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As global tensions rise, we bring you the latest updates from the ACLJ’s efforts at the United Nations in Geneva. Our team, led by Jordan Sekulow, stands firm in representing pro-Israel and pro-human rights stances in challenging times. From vital Supreme Court victories that enable justice for victims of terror to the provocative media narrative framing Speaker Mike Johnson as a ‘rapture prepper,’ we tackle it all. Join us for an engaging conversation filled with critical insights and humor as we navigate these pressing issues with our listeners.
SPEAKER 07 :
We’ve got breaking news. Gavin Newsom loses court battle against President Trump, saying the National Guard can stay in California.
SPEAKER 04 :
Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Seculo. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 07 :
Welcome to Sekulow. We got a great show coming for you this Friday. Will Haynes is joining me in studio. And we have actually some pretty big news. Usually Fridays, Will. Fridays. Friday crazy nights. You know, they can be pretty chill. Right. There’s not always a lot of breaking news happening. But this comes out of California, which knows how to party. California knows how to part. But there was some nitwit. Why are you giggling? I know.
SPEAKER 05 :
I was expecting a knock-knock joke, not more lyrics.
SPEAKER 07 :
I had a knock-knock joke actually ready for you, but it was about they found Captain Cook’s ship. I saw that. So I had it, but I can’t remember it. I’ll have to think about it during the break, what my knock-knock joke was. It was something. It wasn’t great. It wasn’t great. It wasn’t great enough to preempt this conversation. Let’s talk about what’s going on first in California and then we also have breaking news coming out of the Supreme Court of the United States. But this one comes out of, not the Supreme Court, but a court battle. You know, President Trump sent in the National Guard. There’s a lot of controversy in that, whether you agree with it, disagree with it, whatever it would be. Gavin Newsom filed to get this stopped, said you can’t be doing this, Donald Trump. And the court, actually for once,
SPEAKER 05 :
sides with President Trump. That’s right. This is the Ninth Circuit as well, not one that you normally think would be siding with President Trump over Gavin Newsom, the governor of California. But what was being argued by the state was that President Trump didn’t have the authority to mobilize and take over the National Guard away from the control of Gavin Newsom. And Gavin Newsom rushed to court and immediately got a temporary restraining order against the president. so that he would have to cede control of the National Guard back to Gavin Newsom, the governor. Well, the administration appealed that to the Ninth Circuit, and last week they had put an administrative stay, which meant we haven’t looked into this yet, but we are about to, and so let’s go ahead and put an administrative stay while we hear about an actual stay on this ruling from the lower court. And today, or late last night, they have granted the Trump, administration’s emergency motion to stay the TRO so effectively TRO meaning temporary restraining order so you gotta break it down I already said that a couple times but break it down but that means that the president can maintain control of the National Guard for this situation while the merits of the case move forward at the lower case so at least for now
SPEAKER 07 :
Right. At least for now, the National Guard can stay. I see some comments coming in saying, oh, look, Gavin Newsom just realized he’s not the king. Oh, wow.
SPEAKER 05 :
No Kings Day really helped him realize that. That was a really big moment in America.
SPEAKER 07 :
They did say it was one of the biggest protests in history and i do wonder if you took california and new york out of it where would we be standing like yeah there’s a lot of people in those areas now look i was in a small town over the weekend and there were there was a protest of about a hundred people with uh very clever signs like i’ve seen better cabinets at ikea i mean it’s funny it was funny yeah you took your your saturday
SPEAKER 05 :
To walk out there with that sign.
SPEAKER 07 :
We didn’t elect Elon. I’m like, do you not have been following the news the last few weeks? Okay, I don’t think that’s where we’re at. Hey, we got a next segment coming up. I want to hear from you. We’re actually going to take calls pretty early in the show today. It’s a little bit different. I want to take them in the next segment. So give me a call. We’re also going to talk about a big win out of the Supreme Court of the United States. You’re going to want to hear that, which, again, There’s always important stuff happening. Friday, you usually don’t think that is going to be a big news day, but we got a lot to cover today. 1-800-684-3110. If you’ve got a question related to any of the topics we’ve covered this week, or, of course, that win out of the Supreme Court or the win out of California for President Trump, whether you like it or not. Again, it’s a decision. Also, President Trump said he’s going to make a decision on Iran within two weeks, which is kind of interesting. I think he’s going to wait until after the 4th of July.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s like in exactly two weeks. Well, he gave Iran 60 days and then something happened on the 61st.
SPEAKER 07 :
So let freedom ring. All right. 1-800-684-3110. Have your voice heard on the air today. Also, just in this morning, as I said, Supreme Court, we got a big victory. We’re going to talk about that coming up. And that’s thanks to you, the ACLJ supporter, the ACLJ champion. Do it today. Go to ACLJ.org. Welcome back to Seculo. As I said, phone lines are open for you. We’re going to take calls in the next two segments. We’re going to switch things up. So give me a call at 1-800-684-3110. If you’re watching on YouTube or Rumble, I’m going to ask you to hit that thumbs up. That really does help us get into a lot more people’s algorithms. which then of course gets this message out there because the ACLJ message is worldwide and it’s also not behind a paywall. We always want to make sure that that’s important. That’s because people like you support us financially, but even just getting into that algorithm is really important. We are just so close, a couple thousand subscribers away on YouTube alone from hitting 500,000 subs. I’d love to see that before the 4th of July. If you could be a part of that journey for us right now, if you’ve never subscribed because we know about half the people that watch haven’t subscribed, just do it right now. know how much it means to us because it’s not just you saying, I endorse, you know, I want to see, I want to watch more from them. It helps spread the word. The bigger that number, the more people join us. It’s a snowball effect. So be a part of that snowball effect right now. All right, we’re going to get back first to the breaking news because this is something we need to cover because we told you we would and a lot more people have joined us just in the last few minutes. Knock, knock, Will. Who’s there? Newsome. Newsome who? Newsompton went wrong again. Ha ha ha. How dare you?
SPEAKER 05 :
There we go. Fun Friday. Attaboy. That was me, by the way. We know. That was me. Everyone knows that was you.
SPEAKER 07 :
That was not Greta Thunberg. That wasn’t actually Greta Thunberg. Well, I’m just going to tell you. That was just my impression. It was a pretty good one, though. It is pretty good.
SPEAKER 05 :
I’ve compared them side by side.
SPEAKER 07 :
It’s almost Mickey Mouse. Yeah. It’s almost Winnie the Pooh. Oh, boy. It’s Winnie the Pooh meets Mickey Mouse. You get Greta Thunberg.
SPEAKER 05 :
There you go. How dare you? Let’s get back to the news, Logan. Okay, so news. Gavin knew something went wrong. What happened? That’s right. So if you’ll remember, the President of the United States called in the National Guard to help restore order in Los Angeles where these riots were taking place. They were setting the cars on fire. They were trying to block federal law enforcement activity. They were legitimately trying to stop ICE from carrying out the laws of the nation and what the president did was use the uh the national guard to try and assist that when the local authorities were stretched too thin and unable to restore order and what did gavin newsom do he immediately sued the trump administration in federal court And the district court gave him a temporary restraining order, which meant that the president of the United States would have to return control of the National Guard to Gavin Newsom, of which he could order them to go home. Well, the president appealed to the Ninth Circuit, not normally the most friendly jurisdiction, but we’ve seen a lot of changes because of some of the Trump appointees in the first administration. They received the appeal from the administration to try and get rid of this order from a lower court blocking President Trump from using the National Guard. that court initially gave an administrative stay meaning that everything was status quo that the president still had authority over the national guard that is normally when they just want to pause things to then hear the facts of the case instead of making a whiplash but then we have what happened today and i’ll tell you in a second because you want to say something well because i don’t understand if you’re going to say when you sue when you do this and say president trump can’t do this
SPEAKER 07 :
it’s saying, yes, precedent for a while has been that this has not happened. However, if there’s no use, if the president cannot actually call up the National Guard, as they say, what’s the point of even having the National Guard? If you have to now play politics with it, there’s no reason for these departments to exist. And this seems to be a kind of a running trend, which is, oh, if it hasn’t been used in X number of years, that means it should not be used at all. Well, then it shouldn’t exist at all if you feel that way.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and what the argument of the state here is that normally when the National Guard is called up, it is in agreement between the president and the governor. Right, when there’s like a disaster. that the laws that allow for the president to do that when something cannot be carried out or there is total loss of control. The governor of California was arguing, we had it under control. You made it worse. So that’s the argument in court, right? Well, what we get here, and this is a great line from the opinion from the Ninth Circuit that I want to read to people because they granted the stay. So now while this goes through the court system, they can’t be ordered to overturn to make decisions the president hand back over control. Now, obviously, I think California could take the TRO issue up to the Supreme Court. I don’t know if they would want to take that right now. But listen to this line from the opinion. We are persuaded that under longstanding precedent interpreting the statutory predecessor to code 12406, our review of that decision must be highly deferential, affording the president that deference. We conclude that it is likely that the president lawfully exercised his statutory authority under 12406 subsection three, which authorizes federalization of the National Guard when, quote, the president is unable with regular forces to execute the laws of the United States, end quote. That is precisely what the president was arguing, that the entire riots and protests were trying. They weren’t just speaking out. Their entire mission was to stop ICE from carrying out the immigration laws of the country. This is a federal law, federal law enforcement, and the president under the law can use the National Guard when the federal law is being blocked and unable to be carried out. So the court even saw that and goes into more detail, which it’s a 38-page opinion. I’m not going to read all of it.
SPEAKER 07 :
I want you to read all of it.
SPEAKER 05 :
I think we should just do the back half
SPEAKER 07 :
out all right back half staying live just will as long as it takes logan as long last man standing just
SPEAKER 05 :
We’ll see the numbers grow. I’ll be like Cory Booker with his fake filibuster. Just keep reading opinion. Once I get done with that one, I’ll find more opinions. I’ll just start reading.
SPEAKER 07 :
You’re a weekend warrior, if you will. That’s what it is. You’re just going to go all weekend. You’re just going to keep reading and reading.
SPEAKER 05 :
I’ll stay live until we hit 500,000 subs on YouTube. So if you want to hear me just reading opinions, don’t subscribe. If you want to end this early, go ahead and subscribe to this channel. New show, my opinions. By Will Haynes. And it’s just ones I decide to read. Yeah, it’s not your opinions. Right.
SPEAKER 07 :
It’s your collection of favorite opinions of the week. I snorted on air. 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110. I would like to hear from you. And we are going to move off of this and talk about another topic as well. And I think we could probably… We’ll go into that a little? Let’s go into that a little bit. Yeah, sure. Might as well. Because I would like to take some calls. So if you’re on the fence right now, this is actually the last chance you’re going to be able to call in today and for the week. Because we’ve got a back half… So 1-800-684-3110. Get on the air right now. There was also a win in a case that we are involved in at the Supreme Court of the United States. This one is maybe one that people don’t know is happening, didn’t know as much. I mean, it’s not the fax machine one. I don’t know if you saw that. That was a big one. Supreme Court ruled, hey, you can’t be spam faxing people anymore.
SPEAKER 05 :
I’ll be reading that one in my opinions show that comes on later.
SPEAKER 07 :
You said comments where people going, I don’t know what a fax is.
SPEAKER 05 :
is I’m 22 years old. Right. The great scourge of our time, someone said, you know, spam faxes.
SPEAKER 07 :
Look, I had to figure out how to send a fax a couple years ago, maybe two years ago, to the IRS because there were some issues with my taxes. Not my taxes, but it sounds bad. But they needed some documentation. They were like, the only way you could do it is to fax it to us. And I’m like… Okay, well that’s going to take me some time. I’ve got to figure out even how to do this. Does anyone even have a phone? A landline? There’s so many things. Phone lines are lighting up, but let’s talk about this win out of the Supreme Court. Again, not the fax machines.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right. This is full. versus the Palestine Liberation Organization, also known as the PLO, and the Palestinian Authority were involved with this. So what this case was about was some families that were victims of terror from Palestinians were attempting to sue the Palestinian Authority and the PLO because of their pay-to-slay program. where they actually, if you are martyred or if you kill someone, an Israeli, an American, they end up paying, and you go to prison for it or you’re martyred, they end up paying your family. They continue to pay you your salary if you’re in prison. They actually give you benefits for doing terror. And this is supposed to be the moderate Palestinians, the Palestinian Authority. Not an afterlife benefit. No, no, like a real-life benefit that people are receiving. And we’ve talked about this problem for years on the broadcast, but they tried to sue under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1990, but then they were blocked. So Congress, and actually signed into law by President Trump in 2019, passed the Promoting Security and Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act, where this was giving a pathway to sue. This obviously got challenged in court, and it made all the way up to the Supreme Court, something we had been following and filed in, and the Supreme Court held today, unanimously. Unanimously, nine to zero. Nine to zero, that… The individuals can sue these organizations. There is jurisdiction here.
SPEAKER 07 :
The U.S. has jurisdiction.
SPEAKER 05 :
Exactly. So we can go into some of the more details in the next segment of what we argued and how it lined up with the opinion of the Supreme Court. But that’s a great win for the families that are starting to seek justice for their loved ones that were victims of Palestinian terror.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right, phone lines are open for you. We got… One line still open. More will open up. 1-800-684-3110. Again, Will just told you about a Supreme Court victory that happened this morning. Again, it’s not one that’s necessarily going to be the biggest news. You’re not going to hear about it everywhere. But it doesn’t matter. The ACLJ is there, you know, really shaping the way America functions. And because of you, we’re able to do that. Again, we’re not funded by major sponsors. We’re not funded even majorly by major donors. We are funded mostly by people that give on a $25, $75, one time or monthly. Be an ACLJ champion. It means a lot to us. We can’t do it without you. And of course, if you’re a champion, you get bumped up on the line. Guess what? We got a champion on hold, so they’re going to be up first. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Secula. We are going to take your calls and comments in this segment. It’s pretty cool. 1-800-684-3110. We’re going to go ahead and jump to one of those calls. Let’s go to Cambria, who’s calling in Utah, who is an ACLJ champion, so she jumps to the front of the line. Cambria, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 10 :
Thank you for taking my call.
SPEAKER 07 :
Thank you for your support.
SPEAKER 10 :
You’re very welcome. I’m proud to do it. My question has to do kind of with the precedence of… national guard becoming nationalized and the president taking over the situation and I’m a logistics minded person so I find that amazing that he could do that without the cooperation of the local government and the governor himself and secondly I’m curious if you’ve heard any feedback or from the citizens at all on your broadcast as to what they think about it.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, sure, Cambria. We have a huge base in California. Actually, probably it’s usually the first or second, depending on the moment, of the biggest donor and supporter of the ACLJ come from Southern California. There is just so many people there. And then you have areas that have been maybe they’re a little more liberal now, but they have been traditionally conservative. Orange County in those areas. We are on the air in L.A. every morning and afternoon. on KKLA. We have been a part of the fabric of Southern California evangelical and conservative movements for decades at this point. So we do hear from them, and a lot of them know what’s going on in California, and of course Rick Grinnell. They know that California has been a mess for many, many years. And look, I love California. It’s one of my favorite places in the country. I love to visit there. I’d say, my wife and I always say, it’s like an every other trip. Every other trip, we’re like, oh man, we should have moved here years ago. And then the next trip, it’s like, get me out of here as fast as you can. Because it really depends on the experience you’re going to have. That’s a lot of major cities. But LA has seemed to have taken, and California in general, has seemed to have taken the brunt of a lot that’s happened over the last five years, six years. But yeah, when it comes to the legal precedent, well, when they’re able to work together, it is probably, you know, it’s different. You know, the Dodgers put out a thing saying, hey, the ice came in and we stopped the ice enforcement. Then the ice enforcement said, we didn’t send anyone to Dodger Stadium. So now there’s like this kind of conflict going on between federal government,
SPEAKER 05 :
and the locals. That’s right. And to Cambria’s question, the president under Title 10 in the United States is the commander in chief. Well, he’s the commander in chief under the Constitution. But under Title 10, it gives ways that the president can actually utilize the National Guard, which is typically under the control of the governor. And there are things like the Posse Comitatus Act, which limit the use of the military for civilian law enforcement. But there are other mechanisms within the law which allow for the president to override that because of extraordinary circumstances. What the president is arguing here, in which is a part of the law, is that the president can use the National Guard when federal law is unable to be carried out through normal methods and i actually understand a lot of caution uh that that should be a healthy hesitance within conservatives even of using the national guard and and military for law enforcement i mean we don’t want martial law in mass in the country but what is different here is that the point of the of the riots of the protests aren’t just to speak out Their intended goal is to stop ICE from being able to enforce federal law. They want ICE out of California. That goes to direct statutory language of when a president could use the National Guard to help supplement the enforcement of federal law. And so that is what we’re seeing play out. And that’s actually what the Ninth Circuit was giving deference to in that opinion today.
SPEAKER 07 :
I’m actually seeing a lot of people in california right now that are commenting saying logan we are with this this is what we want this is what we’ve been asking for we’re seeing that kind of over and over in the comments right now we also a lot of people say hey i started listening to your show on kkla and now migrated over to youtube because look they want to see our pretty faces it’s just the truth um but a lot of people are saying you know it’s crazy there and they and they need help so if their own government won’t do it How many of your friends in California have experienced break-ins in their homes, have experienced their cars being shattered? I mean, it is not… Again, it sounds like we are creating some sort of fear mongering, but it’s not. I was in Northern California a couple years ago even, and they were like, hey, make sure you roll down your windows and take everything out of your car, because then they’re not going to smash your windows in to steal anything. And those are signs, like permanent printed by the state or by the city signs that are around saying, hey, the only way to avoid car break-ins in our city, we’re not going to do anything about it, is to… Empty your car and roll the windows down. That is what people have been dealing with in California. And I think there is a lot, specifically our supporters, who have had enough of that.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right. And specifically the section of code that they cite in the memorandum to the Secretary of Defense. This is from the President of the United States. is uh title 10 of u.s code section 12406 that’s actually what was referenced in the opinion as well and it says whenever and then you jump down to the third point the president is unable with regular forces to execute the laws of the united states the president may call into federal service members and units of the national guard of any state in such numbers as he considers necessary to repel the invasion suppress the rebellion or execute those laws So the first two are referring to the other two points in there. So there is the statutory language of Title 10 that they were citing and using that. So that’s the precedent and that’s the law and that’s what they’re arguing in court.
SPEAKER 07 :
We’re going to shift over in topics, but I want to take this call. Tim is calling in Florida on line two. Tim, go ahead.
SPEAKER 03 :
Hi. Thanks for you guys being out there for us. I spent 20 years in the military, and I understand a lot what’s going on. But, you know, one thing I’m concerned with, if we do go in and attack and help Israel with Iran, what’s going to happen? You know, we’re already having problems here, like you guys were just discussing about ISIS. And I’m completely behind that. But if that if that does happen in Iran, the people that came here illegally that are Muslims that are part of Iran. And I even saw one thing where this Iranian guy was coming across the border. He was interviewed by somebody and they said, where are you from? He says, I’m a major in the Iranian forces. And it’s like these people that are already here, these factions, are they going to attack if we do something there? That’s something I kind of fear for our country.
SPEAKER 07 :
Tim, I understand being concerned about those kind of things. But again, it can’t really stop the country from moving forward. Those kind of fears, because that kind of fear is what will continue to breed that.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and once again, Tim, you’re not wrong. We know that people in the terror watch list were caught at the border during the Biden administration. And we also must assume with how many gotaways and things of that nature at the border on the Biden administration, there are many that were not caught. I do have trust that the FBI, they’ve been able to This new revitalized FBI has been focusing on these very things, which is what the FBI is supposed to be doing. So I hope that that is the case. I mean, there are many ways you can’t just unless you are a lone wolf that is not on the radar. If the FBI is able to see communications and things of that nature, that is their job. And I think that is what they are focused on.
SPEAKER 07 :
years that’s right look the work of the aclj continues on i want you to spend some time over the weekend just play around on our website go to aclj.org or download that aclj app really get in to what we’re doing we’re doing some amazing work whether that’s our legal team or our media team it’s all available not behind a paywall but that’s because you support it and we thank you all of you aclj champions all of you aclj donors and if you haven’t done that yet be a part become a champion today we’ll be right back second half hour coming right up
SPEAKER 04 :
keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 07 :
Welcome to the second half hour of Sekulow. We are covering a lot of topics today. We’re going to be going around the world, so stay tuned. Phone lines are open for you, and we actually have a call right now. We’re going to kick it off with a phone call, because why not? And then we’ll get into some of the topics of the day. Dorothy is calling from Ohio. She’s listening on the radio. Go ahead, Dorothy.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yes, I just had a comment about the protests. Most of those people, over 90% of those people are not citizens of the community. Those are paid outside agitators, those same recycled fake protesters that were some of Black Lives Matter, some of Antifa. country to country, state to state.
SPEAKER 07 :
I don’t know the exact numbers, but there are a lot of people. who you can see the visuals and kind of tell the difference very kind of clearly, honestly, of who is there from the local community, who is there protesting, and who is clearly just a part of these agitators, part of these groups.
SPEAKER 05 :
If someone has a sign that says better cabinets at Ikea, probably local community. Probably. If they have a gas mask Molotov cocktail and a pallet of bricks out of nowhere, probably not from there.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, exactly. I think you’re right, Dorothy. You can kind of see the difference. It’s sad that this is where we’re at, that you actually have this kind of thing happen in the country where there are factions that want to just cause chaos. And like I say, I kind of refer back to an interview I heard with, I know that you hate it, but with Bono who said when you see one of these crowds and you see an agitator in a crowd, you can feel sort of the evil spirit kind of go through it. And I think that’s true. When you have people in these massive, massive crowds, one person can then inspire so many more that were not there to cause violence to then take up some kind of violence whether it’s violent rhetoric or whether that’s violence uh you know attacking people whether that’s destruction of property uh you know there’s a reason that all of the waymo self-driving cars were destroyed it didn’t just happen to be that’s what got destroyed there was a plan a plan of action and we can’t be blind to that but you know what oddly enough and as you’d expect that’s off the news We’re only talking about it today because there was a ruling. attention has been moved back to the Middle East. And look, it’s probably rightfully so. Because, yes, there’s chaos here in our country. Let’s not kid ourselves.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and they did succeed in their mission because they had no King’s Day. They built towards it and still don’t have a king. So, pretty good.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 05 :
Pretty good on them. No kings.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah. When I’m playing cards. You want kings. I know. So, they’re a bunch of losers. Right. All right. Look. We only got about a minute and a half left in this segment. And I want to tell you to support the work of the ACLJ. And really what I’m going to ask you to do right now is subscribe. If you’re on YouTube, just hit that button right now. I’m doing this for our video team who’s watching our YouTube team because they want to see that number hit 500,000 here in the next few weeks. And I know it’s a bit of vanity, but you know, it would be nice. Maybe we’ll get those big balloons. Will you see those who the influencers do? They get balloons with numbers. Okay. So we’ll get a 500 K.
SPEAKER 05 :
What if we got 500,000 balloons? I think I could float.
SPEAKER 07 :
Probably. I don’t know. Maybe you could like uphouse me. Like just being like, let’s see what happens. I think that’d be fun. I’m not going to guarantee that’s what we’ll do here if we hit 500,000. Will we get the 500 balloons? I think we can do that. I think we could successfully do that. I’ll call some members of our team and say, you know what? Put it on my personal card. Give me that $500. I don’t even know where you buy those kind of balloons. Party City’s out of business. I know. Phone lines are open for you. But really, right now, we’re going to go around the world. We’ve had some great segments this week. And if you’ve been joining us, you have seen my brother. You have seen Rick Grinnell. You’ve seen so many great things. And we don’t want that to just be one and done. So we’ve got a little bit more of some encore presentations here coming up. We appreciate you joining us for today’s show, but there is two more segments coming up that I think you need to see. If you weren’t with us for every day this week, Will and I were talking earlier. These can’t be one and done. You’ve got to see really what’s happening around the world, whether that’s the ACLJ’s incredible work through the ECLJ at the UN and our support for Israel, or what CNN has been calling you, a rapture prepper. That’s right. We’re going to talk about that coming up.
SPEAKER 05 :
Welcome back to Sekulow. I want to get right into this because we are joined by Jordan Sekulow from Geneva, Switzerland at the UN. Jordan, you just got done presenting to the UN. But first, before we get to that, I want to talk about what’s going on with Israel. You happen to be there at the UN. You were there working with ECLJ and this all unfolded on Friday. Not something you expected to be a part of this mission that you’re on, but now is very much a part of it. What are you hearing in Geneva, in Europe, as you’re there about the situation between Israel and Iran?
SPEAKER 06 :
You know, it’s been interesting, Will, because in light of what happened on October 7th and in these couple of years that have followed, We’ve seen the world go from condemning the actions on October 7th to very quickly condemning Israel’s response to eliminate Hamas. What we are seeing now after this strike on the Islamic Republic of Iran, not only to protect the survival of the Jewish state of Israel, but also to protect the free world against a radical regime that was on the precipice of nuclear weapons. and so we’ve seen a lot of calls for ceasefires the typical european response and u.n response but this is what i want to remind people today just behind me is the u.n human rights council remember the united states is no longer part of this i want to set a stage for what it was like in there today we were talking about the democratic republic of congo but and and no one but us mentioned the entire time that the group of people being killed there happened to be christians We were the only group out of all the countries. The second to last country that spoke before I did was the Islamic Republic of Iran. So while they’re in a full scale aerial campaign, at least not a ground war, but aerial war with the state of Israel, they are still at the United Nations, making it very clear that they’re going to speak out and send their delegates and representatives there. into what is the most hostile body to Israel and maybe second the United States inside this international body, which is why we’re here. I mean, it’s why we work with the ECLJ to take these opportunities. Tomorrow is on Israel. We will be present here again, representing our position and the position of our donors and supporters. But just one seat down for me, Will, was UNRUH. And remember, the United States under the Trump administration has just decided in these last hundred sixty odd days to stop funding these groups. And you realize the power that they have, the influence that they have and why it’s so important that we encourage our representatives. And I want to talk to Republicans directly right now and conservatives, because there is this growing rift and Europeans believe that there is this moment, especially the anti-Israel bloc with inside Europe. That this is the moment to try and divide the pro-Israel sentiment inside the United States. It’s why it’s so important right now for all the supporters of Israel to make their voice loud and clear. Join our petitions. Stand up. Call your representative. Because there are unfortunately not just left-wing Democrats who we would kind of assume to be anti-Israel. But actually those within our own movement who are now preaching this anti-Israel message as if they don’t have the right to defend themselves against a nuclear Iran. The world failed in preventing Iran from going nuclear. The world failed. The UN failed. The other agencies of the world, the IAEA, they failed. But they didn’t stop warning Israel, Will. They kept telling Israel this is a serious problem. The IAEA reports are very clear. And so Israel has decided to act. Let’s make sure. We’re standing with Israel. And a great example of that is that Iron Dome system. Now, unfortunately, some of those missiles, as you mentioned, those hypersonic missiles, it looks like, were able to get through that system. But for the majority of the attacks, remember, Israel has air superiority dominance over Iran right now. And fortunately, because of a U.S. military system jointly manufactured with Israel and deployed in Israel, most Israelis will be safe when the bombing and missiles begin again today.
SPEAKER 05 :
Jordan, you mentioned being following the Islamic Republic of Iran and UNRWA being just a couple of seats down from you. This just shows the importance of the work of the ACLJ. When the U.S. isn’t a part of the Human Rights Council anymore, which is the right move, you still have to have the Ministry of Presence because Israel is outnumbered almost 192 to 1. Depending on the administration, maybe they get 191 to 2 if the U.S. is willing to stand with them, but they weren’t under the previous four years. So the Ministry of Presence being able to advocate for the Middle East’s only democracy in a world where you see what iran is able to do is so important and that’s what aclj members and donors are are a part of this work this very work that allows you to be there sitting within close proximity of these diplomats from unra from the iranian uh republic the islamic republic of iran That is astounding, even as someone who has worked with you for such a long time and among this work, it still is so impressive the work that we are able to do because of the ACLJ members and champions.
SPEAKER 06 :
That’s right. And you know what, Will? We’re here because, as you said, we have to be a voice. We don’t just represent the United States. We don’t represent just Israel. We represent our supporters. And our supporters have a global vision for the persecuted church, for the state of Israel, for Europe as well. Last time I joined you, I was in Hungary, and I was meeting with President Orban there. and there’s a conservative movement happening we see in italy we see it in hungary we see it in spain uh we see it uh here in uh also we’ve seen it in france we’re seeing it across europe and there’s a list of other countries i could go through we’re actually hosting a reception at the european center for law and justice in just a couple days with a lot of the members of the european parliament from those very parties When I was younger and we were just starting out with the European Center for Law and Justice, those parties didn’t exist. They may have existed, but they didn’t get enough votes, Will, to even have a representative inside the European Parliament or inside their own country’s domestic legislative body. Now they do, and they are winning elections, and then they are having elections taken away from them. i mean we saw that happen in uh we just we just saw we saw what happened in poland recently uh we have seen what happened in romania as well where a first round of election was declared uh declared to be null and void so this is it was of course a conservative one so this idea of election integrity is not just a u.s issue either and it is so important that we reverse course, that we are not, it is not strange to hear a U.S. accent inside the United Nations in Geneva a decade from now. A decade from now, for your children and grandchildren, let’s make sure that we’re back and we’re back and we’re still funding all of this. So let’s make sure we have the influence that we should have. And I think what the groups like ACLJ are doing is our government taking a stand saying, We’re no part of this anymore, but it’s just like how we go to the ICC and we still defend Israel’s position there. We’ve also defended the U.S. military and servicemen and women’s position at the ICC. We do it to make sure they have a voice when their governments cannot act because of diplomatic concerns.
SPEAKER 05 :
And Jordan, just a couple minutes left here before we let you go. And you’ll be joining us later this week with more updates from Europe as you continue there. But one other thing when it comes to this whole war that has broken out and the technological advances we’re seeing from Iran. It’s an unfortunate situation because we at the ACLJ, as we pushed back against the JCPOA, that was the Obama-Biden nuclear deal. One of the big criticisms that we had was that it didn’t address the ballistic missile program of Iran. But yet it gave them billions of dollars. It gave them sanctions relief. It gave them a quasi legitimacy with having this deal with the Americans on the table. And what we now see is what did Iran do during that period of the JCPOA? They used the cash, the sanctions relief. And no red lines on a ballistic missile program to develop some of the most technologically advanced ballistic missiles we’ve seen used in warfare at this point. And I think you can directly draw that line to that failed JCPOA. You got about a minute and a half here, but I just want to get your thoughts on that.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, look at the ballistic missiles. I mean, the fact is I was reading a report on a flight to Geneva this morning and before preparing for today at the United Nations. And this report was from a source inside Israel. And I know that, you know, there’s a lot of reporting coming out. It may change by tomorrow. but that they still believe that Iran has 2,000 to 3,000 ballistic missiles to fire. So on the one hand, to think that, yes, you can take out significant, a lot of ability for Iran to respond, I don’t even think we have a clear understanding yet. Maybe the Israeli military does and some of their intelligence sources on the ground. But from just reporting and what we’ve heard of how damaged Iran is at this point and how damaged the Islamic Republic is and how teetering on the edge of power, at the same time, As you said, while the world’s eyes were supposed to be on them, Will, they were able to amass a massive amount of high-tech weaponry, some which is getting through the United States’ most advanced anti-missile system developed in the world. So if it’s getting through Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, guess where else it could get through? Your city and your hometown. And that’s what I think we have to understand is Israel has always been on the front lines of this war against terror. Iran is not just a terror group with rockets. This is a terror group that runs a state that has ballistic missiles and wanted to have a nuclear weapon. And I think just by showing where Iran has targeted, which is not military installations inside Israel, but is Israeli civilians. underscores exactly why Israel had to act and the U.S. must be on the side of Israel.
SPEAKER 05 :
Thank you, Jordan, for that update from Geneva, Switzerland. Folks, as you can see, the ACLJ is mobilized right now. We are here for this moment. We are in Geneva. We are around the world. We are standing with Israel and we need you to stand with us. Go to ACLJ.org. Donate to stand with Israel as we take on these battles.
SPEAKER 07 :
Welcome back to Seculo. Former Director of National Intelligence and good friend of ours, former Ambassador Rick Grinnell is joining us. Special Envoy Rick Grinnell. Take a listen to this, Rick, by one.
SPEAKER 01 :
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, he’s a rapture prepper. This guy’s waiting for the rapture, just like Ted Cruz is. So you have this whole sect of MAGA that they support Israel because they want the Jews to be in Israel so that Jesus can come back for the rapture. And that’s a very real thing that’s in Congress. And that’s not foreign policy. That’s magical thinking.
SPEAKER 07 :
How fundamentally wrong do they not even understand at all who they’re talking about and really just decide, let’s just insult these people to their face, the Speaker of the House.
SPEAKER 02 :
Look, as an evangelical Christian, as somebody who believes in revelations, I think that Jennifer is totally offensive in her comments. I think we should invite Jennifer on here to have a nice debate about it. We can talk about what our beliefs are for the end times, but that has nothing to do with the protection of Israel. The protection of Israel, by the way, is in the Old Testament. to talk about Jerusalem and protecting the homeland. And it is just so offensive and so ignorant for her to pretend like we’re pushing revelations along, like we have anything to do with it. Like we can control that somehow to convince people. Let me tell you one thing. Let’s just be clear. If we could push the end times, my mother would have already done it.
SPEAKER 07 :
Greatest comment you’ve ever made. But I think that’s true. People don’t know like that. We’re not sitting here being like, Oh, how can we get this to work? How can we, how can we trick God?
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s really how, how Christianity works. Well, the fact that they are willing to boil it down to that someone who is the speaker of the house, uh, of the united states uh not a fringe member of congress the speaker of the house and a senator that has served for a long time and that this is pervasive through republicans in congress that they have no idea about foreign policy and don’t even care about foreign policy they only care about uh magical thinking i i i am shocked that they didn’t have a correction issued
SPEAKER 02 :
already just it’s so absurd that that would be on cnn someone an editor or a producer or an assistant producer someone has been trained in the bible there and someone should be able to speak up and say wait a minute what jennifer welch just said is literally crazy talk and we should probably have somebody correct that i look i’m not for silencing jennifer I don’t know who she is. She can say as crazy talk as she wants. But I think CNN has a responsibility to speak up and say, no, actually, that’s not true. Evangelicals are not trying to trick God into bringing about revelations a little bit faster. They’re trying to protect Israel, which is a biblical absolute for all Christians. Yeah.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, and they had someone speak up and say sort of a mild version of, hey, I’m a Christian. I believe in Israel. I support Israel. Yes, it’s biblical. And they did kind of like caveat it, but it was such an extreme. Again, I’ve never heard even the term rapture prepper until last night. I don’t think that’s something people say. So I did go by the domain. You can go to raptureprepper.com because I’m proud to take that on.
SPEAKER 05 :
It’s fine with me, but Will. Is this the Democrat Party? Are they going to get behind this and try to rally and be like, oh, wait, now we can figure out how we can mainline our anti-Semitism and our pushback and just insult Christians openly and just say, if you are a Republican, you are a rapture prepper fundamentalist and we can’t have anything to do with that.
SPEAKER 02 :
Can I just state the obvious here? I’d like to get in on the T-shirts that we’re going to sell that say Rapture Prepper.
SPEAKER 07 :
I can cut you in on that. You know what? They may already be up, you know, because I was furious last night. Someone asked last night, I saw the comments going, Amanda must have been. having a heck of a night. And I was like, you know what? She wasn’t home last night for a few hours. And that’s when I was in there fuming going, when she gets home, she’s going to see this comments.
SPEAKER 05 :
It said, settle you down and say, maybe don’t add another domain in my house.
SPEAKER 07 :
So it’s just like solving and solving and solving all night long. So, you know, there’s that plus CNN yelling about this. I couldn’t take it anymore. Now we only have one more point.
SPEAKER 02 :
Logan, can I just say, as a young evangelical, if you’re worried about someone not being home and they’re talking about the rapture, don’t you immediately think, wait a minute. Oh, Did it happen?
SPEAKER 07 :
Where am I? Yeah, exactly. She did it right. I was wrong. I did want to get moved a little bit more serious discussion here, Rick, because this is I mean, we’re talking about wartime. I know this is silly. We’re having fun here because it is. a fundamental misunderstanding of how we have a relationship with Israel. But you also do have President Trump taking the right steps, even today, saying, hey, we’ve approved a plan. That doesn’t mean we’ve greenlit a plan. But we are there, if necessary, that we will get involved where we feel America should be. And of course, reading the room and reading even his voters.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, look, I think what we have to do is ignore comments like this. We have to live our faith. We have to be involved in politics. We have to be involved in world affairs. We know that we can believe one way and work in politics and another that it’s not an absolute. We have the First Amendment right in our country. to believe in any religion that you want. And so the idea somehow that just because we’re fighting for the the only democracy in the Middle East, right, Israel, and we’re trying to make sure that we protect Israel, but also be thoughtful in making sure that we’re looking at this from a political standpoint for the United States, what’s best for the United States. I think it’s a conversation we all need to have, but we don’t need comments like Jennifer’s that are clouding what’s actually happening.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and Rick, quickly, that also was a question we had from a caller in an earlier segment. You know, there were reports that Israel had at least maybe an opportunity or sites on the Ayatollah early in their operation and that the reports are that the administration said, don’t do that yet. Obviously, you can take The New York Times reporting with a grain of salt, so not quite sure what the reality is there. But we also know that there has to be intelligence assessments. You have to know who comes next after the Ayatollah if the people aren’t ready to overthrow the regime and the son of the Ayatollah takes over. So even those considerations… are what the administration is doing right now when they’re having National Security Council meetings, when they’re consulting with the intelligence community. It is all seeing how this plays out, not just in the next few days, but in the long term and for not just the people of America and Israel, but the very people of Iran as well.
SPEAKER 02 :
Look, I think we should be clear is that the United States does not have a policy of regime change. I don’t believe that we’re considering that. I don’t believe that’s a discussion. I don’t believe Donald Trump is going to do that. Israel is. They are having that discussion and they have every right. They’re in that neighborhood. It feels a little bit more. pressure for them, I’m sure. But for President Trump, he doesn’t do regime change. He wants to solve this peacefully. He’s offered the Iranians a way out peacefully. But I think we have to assess through intelligence assessments. Remember, that’s the key. It’s all an assessment. It’s not absolute. And so we have to look at this and figure out what’s best for the United States.
SPEAKER 07 :
Thank you so much for joining us as always. Always love your feedback and give our love to Mama Grinnell, you know, and let her know that we’re with her on that. And look, we got a lot of phone lines full right now. We do have two that are open at 1-800-684-3110. Look, you’re not going to get this kind of show anywhere else. Okay. Let’s just be honest here, folks. You’re watching this. You’re like. Man, these guys, as one person said, are very cool. They’re speaking my language. You know what? That’s what’s important also, that people who actually understand what they’re talking about. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. But I wanted to give you a minute. You’ve seen where my brother is currently at the ECLJ working really hard at our European Center for Law and Justice because that’s a lot closer. Look, it’s a lot closer to the Middle East and what’s going on there. So you’ve got to be always there, always prepped, always ready. That is at, again, the ACLJ, ACLJ Jerusalem, and our ACLJ offices throughout the United States. When we get back, we’re going to hear from you. But if you could, in the next minute, become an ACLJ champion, someone that gives on a recurring basis, someone that says, hey, I’ll give $5, I’ll give $50 a month. Whatever it is, you’re a champion.
