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Join us as we delve into the intricacies of the USAID scandal, where billions intended for international development have allegedly been squandered on unverified programs and politically motivated projects. Special guest Rick Grinnell weighs in on the issue, emphasizing the need for transparency and accountability. The episode serves as a powerful reminder of why many Americans voted for an America First agenda, amid revelations of misuse and potential fraud within government agencies.
SPEAKER 12 :
In a post this morning, President Trump says the Democrats can’t hide from the USAID scandal.
SPEAKER 10 :
Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Seculo. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Logan Sekula.
SPEAKER 12 :
Welcome to Sekula. We’ve got a great show lined up for you today, so stay tuned. Phone lines are open for your calls at 1-800-684-3110. Covering today, the USAID scandal that has sort of rocked Washington, D.C. as we have seen Elon Musk and their team start to… really crack down on where your U.S. taxpayer dollars have been going and government funding has been. So, Will, this was sort of breaking news over the last few days, and Donald Trump made a statement saying that Democrats cannot hide. from this situation because it’s certainly the government funding did not seem to be politically neutral.
SPEAKER 11 :
That’s right. He posted on Truth This Morning, looks like billions of dollars have been spent at USAID and other agencies, much of it going to the fake news media as a payoff for creating good stories about the Democrats. The left-wing rag known as Politico seems to have received $8 million. Did the New York Times receive money? Who else did? This could be the biggest scandal of them all, perhaps the biggest in history. And what we’re talking about here is now the work of the Department of Government Efficiency. which is going into agencies, seeing where taxpayer money is being misused. A lot of this is discretionary spending. It’s not authorized by statute. It’s just the work of an agency like the USAID. And we’re peeling back the onion and seeing is that this agency, which has had criticism for a long time.
SPEAKER 12 :
I kind of want to hear from you because a lot of people, this may be the first time they’ve ever heard of the USAID because it’s something that it exists, it happens. But maybe if you’re not the person trying to get these grants- You’re not hearing about it very often. This is the most I’ve ever heard people talking about the USAID.
SPEAKER 11 :
That’s right. And what that stands for is the United States Agency for International Development. It was created in 1961, so it’s been around a long time. And a lot of the criticism of USAID as an entire agency is what its work is. It is international humanitarian aid. A lot of people criticize it for being a tool for nation building, for controlling governments, whether that’s a positive or negative thing. But when you are sending pallets of cash, as we’ve seen administrations do, to remote or underdeveloped countries, then you basically are buying off the politicians in charge. It leads to a lot of corruption, a lot of waste. But beyond that, that’s the surface line criticism. the stuff that they were spending your money on will shock you.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, we’re going to go over some of those in the next segment. Again, some of these are situations like Politico or other publications that we’re getting, government grants, and a lot of people have talked about Sesame Street, versions of Sesame Street that are being produced in other countries. As Will said, that’s kind of like the top line stuff. When you really get down to the nitty gritty of some of the more ridiculous things that we have been funding with our taxpayer dollars, you’re not going to believe it. So you want to stay tuned for that. We’ll talk about that in the next segment. Phone lines, as I said, are open at 1-800-684-3110. If you are watching on YouTube or on Rumble or on Facebook or X, however it is, or ACLJ.org, do whatever it is subscribe follow on that platform really helps us out a lot make sure people see it hit that thumbs up and comment i also wanted to tell you that today we are launching our brand new aclj app that’s right if you’ve had the aclj app before you’ve got to update it right now so get the new aclj app it’s completely redesigned to provide you with the best tools available to engage with us here at the ACLJ. You can watch our expert analysis right here. You can watch this show, Seculo. You can help shape the future through our petitions. You can customize your ACLJ experience, which is cool. When you first log in, it’ll say what issues matter to you the most, and you’ll make sure that you get alerts when news in those specific categories break out. And breaking news alerts straight to your ACLJ inbox, cool feature where you can look through all of our messages and emails that come in to you. and support our efforts with a click of the button it’s really easy also to support the aclj through it including uh if you are an apple user with apple pay Get the control you want for the issues that you care about so deeply and stay engaged in a way that the mainstream media can’t censor. Download the ACLJ app today, whether you have an iPhone, Android. And again, if you already have our app, just update it or scan the QR code that you see on the screen right now if you’re watching and download that ACLJ app today. Again, as we move on with today’s show, next up, we’re going to break down some of those USAID special funds that you’ve been paying for. It’s going to be great. You’re not going to want to miss it. We’ll be back in just a minute. Phone lines are jammed right now. We’re going to be taking your calls a little bit later at 1-800-684-3110. Rick Grinnell’s joining us as well via phone. Rick, I know this news is breaking, and obviously it’s something that I’m sure you’ve had a lot to think about in terms of the USAID. For a lot of people, this is the first time they may even be hearing of this program. Of course, we all know government grants are happening and that kind of thing. But when it goes down to who some of this big multi-million dollar financial taxpayer dollars are going to, it can be a little alarming.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, look, I think that this is offensive and outrageous of what’s happening in Washington. Democrats right now are defending the spending on ridiculous programs. These are highly partisan political programs, fringe programs, millions and millions of dollars to fringe political programs. And somehow the Democrats are acting like we’re feeding kids in Africa with this stuff. Look, there are a few good programs at USAID that we could easily fund through the State Department or through the U.S. Mission to the U.N., other entities that are more appropriate. But right now, I think the Rahm Emanuel warning to the Democrats is very real, which is, you know, here’s a former chief of staff to Bill Clinton saying, to the Democrats. Be careful. You don’t have to be outraged about everything. Sometimes the nature of what the Republicans are going after is good. Take a pass on this, because otherwise Democrats are going to be in the position of defending hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money being wasted. And I would go one step further. I don’t think this is just waste. I think that what Samantha Power did at USAID is about fraud. And we prosecute fraud in this country. There should be an investigation of how this happened and why this happened. And if it’s proven to be for partisan nature, not for the benefit of the US government, then there should be a prosecution of this. I believe that this has crossed the line.
SPEAKER 11 :
And Rick, what you see on display in the media, which many of them were receiving money from USAID, is all the outrage that, you know, this is going to cost lives by cutting this. But in reality, it’s the most stark reminder of the difference of why President Trump was elected with an America First agenda versus a globalist policy agenda. When you go through the line and you see BBC getting $2 million to promote Libyan stories, some of the absurd DEI projects that cost millions and millions of our dollars in remote areas of the world, empowering female leaders in northern Kenya to be climate activists. It reminds us that, one, this is what Americans voted for. And as you said, the Democrats should maybe take the pass and try to work with the administration if they do care about actual humanitarian aid to try to salvage that. But it also shows what we knew all along and what the Doge Department would uncover was massive and massive amounts of waste, abuse, and as you said, fraud.
SPEAKER 09 :
Look, if you pay taxes in America, you need to understand what’s happening because this is your money. You pay taxes every two weeks out of your paycheck. It goes to Washington. And somebody in Washington is deciding to spend your hard-earned money, and I think of my mom and her hard-earned money, taken out of a life that she worked very hard to be able to get this money coming back to her later in life. And now we’re taking money from her to fund some crazy NGOs around the world. And that’s what this money goes to is non-governmental organizations that are far less activists who support the Democrats. And this is the fraud that I think is happening. This is a system of money laundering where the government lefties who are in power pay the NGO lefties to do these radical programs. And then those NGOs protect the Democrats when they’re in power. And now we’re finding they’re paying the media for good coverage. This is a scandal. This is a scandal that Samantha Power oversaw. And I can guarantee you that Congress, left wing Congress members, We’re asking for these grants and this money to go to certain places, and that’s what we have to dig in and find.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, Rick, and I think some of this is you have to shut it down to then rebuild for a lot of these kind of programs. As you mentioned, and I’m sure a lot of people who are listening right now, they’re seeing members of their church are saying, hey, we’re cutting off funding to things that are needed, Christian ministries, organizations that are doing good work. But the problem is, is when you go through this list, and we’re going to go through it in the next segment, so you want to stay tuned. When you hear some of the ridiculousness, sometimes it has to be shut down so that we can find it. But when you hear that and people go, hey, there are some humanitarian things, we want to make sure we are supporting as Americans. Like you said, there are some good programs here. How do they respond to their friends, to their church members when this happens?
SPEAKER 09 :
Look, I think the bigger picture here is that we have a system in the United States that is built around smaller government excuse me and personal responsibility and what that means is we don’t have a system like europe that’s a socialist system where when there’s a problem around the world uh europeans expect and demand that their government right uh respond And that’s because they have extremely high taxes. We have a system that has lower taxes and we need to get it even lower so that you have more money and then you get to decide what programs, what NGOs, what humanitarian projects you fund. In America, we write checks personally to organizations that we believe in because we have lower taxes than the Europeans. And so we need that system. We need the guts. the spending of the United States on waste, fraud, and abuse, be able to get tax breaks, lower the tax burden on working Americans so that then Americans can say, I want to fund this organization because I believe in it, it’s got good management, and I’m involved. And that’s the system that I think is the best for the United States.
SPEAKER 11 :
Rick, here is probably the final question as we come up on a break. One of the biggest problems also I see with this is when you look through the NGOs that are getting money, one problem is some of them don’t even have functioning websites. So the validity of these even being real organizations comes to mind. But you also look at we’ve been concerned about the vetting of either migrants or NGOs by the bureaucracy for a long time. I think that this scandal also reverberates with national security implications with some of these groups that are not friendly to America that are receiving U.S. aid. And it’s not making them like us more. It’s sometimes making them stronger. I want to get your take on that.
SPEAKER 09 :
It’s so true, and this should be a red flag for people. If you don’t have transparency, if you don’t have a website that’s functioning, if you don’t have the ability to be transparent and open about the money that you’re getting and the money that you’re spending and how much is going for administration, you really shouldn’t be asking the public for money or taking public money. And so this is all a scandal because of the secrecy. And that’s what we’re pushing on. And that’s exactly what Doge is looking at. Let’s bring it to light. Let’s know the details. And then if it passes public scrutiny because it’s public money, then it can go forward.
SPEAKER 12 :
Thank you, Rick, for joining us today. We always appreciate your insights. If you want to stay tuned, because in the next segment, we are going to list some of those, and they are so egregious, you’re going to go crazy. But thank you for joining us. I did also want to remind you, the new ACLJ app just launched today. So if you don’t have it right now, scan that QR code on your screen or go to aclj.org slash app, or you can find it in your app stores, whether you have an iPhone or Android. It’s easy just to go to ACLJ.org slash app. And again, it’s a brand new, completely redesigned experience. If you already had the ACLJ app from previous years, you can click update because it’s brand new. You’re going to get the content you want on the issues you care about. You get to go and select and make sure we give you all the updates. for the things you care about. And look, you can say, hey, I don’t care about this topic, and we won’t bother you with it. But you also can watch our show, Seculo. You can watch this live right there. It’s a great experience to watch it there. It helps shape our future through our petitions and, of course, breaking news alerts. And you can customize your ACLJ experience in more, well, probably the easiest thing, the thing I’m excited about, is you can donate with a click of the button if you have an apple device you can use apple pay to make your donation to the aclj so that’s a new way to do that i can’t wait to use that i’m sure i will i’ll set that up soon and if you’re an aclj champion you get a customized aclj champion experience and i know that because i logged in i’m an aclj champion and boom all of a sudden i had a different uh app than i did before with some cool new uh features So again, whether you have an iPhone, an Android, or even if you already have that app, just update it or go to aclj.org slash app. Of course, we put a lot of great content on the website, a lot of great content on our YouTube channel. Make sure you’re following us on all those platforms or on the Salem News channel if you’re watching there live. Either way, you can get that ACLJ app right now. All right. We’ll be back in just a moment. We’re going to take some phone calls because we’ve got a lot of you on hold right now. So stay on hold. Karen, Margaret, Grace, Jean, Tom, stay on hold. We’ll do our best to get to as many calls as we can today. And of course, support the work of the ACLJ when you can. Give a donation at ACLJ.org. We’ll be right back. Welcome to Secular. We’re going to take some of your calls and comments here in just a minute, but I’ve been teasing this for two segments, so I thought we should go through it well. Let’s go through some of what has been uncovered with this USAID scandal. Of course, this is where your taxpayer dollars have gone through. We’ll run some commentary on some of these. Now, again, as Rick said, there’s some good programs that were getting funded, and there’s going to be other ways for that to get taken care of. But… maybe in a less than shocking discovery, some of the most ridiculous ways your taxpayer dollars are being spent.
SPEAKER 11 :
That’s right. And now remember, this is an agency that is $50 billion annually. So their budget is pretty big. Now, when you start going through these, some of these may sound like small numbers to the government, not to us. But when you add them all up, it’s absurd. And this is, as many people say, just the tip of the iceberg because they’re just digging through it. But there was a million dollar grant just in the 2023 fiscal year to make disabled Tajikistanis climate leaders. That was the specific purpose. of that.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, so that says in 2023, in 2023, Biden’s USAID allocated up to $1 million in taxpayer funds, again, this is your money, on a project to help disabled people in Tajikistan become climate leaders. I don’t even, like, you gotta figure out how that program even exists. Right. Like, that’s like four levels deep here.
SPEAKER 11 :
Okay, so that’s one of them that you’re going to. And some brilliant grant writing right there. I know. Someone wanting, like, you know, we could really get some money from the government because it doesn’t seem like they deny anything. Checks a lot of boxes.
SPEAKER 12 :
Well, that is one of the things Elon said is it felt like when going through it that things were not denied unless, of course, it didn’t fit their political agenda.
SPEAKER 11 :
There’s a million dollars for foreign DEI programs, including indigenous language technology in Guatemala. We have a million dollars to a Hamas linked charity, a one and a half million dollar effort to empower female climate activists in northern Kenya. 15 million for contraceptives in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Then we have things like this, a million and a half for advancing DEI in Serbia’s workplaces.
SPEAKER 12 :
I think this is what people… Six million for tourism in Egypt. Yeah, I think those are the things that people maybe they don’t understand, and maybe I may have been ignorant to that as well, is how much of this is going outside of the country to things that really…
SPEAKER 11 :
don’t really impact us at all. Well, the entire purpose of it is outside of the country. It’s international development. And it was created by executive order, this agency, in response to our dollars in general.
SPEAKER 12 :
I don’t think people realize how much taxpayer dollars is going out of the country beyond helping our allies in wartime.
SPEAKER 11 :
Military aid. No, it is legitimately nation building. Funding nations, yeah. What people criticized is some prior administrations, even the Bush administration for nation building and foreign adventurism. This is the type of stuff that you’re paying for and have been paying for for a generation because it keeps going. There was two million dollars to BBC to help favorable coverage on Libya. They’re paying foreign news outlets in smaller countries for influence. It’s propaganda spending. The production of opium, it says on here.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yes. The primary ingredient, obviously, in heroin. And that was going to Afghanistan.
SPEAKER 11 :
So this one is an interesting one. They paid farmers that previously farmed opium three times the going rate to farm corn instead. What did the farmers do? pocketed the money yeah kept growing the opium yeah there’s no oversight to the terrorists to make money on to continue their terrorism wars so it is it is absurd the amount of there’s no oversight there’s no vetting it is taking your money and sending it out the door to every absurd thought you could have and i even mentioned with rick some of these groups people have now been looking at They don’t have functional websites, but they’re getting millions of your dollars. And then you think about, okay, well, they’re helping empower. There was one that was empowering artisanal small scale gold mining in the Amazon. I mean, that sounds pretty cool. Right. Why are we paying for that? I don’t know why, but I do want to do it. But if you take that and you say, okay, they’re helping grow small business in the Amazon. Okay, let’s try to make it sound nice.
SPEAKER 12 :
If you have an artisanal gold mining company in the Amazon and you’re looking for an investor, hit me up. Well, I think they already found the U.S. government that could do a lot more. It’s going to be gone. So they need some help here because I don’t know why. That just feels like something I want to put on my LinkedIn.
SPEAKER 11 :
What do I do? I run an artisanal gold mine. But get this, and you think about how much money they’re spending on these programs and contrast that with how hard it is to get aid within our own country in Western North Carolina or LA when there is a disaster. For those small business owners who have lost everything, I don’t think the $700 FEMA check or the $500 one in North Carolina are really going to help you get through all of this. And yet they’re sending millions and millions of dollars out the door for literally worthless projects.
SPEAKER 12 :
These are those projects. Of course, President Trump had mentioned things like Politico. We know there’s other publications that may get exposed soon for getting so much money from the government. There’s no way that they could be not controlled. There’s been discussions about NPR and PBS and the fact that they are getting a significant amount of their money from government funding and are not providing a equal platform. They’re providing a very biased platform. We all know this when we’re listening to NPR, PBS, great programming sometimes. I mean, they have some good educational documentary kind of programming. But then, you know, when you hear news coverage, it is always slanted one way.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, and I think also over the last generation or several decades that NPR has gotten even more so that it was always left leaning. I mean, I spent time there as an intern in college at the corporate headquarters at NPR. So I was in the belly of the beast, as they say. And it was much more hippie liberal. yes it was much more uh peace and love liberal then now it is bluegrass right it is now radical as far left agenda as you can get so much so you have that whistleblower that left npr because they would shut him down who he himself was a liberal but said they won’t even pretend to cover things they said we want Activist journalism. And that’s the difference. Not that necessarily the federal funding of state-ish quasi-state media was ever a good idea, but now it has gone so far away from the original mission that it’s absurd.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah. Let’s take a quick phone call. Let’s go to Gene, who’s calling in Nevada, who is watching on the Salem News Channel, which is great. We’re there live, 12 to 1 p.m. Eastern on Salem News Channel, available on Pluto, on their website, of course, and also on Samsung Plus. So, Gene, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 04 :
Hey, good day to both of you. Hey, I just wanted to chime in on this. I think when Doge looks through the entire federal government, this is only the tip of the iceberg. I mean, I was just recently reading reports of the CDC who’s hadn’t utilized their entire budget, spent nearly $90 million on a lavishly refurnishing headquarters there in Atlanta. And I think all the agencies do this, and especially they need to look into the land management agencies and their attainment of brand new Chevy Silverados. If it’s the only thing that they drive around in, they have to use it or lose it. doctrine, these agencies. And what they do is they go out, rather than send the money back to the coppers, they just spend the money recklessly.
SPEAKER 12 :
Gene, you’re right. I only cut you off because we’re running out of time here on this segment. But no, I’m not going to say who it is, but someone that I’m fairly close to who had one of these construction buildings for one of those government agencies. Instead, the waste was insane that they were spending money on, let’s say, cinder blocks that were like the highest end cinder blocks and then covering them. So you could like they were covered with stuff. So it wouldn’t made any difference. But as you said, it was use it or lose it. They were just like, spend as much as you can.
SPEAKER 11 :
And how many of those people were actually showing up to work anyways in that new office building they’re refurbishing?
SPEAKER 12 :
not any yep and hey we got a second half hour coming up on the broadcast make sure you are staying tuned on aclj.org youtube rumble salem news channel however you get the show live 12 to 1 p.m eastern if you don’t if you’re listening to this later on make sure you join us live but if you can’t you can always subscribe on our youtube channel subscribe on the aclj podcast on the secular podcast and of course now on the brand new aclj app which is completely redesigned and available for you to download hey we only got a minute break right here it’s a perfect time to download or update this app we’ll be right back
SPEAKER 10 :
keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 12 :
Welcome to Sekulow. This is Logan Sekulow’s second half hour of the broadcast today. If you missed the first half, you can get it archived later on on all of our platforms, YouTube, Rumble, Salem News Channel, ACLJ.org, and of course, the brand new ACLJ app, which is available in the App Store right now. So go ahead and do that or just go directly to ACLJ.org slash app. For those who are just joining us, we’re going to reset a little bit. Those who have been joining us for half an hour, just bear with us for a minute because we’re just going to recap the top line coverage today, which is, Will, that you may have seen the headline on YouTube. It says Democrats can’t hide from this one because President Trump put out a statement on the USAID scandal. And he did that on Truth Social and put out this statement that was pretty much saying, hey, you can’t look at this data and not come to a pretty strong conclusion that things were being used for political gain.
SPEAKER 11 :
That’s right. And as soon as Doge got involved at USAID and then the Trump administration basically put every employee on leave and put together a plan within 30 days to have every employee overseas brought back to the United States. It’s been brewing for several days, but now that there have been more time to get into the numbers, we’re starting to see all the waste, fraud, and abuse that is going on at the agency to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions of dollars of your taxpayer money. They have a $50 billion budget, and right now, the stuff that’s coming out doesn’t look like they’ve been doing too much of what their targeted mission is. Now, USAID has had criticism from as far back even in the 70s that it was too cozy with the CIA, that it was being used for purposes to get, you know, as a front to be able to run CIA missions through and influencing foreign governments in a very Cold War style influence campaign through money, through paying off press for propaganda. All that is still happening. The Cold War has been over for quite some time, but the use of this agency to funnel money in, it was just influence in nation building, but now it’s influence nation building and far left policies. Yeah, and control of the media, really. I would argue nothing for the world, not even just America, just nothing for the world except for dump cash in NGOs, many of which don’t even have functional websites, just making themselves rich off of leftist charity.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, some of it just seems like it’s purely waste and, as Rick said, fraud. It just feels like you’re giving money to nothing. You talk about the opium farmers, you talk about these situations and you look at them and you go, well, how is this even tracked? And of course, we’re giving money to the Taliban, giving money to Hamas-ling charities, a lot of different organizations that are, like I said, I don’t even know if they’re really organizations. I think this is just, I mean, Elon said something to the effect of pretty much everyone who submits who is not, you know, conservative-leaning or is not moderate, anyone who is on their side was getting through without any problems. A lot of them were getting through just period, just because, you know, someone’s keeping their head down and just saying, okay, millions of dollars, there you go, million dollars, there you go.
SPEAKER 11 :
There are millions of dollars being spent on school safety in South Sudan when American schools need to be protected for our own students. There are stories of brand new schools in Afghanistan that were built in remote areas that have never been used. Millions of dollars to build brand new state-of-the-art schools in rural Afghanistan never been used. Meanwhile, in some of our inner cities, there are schools that are dilapidated, aren’t updated, and aren’t able to give the education that the students need. And you wonder why. When you see this corruption and the budget of the Department of Education, which even the teachers union is like, well, it’s the local cities and stuff that run it. We understand. But why are you taking all our money and wasting it? That is the reason why President Trump was elected and why Doge was even created. And we are already seeing benefits and fruit from that effort.
SPEAKER 12 :
Hey, phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. We got five lines open right now. So give us a call. It’s a great time to get in line. Next time when we join by CeCe Heil, we’re going to give you an update on one of our cases involving pro-life activism. So just stay tuned for that as well as continuing this conversation about government waste and spending. Of course, spending your taxpayer dollars. What do you think about that? 1-800-684-3110. Is there somewhere, as Will said, you may say, hey, I’m for government funding of some of these programs. Where would you want that funding actually to go? Do you think we should be taking care of it all ourselves as charitable human beings? 1-800-684-3110. We’ll be right back. welcome back to secular we want to kick off this segment we will get back to the usaid uh scandal and of course a lot of you guys are calling in about that we’re going to get to that we’re going to get your calls in the next segment and cc hiles joining us in studio but i wanted to set this up first with a video presentation about one of our uh current cases going on in the pro-life movement so take a look at this and we’ll be back in just a second with your commentary and coverage this was constitutionally protected speech and for that reason aclj is taking on this case
SPEAKER 08 :
Zach is a great guy. He’s out there every Saturday, passionate and outspoken in his defense of the unborn. Frankly, it’s really upsetting that the police would target him given that mere feet away, they’re performing abortions every Saturday. Zach is a pro-life advocate who was outside of an Ohio abortion clinic with his megaphone when he was cited by the local police department in reference to the volume of his speech. When the police arrived, there were two parties, both arguably in violation of the statute. It is true that Zach had a megaphone and that was a source of amplification, but it’s also true that the abortion escorts had loud kazoos and were being disruptive in their own speech. Now police, certainly are allowed to prioritize when they investigate crimes, but they cannot use as a basis constitutionally protected categories such as exercise of your rights, race, sex, etc. For these reasons, the fact that the police focused solely on Zach’s behavior and refused to consider anyone else’s behavior even after Zach and his wife pointed out some of the things these escorts were doing, demonstrates a one-sided approach that doesn’t pass constitutional muster. On February 3rd, we have a motions hearing in local court where, for the first time, we’re going to get to present our case in front of the judge and explain our theories as to why this prosecute is both unjust and unconstitutional. We’re going to have two main arguments. The first is that content-based restrictions like the one in this ordinance are not constitutional. The second is that the way the police handled the investigation violated Zach’s equal protection rights. On February 3rd, we’re going to tell the judge our story.
SPEAKER 12 :
And here we are in February 6th. That was Liam from the ACLJ, one of our new attorneys. And it was great to see that video package. So you understand where we came from and where we are now. CeCe Heil is joining us in studio to give us an update because that happened just a few days ago.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah. So as we’ve discussed a lot, you know, we have just because we had the Dobbs decision, this, you know, abortion distortion and the, you know, pro-abortion side still going after pro-life, you know, people. And we see that, OK, maybe you’re not going to use it in federal issues, but you’re going to use it like we’re seeing here in Ohio in a state where, disorderly conduct ordinance and just as Liam explained we filed a motion to dismiss because our client was prosecuted or arrested under this disorderly conduct ordinance and our motion dismiss argues two things that one the ordinance violates the free speech rights that are protected by the First Amendment that our client definitely has the right to voice his opinion and that this ordinance because it allows some speech but doesn’t allow other speech that violates the Constitution and then the second argument was the discriminatory enforcement of the ordinance violates the Equal Protection Clause and as you heard Liam explain The police came and although the abortion escorts were having, you know, tooting kazoos and screaming and yelling and doing other things, only our client was arrested. No witnesses were talked to by the police. It was only our client that was arrested. So we argued Liam argued the motion to dismiss and the judge has taken it under advisement, which basically means he’s just going to look at the evidence and he’s going to consider the arguments. And we’ve been told by local council that it’s we expect maybe a decision within the next 30 days. But hopefully the judge will make the right decision because this ordinance and its enforcement was unconstitutional.
SPEAKER 12 :
And that’s one of the goals of the ACLJ is to handle these things as quick as possible. Sometimes it takes years, but sometimes you can get it done in a matter of weeks if you can make a compelling case and the judge decides to side with you. Of course, that doesn’t always work out that way in the pro-life movement, but what we’ve seen actually, the interesting movement today was President Trump this morning. It was the National Prayer Breakfast. And he called out specifically the targeting of Christians. And with that, pro-life activists, of course, are pretty much included in that. Usually that’s kind of one and the same. And I think you should hear from President Trump. Such a stark difference in what we’ve heard for the last four years, specifically on supporting and engaging Christians and making sure that they are not targeted for their beliefs.
SPEAKER 01 :
To confront such weaponization and religious persecution, today I’m signing an executive order to make our Attorney General, who’s a great person, she’s going to be a great Attorney General, Pam Bondi, the head of a task force, brand new, to eradicate anti-Christian bias. About time, right? Anti-Christian bias. You never heard of that one before, right? But there’s, it’s about time, isn’t it though, really? So many, so many times you hear, but you don’t hear the anti-Christian bias. The mission of this task force will be to immediately halt all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government, including at the DOJ, which was absolutely terrible. The IRS, the FBI, terrible. and other agencies. In addition, the task force will work to fully prosecute anti-Christian violence and vandalism in our society and to move heaven and earth to defend the rights of Christians and religious believers nationwide. You’ve never had that before, but this is a very powerful document I’m signing. You got it, you got it now. First time you’ve had it. If we don’t have religious liberty, then we don’t have a free country. We probably don’t even have a country.
SPEAKER 12 :
Look, say what you want about President Trump. Some of you in the comments like him. Some do not like him. And even Christians. I know there’s Christians that have their concerns with President Trump. never have I heard anything like this from a president of the United States who come out and say this, even if it’s what’s put in front of him. They said, this is what we’re planning on.
SPEAKER 07 :
He says it.
SPEAKER 12 :
He says it in a way that no one has done before. And I don’t want to just be like sitting here kissing up to it, but it really is remarkable to hear all the stories that we have at the ACLJ, all the issues we have at the ACLJ. And now not only do you have an administration to look, We had a good relationship with the George W. Bush administration. Sometimes, when necessary, we had to have a relationship with the Obama administration. The Biden administration wasn’t as friendly. Now, you have someone, though, coming out and making these statements. I mean, pretty much hitting our talking points. Absolutely. It is pretty wild.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, and what is amazing is, you know, some people might go, this is not an issue. We don’t, in the United States, we don’t target Christians. Well, we do, we have, the DOJ has specifically, the administration has specifically, and the ACLJ has been involved in this. They’ve gone after Catholics, specifically the DOJ. They’ve gone after pro-lifers, specifically the DOJ, and the Department of Defense, training the pro-lifers are the, you know, terrorists.
SPEAKER 11 :
going after you if you bought a bible you were targeted you were marked as somebody for them to look at we’ve addressed all of those issues and now it’s great and refreshing to hear that our president and on top of that too it talks about defending the rights not just the uh eradicating the bias but defending the rights of believers that are uh and that they will prosecute anti-christian violence and vandalism We saw all the pro-life clinics that were vandalized and never brought a prosecution. But also just this week, our ACLJ attorneys were in Baltimore with our client who was brutally beaten up outside of a Planned Parenthood clinic. There is a prosecution, it’s a local prosecution, took a year and a half to find the guy and get him on trial, but they had jury selection yesterday. We are there representing our client to ensure justice for him because he was beaten up brutally. We’ve shown the video in the past outside of an abortion clinic. This is a local prosecutor. But those are federal hate crimes that could be brought against someone like that. There is no way that Biden DOJ would have ever done that. President Trump is signing an order to say, we’re going to protect these people and prosecute those that go after violently against people of faith. And that’s what we’re seeing. And ACLJ is there to fight as well.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, I want to make sure that that’s clear too. It’s just because you have a more friendly administration doesn’t mean the fights stop. A lot of these are in the states. A lot of these are in counties that are not friendly. Even if the federal government may be more on your side right now, there are still plenty of people working at the federal government that are not on your side. That’s why part of the rooting out sort of the deep state and the Doge situation is important because it is not like these fights don’t continue on. They are happening every day. We were in court this week and you heard that. We can’t do that without your support. I’m going to encourage you right now. Uh, it is easy to kind of take the win and not go like, Oh, what do they need our support right now? We need it more than ever. So I encourage you right now, go to ACLJ.org. We can’t have new great lawyers. We can’t have, uh, all the people you hear on this broadcast. We can’t be doing this broadcast without you. So I encourage you right now, if you are a supporter of the ACLJ to do it, become an ACLJ champion. Of course you can do that on the new ACLJ app. And if you become a champion, someone gives on a monthly basis. you actually get a different experience. You get new features and unlock new things on ACLJ.org slash app. You can find it in the iPhone or Android store. If you already have it, you click update. We had an app that was released years ago. Tens of thousands of you have, you potentially have it on your phone already. So just update it. If not, Scan the QR code right now or go to aclj.org app. While you’re there, make a donation. And now you can donate using Apple Pay and other digital ways with just a click of a button. So do that on the new ACLJ app. There are two lines open for your calls right now. We will try to get to as many as possible. So Margaret, Dana, Robin, Kristen, representing a lot of the world and a lot of the country. We want to hear from you. Two lines open, 1-800-684-3110. And while we’re in this final break, go ahead and download that ACLJ app and make a donation. We’d appreciate it. All right, final segment of the day. Give us a call. We’ve got two lines open, 1-800-684-3110. A lot of you have been on hold for a long time, and I appreciate it. I know we had a packed show. We’ll start off with Margaret, who’s calling from Illinois, watching on the Salem News Channel, which we are now live on as of the beginning of this year. So cool to hear from Margaret, who’s watching there. Margaret, go ahead.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes, thank you for taking my call. Today’s topics have been very interesting, but I would like to switch it up just a little bit. I want to talk about the Biden pardons. And the question that I have is, can you give a blanket pardon to someone, someone who has not been charged with a crime, and then can they be pardoned? And then you find out that they are treasonous against our country, the USA. I guess a better way to ask it is, can a treasonous person be pardoned?
SPEAKER 12 :
Margaret, this has been a conversation that happened even during the Trump administration, which was can you kind of pre-pardon people? We obviously saw the Biden administration do that for a lot, whether it was Dr. Fauci or his own family. That happened quite a bit there at the very, very end, including the last seconds of President Biden’s run. That being said, if it happened before, you’re pardoned for crimes that would have happened. Right. You’re not pardoned. You can’t just go purge style from here on out. But if it happened before that, it’s a federal crime, is there any standing to say that they can bring those back up?
SPEAKER 11 :
No. Once again, I’m not a scholar on pardons. However- If you’re to believe the wording that’s in the pardon, it’s- any at all. That’s right. So the president has very broad pardon power. You’ve even seen pardons that are before someone was even charged back to when Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon. He wasn’t charged with a crime, but he gave a pardon after Richard Nixon stepped down. So a preempt and that would have been preemptive when there was no charge against him so it’s widely accepted that the president has that power that they can pardon someone before they’re even charged and margaret to your point they were so broad that says any crime within this period now obviously president biden as you mentioned can’t say all the way to 2030 there’s no crime uh that they can be charged with it’s only while they’re present and in looking backward but yeah if if they are to be read as as broad as they are any crime then that person would be pardoned for treason and not be able to be uh charged with that thank you for calling and thanks for watching on sale news channel let’s continue on let’s go to kristin who’s calling in california
SPEAKER 12 :
Watch it on YouTube. I love when our YouTube viewers call. Go ahead, Kristen. You are almost on the air. Now you are. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 02 :
Hello. My question is with the conservatives listening to your program, how do we get that DOG, the Doge message out to the liberals and the Democrats? Because, of course, the other networks are not sharing this information. Yeah.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, Kristen, good way you could do that is share this broadcast with them. And of course, share things like the segment we had with Rick Grinnell, where I explained that and said, look, I think a lot of conservatives, a lot of Christians, even more liberal Christians and more conservative Christians are going to be worried that this was going to, and the headlines have come up, by the way, some of them from people who are being funded by the government, saying this is taking away the important aid to all over the world that we need for Christians to spread the good news of Jesus through this humanitarian aid. And some of that, I believe, lands back on us and not our own. You know, we don’t have something like the NHS or that a lot of these places have around the world. We have a different system in the way we fund health care, the way we fund even charities. However, I understand that you see those headlines. It’s hard not to do that, but then maybe show them what their money is actually going to. When they see this list, I can’t imagine they’re going to be like, oh, yeah, I think we should be sending even $6 million for tourism to Egypt, or obviously things like $15 million in contraception to the Taliban, to Afghanistan. Because you do look at that and go, why is my dollars going to that? Why is that humanitarian aid really at the end of the day? So I would encourage you to do that, Kristen. And of course, what I’m going to say is a bit of an ad here, but support the work of the ACLJ, because One of the things I’ve wanted to launch over the last few years is more of these counter campaigns. I’ll be honest. We have a pro-life one running in a couple, it’s going to be launching next month, one that we were talking about in Massachusetts. Great. It’s a beautiful campaign. But I’ve noticed when we’ve done promotion for it and tried to raise support, sometimes that doesn’t click as well as, hey, we’re trying to raise money for a lawsuit or a case or even this broadcast. But it’s just as important, as you said, because we have to educate people and you have to educate people where they are. And it’s not going to be, your liberal friends are not going to be turning on this show likely, unless they’re very open-minded and good for them. But maybe if we can get a billboard up, maybe we can get a digital ad on their phone, you can start changing those hearts and minds. But you have to be able to kind of put your money where your mouth is in that and help support it because those cost a lot of money. So that’s why we have things like ACLJ Champions, and I encourage you to become one of those right now. Let’s continue on with the calls. Dana’s calling in Washington on line four.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, hey. I got a question. Is there any way that… We can trace who got the kickbacks on all that money going to all those stupid programs.
SPEAKER 11 :
Dana, I think the one thing you’d have to look at here is that Doge is looking at waste, fraud, and abuse within the government. So they can see where the outlays are going, what these things are for, and they can try to remedy that. If you’re looking at something that could be criminal, like a kickback or Some sort of bribery or anything like that, all that obviously hypothetical, would need to be the Department of Justice. And you have Pam Bondi in there. She’s already talked about looking at abusive programs and things of that nature, looking at the sanctuary cities. A lot of initiatives that go through USAID go to NGOs that are supportive of all liberal causes. So I think that that would be obviously the Department of Justice job to look for any illegal activity of that nature. But I think it’s pretty obvious that when you have… NGOs that support your leftist causes, and we saw how far left the Democrat Party has gone and how far left they ran in the 2020 election and the 2024 election as well, that you start to see that the kickback may not even be tangible cash. The kickback is they’re getting paid so much money for supporting these candidates through these grants.
SPEAKER 12 :
I know you’ve been on hold for a while, but we’re running out of time. We’ve only got about a minute and a half of the broadcast, so go ahead with your comment quickly. In Virginia, go ahead.
SPEAKER 06 :
Thank you so much. I wanted to just say, I can’t say thank you enough for what you guys share because as we do go forward, that’s what my comment was about. I had someone who quickly got in my face, very angry about all these programs that maybe thousands and thousands of people have died already because of the lack of USAID money. So I led them and told them about your, on WAVA, your program, other outlets, People just aren’t getting the regular, the true facts, you know, the importance of getting the true facts about the situation. So some people just get outrageous and they think people are going to be dying. They’re not like Sesame Street. Some is Sesame Street programs, you know, in other countries. So thank you for getting the news out and the truth. because I couldn’t believe this nice gentleman was pointing his finger in my face and we’d just been talking, you know, amicably and then he got so upset at me.
SPEAKER 12 :
Hey, Robin, I really appreciate it. I don’t mean to cut you off. We are 30 seconds from the end of the broadcast. I want to tell you thank you. I really appreciate your support. I appreciate your point of view and your message because that’s very important. Good way to do that, by the way. Hey, good segue, Robin, into my little push here right now. Go download the new ACLJ app available in the App Store. Go to ACLJ.org slash app. It’s available for Android, for iPhone. Even if you already have our app already, click that update. Make sure you get it. It’s a great new personalized experience. It’s very cool. You can watch this show. You can get involved. Get ACLJ.org slash app.
