Join Logan and Jordan on a politically packed episode as they explore the dynamic landscape of Middle Tennessee’s special election with RNC co-chair Casey Crosby. Discover the strategic maneuvers of both parties and their influential impacts on voters right after the Thanksgiving holiday. Tune in for a lively session on political strategies, legal challenges, and even the seasonal charm of presidential turkey pardons.
SPEAKER 11 :
On today’s show, the DOJ says, hey, call me. It’s not over yet. 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 03 :
Welcome to Sekulow. Jordan is in studio with me as well. And we have a very packed show today. We’re going to be joined by multiple different guests throughout the broadcast. We are live. How can I tell you we’re live? Well, we’re about to see the turkeys pardoned. Yes. Both, I think it was Gobble and Waddle, the turkeys, who have been spending their days at the Willard Hotel, about to be pardoned by the president and the first lady. But that is not the news we’re talking about. Of course, right as we went off the air, Jordan, there was some breaking news.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right. That was about Jim Comey and Letitia James and remember you had an interim U.S. attorney resign another U.S. attorney be put in place Allison Hannigan and then the two indictments are different issues but grand juries issued these indictments and the judge said that because she was the second person put in place by President Trump and you have this 120 day window to appoint interim U.S. attorneys that are not yet been confirmed that because the first 120 days had expired, it didn’t start a new 120-day clock, so this case had to be dismissed. What does that mean, though? That means that the case can be brought again. Under federal statute, and if you want to look it up, it’s 18 U.S. Code Section 3288. If a felony is dismissed for any reason after the period prescribed by the applicable statute of limitations, that especially affects Comey’s, You still have within 60 dates of the date of dismissal of the indictment to go back to the grand jury to try and get the indictments again. So this is not over for Comey. This is not over for Letitia James. And the question is, does the DOJ, so far they’ve said they’re going to appeal, that they believe the president should be able to appoint interim u.s attorneys until the u.s senate can confirm someone that should not be federal judges who do that after the first 120 days which is kind of the current rule so they’re going to appeal that they can appeal that and even if they don’t win there they then start the clock on the 60 days to be able to bring new indictments that does mean going back to a grand jury with the same information but on both of these cases they were able to get the indictments yeah
SPEAKER 03 :
Hey, I want to hear from you in this next segment. We’re going to have a special guest in the third segment. We’re going to take some calls. We’re going to keep diving in on this at 1-800-684-3110. But I want you to hear quickly from Pam Bondi, who was asked about this yesterday at a press conference. Let’s go ahead and play that by one.
SPEAKER 12 :
Sure, we’ll be taking all available legal action, including an immediate appeal to hold Letitia James and James Comey accountable for their unlawful conduct. What is your reaction to his statement?
SPEAKER 01 :
I’m going to keep going on this. I’m not worried about someone who has been charged with a very serious crime. His alleged actions were a betrayal of public trust.
SPEAKER 03 :
Of course, that was from Pam Bondi. We’ll be hearing actually from James Comey, his response when we get back in the third segment of the show. In the next segment, Jordan, we have a special guest coming up.
SPEAKER 04 :
Co-chair of the RNC, Casey Crosby, where we broadcast from in Tennessee, there is a special election. Over 50,000 people have already voted, but the actual election… Saw a lot of I voted stickers yesterday. Yeah, a lot of the election is actually this coming Tuesday. So, I mean, you’re talking about right after the Thanksgiving holiday. It is a district that favors Republicans. Donald Trump won it by 20 points. So did the former Republican congressman, Mark Green. And it’s a very interesting district because it goes from… Both counties that I’ve been driving through today, but I don’t live in this district. And where we are right now is not in the district. But it’s a wide swath of Middle Tennessee. I think it’s got 14 different counties in it.
SPEAKER 03 :
It’s going to be a fascinating interview. You should stay tuned. This is live. We’re going to be taking your calls at 1-800-684-3110.
SPEAKER 04 :
Probably the most far left candidate run by the Democrats in Tennessee, especially in the Nashville area.
SPEAKER 03 :
Which does rile people up. Gets that base out there. I saw it yesterday on the highway, on the bridge of the highway saying, go vote. So we’re going to talk about that when we get back. And of course, we are wrapping up our Thanksgiving week here. And of course, wrapping up. our freedom drive so right now i encourage you to make your donation have your donation doubled today as it will be throughout the end of the month we know a lot of you will be traveling tomorrow this is a good day to be thinking about it and doing it we’ll be right back with more on secular Welcome back to Seculo and maybe Thanksgiving week, but there is still a lot going on in the political world and here in Tennessee specifically. I was walking around yesterday. I was at the Hobby Lobby and there was a lot of I Voted stickers and I think that had to remind people that there is elections going on, still special elections that are happening right here in Tennessee. Jordan, I’ll let you take it from there.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. We have the RNC co-chair, Casey Crosby, is joining us now. And while we’re a national broadcast, this is an election that’s happening on Tuesday. Over 50,000 people have voted. And it’s great to have you on, co-chairman Casey Crosby of the Republican National Committee. Let me ask you this first because we have seen some unprecedented spending by the left and the Democrat Party in this district, which is one that the last Republican congressional candidate won by 20 points and so did Donald Trump.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, I mean, they’re coming in. We’ve seen it across the country where there’s outside groups coming in and spending just crazy amounts of money, particularly on somebody like Afton Ben, who is a unserious candidate. I mean, I want to say. She’s the give that keeps giving, but not in the best of ways. And the more people learn about her, I think more Tennessee will see she does not share their values. I mean, how can you elect somebody who actually says they hate everything about Nashville? I live in Kentucky. My home state is Kentucky. We border this district. I’m going to be there Saturday with a team of walkers from my home state trying to help get out the vote for Tuesday. And I think Tuesday is going to be a great day for Matt Van Epps.
SPEAKER 03 :
Casey, it’s very interesting. One of our team members is in that district. I’m sure a lot of them actually are, but said that they’re getting hit up quite a bit. Said that they had gotten knocks on their door twice a day for the last two weeks and something in the mail every day. That is from Afton. So clearly the money is coming from somewhere because you would not see this normally in a special election in Tennessee for this kind of candidate.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, I mean, certainly when you look at the National Democrat Party and look at the fact that they had to take out a $15 million loan to cover expenses, their operating expenses. I mean, they’re a party that’s in free fall. She is the AOC of Tennessee. I mean, every time I watch something, I think, can it get any worse for her? And in fact, it does. Our research team has done an excellent job pulling up former comments that she has made, and she just doesn’t align with Tennessee values at all.
SPEAKER 04 :
I want to play one of those comments from Afton, Ben. This is going back to 2022, our team doing the work too in May. This is about Roe versus Wade being overturned, abortion rights in Tennessee, which is a state that is extremely pro-life. Let’s play bite six. This is who is running for Congress in, again, it’s District 7. The election is this upcoming Tuesday after the Thanksgiving holiday. Take a listen.
SPEAKER 06 :
we are really living in a dystopian reality. I tell you, ladies and gents, it’s not great. But I wanna, what is the positive if there is a silver lining? So what this does not mean for Tennessee is that groups on the ground will continue to provide training in terms of self-managed abortions. And so instead of going to a doctor, because we won’t have any doctors that provide abortions, how do you do it at home? We will continue to support reproductive justice organizations and grassroots movements. And yeah, and we’ll continue to figure out how to get abortion pills to people. So the organizing does not stop just because Roe is overturned.
SPEAKER 04 :
I’d go to you, Casey. I mean, how do you do it at home? I mean, this is a procedure that can cause not just the loss of life of the unborn child, but the pregnant woman as well. And this is the kind of flip it statement she makes. And she makes a lot of these kind of flip it statements throughout her short political career in Tennessee.
SPEAKER 02 :
I have no idea. Somebody who claims to be for women, who says that women shouldn’t have babies, but yet says men can have babies. I’ve never heard of a self-managed abortion. I can’t imagine. Again, I live in a neighboring state and these are just not the values that people in our states hold. And and I think due to people like you getting out this information, the voters are waking up to the fact that they don’t want to AOC light as their congresswoman out of Tennessee.
SPEAKER 04 :
yeah i think what is important too that you can talk about for people who aren’t in tennessee right now so they’re not they’re not close enough as you are in kentucky or like us to even kind of volunteer and assist in this election what can people do nationwide i mean first they probably need to know as we’re talking to a nationwide audience that there is this special election we know how close the house of representatives right is right now so as much as you could say this is an out of touch very extreme liberal candidate. It’s a special election, which is why the Dems are trying to pour money in to see if they can catch people off guard. So what would you tell people from outside Tennessee? How can they help get this message out this next week?
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, so a few things. First and foremost, if anybody wants to donate to Matt Van Epp’s campaign to the Republican National Committee, to the National Republican Congressional Committee, there are many outlets that I’m sure that we could use any type of financial contribution to finish this out. We are going to be probably outspent here because of the outside groups coming in. You know, we have it set up where people can make phone calls into the state from anywhere. I laugh. You can be sitting at home Friday after your big Thanksgiving dinner and have your bathrobe on and make calls into Tennessee to try to get out the Republican vote. But, yeah, you can’t take anything for granted. And I think that on a bigger picture, going into the midterms, we have to look at this is this is how they’re running elections. This is how we’re doing things. And, you know, we’ve been peddled to the metal at the RNC since President Trump’s.
SPEAKER 04 :
took office and we have not stopped preparing for the midterm elections because our goal is to make sure we have president trump as president for a full four years so we’re not taking any races for granted and we are also very active in tennessee yes yes the tennessee republican party has been extremely strong um and we’ve seen that throughout elections throughout the state uh both local level all the way up to the statewide and federal office uh let’s talk a little bit about uh Matt Van Epps, who we hope to be the congressman from District 7. We talked a lot about his out-of-touch opponent, but tell people about him.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, he is an amazing candidate. I mean, obviously, he’s been endorsed and supported by President Trump, and he’s going to do a tremendous job representing Tennessee values and the people of Tennessee. And certainly, he will be an America First representative who will go in and make sure that he’s doing what’s in the best interest of the state of Tennessee.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I think that when you see the contrast between someone – again, this is someone who, again, has got the military background. He has worked in Tennessee politics, also worked in the Tennessee state government. And you just see that he’s – this is someone, again, that District 7 should be proud to have. It is interesting to me because you talked about – moving forward to the midterm elections as well. Are we going to see more candidates like Afton Bay all across the country? I mean, is this where the Democrats are going? I know AOC wants to see more of them, but are state Democrat parties and the National Party really going to keep putting forward these kind of activists that seem to be so out of touch with just the majority of voters, even majority of Democrat voters?
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, I mean, it certainly appears that that’s what the arm of the party is doing with the Democrats. I mean, if you look at their leadership right now, it seems to be AOC, Bernie Sanders, Mom Donnie. I mean, those are the people who are leading the party and certainly people that they are backing. You know, and again, when you look at their leadership. polling as a party overall, they’re at the lowest rate they’ve been in decades. And part of that’s because they’re just so out of touch of messaging. But, you know, the moderate Democrats are scared of the far left woke end of the party. And so they keep bending to these extreme ideas and people who are just so far left. And in states like Tennessee, Kentucky, Midwestern, I travel all over the country. And outside of a few places, most people don’t identify. And again, Afton, I mean, here she was endorsed by the Democrat Socialist. Is that Tennessee? Are those Tennessee values? I don’t think so.
SPEAKER 04 :
No, I don’t think so. I mean, I feel like that’s the ad that should be running in the final week is endorsed by the Socialist Party of Tennessee, which is same as Mamdani in New York with the Socialist Party. But we are just seeing this like… And you don’t know how much of it is real and how much of it is just kind of ginned up with the spending. But Casey, my last question to you, and I appreciate you coming on, is for people right now, this is the final week. If they hunker down, conservatives get out the vote, we can win this race.
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, absolutely, 100%. I mean, I think we are seeing that with the numbers that are trending with early voting. They’ve picked up for Republicans tremendously over the last few days, and people are waking up. I was privy to some polling information that showed that Republicans that people are now finally waking up to the fact that there is an election next Tuesday. A few weeks ago, people weren’t even aware that there was a special election. So the fact that we’ve been able to see such a pickup going right into Election Day, I think it’s going to bode well for Matt Van Epps, and we’re going to be celebrating Tuesday night.
SPEAKER 04 :
Sounds great. We hope to be celebrating, too. Casey Crosby is the co-chair of the Republican National Committee. Casey, anytime you want to come on to join us, too, to update us about as we get closer to the midterms as well, we’d love to have great information on this race in Tennessee. And, folks, again, the special election is on Tuesday. It’s District 7. There’s 14 different counties, so if you’re listening in Tennessee, especially Middle Tennessee, do a check. If Mark Green was your congressman, this is the special election to fill that seat, which the election day is next.
SPEAKER 03 :
tuesday right after this thanksgiving holiday you said you drive around and you’re like okay am i in it am i not i had to do a look make sure myself because there are people almost in my neighborhood uh talking about it promoting it i’m driving around you’re seeing all this advertising uh for each candidate so it is uh something you got to keep yourself aware of with that being said i want to take your calls and comments coming up yep is this the kind of candidates that’s what we’re talking about it’s not just about the politics not about supporting a republican Or a Democrat, you’re talking about people that are going against completely the values that, specifically in states like Tennessee, I mean, it’s pretty wild.
SPEAKER 04 :
Basic American values. I mean, you’re calling yourself, and you’re happily endorsed by a socialist party in the United States of America.
SPEAKER 03 :
But it’s also the changing demographics of the region and everything that’s happening, so you’ve got to make sure that you stay on top of it, or things could change very rapidly. Does this seem like something that’s happening in your area? Give us a call as well at 1-800-684-3110. When we get back, we’ll talk a little bit more about the Letitia James and James Comey situation, play a little more sound, including actually from James Comey himself. Of course, he loves to respond, and he did. Give us a call, though, 1-800-684-3110, and support the work of the ACLJ as we head into break during our Freedom Drive, where your donation is doubled. Welcome back to Seculo. We are going through your calls right now. Keep calling 1-800-684-3110. President Trump right now making a big decision right now, deciding whether to pardon, gobble, and waddle. That is live coverage. If he says anything worth going to, we’ll cut in live.
SPEAKER 04 :
When did we start pardoning, too? Was it when the one flew away from George W. Bush? Remember that one that acted like he shouldn’t be pardoned?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, Pete Doocy today asked, if he’s getting pardoned, what did he do wrong? That’s what they asked at the press briefing yesterday. with Caroline Leavitt. So it’s a pretty fun moment. Again, this is a big history moment. This is something that we’ve been doing for a very long time. It’s Americana at this point. I know President Trump, I think I said, he’s not a huge fan of doing this. Most of the presidents are not, I feel like, huge fans of doing it. It’s one of the things they get bullied into. is to pardon the turkeys. Because like you said, there’s a good portion of the time it goes wrong.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes, it’s cold. It’s an animal. It’s a live animal. They’ve been living in a hotel.
SPEAKER 03 :
They’re now going to go. A lot of times they go move to Disneyland where they go live. A lot of the times you go visit them. Can you go see all those turkeys? I’m not sure if you still can, but they used to have a farm area. I think they may have gotten rid of it. But you used to be able to see, and they go, there’s the ones the president pardoned. I don’t know a turkey’s lifespan, so I don’t know how long they’re out there. But that’s at least part of the lore. It’s kind of like the groundhog, probably. But again, phone lines are open for you.
SPEAKER 04 :
Are they still like the butterball ones? They’re like the beige-white turkeys?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, a case just said that President Trump said the turkeys are… Is this actually what he said? That they’re the first maha turkey. So I guess they’re… Are they smaller? They haven’t pumped up with all of the… All the hormones.
SPEAKER 04 :
These are the healthy turkeys.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, these are the ones, the free range turkeys going on. I got a lot of those in my backyard. I mean, I could.
SPEAKER 04 :
They’re expensive too if you order them from farms for like, they go up to $500. Come to my backyard. They’re just a plenty.
SPEAKER 03 :
I don’t think you want to eat those turkeys.
SPEAKER 04 :
Legally, I don’t know if people can just come to your backyard and.
SPEAKER 03 :
I mean, I got dogs, so they could take them down. That’s true. They don’t though. No, because they’re scary looking. They are scary looking. Even my Huskies are like, yeah, no, thank you. With that, though, let’s get back on track here. James Comey, Letitia James, Jordan, this was just yesterday. A judge came out and said this was not done correctly.
SPEAKER 04 :
It was done correctly because, again, you had this weird situation that you had an interim U.S. attorney. They finished their 120 days. That’s all you can do it for. And then there was no U.S. attorney to take place. So the Senate had not yet confirmed someone. So President Trump chose someone else to take place. And they went through the whole thing. They got the indictments on Jim Comey on something separate than they did on Letitia James. And then the judge said, well, no, this appointment of the U.S. attorney was the specific problem here, Lindsey Halligan. So then people said, well, OK, is this just totally botched by the Trump, DOJ and PAM body? No. What happens here is you appeal. You can appeal the case to say whether or not this judge was correct or that it is the president who should be filling these temporary vacancies until the Senate does its job and confirms someone. But even if the… uh as they appeal if they lose they still have time to correct this we call that in court correct the indictment so they can then go back into a grand jury uh try to seek these indictments again so as Jim Comey will say in this video he knows probably more about this than Letitia James because of the federal side of this this is not over because of this it’s certainly a roadblock you don’t want it to happen But there are ways to move forward to still seek justice for the American people against the wrongdoing that’s alleged against Jim Comey and Letitia James.
SPEAKER 03 :
And Pam Bondi said that was the case. And we played that bite earlier. But I think you got to hear now from the man himself. You got to hear from James Comey, who always puts out some sort of bizarre videos. And here they are. We bite for.
SPEAKER 09 :
I know that Donald Trump will probably come after me again. And my attitude is going to be the same. I’m innocent. I am not afraid. And I believe in an independent federal judiciary, the gift from our founders that protects us from a would-be tyrant. When I was a kid, my parents would wake us up for school every morning by snapping open the shades and saying, time to rise and shine and show the world what you’re made of. Well, it’s that time, America. It’s time to stand up and show the fools who would frighten us, who would divide us, that we’re made of stronger stuff, that we believe in the rule of law, that we believe in the importance of doing things by the law. So stand tall, shine, and keep the faith.
SPEAKER 04 :
Using your friends to leak information that you shared with the president. I mean, no, this guy, it’s just bizarre. Yeah. Every time from him. Like Red Skull. Hillary Clinton didn’t really love him. They didn’t really connect at all. Donald Trump. I mean, the whole thing. He messed up that entire election cycle. Let’s not forget Democrats.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, he’s probably to blame. There’s a good percentage of chance that he at least had a hand.
SPEAKER 04 :
an electing president calling a tyrant and you know the the joke is here this is a procedural matter that can be corrected we have laws on the books that can be corrected i think people ran to this story really quickly leticia james way too fast celebrating um jim comey knew it a little bit better so he’s a little bit more restrained in the sense that this is probably not over for me so you know because so don’t take victory laps yet on tv uh this is they’re going to come back
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, absolutely. Again, phone lines are open for you. We had some, but some of them dropped off. I want you to call me back. There’s some good comments coming in. So give me a call at 1-800-684-3110. President Trump stepping down right now. I’m giving you live coverage to pardon the turkeys. Of course, there is a whole conversation. Will the deep state block the pardoning of the turkeys this year? Of course not. It’s just a joke there. But man, those are good looking turkeys. I got to say, those look way better than my backyard turkeys. That’s a nice looking turkey right there. That’s a big one. Oh, I love we’re covering this live. This is important news.
SPEAKER 04 :
I mean, Donald Trump is a big dude, you know, and so I’m looking at this turkey flexing its feathers and you’re like, you hope he doesn’t jump because remember the jumper.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, that could take you out. That could definitely take your eye out. There you go. Moving back on to what we’re talking about. Let’s see if we can get this call cleared.
SPEAKER 04 :
You kind of go, did we?
SPEAKER 03 :
president trump said the turkeys the turkeys being pardoned today go by the names gobble and waddle yeah i first saw their picture is this real is that really what i said i was going to call them chuck and nancy and then i realized i wouldn’t be pardoning them i would never pardon those two people uh president trump never taking a moment uh to not have a dig at somebody couldn’t just make this a nice thanksgiving moment of course i had to make it uh somewhat at least a viral moment yeah
SPEAKER 04 :
See, I think Melania Trump is right here at First Lady wearing a leather jacket because you want a little protection. Camouflage yourself a little bit, too. I mean, those spurs.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I don’t want to mess with them. All right, well, there’s a lot of comments coming in. A lot of you are chiming in. Look, it’s Thanksgiving week. I think we should take a minute here and tell you also, number one, thank you for all of your support during this Freedom Drive during the month of November. We’re going to be rolling right into another special one in December where we’re going to have a lot of new stuff we’re going to talk about because the work keeps going. None of it slows down. And as you may know, as you’re probably getting a lot of people reaching out saying, hey, please consider donating. Please consider supporting. These are the most important times for nonprofits. This is during the last two months of the year. It’s when people decide what they’re going to give financially. And where they can do it. We know times are tough. We know things are different than they maybe have been before. But we’re going to ask you if you do have those means. We’re not asking you to stretch. If you can’t do it, we understand. But if you do have those means right now to support the work of the ACLJ during this month and next month, because during these… We are going, you get your donation doubled. You have an ACLJ member or an ACLJ champion, someone that gives on a monthly basis, ready to unlock a donation. And that’s at any level. We have pretty much such a large cap on that, that if you beat that cap, I will be celebrating more than you could possibly imagine. So think about what you can give, whether that is $50, whether that’s $500. know that all of it gets doubled and we really could use the support during these really important times because Jordan as we head into break maybe it’s just something to say the work doesn’t stop we are continually in court we’re continually fighting of course this broadcast as well
SPEAKER 04 :
We’ll have filings the day after Thanksgiving. We’ll have people working through the holiday. They’ll still want to take some time with their family. But no, this team continues to go, even though this can be a busy time of year because of the holiday schedule, your kids’ holiday schedule, your grandkids’ holiday schedule. It’s a very busy time of year at the ACLJ on the legal side, legal front, protecting your freedoms here in the United States, your religious liberty as we enter the religious holidays and Christmas as well. We want to protect all of you, and we are here to do that at the ACLJ because of your financial support. That’s right.
SPEAKER 03 :
Like Jordan said, major appeals court filings the day after Thanksgiving. We’ll get into more of that in the second half hour of the show coming up. ACLJ.org, wherever you get your podcasts, we’re live.
SPEAKER 11 :
Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Seculo. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 03 :
Welcome back to Sekulow. Second half hour coming up. We are going to continue that conversation about James Comey and Letitia James, their case being thrown out, but what that looks like for the future. We also are going to be joined in the next segment by Mike Pompeo, who is going to discuss also the Ukraine has made some major movements agreeing essentially to that peace plan. What does that look like? What does the future look like? Russia has not yet weighed in. Officially, we do know that at least Russia had maybe something to do with starting that map out of what it would look like. Now, how high up or what that means who knows but that’s a first big step as i said i wasn’t sure how zielinski was going to respond specifically when you’re talking about giving away land and all that but then you’re also talking about hundreds of billions of dollars whatever it may be 100 billion dollars it was going to go to uh the country into fixing up so almost almost buying the land if you will uh we’re going to talk about that coming up with secretary pompeo in the next segment but from now until the end of the show i want to hear from you at 1-800-684-3110 there also is the growing concern as we had on uh the co-chair of the rnc about these special elections are happening what’s happening in tennessee right now as we are seeing candidates being presented that aren’t even representative of the people. They’re actually maybe the most extreme case, but because of that, you’re getting people riled up.
SPEAKER 04 :
You’re getting… You get that outside money, you get the New York money, you get the West Coast money.
SPEAKER 03 :
And people who wouldn’t usually vote are now voting, and the people who normally would vote aren’t even aware that there’s an election going.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes, and you’re doing it right after the Thanksgiving holiday. So it can be a dangerous time for either party. This is a district that President Trump won by 20 points. It’s a district that the former Congressman Mark Green, who had that seat, also won by 20 points. So Democrats have seen something. Or they wouldn’t be just spending millions and millions. They are outspending, I think, two to one. Now, Republicans still feel confident. It’s not like they think that they’re going to lose. But what they are saying, and we had the co-chair of the RNC on earlier in the broadcast, is people need to take the special election seriously.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, absolutely. Let’s actually take a call about that. Stephen’s calling in New Mexico. Stephen, go ahead with it.
SPEAKER 10 :
Hi, thanks for taking my call. I’m just frustrated because I see so many on the right trying to tie Mamdami to everything and tossing around the socialist word, but President Trump is actually acting like a socialist by having the U.S. government take
SPEAKER 04 :
The reason why, Stephen, you’re hearing the socialist word around Mondami is not because of President Trump or Republicans. He is a member of the Democrat Socialists of America. Afton Bay, she was endorsed by the Socialist Party of Tennessee, Stephen. He defines himself that way. So that’s how they’re defining themselves. So if you define yourself that way, I don’t think it’s weird that a conservative or anybody in the news just says, by the way, they have taken the endorsement or they’re a member of. Now, why does the government invest in companies like Intel? We’re only talking about groceries. National security. I think most people get it right there. Do you want China to own those companies? Or do you want the U.S. to have a stake to make sure that those companies are not going to be bought off by other foreign governments? Socialism is running all the industries and all the jobs. This is having a seat at the table. By the way, private and public partnerships, your whole city and town is made up of them from the federal level to the state level. You’ll be able to operate. I mean, your hospitals that seem private, they’re not. The private universities get federal money all the time because they come up with unbelievable research that can cure disease, that can make our troops safer, that can make our servicemen safer. So that’s it. National security. National security. You don’t, in this new world with tech… You want a seat at the table, and so you invest. If you were going to be buying so much from these companies, you might as well have a way to direct.
SPEAKER 03 :
Have a stake in it. With that, Steve, and again, like you said to Mamdami, if you don’t want to be defined as a socialist, don’t become a Democrat socialist. He would not be offended. She could have rejected the endorsement, I guess. They would not. be offended by being they’re not offended by being called a socialist so i don’t know what we’re talking about here steven we appreciate you calling though and fun lines are open if you want to call in too if you got a response to that 1-800-684-3110 as we head to break look i’m going to keep talking about it’s gonna be the last day a lot of you are going to hear from us probably for this week because we know you’ll be traveling you’ll be celebrating with your families So with that, I’m going to ask you to support the work of the ACLJ once again during our Freedom Drive. We have the last few days left. We’re going to give you more details of that coming up in the final segment of all the work the ACLJ is doing right now, whether that’s our legal work or our media work. It does not stop. It does not stop. It does not slow down. If anything, it ramps up. We need your help. Go to ACLJ.org. We’ll be right back with Mike Pompeo. Back to Sekulow. We are still awaiting Mike Pompeo’s connection here, so it may be a while. I may not get to him today, and that’s okay. You know what? It’s Thanksgiving week. Some people have a lot going on or they’re traveling, so if we don’t get to them, no big deal. President Trump did just pardon the turkeys. So you know what? The turkeys are safe. Of course, in typical fashion, maybe you sat your kids around and said, let’s watch this tradition. Surely there’s not going to be anything too extreme coming from President Trump as he pardons the turkeys, something that people watch with their families, not unlike the Thanksgiving Day parade. Let’s hear from President Trump by 16.
SPEAKER 05 :
The turkeys being pardoned today go by the names of Gobble and Waddle. When I first saw their pictures, I thought we should send them. Well, I was going to I shouldn’t say this. I was going to call him Chuck and Nancy. But then I realized I wouldn’t be pardoning them. I would never pardon those two people. I wouldn’t pardon them. I wouldn’t care what Melania told me. Darling, I think it would be a nice thing to do. I won’t do it, darling.
SPEAKER 03 :
Of course, that is the president pardoning the turkeys, but never taking a moment to not take some kind of, you know, moment to make it go viral, I guess. You know what? Hopefully your kids, maybe you had some explaining to do with them. Who are this? This is a big story we’ve got to break down now. But hey, Secretary Pompeo, Mike Pompeo is joining us right now. I’m going to deviate off of that, Secretary Pompeo, unless you have something to say about the pardoning of the turkeys.
SPEAKER 08 :
I got nothing.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay, there you go. Moving on. One thing we woke up to this morning, maybe some good news here, is that Ukraine seems to have agreed with the U.S. peace deal, at least on the core terms. We don’t know the exact details, but even the core terms, I was actually a little surprised because some of those terms include land swaps. They include a lot of things that obviously is a lot of money to Ukraine as well. Could this be the beginning of the end? Are you optimistic here? We haven’t heard from Russia officially yet.
SPEAKER 08 :
Boy, I’m hopeful. Maybe it’s just the Thanksgiving spirit, but I hope not. I hope they’ve now each agreed that they’re going to have to make some concessions. I think you’re right in what I read this morning, at least. The Ukrainians have clearly agreed to some things that they had declined to agree to before. They’re willing to do it. We’ll see if Vladimir Putin is actually serious about peace today. Remember, Zelensky had agreed to a ceasefire. Zelensky agreed to a previous offer that had been made, President Trump. Now this. today putin hasn’t agreed to anything but what he put out uh right now seven days ago they look like his maximalist demands so i’m not confident putin will sign off on what’s there but maybe it provides a basis where putin could say i’ll take that plus x and y and they can find a place that would be a a glorious and wonderful thing if the ukrainians can get the sovereignty and the political independence that they so richly deserve and you can stop the fighting at the same time
SPEAKER 04 :
And I think it would be huge for the world, Secretary Pompeo, especially Europe, to end what is a live-fire war in Europe that has made a lot of countries nervous, that border Ukraine, that border Russia, that you get into wintertime, they start getting worried about natural gas and keeping their people warm in their homes. So timing-wise, it’s becoming the most difficult weather of the year faced in this part of Europe. If this could… Start a process that ends the war, that ends the killing. This would be a huge accomplishment from the administration who I think thought maybe this could come to an end more quickly and both Ukraine and Russia kind of dug in.
SPEAKER 08 :
yeah no it’s very true this is an inflection point a winner’s coming on us this is to be the third winner of this war uh they’re always they’ve always proven difficult for the ukrainians to keep energy flowing keep people warm keep people safe also fighting in the winter there you know this we’ve all read the stories of world war ii fighting world war one fighting uh in cold and winter it’s nasty and uh really difficult uh and so it would be a great thing i’d caution only this I don’t think for a moment Putin’s going to change his mind, his objective of greater Russian empire. And so whatever deal is struck will only be material. It will only really matter if it does bring a durational peace. Call it. It’s never forever, right? But call it 25 years more where there’s a security architecture put in place which keeps Vladimir Putin or his successor from doing this again. We can’t allow this to be something that looks like a ceasefire. Russia’s rebuild in six months, 12 months, 18 months from now, we’re all right back in the soup.
SPEAKER 03 :
Of course, a lot of the deal points also lead to sort of the reopening of Russia and the United States having some kind of relationship. And I think we don’t want to say that the Russia has not responded. We actually know right now that the army secretary, Dan Driscoll, he’s in Abu Dhabi meeting with Russian officials. So this isn’t like it’s not on the table. This is something that is being actively discussed right now. And that should at least be seen as some kind of positive movement. It’s not like under the Biden administration where you just ice out Putin, you don’t talk to him at all. And therefore, nothing moves forward. At least now we know there’s some things here. And and one of the things that people maybe don’t realize, and it’s sort of hard to think about is what’s going on the global stage. It’s also what’s going on in the local stage in Ukraine, which goes on a local stage in Russia, maybe more so in Ukraine. Not unlike in Israel is there is a lot of political pressure for Zelensky as well.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, definitely true. No internal Ukrainian political fighting is legendary. And we all know that we can all we can all see that play out. And Zelensky trying to master his internal dynamic while also executing this war against Russia. So, yeah, this is that. And by the way, this is a little bit of peak internal fighting, too, I think, is interesting. i think as ukrainians can see the end of the war they’re now trying to think okay what should this look like going forward if we’re going to have independence who’s going to run this thing how did we allow this to happen and how can we prevent it from happening again all of that will be on the table for the ukrainian internal political dynamic as well and you mentioned europe europe definitely needs this to end this is not something that they can extend the european economy has grown at an incredibly slow rate over the last year 18 months and this conflict in europe has distracted them from what we all need them to do which is to become innovative, creative, build their economies. If you can get peace, if you can get the guns to lay down, you have a chance to begin to get European growth back to a place where they can be the great and important partner that the United States needs them to be.
SPEAKER 04 :
And we know, though, that up until these moments of actual ceasefire and actual maybe coming of end of this conflict, that As of today, the missiles are still flying into Ukrainian villages. People in Russia are still worried about drone attacks as well. People on both sides who are just trying to go about their life. And it is a real active live war in Europe that I think sometimes we like to try and forget about. Even Europeans, my trips over there, try to forget about how close it’s happening. But it’s going to be happening through our Thanksgiving holiday here. And we should be in prayer for all those people, especially those kids who are going through a very cold season.
SPEAKER 08 :
start to their winter and in a very dangerous time amen that’s exactly true um I’ve even been in Ukraine in places where there was an active conflict and it sometimes feels like even they don’t feel the pressure that uh sits in eastern Ukraine and sits in Poland right well don’t forget the Russians have flown drones over parts of Europe Vladimir Putin’s objectives are deep and strong getting to a ceasefire, an agreement which would give structure to Ukrainian security and real guarantees. They feel like they’ve been sold out. The Budapest memorandum promised we’d come to their defense. They feel like we didn’t honor that. An agreement that they think, yep, this actually bolsters deterrence so that we don’t end up back in this same place in the near term. This would be a blessing to everyone on earth and certainly to the European mothers and fathers who’ve got their kids fighting in a terrible, indecent war.
SPEAKER 03 :
Secretary Pompeo, we always appreciate your guidance in this because I think it’s important to hear from you as someone who’s dealt with this on a global stage. Look, it’s the reason the ACLJ exists, the reason we have a European center as well, the reason why we have worked in these regions before, before all of the war. Obviously, we were there very actively in Russia. Jordan has spent a lot of time there. So it is something that we spent time in and we understand the importance of it.
SPEAKER 04 :
We’ll talk about it next week, actually, after the holiday. But this isn’t about Turkey, not the turkeys that were pardoned. But our ECLJ has been very active on Christian persecution that’s seen an uptick in Turkey under Erdogan’s government. They posted a new report. And this report is going all over the place in Turkey from the ECLJ. It’s in English and in French. I didn’t want to kind of… throw it out today right before people go into Thanksgiving so I’m going to definitely bring on some of our ECLJ team who was here last week like Greg Orr to tell us about how their reach now is reaching into places like Turkey for the persecuted church so while we come together you know for Thanksgiving and we are thankful for the freedoms that we have here, one of those core freedoms in our First Amendment is our freedom of religion. That is why those pilgrims came, is freedom of religion. Is that we are doing this work all around the world, and if you’re a supporter of the ACLJ, we thank you on Thanksgiving as well. And there’s a lot of people who would thank you too if they knew it was you who were the reason why there was someone out there fighting for their persecuted church far away in a country called Turkey. far away from the United States on Thanksgiving, but that you still care enough about their religious liberty and their ability to worship Christ as well. And so for this Thanksgiving, again, we want to thank all of you out there. We’re very thankful because you allow our teams, who love this work, but it costs money to do this work.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right. And the work we do in Europe, I think is very important. And I think it’s also growing. We are seeing after 25 years, we are actually seeing some real movement. Look, you walk, you go around Europe, religious iconography is everywhere, but the idea of sort of an evangelical version of it has been largely quiet for many, many years until now. And it feels like there’s finally this moment happening. that we have been waiting for here at the ACLJ. So don’t think that the ACLJ just is within our country. Of course, that is the majority of our work or within our borders, but there is plenty of other work happening all around the world. And look, if other countries get to open up, we will try to be there as much as we can be, whether that’s in the ACLJ, the ACLJ, the ACLJ Jerusalem, or offices around the country and around the world, some of which we don’t even talk about here. But that’s because of you, as Jordan said. When we head into the next segment, what are you thankful for? Are you thankful for the work we’re doing? Are you thankful for the media side we’re doing? Are you thankful for other things in your life, in your family, in the political world? Whatever it may be, give me a call. I’d love to hear from you. You can also put that in the comments. I’ll share some. It’s the next segment we’d like to hear from you. That’s at 1-800-684-3110. And let me know where you’re watching from as well if you’re on our chat right now. I always like to see that, to know that not only are we representing the United States of America, there’s always a few watching from around the world because we know the influence of what happens here really influences the rest of the world. And I encourage you, go to ACLJ.org right now, have your donation doubled. It’s doubled because someone’s ready to unlock their match. That’s right. That’s at ACLJ.org. Do it today. I’m going to give a second here. Scan that QR code, go to the website. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Seculo. Let me know, we got him or we got, no, not yet. Okay, we’ll see you here. We got people calling in, a lot of comments coming in. Of course, it is Thanksgiving week and I see a lot of you have chimed in, thankful for a lot of the great work we’re doing, whether that’s our pro-life work. I’m thankful for everything, for my family. I’m thankful for obviously for God and for our country and for everything. But we got Rick Grinnell and Rick wasn’t supposed to be on today. We didn’t know we had a little, we only said, Rick, come on board. Have you on because it is Thanksgiving week. We’re all kind of wrapping up our broadcast this week. So I wanted to say not only we’re thankful for you and for your guidance and everything you’re doing for our country and for the Kennedy Center. So, you know, I want to give you a minute and just say thank you to you as well, Rick.
SPEAKER 07 :
Logan, I couldn’t resist being on with all the ACLJ listeners, so thanks for having me. Look, it’s been an amazing year. We really, I think, turned around the country. We have done such great work. I look forward to all the work that we’re going to be doing, and I hope people will be ACLJ partners. This is a organization that is filled with action, not just talk. And as you can see, we dissect issues, but we also take action. We’ve got a great legal team and are constantly pushing to defend you. And so I hope that people will join us.
SPEAKER 03 :
Rick, I appreciate that. And also, in the last segment, we discussed a lot of what’s going on in the world stage, whether that’s you know, Russia, Ukraine, whatever’s happening. The work the ACLJ does, it’s beyond just our, the borders of the United States of America. And why I love having people like you on as well, who have been involved in such a deep way with the world stage and can tell our audience of why it’s important that we are engaged this way. Because it’s a little easy to kind of see the headline, the bubbles of what’s going on around the world, to feel a little bit, of course, America, like we said, is 90% of our work here, but there is still a lot of work that is going on around the world for religious freedom and for what’s happening for just basic freedoms, freedom of speech, whether that is here, whether that’s in the United Kingdom, whether that’s going on in Europe, or of course, areas that really need it. And of course, Nigeria and everything that’s been the news. But you’ve been involved in so many of those for so long that I think it’s always good to have voices like you who can come on and explain why it is important that we’re playing on a global stage.
SPEAKER 07 :
Look, first of all, let me just say, you know, as the president of the Kennedy Center, I understand the culture war that we’re fighting. And there are other platforms around the world that we have to be fighting. I spent eight years at the U.N. and I can tell you that outside of the U.S., the United Nations has an incredibly powerful brand. Now, to most Americans, that seems silly and odd. But the reality is, is the United Nations is a very powerful tool in most of the world. And that is exactly why the ACLJ has to have an office there, has to be there. We have to be in Geneva, in New York, fighting on these cultural issues, fighting on these religious issues, because the rest of the world is going to follow. I will also say, remember, the world followed America when we decided to go woke. The rest of the world followed us. What we do in America tends to happen throughout the rest of the world. And so if we want to change our world, if we want to make our world a better place, we have to show up and play that game. And many times, that’s outside of the US in forums like the United Nations, like NATO. And we have to be able to make the arguments to stop some of the crazy far left woke ideas that come out of, I would say, California, where I live, New York, you look at Momdami and Karen Bass, the two mayors of the largest two cities in America, and they’re both crazy left. That problem permeates not only within our states and within our country, but goes out to the world. And we’ve got to recognize that fight.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, absolutely. It’s why I said in our last segment, I always tell people who are watching, whether on YouTube or Rumble or whatever, to let me know where they’re watching from. Because always, I mean, obviously, again, mass majority are from the States. There’s always a handful that are watching from places in the world you would never expect. Because, as you said, the influence of America, go flip on Sky News. Likely what they’re talking about, President Trump. Likely what they’re talking about is what’s going on in Washington, D.C., almost i’d say like 80 of their coverage it feels like whenever i’m in europe whether it’s sky news or cnn international for good or for bad they are talking about what’s happening in america
SPEAKER 07 :
It’s so true, and I’ve learned that lesson as I travel. And you watch international news, and it always starts with Washington. And so what we do in DC is immediately exported to the world for good and for bad. And for the last four years under Joe Biden, we’ve really exported the woke culture. I watched the German media quite closely after being the US ambassador to Germany, and they’re in a woke fight right now. the German conservatives and people with common sense fighting against the German government and this woke culture. It’s a real fight. There are like two or three years behind us.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah. It was interesting. I was in London or we ended up going to Wales in the UK just in the summer. And we got put in like a room with a bunch of people who had never met before. And the first thing they asked was, how do you feel about Trump? How do you feel about Trump? And they were supportive and they were actually families of immigrants, first generation Brits, who were kind of annoyed with what was going on in their own country and looking to America going, okay, well, if they could do it there, what can we do here? Again, not exactly what you were thinking, but… Again, I’m not going to go to them. The first thing I’m not going to ask is, so how does it feel with Keir Starmer? You know, that’s not going to be the conversation I’m having. So it’s very different, Rick. But I don’t want to take up too much of your time, but we’re going to wrap up here. But again, just thank you again. It is Thanksgiving.
SPEAKER 04 :
Happy Thanksgiving, Rick, to you and your family and to everyone doing that work in Washington, D.C., who sometimes get the day off, sometimes don’t. I think you’ve probably worked many of those holidays before. and spent them away from your families. Hopefully you get to spend with your family this year. And we just thank everybody out there who makes it possible for Rick to be part of our team too.
SPEAKER 07 :
Thank you and happy Thanksgiving to all of you and to all of our listeners.
SPEAKER 03 :
Thank you, Rick, so much. Look, we’re going to start wrapping this up. We only got about two and a half minutes left. There’s going to be some great programming that’s going to be running throughout the rest of the week you’re going to hear. But I’ll be honest with all of you and say, you know what? This is going to be probably the last time a lot of you hear from us live until next week because we have great content ready to go. But of course, for Thanksgiving, we are going to spend Thanksgiving not on air. And I think that’s okay. And I think you understand that, hopefully, as the listener and the viewer. But we will have content for you ready to go. Don’t worry. It won’t be just radio silence. But with that, I do want to give you this last opportunity to support our work, Jordan. Because like we’ve said, the work doesn’t stop. Not only that, it actually ramps up over the next really eight weeks.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes, I mean, there’s a lot to talk about, too, that when we come back next week, the FBI has just started to schedule these interviews with six of those lawmakers from the video who said, you know, don’t follow illegal orders. But then they got asked, well, what illegal orders have there been? They said none. some of them are talking about us sharing our clips yeah so you know what sharing those clips too so if you see that around that you but but the second is that you know taking that seriously but also i just really want again to say to all of you out there uh for you know whether it’s been 35 years or three months of your support or you’re just figuring out who we are this month today um Thank you for your support of the ACLJ. There’s so many different ways you do it by sharing on social media, by sharing the emails, by donating, and that can be a $5 donation. It can be a $50 donation. It can be a $5,000 donation. Every single one of those adds up, and it’s why our teams are able to act as they are. We’re filing in federal court the day after Thanksgiving. We’ll be filing, I’m sure, next week, too. There’s plenty to talk about. The work doesn’t stop, and there’s always more we can do. And we always want to be able to say yes to that work and have the resources to say yes to that work. And that’s where you come in.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right. Be a part of the team right now. I’m going to ask you to think about, pray about, and support the work of the ACLJ during our Freedom Drive. Ends at the end of this month. We’ll be rolling into December with a new push. But you know these last two months are the most important months for any nonprofit. And the ACLJ really could use your support today. Have your gifts doubled. Again, that’s at ACLJ.org. Of course, it’s tax deductible. And, of course, you can be a part of that team as well. You can even become an ACLJ champion when you opt in and become a monthly supporter that gives automatically each and every month. Of course, you can cancel at any time. But your first donation will be doubled. If you’re already a champion, you want to make a donation on top of that, your donation will be doubled. All donations doubled right now. Do it. ACLJ.org.
