Join us in celebrating 35 years of success with the ACLJ, as we share some of our favorite moments of ongoing commitment to justice and constitutional freedoms. We reflect on our strategic expansions, such as our influential presence in Washington, D.C., and our impactful partnerships in state legislatures. Hear from supporters and champions of the ACLJ who have witnessed, and even been directly aided by, our work in protecting their freedoms. Throughout the episode, we emphasize the importance of independence in media and legal action, highlighting how your support makes it all possible. We invite you to be part
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Governor Newsom unveils counterfeit plan to make California safe.
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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.
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Welcome to Sekulow for Friday. Wrapping up the week here again. It is a holiday weekend, so I’m going to encourage you right off the bat. To celebrate with us here at the ACLJ, our final day on air on our 35 years of victory drive. Again, it’s the last day on air. We’re going to be able to make your donation doubled with another ACLJ member or champion ready to unlock their pledge. So I wanted to kick off today’s show talking about that. We’ve had a big week of victories. Not just 35 years, a week of victories. And we surely will have more next week. But again… As of right now, this drive ends at the end of the month, so that means the last day of the on-air broadcast version of this drive is today. So if you want to give, if you love this show, if you love what we do here, if you like our legal work, our media work, give if you can today at ACLJ.org before the deadline. And of course, we know if you give today, you also are giving because you do listen to and watch this show, which we know, I’ve met some people yesterday, just out in the wild, if you will, that enjoy the broadcast and were talking to me about it. So it’s always fun uh to meet people who love what we do here now the topic of the day is pretty interesting and that is now and we’ve seen this before it feels like this happens from time to time we’re gonna have rick cornell joining us in the next segment because why not uh governor gavin newsom always seems to be the person uh who you know will bash president trump will bash anything republicans are doing but then we’ll find a way to try to like ease his way into the same conversation of course we saw mayor bowser yesterday uh praising what’s happening in washington dc and now we’ve sent newsome now said we’re not going to allow president trump to come in here and do that here But we got some ideas of our own, and those ideas, I don’t know, are almost identical, but just the California way.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right. So instead of working with the federal government to try and get resources for your state to try and fix the crime problem, Gavin Newsom is no longer shying away that there’s a crime problem. Instead, now he’s saying there’s a crime emergency type situation, and so he’s expanding a program to deploy – State funded crime suppression teams to major metropolitan areas. So state troopers, things of that nature, other state agencies to be able to put down the crime in these areas. Obviously, they see what’s working in D.C. When you hear the mayor of D.C. yesterday, Jordan, saying that. There’s an 87% drop in the carjacking problem. I know cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles have a lot of those same problems. Instead of saying, hey, maybe we can work with the federal government, he’s doing a copycat version, just like he did on social media, trying to emulate President Trump. Now he’s trying to emulate the policies, but go it alone, so as to boost his 2028 prospects.
SPEAKER 06 :
President Trump, an authoritarian, says this is a military move. And then right after that move starts getting praise from some Democrats like the mayor of D.C. that we talked about yesterday, he is now deploying his own state funded crime suspension team to major metropolitan areas. So the governor himself deploying his own security forces to get violent crime and violent criminals off the streets in high crime areas in large cities such as I mean, you could go through 20 in California, but San Diego, Los Angeles, Sacramento, and the Bay Area. So that would, you know, of course, San Francisco and Oakland. And that these units are going to target repeat offenders, the illicit weapons, narcotics, all the same kind of things you’re saying. It’s getting crime and violent criminals off the street. But he’s somehow saying it’s different than militarizing American cities. Yeah. And is it just because of what uniform those individuals are wearing? Because the National Guard and state guards, they perform a lot of duties. They can perform policing activity when necessary. Only when necessary. And we believe this is a crisis. President Trump agrees with Gavin Newsom, obviously. There’s a crisis in L.A. and Sacramento.
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100%.
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And we will take your calls and questions coming up at 1-800-684-3110. You’ll hear from Gavin Newsom himself as well. is maybe Gavin Newsom’s biggest critic, Rick Grinnell, who’ll be joining us live to discuss this as well. That comes up at 1-800-684-3110 to be on the air. And of course, celebrating 35 years of victory, we can’t do it without you. Go to aclj.org, scan the QR code. Again, today’s going to be the last day you hear from me talking about this 35 years of victory drive. So be a part of it. You want to be a part of it right now. We’ll be right back with more on Sekulow. Welcome back to Secular. We are now joined by Rick Grinnell. Of course, Rick, we had to call you up. I know you weren’t scheduled to be on today, but you know, when the topic is Gavin Newsom, I figure who else could we hear from? Who should we always turn to to get his thoughts and advice? And of course, this comes now after Gavin Newsom unveiled his plan to stop criminal activity in California. And I think that’s probably, you know, a good thing in general. However, he pushes back on it and says, you know, it’s not really the same as President Trump’s plan because, you know, we’re doing this within the state. But really, when you get down to the nitty gritty, it is what you would say, I guess, a copy and paste, a copy your homework kind of moment of, hey, just do it in my handwriting, you know, so we don’t get caught. And look, I guess good for President Trump, good for California. But this is typical Gavin Newsom of playbook.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, I mean, look, Gavin Newsom has been the governor for seven years. And he hasn’t concentrated on stopping crime. Matter of fact, if you look at the one party control in Sacramento, they’ve done some really horrible things with trying to make sure that the state allows the perpetrators of crime a safe haven. We call it sanctuary states or sanctuary cities. We’ve had problems with homelessness. And this is a state that is radical left in its leadership. And the people are really outraged. One of the reasons why Gavin Newsom is responding is because President Trump tapped into the people after the Palisades fire. Cutting through the bureaucracy and doing common sense leadership was really popular in Los Angeles, the largest city in California. And so when President Trump talks about having federal government come in, Clean up the homeless encampments, clean up the crime, clean up the filth in our inner cities. This is extremely popular with people who didn’t even vote for President Trump. And Gavin Newsom is feeling that. And so what is he doing? He’s responding at the end of his term. in a way to just pretend like he did something because he’s actually running for president. And so he’s responding on the law and order issue very late, too late, and only it’s going to be halfway because he still has people in his party, lobbyists, and the media in in california trained to think that it’s not a problem of of just law enforcement he has literally made fun of cops police officers people don’t want to be on the streets uh protecting us because they don’t get supported by the politicians in california as you said rick embracing crime it feels like i know that sounds like a stretch but
SPEAKER 05 :
I was in San Francisco a couple years ago, and one of my favorite places on the planet, much less in this country, is the Bay Area in San Francisco. And I go there, and not the signs aren’t the typical, hey, be careful what you leave in your car. It’s take everything out of your car, roll your windows down. I mean, this is in the Presidio. you know like in a nice area roll your windows down because look we don’t want to give the criminals the option of smashing in your window to steal whatever it is that may be in your bag make sure or in your back of your car make sure everything is cleared out a lock isn’t going to do it they will do it and we’re not going to it pretty much said and we’re not going to do anything about it if they do
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, and look, remember that Gavin Newsom and his team messaged for a very long time, very loudly, that if you didn’t, you know, when you were committing a crime, robbing a store, burglary, If it wasn’t a value over a thousand dollars that the police weren’t going to get involved. And that was something that these left wing politicians thought, you know, let’s concentrate on the bigger crime and let’s let petty theft just go. Well, the problem is, is that everyone started walking into stores, brick and mortar stores, grabbing nine hundred dollars and walking out knowing they wouldn’t be prosecuted. it became chaos. It still is. Uh, you, you see the homelessness everywhere, you know, where, where they’re, you know, literally doing things on the street corner or under the overpass that are illegal, you know, having fires, for instance, to cook, uh, having reckless, uh, you know, products out that cars are running over and hitting when there’s wind that throws it into the streets. It’s really chaos. And Gavin and his team, his team of left-wing leaders, they just haven’t cared until President Trump pressured them. And so now they’re going to try to do something. Let’s see. I think it’s a little too late and it won’t be enough. But let’s see what happens. We’ve got the Olympics coming up and a lot of people are concerned that Los Angeles may not be able to handle the Olympics.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, and Rick, we know, as you’ve mentioned, the policies of Gavin Newsom for years now have made it easier to get away with crime and thus making criminals more rampant within the state. He wouldn’t listen to the people. He wouldn’t listen to the companies that started saying, we’re pulling out of these cities, we’re not going to open new stores here anymore, or we’re shutting down the ones we have because we can’t survive. We’re losing too much inventory to crime, to petty theft. But all of a sudden you see headlines like just this week from Politico saying Trump is leaning in on crime. Democrats need a better response and fast. You have the mayor of D.C. yesterday basically saying, look, this federal partnership is working and we we are grateful that we have this surge of law enforcement to be able to drop these crime rates. It seems like while Gavin Newsom won’t listen to his constituents, we know what the big prize he has his eye on coming up in just a few years. Is the only thing he’ll listen to are pollsters and political strategists?
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, look, I think that that’s exactly right. He’s listening to these people around him that are California based, telling him that he’s just got to be more left, more liberal to be able to win the primary election. But I actually believe that someone like Gavin Newsom winning the primary is a disaster for the Democrats in the general because he doesn’t work in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, the swing states. He just doesn’t work. He’s robotic. He’s extremely far left minded. And he’s also somebody who sends the message when you talk to him that he reinvents himself every couple of months. It’s what we say, politicians that just stick their finger up measure the wind and go with the wind, go with the public polling. He is not a strong person in having convictions of common sense policy. His convictions are chasing polls and trying to reinvent himself to be the next big thing.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, absolutely. I think we could see that when he launched his podcast and all of a sudden he’s having Charlie Kirk on and being like, my son loves you, Charlie. Is he here? No, he’s not here.
SPEAKER 04 :
He had to go to school.
SPEAKER 05 :
He had to be in person to get an education. Yeah, but that’s always the case. It feels like with Newsom. It was like the Santus debate. Completely unnecessary. No one’s really sure why it even happened to begin with, but it gave him more airtime on Fox News. Of course, he thinks he can win over that crowd. I think you’re right. As of right now, of course, he could reinvent himself once again, but right now he feels like a Harvey Dent. It doesn’t feel like he has that appeal to everyone. But again, I wanted to hear from you, Rick, just because I think when things happen in California and it feels like it happens more and more, and you’re right, that it does feel like this is because he was planning his run for president. Of course, look, you can’t… And deter what goes on in California, what goes on in New York, and what goes on in a lot of our major cities, because though they may not affect the swing states, the policies, because of the size of the economies, do affect how really the world works. I mean, when you have California being one of the largest economies in the world, of course, if something happens in California, it’s going to have ripple effects forever. throughout the country. That’s why you, I know, have been such an adamant supporter of fixing California, not abandoning what’s going on there, because again, as you said, we’ve only got two minutes left. This is, when a crisis happens there, we’ve got to make sure, as the American people, we’re paying attention.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, the fact is, though, Logan, that what we do know is that if Gavin Newsom was not running for president… He would be just doing what he has always done for the last seven years, which is a selfish, inward look. And he would just fade into oblivion because he really thinks that he’s been successful these last seven years. I was just this week in Sacramento. It’s an atrocious situation. homeless driven downtown area. It’s windows are broken. They’re homeless people everywhere. It’s very unsafe. And, and he doesn’t care. This is his literally three, four block area that his policies clearly haven’t worked. And he doesn’t care about it because he’s onto the next thing, which is focused on Washington.
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All right, Rick. Well, thank you so much for joining us. I couldn’t agree more. We are going to take your phone calls coming up at 1-800-684-3110. And as I said, this is our final day on air for our 35 years of Victory Drive. We’ll make sure that you are paying attention. You are part of the conversation. You can’t do that unless you give and donate. As we’ve said before many times, this is a completely independently run media and independently run legal outlet. No one is telling us what to do. There isn’t a major network or corporate overlord saying this is what we have to cover today. We are making sure we cover exactly what we think you need to hear about, what you need to know about. And of course, we are taking to court exactly what we think you need to be involved in. So right now, 35 years of victory. I’m just going to ask you, think about it, pray about it, as this is our last day on air where you can have your donations doubled. Go to aclj.org slash victory. Yesterday alone, we had three Supreme Court filings. That was just in one day. Imagine how much will be in 35 years to come. We can’t do it without you. At aclj.org, though, join us. Welcome back to Secular. We’ve got a lot of calls coming in. We’re going to continue to take those, and we’re going to take more coming up at 1-800-684-3110. That is as we celebrate 35 years of victory here at the ACLJ, our last day during our 35 years of victory drive where your donations are doubled. That’s right. If you give today, if you give $10, it effectively becomes $20. You give $2,000, it becomes… uh four thousand yeah i was trying to i was talking with jordan about what we’re talking about twenty five hundred dollars it becomes five thousand there you go that’s basic math here for you shows you what our team can do we can do some basic arithmetic right but with that all i’d say is there’s incredible people aclj supporters aclj champions those are people that give on monthly basis when we set up these drives we make sure we have enough people we’re ready to unlock these pledges so if people give five hundred thousand dollars we could even do it and match it up to a million dollars There are some incredible people ready to do that. Obviously, most of the people that give, give between that $10 and $50. And we encourage you. That’s the backbone of this organization. I’m very proud of that, by the way. I do love that we have some major donors, but the mass, mass majority are people that give on a small monthly basis. But in mass, it can build out such an amazing organization and this broadcast as well and our legal work and all the people that I get to look at each and every day and talk to each and every day and work with are because of you. And we have, Will, some updates, including another check a box, another victory.
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That’s right. So this is a case that stemmed from Virginia, where there was a community with a homeowners association. I know people in chat love to talk about that. But effectively, our client at the ACLJ was told that he could not use the clubhouse and other facilities for religious purposes. This is something, Jordan, we see all over the country all the time. And we also know that that is a constitutional violation. And we normally are able to resolve that pretty quickly because you send them the law. Their attorneys send a letter and say, hey, you’re violating the constitutional as well as Fair Housing Act laws. You can’t exclude something that you provide to your community as a benefit. Religious groups, you can’t discriminate on that purpose. Well. The letter here didn’t resolve it. The HOA stood firm and we had to take them to federal court. And so while that we didn’t have to continue fighting that out, we did have a victory with a settlement with this HOA that will be amending and changing their regulations to ensure they are not violating federal law and the constitution through allowing people to use their facilities for religious purposes.
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great example about why if you feel like your constitutional rights were wronged you should contact the ACLJ there’s no bad questions if something like this happens to you call us an attorney will respond to you we’ll get the information if we need more we’ll ask for more information And it doesn’t matter if you’re living in that neighborhood and just want to host a Bible study and the HOA says, no, you can’t. You don’t think and say, well, this is not big enough for the ACLJ. No, let the ACLJ handle this for you. This is why we have donors, so that we can come in and be the big tough lawyers for that individual and that quickly HOA folds. And there will now be those religious services, not just for that person, but for any other religious group in the future. So remember always, nothing is too small
SPEAKER 05 :
impact our constitutional rights the ripple effects are gigantic when we have moments like this and look unlike a lot of them which is all the ways they have to say you know what we got to adopt this yeah often they get a message email or whatever it is on aclj letterhead if you will or with an aclj signature block and guess what happens they cave immediately however there are the instances and this is one of them where they said fine take us to court religious folk and here’s where we end up that’s right this uh we got
SPEAKER 04 :
our demand letter out in this and Garrett Taylor who’s one of our newer attorneys did a great job on this was able this is one of his first cases that he spearheaded and went forward with that has we’ve now seen a victory through but we sent that demand letter March 12th of this year and they would not comply So we filed a federal lawsuit in April and through that process, because then they’re realizing the HOA is having to spend money on attorneys. Our client is not. Our client, because of our donors, is able to get the top legal representation that money could buy, but he doesn’t have to pay for it because of the way we operate. And therefore, most people would probably not want to go into a lawsuit-type situation knowing, like, man, to have my Bible study, I’m going to have to spend all this money on attorneys because my HOA won’t cave, and I’m going to have to go to federal court. This client didn’t have to, and now gets to have what is a federally protected right, being able to use these facilities that he pays for through HOA dues because of our fight.
SPEAKER 06 :
Just that threat of, okay, you send the demand letter, and let’s say you did it on your own, said, no, I think I have the constitutional right to do it. I printed out the information. You didn’t have the ACLJ do it. That’s fine, too. Sometimes you have to come to us after that. And they say, fine, we’ll take you to court. You know what they think? They don’t care if they’re on the right side of the law or the wrong side of the law. They think you don’t have the money. Yeah. and that you don’t have the time or the resources to fight an HOA which usually are big companies that manage tons of different properties and that you’re not willing to hire a law firm that can go into federal court for you and that because of that you’ll just fold so it doesn’t matter if they are acting in an unconstitutional, illegal way or not, they think you’ll fold. That is why the ACLJ exists. So you never have to fold. They can’t play that anymore. That threat of, well, then see us in court if you can afford it. Well, so far, because of the ACLJ donors, we can go into court. We don’t have to worry about those costs. That’s always my number one issue with the ACLJ, having the greatest attorneys being able to take whatever case they need to take that we need to take, regardless of how much it will cost us to win for your constitutional rights and for your religious liberty. But Logan, we can only do that with donors. We can only say we can take the biggest cases and the smallest cases and spend the same kind of resources, even hire new people if we have to, to defend those rights. But we can only do it with donor support.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s how it works. Yeah, but it’s absolutely how it works. The only way this organization, look, you’re going to, I say this, you see ads, maybe if you’re watching on YouTube, understand that the amount of money that comes in from those ads doesn’t even pay for the team that runs the YouTube presence. Not even close. If you talk about the ads you hear, if you’re listening on terrestrial radio, that goes to the network. That doesn’t go to us. Often we’re paying, and I say that, and they go, why do you pay? Why do we pay a network to be on? Because no one can tell us what to say or what to do.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, right. It could be Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift getting engaged, and we can still talk to you about issues that actually matter to you. Not that that doesn’t.
SPEAKER 05 :
Big deal in my household, by the way. Okay, everyone in the studio is going.
SPEAKER 06 :
It mattered to J.D. Vance. It did. Because he thinks the NFL is going to be rigging it for the Kansas City Chiefs yet again this year. Yeah. I did not say yet again.
SPEAKER 05 :
I love that we just said we’re not going to talk about this. You don’t have to. And then you do. But you know what? That’s true, though. There’s no one. Will, executive producer. We got a team in there who we put together a show each day. We can say what we want to say. And we can talk about the topics that we feel that matter the most. And we can have fun also if we need to. But that is because we are completely independent. We’re not even behind a paywall here, people. The only reason that we have a show that exists is because people like you donate and support the work of the ACLJ. I know we’re kind of training people who have never thought to donate to what they see as maybe a broadcast or a television show or a podcast, or they don’t think to give to even a legal law firm. They don’t understand the concepts because it’s not something you see each and every day. We’ve been at this for 35 plus years. We know it can be there. We got to train new people to come up behind us, make sure they’re here and also new donors and supporters that we got to have. So if you can give $5, that’s fine. $5 comes $10. Understand that that has huge impact. Maybe you can give on a monthly basis, five or 10 bucks. That’d be fantastic. And your donations, your first donation will be doubled if you do that today. Again, we have another half hour coming up. If you’re listening on Terrestrial Radio, maybe you don’t get it, but you can watch it always live or archived at ACLJ.org on your favorite podcast players or YouTube or Rumble. And again, we’re going to take your calls coming up. We’ve got a few lines open at 1-800-684-3110. But as we take this very short one-minute break, consider supporting the work of the ACLJ. Do it today, the last day on air for our victory drive. Do it. keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever this is seculo and now your host logan secular welcome back to seculo second half hour of the broadcast we were talking about how gavin newsom is essentially just copying off of president trump’s homework if you will and starting his own campaign in california to stop crime of course this comes towards the end of his term as he decided for some reason right now is the time to stop crime why is that of course because we all know He’s planning on running for president. It has been in the air the entire time. Remember he had that whole debate against Ron DeSantis last time around. This guy has been priming us. He’s had a conservative podcast, if you will, with guests like Charlie Kirk, guests that are even further to the right. trying to prime an audience to accept him as a potential candidate for president. And a lot of you have called in about that. I think we should take some of those calls. And I want to encourage you also to call. So let’s kick this off. Let’s go to Patricia, who is calling from California right now. Patricia, go ahead.
SPEAKER 09 :
First of all, I want to thank you and congratulate you on the number of years and your anniversary of standing in the gap for American citizens. I really appreciate it. And next, I would like to say that Gavin Newsom is a joke to people in California. We know who he is, what he is. He’s a pretty face and a pretty smile, but believe me, it ends there. Everything from him is too late or too little or not at all.
SPEAKER 05 :
You know, Patricia, I hear that a lot. I hear that from a lot of our friends in California. Look, a couple years ago, there was a chance where he was going to be recalled. Yep. But somehow… He pulls it off every time. And that is something you need a big chef. And this is also, though, a very suave politician, if you will. Oh, yeah. Let’s not discount. I mean, I know Rick Grinnell said on the national stage he’s not going to play. I think he’s probably right as of right now. That doesn’t mean that guy doesn’t have a couple years to shape that, know that, and understand it because he is a smart, smart politician.
SPEAKER 06 :
He’s flirting with, well, he’s got the podcast. He brings on people he totally disagrees with, tries to have fun with them, some dialogue and say, we can disagree and, oh, you’re wrong, you’re crazy, but not in as a nasty way. He kind of trolls President Trump back and forth, but again, it’s not in a horribly mean way. It’s more in the way that kind of President Trump.
SPEAKER 05 :
They’re kind of two sides of a similar coin.
SPEAKER 06 :
It’s like he’s trying, he’s like a Democrat mini-Trump. I mean, I think that’s what I feel a lot of. He’s not quite as natural at it. So he’s more natural with a big smile and a northern California, Silicon Valley kind of guy. But he has figured out that what works is that Democrats like fighters, but they don’t want socialists necessary. So they like the fighting, but the socialist part may go too far, especially in a general election where you’re not just talking about the mayor of New York.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, well, I was just going to kind of echo what Jordan was saying, and we already know that he’s been going to places like South Carolina to Tennessee, where there are a lot of people that have left his state because of a lot of his policies, but are coming here, as we know. And a lot of those people also left because that’s where the tech jobs went. A lot of these jobs came to states that had more favorable tax laws, things of that nature as well. But… As you said, he is such kind of a shapeshifter when it comes to a politician that even the criticisms of him, he is able to let roll off his back in a way that is unnatural, I’d say, for a lot of people that he doesn’t get super defensive. He will own mistakes in a in a way to almost make them jokes about himself so that it takes the teeth out of those attacks.
SPEAKER 05 :
It’s one of those mistakes are cities burning. uh when there are the other palisades on fire and all of a sudden it’s uh you know it’s no one’s fault it’s it’s the fault of uh you know it’s a act of mother nature but then when you really start looking into it you see that it very much wasn’t and that of course there are things that could have been done a lot of things that could have been oh yeah it was an act of mother nature maybe started it but then it could have been stopped a lot sooner yeah absolutely almost total destruction which is still impeding traffic to this day Yeah. Hey, phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. I’d love to hear from you. Give us a call right now. 1-800-684-3110. We’ll continue this conversation and also talk about some of the new work of the ACLJ and what we are looking at moving forward as we expand and our vision to expand. It’s not just about 35 years of victory in the past. It’s about a vision for 35 years into the future. What does the next generation look like of ACLJ attorneys and media presences? We’re going to talk about that coming up, including a massive expansion that we’re going to be doing throughout our headquarters and throughout the country. Be a part of that team right now at ACLJ.org. None of it happens without you. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Secular. Phone lines are jammed right now. Well, there’s one open. You can call in at 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110. This is it, folks. The last day on air for our 35 years of Victory Drive. And as I said, we’re not just looking at 35 years in the past. We’re also looking for a big vision for the future. What does the ACLJ look like in not only 2026, but in 2056? What is this going to look like for the remainder of our careers, as well as the people who are just joining us now, the next generation of team that are coming in in their early 20s that are just joining our team right now and hopefully stick with us? What does that look like for them? And with that, we know we have to expand. We know things have to update. We know we have to change the way this show looks. We know we have to change the way we have to go with how things are going. We have to be always on top of it with technology moving so rapidly. There’s no time to waste. And of course that’s true, maybe even more so in the legal field as we’ve seen AI become such a strong component of what’s going on, good and bad, that’s come from it. Same with media. But we’ve also seen the way Washington, D.C. is working. Jordan, I know you’ve been there quite a bit working on the relaunch of our government affairs office because we know in Washington, D.C., not only is that important, it’s been important in the past. It’s very important when you have a more favorable group but it’s also when things shift and the pendulum switches it is nice to have a backbone there specifically for those senators those congress people that need it because they’re going to need to feel strong in these moments.
SPEAKER 06 :
We’ve also been expanding in Washington preparing for that the expansion of our government affairs team and ACLJ action our C4 if you see in this picture right now the the kind of main ACLJ is you’re seeing half of it it goes the whole corner of that block is the blue or gray building That’s the ACLJ main legal headquarters. We also have the building to the right of that for more private meetings. Now, the building to the left of that, we’re just about finished with. That will have a brand new production studio in it, offices for action, attorneys, interns, staff. And you see the red building next door? We’ve purchased that building because of your support. We’re waiting to decide how we want to use it best. as we as we are starting to utilize so it’s basically a corner block now this is interesting if you were standing looking out from those buildings what are you looking at you’re looking at the Hart Senate office buildings and the other two U.S. Senate buildings so all the senators that live over there and that’s where they live they walk by the ACLJ every day Barack Obama used to walk by every single day and the ACLJ keeps expanding The other thing is that road, the street right there, is where the Supreme Court justices drive in on days they’re in the office and drive out to hear oral arguments and to do their work.
SPEAKER 05 :
You can see the Supreme Court building actually there in the corner if you’re watching online. The bottom right corner. The bottom right corner. So…
SPEAKER 06 :
So they see it too. They see us walking down the street. You see them coming in. This is very strategic. But now we have brought on a new director of government affairs who is different than what we brought on in the past because he’s got such serious experience. And again, his name is Mark Kelly. You’re going to hear from him and learn about him a lot more. He has served five different members of Congress as chief of staff. That is the highest level staff member in a congressional office. He’s got unparalleled access, insider information, and contacts everywhere. to navigate what we call the complexities of the swamp on the hill. He will let us fiercely advocate for pro-life, pro-family, one nation under God policies. And he does totally align with the values that matter most to our supporters. He’s been actually really close to the ACLJ as a chief of staff to a number of these members for 20 plus years. This is someone coming with 20 plus years of experience. It’s also going to really re-engage our efforts in representing members of Congress. So that’s one thing that we’re going to really ramp up again and that he’s already working on as we speak in federal court. And what’s also cool, and he’s bringing to our attention, is that the Freedom Caucus is expanding to states. he’s got great access there. So the ACLJ government affairs team mostly focused on federal and Washington DC is going to start working inside your states with conservative freedom caucuses to make sure your state legislatures and state elected officials are also doing what they told you they would do in their campaigns. So this is growing our team. He will be enhancing his team as well. And the ability for him to, you know, work and us to work in more states and to build that team out, Logan, is to fill that building is based on our donors.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, and Jordan, as you mentioned, and people may wonder, like, let me say, yeah, so that we could purchase those buildings. Well, and Jordan, when you talk about the work of the ACLJ through this angle, people know about the Supreme Court briefs, but we have a lot of new people in our work at the Supreme Court. And we’ve also talked about how the Supreme Court will cite us in those briefs. That’s also very similar to the impact that we can have when it comes to members of Congress. We talk about our work in the judicial branch, but the legislative branch, The ACLJ, you talk about the Ministry of Presence, where we are situated on Capitol Hill, the relationships that we have with members of Congress, their staff, as well as state governments, as well as state legislatures. They respect the ACLJ. They also know that when the ACLJ is speaking, it’s not just on behalf of the organization. It’s on behalf of the members, all the people that stand with the ACLJ. That’s why our petitions are so impactful. When we petition members of Congress saying, we want this done, they understand the depth and the reach of the ACLJ, and they know it’s not just Jordan Sekulow saying, hey, you should get this done, but it is a host of people that stand with the ACLJ. That’s right. And that’s why it’s so important, especially when you have leadership that is favorable to you. There’s a lot of voices in DC trying to get their attention. When the ACLJ speaks on their behalf, they listen.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah. I mean, I’ve actually received a message this morning said, Hey, this is, I’m not going to get into it, but say we need to get something to Mike Johnson. I think you guys could probably get it there the fastest. And you know, that, that right there tells you how people view the ACLJs worked in and behind the scenes work. I usually wouldn’t talk about something like that. I’m not going to get into the details, but just to give you an example of the kind of messages we wake up to in the morning, it’s, hey, can we need to get something to the Speaker of the House today? We think you’re the best guys to do it. And you know why we’re the best to do it? Because of you, folks. I mean, that’s truly the case. We are known and we want to make sure through our new government affairs effort, because you get a lot of young members of Congress and staffers that come through every three years, we’re going to do a really concerted effort to build the ACLJ brand name back up on Capitol Hill because so much of it got associated with the Trump administration, rightfully so, when you’re representing him during Mueller and the first impeachment, to make sure, hey, we’re there for you. Remember, that’s why we’re… And we’re here. So when you’re a new member of Congress, come to us when you’ve got questions. If you don’t understand legislative text and you think, is this really doing what that older member of Congress is telling me that it’s going to do, so don’t worry about it, come to us and let us review it. It’s not going to cost you anything, and you can trust us. We’re not scared of telling that older member of Congress they’re wrong.
SPEAKER 05 :
absolutely look we got a lot of calls coming in and only a couple minutes in this segment before we get to the last i mean the last segment i always like to take as many calls we can but i want to uh let marion uh who we’ve had on the show many times but is an aclj champion i think he’s a good person to probably take us to break uh but stay on hold mario mary eric and whoever else is calling in right now stay on hold we’re gonna get you in the next segment uh but marion go ahead
SPEAKER 01 :
Yes, it’s odd that y’all were just talking about what I wanted to make a comment on, and I was on the line before y’all said all that stuff, but I’m very proud to be a member, a champion with you guys. Every time that there’s a victory out there, especially like the other day when the whistleblower, all that trash he went through all those years, and y’all bailed him out, I feel like I’m a part of it because I’m a champion. So thank y’all for all the great work y’all have done.
SPEAKER 06 :
You absolutely are a part of it. That was a multi-year battle for someone who had zero resources. So, I mean, he had to rely on the ACLJs, the Empower Oversights, all working together to spend resources for him. And now we have a great FBI agent back on the scene, you know, back in the job, reinstated. I mean, this is, again, it’s unprecedented to get your security clearance back and to get back pay. It’s even more unprecedented to be reinstated and be on a path to actually getting even a bigger position within the FBI office. And he’s able to do that out of the place he is located now. And so I just think, again, you’re absolutely right. And when you read Garrett O’Boyle’s statement, when he talks about the ACLJ standing with him for so long and all that hard work and hours involved, He’s talking about you because you’re using the money that you have working with your hard work and hours to support that work so that our team can do it.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s absolutely true. And look, we have phone lines open. I’d love to hear from you. If you’re an ACLJ supporter or champion, you have something to say right now, this would be a great time to call in because we’ll take these questions that are coming in. Right now, this is the final day. It is it. I mean, you can give throughout the weekend. Final day, we’re going to be on air. where it’s going to be during our victory drive 35 years celebrating the work of the aclj and of course we only able to offer these kind of moments where donations are matched and doubled a few times a year this is one of those times then you’re a few months off and we won’t be able to do this again until we head into the christmas season so i would encourage you uh help us get through this year help us get through so much that’s going on we know it’s a very hard time for a lot of people so only give if you can but if you can it’s a great time to do it if you’re brand new Maybe you’re watching on YouTube. Maybe you’re watching on Rumble. Maybe you’re catching this on later on. I’m going to ask you, if you can give, give. But of course, what I’m really going to ask you to do is subscribe. That’s a great free way to support the work of the ACLJ. Join our email list at ACLJ.org. Easy ways that are absolutely free for you. And we provide you all the information you need. And again, without a paywall. A lot of organizations like ours, they make you pay a fee every month to even see this show. We’re not doing that here. Because we have amazing people like you. At least we don’t want to. We don’t want to be forced to. And thankfully, right now, we don’t have to. Because there are people like you who step up. So encourage you to go to ACLJ.org again last day of our Victory Drive. And we get back. We’re taking all the phone calls we can at 1-800-684-3110. Welcome back to Seculo Time to hear from the most important voice in the room as we wrap up this show for today, for the week, for the month, and for our 35 years of Victory Drive. Okay, so last time you’re going to have to hear me say that sentence will be in this segment. At least until it’s the 35 years of Christmas drive or whatever it is we come up with celebrating 35 years of Christmas. No, that doesn’t work, I don’t think. Let’s go ahead and take some phone calls. At least I got a laugh before the end of the show. Let’s go to Eric who’s calling in South Carolina. You’re on the air.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yo, man. Listen, two things about these Democrat Fox governors. Trump needs to, and Carolyn Leavitt, they need to always say that the reduction in crime that these governors are saying they have, it comes because of the illegal immigrants that Trump has been getting rid of. That’s why they have a reduction in the crime. Number two, any type of credit that Gavin Newsom is claiming, Trump needs to counter by saying, Well, you got your you got your idea from us and that’s why you’re doing it. Something to that effect. But this is great. What what he’s done because I think it’s going to backfire.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, Eric, I think you raise an interesting point to some degree. And yes, that is that is politics in general. Jordan, when something you get a good benefit from a policy of your political opponent. You take credit for it no matter what. And I think we see that with the mayor of D.C. While she did give some credit to President Trump saying, like, we needed this. And that was a lot further. And I think you normally would see a Democrat give credit to the administration. But, of course, everyone in every blue state, you’re going to see when Chicago, if crime gets under control because of the policies and sending in federal government when it comes to the illegal immigration there.
SPEAKER 06 :
They send in a surge of their own police force like Newsom’s doing.
SPEAKER 04 :
They’re going to say, look, you don’t need Trump.
SPEAKER 06 :
I could have done it. And the reality is they didn’t. They didn’t until Trump did. And so why did Gavin Newsom wait until now to send in when he knew the crime was this bad? So he’s just let his citizens suffer until he was under political pressure because the D.C. mayor and President Trump wasn’t actually trying to take over the city through authoritarian means. He was trying to keep his own staff safe when they were walking to their cars at night. for goodness sakes. And that was the truth. People are getting scared about walking to their cars, going into parking decks, even in some of the most, what should be safest areas in Washington, D.C. And then they all started copying him. But you know what? They had this crime going on last year and the year before, really since COVID. And they’re just now getting rid of the 10 cities?
SPEAKER 05 :
They were embracing it in some ways. It was very odd. The whole thing was odd. Look, somewhat I’m happy. They are copying a playbook, and I want California to be safe. Just don’t let them get credit for it. Right. And that’s what he does. Again, it’s stealing homework at this point. Thank you so much for calling, Eric. Let’s continue on. Let’s go to Marie, who is calling from California. You’re on the air.
SPEAKER 10 :
Hi, thank you. I just wanted to know if there was any way that we might actually get some accurate statistics on Gavin’s new plan and see if what he’s doing is really working or if he’s just going to claim it’s working.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I think, Marie, whenever it comes to statistics and politicians… The statistics are the most fungible numbers that you can get to make it the best looking that you can for yourself. And so hopefully the proof of it working, if he does what he says he’s going to do, will be people being safe in those cities. At the end of the day, I couldn’t care less about the statistics as long as people are safe again.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, I mean, ultimately, you want people to be safe, and then you can talk about the political ramifications of why are they safe. Let me say that any positive change now that happens in California in those cities only happened because Donald Trump took action in Washington, D.C., because there was no indication from Gavin Newsom two weeks ago. In fact, he was mocking this move. And now that it’s working in D.C. and his numbers are not good, he’s now copying the program that he was attacking two weeks ago, trying to say, well, we can do it on our own. Well, maybe you can and D.C. can’t, but you weren’t doing it on your own. That’s what I want to keep going back to. Their crime was already at these levels. It didn’t just get worse the last two weeks. But it was not until Donald Trump put in a plan that worked so quickly, they said, uh-oh. This Trump guy, pretty smart, put the National Guard, get some police out there and guess what? 87% of carjackings are not happening and that means people aren’t getting shot, people aren’t getting pistol whipped, people aren’t getting their cars stolen. That means less police are in danger and less people are being killed. So we better do that in our cities too or else they’re going to start pointing that out. And so now they are. They’re going to try to rush to secure their cities because D.C. could become the example of how quickly you can take apart a violent crime scheme.
SPEAKER 05 :
All right. Agreed. Let’s go. Mario is calling from Illinois watching on YouTube. You’re on the air. How you doing, gentlemen?
SPEAKER 07 :
God bless you and happy Friday. To me, what you guys are talking about is spot on, but Newsom and Hunter Biden, these guys must be brothers, man. They take money. Nobody knows what happens with the money. They say they’re going to do this or they get titles. They get everything free and each one lives a life, but it’s like Newsom’s not doing nothing. And Newsom’s going to say he’s going to do it, but it’s a temporal thing. It’s just he’s putting a bandaid on it.
SPEAKER 05 :
You know what’s funny, Mario? I’m only cutting you off because we’re going to run out of time here. There are times, and I’ve told this to Will, which is very odd. I don’t know why. It’s not like they look exactly the same, but I will confuse interviews with Hunter Biden and Gavin Newsom.
SPEAKER 04 :
They could not remember when Hunter Biden said that was Gavin Newsom.
SPEAKER 05 :
You’re like, that’s the governor of California and the son of a president who was having a lot of issues. Like, I don’t know why, but you are right. For some reason, they feel like interconnected in some weird world. Let’s take the last call of the day, which Louise calling from Texas, who I love getting calls like this. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 11 :
Woohoo! It’s the anniversary, and I thought I’d jump in on the party. Thank you. Because I’ve been… I’ve been a member since 1997 out of California, and you all helped me back in 1997 with a big issue I was having with the youth group situation.
SPEAKER 12 :
And I’ve been a member ever since I was in Texas now, but I’m continuing the work and standing strong. I’m a champion now, action, also person, and continuing strong since 1997.
SPEAKER 05 :
Louise, I really appreciate that and hear from you. Hey, stay on hold. I want to get your contact information because we are still going to be compiling these stories of people who have had, because I love like the video we’ve been running with Aaron. People that don’t necessarily have these stories you hear, they’re giant sweeping stories, but they’re stories where the ACLJ got involved on a local level. So I want to get your contacts, make sure if we can, I’d love for you to call in, to talk to our media team and tell your story. I’d love to hear more of these.
SPEAKER 04 :
And to some degree, when you look at the history, when you have 35 years of victory, as we’re talking about, and we even this week have been able to say, here’s a new victory, here’s another victory. Sometimes the victory, especially over the course of 35 years, we didn’t have as robust a media team back in 1997 as we do today. you lose touch with the individual victories. Well, she was in a youth group in 1997.
SPEAKER 05 :
It’s not like we were then following up.
SPEAKER 04 :
But once again, now that we are here, we want to tell these stories. We want to talk about the victory and the impact that the ACLJ members alongside of the organization have been able to make in a life like Louise. And when you call in, you hear it. We love to hear from that because it isn’t like over 35 years, you can keep track of every single victory at that point in time.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right. Names changes. People move. She’s in Texas. She’s in California. But we’d love to get your information, so stay on hold. That being said, this is it. This is the last 50 seconds you’re going to hear me talk about our 35 years of victory drive. So all I’m going to do is tell you to pray about it, think about it, and if you can, do it today. You have until the end of the month, which is just over the weekend, but it’s a holiday. We know a lot of you are going to be off work. A lot of you are not going to be thinking about this. So I encourage you today to do it. Again, that is just by going to ACLJ.org. All donations are doubled. Yesterday alone, we had three filings at the Supreme Court of the United States. Of course, we’ve had this broadcast, which is reaching millions of people now, thanks to new technology, around the world. None of it happens without you. So I encourage you, go to ACLJ.org. Scan the QR code that’s on your screen. I don’t care if it’s $5 or $5,000. Do it today. Know how much we appreciate it. We’ll talk to y’all next week.
