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In today’s episode of Sekulow, Logan Sekulow, along with guests Will Haines, CeCe Heil, and Rick Grinnell, dive into the recent decision by the Trump administration to halt appointments for new student visas. This pause is part of an overhaul in the vetting process, with particular emphasis on expanded social media scrutiny. We discuss the potential implications this holds for international students, free speech, and security. Additionally, we explore the ACLJ’s latest legal endeavors, including a significant victory against a homeowners’ association discriminating against a Bible study group, and our ongoing commitment to fighting for the rights of persecuted
SPEAKER 04 :
We got breaking news. The Trump administration halts all appointments for student visas.
SPEAKER 05 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110.
SPEAKER 04 :
And now your host, Logan Sekulow. Welcome to Sekulow. This is Logan Sekulow. Will Haines is joining me. CeCe Heil is going to be on a little bit later. And Rick Grinnell. We have some top topics to go through today. And phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. That’s 1-800-684-3110. News keeps coming all the time and it feels like… Another controversial moment that will happen. There’s some good. There’s some bad. There’s somewhere in between. And that is the President Trump administration has halted all appointments for new student visas. This is head of what they’re calling expanded social media vetting. I want to get your thoughts on this. Obviously, the left not thrilled about this. The right probably somewhere in between. You know, there becomes a line of when we start tampering with free speech, what are we doing here? However, Will, this is to keep out a lot of the issues that they’ve had in the past, which is actually spending time on new media and finding out who these people are before they’re allowed to become students in our country. I think that that is okay. I think that the arbiter of that is going to be a bit fishy because if right now it’s the Trump administration’s crew, next time when it is a more liberal crew, because we know the pendulum swings, it just happens. What does that mean? That’s my only concern really looking into this, which is, well, what does it mean for not necessarily just liberal? You wouldn’t even say these are liberal talking points. What they’re really looking for is what you’d hope for is like terrorism, right?
SPEAKER 06 :
That’s right. And so what this practically does is puts on hold this student visa process while they revamp and change the way they do the vetting for these visas. It’s not as if they were not vetting the individuals coming in already. That’s a part of the process. To get a visa, you go through a vetting process. You have an appointment, right? for this so what they’re looking at is revamping the program to change what they look for knowing that a lot of students here on uh on foreign exchange type visas foreign visas for uh student purposes what they’re doing is looking through and saying oh a lot of these people were in the middle of these uh pro hamas protests calling for genocide echoing the talking points of hamas and things of that nature so they’re looking at a better way to vet these individuals to make sure they’re not missing anything not making sure that they’re not coming in and trying to subvert the american constitution the american way of life american values and yes it does bring up questions that i think we will get into in the next segment about The Constitution, free speech. But one thing that, if you’ve listened to this broadcast for a long time or been around constitutional law and talk, you know that it’s a well-known quote that the Constitution is not a suicide pact, meaning that the liberties that are given by God and protected by the government under the Constitution does not mean that you can assure your own destruction through those liberties and that you can’t call, yell fire in a crowded theater. There are limits to the consequences.
SPEAKER 04 :
I think we have to make sure we build those parameters and make sure that they’re safe. You know, I think that is always a concern when you start saying this speech is good, this speech is bad, this speech is allowed. This isn’t because like I said, when that pendulum shifts, when that pendulum swings, And all of a sudden, it’s not a conservative president. It’s not a conservative administration. Now, all of a sudden, our conservative talking points are what’s considered hate speech or what’s considered speech that would not be allowed in our U.S. universities. You’ve got to be careful with all of this. What do you think? 1-800-684-3110. Once again, 1-800-684-3110. We’re going to continue this coverage as well as some updates of what the ACLJ is doing, not only in Israel, but in the Congo. I know you’ve seen the Congo has been making a lot of news of really horrific things going on there. And our ACLJ team and our ECLJ team is very hard at work. Rick Grinnell is going to be joining us later on. And we’re going to continue to take your calls. Once again, though, as we’ve seen those attacks on Christians around the world increase, together we know we can win, and we’ve been winning all around the country. We’re going to break down some of those when we get back. We’re going after some HOAs, Will. I know people love that. People love to hear that we’re going after your HOAs. Everyone’s shaking their head yes. Support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org. We’ll be right back. Welcome to Seculo. Welcome back. Phone lines are open for you. You know, I’d like to hear from you. What are your thoughts on this as the Trump administration has put a halt to all new interviews for student visas as they kind of recreate what the standards are, including doing a deep dive into social media accounts of potential applicants? Do you think that’s good? Do you think that’s bad? Of course, you look at it from our point of view. Currently, with the Trump administration in charge, you go, okay, good. Hopefully, they’re stopping out terrorism. They’re stopping things coming to this country that are threats to our American way of life. However, you also have to think about the long-term ramifications of this and what does it look like on the other side. is in control, what becomes that speech. We all went through that on the social media side of this. I think that’s maybe why. Maybe I have some PTSD from the years of being censored and having to every day feel like we were having to be very, very careful on the words you could or couldn’t say and having to make sure that we were fighting back against big tech, big social when they were coming after us. They goes, okay, now the government’s looking into it. Current administration, I think I’m probably okay. let’s say you know down the road you have a different administration but they’ve built these standards what’s that look like uh we also want to talk about some of the work of the aclj well i know that we had a motion to dismiss that we were able to overcome and it’s against you know a lot of people’s favorites you know the hoa the homeowners association in your neighborhood Look, I have to say, maybe I’m part of the deep state because I was a member. I was a vice president for many years.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, but the deep state, when you’re talking about HOA, is a good thing because the HOA bad. So if you’re deep state, you’re like Rebel Alliance.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, but I was like a yes man to the president.
SPEAKER 06 :
Oh, then you’re just full on bad.
SPEAKER 04 :
Whatever the president wanted, I was like, repave those roads. That’s fine with me. I don’t care. Charge them extra 50 cents. I mean, it was so negligible. Trust me, we heard about it. Should those people have a pool? I don’t know. Do they deserve it? They already have one. Why do they need a second pool? How many kids they got? Who needs that many pools? All right. But ACLJ wise, there is obviously always pushback with the HOA, but this HOA was specifically targeting a Bible study that was going on in a neighborhood. That’s right.
SPEAKER 06 :
So the bottom line on this is that there was discrimination by this HOA of who could use the clubhouse for events, gatherings. They were saying that a group could not meet because it was a Bible study and This is a violation of the Fair Housing Act and the Constitution. So we did what we normally do with HOAs because typically it’s pretty easy to get resolved, send a demand letter and say, hey, you can’t tell this person they can’t have a Bible study if you’re allowing other people to use the clubhouse. Normally, the HOA is like, okay, fine, whatever, they can use it. Not in this case. They were very firm against it, said we will not allow this activity. So turned into a lawsuit, went to federal court and just yesterday got an order from the judge. Last week was when the hearing was scheduled and all the briefing was due. And we already have an order from the judge denying the motion to dismiss. from the defendants in this, which would be the HOA and the group representing them, and saying that this can proceed. So they tried to get it thrown out of federal court. And congratulations to Garrett, who this is one of his first cases that he has written the brief on, is leading one of our attorneys here, and has already survived the motion to dismiss. So congratulations to him. The fight’s not over. We still have to push back and we have to make sure that precedent is set in federal court that this isn’t allowed. We know that there’s plenty of precedent in this all the way to the Supreme court about not discriminating against people for their religious beliefs and who can use that viewpoint discrimination by an HOA is a violation of the law. And that’s what we’re seeing. And that’s what we’re fighting back against in the state of Virginia. But anywhere this pops up, the ACLJ is there to push back and you can get help as well. If you have a similar issue, ACLJ.org slash help.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right. ACLJ.org slash help. You just fill out a really simple form and you’ll get connected to an ACLJ attorney immediately. We’ve heard from a lot of our people who’ve come in and said, hey, we’re expecting months to go by. Maybe we get a correspondence. Maybe we get a call from a telemarketer in some sort of call center. But no. within hours most of the time within hours if it’s within scope you’ve been connected to a lawyer who is attached to your case at absolutely no cost to you and that’s because we have great aclj supporters and aclj members who donate you could donate today at aclj.org we appreciate it if you become a aclj champion that’s someone that gives on a recurring basis no we would really appreciate it let’s go ahead and take a phone call i’m gonna go to jerry who’s calling in rhode island jerry you’re on the air
SPEAKER 10 :
Hello, team. This morning’s comment in regards to the background vetting of people seeking visas for educational or visiting purposes. Those of us who are older, Medicare age, we all remember when people coming here strived and studied and sought the privileges and rights to become veterans. And then, therefore, to get the privileges and protections of the amendments. Why are we applying those sought-after privileges to people who want to come here and visit and maybe not have an intention of coming here, and therefore they bring their privileges? ideas and ways here with the intention of trying to change here. No, don’t come change here. If you want the privileges here, adapt to us. Why do we not hear much about that anymore?
SPEAKER 06 :
Jerry, very valid points, and I think that is part of what the administration is doing. One, a little bit of nuance in my take on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights is that we don’t believe that the government gives these rights to Americans. We believe they’re God-given rights. These are human rights, the right to free speech, to freedom of religion. It’s not the government that gives us these rights. It’s God that gives us these rights and that we have protections in the amendments to ensure the government doesn’t violate our God-given rights. But our God-given rights don’t come without consequences as well. And once again, the Constitution is not a suicide pact. It doesn’t mean that we have to ensure the destruction of America through the Constitution and the freedoms that it gives. And it’s not like vetting students here on visas is new. This is just changing and updating the program. And when you know that they were looking into who their contacts were, how they were, what they did in their communities, things of that nature, that’s how you vet incoming visa applicants. If social media vetting wasn’t a part of the visa review process, that is shocking. And if it’s just them changing it, there shouldn’t be much of an issue here. But I know that the left will file lawsuits. We know that Representative Jayapal, who is the chair emeritus of the Progressive Caucus in the House, she tweeted this or posted on X, this will hurt America and Americans. Hope someone inside the administration has a brain and shuts this down. But she’s like minded with the Chinese government who has put this statement out, saying that China upholds that normal education cooperation and academic exchanges should not be disrupted. We urge the U.S. to effectively safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of all international students, including Chinese students overseas. Just so everyone knows that there was roughly 400,000 student visas issued in the year 2024. Of those, 277,398,000, so over half, were from China. So China has a vested interest in this, and we know that the Chinese regime, the CCP, is finding ways to infiltrate the United States, whether it be through education, through the Confucius Centers, through their consulates. We know that the Houston consulate was shut down by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo because it was an espionage center. so when you’re hidden police stations uh when more than half are coming from china and the chinese government are the ones that are the most upset and speaking out like whoa whoa whoa let’s safeguard the legitimate rights of people here maybe maybe that’s a sign that you’re doing the right thing yeah maybe that’s a sign that you’re doing the right thing what do you think
SPEAKER 04 :
A lot of you haven’t called in yet. We’ve got a few people on hold, but come on. I feel like this is an important free speech question that I really want you to answer. I want to ask you. 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110. These are the ongoing conversations we have here at the ACLG. Jay, how we get involved, what we get involved. And we don’t do that without you because we want your advice as well. We want to hear if this is something that bothers you, if this is something that you like, something you don’t like, where does free speech land? We know that you don’t necessarily always tow a party line. You don’t always support one thing from one administration or everything from one administration. So what do you think about this? Sure, do we think social media should be involved in vetting people coming into the country? Why not? It’s probably your easiest access point to the thoughts and the feelings of people coming into your country if they have an active social media presence. However, again, when the tide turns, what’s that look like? Give me a call, 1-800-684-3110. And look, in our lifetime, I would assume that we will see the tide turn as it always has. We have always seen a flip-flop. Most of our lives, we have seen a flip-flop between Republicans and Democrats, whether it’s every other term or sometimes every term. It has not been consistent. So what does that look like when there is a Democrat in office? Coming up, CeCe Howell is going to be joining us. We’re going to talk about our updates here at the ACLJ. We’re fighting hard for Christians around the world. And of course, we may be talking and joking around a little bit earlier about the HOA, but of course, that was a serious thing. We were able to take that to court. But… We are also talking about people that are being killed for their faith in other places in this world, including in Congo and around the world. And we also talk about our support of Israel. We’re going to discuss that with C.C. Heil. Some new filings that the ACLJ and the ECLJ team have been doing. Be a part of this right now. Go to ACLJ.org and support. Welcome back to Seculo. We have one line still open. Look, a lot of you called in. Some of you made it. Some of you didn’t. I apologize if you didn’t, but there was some reason. They’re going to tell me later why. 1-800-684-3110. What could you have possibly said to that phone screener? That made him lose your call. I’m very curious. All right.
SPEAKER 06 :
You used to screen the phone, Logan.
SPEAKER 04 :
I did.
SPEAKER 06 :
I think you can figure it out what could have been said.
SPEAKER 04 :
It was the most fun job. Yeah. It was way more fun than this job. The best is when people realized that it was Logan Sekulow. I know. I would say, next. Because I got to get my aggression out. Yeah. Because people call in and say some wild stuff sometimes, man. My favorite call ever, I always bring this up, is someone called in who’s like, I’m not saying it’s the end of the world, but stranger things have happened. And I started thinking, what stranger things have happened? And I think I’ve thought about that quote every day of my life. I know. It’s a great comment. Okay. CeCe Hiles joining us, Senior Counsel here at the ACLJ. We’re going to shift to a more serious tone here because we are talking about whether it is the ACLJ getting involved in a case where a homeowner association is going after a Bible study. Sure. That is going after Christians in America. We have to make sure we’re there for them. We’re protecting them. Our attorneys are on it. But we also have to look at the worldwide crisis that are happening. We know Congo has been in the news a lot recently, and not just on this issue, but also on some of the mining issues, some of the issues they’ve had there in terms of the batteries in your cell phones and what the conditions are for them to be able to get those materials. We know that it’s rough in Congo for the people there. But we also know it’s particularly tough right now for Christians.
SPEAKER 03 :
yeah absolutely and so um we just submitted four reports to the human rights council it’s their 59th session and we always submit reports documenting the human rights um really record of the countries that we think are the most in violation of christianity let’s talk about the human rights council real quick for those who don’t know what is that
SPEAKER 04 :
What is that board? Where does it exist? I think we talk sometimes in the world that we all know, but maybe our listeners don’t understand. What’s the Human Rights Council? Why does that exist? Where is it? Is that in Congo? Is that in the UN? Where are we?
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right. So the Human Rights Council is a subsidiary of the United Nations. And so it deals with all the human rights issues that come before the United Nations. And it sits in Geneva. So that is where the Human Rights Council sits. That’s where the sessions are held. There are three each year. We go there very frequently. I was there just at the last session. And so this session, it’s the 59th session, and we always file reports. We always do oral interventions. We filed our reports and we highlighted four countries. The fifth will be Iran. That’s not due yet. But we highlighted Israel, India, Pakistan and Congo. And you’re just talking about Congo. Congo is the 35th worst place for Christians to live, even though it’s a majority Christian country. And it’s the Democratic Republic of Congo because there’s actually two Congos. So it’s the DRC. But in the eastern region, it’s a very, like you said, minerally rich region. And there are a lot of factions that are fighting there. Unfortunately. the ISIS is not dead and there is ADF which comes from Uganda that’s a actual arm of ISIS it’s called ADF and they have been targeting the Christians in that area in Congo and we’ve reported about it many times about the 70 just recently the 70 Christians that were beheaded in a church So it is horrific attacks. There are thousands and thousands of people, actually, I think millions of people that are displaced. And we just hosted the our European Center for Law and Justice just hosted a delegation from Africa New Day that lives there in Congo. We took them to the European Parliament, to the European Commission in Belgium and hosted and allowed those people to tell their on the ground stories of what is going on on the eastern part of the DRC.
SPEAKER 06 :
And Sisi, as you mentioned, our European delegation was able to meet with them. Jordan is actually with our ECLJ right now with other meetings. He’ll be joining us actually from Europe soon on the broadcast. You’ll get to hear about the work he’s doing with some major announcements for global free speech that he’s working on over there. But we also talked about, in one of our filings, Israel. And I think this ties in with the work the ACLJ has to do consistently. If you look at the UN as a vector for lies and anti-Semitism globally about Israel, about the Jewish people, And we even saw that horrific attack last week where two diplomats were murdered in D.C., assassinated after leaving an event by someone with radical anti-Semitic anti-Israel views. And that’s a major part of the work we have to combat at the UN is making sure that our voice is heard to combat that anti-Semitism where it really starts. It starts in many cases at the UN Because all these nations that hate Israel, that hate the Jewish people, are able to spread hate, lies, and use this global body as their platform for it. And what we’re doing there is actually combating that. twisted anti-Semitic, anti-Israel logic that’s come out of the UN recently. And it’s very important because there’s not a lot of allies to the Jewish people at the UN. And that’s why it takes the United States and groups like the ACLJ and ECLJ to stand in the gap.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, absolutely. The United Nations has more resolutions condemning Israel than any other country in the world. They have 193 countries, and we are talking bad players. We’re talking North Korea, China, all those, but they don’t get condemned as much as the UN condemns Israel. And so the ACLJ is always there through our ECLJ, European Center for Law and Justice. We are always there defending and protecting Israel. And so this was a time where we got to point out there’s a commission of inquiry on the occupied Palestinian territory. And they had a terrible report basically saying they were saying that. Israel had basically committed all these crimes only because they had pointed out the crimes that Hamas had committed. There wasn’t one bit of evidence that Israel had committed any crime because they don’t. And they haven’t in this situation. And this whole entire report by this commission of inquiry was skewed and totally erroneous. And we were able to point this out in our filing.
SPEAKER 06 :
The twisted logic was… was that the horrific crimes against women, children that took place, we’re not going to go into the details, but you know what happened on October 7th. That because Israel spoke out against it and pointed out the real horrific crimes against individuals on October 7th, that they were using that violence against the Palestinian people. It defies logic that it’s Israel’s fault that they called out and showed the world, here’s how bad Hamas and depraved Hamas is. It’s Israel’s fault for showing the evidence of the crime. That’s what we are fighting back and say, no, you don’t blame Israel for that. They pointed out the crime. They’re showing you how depraved Hamas is. They’re showing the world the truth. They aren’t the perpetrators of that violence. They are the victims of it and have every right to show the world this horrific just atrocities that were committed by Hamas.
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely. And phone lines are open for you. We got one line open as we head into this second half hour of Sekulow. Some of you lose this. But you heard CC, you heard Will, this is the incredible work the ACLJ team is doing. It’s not just about a show or a broadcast. That’s great. We got to have the best of the best in the media team as well, because we know that the media side can reach a lot more people even than the legal side can in terms of people understanding the issues of being able to understand why we’re doing the things we’re doing in court. So the media side, very important. But our legal team, I mean, you’re talking about flights. You’re talking about all the travel that goes into it. That alone needs your support financially. So as we head into the second half hour, consider supporting the ACLJ. Consider becoming an ACLJ champion. You can do that very easily on ACLJ.org. You can do it very easily on the ACLJ app. We have a second half hour coming up. If you don’t get us on your local station, find us broadcasting live on social media, YouTube, Rumble, ACLJ.org, and the Salem News Channel. We’ll be right back.
SPEAKER 05 :
keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 04 :
Welcome back to Sekulow. We do want to restate because a lot of you were just joining us here on this second half hour of the broadcast. We missed the first half hour. You can find it archived later on, by the way, on the ACLJ app. on a podcast feed on youtube however you get that of course at aclj.org but will the top topic of the day is the trump administration has halted student visa appointments it’s new appointments ahead of some changes they’re going to have in the vetting system including expanding the look into people’s social media obviously probably the easiest way to find out if they have public social media to find out who these people are what they’re thinking what their thoughts are Again, there’s some good and bad that can come from that. Of course, from this current administration, you’re hoping is they’re searching for terrorism. They’re searching for things that really we do not want in this country. Understandably, though, I can see how that can get weaponized against people. And we got to make sure that we are careful with that. We got a lot of calls coming in about it as well. And we’re going to take those, maybe one in this segment, but definitely going to take some in the last segment. So if you’re on hold right now, stay on hold. We will do our best to get to all of you coming up because Rick Ronell is going to be joining us in just a moment. We’re going to continue the conversation with him about this and some updates from him at the Kennedy Center.
SPEAKER 06 :
That’s right. You want to take a phone call while we’re in this for a second? Let’s go ahead and go to Taylor from North Carolina on line two. Come on and raise up. Listening on the radio. Taylor, you’re on Seculo.
SPEAKER 07 :
Hey, thanks for taking my call. I’ll try not to say anything too wild or scandalous while I’m on the air here.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s not a good start, Taylor. You didn’t have to even say that. You could have just not. I’m just kidding. Go ahead, Taylor.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, just looking for a little education here on our Constitution. This kind of ties into an ongoing discussion we’ve been having in our family. It pertains to the halts on the student visas. So how does the Bill of Rights extend to noncitizens in terms of free speech? Due process. Not just in the event that they commit a crime here, but how do we include those God-given rights?
SPEAKER 06 :
Right, Taylor, because we almost Americanize everything. And there’s kind of two ways to look at it. Philosophically, what I was talking about earlier, where it’s a God-given right. It’s not the government that gives it. uh it’s a god-given right i believe i believe everyone has the the god-given right to free speech freedom of religion that doesn’t mean that it’s protected everywhere right so but in the united states it is enshrined in the constitution protected here through our judicial system you can you can raise claims about that you can petition the government for redress of grievances these are things that we have the opportunity to do here If you are not in the United States, not on a visa, if you are just a foreign student that is trying to come here, you don’t have those constitutional rights protections that you could immediately go to court over. Now, some may try. There are novel legal theories that go in there, but the vetting process is established. We vet refugees are supposed to. I mean, these processes exist. So vetting someone before they are allowed to come in, you don’t just apply for it and they rubber stamp it. That’s not the way it’s supposed to work. It may have worked that way under previous administrations. But if they are here on a student visa, there are potential claims that they could raise within due process rights and things of that nature. What this is doing, and this isn’t even canceling student visas, that’s a different issue altogether. This is just saying, right now, no new appointments for student visas while we rework this vetting process. And so if someone is denied it, I think we are likely to see people try to go into court on this. I think a lot of those could get thrown out, depending on the jurisdiction, just based off the fact of you weren’t afforded this visa yet. Therefore, you cannot claim a U.S. constitutional right. You’re not in the United States. You’re not here on a visa. So we’ll see how that shakes out. It also depends a lot on the jurisdiction that it’s brought here. But these individuals would not have in the U.S. court system, theoretically, the rights to due process under our Bill of Rights and Constitution because they aren’t here yet and they don’t have a visa yet.
SPEAKER 04 :
What he said. Phone lines are open for you. We’ve got two lines open. 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110. We’re going to take all the calls we can in the final segment of the broadcast. But before then, we’re going to rejoin my former director of national intelligence, ambassador, and our good friend and member of the ACLJ team here, Rick Grinnell. We’ve got some big updates about this, of course, the student visa situation, and an update from the Kennedy Center that you’re going to enjoy hearing. Again, phone lines are open for you. 1-800-684-3110. Welcome back to Secula. We are going to take your calls coming up in the next segment at 1-800-684-3110. We’re going to continue the discussion about President Trump and the new Trump administration plans to put a pause on student visa appointments as they expand vetting, including social media. We’re going to talk about that. Is Rick joining us? We got Rick. Our friend Rick Grinnell is on the phone right now, of course, head of the Kennedy Center. And Rick, I heard some news about the Kennedy Center recently. And look, people know me. They know I love the entertainment world. I’m a patron of the arts. Really, I am. And Will said, did you hear what Patti LuPone said? And I said, of course. I follow all these news. I thought that’s the only push notifications you got. I know, I know that. I get that and those things. And I said, you know… Rick, to double down on this, I actually saw Patti LuPone perform with Lin-Manuel Miranda. So it is the double hitter for Rick Grinnell. And I just wanted to check in because she made some pretty outlandish statements, Will.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, that’s right. The New Yorker did a profile. So that’s another… magazine that I know you read religiously Logan you’re you always take the New Yorker uh but in this profile of Patti LuPone Rick she said here’s the quote from the article she’s even angrier at the rest of the country she told me more than once that the Trumpified Kennedy Center quote should get blown up Rick thoughts how do you respond to that
SPEAKER 11 :
Look, it’s truly outrageous, threatening violence and saying that the Kennedy Center should get blown up. Look, we’ve had already a bomb threat at the Kennedy Center a couple weeks ago, maybe two weeks ago. These are very real things. The president of the United States was shot at and another person tried to shoot at him, you know, Donald Trump. And so I think that we have to take this very seriously, this left wing radicalism that is morphing into left wing violence. It’s radical violence. it’s intolerant, especially coming from the crowd that, you know, pretends to be the tolerant crowd, the one that wants diversity. They don’t want diversity of thought. They can’t even perform without, you know, complaining when a Republican is in the crowd, certain shows. Lin-Manuel took the show that he created, and said, you know, we’re not going to perform for Donald Trump or Republicans. And look, I think we’ve got to take these warnings from these people seriously. If the musical Hamilton does not want to perform for Republicans, then I think that every theater across the country needs to understand when they book Hamilton, that they have a cast and they have producers that are going to pick and choose who they want to perform for. This is outrageous. It’s intolerant. it it’s a new low and it’s coming from the crowd that somehow is saying that that that we’re intolerant at the kennedy center we haven’t canceled anybody let me also say harvey feierstein who took to facebook and and and did this whole victimhood and said oh my gosh i’m being banned from the kennedy center within minutes i went out on social media and i said listen harvey You’re not banned. And matter of fact, you’re not only not banned. Bring one of your shows to to the Kennedy Center. Bring one of your big blockbuster shows. He’s got a couple of really good ones. Why don’t you bring them to the Kennedy Center? You’re welcome to come here. But they can’t do it. They can’t be banned. in rooms where they’re surrounded by people that they disagree with politically. Patti LuPone in particular, an amazing voice, right? An amazing talent. But she has decided that she can’t perform for people that she doesn’t agree with politically. She wants the Kennedy Center to be bombed. And this is the type of thing that when the media ignore it, when the left ignores their radicals calling for violence, when you ignore it, it gives the next person comfort. to say it louder and to take another step.
SPEAKER 04 :
You have to give it somewhat to the New Yorker for even saying, hey, she said this over and over again. We got to make sure that we include this in this article. This wasn’t like an offhanded thing. It kept happening. So, you know what? I guess give it up for that reporter a little bit. I haven’t read the full article, but the article saying, you know what? She kept saying this and it maybe made them uncomfortable as well. And you talk about that, Rick, and you talk about that. They don’t want your money. They don’t want your patronage. I mean, I’ve seen Hamilton three or four times with my family. I think it’s obviously wonderful. But when you start doing this to your own audience, but look, that happened. Well, it happened to me. I was a seasoned ticket holder here at one of our theaters. I’m not going to call anyone out. And I got banned and I called them and I had to have these conversations. And they said, we don’t know why, but we had your account flagged. And they kind of told me why, which was my name was a little recognizable. And somebody in the ticket office wasn’t too thrilled that I was one of their patrons. Yeah, that’s just what’s happened.
SPEAKER 11 :
I think that we’ve got to call it out when we immediately see it, because it’s going to get worse. It’s going to you know, we just suffered to cancel culture from from the Biden administration, from political prosecutions. And this is an intolerance. This is this is literally saying you and I disagree. And so I’m going to destroy you, cancel you, bomb you. And we can’t have that. I mean, I don’t understand why the media are not more focused on Patti LuPone’s threats and calls for violence because it is a serious threat, not because I believe that Patti LuPone is building a bomb to take it to the Kennedy Center, but because she’s giving aid and comfort to somebody who is unstable. Right. who will say, Patti LuPone, who I love, wants me to go do this. She’s giving me permission to go do this. She has to understand the power of her words. They’re very dangerous. We need to take them very seriously. And I’m calling upon our friends on the left, my friends on the left, to stand up and condemn this immediately before it gets out of hand. We keep seeing left-wing violence. And we cannot allow this to continue.
SPEAKER 06 :
Rick, before we let you go here, I wanted to get your take on this. This is that the Trump administration is pausing new student visa appointments while they restructure their vetting process. It’s nothing new that visa applicants are vetted. Refugee programs are vetted or at least are supposed to be, depending on which administration it is. We’re already starting to see outcry. But one of the most interesting sources of this outcry of how dare they vet student visas is coming from the Chinese government with this quote. We urge the U.S. to effectively safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of all international students, including the Chinese students overseas. I think, to me, that quote proves exactly why there needs to be expanded vetting of student visas in this country. What are your thoughts on it?
SPEAKER 11 :
Look, I have been, uh, running in the past. I have run the visa lines for the embassy in, uh, in Berlin and for consulates in Frankfurt and in Munich. We, we take all of these issues very seriously. There’s a vetting process. We look at people’s social media. If you are on social media, complaining about the U.S. government’s policies before you get a visa, you’re going to be denied a visa. This is just the fact. We don’t want troublemakers coming into the country before you even have a visa. And so the strict policy of are you coming to be a tourist and be a student and learn or are you coming to actually foment uh you know political violence or problems um is a very real thing and by the way there are Hundreds of thousands of people waiting in line that want to come here on a student visa. We get to pick and choose because our universities are great and people want to come here. And so we should take only the cream of the crop. We don’t need to take the troublemakers. And this is what other countries do. You couldn’t go and get a visa to go live in Germany if you were critiquing the government of Germany and calling for violence. or chaos against the German government. They’re not going to give you a visa. This is just common sense.
SPEAKER 04 :
Of course, Rick. And I think that is common sense for a lot of people joining us. And look, in the next segment, we’re going to take your calls and comments. What do you think about what Rick just said? Rick, number one, I want to say I appreciate you. I appreciate what you’ve done for us here at the ACLJ. I appreciate what you’re doing at the Kennedy Center and what you’re doing for the Trump administration and for everything right now, getting involved in. It’s always a pleasure to talk to you and to hear about what’s going on there as you are such a big proponent of the arts and a big proponent of all of this. It’s really great to hear that you guys are continuing on, continue that fight on. So we appreciate it. In the next segment, again, I want to hear from you. There are two lines open for you at 1-800-684-3110. So Tiffany, Sue, Kathy, Ronald, stay on hold. We’ll get to hopefully a couple more even if you give us a call. You’ve heard about our fight for Christians around the world. And of course, it goes from an HOA to the Congo, the DRC, where Christians are being persecuted and murdered for their faith. No case, though, is too small. If you need help, you got a problem with your HOA, like with the religious freedom situation, give us a call. Go to aclj.org slash help. We’ll get you in touch with the attorney immediately. We’ll be right back with your calls. Welcome back to Sekulow. Phone lines are jammed right now. So we’re going to get to as many of you as we absolutely can. Let’s go first to an ACLJ champion, Tiffany, who’s about to hold still for 33 minutes. I know I bumped you to the front of the line, but you still had to wait. And I’m sorry about that. But Tiffany, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 09 :
Hi, thank you for allowing me to talk and share my thoughts. I had a question. So I know that there’s a bunch of lawfare going on and This ridiculous situation with federal judges just halting the American people’s will for getting rid of all these illegal immigrants. Is there an opportunity for the American people to raise funds, let’s say a GoFundMe like they did in Canada with the truckers, get ACLJ to support a lawsuit against And to these governors and these mayors that are holding sanctuary cities, which are endangering the local citizenry, as well as, um, going against the, the, um, specific, um, decrees from the white house that you cannot Harbor these fugitives, especially if. you have a situation where they are now raping and murdering in these towns.
SPEAKER 06 :
Tiffany, so a couple things here. One, good news would be the ACLJ wouldn’t need a GoFundMe because we have ACLJ champions and donors. And we have a way to go do that. You go to ACLJ.org and there’s a donate button. And we are funded by members of the ACLJ, by donors, by the champions that give us that recurring baseline. So we wouldn’t even have to go through a third party to be able to provide this type of legal work. The other part of that question would be, though, is you would need a client. We couldn’t just on our own accord, just go and sue. The ACLJ sues San Francisco or Boston or something like that. There would have to be a client. And that client would also have to have a claim that is provable, that would survive on the merits, that would survive motion to dismiss, that has real harm that we could prove in the court to try and push back. The Department of Justice has different angles where they can sue over the way the different separation of powers between the federal government and the state government. So that can be taken by the federal government. But for us as the ACLJ to represent a private party, it would. have to be a provable claim that there is harm against an individual and sure we understand the harm of of the community harm but there are different levels uh and different bars you would have to reach within the legal system to actually be able to take that case to federal court but it’s a great question One also can highlight that you don’t need a GoFundMe to support the ACLJ. You can come here directly. And we do fight for individuals free of charge in the court. And we have so many expert lawyers, some of the best in the business. And that’s what we do here every day. And they analyze cases like that every day to see which ones are meeting those bars that we can get into court and can actually sue to make a real difference for the American people and the clients.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right, five minutes, five calls. Let’s see if we can do this. Let’s first go to Sue, who’s calling in Texas online, too. Sue, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 02 :
Hello. Thank you so much for taking my call. I listen to your show daily. Y’all are excellent. Thank you so much. Thank you. I wanted to make you aware that it was over six months ago that I heard… I was listening to a talk show from a biblical worldview. They were interviewing… An ex-Muslim jihad, I think he was a captain, He was going to university at UCLA, and then he became a born-again Christian. That’s great. And he was making America aware, the audience, through this talk show, that there has been for years…
SPEAKER 06 :
um muslim jihad coming to through our student visas and i think we got what you’re saying to your point as well i mean the education system especially higher education has been the doorway in for many bad actors to the united states whether it be the chinese communist party who funds these universities extravagantly whether it be cutter who is the top donor to U.S. higher education, whether it be the Muslim Student Association, which was the American branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. Yes, using American education has been the doorway in to try and get a foothold for bad actors. And I think what we’re seeing here is trying to undo some of that harm.
SPEAKER 04 :
Like, I gotta call something out real quick that’s happening in the chat. There’s a lot of people saying I’m not taking a certain person’s phone call that I yelled at on the air yesterday because I got, he’s not on hold. So look, sir, I know you’re an ACLJ champion. I know you’re a supporter. Phone lines are closed for the day because we only got three minutes and four calls, but you never called. You say you called, but I don’t want people to think that I’m some sort of coward. Well, let’s go ahead and continue on. Ronald’s calling South Carolina on line four. Ronald, quickly, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, sure. As a couple of callers ago had outlined beautifully about the vision of America, which was to give me your huddled masses yearning to be free, and how they came to literally start a new life, to make this country their home. But nowadays, there are those, as you have already mentioned, that are just here to literally have sex. Little sleeper cells and startup groups and stuff like that to try and attack and break and tear down. This nation is a target now for many of the criminal elements of the world. But the problem is also is the fact that we have so many politicians who are wearing the American flag on their lapel. and doing everything they can to hurt this country instead of helping it.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, Ronald, a lot of it is just to stay in power and become politically popular.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, and once again, Ronald, we many times think about the Declaration of Independence and the language in that, but the preamble to the U.S. Constitution says that in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, and promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution. So it’s very America-focused. It’s not world-focused. It’s about protecting the common defense, ensure domestic tranquility, and I’m certain that if social media posts are against that… Maybe that doesn’t line up with the U.S. Constitution.
SPEAKER 04 :
Let’s try to get Kathy real quick. The other two, I’m sorry, Susan and Ray, we’re just not going to be able to get to you. We’re on hold that long, so I don’t feel as bad. But still, call me back tomorrow. We’ll try to get you up early on. And call me, Pat, actually, if you want to be on the show tomorrow. Kathy’s calling. We’ll be here. We’ll be here. Will you? Kathy’s calling in Kentucky on line three. You’re on the air.
SPEAKER 08 :
Thank you for taking my call. Trump is the president we need right now for his leadership. And he does acknowledge that God has a part in his life. But he also is not prideful in such a way that he cannot listen to reason from others. And we need that to get our constitutional republic back on track.
SPEAKER 04 :
Kathy, thank you so much for calling. I appreciate all the people who called in today and everyone that supports the work of the ACLJ. We only have 45 seconds left on the air today. I just want to encourage you all, if you have enjoyed this broadcast, even just that alone, I know you know about our legal work, all the incredible work that our team is doing, the best of the best out in the world, whether that’s through the ECLJ, through the ACLJ, through ACLJ Jerusalem, all of it incredibly impactful. But we know that this show alone reaches millions of people each and every day. We can’t do that without you as well. If you like this show, if you’ve been watching for years, if you’ve been watching for months, it’s an easy way to support. We’re not funded by big sponsors. We’re not funded by big donors. All of it, almost all of our funding comes from individual donors that give on either a recurring basis or just a one-time gift. It doesn’t matter if it’s $5 or $500. Know how much we appreciate it. We want to keep this content free and available and not behind a paywall. So go to ACLJ.org. Be a part of this journey with us today.
