe now is the time to create, you know, a measure where you take a risk and you reach out for peace.
SPEAKER 06 :
Rick, I did want to ask you real quick about the final speech from the president last night. We saw the final press briefing from Karine Jean-Pierre, but President Biden gave an Oval Office final remarks at the end of his presidency. Although we in the media and everyone have called for taking the temperature down, it seemed as if Dark Brandon returned and gave his one final shot across the bow at the incoming administration, warning of an oligarchy that’s a threat to democracy. Meanwhile, it’s not like they’ve had any shortage of billionaires propping up the Democrat Party for decades. But that as well as calling for a ban on stock trading in Congress, term limits on the Supreme Court. What did you make of this? What kind of came across as a little bizarre parting message from President Biden?
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, look, he’s living in an alternative universe. There are more billionaires that support the Democrats and Kamala than that supported Donald Trump. Donald Trump has completely changed, transformed the Republican Party. into a party of the working class, first and second generation Americans, minorities. This is not the party of George Bush or Mitt Romney. This is the party of Donald Trump, and it’s completely different. And I think that what you saw from Joe Biden is a real frustration. He was not happy. He was very negative. And I think it’s because he’s defeated his ideas. His far left ideas were defeated. He’s created wars. He failed with diplomacy. We were literally evacuating embassies first. We were the first country to do it. Anthony Blinken will go down in history as the worst secretary of state. Marco Rubio is going to be a fantastic secretary of state. He understands the world very clear-eyed. He is close to President Trump. Look, we got Mike Huckabee, who’s going to be the U.S. ambassador to Israel. I find the whole team coming in, Kash Patel, Pam Bondi, Tulsi, the entire team is literally focused on America and keeping America safe and prosperous. And I love it. I couldn’t be more excited.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, and it seems like when you do that, Rick, it also helps your allies and your friends around the world because when we do well… they do well and when we’re in a good spot they get into better spots because their enemies know that the superpower that backs them is in a place that you don’t want to mess with and we’ve seen under the Biden administration this kind of sign of weakness inside of you know what you can push this administration around a bit you can push this country around a bit there’s They tried to play it off like there was so much domestic disturbances and things like that, that what we really saw coming out of this election and even the lead up into this transition is that, you know, the American people seem pretty much pretty excited about something. just getting back to work and the basics and focusing on our country and our economy and our border and security, but also ending the conflicts around the world that have the ability to affect us and are affecting us, whether it’s security wise or economically.
SPEAKER 10 :
Look, common sense won this past election. Common sense is I was going to use the term like a wildfire, but I think living in Los Angeles, that’s probably too soon and inappropriate. But but the point is, is that people are really getting excited about common sense. The Democratic Party is devoid of common sense. And what we’re about to see is how common sense comes roaring back with our economy, with energy, with simple diplomacy. And that’s going to, I think, put the Democrats behind for the next, you know, seven, eight years. They’re going to have to figure out who’s their leader. Are they going to continue going woke or are they going to come back and have common sense?
SPEAKER 04 :
There’s a lot of… A lot of decisions the Democrats are going to have to make. And Rick, we’re excited to continue to have you on the team. You do have that special envoy position as well. And all of your insight today, I’m sure we’ll need it throughout next week as well. And keep us updated on California and what’s happening there and maybe some policy changes as well. We get back, folks. A good friend of ours, a former ACLJ colleague, someone I’ve known since I was 19 years old, a freshman in college at GW, just sworn in as West Virginia’s Attorney General. He’ll be joining us live. All right, welcome back to Seculo. We are taking your calls too, 1-800-684-31-Tennis. We are about to have this transfer of power, and you’re almost seeing it in real time when the world doesn’t stop because we say, well, on Monday we’re going to have large events over the weekend, and guess what? There’s still negotiations going on and peace deals and Israel and Hamas, and you bring those two teams together. It’s very uniquely American, by the way, that even with – the animosity that can be felt among the political actors coming out of a campaign season like this, that when it gets to those big issues, they can work together. But what’s also important, and it’s truly, I said this, I’ve said it A number of times this weekend, actually, and this week in West Virginia for their inauguration of their executive offices. And I think their new attorney general, J.B. McCuskey, is joining us now on the broadcast. Hey, J.B., how are you doing?
SPEAKER 01 :
Jordan, it’s good to see you, buddy.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, so you were inaugurated this week, and I think the day after your inauguration, maybe the day of your inauguration, the ACLU decided to file a lawsuit in West Virginia because of a school choice program and providing resources, and one of the departments providing resources to a Catholic school. I would say that, again, the Attorney General’s office there has been a busy one. Before you took office, you were the state auditor for eight years. You’ve been on the legislative side in your home state of West Virginia and now taking on the office of Attorney General. So where is General McCuskey focusing first in his first week or two in office as you’re getting settled in?
SPEAKER 01 :
So some of it’s just fun in the bathroom. But, you know, we like to call West Virginia freedom’s last outpost. And it is such an unbelievable honor as a lawyer to be selected by your fellow citizens to be the counsel for the people of the state of West Virginia. And we here in West Virginia believe that coal should be how we make electricity and gas should be how we make electricity. We believe in religious freedom. We believe in the Second Amendment. And we believe that Every American should be free to worship and to live their faith in the ways that our Constitution outlines is mandatory. So where is my focus? My focus is on the values of the people of West Virginia and showing the rest of the world that if you are a young family who values freedom, that this is the place where you should be moving your family and your business because there is no better place in this country to live and to raise your family.
SPEAKER 04 :
I want to tell everybody right now, one of the reasons why we’ve got JB on so early into just from taking the oath of office just a few days ago is because he’s not only a lifelong friend, literally since I think 18 or 19 years old, but he’s an ACLJ alumni, just showing you where some of our attorneys at the American Service for Law and Justice have landed who have decided to go the route of public service. JB is one of those who has, I think since I was a kid, In college, technically adults, I guess we were, JB, but you were always talking about West Virginia. It was always number one in your mind that you were going to go back to West Virginia, that you wanted to bring people into the state to see the state. You knew it could be run better. You knew that there were immense opportunities there, but that there were legal issues that needed to be handled so that it was a good place to start a business or move a business. And of course, you know, issues of governance. And so you started out with the in the legislature there. There’s been a big turnaround in West Virginia from kind of an old style Democrat state to a almost entirely Republican led state at the statewide level. I guess it is entirely Republican led at the statewide level. And so, again, it’s kind of, you know, pick and choose those opportunities. So as attorney general, what are your thoughts? First priorities, where do you think you can help people the most who are hurting in the state of West Virginia and probably eagerly awaiting not just the new government that they’ve got now in their state, but also the new federal government and administration that doesn’t see them as, and their industries, I would say, JB, as the bad guys?
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, so we are thankfully three days away from having President Donald Trump again, which is a huge boon for freedom and for the people of West Virginia. And I am joining a team of Republican attorney generals throughout this country who are committed to working with President Trump to undo the damage that’s been done over the last four years. And here specifically, that damage has been done to our natural resources industry. And, you know, in my private practice prior to becoming president, uh the state auditor i i worked in the energy industry i worked with the men and women of the coal industry i worked with the men and women of the oil and gas industry and there is no finer group of people no group of people who are more committed to american greatness than those folks um and so our number one priority is to start making electricity cheap again. We live in a country where we spend way too much of our income, especially middle and lower income families, just turning the lights on. And on top of that, we have an AI revolution that is happening in this country and in this world that is going to be powered solely by fossil fuel electricity. There is no other way to make this happen. And if we lose on AI, if we let China and Russia outpace our innovation in this way, it will be a disaster for our country long-term. And we know that the fastest, easiest way to make the electricity that’s going to make America once again the technological leader for the entire world, that’s gonna start and end with cheap, reliable electricity. And so it is our goal to make sure that we continue not only to support the coal and gas-fired power plants that we have online now, but to create an environment where new coal-fired and gas-fired power plants are going to be built. And I am so excited to work not just with our legislature, but with our industry leaders and with the Trump administration to make that a reality so that we can create another industrial revolution only in this way. It’ll be with AI that is being powered by West Virginia Natural Resources and the men and women of our natural resources industry.
SPEAKER 06 :
Kuski, this is Will. It’s great to see you. I did have a final question here. We’ve got a couple minutes left, but you mentioned earlier working with other Republican states’ attorneys general. And I think what many people, I know our audience knows this, but many people may not even think about is how important it is, especially when there is a conservative in the White House to have states that have like-minded attorneys general that can fight what the leftist states that are going to try to fight every step of the way against the administration, to have attorneys general like yourself fighting as a state to support conservative ideals and uphold our Constitution in the United States.
SPEAKER 01 :
You can make an argument that there is no more important group of people in the American government world than attorney generals. We have the ability to swiftly and quickly not only change laws, but to get them removed as unconstitutional. We know that Congress acts slowly. We know that that is like turning the Titanic. But when you’re working in the world of attorney generals, we can enter basically any jurisdiction in this country and determine that laws that are passed by leftists and people who are against the freedoms that we all enjoy are quickly struck down with the understanding that we know what the Constitution says. We are originalists. We understand what they meant and that these things go far beyond what our founding fathers wanted. Just as a great example, the state of New York just in the last month has passed a law that is going to fine natural resources companies right here in West Virginia somewhere to the tune of $750 million a year based on junk science. And we are going to stand with every one of our attorney generals as we support our trucking industries, our coal industries, and every single part of this country that is being affected by those who don’t see the Constitution of the United States the same way we do.
SPEAKER 04 :
Attorney General, it was great to be with you this week. It was emotional. We’re going to be putting a lot of ACLJ resources into West Virginia as well to make sure you can accomplish as much as you can in this first term as Attorney General. Thank you for joining us in your first week in office. We’ll be right back, folks.
SPEAKER 05 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow.
SPEAKER 04 :
And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. All right. So we’re talking about a little bit about Kareem Jean-Pierre, her final press conference where she did not want to have John Kirby, who had substantive items and even announcements to make that would be positive for the Biden administration to take any of her time. So he had to spend time making his rounds on different television networks. And then, of course, the State Department didn’t want to really discuss their success because they obviously made it clear that they included the Trump special envoy team on the situation involving Israel and Hamas. in these negotiations in Doha to make sure that they were in agreement with everything they were part of every decision and they would be able to be able to implement this because the Biden team is going to be gone as this is implemented so they had to be at the table and she didn’t really want you to see any of that I don’t even know if it was really about Joe Biden either it seemed to be about her how much she had done for Joe Biden but obviously whatever she had done for Joe Biden wasn’t very helpful politically because, one, he couldn’t even remain as his party’s presidential candidate, which there’s been so much discussion about the last two weeks, even by Biden himself coming out and saying, I think I could have won if I was still the candidate, things like that, looking back. But And I do think we’ll learn a lot more about how that all went down when this administration does come to a close on Monday. But we also have things to look forward to, like talking to General McCuskey and JB, who has worked with us at the ACLJ against someone who’s been a friend of the family, like part of the family, and my family, since we were 18 to 19 years old. and undergraduates at GW in Washington DC and you know unlike a lot of people who are in Washington DC his goal in life was not to figure out how to get back to Washington and it was to help his state of West Virginia and there we’ll see and you see that in another photo Don Parsons who has been with ACLJ a couple times went back and worked in his home state of Ohio and was the lead attorney counsel to the Ohio State Senate because they wanted to get things done on the ground that benefited the people and their families that they care about the most, their home states. And so Sub ended up joining us again. Of course, we do the work at the state level and the federal level, at the individual level, at the ACLJ. And Will, what is… I think great about all these stories you see them coming together is those in the ACLJ, those are right now outside of the ACLJ, but are taking on big positions and are ready to make big changes to really reform the problems they’ve seen in their home states and to get the law out of the way. That’s right Jordan and if you also think about regulations get them out of the way so their companies and businesses it can be a state where you could say you know what I’m looking for this and this I can consider West Virginia because it’s got good regulations and good laws and we want more of those red states like that.
SPEAKER 06 :
And many times when you see positive changes come about in our country as JB mentioned about how slow congress is it’s when you have a conservative constitutionalist attorney general Look at something either the federal government has done or something old within their state or something that they get a challenge in federal court on. And then when that gets to the Supreme Court of the United States, when you look at the docket of the Supreme Court of the United States, many times either the defendant or the plaintiff is one of the states. And that creates precedent for the entire country. So when you have someone that is young, very smart, very accomplished, and great at their job, that knows how to look for the things that can help reestablish some of the constitutional protections we need, That’s why the attorneys general of the states are so important and so powerful is that in many times when you sue the federal government, you want to sue a friendly administration because then that changes the way the case plays out. And when you have a Supreme Court that we have currently make up, there is a very good chance for real reform through the legal path. that we didn’t have over the last four years.
SPEAKER 04 :
Listen, we filed a lot of federal lawsuits under the first Trump administration because we had so many federal agencies acting alongside the deep state to try and undermine the president. So those FOIAs to get the information, the leaks that were going on, those were all technically filed against agencies the Trump administration controlled but wasn’t able to actually get in control of. That won’t happen again, I don’t think, in this administration. We’ll be right back. So it’s great to have Rick Riddell, great to have Attorney General J.B. McCuskey of West Virginia. I like using that title now, General McCuskey. I actually took the oath, I think it was 12.01 a.m. the night before, late before, and because of some laws there, and then they do the inauguration that we all attended and the events that follow. But it’s just, even though we are still, I’d say, on the younger side of the legal world, maybe, it’s been a long road to get to those points of executive office and to move up into those key executive offices that can make such a difference, as JB said, so quickly in his home state of West Virginia. Of course, having Rick Grinnell as part of our team as well, looking at it from the federal side and really internationally at the entire world. I did want to, though, talk about, and this is, I think, uh very important uh will because the the hearings i have you know has been traveling and we’ve been watching those hearings from hotel rooms and and radios and then when it’s back home um uh yesterday and you know we got to see pete hagseth just rip apart uh of that committee which honestly you know like i said that they when they are senators and we see it time and time again and i don’t know when they’ll learn their lesson on it but maybe go through the questions just like you would your pre-written statement that your staff writes. Maybe go through it once. and make sure what you’re about to ask makes sense to the person you’re about to ask it to. Like the question about generals and he’s not a general and so that was kind of the end of that question. The whole issue, the nastiness that they tried to bring when you are going to go toe-to-toe in a very public setting, visual setting, with people who are both extremely knowledgeable on why they are there as the nominee to be a Secretary of Defense, but also extremely knowledgeable about going live and speaking and having people come at you with questions. And you have to have the facts. You have to have a quick recall of the facts. You have to be quick on your feet, if you will, when it comes to recall. And I’d love to hear, folks, your insight on that, too. What do you think so far about these confirmation hearings when the Dems have had their opportunity? Of course, they’ve tried to be pretty nasty. They’ve targeted some of these harder than others. Give us a call at 1-800-684-3110. But I think we saw why Pete Hegseth was able to survive that initial media attack. And then he really just had to keep meeting with the senators like he did and then make it to the hearing day where he could show the American people and senators who have now, even on the Republican side, who have now come out and said they support his nomination, how capable he is as a leader and as someone who can… deliver the instructions, deliver what the policy is going to be, deliver what the goals are going to be in a straightforward way that the American people understand. And I think, again, the enlisted men and women in the military, who he kept referring to, being his focus, not generals, not Washington, D.C., so important. And they turned to the Attorney General, Pam Bondi, and again, they tried to go after her. And Adam Schiff, now he’s a U.S. Senator, so that’s wonderful she got to She was on the impeachment defense team for President Trump with us in that first impeachment. And so she’s been across from Adam Schiff before. And he went after her trying to say, Donald Trump said he’s going to go after political enemies and all these things. Are you going to promise right now never to do that? And people forget what Adam Schiff was saying about Donald Trump as he was leaving office the first time. And Adam Schiff was saying, that Donald Trump the moment he is no longer president should be prosecuted and I think he had six or more active cases against him President Trump both in state and federal court so they did exactly what Adam Schiff wanted yet he’s trying to get Pam Bondi to promise something he was encouraging the Department of Justice and state DAs to take on which is to sue Donald Trump and try to put him behind bars as a criminal and we can play it for you. First here he is talking to Pam Bondi in the hearing trying to get her to commit to some hypothetical scenario about someone who might be in public life that the department of justice investigates and by the way sometimes there are legitimate reasons to investigate people who are in public life not you don’t want to see that being used as a political tool against republicans or democrats or partisan and Pam Bondi made that clear but this idea that that’s never going to happen I mean that that’s hardly ever the case but just take a listen this is Adam Schiff as senator for getting Adam Schiff as house member
SPEAKER 08 :
Answer a simple question. Let me ask you a different simple question. The president also wants to jail Liz Cheney. Sitting here today, are you aware of any factual basis to investigate Liz Cheney? Yes or no?
SPEAKER 09 :
Senator, that’s a hypothetical, and I’m not going to answer that question.
SPEAKER 08 :
No, it’s not a hypothetical. I’m asking you, sitting here today, whether you are aware of a factual predicate to investigate Liz Cheney.
SPEAKER 09 :
Senator, no one has asked me to investigate Liz Cheney. That is a hypothetical.
SPEAKER 08 :
The president has called for it publicly. You are aware of that, aren’t you?
SPEAKER 09 :
No one has asked me to investigate Liz.
SPEAKER 08 :
We’re also worried about Liz Cheney, Senator.
SPEAKER 09 :
You know what we should be worried about?
SPEAKER 08 :
The crime rate in California right now is three of the roof.
SPEAKER 09 :
Your robberies are 87% higher than the national average. That’s what I want to be focused on, Senator, if I’m confirmed as Attorney General.
SPEAKER 08 :
And what you’re suggesting today by your non-answer is you don’t have the independence to say no to the President.
SPEAKER 04 :
First of all, he doesn’t have any idea. These are totally hypothetical political statements made on a campaign trail. Those statements are made by both candidates, and then you get into governing. President Trump, did his DOJ spend years trying to put Hillary Clinton in jail? No. No. You know why? He had a lot more important things to do for the country that were going to affect you and me and your families. And he wanted to make those the priorities. That’s exactly what Pam Bondi just said. Why are you, the California senator, while your state’s burning, your crime rates are up, the drug rates are up, the state is a mess. And you’re focusing it on Liz Cheney, a former Republican who’s who joined your side politically in an attempt to try to stay relevant. And it didn’t work. And do you think that’s even on the top of President Trump’s mind anymore? I don’t really think so. But also, Will, it’s Adam Schiff forgetting who Adam Schiff is, which is a guy who’s wanted the entire Trump team in prison right now.
SPEAKER 06 :
And once again, it’s actually a good thing for these people that are going through these confirmations that these are the only things they have to go after them on. In fact, these hypotheticals and political prosecutions, forget everything we’ve been doing for the last four years. But sure, it’s absurd, but it is a little bit good because that shows that they have nothing. against these nominees that are very well qualified, very smart. But let’s play. This is from Congressman Adam Schiff back in 2018. So well before any of the impeachment, the second impeachment, the January 6th calls for him to be imprisoned. This was Adam Schiff going after the president of the United States before any of that. on CBS Face the Nation, so one of the Sunday shows. Let’s go ahead and hear what his take was on President Trump post-White House.
SPEAKER 07 :
There’s a very real prospect that on the day Donald Trump leaves office, the Justice Department may indict him, that he may be the first president in quite some time to face the real prospect of jail time. We have been discussing the issue of pardons that the president may offer to people or dangle in front of people. The bigger pardon question may come down the road as the next president has to determine whether to pardon Donald Trump.
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay, so that was a year before the first impeachment trial? Right. Adam Schiff already was calling for Donald Trump to be prosecuted the day he left office and saying he could be the first president behind bars. And then he’s asking Pam Bondi to promise not to look at anyone and investigate anyone for crimes who might be political. I mean, those two things aren’t the same. It’s one thing when you try to use lawfare to stop a duly elected president and try and smear his entire first term, which they did try. And we could, I think, look back in history and see how successful that was and did that then just turn on them in this last election cycle in a very big way now that Donald Trump is going to be taking the oath again on Monday. But this idea now that it was okay for us but not okay for you Republicans. I mean, we’re still getting things leaked, coming out about Jack Smith and his reports, and they thought they could convict Trump, all those things. And they love that, but if it’s them, what are they so worried about? Like, do they really think there’s anything to convict them on? I mean, and that’s what Pam Bonney’s talking about. Your work as Attorney General is for the American people, and you focus on the big issues first, which is the crime rates, The drugs, what you can do with the border, what you can do and make decisions about who is incarcerated, who is not. They have federally where funding needs to go, where the focus needs to be. They have a lot of decisions you can make. And of course, you are incarcerated. also going to be instructed by the President of the United States with their top policy ideas. They may not be telling you who to prosecute, but they are telling you where the resources, where we want to focus as an administration. And I just think yesterday just showed once they realize they’re out of power again, They want the Department of Justice to promise not to prosecute anybody who’s political. When they’re in power, they’re fine with the Department of Justice putting former presidents behind bars. Back on Sekulow, taking your calls. Call us, 1-800-684-3110. Be a part of the show. What do you think about these hearings so far? All right, welcome back to Sekulow. We are taking your calls to 1-800-684-3110. Let’s go to Bill in Wyoming on Line 1. Hey, Bill, welcome to Sekulow. You’re on the air.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, thanks for taking my call. I hope I’m making this question right, because it sounds to me like maybe Schiff was talking about setting up some ethics standards for the Supreme Court. Sounds to me like they’re still trying to maintain control and power of Even by setting up this ethics statement, who’s going to be setting up that ethics? I come out saying they still want to maintain power.
SPEAKER 04 :
I mean for now let’s remember on power will the republicans have all of it now some of it is is more limited the presidential power is a hundred percent for the next four years and you look at the house it’s controlled by republicans the senate controlled by republicans so do you know if that’s going to last your entire term no so you want to get as much done as you can in in these first two years possible, sometimes in the first hundred days, you want to focus on the key items that you want to get done first that you think is going to benefit the American people the most and is why they put you into office. But that does not mean that these, um, these Democrats who still have this self-loathing almost real hatred for President Trump, that they are still going to go the route of demonization and trying to take apart our Supreme Court and the history of the lifetime appointment.
SPEAKER 06 :
That’s right. And when you look at, to Bill’s point, yes, Adam Schiff earlier last year, while he was still in the House of Representatives, did introduce a bill that would put a code of ethics. It was called the Judicial Integrity Act. that would hold federal judges and justices accountable for violations of their ethical duties and restore such integrity to the courts. That was his plan. Obviously, it didn’t go anywhere. There was still a Republican-led House at the time. But now that he’s in the Senate, I don’t necessarily think anything is going to go there as well. However… You did hear in the final address, if you listen closely, because it was a little jumbled, but President Biden did talk about, he kind of rushed through a bunch of line items that it’s almost like he wished he could have done, but he’s calling for in the future. And we’ll play this because he talks about dark money in elections, the favorite standby of the left. But then he talks about Ethics reforms and term limits on the Supreme Court. That’s the first time I think he’s vocally said he supports term limits on the Supreme Court. Let’s go and play bite one and then talk about it.
SPEAKER 03 :
We need to get dark money. That’s that hidden funding behind too many campaigns contributions. We need to get it out of our politics. We need to enact an 18-year time limit, term limit, time and term, for the strongest ethics and the strongest ethics reforms for our Supreme Court. We need to ban members of Congress from trading stock while they’re in the Congress. We need to amend the Constitution to make clear that no president, no president is immune from crimes that he or she commits while in office. The president’s power is not limited. It’s not absolute. And it shouldn’t be.
SPEAKER 04 :
President’s power is not limited, but it’s also not absolute. It was a lot of word salad there too. On the reform of the courts, of all these things he thinks needs to be done when there’s a Republican president, House, and Senate. I don’t know how influential any of those statements will be. One is it was hard to even figure out what he was talking about.
SPEAKER 06 :
right but he according to the transcript he was saying um the 18-year term limit on supreme court but also that it would be he wants the strongest ethics and strongest ethics reforms for the supreme court which would be kind of a hat tip to what adam schiff tried to do in the house obviously the the left is not happy with the supreme court’s current makeup They may be even less happy with it after four years because there’s always a potential of new Supreme Court justices, even if that’s just replacing a conservative with a younger member that will continue on for much longer. But I think you couple that with Biden’s final address to the nation of things and warning of the oligarchy and all of these issues, and you couple that with the way that the Democrats are conducting themselves in these hearings, not really having a ton to go after, and so just making it a circus. And you also look at what Karine Jean-Pierre did yesterday. I think it is the perfect final note to the Biden administration, that it is ending as chaotically as it governed for four years. They can’t get their talking points straight. They’re only in it for themselves. And it is curious to me, I guess he’s not concerned about it at this point because the special counsel already looked at and closed the case on him, but that he is saying that he wants the constitution amended for no presidential immunity for official acts while in office. That is such a dangerous precedent for any sitting president because of the nature of the job and what a rogue prosecutor, as we’ve talked about many times, could decide is a crime that violates some sort of criminal statute, even just ordering military strikes if they really want to be an advocate against a president. That’s a really dangerous line to draw in the sand.
SPEAKER 04 :
Very dangerous. It’s why it’s not drawn in the sand. It’s why that line doesn’t exist. It’s why the Supreme Court was clear on presidential immunity. And they didn’t say it’s on everything forever when you’re out of office. But what they made clear is that you’ve got to really… It is not easy to determine when someone is president of the United States. And thus, they represent the entire executive branch of the United States as a person, as a human. They are that branch of government. And all these other agencies are put in place to assist them in being able to carry out their policies and what they promised the American people they would work hard to do. Some of those are harder than others. Some are just changes in rules. Some are just… changes in executive orders but others are legislative probably you got to work with congress you can’t just do it through the executive branch the strongest powers are you know in the foreign policy realm but there’s a lot of power that you know you could do some executive orders but those are those don’t usually withstand the test of time so you do that if you have to and maybe to get the process going but you always want to get it done legislatively if you can. And so these first 100 days, you’re going to focus in on the key issues that you promised the American people you would on. You know it’s economic. You know it’s involving just the feeling of security, the border, drugs, and making sure that America remains the superpower in the world and that we can end these conflicts. Remember what he said about Hamas. Really any surprise that Hamas has come to this situation? He said if there is not… If this war is not over by the time I am president, what I will do to Hamas is things they can’t even imagine. I mean, it was a very strong language. So they’re rushing right now to at least, whether they’ll go through with it or not remains to be seen, and the Trump team will deal with that. But that’s why they were rushing to get a deal, is because they have a president coming in who said, You don’t get a path to release these hostages. And in this conflict, what is going to happen to you is going to be things that you could not even imagine. And they’ve already been through a lot with the IDF. But imagine what the United States could do. So I think, again, America is… on its way to be back on top and america’s strength and what that means is the economy gets better the inflation goes down and uh we’ve got we know what we have to do secure our borders we know that we’re going to be in court a lot defending a lot of these policies So we need you to stand with us. It’s a great time. It’s January to become an ACLJ champion, to support us each month, that automatic donation that you choose each month for every month of this year in 2025. Do it today at ACLJ.org slash champion. Stand with us as an ACLJ.
