In this episode, dive into the unfolding tensions within the Democratic Party as members call for Chuck Schumer’s resignation amidst ongoing government shutdown challenges. The team offers insights into the implications of these political maneuvers on the economy, especially regarding SNAP benefits and air traffic disruptions. As the show champions veterans and grandparents, they highlight the importance of supporting communities in these pressing times. Listeners are also introduced to discussions with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who sheds light on the diplomatic complexities surrounding Syria’s role in the Middle East. The conversation underscores the delicate balance of foreign
SPEAKER 04 :
On today’s show, the Democrats call for Schumer to resign. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Seculo. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 07 :
Welcome to Sekulow. We have a packed show. And I usually say that, but today I actually mean it well. We have a packed show. Jordan is in studio. We have Mike Pompeo joining us later. Greg Gore from our office from the European Center for Law and Justice is in studio here in Nashville. It is going to be a packed show. And of course, we’re going to take your calls and comments as much as we can at 1-800-684-3110. As we are still kicking off Grandparents Week here in Nashville. at the aclj during our freedom drive where all donations are doubled right now so i’m excited to keep telling you about that and to share more information about that but the big news of the day of course the democrats a handful of them decided you know what guys maybe it’s time we make some compromises here we try to get the government reopened we try to do what’s right for the people we try to get a snap refunded we try to get the faa handled so there’s not right now uh two twelve hundred cancellations today in flights And of course, Will, that is far too much, so much so that a group is calling, a group of Democrats, House Democrats, is calling for minority leader Chuck Schumer, longtime leader in Washington, D.C. They said, you know what? A little bit of compromise is too much for us. We’re calling for you to resign.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, in reality, what the Democrats that left the party stronghold on this vote to reopen the government were… Just wanting to do that, reopen the government, let people that are on SNAP benefits get their benefits, let the air traffic get back to normal. And Chuck Schumer, from the beginning, you know that he has been terrified of the far left of his base. There’s always the talk about whether or not Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will run for his seat and try to primary him. for the Senate in New York. So when you see the outrage from the House, one, the House Democrats don’t really get a say in who the party leader is in the Senate, but it speaks to where maybe many on the left in the Senate are when it comes to this. We know that Bernie Sanders was very upset that these eight Democrats decided to vote to end the government shutdown. And now you’re seeing people like Seth Moulton from Massachusetts, Ro Khanna from California, Rashida Tlaib, Mike Levin from California, and many others are starting to come out and say he’s ineffective. How dare he? He capitulated to the Republicans. When in reality, Jordan, I think the Democrats in the Senate that did decide to end this realized that it was nonsensical and hurting the country.
SPEAKER 06 :
Their constituents, you know, so for Tim Kaine to have, I mean, so many government employees in his state, in Virginia, and then of course military too, the pressure, when you add military plus the bureaucrats who live in Virginia, I mean, this is a significant amount of the voting group on both sides of the aisle in the Commonwealth of Virginia. So he just couldn’t withstand the pressure anymore. And so did they get anything? Absolutely not. The left only hurt the American economy for a month and they made people scared. They hurt the SNAP benefit programs. And what did they get from it? ultimately appeal off of eight democrat senators who said this is absurd chuck schumer this is absurd this is ultimately going to backfire on us and even though shutdowns usually are blamed on the party in charge when it shows you that these eight democrats now actually came across how can you say that republicans were the problem here when obviously it was
SPEAKER 07 :
chuck schumer and others saying we can’t break we can’t fold but ultimately these brave democrat senators said enough that’s right hey phone lines are open for you as you said what’s your thoughts on this 1-800-684-3110 we’re going to take some of those comments coming up in the next segment continue to discuss of course it’s veterans day as well we’ll be talking about that and it’s veterans day it’s also grandparent week here at the aclj that’s right During Grandparent Week at our Freedom Drive, we are celebrating grandparents, whether that is those that are in your life or maybe you are a grandparent or a great-grandparent. You want to support the next generation. Right now is a great time to do it. Support the work of the ACLJ, which supports our work worldwide. That’s at ACLJ.org or have your QR code scanned right now. All donations that come in during this special month and, of course, specifically this week. r doubled about the issues that matter to you the most you want to make sure we’re there long term again aclj.org we’ll be right back with more Welcome back to Seculo. Phone lines are open for you. I’d love to hear from you at 1-800-684-3110. Of course, we’ve got to start this segment off also celebrating Veterans Day as we celebrate our veterans and those who have served this country. If you’re one of those people, or maybe you are a family member of one of those people, and you’re watching on YouTube or Rumble, put it in the chat. Let me know. I’d love to thank some of them, even by name if possible. Please let our phone screeners know. If you’re a veteran, usually I say champions get the first run. You know what? Today, let’s give veterans the first bump up to the front. So if you’re a veteran and you call in, I’ll make sure we get to you as soon as possible. That’s at 1-800-684-3110. Then champions. And by the way, speaking of champions. This week, it’s Grandparents Week. I know a lot of grandparents that support the show, they are either from military families or they are themselves veterans, which is great. And we’ve said if you become an ACLJ champion this week, that’s someone that gives on a monthly basis, no, your first donation is still doubled. It’s matched by someone who unlocks their pledge as soon as you do it. which is great. And we’re calling you this week a grand champion. That’s right. You can become a grand champion. Your gift is doubled. That is at ACLJ.org. Again, do it today during these special months where your donations are doubled and the impact is doubled.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right. And also yesterday on Rumble, we had someone that said they are a great grand champion. So thank you for that as well. But Jordan, when we talk about what’s going on here with the shutdown, now it’s past the Senate. So one, John Thune, the majority leader in the Senate, incredible job of getting that, limiting the debate, unanimous consent and getting this over. So we have to say thanks to him because this is a long time coming now at this point.
SPEAKER 06 :
republicans in the senate for the most part i mean just staying there until they got the job done uh the war even though there was a slog uh to get um these democrats finally to come on board i knew they wanted to get through their election day to try to use that as blame maybe it worked maybe it didn’t those are tough states i think that the everybody shouting oh my gosh look what happened in virginia and new york i think some of that is these are races we hardly ever win i mean Right. Andrew Cuomo was the candidate we hoped would win in New York for mayor. He was a former Democrat governor. He’s someone who’s looking to run for president against Donald Trump, was a very liberal guy. He was going to be the hope. I mean, so it wasn’t like a Republican had a chance there. Virginia goes back and forth constantly. It’s just not predictable. In New Jersey, it’s very tough. We’re right on the line, but it seems like it’s just been, you know, other than a few one-offs, Chris Christie and then I think it was Christie Todd Whitman back in the day, were the only two Republicans who ever did get to governor there. And again, it doesn’t mean you give up on those places, but to say that that’s where the rest of the country is, no.
SPEAKER 07 :
I think it was a bit of an overcorrect to say that they have a mandate now. Bernie Sanders had to go and say, we had a mandate. That’s why we can’t reopen the government. And of course, we see the American people, like I said, hurting. We know they’re hurting. We know that people are on SNAP and other food assistance. We’re dealing with that. We saw, I mean, on a small microcosm level, yes, we will. CeCe’s Pizza. which I already say is a company that going there, you realize they are feeding families for $5, whatever it may be, for a buffet, everything. They lowered their price to $2.99 and then had to shut it off because hundreds of thousands of people signed up for the $2 pizza buffet, which to me says great, great marketing. And they said, they put out their statement, we did not expect… Hundreds of thousands of people to respond to a CC’s pizza promotion. Clearly, that’s a sign of the times, whether you want to look at it, however you want to look at it.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and I think this is what’s so fascinating to me is you see the pressure that’s coming from the left wing of the party. Now, the ones that are vocal about it right now are the ones in the house because they have that luxury. because I don’t think the left-wing senators are as vocal right now, but I could expect that that could change very shortly. We know that there’s a lot of people, especially the members of the Senate, that weren’t in that group of eight that decided to help end the government shutdown. We’re not happy about this. But here’s what Rashida Tlaib put out on X. She said, Senator Schumer has failed to meet this moment and is out of touch with the American people. The Democrat Party needs leaders who fight and deliver for working people. Schumer should step down. What I would question the Congresswoman is how is keeping people who need food assistance from getting that? How is… keeping people who have to go to extremely stressful jobs, like the military, like being a air traffic controller, like doing anything where you are in public service, where you’re working for the US government, forcing them to work without pay How is that fighting and delivering for working people by continuing to keep the government shut down? It’s not like this was some Republican wishlist bill. What the Republicans were trying to push was a continuing resolution. It’s actually filled with a lot of stuff Republicans don’t want to be funding.
SPEAKER 06 :
Funding at the normal level, it just didn’t increase funding. That was it. It just said… For this period of time, we can’t come to a long-term agreement, so we’re going to continue funding the government at the pace we have been, which is, again, Republicans who would like to cut government spending saying, because we don’t have time and we don’t want people to suffer and we want our military, we want our veterans to make sure they’re getting the benefits, we want people who rely on SNAP because they’re in a tough economic spot to be able to get those benefits as well. We don’t want to take a hit on the economy, which this has caused. But again, the Democrats said, no, because you’ve got to expand Obamacare. You’ve got to expand the Obamacare program, not keep it the same, but you’ve got to actually expand it and expand the mandate. And we’ve seen the cost in that program continually rise under both parties. And President Trump has now come out with proposals, which we’ve talked about before in the past, Republicans have talked about, is that instead of giving this money basically to insurance companies to set up these exchanges to lower cost, why don’t we give money to the people so that they can go to the insurance companies and negotiate themselves? Well, and to that point as well, and this is one… And they can only use it for that. So if you’re going to get the money, you can’t go and buy a car with it. If you’re going to utilize it, it’s to get insurance for you and your family, but you then are in the position to get the exact insurance that you need instead of the big insurance companies running the program. I just think there are ideas out now. People said Republicans had no idea of what to do to replace Obamacare, and President Trump is now letting more pieces of that out as we speak. about I think you know the priority over the next few years depending on election cycles of what we could do to replace it with something better for the American people.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well and Jordan I think to that point as well where you can put a knock on the messaging to some Republicans is that the fight over this vote that the Democrats will get they’ll get a vote in the Senate So that was the one giveaway. Now, they have no promises there will even be a vote in the House for this, but to maintain these expanded subsidies. And a lot of the Republican talking points were just specifically on the fact that this expanded subsidies could be used in some ways by people who are undocumented in the United States. And that was the big messaging point. I think the broader messaging point is actually more effective with not just the MAGA base or the Republican base or conservative base, but with all Americans is that the subsidies they were fighting for weren’t even the baseline Obamacare law. These were subsidies that Joe Biden got through during the COVID emergency. They were only meant to be. There’s a reason they expired. The ones in the law, the ACA, don’t expire because that was meant to be the healthcare law. These were put in place in 2021 as a means to be a stopgap for people that their tax returns would show higher income than the suffering they were getting during the COVID pandemic because of turnover, not getting paid, maybe being laid off. So they had this stopgap that was supposed to expire. That way people could get insurance during a time where they may have lost their job and whatever. the democrats want to make that permanent right because it made it feel like it lowered the cost it didn’t it just you just got more money to spend and what you also see here is that even bloomberg news not just the uh you know right and think tanks and things like that but bloomberg news didn’t expose about how rife with fraud that was because brokerages and things saw an opportunity to sign people up for zero dollar out of their pocket health care plans and And then the brokerages and insurances made a lot of money during the COVID pandemic.
SPEAKER 07 :
We have Mike Pompeo joining us in the next segment. Before that, I actually want to get to Warren in line three, who is a grand champion. It was awesome to hear you say that, Warren. He’s got a question, and I think we actually have an answer for that. Go ahead, Warren. Warren, you there? Warren, the grand champion, put him back on hold. See if we can get to him. He had a good question. His question was, can we put into law that military air traffic controllers, these kind of people get to be continued to be paid during future shutdowns. We do know that in this version though, if there is a shutdown within the next year, That they’ll get held over? No.
SPEAKER 05 :
So most of the government is only going to be funded through January 31st. Okay. So we got this coming again pretty soon. Right. But it is the SNAP program because the entire agriculture appropriations is through the end of the fiscal year next November. So they can’t hold that over their heads. That as well as military construction and veterans. So they’re going to make sure they take care of the veterans affairs as well. And then the legislative branch. Yeah, let’s throw the FAA in there. I think they should have. Military pay as well, right? Yeah. I have to do a little bit more research on that, but it is a part of military and construction projects. I don’t know how broadly that reads in the appropriation.
SPEAKER 07 :
Phone lines are open for you. Mike Pompeo is going to be joining us. I did want to say thanks to a lot of you who have commented about you or your family member that are members of the military. Obviously, we’re veterans. It’s Veterans Day. We’re celebrating our veterans. So between Paul, Peter, Stephen, Evie, Jim, Speck, Michael, and the tons of people who have commented saying that it was whether your father, your uncle, your brother, your sister, so many of those, I can’t even list them all, but know that we are celebrating with them today, whether they are still with us or not. And of course, if you want to support the work of the ACLJ, We are there supporting our veterans also all the time. Whenever you’re in need, you can go to aclj.org slash help. But for right now, I encourage you, we are in these big months, big fundraising months, but specifically this week is Grandparents Week. You don’t have to be a grandparent to give, but we’d love for you to. Consider your future, aclj.org. Welcome back to Sekulow. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. We are now joined by Senior Counsel for Global Affairs via phone, Mike Pompeo. Secretary Pompeo, for the first time yesterday, the President of Syria visited the White House. President Trump eased sanctions after that, welcomed Syria to the coalition to fight extremist groups in the Middle East. Is this a good look for the United States and how does it affect our relationships with the Middle East and specifically with Israel?
SPEAKER 03 :
Most definitely the right choice for President Trump to make. Earlier, one of your guests said, trust but verify. That’s absolutely the case. This guy’s got a long history. He was fighting with al-Qaeda. And then he fought against Assad, who we also were in opposition to. So he’s got a lot to prove and a very difficult task in front of him. But we should support him. We should encourage him. He is working with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He’s working with the Emirates. If we get this right, if Syria can be reunified, no small task. And if al-Shar is serious, President of Syria is serious about countering extremism, this is a great thing for the United States of America. It means the risk that we have to put our young soldiers, our young men and women, here we are in Veterans Day, to put these folks in harm’s way less frequently in the Middle East is a glorious thing. And if he can lead this forward, this will truly be historic.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, Mr. Secretary, I know many people have concerns about the history and the background of this leader that is now the president of Syria. But I think also people should look at what President Trump and what you did in the first term, that going in meeting with Kim Jong-un, having summits with people that the previous administration, that point the Obama administration, would refuse to even talk with. Is that just more evidence of how the Trump foreign policy plays out? Is that you cannot get anywhere if you don’t even want to talk to someone and figure out where you can go. So is speaking with a foreign leader, even if you hope that they can be brought into the fold, should it be not necessarily even seen as an endorsement, but just as a way of the way that President Trump conducts his foreign policy?
SPEAKER 03 :
No, precisely right. We met with them all. We met with Chairman Kim. President Trump sent me to meet with the Taliban. None of us mistook any of these folks for people who were on our side or with us, but they were counterparties with whom we had to deal to protect and preserve America’s interests, to put our country first. And that’s what you saw with this meeting in the White House. President Trump is not naive about this gentleman’s history. I think he described him as having a tough background. That’s a very polite way to put it. But in the end, what we need to do is move forward, look to the things that matter the most for the United States of America and a unified Syria that was prepared to push the Iranians out, to push the Russians out, and to acknowledge Israel’s fundamental right to exist, something that has not ever been the case. None of those have been the case for decades now. If the Syrian leadership under this gentleman is prepared to do that, that is a wonderful thing for the region and good for the United States as well.
SPEAKER 05 :
As well, we hear at the end of that when there were remarks that there seemed to be a spark of hope that even one day someone like Syria, a nation like Syria, could be a part of a future Abraham Accords. There was Discussion about that. The president of Syria said that he wasn’t going to be holding direct talks with Israel at this time, but was almost asking the president to indirectly try to mediate between the two nations. We know that they share a border, that Syria and Israel have had a long history of borderline. fighting between the two countries in Israel and Syria’s history. So even just the nod to potential future in looking that way seems like such a departure from the past and seems almost coming from the most unlikely of leaders that would even be potentially giving this a shot.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, I think it’s fair to say he would not be someone that any of us would have picked to be the leader five years ago. But this is not where we are today. The Middle East has changed after October 7th, the success of Operation Midnight Hammer against the Iranians. I think there’s a new reality in the Middle East. And so someone like the president of Syria now has to acknowledge Israel’s fundamental right to exist over time. Look, he’s got a political challenge internally, but he’s got it. address and deal with. But you’re right, his willingness to even talk about talking to the Israelis is a sea change in the relationship between the two. I’m very confident that they’re speaking between them through intermediaries about the security relationship between Syria and Israel. If we can get that piece right, we all know the Iranians have used Syria as their playground and have fomented so much terror in the world through Syria into Lebanon, into Gaza, into Judea and Samaria. They’ve bundled weapons through Syria. If al-Shara can manifest a united Syria that is working with the Gulf Arab States and with the West, this would be great for the people of Syria, super good for him, and wonderful for us as well, because the risk that there’s more conflict and more fighting in the Middle East is enormously costly for the United States. And we should do everything we can. And President Trump’s meeting yesterday was a good step along the way to reduce that risk for lots of folks, including the Christians who have been persecuted in that region for so long.
SPEAKER 07 :
Secretary Pompeo, before we wrap up, it’s always good to have your advice, your thoughts, because no one’s been in the room quite like you have before. But here at the ACLJ, it is the middle of our freedom drive. We are really, our donations are doubled and everything right now. But what we’re doing this week is celebrating our grandparents and celebrating our listeners who are grandparents and our supporters. It is Grandparents Week here at ACLJ. the ACLJ as again all donations are doubled right now and I know recently you have joined the ranks as a grandparent so I wanted to say not only for Veterans Day but congratulations to that over the last year but knowing what’s coming up in the future knowing what not only your own grandparents mean to you but what it means to be a grandparent I just wanted to give you a moment to share a bit because when we’re talking about the work of the ACLJ it’s multi-generational it needs to be able to continue on for generations to come
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, we get caught up in the moment often. We think about tomorrow, what happened yesterday. We should all reflect on the fact that our task is to leave behind an America that is even more decent, even more acceptable than the one we have the benefit of living in. And, you know, you’re right. I became a grandpa now almost exactly eight months ago today. Little Jack Michael has changed my life, my wife Susan’s life completely. We love that little guy and we are reminded of our responsibility to help lead him in the right way, to coach him, to teach him, to help his parents, my son and my daughter-in-law and everyone out there who’s a grandparent tech, I think has come to really understand that responsibility for the next generations that come behind us in the way that the ACLJ has been working on for so long.
SPEAKER 07 :
Secretary Pepeo, thank you so much for joining us again as we celebrate Veterans Day and our grandparents all week. We appreciate you joining us right now. And as we head into the second half hour of the broadcast, that’s right, if you don’t get the first half hour on your local station, you can find us broadcasting live on ACLJ.org. That’s from 12 to 1 p.m. Eastern time. however you get your podcasts we’re there we’re live on youtube though we’re live on rumble so join us there you can see us talk to us chat with other viewers in our chat live chat features on youtube and on rumble be part of that conversation today if we do lose you here if you got to go get back to work you got other things you got to get done today i will encourage you as we only got a minute left in this first half hour to consider to pray about supporting the work of the ACLJ during these really critical months. The last two months of the year, they are the most important. And they’re the most important because that is when a lot of you decide is when you’re gonna make your end of year donations. And that is why we have people, ACLJ supporters and champions, ready to unlock a matching challenge, essentially. If you’ve heard us talk about that for many years before, That’s what’s going on right now. It’s our freedom drive. You have kicked it off really strong for us. Yesterday was the first day of Grandparents Week, and I loved seeing all of the grandparents and all the people even doing it in honor of their grandparents, supporting the work of the ACLJ. So I encourage you right now, go to aclj.org or scan the QR code that’s on your screen. If you want to go directly, it’s at aclj.org slash legacy, where you can be a part of the future of the ACLJ. We’ve also provided a brand new prayer guide, a grandparents prayer guide. It’s really tailored to what we care about here at the ACLJ and our topics and what you can pray about. It’s a really great, beautifully laid out piece. You should get it. It’s absolutely free. And it’s at aclj.org slash pray. Do that today. We’ll be back in less than a minute. We’ll be right back with more on Sekulow and some phone lines. Just opened up.
SPEAKER 04 :
Keeping you informed and engaged. Now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 07 :
Welcome back to Sekulow, second half hour. If you’re joining us, welcome live, 1-800-684-3110. We actually had a bunch of lines open up during the break, so if you want to call in, great time to do it. In the back half of the show, we’re going to take as many calls as we can, specifically in the final segments. You’re not going to miss that. In the next segment, we’re going to be joined by Greg Gore, who runs our office at the European Center for Law and Justice, the ECLJ. And by the way, when you support the work of the ECLJ, you are also supporting the work of the European Center for Law and Justice. We’re going to give you a really good understanding of why it’s important and why we’ve been there for the last 25 plus years. Amazing stories that come out of Europe, especially right now. It’s very important for us to have our international offices, whether that is the ECLJ, whether that’s ACLJ Jerusalem and other places we don’t even talk about. But we do that because people like you support the work of the ACLJ. I did want to take this quick call real quick because Jeff’s been on hold for quite some time. Jeff, go ahead.
SPEAKER 02 :
Hey, yeah, thanks for taking my call. What you mentioned about the SNAP benefits and the funding for them, to me, the bigger, greater, broader issue is that this is a signal to remind the church to step up and take back this function. In the book of Acts, didn’t just a handful of disciples take care of the thousands of needy in Jerusalem?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, Jeff, I’m going to say this. One, of course, you’re right. We need to be out there feeding the hungry, doing the things the Bible commands us to do. Absolutely, you’re right. Here’s also what I wanna say, is this is a bit of one of those conversation pieces that I have with people like, they only care about a baby before it’s born. It’s like, no, you know what the church is doing a lot? feeding people. There’s a lot of churches doing this and they’ve been doing it for a very long time.
SPEAKER 06 :
They do it without like a lot of fanfare.
SPEAKER 07 :
There’s not a lot of show going on with it. So Jeff, though I understand your sentiment and I agree with it. And we can always do more. We can always do more. I think there are a lot of churches that have been doing that for a very long time. If you want to look for humanitarian aid when things go wrong. or when there’s a disaster or a crisis, who are the first people to show up? The church. So you know what? They take kind of a bad rap sometimes because sometimes they don’t do it. Soup kitchens, all those things. So let’s always remember there are people doing this. However, you know my favorite thing, Jeff, has been people who have said, well, you know what? If the government’s not going to do it, fine. We’re all going to get together. We’re all going to start feeding our neighbors. And I’m like, well, good. If that’s what it took, you know, if it took politics and someone’s political point of view or your hatred of Donald Trump or the Republican Party to get you to go out there and help feed your neighbors, you know what? I guess there’s a silver lining in everything.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right. And I agree with you so much. I can’t express how much, Logan, so much. But yes, once again, there seems to be, and obviously you can find specific cases and point out things, but as a whole, people do forget that that is the function of the church and that is what most churches are doing. They are doing it, but they aren’t writing press releases or posting everywhere and saying, look what we’re doing because of the government shutdown. They’re doing it every single day. And people volunteer their time, give their money, and make sure that people in their community are fed, that are clothed, that they have needs that are being met. And that is a function of the church. But just because you don’t see it every day doesn’t mean that it’s not happening. I agree with you as well. I do like the attention being on it because that’s what everyone should be doing. If we live in the society where we say both Republicans and Democrats that we shouldn’t have to rely on our government for everything, then right. Feed your neighbor.
SPEAKER 07 :
And don’t do it because you feel like it’s a political win. Do it because you actually are a good person.
SPEAKER 06 :
Especially if it’s a neighbor who is affected by this shutdown because they’re not getting a paycheck. And so it’s not like they, again, are asking you to do this all the time. It’s just they’re in a bit of a bind for this last couple of paychecks. And then things will get back to normal for them. I mean, it’s just, yeah. This isn’t necessarily feeding people for a year. We’re talking about for two weeks, three weeks.
SPEAKER 07 :
But like I said, you involve your local churches. You’d probably be surprised what’s going on there. phone lines are completely open right now which is fun because that means in the next segment we’re going to have on greg gore from our offices in europe at the european center for law and justice in france he’s here in studio in nashville which is really great but that means we’re gonna put our phone screener to work okay like i said if you’re a veteran if you’re a champion you’ll get bumped to the front but either way lines are open 1-800-684-3110 what are your thoughts on everything we’ve covered today or if you got an off-topic thing just make it close enough 1-800- 684-3110. And as always, as I’ve been saying, and you’re going to hear me say for the next couple months, it’s our freedom drive right now. Be a part of it. Be a part of Grandparents Week. I want you to do it, whether it’s in honor of your grandparents or you’re a grandparent yourself. We’ll be right back.
SPEAKER 05 :
And Jordan, in this segment, this is a special treat. We haven’t had in our studio the director of the ECLJ until now here in Nashville studio. So go ahead and introduce our guest.
SPEAKER 06 :
Gregor Pupinic, who is the executive director of the European Center for Law and Justice and is overseeing a growing team. of experts in so many different fields throughout Europe. And I think that has to be clear, though. You all know the office is based, we’ve talked about it before on our show, in Strasbourg, France. Usually you’ll see us there. You saw me over the summer there and in other countries with Gregor. But he’s in the United States making a trip through here as he is traveling to some international events. And I kind of wanted to give him a moment to kind of talk about what the European Center for Law and Justice is working on today. And Gregor, I think an issue… I know an issue that is so important to so many Americans and so many Europeans is immigration. And there’s a case right now moving forward that the ECLJ is going to be involved in at the European Court of Human Rights out of the Netherlands involving immigration from the Islamic world when someone who has three wives and three different sets of children Gets an okay to come into the Netherlands with one wife and one set of children. But now I said that’s not good enough. Even though polygamy is outlawed in most of these countries that are part of the European Court of Human Rights and the Council of Europe, that’s not enough. So they’re already looking at ways to bring polygamy into Europe through backdoor channels and courts.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yes, indeed. Thank you very much for hosting me. With the European Centre for Law and Justice, we have been in over 80 cases before the European Court of Human Rights, which is the equivalent of the US Supreme Court. So bringing cases, representing clients, representing or helping states sometimes, intervening. So it’s really our speciality. And among the issues we’re working on increasingly, of course, is the difficulty of radical Islam in Europe. Because, you know, we have a huge immigration and we are now facing what is called the attempt for radical Muslim groups to get into European societies and to use our legal system to bring their own system of life like polygamy. And this case that you’re mentioning, it’s a case against the Netherlands brought by a lawyer from Yemen, but from the Muslim Brotherhood. He was one of the head of the Muslim Brotherhood in Yemen. And he has three wives and 13 children from those three wives. And he went to the Netherlands, he got refugee status in Europe because Netherlands felt obliged to following the Arab Spring. And then he asked for his wife to come. The Netherlands said, we cannot because only one wife in the Netherlands. So please pick one. Interesting. Tough decision. Yes, it’s naturally equality between women, you know? So pick one. Which one do you prefer? He took the first one, the one who has eight children with him. And they could come, they benefit from all the system of the Netherlands. They have housing, education, health support. And then this man who is a Muslim Brotherhood, which means they try to influence from inner society. So this is a strategy of the Muslim Brotherhood is to get into society slowly and to make it Islamist. And so this person who is a lawyer, he knows what he does. He knew that he would not ask after a while for his other wife to come because it’s forbidden. So he said, look, let’s ask for the children I have, because they are my kids. And so he said, please, let my five other kids get into the Netherlands. The Netherlands said no, because polygamy is forbidden. And now, although he got all the support from the Netherlands, all this material support from this country who hosts him, he’s suing the Netherlands before the Human Code of Human Rights.
SPEAKER 06 :
And then through this process, Gregor, if the court – I mean it could come down a number of ways. But in a sense, we were talking about this yesterday, and we were actually at an event at the governor’s mansion with Governor Lee in Tennessee with Gregor. But if the European Court of Human Rights were to kind of side with him on the children – then ultimately the wives are going to be able – the children then can ask for their mothers. And then polygamy almost has been declared a human right in Europe for some immigrants, I guess. I mean, maybe not for all Europeans, but for some. And then that kind of gets away from the whole idea of this equality movement protecting women’s rights. But you said that there’s this other way of looking at women’s rights there, which is, well, women should have the choice if they want to get into these kind of relationships – And they’re kind of like not looking at the reality that most of the women in that part of the world have no choice about getting into these relationships.
SPEAKER 01 :
They’re ignoring that. Yeah, that’s true. And also there is the issue, you know, whether or not, as Europeans, we have the right just to refuse polygamy. I mean, because this guy knows what he does. The problem is that with the European Court of Human Rights, they just have to rule on the case of the children. So they cannot just decide because they know that after a while, the mother would come. So it is a difficulty of the case. It’s a trick, I would say. And the lawyers who are introducing the case know that. The other difficulty is that the European Court of Human Rights don’t really have strong arguments against polygamy. Because it’s so, I would say, as we say in Europe, liberal. If you want it, let’s do it. So why should we refuse polygamy? I mean, if the woman wants it, okay, let’s do it. So there is no real argument. So the issue we have now, and this is why we intervene in this case, is first, of course, we have to do not be naive. We have to say to the court of Strasbourg, the European Court of Justice, this man is from the Muslim Brotherhood. He is trying to enter the society. He is trying to impose his values, his way of living, to a country that is hosting him. So don’t be naive anymore. And don’t let’s use our human rights system to weaken our society. And this is what we’re facing today. So this is why it’s so important, strategic to act in this case so that human rights are not used against our civilization.
SPEAKER 05 :
And Gregor, one of the things that we spoke with Jordan about after he was in Europe with the ECLJ earlier this year, as well as we see in our media here, that for a long time, you had one of the hardest jobs in the ACLJ, I think, because the conservative ideals that we think of here in the United States weren’t as accepted or as loudly proclaimed around Europe at the time. But we’re starting to see a change there. that there are younger groups, there are people that are returning to their faith, people that are more comfortable with not just these ideas of freedom and liberty, but much more American-style conservatism is starting to play out there. How have you seen this change, and in even the way that the ECLJ operates and is able to get work done as these things start to change in Europe?
SPEAKER 01 :
It’s a huge change. I mean, we’ve been working with the American Center, with Jay Sekulow, with Jordan, family Logan, for many years. I started 25 years ago, so it’s a long story for me. And I’m so pleased and so proud to this work. And now we see a change in Europe. We have governments coming to us. We have leaders like Marine Le Pen in France coming to us, other leaders from more central right coming to us. We are invited all the time to the national parliaments to give advice, testimonies. So we are a strength, we are an intellectual strength. We give ideas, we give vision, we give legal arguments, we draft legislation. We are legal strengths in our work with the Human Code of Human Rights. We had a huge success, for example, not only on cases, but also on the court itself. We managed to have a very good action on the composition of the court itself, because the court of Strasbourg was, I would say, infiltrated by about 20% of the judges were coming from the Open Society Foundation of George Soros. We revealed that, and this was a huge affair in Europe. And as a consequence, the court decided to change its rules. So we managed, we made recommendations to the court to change its rules, and the court did. And as a consequence of our work, now you don’t have any more single person, activists coming from those NGOs appointed as a judge in Strasbourg.
SPEAKER 06 :
say this quickly too, Gregor, because I think it’s important for people to understand when we talk about the work of the European Center for Law and Justice and the work that the team does there. Again, we have this unique moment 25 years in to really start affecting change now, not in the courts, but also now in the societies, in the political systems. You now have got the seat at the table. And I think this story actually just briefly tells it all. The consul general in Strasbourg, we haven’t met with very much, but we did this summer. And she invited you, a small group, you said, to meet with Ambassador Kushner, who had just gotten installed as the U.S. ambassador to France. You had one-on-one time with him to talk about how that office could be better used by the administration to work and kind of put forward U.S. foreign policy and U.S. policies. at the European Parliament because they get a seat at the table.
SPEAKER 01 :
Indeed. So yes, we had this meeting and we see how we can benefit among conservatives from the US, American and European groups. There is really now an alliance, I mean, a collaboration, a deep collaboration with organizations like the American Center, the European Center, other organizations like CPAC, who is going back and forth on the Atlantic. And we work together and we take examples also of what’s going on in the US, what is going on, you know, with Millet in Argentina, other countries. And organizations like our organization has a huge, can have, and we do have a huge impact on many levels, including communication, education of the people. It’s so important.
SPEAKER 07 :
Absolutely. Gregor’s team and the ECLJ, incredibly important. We’ll even talk about that more in the next segment as well. And why when you support the work of the ECLJ, why we think it’s vitally important that we are around the world. And the ECLJ is a huge part of that. So be a part of that team right now. And that is by becoming an ACLJ supporter today and have your donation doubled during our drive right now. Of course, it’s Grandparent Week. Go to ACLJ.org. And we’ve seen it there and we’ve seen it even throughout Europe. It’s happening. And we’re going to be a part of it. That’s at ACLJ.org. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Secular. We do a few lines open at 1-800-684-3110. We had Greg Gore from the ECLJ stay over with us for this segment as well, because I think there’s a lot more we can dive into in the work of the European Center. And I always like to look at the comments, see what people think. Understand. I hope you understand now that you’ve heard from Greg Gore and our team there. We’ve had them on occasionally throughout. the year why it’s so important that the aclj is a worldwide endeavor of course the aclj the a is for american but we’ve been able to move on to have the european center and again as you said you’re seeing massive change there it may have taken a couple decades but it’s true even amongst people you may not hear that in the press by the way you may hear that europe is just one way or that the uk we know that as well trust me the people i know from the uk they’re with us on 95 of the issues if not more but you know what they have governments right now that are maybe not shining just like they have for us occasionally the light on them right now but we know we’ve seen these christian conservative ideals start to bubble up and start to make a real difference and jordan was there this year i was there last year just right about a year we are seeing it happen in real time and you want to be a part of it you want by the way your families to be able to visit these areas you want to be able to go to europe take your kids to experience it and feel safe and better alliances with our european allies who are our top allies absolutely
SPEAKER 06 :
especially in Western Europe and in Central Europe, and to make sure it certainly builds those alliances when you share common values. But I wanted to go into the speech issue because that’s a huge issue when you see these movements happening like in the UK. Freedom of speech, we often take for granted in the United States. We don’t at the ACLJ. We’re constantly fighting for it every single day in court. But a lot of Americans do because it is just a fundamental right that, again, most people never experienced anything negative with, but it’s still something we constantly have to debate. In Europe, it doesn’t necessarily exist.
SPEAKER 01 :
No, I would say the left part of Putin’s spectrum is against it, because they know that the conservatives are getting so strong in the arguments. It’s not only the media, but on the ground, because what we say is so strong that they just want to silence us. So in Europe, they want to control internet, they want to control social networks. They use any kind of notions like hate speeches, whatever you say. So for us, for example, it’s quite difficult. We have to be very careful when we speak on TV, when we speak on the networks, because we know we may be attacked by any kind of groups, even like radical Muslim groups, like the Muslim Brotherhood, they look what we say. And they go after us, we have trials. So it’s a really important issue. We fight in Europe, for example, at the European Centre, to defend the right to criticize Islam. Because we have the big issue of anti-blasphemy laws. And they try to promote this idea of Islamophobia. They say, you know, if anything you say bad about Muhammad, you know, you are just someone who is going against the law. We say, no, you know, we should be respectful to everybody. We should respect everybody, of course, but we should be able to discuss on religions. i’m ready to discuss on christianity let’s start the discussion whatever you want but i want you also to be able to be open to a discussion and we have been working on cases for example on you know the famous wedding of muhammad with aisha who was nine years old as you think of human rights it was crazy because the austrian government and judges decided to sentence a lady who who just said that Mohammed married a girl who was nine, and that maybe this was a kind of problem, you know, with like the children.
SPEAKER 07 :
And that is the type of conversation that here would happen in a world religion course in college. You would have those open discussions and no one’s thinking about it.
SPEAKER 06 :
Things like that back in, you’d say, well, culturally. You could have that conversation. This was a long time ago, age, things, difference. But yeah, you wouldn’t have to be worried about… legal action being taken against you or and i mean we see in germany and in the uk now i mean you can you can be you can have the police show up at your door because of uh sharing someone else’s message on a social media platform yeah i know it’s crazy and this is uh
SPEAKER 01 :
So I’m saying now, I mean, we, the European Centre and others, we must and we do act on that. It’s highly important. We must defend, I mean, the true freedom. I mean, you know, the motto of the European Centre, you know, for law and justice, you know, is liberties, dignity and sovereignty. So we want to defend liberties and this is essential. So true conservatives, you know, want liberty.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and I think to that point as well is that where you have these restrictions from the way that you can talk about things and how you have to be very smart and very specific in the way that you go about these things because those that want to weaponize the legal system against you will try to do that. People remember that France has had many issues with Islamic terror. And these situations, it’s not as though it’s removed from France. It’s very much in what the history is. And so when you look at the way that people from the Muslim Brotherhood may be trying to infiltrate and use the law system against you, they also are knowing what the laws are that they can utilize against you as well.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, but the fact is that they also get money from the EU, which is something else. So those Muslim Brotherhood groups, they infiltrate also EU institutions, and they get a lot of money to do that action. So also part of our work, as you’ve been saying, is to track, to find where the money comes from, where do they get the money, and to make it public that the EU is funding those groups so that the EU stops funding those groups. So we are fighting on every level. So also on the financial level to expose the European Commission, what they do, and to stop the funding. So it’s really a huge fight that’s going on in Europe. And thanks God, some governments now try, understand it, see the danger of this infiltration. But this is part of what we do. One aspect also is that Turkey, you know, is part of the Council of Europe. so also as the UN Code of Human Rights, and Turkey is also supporting, to some extent, Muslim Brotherhood. So we have a very strategic situation, we are in a very strategic situation here in Strasbourg, because we have Turkey, we have Northern Africa, we have Syria, they are our neighbors, those countries, and we are on the front, you know, with those countries, and to oppose, to defend civilization, defend freedoms, is highly difficult and highly important.
SPEAKER 07 :
Thank you for joining us, Dave. I think it’s really important that people understand the work of the ECLJ. I know it’s something that’s very passionate for Jordan and for I, and I know when we start discussing it on air, some of our audience goes, well, why are you not talking about the news of the day? We didn’t have those conversations. Look, we had calls coming in. Unfortunately, we’re not going to be able to get to you. Ray, call me back tomorrow early in the show, and I’ll get you up early because you had a good comment. We just kind of got stuck on this because this is the important work. Jordan, I’ll even let you speak to this, that we’ve been working at for our whole lives, and we feel just as at home in Europe as we do here because it means so much to us.
SPEAKER 06 :
And I think for the global – for the work that we do in the United States, we know to have the most impact, that work has to go around the world so that the ideas of freedom of speech and the freedom of religion and the ideas of being able to just discuss the – The fact that there are now, Gregor is being, and the ECLJ is being asked to advise governments. This took 25 years of work. And it took 20 years of work in the United States for us to be at that point too. But we’ve done that hard work. And our team is continuing to kind of evolve over the time to be there for these battles. And we know now how interconnected the world is. You can try to ignore the globe, but your paycheck is impacted by it. When you talk about terrorists, you’re talking about your paycheck. When you talk about wars and national security and immigration… It’s all impacted by the world.
SPEAKER 07 :
We need to be there. We need to be there. We’re only there because of you. So I’m going to ask you, not only support the work financially, but say a prayer for our ECLJ brothers and sisters, our teams over in Europe, because they do incredible work. And we really love that they’re there. They’ve been fighting the hard fight for a long time now. And they do it because of you who support their work financially. So I’m going to ask you right now, not only to pray for them, but if you can, make a donation. Have your donation doubled right now. It is Grandparents Week. We’re celebrating grandparents all week. And of course, it’s Veterans Day. But we really want you to think about, pray about, support the work of the ACLJ. Scan the QR code or go to aclj.org. We’ll talk to you tomorrow.
