Join us on this episode of Sekulow as President Trump announces the potential revival of nuclear testing, sparking discussions on global security and international diplomacy. Our host, Logan Sekulow, breaks down the critical reasons behind this decision and its implications for global power dynamics. Featuring insights from Senator Marsha Blackburn, who provides updates on ongoing investigations and legislative priorities like SNAP benefits, this episode brings you closer to the heartbeat of American political maneuvering.
SPEAKER 11 :
Today on Sekulow, President Trump announces he’s going nuclear. 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 04 :
Welcome to Sekulow. Just me again, once again. It’s just me here in the studio, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to have anything but a great time today with President Trump announcing, hey, guess what? We’re going to restart our nuclear testing. And I know a lot of you are going, whoa, I don’t know if that’s good, bad. We’re going to break it down. Why we feel like that, why President Trump feels like this is important. What’s it going to look like? When’s it going to start? We’re going to get into all that in just a minute. We’re going to hear from President Trump himself. And then later on in the show, we’re actually joined by Senator Marsha Blackburn, Senator out of Tennessee. We’re going to hear from her. We’re going to discuss, of course. that jack smith uh investigation as well as as well as those snap programs the snap bill that we talked about yesterday because marcia is one of those senator blackburn is one of the ones that has been uh co-signed and supporting of it so we’re gonna discuss that as well again as arctic frost and then later on in the broadcast we’re gonna hear from rick grinnell so it’s gonna be packed a packed show, and of course, we’re going to hear from you. And phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. President Trump has been traveling. My brother is in Washington, D.C. He’s been traveling also and getting a lot of work done, including spending some time at the White House. He’s been involved in a lot of what’s been going on, some key meetings going on in Washington, D.C. right now. If you can send some prayers out to our ACLJ team in Washington, D.C., they would really appreciate it as they are doing some great work, some of which, again, they could talk about, some of which they’ll probably never be able to talk about, but that’s okay. That is why the ACLJ team is in action, and that’s why they exist, why our government affairs team and our Washington, D.C. team is expanding right now as well as our media team. But let’s get back to the whole point here, of course. It is that breaking news President Trump announced. It’s time to restart this testing. And of course, he’s saying we’re restarting the testing because essentially the top three others are starting to test and they’re testing even more, including Russia, China, a little bit below that. But Russia, as they at least claim, they’ve been trying out these missiles that are going 8000 miles. That’s right. And President Trump responded saying, hey, we don’t have to travel 8,000 miles. We got a nuclear sub right outside of Russia in the water. So you know what? It escalates. It’s a little concerning. I think we should have discussed this. What do you think about this? Obviously, there is a lot of debate. President Trump seems to want to completely end these programs, but it’s almost a peace through strength moment here saying, by saying we’re going to test it, will it inevitably end with the dissolution of it? I don’t know if that’s the case. Obviously, these are concerning times. Whenever anyone starts talking about this, it should be taken very seriously. Let’s hear from President Trump. He was on Air Force One yesterday talking about this.
SPEAKER 05 :
Social about nuclear testing. What about resuming nuclear testing? What prompted you to do that right before the meeting?
SPEAKER 09 :
It had to do with others. They seem to all be nuclear testing. We have more nuclear weapons than anybody. We don’t do testing. We’ve halted it years, many years ago. But with others doing testing, I think it’s appropriate that we do also.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I look forward to hearing from Rick Riddell and his thoughts on this as well, because he obviously is a bit inside, knows what President Trump is thinking always and seems to know some of the moves here. And is this just a move? Is this a move to just, again? put everyone on their toes a little bit, get the world to take notice of what America’s doing, saying, well, if you’re going to start claiming these things, we are not going to hold back either. And Putin has been pushing forward, saying they’ve been doing these testings, including, again, like I said, missiles that are going 8,000 miles. And President Trump said, we have more than anybody. And we stopped testing, which is probably a good thing. But you know what? If they’re going to be testing, China said they’re about five years behind matching us in testing. Maybe it’s time we do as well. I want to know what you think. Obviously, this is a very controversial topic. If he is the president of peace. Is that the same when you start talking about nukes and testing nukes? Of course, we have test facilities and sites that we can do this in relatively safely, I would assume. But I want to hear from you at 1-800-684-3110. Does this freak you out? Do you like this? What do you think of this move from President Trump? Of course, it’s all on the heels of these big international meetings and the war in Russia and Ukraine. Where do you stand now on that? As President Trump seems to be backing Ukraine more than ever. 1-800-684-3110. Heading into the fourth year of that war. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Secular. In the next segment, we’re joined by Senator Marsha Blackburn, so you’re not going to want to miss that. We’re going to talk a bit about Arctic Frost as well. I know a lot of you were calling in yesterday, and if you didn’t get through, feel free to call in today. We could take some questions or comments on that as well, which of course is the SNAP situation, the food stamps that potentially could be ending as soon as two days from now. She proposed a bill along with a lot of others. to hopefully at least create a stopgap where that funding continues on for people that are in a need. People who are in need of food that we want to make sure that we’re still supporting. And that’s okay, and that’s good, and we should be able to do that. Of course, that calls for a bipartisan effort. Will that happen? I don’t know. We’ll talk about it with Senator Blackburn coming up in the next segment, as well as the bigger revelation. Once again, it feels like I can’t get away from this story that Jack Smith, who he was looking into, now expands. even further sure first it was people directly involved with president trump then it was people that kind of felt like on the outskirts then it was senators ted cruz lindsey graham all these names that started coming up saying hey i want their phone records you know the people like marshall blackburn that all was happening Then now, as we have seen more and more information come out about this investigation, it now moves to the media. And of course, when you look at the media, the majority of these are conservative-leaning outlets, you would say. So you have companies such as CBS, communications with those. You’re also seeing communications with Fox News, with Fox Business, with Newsmax, with Sinclair, and with others. That’s according to Chuck Grassley. Those are the names that we just know. We also know Stephen Miller, Dan Scavino, Jared Kushner, and Laura Trump were also targeted, along with major Republican donors that, again, aren’t necessarily named, and that’s probably good, that they were looking into. This is what was happening during this Arctic Frost investigation. Again, that’s just a silly name. They decide to slap on these things. It’s where you start questioning your government when they start making everything, ooh, it’s a fun code name. Someone said in the chat, Logan talks like he’s burdened by the Jack Smith story. Well, you know, it’s not that I’m burdened by it as much as when these stories keep growing, it’s just frustrating. It gets frustrating to report on it and talk about it each and every day. I want these stories to come to their conclusion. I want there to be people held accountable. But unfortunately, that never seems to happen. It just seems to grow and grow faster. And I like looking at this chat, but you know what? Jack Smith has, you know, at first felt like a boogeyman, but now it feels like this is becoming more realistic. I will not be surprised if these names continue to grow and grow. And now we’re seeing the media targeted and that should be alarming as a member of the media. I feel like that should be alarming. There is journalistic integrity. There is also privacy when it comes to the way that you can report and obviously sourcing and everything like that. When you start to break that down and the government starts to break down that walls, the freedom that comes in with journalism. Look, I don’t like when the Trump administration did it a few months ago and said, here’s the plans you have to have if you want to report here. And everyone walked out except for OAN. I was proud that they did that because that should not be the way our media runs. There needs to be an open and honest journalism here in the United States. So when you start creeping in to what’s going on there, it becomes a concern. Of course, we’re also talking about one of the stories that came out this morning, really overnight, and that President Trump said it’s time to reopen and immediately restart our nuke testing. And that puts up a lot of signs. Look, I understand that it is a big response to what’s happening internationally. So you have Russia and China. two of your biggest countries you have to deal with, many of which are, you would say, at this point, not on the best terms. China, less on bad terms than Russia, but still China. And of course, Russia is in the middle of a war that they don’t seem to want to wrap up, a war with Ukraine. The President Trump was pretty confident he was going to be able to wrap up very quickly, but now he’s saying that working with Vladimir Putin right now, It’s simply not moving anywhere. So now we’re saying, again, peace through strength, I guess is what you’d say. Once again, saying, you know what? We have more nukes than anyone. You start threatening us with saying we have a nuclear missile that can go a nuclear missile that can go 8000 miles. Well, guess what? We got submarines right off your coast ready to go. We don’t need 8000 miles. That’s what President Trump said. That’s legitimately what he said in talking about this. Now, that kind of conversation should raise red flags, as it does for a lot of Americans, but it should raise red flags for around the world that you don’t want to not treat this seriously. Obviously, when we start playing around with nuke talk, it should make us all uncomfortable. It makes me uncomfortable, but at least President Trump at least has suggested, even in this interview yesterday, this conversation with reporters on Air Force One, that he would like to see it end. He would like to see all of it end. He would like to see a denuclearization of the world. And he’s been talking about that with Russia and with China. But again, to not use, I guess, what you have to make sure it’s all working just in case. What do you think about this? Give me a call. I want to hear from you. Does this make you concerned? As someone with young kids, does that make you concerned? Or grandkids? that this nuke talk is coming back again. It’s flashbacks to when people, my parents or whoever, would tell us the stories of the 60s and tell us about everything that went on. Get under your desk because a nuke is coming. That feels like such distant memories for a lot of people. But of course, it’s not that long ago that we’re talking about this. We’re talking about under 100 years ago that all of it went down. And when that’s the truth, you got to start looking at it at a bigger, we’re here at nearly the 250th anniversary of this country. That’s only three people long. That’s a wild thing to think about. We haven’t been around all that long and blowing ourselves up doesn’t feel like it could be out of the question. So when these talks start getting there, when people are right now also dealing with the fact that they’re food supply may be going away, that there’s going to be a shortage and they’re not going to be able to use their programs that they’ve been reliant on, whether you like those programs or not. But when you start combining all these things, it does start to create even more of an unrest. And we have to make sure that we are not only peace through strength, but we’re also keeping the American people safe and secure and can at least think a little straight of what’s going on on a global stage. I want to hear from President Trump again. This is bite six because people are asking, you know, does this push to a more risky environment?
SPEAKER 09 :
with those countries or do you think that it provides a safer outlook do you worry that we’re entering a more risky environment when it comes to nuclear issues i think i think we have it pretty well locked up but we you know we have more than anybody but i see them testing i say well they’re going to test i guess we have to test i’d like to see a denuclearization because we have so many, and Russia is second, and China is third, and China will catch up within four or five years. I think de-escalation would be, they would call it de-nuclearization, would be a tremendous thing. It’s something, we are actually talking to Russia about that, and China would be added to that if we do something.
SPEAKER 04 :
I mean, that would be, again, a major moment for President Trump if he could get those three major players to denuclearize. Denuclearize? That’s the word? Yeah. You know what I’m saying. It’s hard to say those words, I have to say. You guys put these things in front of me. I got to say them. And it’s like, you know, especially when I’m the only one here, I can usually kick it over to Will and he could say the big words. But today it’s just me and you guys. If you could end that, if you could end the nuke programs around the world. Okay, that is another move that I think only President Trump could do. Of course, that comes in response to Russia saying that they launched a missile, a nuclear-powered cruise missile that can travel 8,000 miles, which is pretty bad for everyone in the Western world. Now, who knows? This is coming from the Putin regime. You never know what’s true, what’s not true. President Trump did respond and say, you know what? We have one way closer. Some of these have been around for a long time. They’ve been sitting there for quite some time. And you know what? It’s time for us to test them, make sure everything’s operating successfully if they’re going to start threatening this way. And, you know, I know that there’s been a lot of flack with people about Russia. And I spent a lot of time there. when i was a kid uh and i don’t know if people understand the global impact of this nation and the size of it the scope of it the people you know we we’re so far and so distant away uh especially the last 30 years that you don’t think about it in those terms and when you have this war in ukraine that’s that’s looming and still happening multiple years later and it again it feels like the end is not in sight and i’d like it to be I saw some people getting flack for just saying that they miss being able to travel to Russia. They miss being able to experience it. It is a historical place that I would hope I’ll be able to take my kids to one day, that things will calm down enough where you will have these regimes either out of power or you will have a regime that is more Western in their ways or at least more accepting of what’s going on and not starting these wars because it is a beautiful country with beautiful people and an amazing culture. But unfortunately, like a lot of these, when they get stuck under rule of these dictator-like characters, this is what happens. And you start messing around with nukes. You start messing around with the safety of the world. I mean, it is a concern that we all should have. And I’m interested to see your thoughts. I’m seeing some of the comments in. Maybe you’re just not taking it seriously. Maybe you think this is just President Trump bloviating. Maybe it is. What do you think? Do you think this is just a game? Do you take President Trump for his word? How are you going to feel when they start testing these things? He said immediately. I mean, sure, we have areas that are safe to do it in, I’m sure. But who knows? What do you think? 1-800-684-3110. We get back. Senator Marsha Blackburn is calling in. I look forward to talking to her not only about the Jack Smith stuff, but also about the snap bill that she’s proposing along with a lot of top Republicans to say, you know what? Let’s get this done. If you’re not going to reopen the government, if the shutdown is not coming to an end, the least we can do. is get people their food assistance that they need. You know, I see a lot of people who are stepping up in their local communities, and I appreciate that as well. I’m glad people are doing that too. Support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org. Our DC team, hard at work today. Be praying for them. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Sekulow. Senator Marsha Blackburn is joining us right now. She’s someone who represents us here in our Nashville office, so it’s always great to hear from you. I wanted to start this off. We’re going to go to Jack Smith, Arctic Frost, and all that, but I’m looking at the comments of the people that are calling in. We had a big discussion yesterday about SNAP and the funding for SNAP and the fact that you, along with some of the top Republicans, have said, you know what? If the government shutdown is going to continue, if no one’s willing to budge on the Democrat side, the least we can do is fund… snap get people who need food assistance to make sure that starting this weekend that they that their kids don’t go hungry that you know these programs that again some people may agree with them people may disagree with them but the fact they exist as they exist and push democrats to at least push this forward i want to get your thoughts on where we are with that because i see even i mean i brought it up yesterday on the show how many people even who listen to this broadcast who watch this show are using SNAP benefits. And it’s an alarming amount. It’s something we should certainly take notice to. But I know you have been at the forefront, along with a big group, to say, you know, let’s push this forward.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, indeed we have. And what we’ve seen is that the Democrats have chosen 14 times to reject opening the federal government and going back to having a continuum on these benefits. And, you know, I think that’s one of the important things in this. Some of the Democrats were like, oh, well, we’ll do it for a month. But the thing is, that is so disingenuous. It is disrespectful. And what we are saying is, no, you’ve got to work on this by voting for a clean CR, which is the numbers they have voted for five times. Five times. These are not new numbers. These are the Biden numbers. And, of course, we have said, let’s go ahead with this. and make certain that we open the government, and then let’s work on what we’ve got with the rest of the appropriations measures.
SPEAKER 04 :
Senator Blackburn, it is a concern for a lot of people, and again, more people than I would even have assumed. I think a lot of people don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes in people’s lives, so I understand that. I did want to move our attention to what you really are coming on here for. Of course, this is about Jack Smith. This is about what we call Arctic Frost, or what they call Arctic Frost. It seemed to start with just a handful of Republicans. Information started getting out there. I thought that that wasn’t egregious enough, but now we are seeing how deep it is. We know there’s been over 400 groups that have been, and of course, they’re all… for the most part, majority conservative or Republican-leaning, that were targeted here and that have been exposed now, that cell phone records have been pushed for, and everything that’s been going on, including in the news media, this corruption, I mean, how deep does this go within the ranks, it feels like, of the previous Department of Justice?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes, and I think it is deep and wide, because what you have seen is Jack Smith was put in place for Arctic Frost by Chris Ray and Merrick Garland and Lisa Monaco. And on April 4th, 22, they did a memo. Chris Ray wrote a memo to Merrick Garland and Lisa Monaco and said, we think maybe, possibly, there could have been some kind of coordination, some kind of obstruction. We don’t know There could be alleged activity. It was very vague and nebulous. And so then they put Jack Smith in charge of this. Well, then they came along and there were nine senators, all Republicans who support Trump, who had valid questions about the outcome of the 2020 election. So then they sent a subpoena. over to our wireless companies and pulled our cell phone records. And they got every phone call we either made or received, the duration of the call, the person the call was to or from, and where we were physically standing when the call was either made or received. Very invasive. It’s a violation of our First and Fourth Amendment rights. It’s a violation of the Speech and Debate Clause, of the Separation of Powers, and the Stored Communications Act, and probably a few other things. And as we go through this process and get ready to begin our hearings with Jack Smith and the wireless companies and find out more, I think it’s going to be appalling because think about this. If they were doing this to U.S. senators, what are they doing to the American people that they don’t like or that disagree with them?
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely. I mean, that’s what I was thinking is that you were saying this, if they were willing to do this to you and you’ve been personally targeted, I mean, along with a lot of this group here and and kind of putting into perspective of what that feels like for you and knowing that they, you know, it’s someone like you who has been so pushing heavy on child safety and online child safety, even knowing that, you know, people, parents with kids and grandchildren, that this is a should be a wake up call that this is. kind of information is happening and that your cell phone provider is willing, some of them, some of them did not have to say pushback, some did push back on it, is willing to do this. And I guess the answer that a lot of American people are wondering, Senator Blackburn, is you’ve been targeted by this. So many of our other friends have been. What does accountability now look like for Jack Smith?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes. Well, thank goodness. We had Kash Patel move forward and fire everybody involved with the CR-15 unit that worked with Jack Smith. For Jack Smith, we have written a letter to refer him to the Office of Professional Conduct over at the DOJ. And the findings from that would give us the opportunity to move forward with getting him disbarred. We also, as we do our hearings, we think that accountability should be being held accountable to the full extent of the law. not only for Jack Smith, but for these individuals. Would we hope that we see some indictments on this? Yes, because it was criminal and it was a violation of rights. Should there be a trial? Yes, there should be a trial. The American people should not have to worry about their government being weaponized against them because they are from a different political party or have a different opinion.
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely, Senator Blackburn. It’s always great to hear from you. You know, you got a busy day ahead. And of course, we’ll be praying for you. And I think our team listening right now and watching, say a prayer for Senator Blackburn, for all of these people to stand strong in this moment and also, you know, to weather the storm, if you will, because… You all are taking a lot of hits right now. Of course, people are going to be blaming the shutdown and everything that’s happening on the wrong. The Republicans will say, no, here’s what it is. Here’s the truth. And Democrats will be blaming the Republicans. And overhearing conversations happen here in Tennessee where people do get concerned. They get concerned when the SNAP benefits or the air traffic controllers are getting funded, what that’s going to look like. But people like you are out there standing strong. I just want to say thank you. Thank you for being a consistent supporter of us here, too. But also… I’m just going to encourage our audience right now, again, as our Washington, D.C. team is really growing right now, as we are having a bigger government affairs operation right now. It’s such a big event over the next couple of days in Washington. Say a prayer for our team and say a prayer for people like Senator Blackburn, who are standing strong. Thank you so much for calling in today. That is going to do it for our first half hour. That flew by. Phone lines are open. Hey, Mike and Michael. Look at that. Both of you guys stay on hold. I’m going to get to you coming up here in the next segment. And then 1-800-684-3110 if you want to be on the air today. Great time to call in. We’re going to continue this discussion talking about Arctic Frost, but also talking about that nuke testing. We’ve got some good calls about that. I know a lot of you have been involved in that and they want to know. And then there’s some people who want to call in and talk about SNAP benefits and all of that. I’ll take whatever, guys. If you want to talk about those topics today, give me a call at 1-800-684-3110. If you don’t get us on your local station for the next half hour, find us live broadcasting each and every day, 12 to 1 p.m. Eastern Time on ACLJ.org, YouTube, Rumble, Harvey. Get your podcast later on archived. And, of course, support the work of the ACLJ when you can at ACLJ.org.
SPEAKER 11 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 04 :
Welcome to the second half hour of Sekulow. I am going to take your calls at 1-800-684-3110. Just had Senator Marsha Blackburn on. Got Rick Grinnell joining us in the next segment, so stay tuned for that. And I want to hear from you. We got about one line open right now. I’m sure some of those will open up again at 1-800-684-3110. Big news of the day. President Trump says it’s time to reopen our nuclear testing. I think that those words, you know, Especially a year or two after Oppenheimer, you start going, oh, that’s a little bit of a concern. But I understand the situation at hand. The situation is Russia’s saying, hey, we’re testing nukes that can go 8,000 miles. Then on the other hand, you got China saying, we’re just a few years behind. And America’s like, we got more nukes than anybody, but we’ve decided not to test it. At the same time, President Trump said, I’m saying this, I’m saying we need to restart testing, but what I really want… It’s for all of us to end our nuke programs, to dismantle them, to be done, that this should not be weapons of war that are utilized. So while I appreciate President Trump’s want to end it, it is that escalation that you see the concern over where people don’t really know what’s happening. We have some interesting calls coming in with people that are concerned. I want to go to Michael first in Florida. Michael on YouTube, you’re on the air. Yes, sir.
SPEAKER 13 :
My biggest issue with kind of, revisiting this whole thing is the fact that we’re dealing with leadership who does not hold the same value of human life or collateral damage that we do.
SPEAKER 04 :
Look, Michael, I feel the same way, which is why, again, the red flags, if you will, start going up. Because you’re not talking about Western values here. You’re not talking about American values. You are talking about countries that are, like you said, willing to sacrifice where they need to, including human life, that don’t value human life the same way. They don’t have the freedom of religion like we have here. And some of them have none at all. And it’s a very different world. So when you are starting to talk about that, if it doesn’t hurt them, they are willing. Obviously, we’ve seen the Russia-Ukraine battle. We kind of thought, in theory, the threats from Russia, you would have thought that that war would have been over in days. And here we are, multiple years into it, with really not an end in sight. President Trump has had good and bad meetings with Zelensky, good and bad meetings with Putin, none of which seem to be progressing anywhere. And I’d say a prayer again also for President Trump and for our friends in Russia and Ukraine that this could be something that comes to an end soon. I hope it does. But when you start threatening to kick nukes back off. Obviously, there is this bit of a negotiation tool. I think some of you thought, hey, maybe that’s what this is with President Trump. Maybe this is just another negotiation point. Because he doesn’t say when or where it’s going to happen, just that he has told them to start back immediately. What’s that look like? Could be small scale, could be big. I think we’ll know. I really do. I don’t think President Trump is going to say, hey, quietly go test these nukes. I think we’re going to know what is happening. 1-800-684-3110. Got three lines open for you. Let’s go to Mike, who’s calling in New York, watching on the Salem News Channel. Another great outlet for us. Mike, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 08 :
Good morning or afternoon. Like I told you, I served on nuclear subs during the 60s period and ballistic missile submarines. And we were on station, you know, underwater for two or three months. And they’ve been on station ever since then. But I remember reading a report sometime around the 70s or 80s where they had found that some of them or a lot of the warheads on these submarines would not have detonated because of some reaction in the warhead. Now, I’m not a weapons specialist, but that’s the report I had read. Now, when he talks about testing, I’m not sure what they’re testing for it. Certainly not megaton. It’s because, you know, we’ve got 30, 40 megaton warheads already. Normally, they spawn on some submarines. So I’m not quite sure what the test is going to be. But the fact is, the Soviets know we have the subs out there because they always have some trail on us when we’re on patrol. Right. So I don’t think that’s going to be a deterrent for Putin. Yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
Mike, we’re ahead to break, but yeah, I mean, one, thank you for your service. If you’re suffering on those submarines, we appreciate it. The 60s, it’s kind of cool. It’s cool to hear those stories. But also, I think you’re right. We have a lot of these weapons, as he said, President Trump said, and we haven’t tested them. And you’re right. Maybe these aren’t working. Maybe they’re not operational. Maybe we make sure we’re ready, if ready, if we need to be ready. I’ll find out more. We’ve got more lines open. 1-800-684-3110. Rick Grinnell joining us right after this. Welcome back to Sekulow. Phone lines are jammed up. They’ll open up 1-800-684-3110. After this segment, I’ll take as many of those calls as I can. In our final segment, we’re now joined, though, by Senior Advisor for National Security and Foreign Policy here at the ACLJ, longtime friend Rick Grinnell. Rick, of course, when you start saying nukes, you start talking about nuke testing, you The calls come in. The comments come in. People start going, oh, okay, what are we talking about here? That’s not necessarily what I expected to wake up to this morning. But I think a lot of people are pushing for, hey, we know that this testing is going on from other countries. And if the goal is actually to end the nuclear programs and to completely wrap this up, we need to get the attention. of China and Russia do you feel like that is what’s happening with President Trump or what’s the what’s the game plan here is the every Americans woke up to probably a push notification on their phone saying President Trump to begin nuke testing
SPEAKER 06 :
Look, I think people need to understand that nuke testing is extremely important. We have to make sure that our stockpiles are working, that they’re able to be used. This is about peace through strength. This is not about using them, but making sure that people know that we do have not just a threat, but a credible threat. As a diplomat, as somebody who hates war, I love nuke testing, and here’s why. Because when a diplomat is sitting at the table, the best thing in the world is to have president trump behind us saying i want our diplomats to succeed but if we have to transfer this file to the pentagon they don’t negotiate so negotiate hard with our diplomats let’s make sure that we have a peaceful settlement The alternative is for you to have the entire situation given over to Pete Hegseth at the Department of War. They don’t negotiate, they just protect. So I love having a credible threat behind us. And one thing that we’ve known about President Trump is that he uses the credible threat to make sure that he protects Americans and that the other side always knows that there is a threat of tariffs, some peaceful maneuvering of sanctions or other tools of the United States government. But there’s also a possibility of direct military strikes. That combination makes President Trump very credible.
SPEAKER 04 :
You’ve been in those rooms. You’ve sat down with a lot of these people. And I do think that you’re right in that notion, thinking that they’re very different. We had a call come in and say, hey, a lot of these countries we’re talking about here, they value human life very differently. It’s a lot of different concerns that are going on, whether that’s economic sanctions or whatever it may be. you know, having those tools, as you said, especially when President Trump has been more than willing, especially with early on, you know, there’s certainly a breaking point for him. And I think maybe, you know, we’re getting there in terms of Russia and everything that’s going on, where he’s been willing to sit down and have these meetings and try to figure out all of the peaceful ways to get things done. Unlike the Biden administration, who decided, no, if we deem you a quote unquote bad guy, we’re not even going to return your calls.
SPEAKER 06 :
Look, I think people need to calm down here and realize that we’re having an adult conversation. We’re talking about being prepared, not pulling the trigger. And there’s a huge difference. And if you’re the US government, put yourself in the situation where you’re the leader of the free world. You can’t just say, we’re giving up all of our nukes and so come get us. You have to be able to be smart about protecting the American people. President Trump has demonstrated over and over and over again that he values human life, that he rescues our hostages, that he’s protecting the American people, both from a prosperous standpoint and from a national security standpoint. And so we need to be able to make sure that we have a credible threat, not just a threat. This is exactly what the president is doing. People need to
SPEAKER 04 :
uh listen very carefully to what is being discussed and not get duped by the media into thinking that something else is happening that’s right the headline like i said the push notification a lot of us got didn’t leave or happened to you know very nicely leave off the next part which was saying uh my you know my plan is that there should be no nukes that we need to do nuclearize the world that we need to be talking with that needs to be the plan if we talk with russia we’re talking with china we’re going to end this entire program if possible But before we can end it, as you said, we need to make sure things are operational when Russia says, hey, we have one that can go 8000 miles. And you go, OK, well, OK, well, maybe we should be at least looking into it. Oh, yeah. Whether that’s true or not, this is coming from Russia. Who knows? But of course, you can’t take those threats not seriously. I did want to move a little bit.
SPEAKER 06 :
I make one one point because I think what you just brought up is really good. The headline is different than the story. But look, we need to be as consumers of news. We need to be very smart about what’s happening. The media is a business. People get it through your head. They want you to click on things. They’re going to say outrageous, outlandish, clickable things. You need to be smart enough to read. You have a responsibility. Read. Don’t just look at something and jump to conclusions and post on Facebook.
SPEAKER 04 :
Look, it’s a tough thing, Rick. I’ll be honest with you. I talk to our team every day about, you know, you got to have something. They’ll push for me to say, here’s what we’re going to say for the headline. And we have to have this conversation to go back and forth. The social media team says, this is what’s going to work. This is what… YouTube is going to serve. That’s also the truth is that what’s getting served. It’s not necessarily always cut and dry. It’s about will people click over? Not only will they click over, but will it actually make it in front of the eyeballs? It is a game. It’s sadly a game that a lot of us have to play.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, of course. Of course, this is the business of media and the competition that we face right now. So it’s incredibly important for the consumers of news to look at multiple news sources and dig a little deep. You have a responsibility. You can’t just be a sheep.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, then let’s talk about the one story that seems to keep coming up and keep coming up. And that is, of course, the media’s freak out over some comments that came in about a third term for President Trump. I feel like this just keeps it’s another story. It’s the ballroom of this week that just keeps rolling on. I just got to get your thoughts. This, you know, it feels like President Trump will sometimes push it forward a little bit. But he said pretty clearly, you know, I don’t think I could do it. I’m pretty sure that’s not allowed.
SPEAKER 06 :
but you know what if you want to keep talking about it we’re not going to stop the story look i just got a hat that says trump 2028 i love it because i love the conversations that ensue Do I think that Trump is running in 2028? No, I don’t. And people, you know, we need to use a little humor here. And if the media is a business, don’t hate the billionaire who is an amazing businessman who knows what sells. And that’s President Donald Trump.
SPEAKER 04 :
And it’s not only that. I mean, there is the message points of, look, the Republican Party, I think, in general, was changed forever with President Trump. And I think that we’d be lying to ourselves to think it’s going to go back in some ways anytime in the near future. So I think when you hear a Trump 2028, it’s not necessarily saying President Trump. It’s saying, look, this is probably a similar agenda that could be moving forward.
SPEAKER 06 :
That’s a fantastic spin. Can I start using that, Logan?
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely. Of course. It’s all yours, Rick. Just don’t quote me. You can just keep it yourself. I don’t need to be showing up on any websites anymore.
SPEAKER 06 :
I’m saying as Logan Sekulow told me. That’s my new answer.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes, absolutely. Rick, I want to say we appreciate you calling in because it’s always good to hear from you. And we’ve talked about nukes. Now we’ve talked about Trump third term. The only other thing we haven’t talked about, and I think you can… maybe briefly discuss this of course we spent a lot of time this morning and the last it feels like the last 10 years I think we’ve talked about Jack Smith here and now Arctic Frost where we’ve seen now more pushes and pushes and more releases saying not only was it the people that are around President Trump they don’t was like a senator that may have called him once to now saying that they they were looking at the phone records of major media organizations fox uh cbs even uh sinclair that it just seems like that it keeps going deeper and deeper as someone who was there uh rick it’s someone that you know what it’s like on the inside uh how you feeling about all this
SPEAKER 06 :
First of all, let’s just say thank you, Chuck Grassley. If you live in Iowa, if you see Chuck Grassley, you have to thank him for all of his work on this. I loved working with him when I was DNI. He is someone who is digging into these issues. He doesn’t just take the government’s word for it, no matter who’s in charge. He’s the one who unearthed this. And we see Jack Smith is somebody who has literally been politicizing all of these investigations. I hope he’s prosecuted.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right. Well, Rick, thank you so much for joining us again today, as always. Hope you have a good rest of your day. And as I’ve said with all of our guests today, say a prayer for Rick and his team as well, because it’s not easy to go do these jobs. And our team at the ACLJ, like I said, as we’ve been expanding and our Washington, D.C. team and the Jordan is running right now. And that’s why you’ll see he’ll pop on, do a date. He’s here and there because he is running what’s going on in Washington, D.C., along with an incredible group of new people. You’ve heard some of our guests that we’ve had on this week, and you’ve kind of shown some of those new lawyers or head of government affairs. And I like that. I like that you’re able to see what’s going on there as our studios are expanding, our offices are expanding, the legal work is growing, the government affairs work is growing. It’s all growing, but it only grows because people like you support the work of the ACLJ. So I just want to take a minute because in the next segment, I’m going to take all the calls. Right now, we’ve got three lines open, though, so you can call in, 1-800-684-3110. But I just want to take this minute to say thank you to everyone that supports the ACLJ, that gives financially. I think even if you don’t give financially, you should watch this show. Maybe you just hit that subscribe button. It’s free on YouTube. That helps us out a ton. But for those that do give, specifically our ACLJ champions that give on a monthly basis, I just want to say thank you and know that we’re about to head into, it’s October 30th. It’s my son’s birthday. And it’s a big time for the ACLJ. We’re about to head into the two most important months of the year for any nonprofit organization, November and December. So begin to pray. Obviously, if you can support the work today, do it today. But if you need time, begin to pray about supporting the work of the ACLJ as part of your end of the year giving, because it is going to be a hectic time. Things never slow down. So go to ACLJ.org. A lot of great free content there. I want to make sure we can always provide all of this content without a paywall. So do it at ACLJ.org. Give today if you can. If you’re in the comments right now on YouTube and Rumble, throw in where you’re watching from. I’d love to see that in the break. I’ll read a lot off coming up. Welcome back to Sekulow. We’re going to take some calls. And my brother, Jordan Sekulow, just reached out and said he’d like to call in. He’s been doing some important work and going to some pretty big places like the White House over the last few days. So we want to hear from him. So let’s kick it off with some calls. Before we do that, if you’re watching on YouTube, I asked for it, but I haven’t seen any come through. Let me know where you’re watching from. Throw it in the comments right now. If you’re one of the 2,000 or 3,000 people that are watching on YouTube, Rumble Hover may be when we do the show live. Hundreds of thousands of you watch it later. Throw it in the comments. Where are you watching from? I’d love to see that. Let’s go ahead and take some phone calls. Let’s go just in the order they came in. Bob’s calling on line six. Bob, you’re on the air in Indiana.
SPEAKER 03 :
Thank you, sir, for everything you do. Thank you. I have several comments before I get to my point. One comment is thank you for the flashbacks of standing out in the cold holding a weapon protecting these nuclear weapons from the Cold War. That’s number one. Number two, I’m actually calling in about the, uh, the standoff there between the Republicans and the Democrats. I urge everybody to call two Oh two, two, two, four, three, one, two, one, and call their senators. Okay, cool.
SPEAKER 04 :
Make sure we’re giving out the proper numbers. Go ahead. Two Oh two.
SPEAKER 03 :
No, no, no. We’re good. We got it. We got it. Continue on. Yep. Okay. Now my, my theory is, The Democrats are doing this now because they don’t want to kick the can down another road into next year. Next year is a politician’s nightmare because everybody’s going to be voting. They don’t want the public to know. And I think that’s why they’re doing it now instead of next year.
SPEAKER 04 :
They’re certainly playing politics with it, Bob. They’re seeing who is it going to affect if their spin saying that this is, you know, if the Democrats can say this is the Republicans’ fault and the Republicans are being honest and say, no, look, here’s what it is. It’s the same that we’ve passed for multiple years and here’s where we’re at. You just heard from Senator Blackburn talking about that. But then you also have the feet put to the fire when it comes to things like, hey, fine, if you really care about this, about people, here are the ways we can help people. Let’s get air traffic control back operating you paid for and let’s get, uh our snap benefits the food assistance programs back going and funded because our people need it temporarily or maybe they need it for longer but you know what that’s not for us to judge there but you know at this point if we’re providing it we need to do it and of course there’s been very little movement on that we’ll see what happens uh let’s push forward and go to janna who’s now caller yana i’m sorry yana you are on the air in pennsylvania
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, very exciting. I’ve never done this before. Thanks for calling. I had a comment about Russia and about all this new craziness that can happen with the nuclear race because this is, to me, not a good thing. When I heard what President Trump said last night, it kind of rubbed me the wrong way because this can just cause unnecessary arm race again like it was Back since the 50s, we didn’t know this craziness. Russia, USA, everybody is aware and people read and really know what’s going on. Whatever happened when the Russians showed these big guns was deterrence. It was strictly deterrence. I know that mentality, Soviet mentality. I don’t think that President Putin is threatening America. I don’t think he even wants to use it. But what’s been going on coming from the Europeans for all the leaders there who are just claiming this crazy narrative that Putin is not going to stop in Ukraine, he’s going to take all over Europe, which is absolute madness. My family lives in Europe. I’m European. And when they even hear it, like the regular people, they are just shaking their heads and they cannot believe what kind of leaders they have right now in European Union. It is warmongering about something that will never happen.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I mean, I hope you’re right that it’ll never happen. I think, look, the reason we have an ECLJ, a European Center for Law and Justice, to make sure that we are also keeping a hold on that. Of course, we used to be active in Russia. Of course, that had to end with the war. But look, I think a lot of us saw that headline. And you’re right, that pit in your stomach moment did happen. Of course, you fully listened to President Trump and what he had to say. He is calling for the end of the nuke program. But yeah. yeah that first part of it i totally get it and someone like you clearly has lived through it and been through it you don’t want to go through it now you say you know everyone remembers it i think we have a whole generation that does not that doesn’t they’re either they’re too far away from it or they never were around for anything like this in terms of our relationship with europe our relationship with russia so i appreciate you calling in uh yana always feel free to call into the show anytime and i’m glad you did and let’s see quickly let’s go to alex alex if you could just go pretty quick because we’re going to run out of time
SPEAKER 10 :
Hey, super fast, just want to know, did we ever hear a follow-up report on that China spy balloon? Did we ever get an understanding about the technology on there and what it achieved or anything? But thank you for taking my call, and thanks for being there, guys.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, obviously, that was a big story that feels like ancient history. Of course, that was only a couple years ago. They claimed that it was a weather balloon or some sort of something they were doing. And I’m not sure we ever got… total information of what it was other than there was electronics and sensors and they were looking over it um i’ll look into it and see what actually ended up being the final answer to that but of course we all have our thoughts on what it truly was and they just said hey it drifted off course it just was what it is remember that it all feels like distant memories we’re talking about two years ago That’s the crazy part with all of this. It feels like every news story moves on and we move on so fast. But thank you for calling, Alex. I’ll do have to do some diving into that. But of course, China is one of the concerns. One of the reasons President Trump said we need to start testing is because China’s only a few years behind. And clearly they can get stuff into our airspace if we just remember a couple of years ago. Jordan’s joining us now. Jordan, we got two and a half minutes. I’ll let you take most of this. Tell us what’s going on in Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER 12 :
So we’re in Washington, D.C. We’re partnering the ACLJ with CPAC, an organization I know people know, Matt, Mercedes Schlapp, and the events they do here in the United States and around the world. We just got back from one over the summer in Hungary. uh partnering with the eclj but we’re now partnering together with cpac on a new effort uh to unite uh many different groups with the white house yesterday at a summit today at the kennedy center with multiple aclj attorneys and may also participating to end uh christian persecution and to kind of use all the different resources the legal resources the policy resources and also to make sure that christians in the united states kind of the the where this all emanates from to protect our christian brothers and sisters because we have the resources are doing this in a unified way through our government. And last night, we kicked it off at the Museum of the Bible, and I want to play this. Speaker Johnson came by to make some remarks. I wanted to play this for our audience. We’re filming all of the panels that we’re doing right now. We’ll get that. I’ll be on the air either tomorrow or Monday, too, to talk more about what we did here exactly. But I want to play Speaker Johnson and what he had to say just about the ACLJ and our work.
SPEAKER 01 :
I just I just want to say I just want to wholeheartedly endorse this effort. And my background was in the defense of religious freedom in the courts. And I worked for Eli’s Defense Fund for a long time, arm and arm with the seculos. And and Jay was a it was like a mentor of mine. I used to literally carry his briefcase around when you were too young to do it. And and I just mean, between these things. these families, the Sekulos and the Greens and the Schlapps, I mean, the work that’s being done is really, I do believe it is for this moment. I believe it’s providential. I think we all know, we all recognize this is a chief need, the persecution around the globe.
SPEAKER 12 :
I mean, there you go, guys. I mean, that is the Speaker of the House during a shutdown, still taking that time and making those remarks just about the influence of the ACLJ here in the United States and now around the world. I’ll talk to you more about it, Logan, when we get back from Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely. I mean, amazing clip. Glad you’re doing that work there. Washington, that’s why Jordan is there. It’s why that team is growing because you can see the influence now. When you have those conversations, when you hear that, you know supporting the work of the ACLJ is important. So I encourage you to go to ACLJ.org today. Make a donation if you can. If you’re thinking about it, praying about it, know that in a couple days, as we kick off next week, November and December, most important weeks or months of the year, that we’re going to need your support, you’re going to hear about it. We’re going to ask you for it at ACLJ.org. Talk to you later.
