Join us for an insightful discussion on the U.S. government’s functioning amid political turmoil. We explore Chuck Schumer’s strategic decision to prevent a government shutdown and the complex role of notable figures like Elon Musk and Donald Trump in shaping national policies. Our hosts, joined by Secretary Mike Pompeo, also delve into the global impact of the United States’ diplomacy efforts, particularly focusing on the current situation in Ukraine and the efforts towards achieving peace.
SPEAKER 04 :
Breaking news, our friend Tulsi Gabbard and Director of National Intelligence declares that the leaking ends now.
SPEAKER 08 :
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 04 :
Welcome to Sekula. We’re taking your calls to wrap up this week. 1-800-684-3110. We have a cool statement coming out this morning. It’s gone a bit viral from our friend, former colleague, and now director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard. She put up on X, and I think this is going to speak to a lot of the things that we have been worrying about and we’ve been talking about here at the ACLJ for many years. This is what she said. Our nation’s intelligence community must be focused on our national security mission. Politically motivated leaks undermine our national security and the trust of the American people and will not be tolerated. Unfortunately, such leaks have become commonplace with no investigation or accountability. That ends now. We know of and are aggressively pursuing recent leakers from within the intelligence community and will hold them accountable. And then it goes on and on from there. But that’s a great place to start. Of course, we know of all the leaks that came out during the Biden run, also during the first Trump administration. We also remember the late leaks that were happening at the Supreme Court of the United States when the Dobbs decision was leaked ahead of time. An early draft was leaked ahead of time. And what were the repercussions? Absolute lies. nothing we even remember james comey talking about leaking his own documents to the press and letting the new york times wherever it was uh put out the statements you know making sure he got his stuff out there enough is enough with this and this is why it’s exciting to have a new administration why it’s exciting to have somebody who is committed to the truth like tulsi gabbard in this position
SPEAKER 09 :
That’s right. And this is an interesting line. This is from The Hill that is talking about this, is that Gabbard provided little insight into why she felt the leaks were politically motivated. Because she did give an example of recent leaks that they are concerned about, such as a leaker who’d been sharing classified information with The Huffington Post, a leaker within the intelligence community sharing information on Israel and Iran with The Washington Post. A leaker within the IC sharing information about the U.S. and Russia relationship with NBC. Notice none of these are like The Daily Caller, Breitbart, Fox News. A leaker sharing information around National Counterintelligence and Security Center activities and actions with the record. Any unauthorized release of classified information of a violation of the law and will be treated as such. But it is, once again, we’ve seen this playbook. It is the playbook of the left. and the deep state to take information that is classified, leak it to reporters to get a political objective. You even think back to the entire Russia investigation was the intelligence community leaking something to Yahoo News. And then once it was reported by the journalists for Yahoo News, They’re like, oh, we read this in Yahoo. Let’s do an investigation on it. It was a self-fulfilling prophecy. They leaked information, then used that as the impetus for their investigation to go after President Trump. So it’s absurd in the year 2025 to say there’s no information on why the director of national intelligence thinks these leaks are politically motivated because they have been for over a decade now.
SPEAKER 04 :
We’ve all known this and look, phone lines are open. I want to hear from you on this because I know this has been an issue that’s been deeply important to a lot of our team. So right now, 1-800-684-3110. Give us a call. Of course, we are in the middle and this is Friday. So you know what? These are one of those days we head to the weekend. Things get busy. So if you can support the work of the ACLJ, now is the time to do it during our life and Liberty Drive. Your donations are doubled. Yesterday, we told you about the attacks on Christians and our efforts to defend them around the globe. And we’re not just talking about simple attacks. We’re talking about life and death situations. We’re talking about really gruesome persecution of Christians around the world. But there’s also that daily fight to protect Christians here at home. And yes, it may not be life or death. But just recently, a preacher was arrested for sharing his faith in Chicago. We got those charges thrown out. But it just happened again in Chicago with two more preachers getting thrown into jail. We’re going to file a large case against Chicago. We’re going to help make sure they are taken care of. And it’s happening everywhere. We’ve got students that are being banned from praying in Indiana. Teachers that are being banned from praying in Texas. Employees are being fired for talking about God in Ohio. Seniors are being banned from holding Bible studies. in Pennsylvania, Colorado, California, and Virginia. And your ACLJ is in the fight every day protecting the individual and protecting their core and your constitutional rights. Go to ACLJ.org and make that doubled donation. Welcome back to Sekulow. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. Let’s go ahead and take a quick call right off the top. Why not? Let’s go to John, who’s calling in New York, who is listening on the radio. John, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yes, I just have one comment to make, and this is my belief. If these people can be criminally prosecuted, if they can go to jail… This is what needs to happen. Unless people stop being held accountable and actually go to jail. This stuff is just going to keep on going.
SPEAKER 04 :
I mean, she says that they have identified some of these leakers. So now we have to figure out what the consequences are.
SPEAKER 09 :
That’s right. And she does say in the post, any unauthorized release of classified information is a violation of the law and will be treated as such. I think Tulsi Gabbard means this. She means business. And one, the entire job of the director of national intelligence is to protect the intelligence of the United States. So when there’s unauthorized leaking going on, and they even identified Intel Link, which is that internal server and chat service that she’s already fired people for using inappropriately with this grotesque chat that they had going on. But they’re also looking at that for clues as to the leakers as well. And I do believe that they will refer criminal prosecutions to the Justice Department in if they identify and have the evidence to send over there. And I think Pam Bondi will take up the cause and prosecute these individuals. And it doesn’t even have to be politically motivated leaks. I think any leak is an inappropriate, gross violation of the law. And they need to be held accountable. And the problem is, is that it was going on for so long that they did feel like they could get away with it. And with all the talk of Edward Snowden and all of that that came up within her hearing, she even said he violated the law. And this would be a very clear example. So if anyone on the left is now going to say she’s now becoming politically motivated when they were wanting to get her to answer what should happen to leakers, I think that you will see soon she’s going to refer them for criminal prosecution at the Department of Justice. This comes the same day that President Trump is going over to the Department of Justice to give a speech to the staff there about returning to law and order. What’s a key component of following law and order? Don’t be leaking the nation’s secrets to the world, to the news, to the Huffington Post.
SPEAKER 04 :
This goes back also to that whole conversation that happened. I mean, yes, I even put these as like small L leaks when it comes to talking to the press. I don’t like it. It has become common practice, and it certainly has become common practice within Washington. that you have your sources, your sources are who you use if you’re in the press and those sources often have information that you could use and they’re, they’re credible. It’s not like these are anonymous sources that are lying. A lot of times these are real secrets being released. And then you have on the bigger scale, do you remember just a few weeks ago when they were concerned about the layoffs that were happening, that Tulsi Gabbard and some of these others were going to say, hey, we are finding people who we think are untrustworthy, therefore they need to go. And the press pushed back and said, oh no, if you get rid of those untrustworthy people, which you could probably now say, aka our sources, what if they go to China? What if they go to Russia and tell all of our nation’s secrets? Because they can just be paid off. Everyone can just be paid off. And that’s really the thought process in Washington, D.C., which is information to the highest bidder.
SPEAKER 09 :
And that’s what is so gross about what has become the swamp in the intelligence community. That the big concern is that if someone who is working in one of the most sensitive areas of our government Has that low bar of loyalty that their job is eliminated, the concern is that they’re immediately going to turn on the country and start selling out to the highest bidder, to the very adversaries that they were gathering intelligence on in the first place? That is a shocking state of the world, if true. And unfortunately, I think it is true for a lot of people. I think there is a lack of loyalty within the intelligence community. And you hear all the time that President Trump wants people that are loyal to him, that are loyal. It’s really what we need is people that are loyal to the United States and what it sounds like from even the press. And they don’t even get their irony of them reporting it. is that these people are not loyal to the United States and therefore should not work in the most sensitive areas of our government.
SPEAKER 04 :
But yet they are. Let’s continue on. I want to take another call. Let’s go to Michael who’s calling in Florida on line one, watching on YouTube. And if you’re watching on YouTube, one of the thousands that do each and every day, and of course the over 468,000 of you that subscribe, but you haven’t subscribed, hit that subscribe button right now. You know, it helps get this message out there to a much larger group. Michael, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 10 :
Gentlemen, I really hope that the media and or left doesn’t jump on the bandwagon that this is in somehow retaliation for her being put on a watch list, especially when she flies.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, Michael, you know what? I don’t really care what the media has to say about that because that was ridiculous. And you know what? I don’t know if it’s retaliation due to that, but it certainly could be eye-opening as to what’s going on when you’ve been targeted yourself.
SPEAKER 09 :
That’s right. And I think, once again, those people that placed Tulsi Gabbard on the Quiet Skies list, which would have probably been the Department of Homeland Security, so not under her purview. That would be more Kristi Noem being able to go after that. But, you know, I mean, honestly… They probably should be fired. Yeah, bye bye. Even if their boss is now Tulsi Gabbard. I don’t know how good of a working relationship you can have if people that are now under your employment. Yeah, it’s like, no, you’re my boss, but you know, I thought you were. a terrorist like we can still work friendly together right like this can be fine no hard feelings we i know that it was really hard to get through the airport and there were bomb sniffing dogs and there were people multiple people on each flight taking note of every single action you did spying on you in american planes we all good there’s no big deal here like no hard feelings
SPEAKER 04 :
All right. Thank you, Michael, for calling in. You can call in, too, at 1-800-684-3110. We’ve got a packed show coming up, lots of guests, so that’s why I’m taking calls early today. So if you want to call in, great time to do it. Also, great time, as always, to support the work of the ACLJ. We’re going to break that down a little bit later as well, and we’re also going to talk about that. government shutdown that did not happen and it did not happen due to a very surprising source who’s taken some flack who’s getting pushed back of course his version of it’s going to be well I had to do it because I had to do it because President Trump and Elon then would have free realm to do whatever they want we’ll talk about that just a little bit later in the broadcast. And of course, we’re going to continue taking your calls. But again, I want to spend just a minute to tell you about the ACLJ as we wrap up this segment, because it is the Life and Liberty Drive. We are halfway through. Can you imagine that? I mean, we are halfway through this month of March already. I mean, this has been quite a few weeks for a lot of us here. Many of you are on spring break this week with your family. Maybe you’re just getting back today. Maybe you’re getting back over the weekend. Maybe you’re motivated. I think this is a good time. So support the work of the ACLJ right now by going to our Life and Liberty Drive. You heard yesterday all of the work we were doing for the persecuted church around the world. And then there’s also Christians here who need protection as well. Again, different kind of persecution. These aren’t people who are being mass slaughtered for their faith like it’s happening in places like the Congo. But these are Christians that have been targeted because maybe they’re walking down the street with a cross, kind of going old school with that. Maybe they’re street preachers still that are out there in Chicago. And Chicago says, no, we get that case thrown out. And then some uninformed police officers do the same thing just the next week. Well, guess what? That means we’re going to court. We’re going to court in a large way in Chicago. But it’s happening everywhere. Indiana, Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Colorado, California, Virginia. That’s just to name a few that are happening right now. again i’m going to tell you right now if you can see right now the qr codes on your screen scan that qr code when you make a donation during the life and liberty drive in the month of march your donations are doubled again that is a double donation that’s a match donation fifty dollars becomes a hundred dollars and worth twenty five fifty you know how that works and now you gotta do is go to aclj.org and if you become an aclj champion that’s a monthly recurring member your first donation becomes doubled.
SPEAKER 09 :
So it’s pretty cool. And I don’t think that we’ve really gone into what’s happening today as much as we will coming up, but it’s a big deal because the street preachers in Chicago, we had one client that was detained, charged, and we beat that charge. His friends went out, they got charged, arrested, held for six hours. We’re defending them, but our attorneys have been working tirelessly this week preparing a lawsuit against the city of Chicago. And this feels like a moment, Logan, that is old school ACLJ because I remember as a kid when my dad was in front of an abortion clinic praying in Atlanta and the police came to detain them and the ACLJ was there. Yep.
SPEAKER 04 :
to fight for his right to pray. And look, I want people to understand also, not only have we been doing this for so many decades, look at what’s happening right now with Tulsi Gabbard. You can draw a pretty clear line that the support of our ACLJ members helped get tulsi into a position where she is now the director of national intelligence when she started on our broadcast she was a registered democrat and by the time that she got out here was an independent and then a republican and now is in one of the highest you know positions in the land it’s pretty amazing that’s because of members like you of aclj who support independent interesting thinkers you believe in free speech you And you believe in the freedom of life and liberty here in America. And we can’t do it without you. We have a few lines open up still. I’d love to take your calls. 1-800-684-3110. That’s 1-800-684-3110. And as we head to the next segment, again, go to the Life and Liberty Drive. Do it right now. This is one of the most important times of our year. We only can offer these kind of matching deals very shortly. Welcome back to Seculo. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. We’re going to take calls coming up in the next segment and then later in the broadcast. And we’ll be joined by Harry Hutchinson. But right now we’re going to be joined by Senior Counsel for Global Affairs, Secretary Mike Pompeo. Secretary Pompeo, there’s been a lot going on right now. The president has put out that there has been some productive talks with Russia concerning the ceasefire deal with Ukraine and is calling for an end to the killing. I know he said that multiple times. How optimistic should Americans be that this could actually be the beginning of the end of this war? Because it feels like we’ve had a lot of kind of false starts here. But now with the Trump administration, maybe we’ve actually seen some progression. And now we are at least talking.
SPEAKER 07 :
Oh, goodness, I don’t think there’s any doubt that we’re seeing real progress, that this is fundamentally different than where we were. Might have to go back to even before the election, because this conversation actually began in November and December before President Trump was even sworn in. But, you know, as for how optimistic look, it’s still going to be very difficult. has not said yes to what President Zelensky has now said yes to. President Zelensky has accepted the 30-day ceasefire, and then we’ll kind of figure it out from there. Putin is demanding a number of things which will be very difficult to actually deliver. So I think in the end, Putin has to realize that the costs of continuing this fight, continuing the killing, continuing the war, exceed the benefits. And there’s no better president than president trump to do that to put deterrence back to keep america’s interests first to get this right for europe there’s no there’s no better person to put deference back president trump did it for his first four years putin did not invade ukraine on our watch when i was his secretary of state as the eye director i’m convinced he can get there but it will not be a straight line it’s going to be complicated and difficult and hard fought for sure
SPEAKER 09 :
Mr. Secretary, we’ve seen in the first Trump administration that President Trump was very open to going and meeting with adversaries and having these high level talks. Do you think some sort of face to face negotiation between President Trump and Vladimir Putin is maybe in the future to ensure that this gets done?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes, I think that’s likely. By the way, I’m not only not troubled by them meeting face to face, I would encourage it to have that conversation about the things that matter to America. President Trump can present those very clearly. This is why America has an interest in bringing a ceasefire, peace, a structured security to Europe. That’s why it matters to us. President Putin can respond. I think in the end, that’ll be very useful. There’s a lot of work that has to be done, a lot of groundwork that has to be laid before those meetings take place so that everyone understands the position so they can negotiate to the final resolution but i suspect we will if not in person by phone have conversations directly between those two leaders before we get resolution here
SPEAKER 04 :
That has always been something that you’ve brought up over the years when you’ve worked in these positions is having those face-to-face meetings. Doesn’t mean you’re going in there and being their best friend. Doesn’t mean you’re being buddy, buddy means you’re having, yes, it could be cordial, but you’re going there as a diplomat. You’re going there on representing your country. And that’s something that the Biden administration refused to admit to at all. It felt like they were like, Nope, we’re just not going to talk to them. We’re going to pretend they don’t exist. Let wars continue on, let things continue on. And again, That is not the way you handle business. You can go in there and actually talk to someone, have a real conversation. That doesn’t mean you’re their best friend.
SPEAKER 07 :
yes this is often mistaken sometimes with bad intent right there the cnn bbc they want to say gosh you’re talking to vladimir putin therefore you’re a russian puppet i spent time with him i spent time with the head of their intelligence services a guy named arishkin we were always very clear about what our position was but it didn’t mean you had to throw things didn’t mean you had to be mean didn’t mean you should ignore them that’s not in america’s best interest the same way we met with chairman kim in the same way of North Korea, in the same way that President Trump met with Xi Jinping. We don’t don’t mistake meetings for accepting that these people think about the world the same way that we do. I hope that the conversations will continue because I think that’s going to be required. And then I suspect the Trump administration is actually going to have to take some real actions to demonstrate to Putin that this is a completely different situation than he faced when he invaded Europe under President Biden.
SPEAKER 09 :
I want to change the subject here just a little bit, but it all plays in when you look at the situation with what gets reported in the media. And that is obviously something that you had to deal with when you were director of the CIA or the secretary of state is the leak issue. And Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard just put… Leakers on notice cited specific examples of leaks to media outlets like Washington Post, Huffington Post, said they were politically motivated. But I just want, from your experience and expertise, why it’s so critical for the intel agencies to be able to do their jobs without resistance through what she labels as politically motivated leaks.
SPEAKER 07 :
Oh, goodness. We suffered those nearly every day. Less, frankly, when I was at the CIA than when I was at the State Department. The State Department was a constant conduit of leaks to The New York Times and Washington Post. Years and years of pattern and practice where these folks just felt completely free to tell whatever story they wanted to to those folks to undermine what it was President Trump and me and our team were actually trying to accomplish. And so we tried to push back. I applaud everyone from this administration who’s going to go identify the leakers and punish them for violating US law. That’s totally appropriate. In the same way, I remain convinced that We should we we should go after Edward Stone and all the folks who take U.S. secrets, lawfully protected secrets and just leak them because they have a particular view of the world. That’s not appropriate. There’s methods. If you see something going on that’s wrong, there’s a way to do that. It is not to go tell The New York Times and Washington Post to try to get your preferred policy outcome. That is indecent. It violates U.S. law. And I hope they. I hope they are able to find some of these folks, which proved difficult. And when they do find them, that they get the appropriate punishment for having put American lives at risk and American foreign policy at risk in a way that President Trump wants to deliver this, putting America first every day.
SPEAKER 04 :
Secretary Pompeo, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you all. Yeah, thank you. And I wanted to spend a few minutes here as we wrap up this first half hour of the broadcast to tell you about the work of the ACLJ. Of course, as we head into the second half hour, some of you don’t get the second half hour if you’re listening on terrestrial radio. Some just get the first half hour. You should find us. You can listen to the rest of the show. Watch the rest of the show. You should see us on ACLJ.org, on YouTube, on Rumble. You can find us on the Salem News Channel. All of that is happening live from 12 to 1 p.m. Eastern Time. There’s also great clips and other packages we put up on our YouTube channel and on Rumble and everywhere else. Instagram, follow us. Just engage. But of course, the best way and really the most impactful way is during our Life and Liberty Drive to make your financial donation and support. And again, I know I’m going to be pushing it a lot this month. Because these are the very special times of the year where your donations are doubled. That means there’s another great ACLJ member ready to unlock their donation. All you have to do is make a donation of any kind, whether it’s $5 or $5,000. It is donated and doubled. Someone is ready to match it. So do that right now at ACLJ.org. We’ve got a packed show still coming up. Harry Hutchinson’s going to be joining us. We’re going to talk about the shutdown, the government shutdown that did not happen. And it did not happen because maybe of a surprising source that Democrats are not too happy about. And they’re playing a bit of a shell game on why this happened. You know, we got to protect. It’s pretty interesting. You’re going to find it pretty fun to listen to. That’s coming up. Harry Hutchinson’s going to be joining us. But again, as the ACLJ progresses, we’ve got a long road ahead. We’ve been in this fight for nearly 40 years at this point now. The ACLJ has existed. And the fights that still continue sometimes are those small ones. Are those street preachers? Are those beach churches? It sounds like nothing. you’re talking about the global scale of some of the work that we do here but understand the aclj is there for the individual and the individual church is also there on the global stage whenever necessary through our offices in europe and our offices in jerusalem you can support all that work right now and keep us in the fight every day to protect your constitutional rights here and to spread the message that you want spread of Christian values around the world. Have your tax-deductible gift doubled today. Life and Liberty Drive right now. Again, 50 becomes 100. 100 becomes 200. Go to aclj.org. Have your gifts doubled. Phone lines are open right now. 1-800-684-3110. We’ll be right back.
SPEAKER 08 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Seculo. And now your host, Logan Sekula.
SPEAKER 04 :
Welcome back to Sekula. We got the second half hour coming up right now. Phone lines are open. There’s three lines open. And maybe it can be you, 1-800-684-3110, because I would like to hear from you. As we are covering the story this morning, as Tulsi Gabbard put out a pretty blistering statement saying, we are going after the leakers. We know who they are. And it is time for them to be held accountable. Let’s actually quickly go to Carrie, who’s calling in Montana on line one. Carrie, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yes, hi, Logan. I wanted to call and say that the caller prior that I listened to said that the media is accusing Tulsi of just retaliation. I was an eyewitness and a victim of child and human trafficking on commercial buses traveling cross-country. It’s not funny to be stalked and accused of being the CIA, the FBI, and a cop, and then plotting to take my life. That’s what happened to me and I’m living to tell about it. So we need to all get involved, every US American citizen human trafficking. There’s 350,000 children missing in the United States because of the Biden-Harris administration.
SPEAKER 09 :
And Carrie, they’re even saying that number could be larger than they originally thought. I’ve seen reports out of the Department of Homeland Security, but I fully agree with you that Tulsi Gabbard was falsely accused of being a Russian asset for years because of Hillary Clinton’s machine trying to slander someone that they didn’t agree with, someone that was strong, capable and probably scary to the Clinton machine was not what they wanted. So what they do, they decide to go with the old playbook and say Russian asset, puppet of Assad. And we even talked about yesterday, just because you have questions about Russia, whether or not the people that would replace Assad are the right thing to happen. We talked about massacring the Alawites yesterday and that the warning after Christians were killed as well, two Christian ministers in Syria was, once we have more control, you’re next. So maybe when Tulsi Gabbard was trying to get a situation as a member of Congress from all the parties in Syria so that she could go back and make informed decisions as John Kerry, who dined with Assad while he was a member of the Senate, was never accused of being a puppet of Assad. It was all politically motivated because they were scared of how competent she is and that she didn’t just tow the Democrat Party line. That’s what happened. That is why they labeled her a potential puppet or secret agent of a foreign government and were scared of her. And then they put her on a watch list where she could not fly. And we defended her here at the ACLJ while she was our colleague. Fortunately, we don’t have to defend her anymore because she is the director of national intelligence, but we will defend these actions that she’s taking. She is rooting out the rot within the intelligence community. Links should not be happening to their buddies at the Washington Post, at Huffington Post. I think as President Trump when a reporter asked a question and he said what outlet are you from? He said Huffington Post. He goes you’re still around? You’re still in business? Right they’re getting leaks from the intelligence community that is absurd it has to end and I trust that Tulsi Gabbard will send criminal referrals to the Justice Department will root this out and we’ll put an end to it and that is a good thing for the United States of America.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right. Hey, I want to take your calls about all of this coming up. Harry Hutchinson’s going to be joining us. We’re also going to talk about that looming government shutdown that did not occur because the continuing resolution was passed. And why was it passed? maybe from an unlikely source, and maybe you’ve seen some of the pictures and the images that have come out from this, you’re going to want to stay tuned to make sure you hear all about what’s going on. And again, phone lines are open 1-800-684-3110. I want to hear from you. If you’re on YouTube right now and you don’t know what to do, you don’t know what to comment. You’re like, Logan, I’m watching. I’m enjoying the show, but you know, I got nothing to say. I’m just trying to learn, trying to get educated, trying to be entertained. Put in the comments where you’re watching from. Or hit me up with your favorite emoji. Let’s do that. Favorite emoji. Well, let’s see what happens. Because it helps our engagement and it also lets me know where you’re watching from, which is fun. But let’s have a little fun today. It’s Friday. We’re going to do that coming up in the next segment as well. So again, phone lines are open for you. 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Secular. Again, get in line with your phone calls. We’ve got three lines open, 1-800-684-3110. We’ve been talking about that looming government shutdown. It did not occur, and it did not occur as the Democrats wanted it to because of their leader, because of Chuck Schumer, who again has come out and tried to parse his words for the reasons why he would do this, why he would put through a resolution bill that he did not like, that he didn’t think was good. And here are his thoughts. Here is Chuck Schumer.
SPEAKER 02 :
All right. I think we have a terrible option. It is not a clean CR. It is deeply partisan. It doesn’t address far too many of this country’s needs. But I believe allowing Donald Trump to take even more, even much more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option.
SPEAKER 04 :
So he said, hey, we give Trump more power. That means he can start firing people more. So can Elon Musk. So we need to pass it. And of course, the Democrats not thrilled with this. Do the image also of President Trump last night. This again was when you see this is Washington 101. OK, take a look at this image if you’re watching online right now. Look at this like buddy, buddy, friendship moment of, you know, Donald Trump has his hand on his cheek or on his shoulders, neck as they are talking about this. And, you know, you know what this conversation is, but this is a public image that was coming through through the White House. You know, these are those moments where you have to remember this is Washington, D.C., You have to remember that this is not the normal playbook. And Harry Hutchinson, you’re joining us again in normal business or normal life. This would not be the case. But of course, it’s Washington. Things are maybe a little blurrier than they let on because they let on this image of we can’t do any. We can’t work together. They are the worst, the worst. And all of a sudden you’re seeing a face being cradled in the White House. It’s a strange sight.
SPEAKER 05 :
It is, but it was indeed foreseeable. Chuck Schumer really did not have any good choices. So he could disappoint the Democratic base, or he could disappoint the American people. And I think the American people were in favor of basically funding the government, Also, I think Chuck Schumer made a calculus that if he shut down the government, this would allow Elon Musk and Donald Trump to cut even faster. And so at the end of the day, he caved and disappointed people like AOC and Jasmine Crockett, who… who is perhaps everyone’s favorite dancer in Washington.
SPEAKER 04 :
What’s interesting with this is I don’t necessarily disagree with Chuck Schumer. I disagree with his position, but I don’t disagree with the mindset of saying, hey, we got to do this so then we can still have our protection. It’s the Democrat social media talking points to say you can’t work together. And when he comes out and he makes a statement saying, no, no, no, if we give them everything, if we shut down, they can do whatever they want. But it’s so funny to me to then see, we’re going to push out Chuck Schumer. We’re going to recall Chuck. We’re going to get rid of him because of this. We’re going to primary him. It’s just funny to me that that’s where we’re at.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, they fell into their own trap, right? The trap that the Democrats had set for years was pushing Republicans to the brink of a government shutdown so they could blame a government shutdown on Republicans. That’s been their playbook. Now that Republicans have both the House and the Senate, that they were the ones that were taken to the brink and they were gonna have to own the shutdown. It wasn’t gonna be Republicans, they passed the CR through the House. And instead, Chuck Schumer all of a sudden realizes after saying he wouldn’t go along with it, wait a second, this is gonna look bad on us. And the irony of them trying to say we want to push a shutdown to stop them from laying off people made no sense because those people would be furloughed and no one would be getting paid instead of those that are being laid off. And so I think Chuck Schumer actually did. was the bluff was called but he politically made the smarter move knowing that the outcome knowing what had happened to Republicans that forced shutdowns and what happened to the party in the wake of that was smarter for Democrats to go along with this instead of taking the bait and forcing the shutdown.
SPEAKER 05 :
I think that’s precisely correct. And he took a long run view and he became the adult in the Democratic classroom. Many of the left wing Democrats, they wanted to shut the government down. One Democrat suggested that we ought to shut the government down so that individuals can be laid off and then they can be rehired and then they’ll get back pay as this was their strategy for stopping Elon Musk. It was a particularly unintelligent strategy, but you have to give them credit, the Democrats’ credit, for continuing to support ideas that don’t make sense.
SPEAKER 04 :
Should we hear more from Chuck Schumer?
SPEAKER 09 :
I think we should, yeah. Set this up for us. So this is, once again, him saying why they should keep the government open by voting for the CR instead of letting a shutdown because he is afraid of what Elon Musk and Trump could do if the government shut down and there’s nothing for them to have oversight over by five.
SPEAKER 02 :
Why is it that Elon Musk and Donald Trump want a government shutdown so they can take control of the government and do their vicious, horrible things? They could cut half the government. They could tell employees you’re not essential and never bring them back, permanently firing them. It’s a disaster. And in a few weeks, if there was a shutdown, everyone would be complaining and howling. Why did they eliminate SNAP? Why did they cut so much of Medicaid? But they could do all that on their own. That’s the problem. There is no check on them with a shutdown. That’s not to say this CR bill is a good bill. It isn’t. It didn’t have any safeguards in it. But it would be much, much worse to have a shutdown. And my job, Chris, as leader, is to see things a little bit ahead down the road and see how horrible this would be and alert people to it.
SPEAKER 09 :
So that’s why I want AOC to primary him, because that rationale is actually very smart for the Democrats.
SPEAKER 04 :
Too logical.
SPEAKER 09 :
But they’re taking the bait, saying we should force the shutdown. You mentioned Jasmine Crockett that said, well, they can’t fire them if they’re furloughed, and so they could be getting back pay, which I don’t think is actually accurate at all. As Chuck Schumer said, they could just say, you’re not essential, you’re never coming back. But once again, he’s getting criticism from the left. I mean, they may try to oust him over saying this would be much worse for us because we would own it. We were the ones that didn’t vote for it. And now no one has a job in the government instead of them being able to blame Elon Musk and Donald Trump for layoffs.
SPEAKER 05 :
I think you’re precisely correct. So basically Chuck Schumer is saving the Democrats from themselves. Meanwhile, of course, the Democratic caucus is meeting, I believe in Virginia this weekend, and they’re going ballistic. But I think at the end of the day, what Chuck Schumer has done is he has shown that the Democrats… are incapable of wearing any clothes. They’re incapable of offering intelligent arguments. They’re fantastic at dance videos. They’re fantastic at TikTok videos. I think all of the American people have seen Democratic congressmen and women who are dancing. And we are asked to choose our own fighter. And so I would like to unleash AOC to go after Chuck Schumer. At least we would lose one of them.
SPEAKER 04 :
Phone lines are open for you as we head into the next segment when we take all the calls we can. If you’re on hold right now, Michael, Andrew, Craig, stay on hold. We’ve got three lines open, though, and I’d love to hear from you. 1-800-684-3110. Whether we’re talking about the government shutdown, whether you’re talking about Tulsi Gabbard’s statement saying, hey, we’re getting rid of the leakers. We’re actually going to finally hold these leakers to accountability. making sure they actually have some kind of recourse because so far it has been nothing. We just know that maybe occasionally there’ll be someone who gets fired, but sometimes we’re not even identifying who they are. Let’s go back to the Supreme Court of the United States during the Dobbs decision. That kind of just became a, well, we don’t know. We think we know. We’re not sure. Therefore, no one gets in trouble. You go back to James Comey saying, hey, I’m going to just slide all this information to my friend, my friend in the press, and he can put out all this information for me. Admitting to that with no recourse, with nothing that we can do, but Tulsi Gabbard coming in saying we’re going to take care of it. Of course, we are also at the halfway mark of our life in Liberty Drive for the month of March, and this is a great time to support as we head into this final segment of the week. I like to hear from you, whether that is through a donation, whether that’s through a matching donation, which again, all donations are matched right now, or it’s through a comment or through a phone call. And right now, a couple lines are open. You can be one of the last voices this week on the broadcast because I like to hear from you. You’ll hear from some of the top leaders in our country, some of the top minds in our country. and i include you in that as well so give us a call at 1-800-684-3110 1-800-684-3110 again support the work of the aclj when you can we got just a couple minutes until we hit the next segment which is gonna be all your calls and comments but this is a great time about a minute and a half till we’re back so this is a perfect time to scan that qr code make your donation and then let me know in the chat that you did and know how much i would appreciate if you did that or give me a call even better Give me a call and let me know that you made your donation during our Life and Liberty Drive right now. We’ll be back with the last segment of the show for the week. All your voices will be heard at ACLJ.org. Again, we’ll be right back with more on Seculo. Welcome back to Sekulow. Now it is time to hear from you. So let’s go ahead and take some phone calls. Let’s go. Let’s see what we’re going to do first. Let’s go to Craig, who’s calling in Tennessee with a nice little comment. Craig, thanks for listening on the radio and welcome.
SPEAKER 06 :
Hey, thank you. I’ll tell you what, I’m so proud of President Trump and Chelsea Galbert and Pam Bondi, the whole crew. I mean, Elon Musk, they’re all putting their lives on the line for the country. They Anybody been shot at many times with President Trump, but still he’s willing to give his life for his country. And how could you not trust somebody that’s willing to go out on the limb like that? I’m so proud of him. I’ve really got great hope for the future.
SPEAKER 04 :
Greg, thanks for your feedback. I appreciate you calling in and sharing that because I think a lot of people have said that beginning with this administration, which is a lot of people like Elon Musk, like Donald Trump, that did not have to do this. They did not have to be in this position. Now, of course, when you have built businesses like they’ve built, there is some expertise and there’s also some ego and there’s also some want for strength and power. But if that could be used for good and creativity and thinking outside of the box, it’s only better for the country.
SPEAKER 09 :
And to Craig’s point as well, even with Tulsi Gabbard, someone that was put on a domestic terror watch list effectively. Recently. Yeah. While this entire campaign was going on, she was being surveilled by the government. The Biden administration had people following her on airplanes. And when you see the questionnaire, the sheet that the agents would fill out, the air marshals that were targeting her on, like taking note of if you went to the restroom, if you fell asleep, if you took a sip of water, what you ordered, that was what they were spying on you and documenting it all. That’s what the Quiet Skies program does. And to have the courage to not just say, you know what, this is ridiculous, but I don’t know that I can go and work in the intelligence community after this. I will continue to serve my country in the military. I’m very proud of my service. No, that takes a lot of courage. And I am proud that we worked with Tulsi and that we know Tulsi and that she has taken on the challenge of now going in and rooting out the corruption, the very type of corruption that lands a proud patriotic American member of our military on a domestic terror watch list for political reasons. And she had the courage to go and still go through those confirmation hearings and become the next director of national intelligence. I’m very proud of that. And I agree with our caller there that you have to just respect that because i don’t know that i would have the courage after all of that to say you know what i’m gonna go into the belly of the beast and root out the corruption well let’s see what happens let’s see if we can give you that courage
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, maybe I’ll get nominated for next director of national intelligence. It would be nice. That’d be nice. You know, maybe I will have that courage. Stranger things will happen. Yeah. You don’t want to root yourself out of that job. That’s fair. I take it back. Yeah. Michael’s calling now, uh, online five. Michael’s got a question that I feel like everyone brings up every couple of days because it does seem like all of the politics is what plays here. But Michael, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah. Um, I was hoping you could explain to me the constitutional basis. If there is one, of any federal judge out in Podunk, Oregon, or wherever, basically preventing the president from enacting a policy that he announced he was going to be putting into force when he became president. I mean, what are the powers of the presidency? even mean if they can be basically stymied by any federal judge anywhere? Was this the intent of the founders?
SPEAKER 04 :
This has been a question that has come up many times, and whether it’s the judges that think they have the ultimate authority, whether they do or not, sometimes is up for interpretation.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, and to Michael’s point, that is what Justice Alito argued in a dissent on one of the applications for stay that reached the Supreme Court. That was actually disappointing that the Supreme Court did not vote that way. Now, that case isn’t over. It was an application for stay. The merits of it have not reached the Supreme Court yet. But there is very much frustration with… Federal judges. Now, they may be in Podunk, Oregon, but they’re probably in the city because they’re in a federal courthouse. These aren’t just random judges. These are appointed judges to the judicial bench.
SPEAKER 04 :
I feel like we’re calling out Oregon for some reason.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, I mean, Michael said it. He’s in New Hampshire. I feel like New Hampshire and Oregon have a big beef. They probably raise a lot of big beef. Well, maybe. Have you had Oregon cattle? I feel like it. I feel like I have. We’ll look into that. Sounds right. But to your point, Michael, is that this is the system of checks and balances that sometimes feels like it goes far. And some judges have what we call activist judges, and they feel like they can assert nationwide injunctions. But once again, typically what we’ve seen is at the end of the day, if the policy is not unconstitutional… The court rules the right way. Not always, but we have a good court system right now. And I’m not going to discredit the Supreme Court. I do think that they make some wrong decisions that I wish they had made a different way. But we have seen very good constitutional decisions and strong rulings out of the court recently that we can’t forget about. whether it be presidential immunity, whether it be the Roe versus Wade overturning, and whether it be the 14th Amendment issue that we fought so hard for here at the ACLJ, these are very important decisions that overturned lower courts that were voting the wrong way. So there is a path to seeing that restored.
SPEAKER 04 :
And there’s a lot of comments from people in Oregon, Will, and they are not thrilled with you. Because I don’t know about the cattle industry? No, because you called it po-dunk Oregon. No, he did. But then you said it again.
SPEAKER 09 :
Michael said, I don’t know if it is podunk Oregon or not.
SPEAKER 04 :
I’m sorry. Because there are some cities being listed here that I don’t even want to pretend to know where they are or know how to say it. But you know what?
SPEAKER 09 :
We got a lot of lovely listeners around the world, Will. Did find out that Oregon does have cattle. But no offense to Oregon. I meant none. That was Michael from New Hampshire. I mean, there are cows everywhere.
SPEAKER 04 :
Andrew’s calling from New York on line one. Andrew, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 03 :
All right. My question is in regards to Christian persecution around the world. My question is, what can the United States do to pressure the international community to act to protect Christians and their rights? Sure, Andrew.
SPEAKER 04 :
this is why we’re here. This is why the ACLJ exists. That’s why the ECLJ exists specifically to the European center. Cause we’re able to go on a global scale to the UN, put some pressure on when it’s necessary. And of course your elected officials should be speaking out and talking about this because where the U S goes, so does the world often. So make sure that they know about it. But we at the ACLJ have made this such a, a big part of our organization over maybe the last 15 years or so, as we have moved, uh, all of our operations we’ve seen so many amazing things happen overseas it’s disheartening to hear the rights of christians because again we think of that in american terms in american terms protecting a christian is hey they want to have their church on the beach we’re going to be there for them but when it comes to some of these nations it’s literally life or death and that’s a lot of the work that we do at the aclj and i i know from history when mike pompeo was secretary of state
SPEAKER 09 :
that the work that ACLJ did made it to his desk and made a big difference in the way that the United States postured itself to combat persecution of Christians around the world. He said it on this broadcast before. And I know that that is something that actually is dear to the heart of Secretary Rubio. And now you have to remember, we’re only at March 15th. A lot of the other positions that have to be confirmed at the State Department have not been confirmed yet. They have to be nominated. They have to go through that process. And that takes a little bit of time, but I know that that will be a priority of Marco Rubio. as the Secretary of State and we will be able to work with the Secretary of State to be able to further those goals, but we also do it at the UN and at the EU. We don’t just stop with the American government because that is something we are passionate about here and we can make a difference.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right, as we head to the end of the show right now with only 25 seconds left, I’m just going to ask you one more time, support the work of the ACLJ. None of this happens, not this broadcast, not our work overseas, not our work here domestically. None of it can get done. We won’t be able to be there for you if we don’t exist. And we only exist because of the backbone built by ACLJ supporters and members. And right now your donations are doubled. So go to ACLJ.org as we wrap up this week. Pray about it, think about it, and support the work if you can. We’ll talk to you next week.
