On today’s episode of Sekulow, we dive into a shocking revelation as China openly admits to their involvement in cyber-attacks against U.S. infrastructure, sparking a fresh perspective on the ongoing tariff war. Join us as Logan Sekulow and Will Haynes analyze how strategic insights from the Wall Street Journal are fueling shifts in U.S. international relations. Our packed lineup promises exclusive insights from ACLJ clients and experts who detail courtroom battles that uphold election integrity, particularly in Oklahoma, where imminent challenges to political primaries surface.
SPEAKER 07 :
On today’s show, China makes shocking confession that may be fueling the tariff war. 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.
SPEAKER 06 :
And now your host, Logan Sekula. Welcome to Sekula. We do have some breaking news today, and we have a packed show. We’re going to be joined by one of the ACLJ’s clients a little bit later. You may have heard about our complaint right now happening in Oklahoma for the Republican Party. They’re going to discuss that. as well as Yakov Smirnoff, comedian, is going to be joining us. That’s going to be a lot of fun. Talk about all of his new work and, of course, a very patriotic guy, and you want to stay tuned for that, a comedy legend. And then, of course, towards the end of the show, we’ll be joined by even more guests and your calls at 1-800-684-3110, 1-800-684-3110, to have your voice heard on the air today, Will, because there is some news we wanted to break today. And it is a pretty interesting discovery that the Wall Street Journal has uncovered.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right. So if you’ll remember last year during the Biden administration, there was concerns about this cyber attack on the U.S. infrastructure and that they were finding this malware that was embedded within key infrastructure centers within the United States, whether it be power, energy, things of that nature. And It was accredited to that it came from China. You know, the United States believed that the People’s Republic of China in the party probably had something to do with it. But obviously they would never have admitted that publicly. But it was it was a big shock at the time to see some of the vulnerabilities that we had here at home that could be susceptible to some of these types of cyber attacks. Well, it turns out that. The outgoing Biden administration had a secret meeting with Chinese officials at the end of last year in December. And in that meeting, the Chinese officials actually acknowledged in this summit in Geneva that. That the Chinese were behind it, that the government itself, not trying to just blow it off, talk about some rogue actors or some criminal elements within the country, but they actually were behind it. This is unprecedented. Normally, your adversary in this doesn’t admit to this, doesn’t fess up. it but they’re not usually talking about it and it was so much so that the united states had it as an agenda item to talk about it was called volt typhoon but decided to not bring it up thinking that there’s no way that they were going to uh even have a any sort of discussion about this because they would just deny and move on they instead were talking about some uh phone hacking that also occurred uh that was directed by the government of china that swept up AT&T and some of the other carriers and actually involved some eavesdropping on some of the presidential campaign periphery people. But it was one of the delegation members of China that brought it up himself, and it was seen there. that by many that he was making this admission almost as if to say, if you come towards Taiwan, if you push us, look what we can do in that when you have that context. Obviously, the Biden team, they said briefed the the This is post-election. Post-election, pre-transition to President Trump. Yeah, so just that December timeframe. The Biden team gets this information, relays it to the incoming President Trump team, and when you have this context of a weak president finds this out, and then the incoming strong president has this knowledge, a lot of the escalation that’s going on with China right now in the tariff war game starts to make a lot more sense. That’s about to say,
SPEAKER 06 :
Let’s tie that in. We only got a minute here until we go to a quick break, but we’ll be right back and we’ll keep this discussion going. If you have questions about it, give us a call. I know people have seen that it says it’s fueling the tariff war. Can you give us a little tease, Will, of what you mean by fueling the tariff war?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, when you start to see that your adversary has strengthened exponentially over the last presidency, it makes you wonder why the number one target of these tariffs is do seem to be still China.
SPEAKER 06 :
All right, phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. Like I said, we got a very packed show, so you want to make sure you stay tuned. Hit that thumbs up if you’re watching. Give us a comment in YouTube if you’re watching on YouTube or Rumble. Let me know where you’re watching from. I always like to hear that. But also support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org. Right now, we are halfway through our life and Liberty Drive for the month of April, where your donations are doubled. I’m going to break down all the things we are fighting for on your behalf when we get back. But right now, you know what we do. Scan the QR code. Go to ACLJ.org. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Sekulow. Just to reset so you have an idea of what’s going on. And again, we’re going to have a packed show. We’ve got a lot of guests coming up. In the next segment, we are going to have one of our clients from Oklahoma, Senator Nathan Dahm, who’s going to come on and discuss the news you heard yesterday. Again, we’ll maybe give a brief background before we get to it a little bit later. But essentially, the Republican Party there is nervous about being inundated with people who are claiming to be Republicans just to disrupt politics. The, um, just disrupt the elections essentially. And what we have to do is say, yes, it’s okay for them to have their own ability to screen and decide who gets to be their nominee.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right. Well, people at home may not want to be thinking about the midterm election or even the next presidential election. Uh, We can’t have that luxury here. And that’s why our lawyers are working diligently and have representing the the Republican Party of Oklahoma right now. And we’ll get into more of that later. But it is based off of a new ballot initiative brought by purportedly citizens of Oklahoma that are. trying to change the way that the primaries of the state are run. And a lot of the effect would have because it is one of the most conservative states in the country. So changing the way it’s run may change the outcome or the opportunities of people that may want to diminish the conservative chops of Oklahoma.
SPEAKER 06 :
That’s right. We’ll discuss that a bit more. And then obviously, like I told you earlier, comedy legend Yakov Smirnoff is going to be joining us. That’s going to be a lot of fun. And we got more coming up. And again, phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. But you may be tuning in right now because you saw our headline, our breaking news alert, if you will, this shocking moment where China has actually confessed. to some interesting uh claims a lot of people probably assumed we could probably guess that they were happening as you said but usually you don’t get an admission this again comes from the wall street journal and some other sources that’s right so this this entire claim which is just shocking because while the us assumed and and probably blamed
SPEAKER 03 :
the Chinese government for this pre-positioning of this malware for a cyber attack to be able to target U.S. infrastructure, whether it be water, power, utilities, things that we rely on all over the country. And And they, in this meeting, this outgoing meeting of the Biden team, they met secretly in Geneva in December. They were talking about issues. They were talking about even hacking of phone networks and other cybersecurity issues. And the, the Americans trying to be diplomatic, we’re trying to talk about even issues like the, the infrastructure targeting. as wanting to inform like the chinese how dangerous and that the americans would see that as an act of war kind of in the meeting giving them the benefit of the doubt and in this unexpected move the chinese delegation essentially confirmed to the american delegation that they were behind it it wasn’t a rogue criminal element it wasn’t bad actors or third parties that were uh Just coming up with this plan on their own. But it was indeed the Chinese government that had the knowledge and force behind it. And it took the people off guard in the meeting. Obviously the Chinese embassy is not making a public statement about this. And even in there, the people are saying this was a secret meeting. This was not supposed to be publicly broadcast things that happen. And that’s one reason why they felt so secure making this almost threat to the Americans. And this was as the Biden team’s exiting.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, I think we need to clarify the timeframe of this because this is a breaking news item. But this is something that happened, I mean, only a few months ago. We’re talking about back in December. This happened, but it happened. You got to remember. A lot can be disrupted in that election period to inauguration period when there is an outgoing administration that is not thrilled.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, and we know how the world reacted to the Biden presidency. They took steps to strengthen their posture against the United States during four years of a weak foreign policy led by Trump. uh in name the president united states joe biden but jake sullivan wendy sherman the victoria newlands of the world all of these people uh secretary blinken that were leading the foreign policy of the united states and took us steps back maybe even decades back in the posture of the united states on the world stage Causing all of this catch up that you’re having to see in this first 80 days of the Trump presidency. And so when you look at the fact that the tariff, there’s a pause for the entire world except against China.
SPEAKER 06 :
And that happened since we’ve been, I think, on air. That happened where the pauses went through. I guess that happened a couple of days ago. Right. The pauses went through. So a lot of people who are concerned about the tariffs. But China is sort of the big one.
SPEAKER 03 :
but they keep going back and forth there’s up to 125 tariffs across the board on china at this point and when you see that and you see the strength that’s now having to be put forward against china it also tells you how far the ability to negotiate and duel it out with the chinese officials have gotten because they were brazen enough in a meeting to admit they were behind pre-positioning software to be able to strike at the very heart of america being able to operate that would be on civilian infrastructure that’s not just hitting a military target if they felt they needed to do an attack on the united states that is costing many many many casualties and issues with the civilian population in the united states that’s telling you how serious it got And why I think in some degree, I think maybe even the administration should be able to vocalize this to some degree of how bad the relationship has gotten, how brazen China feels. That you have to be tough now with things like a trade war or else it becomes a hot war with actual military conflict. And I don’t think anyone in the world wants to see an actual military war with China.
SPEAKER 06 :
I definitely don’t want that. I mean, you had even people like Kevin, Mr. Wonderful from China. Shark Tank saying, hey, you know what? Make it a 400% tariff. Then we’ll actually get to the table and get stuff done. Let’s go to Kevin, though, who is calling. Different Kevin. Maybe not. In California. Who’s watching on the Salem News Channel, which we’re available live, by the way, every day from 12 to 1 p.m. Eastern time. Absolutely free on the Salem News Channel, as well as free on, obviously, YouTube, Rumble, ACLJ.org. But, Kevin, go ahead. Thank you for taking my call.
SPEAKER 05 :
You’re welcome. I think we should, I think we should be like Kennedy said, ask not what your country could do for you, but what you can do. You need you for your country. Um, it’s going to be tough, but it’s better to rip the bandaid off fast. to pull it off slowly. And God bless Trump and America.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, Kevin, I think a lot of people are hoping that this is just a negotiation tactic. In some ways, it clearly is. We’ve already seen so many countries come to the table. We’ve already seen the pause happen for 99% of the countries. It just happens to be the one that’s still there is the one that is the big dog, if you will. The one that is going to be the most difficult because we probably rely on each other the most, which is China. And China, again, has not really been a friend necessarily to the United States, but is one of our biggest trade partners. So when we start going back and forth, remember you’re dealing with almost everything that you use on a daily basis is likely made in China. I’m looking at around on our studio. I am sure most of what is getting us here on the air was probably made in China or our country associated.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, and what you’re also seeing is some of the businesses in the United States that have clout and the ability to also take part in negotiations in their own way. China, obviously, a lot of business with Walmart, America’s largest retailer. Yeah. walmart is saying publicly that they are going to force the exporter being china who they get goods from to be the ones to foot the bill for the car the tariffs yeah right because the way tariffs work normally when it comes into the port through customs uh It is the responsibility of the importer, the one who gets it, who pays the duty to be able to continue it to come into the country. Walmart has the clout because of how much they import in from Chinese manufacturers and companies that they can say, you know what? you’re going to be the one that’s going to foot this bill. You want to still keep sending your goods through here and we have the power and they have the money to really put that pressure point on the person that’s manufacturing it. That changes a big equation, especially for the left that tries to say this is only going to hurt lower income and middle class Americans who are going to see prices rise on all their goods. When the largest retailer in the United States that is mostly, it’s not the billionaires of Wall Street that are the biggest customer base of the Walmart stores across America. If they’re going to say, we’re not even going to end up having to raise the price on our goods because China’s going to pay it anyways. That makes a very big difference in the pressure point because now China’s losing another leverage point where they can say, if we can hold out and just cause more pain on the American people, then President Trump will cave. That doesn’t seem like it’s going to play out for them very well. It’s an interesting development when you know this context of how bad the relationship and how brazen China is in their meetings with the officials of the former administration, why it is necessary to be so tough on them now, because you have to undo a lot of damage that has happened with our posture towards China.
SPEAKER 06 :
All right. When we get back, we’re going to be taking, number one, some more calls. If you want to call in at 1-800-684-3110, you can. We’ll take them in the next few segments. We also have one of our clients, a former senator in Oklahoma. You may have heard about our current president. supreme court of oklahoma fight i guess you want to say for election integrity we’re going to discuss and break that down make it a little bit easier for you to understand why it’s important and so you can put a face with all that’s happening in the world of the aclj we always think it’s important for you to see these clients hear from them directly so we’re going to do that coming up in the next segment and then later on the broadcast yakov smirnoff comedian comedy legend is gonna be joining us uh as well as a geez a more packed show mike pompeo we got stacked 1-800-684-3110 give us a call we’ll be right back Welcome back to Seculo. It’s always important to me, at least once a show, to talk about the work of the ACLJ and how we are getting involved. And number one, how you need to get involved in this as well, because you’re going to hear these stories from time to time, whether that’s the church on the beach, whether that’s someone praying in there, a teacher praying that wasn’t allowed to pray in front of her students or even in front of anyone in sight. The ACLJ takes that on to all the way up to the President of the United States and usually somewhere in the middle. That’s kind of where we are right now, which we are joined by a very special guest. Will, why don’t you introduce our guest and then I really want you to break down, sir, the kind of nitty gritty of this because it’s a little hard to understand for our audience. I got some feedback yesterday that said, hey, Make it a little clearer on why this is important and why this is important nationwide. But, Will, I’ll let you do the introductions.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right. We have former Senator Nathan Dahm from Oklahoma, who is the chairman of the Oklahoma GOP. It’s a pleasure for the ACLJ to work again with Senator Dahm because we also were fighting another ballot access initiative situation maybe a little over a year ago with the 14th Amendment challenges They went to Oklahoma as they were trying to go all over the country. Fortunately, we were able to win that one a little bit quicker than things like the Colorado situation, which all the way to the Supreme Court. But Senator Dahm, what is this initiative petition 448 and why is it so important that the Oklahoma GOP is challenging it?
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, first of all, let me absolutely thank you all. You’ve always been great to work with. And we were thrilled to have that last victory on the 14th Amendment case along with you and you all leading the charge in that. So we’re happy to partner with you once again. But what we’re seeing is essentially the Democrats, their ideology has been destroyed. rejected time and time again, especially here in Oklahoma. They had control of the state for over 100 years. And then as Republicans have gained control because people have compared the principles and platforms of the party, they’ve rejected what the Democrats stand for. And so we see that now they’re trying to change the system, game the system, do anything that they can to infiltrate. And now they’re trying to actually amend the Oklahoma Constitution. and take away the right of free association, take away the ability of the parties to determine who is voting in their primary elections, and essentially say that no matter what, whoever it is, you have every Republican, Democrat, independent, unregistered, libertarian, all of them just go on one primary ballot. and anyone can vote on any one of those so uh democrats can start voting on on uh for uh in in the republican primaries uh to try to skew that uh to pick someone that’s not you know very aligned with the republican party platform or to try to get their people advancing to the general election without people understanding who they’re voting for why they’re voting for them so they’re calling this an open primary But in reality, it’s more of a jungle primary, similar to California and how they were able to get Kamala Harris elected in that state. And so what they’re trying to do is they’re trying to use the force of government to infiltrate these parties, Republican parties. and determine how we operate as a party, what principles we have to adhere to. And so they’re trying to use the force of government to interfere with our rights of free association. And that’s a huge problem. Obviously, there’s constitutional issues with that. But they’ve lost in so many other ways that they’re trying to skew things and change it to where they can take advantage of of this process by enshrining it in the Oklahoma Constitution. So it’s a bad move forward and we’re thankful that you all have partnered with us to try and fight this battle in the courts.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, and once again, you mentioned that they’re trying to call it an open primary. Many states have an open primary, but the difference is that the open primary isn’t that it’s one ballot, kind of a free-for-all. It’s that an open primary, the parties still direct the ballot that is received because in those, you still are choosing either a Democrat or Republican ballot. There is a big difference in what would be considered a traditional open primary in the way that they’re trying to spin it in the media to make it seem like the Republicans may be scared of what other states do, because in reality, they’re trying to skew the system. They’re trying to obfuscate what people may end up voting for. And they’re also, as you said, they haven’t been winning in your state. And so, again, What can they do? Not get better candidates or change their ideology. They can just try to change the rules to try to gain ground. But that’s what I wanted to also focus on here because many people are tired of talking about an election at this point. They don’t want to think about 2022 as a midterms. I’m sorry. 2026 midterms I’m sorry two years from now they don’t want to think about the next presidential election but we have to start here and that’s why we’re working with you to protect the integrity of elections not just in Oklahoma but we also know the left has a playbook and that they will try to replicate this elsewhere so we have to start now
SPEAKER 01 :
Absolutely. And you have to give credit to them. I mean, the left is relentless. They know that their ideology is terrible, that it fails everywhere that it’s been tried throughout human history, but they want power. And so they’ll do anything they can to gain power, gain power. Maintain power, control power, and that’s what this is. This is a power grab. Right now in our current state law, if a party, whether the Republican Party or Democrat Party or Libertarian Party, if they want to, they can allow anyone else from any other party or any unaffiliated person, an independent or an unaffiliated voter, to vote in their primaries. But it’s up to the party to choose that. And it’s just like – I mean I try to use the example of with your local church, do you really want all the atheists that live in the community, should they be able to come in and determine who the pastor is? And they get a vote on who the pastor is even though they fully disagree with the tenets of faith of that church. And that’s what they’re trying to do is – but they’re trying to use the force of government to say that you have to let – an atheist come in and vote on who your pastor is going to be. No, that’s not how this should operate. And so they are trying to do this in Oklahoma, the reddest of the red states, where all 77 counties voted for President Trump the last three cycles and for the Republican nominee going back the last six cycles. And so they’re trying to use Oklahoma as a proving ground. They’re being disingenuous in how they are presenting this because again we already have this option but right now it’s up to the parties if they want to choose to allow other people to vote in it what they are trying to do is trying to put it in the constitution to force every political party to say you no longer have any sort of authority autonomy you can’t have any direction in this or involvement they they’re trying to say that they know what’s best because they can’t win otherwise
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, thank you so much, Nathan, for joining us today. I really appreciate it. I think that helped break down what this information is and why this is a freedom of speech case, why this is something that needs to be taken care of and why we need to be there. And we’re only there because of people like you who support the work of the ACLJ on a regular basis, whether you’re giving a one-time donation or you are becoming an ACLJ champion. That’s a great time to do it, by the way. You heard the story from Nathan. You hear all the cases that we are involved in. I got a whole list of them right in front of me we can go through because you hear that and we know that we can be there at absolutely no cost. and we are in our life and liberty drive we’re about to wrap up this first half hour make sure you join us for the second half hour it’s a crucial time you can increase the power of your donation because right now your donations are doubled that is twice the power to keep us in the fight for all things you hold dear to your heart when you support the aclj not only are you supporting work here domestically you also are working with the european center for law and justice the aclj jerusalem and our offices around the globe We just told you about that filing at the Supreme Court of Oklahoma to defend election integrity. We just did that at the U.S. Supreme Court last year for the ballot ban that was happening for President Trump. We need you to get involved right now. We are there for you, fighting for your values, and we can’t do it without you. So I encourage you, as we head to the break, scan the QR code, go to ACLJ.org, double the impact of your donation right now. As we head into the second half hour, join us on ACLJ.org, on YouTube, on Rumble, or however you get your content. We are there. We’ll be right back in less than a minute.
SPEAKER 07 :
keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 06 :
Hey, give us a call at 1-800-684-3110. This is the second half hour of Sekulow. We got a packed back half of the show. In the next segment, Yakov Smirnoff, comedy legend, is going to be joining us. You know those are fun days when Friday, this is like when you can tell I get to pick some of the guests, Will, they get to come on. So we had the head of a former Republican, or head of the Republican Party in Oklahoma. Right. And you’re like, you get to take that one. Yeah. And you get to ask all the really deep, important questions. This next segment… This one’s on me, and I’m going to talk with Yakov Smirnoff. You’re going to be there as well.
SPEAKER 03 :
You can fill in. I’ll be here, but I definitely said during that segment, I go, actually, you know, let me take this one a little bit more with the party chair. And then I said, you handle our Mr. Smirnoff. All right.
SPEAKER 06 :
You can give us a call at 1-800-684-3110. We are talking about a few different topics. You heard about the work of the ACLJ and I definitely wanted to spend some time more talking about that because when you hear from our clients directly, I think it’s important. In the ACLJ, we have a lot of different facets. We have the show, we have the media side, and of course the legal side. In the legal side, in media side, I think they go hand in hand. They’re just as important because we have to be able to change hearts. and minds, we have to be able to educate and inform, and of course we have to be able to impact the law. And we can’t do that without the best of the best. And when I look around and I see the incredible team working on our media team, or I see our legal team upstairs, I go, wow, we got some great people who are out there fighting for you. And they only exist because of people like you. We’re not built on the back. of giant mega donors. We’re not built on the back of corporate sponsors. It is all because of people like you who make individual or become ACLJ champions. But a lot of those are at the $75 range, $45 range. It’s not all built on this sort of mega money. And we do that intentionally and important because we don’t have to within have some sort of sway by some major donor who says, I need you to tackle only this issue. We don’t do that here. Sure, if you want to give a big donation, we’d happily accept it. But we are not controlled by that. So I want you to go to ACLJ.org and be a part of that journey today because we are in the middle of our life in Liberty Drive. And this next half hour, it’s going to be packed. So I’m not going to have as many times to be able to tell you this because we have guests coming up in the next two segments. So I wanted to give you that opportunity right now to hear about our work and know why it’s important. We do have a phone call coming in. Should we go ahead and take that call? Yeah, let’s go to… Is it clear? It just went, it was green. There we go. Martin, North Carolina, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 02 :
You bumped me up. Yeah, I just wanted to make a mention with everything that you’re talking about and what we saw under the Biden administration with the spy balloon and everything else, why the left, in particular Tim Walz, was touting that China… is not our adversary. Well, clearly they are. And people need to keep their eyes wide open I know you’ve mentioned several times about the midterms coming up. Who’s really are we going to follow when we find out now that China has been behind a lot of this stuff that is very, very important working against us?
SPEAKER 06 :
It is a big issue because they are one of the most important players on the stage. They have also, like you said, unleashed havoc on our country fairly recently in the world. So it’s this very strange relationship where we don’t support necessarily their political side. We don’t even necessarily support the humanitarian side. However, we’re forced to be at the table with them because of the way we have structured deals with them.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right. And that’s part of the tariff issue is not just to put them in check, but also to try and bring some of that back. And everyone in the world is trying to tell America it’s impossible. Right. I like when America is told something’s impossible because that’s when the American people really shine. That’s when they stand up and they get it done and they show the world once again we can do impossible things here in America. And so I don’t take the impossible challenge lightly. I think that that’s what America’s best at. But back to that Tim Walz statement before we go to break. I think that if the Kamala Harris team actually vetted Tim Walz and saw those statements beforehand and they still…
SPEAKER 06 :
allowed him to be the nominee for vice president uh either i don’t i don’t even know how to fathom that because this is the reality of what’s going on hey uh phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110 we get back we’re gonna have a little more fun so you want to stay tuned for that because yakov smirnoff comedy legend is going to be joining us we’re going to be talking to him about a lot of new things going on in his career and his life so make sure you stay tuned for that and then we’ll wrap things up after his segment we’ll be right back Welcome back to Seculo. I’m very excited for our guest today. Joining us in studio, Yakov Smirnoff, who I’ve been a fan of most of my life. No, probably my whole life at this point. I have been to the Branson Show. I am a big comedy historian, if you will. Obviously know of your history. And your story is that it’s just an amazing story. And when you go to see your show in Branson, that at least for when I saw it, that was really the… the key takeaway of it is just how amazing your American dream journey has been, whether that’s from, you know, your time when you made it to America in the Catskills and then working your way to the comedy store. It’s just a phenomenal journey that really seems like it only can happen here.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, I really appreciate you saying this. And I’m doing a show tomorrow, Saturday at 4 p.m. at Zany’s. And when I have an hour that I can take them on that journey, And they’re laughing all the way through, and yet it paints a picture of where I grew up and how my life was and how it changed when I came to America, and then how it changed again when I came to Hollywood and started making movies. And I thought every immigrant gets a movie with Robin Williams or Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson or Tom Hanks. I was just enjoying this.
SPEAKER 08 :
This is what happened.
SPEAKER 09 :
That’s right, but I didn’t understand that I was just lucky to kind of come to America when there was a lot of tension between the Soviet Union and Russia, Soviet Union and America. And so I was popular because Americans need, I was like… I say they were painting behind the Soviet Union, and I was like Preparation H. I was helping to release the swelling and the tension.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, and it was your journey there, of course, Moscow and the Hudson, all of that that happens, because it was such a topic at the time. And now it probably is more relevant than ever to have these discussions again. Yeah.
SPEAKER 09 :
I think in some ways. I think what President Trump is trying to do is to stop the conflict. And that would help with humor as well. Because it’s kind of hard to make jokes about, you know, when people are in that situation. But I… There was a time the Soviet Union collapsed and David Letterman had a top 10 list of things that will now change. I made number one on the list. Yakov Smirnov will be out of work. And six months later, I was out of work. My contracts in Vegas, Atlantic City, Reno, Tahoe were not renewed. So all of a sudden, I’m in Malibu between all these big stars, $2.5 million home, no money to pay for a mortgage. So American dream was all of a sudden it’s a nightmare. What am I doing? So I start looking for a place where they did not know that the Soviet Union collapsed. I ended up in Branson, Missouri. They still don’t know. Bless their hearts. It’s been the best thing that could happen to me. Landing there, I entertained over 6 million people in my own 2,000 seat theater. I mean, it’s crazy for a boy that grew up in Ukraine to achieve that. It’s just amazing.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, I mean, when you see your theater, it’s very impressive. It’s got your artwork everywhere you walk in. It is like your own little Disney world of Yakov that’s there. Yakov world. Yakov world that’s there. But now you are doing a show here tomorrow. You are starting to kind of dip your toe, it feels like, back into touring and stand-up a little bit more traditionally because that show is almost a one-man show as well as a comedy night. It is like stand-up, but it definitely tells your whole story. Exactly. It’s wonderful, especially for the Branson crowd. It is that almost theatrical experience. Yeah. yeah but you’re gonna be at zany’s that is a legit you know probably nashville is one of our greatest the longest lasting things is zany’s comedy club it’s been there for a great room but you’ll be there and now it seems like that’s starting to to shake up for you again well in what way when when the soviet union collapsed i i also went through a divorce at that time and i started
SPEAKER 09 :
learning more about relationships and why is there a laughter in the beginning of the relationship? But if you’re going for a divorce, the only people are laughing are attorneys. And you go, what, as a comedian, it made me kind of go, what is it that, changes in the relationship. So I went from, you know, doing jokes about the cold war in the world to cold war in the bedroom. And that’s what lasted me last 32 years. So I talk about men, women. So a lot of my material now is about that. And then I got my master’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania in psychology. Then got my doctorate degree at Pepperdine because I wanted to scientifically figure out what happens to laughter. And so I gift drop all of this knowledge in my show and I am capable to tell people about relationships and tell them my backstory and give them some hope that there is, no matter what happening, laughter is something you want to aim for.
SPEAKER 06 :
And you’ve been pretty fiercely patriotic also throughout your whole career. I mean, obviously that was sort of the bedrock of maybe the original material that you were doing. What a country. What a country. And now you’re still that way. I mean, I’m looking at your hat right now. If you go through your Branson, there’s paintings all over that are very american very patriotic and i think it’s important as people have a lot of divisive things happening in the news or they feel like there is this separation to remember it is a pretty small world that we all live in but people like you have been able to kind of break down that door and remain a real uh really a proponent of america
SPEAKER 08 :
Very much so.
SPEAKER 09 :
And helping people see what unites them and not divides them. And it’s kindness. It’s kindness that lives in every American’s heart. And it’s totally different from being brought up behind the Iron Curtain. You were surviving and you had to get everything for you. And coming to America, realizing that people do it for others and it makes them feel good, that was a shocker. But it became like my, you know, I got off the plane, I see my name written, America loves Smirnoff. I’m going, what a country, you know?
SPEAKER 06 :
So… yeah it’s been it’s been an amazing journey yeah and I want people to know not only again you have a show here in Asheville tomorrow at Zaney’s and you know afternoon show come on out it’s gonna be a lot of fun yeah but also if they’re gonna be in Branson or they’re gonna be you’re still there you’re doing your show it’s not like you’re just doing the roads and uh it’s really a wonderful experience and Will we gotta get you out there We got to get you out to Branson.
SPEAKER 09 :
Branson is an experience. Please. Yeah. But, but you also tomorrow at 4 PM, it’s a great representation of what I do. And I definitely know that people are going to laugh their yak off.
SPEAKER 06 :
I remember that on the sign. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER 09 :
Absolutely. And I believe that, you know, we can create that sense of, camaraderie at least for at least that hour where we see Americans united through my eyes.
SPEAKER 06 :
When I look at your history and obviously you should absolutely go see the show tomorrow and then see it if you’re in Branson but you talked about when you came to LA and to the comedy store and all that you look at that lineup and i’ve seen the documentaries and everything you’ve been involved you look in that lineup of people who are with you that class if you will uh it has to be crazy now you know 40 years ish later to look back and be like well that was a very special time because it was phenomenal it was i
SPEAKER 09 :
I mean, people, you know, I made movies with those people. Robin Williams, Moscow and Hudson. Movie with Tom Hanks, Money Pit. Movie with Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson called Heartburn. And I’m proud to say, after working with me, all of those actors won an Oscar. And I got Oscar Mayer winner. So that’s but it’s all good. The point is that I’ve been very, very blessed. And I was I performed for four different presidents of the United States. I’ve been I’ve been I don’t know. It’s my story. I listen to it and I go, is that really me or am I watching a movie or something?
SPEAKER 06 :
It does feel that way. Well, I would encourage everyone, you go to yakoff.com to find out all the information for the shows. But then, of course, Zany’s tomorrow. And it’s really great that you stopped by because I think it’s important for people to hear your story still. I think it’s a very relevant story to what’s going on to know that the American dream not only can happen, but here’s proof and here’s it happening in real time. It’s still happening.
SPEAKER 09 :
And it goes for ups and downs. Yeah, yeah. But yet you remember more ups than downs. And Nashville, in my opinion, is a hub for something that is happening from my perspective. Like I became successful because I was kind of a relief of tension. And that’s what made me popular. But now Nate Bargatze is leading the way. Out of here, out of Nashville. Yeah, great lineup of people now.
SPEAKER 06 :
And a lot are clean for families.
SPEAKER 09 :
Clean, clean. I was invited to Ryman. Ryman, yeah, just the other night. Yeah. It was really cool. And it just kind of threw me in. And I did 10 minutes, and I got a standing ovation.
SPEAKER 06 :
Amazing. Well, hold on. I’m going to tell you. We’ve got to go to yakoff.com, get tickets, and it’s at Zany’s tomorrow. Thank you so much. Thanks for coming. Sorry. No, no, no. We had a hard break there. Welcome back to Seculo. That was a nice diversion having Yakov in. Really cool. If you are in the area of Nashville, Tennessee, come out tomorrow and see Yakov. But if you’re going to be in Branson or anywhere else, go to yakov.com. And we are now joined. We’re going to take a totally different turn. This is a swerve. Yeah. We are joined by Mike Pompeo, Senior Counsel for Global Affairs. Of course, you know Mike. Mike, we’re going to try to move us back to the main topic here after kind of 10 minutes of laughter there. But we had this report. We talked about it earlier, Will. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Beijing admitted to the outgoing Biden administration, this was obviously only in December, about its role in hacking the US infrastructure. Again, this isn’t some sort of secret moment. This is the Wall Street Journal reporting that this was kind of not even an open secret. It was discussed.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, it’s pretty remarkable. And maybe I can keep the laughter going because it makes me laugh to think somehow that anyone doubted for a moment that the Chinese Communist Party wasn’t hard at trying to take down the United States of America in really fundamental ways. And so now we have evidence that in December, the Chinese told them that, yeah, we did this. We were partly responsible for this. But we’ve known for many, many years that the Chinese were preparing to uh to go after infrastructure think uh telecommunications think financial services think our energy pipelines even think of things like uh dams and waterways the chinese communist party has been hard at this and we have a lot of work to do to defend ourselves and to continue to deter them from actually executing against these in ways that can really hurt ordinary americans all across the country and our economy
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, and Mr. Secretary, you’ve talked about that on this broadcast for years at this point now, that they are not to be taken lightly, that this is the goal of the Chinese Communist Party. You’ve talked about spy dens in different consulates that while you were Secretary of State had to put an end to. But I think what shook me about this story to some degree is that typically there’s the the diplomatic niceties and of course they would never admit to but that we got to a point where the chinese communist party is so comfortable because of how weak they perceive the United States or how much they feel like they’ve gotten the upper hand over the past years that they would admit to something like this instead of the hiding behind the typical diplomatic, oh, that was some rogue actor. We would have nothing to do with this, obviously. That I think is what surprised me the most out of this story.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes, I think that’s true. Incredibly brazen. And by the way, fitting, right? They run a spy balloon across the country that the United States under Joe Biden did literally nothing to impose costs on the Chinese Communist Party. And we’ve seen that reverse already. And So in the first hundred days of the Trump administration. But I agree. The fact that they were just it looks like sound from the reporting casually say, yeah, no, we we were part of that is unique and different. And I think tells us how determined they are and frankly, how little they respected the United States under President Biden.
SPEAKER 06 :
We’ve seen the tariff situation really grow and it’s been changing over the last even few days as we’ve seen most of the countries now on a pause from these tariffs and the volatility of the stock market. But of course, China’s kind of been the lone one out as we have seen those raise and raise. The tariffs keep going up and up. And I know there are people in manufacturing who are concerned. There’s people who have issues with our relationship with china and what this is going to look like but when you hear about this and knowing everything we know now and knowing that they’ve been working to undermine us of course it was always really assumed in china that this is what was happening but they are one of those strange connections we have where we have we rely on them but they also have uh some you know adversarial feelings towards america and and back and forth but this doesn’t feel like the tariffs then make a little bit more justification or a little more justified
SPEAKER 04 :
Undoubtedly. But look, we should call them for what they are. They are not a competitor in the way that Europeans are competitors or Middle Eastern countries are competitors. They’re an adversary. They’re desirous of creating an empire all across the world. They’ve made that pretty clear. I think their admission of what they did here in the United States is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of their efforts. And so it is undoubtedly the case that the United States can no longer do what you know the europeans allowed themselves to be dependent on russia we cannot continue to allow our nation to be dependent on a chinese communist party that’s trying to crush us and so i think not only does this make the tariffs that have been put in place more justified i think it explains why their response is one that’s fundamentally different than most every other country in the world they went they went full up full-on challenge and i think the united states is going to have to push back and continue not just in the economic and tariff sphere but across the spectrum of our relative power. And when we do, the world will be with us and will prevail.
SPEAKER 03 :
And we know that the administration, you know, they talk about China cheating and stealing our intellectual property and all of the bad economic issues that they do as well. But because the tariff issue is so broad, In this current set where we are talking about tariffs on allies, we’re talking about tariffs on neighbors, as well as tariffs on genuine adversaries that we have to do trade with because of how our economy has shaped over many decades at this point. Do you think there could be a clearer messaging point to almost compartmentalize the different segments of the tariffs? I know that the big launch of it being a global tariff, reciprocal tariffs, but when you look at… the situation with China. I feel like it’s a lot easier to explain that even there may be pain with prices and there may be pain with things in certain segments of the economy, maybe short run, but this isn’t just even about equalizing global trade or figuring that out. There is a much more potentially dangerous path forward if we don’t start to reset and figure out the China issue.
SPEAKER 04 :
I completely agree. Look, my critique of the tariffs that were initially rolled out was it was hard to tell what it was we were trying to accomplish. Like, what’s the mission? And there were conflicting messages put out by different officials in the administration. I think now you can begin to see a real focus, better messaging, if you will. The Chinese Communist Party is a challenge. We’re going to negotiate with all the others. We’re just simply trying to get fair trade, non-tariff barriers and tariffs alike with some of our allies and friends. And we’ll get there. I’m convinced of it. But with respect to the Chinese Communist Party in particular, that’s not the message. And so I think this differentiation that we’ve now seen over just really the last, what, 72 hours or so makes clear the messaging. The threat to the world flows from the Chinese Communist Party. Let’s the rest of us get our economic relationships in order. Let’s find free trade agreements between our countries so we can engage in commerce. And when we do, The global GDP that sits on the good side, the white hat side, the decent people of the world will prevail against the Chinese Communist Party that is amoral at best and immoral most days and truly wants us to live more like them, something that we can just never accept.
SPEAKER 06 :
Secretary Pompeo, thank you so much for joining us as always. We appreciate your advice, your thoughts, and your feedback. Again, again, thank you so much for doing this. We were wrapping up today’s show and I want to encourage people, if you like this kind of commentary, if you like the work we do in the law, I want you to go to aclj.org. I want you to make a donation right now because none of this can be done. We can’t have this incredible team in place without you. Let’s throw up that QR code on the screen. It’s not that I don’t want you to see my pretty face. Of course I do. You got to scan that QR code. Go to ACLJ.org. We are working on so many issues right now in America, our European center, ACLJ Jerusalem. You heard about what we’re doing in Oklahoma, and we’re doing it around the world. We’re even advocating for Christians facing unspeakable persecution, stuff I can’t even say, on the air. It’s that bad. We’re working with our partners to engage Congress on this dire issue. You’ve heard about that. It’s going on in Congo and around the world. where they’re fighting for your values around the world. We can’t do it without you. I encourage you to make a donation today at ACLJ.org or scan the QR code and you can double the impact of your donation because there’s amazing ACLJ champions ready to unlock a donation of any kind whenever yours comes in. So if you give 10 bucks, that is $20 in value to the ACLJ. We appreciate it. We’ll talk to you next week.
