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Just a day after the largest government-employee union called on the Democrat leaders in Congress to end the government shutdown, banks and credit unions are applying the same pressure. The Sekulow team discusses the economic fallout of the government shutdown, the ongoing fight between the Democrat and Republican leaders in Congress (e.g., Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson), how the Trump Administration is handling the shutdown, the ACLJ’s legal work – and much more.
SPEAKER 07 :
We got breaking news. Another domino falls as the major banks pressure the Democrats to end the shutdown.
SPEAKER 05 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 07 :
Welcome to Sekulow. Once again, we’re talking the government shutdown as because the pressure points are on again. Yesterday, we talked about the pressures from the union. And today, the pressure is coming from the banks. That’s right. You may have logged in even to your bank account. We actually had someone called in yesterday, said they were having problems with that. You logged in and you see a, Hey, are you affected by the government shutdown? We’re here to help. Uh, you know, the government may not help you with the big banks. Well, where they’re saying, Hey, we can only do that for so long. So you know what? It’s time to end this shutdown. We’re happy to help the American people when you won’t. However, eventually, uh, That time will run out, Will, and that is what they’re saying. And of course, the pressure’s on. And now you’re starting to have a little bit more closed door meetings. Things are starting to happen in the democratic world saying, hey, how do we actually draw this to an end? Because if we lose the unions and then we lose the banks, you know, it’s going to get tough and tough.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right. So the American Bankers Association, which is kind of the lobby association for the banking industry, they both have big banks and small banks, but they cover about 95 percent of all banks in the U.S. are members of this association. And they are putting out a statement now today that echoes very much what we saw from the Federal Workers Employee Union yesterday, which calls for a clean, continuing resolution and to resolve their policy differences when the government is open and functioning. So now you’re starting to see pressure from two powerful groups, both the Federal Employees Union that we talked about yesterday and now the banking industry. Because when you also start to think about the pressure that can get put on these banks, they are helping individuals at this time. But if it keeps going on and people can’t pay their bills, that could start to spark a different kind of financial crisis.
SPEAKER 07 :
I don’t know how the banks actually work and the way money is moved around. It’s not necessarily as clean as most people probably think. Your money’s not sitting in a vault somewhere ready to go. However, the way they invest, the way they work, of course, they have some paused where they can help you out, just like they’ve done during some of the times of economic issues. However, that can wear thin when you start heading into historically long shutdowns.
SPEAKER 08 :
If you logged in to your bank account, checking account, kind of right when the shutdown began or a couple days later, many banks, it’s your checking account, not your credit card accounts necessarily. Some of those do too. Yeah. But your bank actually says, if you’re going to experience hardship because of payments being delayed or your salary being delayed, contact us. Now, I think why the banks now are moving on it is maybe they can do that for around a paycheck or two. But if they’re starting to cover two months of paychecks, and that means people’s mortgage payments and car payments and much bigger bills than just what they talk about is like the essentials, like the monthly stuff, that then puts strain on the banking system. Right. For all these federal employees who are not getting paid. So the banks actually step up in this scenario, do the right thing, but they really are doing it for this offering for what they can do as a temporary time. When it starts extending into payment number two and month number two and mortgage payment two. Yeah. Car payment too. That puts a lot of strain on the banking industry. And guess who that starts affecting then? Not just us, not just the people who aren’t getting paid. It starts affecting all of us, right? Because your bank is under pressure as well. So I think with the unions saying, move on, Democrats, you don’t have the votes. You’re hurting government employees who, by the way, are 99.9% voting for you. So please ensure that they get their payment and fight your battles another day.
SPEAKER 07 :
And they made a very similar statement to the one yesterday coming from the other union, from the Government Employees Union, saying, We urge lawmakers to pass a clean, continuing resolution and resolve their policy differences with the government open and functioning. I mean, it’s almost word for word what the Employees Union said yesterday, the Government Employees Union. So we know the pressure’s on. Will the pressure matter? I want to hear from you. 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110. We also know that there is a big push for Christian persecution around the world. We’re going to talk about that coming up because, man, it is a tough time in a lot of areas of the world. That’s why the ACLJ exists well beyond the borders of America with our European Center, with our offices in Jerusalem and other places, some we can and some we can’t even talk about. We’ll discuss that coming up. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Seculo. There’s a lot of you who are just joining us right now, so I think we need to restate what’s going on. We have had another big break, if you will, a fracture with what historically would have been, of course, yesterday we talked about what would have been undemocraticalized, which was, of course, that the American, essentially the government workers union said, you know what? Time to pass a clean continuing resolution. Let’s get this done right now. and people are hurting and like I told you I’m seeing it now in real places not Washington D.C. not that there’s not real people in Washington D.C. but when you walk into your local drugstore and you can tell they’re starting to feel the pressure and they’re starting to get very frustrated and again like I said though in not necessarily because it’s democrat talking points when you start saying hey quit focusing on the ballroom and start focusing on american people we know the facts and how that all works but the visuals are not good and of course that is one of the democrat talking points i saw that in that article you sent me earlier today where they said you know we need to stop worrying about ballrooms and start worrying about getting the american people back to work of course they don’t talk about how all of that’s being funded and doesn’t honestly really matter at this point because now you’ve had another big break which is the banks and the credit unions have said it’s time. It is time to wrap this up. We have been helping out our customers. We’ve been doing the right thing while the government’s doing the wrong thing. We have been good to our customers, which, you know, good for them for having some good customer service and actually being loyal to their customers. But you know what? That can only go on for so long. We got to get this done because they’ve been giving people delays. They’ve been giving people advances. They’ve been working a lot. Like Jordan said, if you log into your bank account, largely you have seen some sort of, if this affects you, we’re here to help.
SPEAKER 08 :
Just like if there’s a storm. It’s much like if you’re one of the people affected by a hurricane or something like that.
SPEAKER 07 :
I’m in North Carolina last year.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yes, you’ll see it. And again, for most of the people, they just kind of put it up there too. They’re not sure who may have a home there or families there that you might be dealing with. And they’re here to help. And so I think what the banks are saying is we are helping. But at a point, our help becomes difficult for our bottom line because it’s one thing to cover a couple weeks of payments, a month of payments. But then if we’re going to look into two months of payments, then it starts affecting not just the people who need the help from the bank, but everyone who utilizes the bank. And you don’t want a banking crisis on top of it.
SPEAKER 07 :
And what I’ve seen now with even like a Fox business, I was listening to Fox business yesterday and they were like, Hey, but the economy is thriving, but the stock market’s through the roof. So is it really hurting anybody? And the answer to that is yes, it is. It’s starting to really hurt people. I’m sorry. It may not be hurting you, the Fox business viewers much, but it is hurting real people and you’re seeing it.
SPEAKER 08 :
No, I mean, we know the Fox Business Viewer is typically someone who is at a point in life where they are making serious investments.
SPEAKER 07 :
They are watching Fox Business.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, and following the market more than just regular news per day. So that’s not the government employee who hasn’t gotten their paycheck. We’re living paycheck to paycheck. Like definitely. And, you know, it’s because they do get great benefits. They’re great retirement benefits, too, when you put your 20 years in. But these are those things they do have to weather. They’ve weathered them before and stayed with this position. I think what it says is we can have a discussion about the size of our government. But when our private banks step up and do the right thing, which is a great thing about America, I think, and our companies. They’ll do it. Capitalism. They’ll do it, but they will say, hey, guess what? Like, we can’t do this forever.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, and Jordan, I think another important point to showcase here is that this isn’t just like Wells Fargo or Bank of America making an independent statement. It’s the lobby. And the two things that we’ve been calling out is one of the big things is, oh, you know, Congress is still getting paid during all this. But what’s interesting is when you have a large union that represents federal workers, that is very large. Not only is it a lot of these members of Congress constituents, but the unions end up making financial contributions to to members of congress in different races as well as this is the lobby for the bank so it represents the interest of all of those big banks and little banks across the board if they start getting pushback where then some of these members of congress who sometimes only are worried about a two-year cycle or a six-year cycle of getting re-elected And then they’re concerned about getting campaign contributions because they held up this government being open. That starts to speak a little differently. And you even hear it from the number two leader in the Senate. This is Dick Durbin, who is retiring from his Senate career, however, still has a lot of power right now.
SPEAKER 08 :
And can speak his mind because of that.
SPEAKER 04 :
And this is what he said to Politico about the union statement yesterday. It said that Politico writes the union’s plea forced many Democratic lawmakers into a defensive crouch. Their number two Senate leader said it would be subject of internal conversations this week with bipartisan talks all but ground to a halt. Quote, it has a lot of impact. They’ve been our friends. and that Democrats take them seriously, talking about the Federal Workers Union that we talked about yesterday. So even these public statements is starting to show a different side of the leadership of the Democrat Party in the Senate, even as on this 28th day of shutdown, the Senate is currently voting for, the vote should be over soon, we’ll know, it’s expected to fail. But today, right now, they are voting for the 13th time to pass the very same clean resolution that the union for the workers and this bank lobby is calling for congress to pass to end this shutdown so it hasn’t necessarily changed it yet but you’re already starting to hear different talk from the leadership on the democrat side which could really start to change
SPEAKER 07 :
13th attempt and the vote just failed. That is getting to the point of… Did it fail by the exact same number?
SPEAKER 08 :
Did any movement changes? We’ll find out.
SPEAKER 04 :
As of right now, there were three Democrats. It was Senator Cortez Masto, Senator John Fetterman, and Angus King from Maine, who’s an independent of the caucuses with the Democrats, were the only three that were voting with Republicans to move it forward.
SPEAKER 07 :
But a great name.
SPEAKER 04 :
Angus King. The latest vote I saw was unanimous from Republicans. And that’s where they only needed five Democrats to move this forward.
SPEAKER 08 :
We’ll look at that and see if there’s anybody. Certainly with this pressure, I would imagine they could go back to the drawing board and say, you know, I don’t know if we can survive this another week. Because interesting with this shutdown is Donald Trump has continued to do his work around the world. Peacemaking around the world, going nonstop. And they’re in Washington and it’s their fault that people aren’t getting paid while he’s doing everything he can to figure out how to pay our troops. We’ve seen that. And you know what they’re saying? I don’t know if that’s legal. They want to challenge that. That someone donating paychecks for our military. Anonymously, of course, they were named, but anonymously, just to make sure our men and women in service are getting their paycheck, which mostly… if they’re serving abroad, goes home to their families.
SPEAKER 04 :
Jordan, I want to get your take on this strategically for the Democrats. I know you don’t want to give them any tips here because of what’s going on, but you have some interesting moves here because on November 1st is what the Democrats were originally trying to hold out for. Yeah. Because that’s when open enrollment for the Obamacare program comes up. They were hoping that Americans that saw a different price, they would be upset. And then that would give them more pressure on the Republicans to make a deal. You also have those elections coming up. The New York mayoral race. You have the governor of Virginia race and the governor of New Jersey also coming up in the next week. Do you think that we’re already starting to hear some change in tune from people like Dick Durbin? Do you think that the Democrats need to wait until like Wednesday of next week to show they didn’t cave before pivotal elections as well as that one benchmark? Or do you think this could be done as soon as this week?
SPEAKER 08 :
I think it depends on what the polls are showing in those pivotal elections, too. Is this really helping those candidates at all? Is it hurting those candidates or is it a nothing? Or could it actually depress the vote where it may be hard to poll, but people won’t be as excited about those elections because it looks like, hey, putting more Democrats in to work with this administration right now or this Congress or running my state or city doesn’t seem like it’s going to be a great decision for me. So is it worth it? waiting in line on these off-year elections and getting out the vote. The other risk they’re taking is that the insurance market’s open and they’re not double. You know, they are making, they are taking a chance that the, and again, this privatized market and they oversell how many people are in that. Most people do not get their insurance through the affordable care act. Right.
SPEAKER 07 :
Most people are still from their employer.
SPEAKER 04 :
It’s either their employer or through the Medicaid program, which is run and administered by your state.
SPEAKER 08 :
After your retirement age, through your employer, through a husband, through a wife, some military service, something. This is for that group of people that aren’t covered that way and who go into these exchanges. They’re putting a lot on that group. I think it was like 30 million people, somewhere around that. in a country of 380 million.
SPEAKER 07 :
When we have about a minute and a half here I want to pivot real quick because tomorrow we’re going to have a big thing happening in Washington D.C. and I want you to take a minute to talk about that because next segment we got Rick Grinnell joining us.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah so we are working with CPAC and we’re co-sponsoring a summit on religious liberty in the United States and religious persecution worldwide so we kick off with actually a round table at the White House tomorrow with their faith office that some of us from the ACLJ will be obviously attending to kind of talk about, okay, the administration has done great work on its own. How do we codify it? How do we codify the IRS not going after churches for speaking their mind on politics? If you go to your pastor on everything but politics, it’s kind of bizarre, right? That you can’t even talk about local. Right now you can because of what President Trump’s done by executive order. But what happens if there’s a change? Well, it’s not codified yet. The abortion funding, things like that to Planned Parenthood, codifying. So the next step is President Trump did everything that Republicans always promised they would do. Now we need to make sure after in the next legislative battles, we get it codified. So if we do that, then we have a reception tomorrow night at the Museum of the Bible and then an all day summit with leaders from the House, the Senate, as well as the executive branch.
SPEAKER 07 :
None of that happens without you. So I encourage you right now as we go to break, go to ACLJ.org, make a donation. If you can, we’ll be right back with Rick Grinnell. Welcome back to Seculo. Phone lines are open at 1-800-684. And I want to hear from you. Do we have Rick yet? Are we still waiting? We’re still waiting for Rick Grinnell. He’ll be joining us in just a second. But I do want to encourage you to call in at 1-800-684-3110 because we’ll be taking calls in the next few segments. Rick is joining us now. Make sure that we’re good to go. Let me know, guys, when we are good. Waiting for the thumbs up. Good to go with Rick Grinnell. Rick, shock of the century. Gavin Newsom says, you know what? I’d be lying if I said, I can’t lie. I cannot tell a lie like George Washington. I would be lying if I said I’m not eyeing a presidential bid. I mean, we are all stunned.
SPEAKER 03 :
look we it wasn’t that long ago where he said that he was not running right so he’s not running and now he’s not lying that he is running uh look this guy’s a robot everybody in california knows that he doesn’t work in swing states he doesn’t work in communities that are thoughtful uh let’s let’s be honest i hope he runs because he will implode in pennsylvania ohio wisconsin and michigan Swing states are not going for this guy. He barely works in far left areas of San Francisco. And even now, his reputation is running thin. He’s trying to overturn the census and the bipartisan commission that has created our congressional districts in California. And he’s trying to overturn them by claiming that somehow Donald Trump did something nefarious or that Republicans need to have a lesson learned from their their work in Texas. I mean, it’s all such a blur, but he’s got people like Tom Steyer melting down, going on television with their own commercials, screaming about what’s happening. I mean, it’s a true chaotic situation here in California, but hopefully people are recognizing that we’ve got to stop his manipulation, vote no on Prop 50, and highlight all of the failures that he has in case he runs for president.
SPEAKER 04 :
Rick, I’m glad you are able to join us today because I know you were up late watching the Dodgers last night win in an 18-inning game.
SPEAKER 08 :
We did a full 18. I was there. I felt like I was there. By the end of it, I didn’t know. You were hallucinating.
SPEAKER 04 :
But you mentioned that. I mean, they were obviously running ads in California during the Dodgers game, which was getting a lot of views because of the location of the winning team last night. And just the fact that they’re trying to utilize that World Series as a platform to move forward with Prop 50, what you’ve already mentioned. And you couple that with the work he’s doing there and even in his – interview where he you know alluded to that he will consider it after 2026 whether or not to run he also is is trying to paint this picture of him of this like working class person who you know pulled himself up by his bootstraps and that you know that they got to where they are because of hustle you know just like everyone that starts their own vineyard at 25 years old i mean that’s that’s a very common thing uh but But I mean, just how is it? It seems like everything he does is trying to paint with revisionist history, whether it be his own history or even why California has that independent districting council. Even if it’s not perfect, it’s definitely not what he’s doing now. But no matter what he says, it’s always trying to obfuscate what the reality is.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, two points here. We’re talking about baseball, so we should talk about one of the big scandals for Gavin Newsom in that he said that he went to college on a baseball scholarship. He repeated that story for a very long time. He then said that he was recruited to go into the major leagues. None of that is true. He didn’t do that. He didn’t go to college on a baseball scholarship. He didn’t play first base and almost go into the major leagues. He loves to tell these types of stories uh in a crowd of course he’s using his hands the whole time like a robot but the reality is is that the media in california they don’t challenge him so he gets away with it sacramento is completely controlled by the democrats all of our cities in california are controlled by democratic mayors all of the big cities and so we really do have a very serious situation where this is all left comfortable world and he’s comfortable telling lies in his lefty world and no one challenges him. He is going to be just like Kamala. When you leave the comforts of San Francisco and Sacramento and you go to Washington DC or you go on the campaign trail, you immediately get challenged in your crazy radical thoughts. And you don’t know how to defend them because you’ve never had to defend them. And so you implode on the national stage. And that’s exactly what’s going to happen to Gavin Newsom. I really do hope that the Democrats put him up because it’ll be a nasty fall from grace.
SPEAKER 08 :
One thing he’s done, Rick, which I thought just from the political side, which is interesting, I wanted your kind of comment on too, is in the last really six months as he’s played this game of reaching out more to conservatives and going on Fox, going on other podcasts, and even on his own podcast, and kind of saying, you know, we can have these conversations, we can laugh, we can joke about it. But I think, you know, don’t believe the wolf in sheep’s clothing here. I mean, this is, again, you kind of see it in the smile, but He is a hard left operator, like you said, and he thinks strategically that’s just a good look right now. I mean, that’s how I interpret it. See, I can sit down and smile with these people. We can have a discussion. At the end of the day, he’s not going to listen to any of those people for policy. He’s going to totally exclude them from any kind of process if he ever got to that level of power.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, people should not be fooled by this guy. I think he’s reinvented himself through podcasts four or five times, renaming the podcast, coming up with a new gimmick. If it doesn’t work, he just literally comes up with something new. And this is my point. He’s not going to be able to get away with that when he goes on the national stage, when he goes to other states. They’re going to call him out for it, and the public is going to be educated. Here in California, the LA Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Union Tribune in San Diego, they’re all lefty papers. All of the TV stations are far left radical. And so he gets away with it because no one is challenging him. Again, it’s just like how Kamala Harris went to Washington and climbed her way into the national spotlight and then imploded because as soon as she was tested, as soon as she had a little pushback, she didn’t know how to defend any of these ideas. Gavin is going to be the same way. Watch him. He’ll lose his cool. He’ll mock the other side for being some sort of radical Nazi group. But he does not know how to defend these issues. He’s not that smart. He is just super calculating and always going to reinvent himself and hope for you to not notice.
SPEAKER 07 :
Rick, I appreciate you chiming in. Of course, it’s a big week as a lot of people are starting to talk about 2028. A little bit early for me to feel like we need to be talking about it. But of course, we’re never outside of an election year. It feels like now. It’s always election time in America. So we appreciate you chiming in and letting us know how things are out there in California. With that, we’re going to head to break. We appreciate it. We have a one-minute break coming up. And if you get us on SiriusXM, on YouTube, on Rumble, on the Salem News Channel, All those places, we got a full hour coming up for you. So a whole nother half hour. Some of your local radio stations only carry the first half hour. Make sure you join us live each and every day, 12 to 1 p.m. And of course, this is later on. That’s on Eastern time. If this is later on, you can always find us archived. However, get your podcast, of course, aclj.org. or the ACLJ app. The phone lines are open for you. We’re going to reset a bit in the next segment. We are going to talk about some of the work that Jordan’s going to be doing in Washington, D.C. Of course, we are going to hear from you at 1-800-684-3110. We are still also continuing our battle against Christian persecution, not just here in America, the real kind of persecution that’s happening all around the world, whether that is pastors that have been imprisoned throughout the world, including in China. We have a pastor we’ve been working with, a new situation. We’ll brief you on that coming up. And look, we’ve fought successfully for persecuted pastors all over the world before. We’re going to do it again. We’re going to need your help to get success here. It’s always what happens. You got to bring media attention and you got to bring legal attention. OK, so sign a petition. We got a brand new petition at ACLJ.org. You can find out a lot more information. Be right back in less than a minute.
SPEAKER 05 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 07 :
Second half hour of Sekulow coming up. Of course, we were talking about a lot of different topics, but one of the main ones is that the banks and the credit unions are saying, hey, it is time to end this shutdown. And we got a call coming in. I want to take it right off the top. A couple lines are open at 1-800-684-3110. Nancy’s calling from Texas with a very specific question I know a lot of you had. Nancy, go ahead.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, I would like to know if we the people have the ability to have a say in this. Is there an address or a phone number that we could contact to try to sway some of these Democrats?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, Nancy, I think one of the things also is just to figure out who we’re talking about here. Who is actually on that list that could be swayed? A lot of them are, you know, they’re going to make the decision based on are they going to get reelected? Are they going to make their constituents happy? And a lot of times right now, being bipartisan does not do that for a lot of these people. So, Will, though, who’s on that line?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I think you have to start looking at it, one, where there’s a lot of federal workers. So you think about Virginia and Maryland, where you have Tim Kaine, Mark Warner, Chris Van Hollen and Angela also Brooks. And then you also think about Chuck Schumer. He actually angered a lot of people in his party. for voting for a CR a year ago, but he’s one that has continuously done that. If he feels like the party needs to change direction, Chuck Schumer could change that. You hear Dick Durbin starting to change his mind to some degree and say, you know, we have to take it seriously. And also he’s on his way out. He doesn’t have to fear the pushback or retribution of his voters if That’s something that he’d be afraid of. So I think you kind of start at it there. I mean, they need five, and I’ve just listed six, the two from Maryland, the two from Virginia, Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin. And then that’s a place that I feel like the Republicans could start, especially when you look at people that are in leadership. that don’t want to completely tank their party or their chances in the midterms. You also look at maybe some senators that have races coming up in 2026 that could feel vulnerable if all of a sudden their party is being blamed for this. That’s probably the angles that either the Republicans or people that are trying to convince people would start looking.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, I agree. I think that you could be strategic about this. We don’t have to just call through every Democrat. Think about where are their federal employees? And they’re kind of located, of course, across the country. But where are the hubs? Like Will said, you’ve got Northern Virginia, Maryland, that hub there. Some in Delaware maybe as well. Yeah, some in Delaware. And then if you’ve got kind of a senator who plays moderate that’s a Democrat, they may be worth… willing to call, especially if they’re in your state. They really like calls from people who are their actual constituents. Those calls get bumped up on the list. How many did we get from our actual state to the senator? And then they will look at the total calls, but how many did we get from Pennsylvania or Texas? In your case, Texas, you’ve got two senators who are voting to keep the government open with Ted Cruz and John Cornett. So that’s not an issue for you there. So again, look to who tries to play that moderate game. You don’t need to be calling the radical left and put the pressure there.
SPEAKER 07 :
Does it matter if they’re not in their voting group? You know what I mean? So Nancy starts calling someone in Delaware. Is that going to matter? Yeah.
SPEAKER 08 :
You don’t really need to get into politics with them. Just say, listen, it’s hurting too many people. You could say something like, it’s hurting family and friends who are federal government employees because they don’t know when they’re going to get their next paycheck, and I’m trying to help them out, so now it’s hurting me. And I think that actually works when you’re talking to their staff, whether you live in that state or not.
SPEAKER 07 :
By the way, they have these phone numbers for a reason. And this is one of those reasons. So, yes, they may be annoyed by you, but they also have to have these. They’re supposed to be doing it.
SPEAKER 08 :
They keep track of every call that comes in from the outside on what the issue is about and what the person is asking the senator to do.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yep. So, I mean, know that it does make an impact. It really can. With that, we’re going to head into the next segment. And we’ve got four lines open, so great time to call in. And we’re going to discuss a lot of the work of the ACLJ. We’ve got a packed couple days coming at you. And, of course, our office in Washington, D.C. is expanding, as well as our media headquarters. And we are around the world right now here at the ACLJ, fighting for religious freedom, Christian persecution around the world. We want you to be a part of that journey as well. So, I’m going to encourage you as we head to the end of October right now. Think about supporting the work of the ACLJ. And of course, November and December, big months. That’s the time we’re really going to be talking to you about all the different ways that you can support the ACLJ and get creative with that. Because look, the media and the legal side is just heating up. We never shut down, not even on Christmas. Okay? So go to ACLJ.org right now, make your donation. We’ll be right back with your calls and comments. Welcome back to Seculo. Phone lines are completely open, by the way. I think we lost some during the break there. So if you ever want to be on the air, this is a great time to do it. But Jordan, I wanted you to talk about what’s going on in Washington, D.C. Because as the office has kind of re-evolved and changed, we’ve had so much growth and change going on in Washington, D.C. And of course, every time there is a new president, every time there is a new group, things have to kind of be adjusted in Washington, D.C. Because you’re talking to a very different person.
SPEAKER 08 :
uh you know house senate and of course uh presidency and the supreme court and all different it all changes every time an administration shifts so we brought in a much more experienced government affairs team that we’re building out now uh through um uh both me and don parsons have been working on this who’s a senior counsel with us here at aclj for uh a year to bring in the right person he’s been on the broadcast now uh and he again has got you know over 20 years experience on Capitol Hill and building out his team, ACLJ Action, which is doing a lot of work right now, even through the shutdown, expanding where the ACLJ goes, which also then for you, the supporter of the ACLJ, these bigger kind of corporations and companies and individuals in D.C. realize the strength and also the skills, right? that we provide at the ACLJ, the knowledge that we have to be able to walk through these complicated legal issues and policy issues as well. But I mean, just this week, we are partnering officially with CPAC, people know CPAC, on what is a very targeted event on ending Christian persecution and religious liberty in the United States. So kind of looking at the US and then looking around the world. And we start off at the White House tomorrow and their faith office, and it’s kind of saying, what do we do with all the good that President Trump and the executive branch are doing? What do we do next? And I think the focus is, of course, is victories in the midterm elections, which can be very difficult, so that we can then begin to target and codify so many of these executive orders, which have been things promised. but never delivered by previous Republican presidents. And I can thank Speaker Johnson for that, too, getting the defunding of Planned Parenthood, things like that. Also, the protections for churches to be able to speak their minds on all issues, the IRS executive order. We have to work now, conscience protections, on… codifying that into law. It’s hard to think about that during a shutdown when they can’t even get the budget through, but groups like us can start thinking about that now and working through. So we start off that tomorrow morning, I think, right in the afternoon. Then we’re hosting the reception for the event at the Museum of the Bible with members of Congress, with experts in kind of religious liberty, everyone coming together. I’m speaking at that along with Matt and Mercedes Schlapp, who people know from CPAC and American Conservative Union. And then switching there to the next day, we’re hosting a summit. And I’m proud to say with four of our ACLJ folks, we’ll be in it out of I think about six, seven panels. So I’m helping kick it off and helping kind of end it as a speaker, but I’m also moderating a panel that I think Ben Sisney is on, and then CeCe Howell’s on a panel. Christy will be on a panel as well. And some are looking at international, some are looking at U.S. And so it’s that line we’ve always talked about, Logan, which has gotten a little blurrier, something I’m going to be talking about there. we usually say that Christian persecution happens in, in other places around the world. And that here we, we face at most discrimination, but with what happened with the parents, you know, going to the, um, going to the school boards and then FBI showing up your door because Latin mass and all of those issues, you know, it’s, it’s creeping. At least the line is getting a little blur between, um, discrimination, which is bad enough in a country that defines freedom of religion in its first amendment. Uh, two i wouldn’t say persecution yet you know you’re not but also then what can our government be doing better to make sure that christians who should be protected in other countries that their governments are using the resources many times provided by the us i kind of look like nato like if we’re going to provide you resources and treat you as an ally and you’ve got a christian community that makes up 40 or 50 percent of your population but you’re not willing to use your military which we help train and fund to protect them from the radicals then you are failing as a leader and putting your funding from the U.S. in jeopardy. So that’s how I look from the international side. And we’re able to then spend six hours throughout a day getting into these issues and then coming forward in a unified way Because we know we’ve got a White House and administration, a Department of Justice, a Senate and House with leaders. I mean, I think about it, that we’ve been fighting with before they were even there. You think about Mike Johnson, you think about Ted Cruz, you think about, again, even President Trump, who has been willing to go there on the issues. They’d always talk about Republican candidates. Lord knows I worked for many of them. And then if they got there, it became the last thing on their agenda. And usually it was the first thing cut in a negotiation. The first thing they cut is the funding. Okay, we can’t get you on defunding Planned Parenthood. We tried. We had to cut that out.
SPEAKER 04 :
What’s an interesting thing to me here as well is that for those of you that have watched the ACLJ for a long time or followed the work of the organization, persecution around the world has been something we have had a unique opportunity to fight, whether it be our status at the UN, our offices around the world. When it comes to an event like CPAC, which is very high profile, people know CPAC in America. It has been a kingmaker for a very long time within Republican politics and conservative politics. Kingmaker? Well, no King, sorry. How dare you? The fact that one, under the leadership of Matt and Mercedes Schlapp, that something like a persecution event, that was not really the tone nor the focus, emphasis of a CPAC years gone by. But now when you start to see something like this.
SPEAKER 08 :
CPAC has been expanding the focus areas of the events. I mean, they have an event next week in Florida. I think it’s at Mar-a-Lago. And that one is going to be focusing much more on U.S. So you’ve got these different areas that they can then organize. Even our European team gets involved in their events. So Greg Orr has participated in CPAC events overseas since Matt and Mercedes really started leading the organization. And I wanted to note, this dates back all the way to our trip in the summer when we were at the U.S. consulate. When Ambassador Kushner visits Strasbourg in the consulate on Monday, Gregor will be there to present how this consulate could be doing more, working with the embassy in Paris and Ambassador Kushner. By the way, for that to happen under, that’s never happened before. ECLJ, because typically that consulate under Republican, Democrat has been run by careerists in the State Department who don’t love conservatives. So they just kind of ignore that you’re there.
SPEAKER 07 :
And in Europe also, when you start talking about that, the conservative is very different than the conservative in America also. And I think people have always needed to kind of know that.
SPEAKER 08 :
Of course, it’s different. But this is about as Americans talking to Americans, then Gregor saying, as America, this is what you could be doing through this consulate. Don’t look at this consulate as a passports and a baby was born or a death certificate. Look at this as a place that has a, you have a seat at the table at the Council of Europe and you can be utilizing it, Russia’s out. So you are the superpower that’s there, even though you don’t have a vote. If they know your position and they rely on the U.S., and right now they’re not getting enough attention from that, so he’s going to be with Ambassador Kushner. That came from being there in May and June. So you see how, again, this work is all starting to tie together in a world that is fairly interconnected these days. It’s a small world.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, and when you also think about the fact that the ACLJ started that office decades ago, that this has not been a short-term journey for the ACLJ, that is one of the reasons why, when there is a panel with CPAC, that it is in partnership with the ACLJ, because we understand this persecution issue, some of the best in the country, and have fought for this to end persecution for so long.
SPEAKER 08 :
I think that’s the key, too.
SPEAKER 04 :
As well as the ACLJ. Successful strategies.
SPEAKER 08 :
What is success when you’re talking about persecution? It can be so overwhelming. So how do you focus in on it? What does the US do as a government? What do private nonprofit organizations, how do they assist? And one of the issues we’re looking at is it’s on immigration. It’s with the asylums. There’s so many people in the asylum line who should not be. We need a process that identifies those people much quicker so that those who are fleeing because of religious persecution, Those are people we wanted to grant asylum, if appropriate, in our country, if they meet the standards. And right now, those people are like way behind in line because so many people started saying, well, if you lived near cartel violence, you could be seeking asylum. And somehow, and in those cases, Logan, are backlogged three to five years. So right there. We’ve got a lot of persecuted people who could successfully flee but don’t have a place to call home. And America, that is what our country is supposed to be, is that place for the persecuted to be able to come to. And they should be at the front of the line. It’s why the asylum process is completely different from the immigration process.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right, and with that, we only got, that’s what the work of the ACLJ is doing. All year long, it is constant. It’s consistent. Like I said, we never shut down. It is 365 days a year, and it is not just our work here doing. You may be brand new. I know thousands of people joined us yesterday who have never seen us before. Try a thousand of you join us right now who have never seen us before. I want to encourage you, if you’ve never seen us before, subscribe to this channel because you’re going to learn very quickly the ACLJ and the work we do here at Seculo goes well beyond the walls of this studio. Of course, we are around the world with our legal work and our advocacy work All of that happens because people like you decide to support the work of the ACLJ. If you have a local station, you’re hearing advertisers while they’re on break, that money doesn’t go to us. I started saying that because I want to make sure people know that. It goes to your network or to your local station. If you are watching on YouTube, it’s a very minor amount of money that comes in through YouTube ad revenue. All of this happens. Because people like you give it, whether it’s a $25 level, a $50 level, whatever it may be, one time or as an ACLJ champion that gives monthly at ACLJ.org. We also got that new petition up right now for Christian persecution. Go to ACLJ.org slash sign. Last segment of the day. We do have some phone lines open, so if you want to be on the air at 1-800-684-3110. Of course, a lot of you talking about the government shutdown, and there’s a lot of other news happening as well. We’ll continue to cover that throughout the week as well as tell you about the amazing work here at the ACLJ. Is the government shutdown affecting you? I want you to call in. Let me know. 1-800-684-3110. Also, seems like the news of the day can’t get enough, of course, of the big New York mayoral election, which is just about a week away, right? Well, a week and a half, two weeks.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right. Yeah, next Tuesday.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, so I mean, we’ll see how things shake out. I mean, obviously, there’s a lot of concern coming in from people whether Mondani will pull this off. It certainly looks like it. He drew thousands of people, not as big as they thought, actually, were going to show up. And there are some internal polls showing Cuomo coming up. There are also some polls coming up that said, hey, the young people aren’t getting out quite as much as they thought they were. compared to the primary. There was a lot of feedback at the primary, and now people, they’re getting concerned that they think it’s going to be an easy win. And in New York, that could get swayed very quickly.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, I mean, so many people. So really, which area shows up more can sway the entire mayor’s race. And also, I think some of those young people, what I’m hoping is that they have been kind of listening to a lot of their employers who have said, listen, if this guy gets elected, we’re out. And that means that the city that you love living in and maybe you’ve got this great job in, you may be having to relocate too. So you might be rethinking if you work in the industries that he’s kind of demonized about, you know, it’s one thing to vote in a primary. It’s different to vote for the actual person to actually run the city. And you might be rethinking that. And again, I’m trying to put my mind into the mind of a voter who even voted for him in a primary. It’s tough for me to do. I think that there’s still time for a surprise there. I think if the election were today, it’s probably him because it’s a three-way race. And it doesn’t look like Sliwa is going to step aside.
SPEAKER 07 :
Anything it’s timed.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, here’s the deal. And they always do. A new poll came out that previously had Cuomo down 20 points to Mamdani. Now Mamdani is up 44 to 34 over Cuomo. So 10 points with Curtis Sliwa holding 11% of the vote. You don’t, you don’t know if it’s a one for one, if people just are like, if he’s out, I’m just not going to vote, but it is a very close race and it would be even closer if it were a head to head race instead of it being a three-way race.
SPEAKER 07 :
Sadly, Sliwa seems like he’s not going anywhere. It seems like he has put, dug his heels in sand is not going to be doing it. Now it’s whether people listen to it and say, It’s time to get behind Cuomo or not. Of course, it’s shocking to say that, but Cuomo is running independent. I heard him last night. He goes, they said, are you still a Democrat? And he said, yeah, I’m a Democrat on the independent line because they’re not Democrats. Right. They, the ones who he’s a, he’s a, you know, you’ve been, which said a socialist on the democratic line who got to be the nominee, but I’m the real Democrat here. Of course, that is not exactly who you want as a part of a lot of our listeners. But if you compare the difference, would you rather have a traditional Democrat candidate are a socialist, I think that line is pretty clear. Now, that 10-point swing, you had Mondami yesterday. He was on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart saying, hey, endorsements don’t win elections anymore because you had Eric Adams come out and support Cuomo. Well, it clearly affected the polls.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. Well, and I also think it’s interesting because we’ve been talking about the shutdown in that race and the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, today in his presser, giving the update on this 28th day of the shutdown, actually tied the two things together about the fear of the base that the leadership in Washington have. And they’re seeing that in the rise of candidates like the mayoral candidate in New York. So Let’s go ahead and listen to bite four, because I think it ties these two issues together about what the speaker of the House sees as the fear of the Democrats in Washington of their more left base. Bite four.
SPEAKER 01 :
This is motivated purely out of fear. And what do we mean by that? You saw the Democratic leader in the House, Hakeem Jeffries, endorse Zoran Mamdani for mayor of New York City on Friday. It was it was an illustration of what we’re facing here. The Democrats right now fear the far left activists more than they fear air traffic controllers, border patrol agents, American service members, and so many others missing their paychecks. They fear the Marxist insurgents like Mondani more than they fear families and children going hungry from lapsed benefits that keep food on their tables. They simply fear losing their own political positions next November. if they don’t appease the angry far left base right now.
SPEAKER 04 :
And I think he’s spot on with that. And even the fact he brings up that the issues with the food benefits, the food assistance that people need and rely on, it’s 40 million people, that the Democrats in that party are saying that they’re holding out for these Obamacare subsidies they want to negotiate. When there are people that are relying on government assistance, let’s take out the paychecks of workers, people that need this to eat to survive. They are more concerned about the subsidies that they have, this hypothetical about people’s rates going up and how badly it’s going to impact Americans.
SPEAKER 07 :
when right now people are going to be going hungry because of what the democrats are doing being beholden to their base in their uh you like these wonderful policies they think that they can get out of this you know what there’s some comments coming in cool people who are just joining us right now three minutes before the show’s over and they’re going oh this is clickbait y’all aren’t even talking about the main head the main story you said you wanted to because obviously our headline was specifically about the bank unions uh saying it’s time to end the shutdown we Maybe over the next year. We spent about a half an hour talking about that 45 minutes. You can go back. Will, why don’t you give us a one-minute version of that? And while we give that one-minute version, I’m going to ask you, everyone in the comments, to tell me… We’ve spent an hour and a half the last two days. Tell me where you’re watching from in the comments while Will gives this one-minute explanation to those clickbait haters in the comments.
SPEAKER 04 :
So what we see now is on the heels of the largest union representing federal workers yesterday said that Democrats need to jump on board with the clean continuing resolution and get the government back open. Now, the largest lobby for banks. So an organization representing 95 percent of the banks in this country are calling for the exact same same. It’s time for this game to end. Get people back to work, get them paid and reopen the government and negotiate your policy differences later. So two big interest group putting pressure on the Democrats to vote for what they have voted against now 13 times.
SPEAKER 08 :
Here’s why, just to kind of break this down for people. So on Tuesday, so today, air traffic controllers are missing their first payday. Friday, the military is set to miss its first full payday. I know they’re trying to figure that out, so maybe that won’t actually happen. Then Saturday is when the food subsidy programs would lose funding as well. So the federal nutrition benefits, SNAP programs, things like that. So that program alone is big for the left. And the reason why the people aren’t getting their SNAP benefits to be able to buy food for their family is because of the people they usually vote for, the Democrats. And I think that’s why Donald Trump is not taking the heat on this at all, or Republicans. Yeah, look, I’m looking at all the comments. But it’s going to start, you know, this starts now.
SPEAKER 07 :
The people that watch our show represent the entire country, if not the world. Yesterday we had callers from Australia. We had people call in from, we had a comment from Antarctica. And the guy was walking, he was like, base in Antarctica. I think he was telling the truth. He said he’s the only thing he had to do.
SPEAKER 08 :
A lot of federal employees.
SPEAKER 07 :
But we’re seeing these comments come in. That’s why I always like to ask where you’re watching from. Because I know, because of how broad our show is, and a lot of shows do this, do this nationwide footprint. worldwide footprint. We’re able to get advice, opinions, thoughts coming in from literally every tip of the world. I’m seeing it come in. It’s crazy. Every bit of the country in parts of the entire world are chiming in right now. And because of you, we’re able to have this broadcast. And because of you, we’re able to impact the world, impact the laws, impact politics, everything. Because people like you support the work of the ACLJ. We got a new petition right now about a pastor who is imprisoned, a persecuted pastor in China. I want you to be a part of it right now. He’s arrested for his faith on day 18 of being detained in a prison. Be a part of helping get him free, as well as all the other incredible work of the ACLJ at aclj.org today. Again, that’s aclj.org. If you want to sign that petition, talk to you tomorrow.
