In today’s episode, we delve deep into a shocking $9 billion fraud scheme unraveling in Minnesota. With Homeland Security agents newly deployed, we discuss the implications of this massive investigation on both federal and state levels. Our hosts debate the effectiveness of resource allocation while inviting listeners to join the dialogue about accountability and oversight. The episode further investigates Minnesota’s daycare fraud allegations, prompted by viral investigations from independent journalists, raising questions about government funding and NGO audits.
SPEAKER 02 :
We’ve got breaking news. Homeland Security agents have been deployed to investigate Minnesota’s fraud sites.
SPEAKER 06 :
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 02 :
Welcome back to Sekulow. It is Tuesday. We are live heading into the very end of the year. Can you believe we have made it here? It’s the final two days of the year. It’s the last chance for you to have your tax-deductible gift made for the end of the year, year-end drive. And of course, usually we could say that they’re doubled and they’re matched. But for just today and tomorrow. Now, it is a triple gift right now. So if you give right now, it effectively is triple in value. So if you do that right now, we really would appreciate it. That’s at aclj.org. We do have some breaking news coming out. You may have seen the Minnesota story just seems to just continue to erode as there seems to be more and more information and more independent journalists that are on the case, so much so now that the DHS, Department of Homeland Security, has deployed agents to many of these sites which seem to be colluding and part of the fraud scheme upwards of $9 billion. And this really comes out of some really interesting reporting. That’s right. A viral video, if you will.
SPEAKER 04 :
Both the FBI and Department of Homeland Security are surging resources to Minnesota to investigate the allegations of fraud there. We heard about fraud through the COVID program. The fraud programs through the COVID system, through Medicaid and all of those issues. Now we’re starting to see cracks in another area of resource and assistance that is state run and federal dollars. And that is around the daycare system. Now this is something that in Minnesota, apparently some daycares had been charged. Some people had been charged for fraudulent billing some years ago. But now this independent journalist, YouTube creator, Nick Shirley, did kind of an expose that broke over the Christmas holiday of him going to these centers. One famously now misspelled learning in the name Quality Learning Center. It said Quality Learing Center. And they have just when they go to these places, there were no children. And that has prompted even more allegations of if this fraud scheme is going on.
SPEAKER 02 :
We have a clip. Let’s take a look at this. Let’s go by six.
SPEAKER 03 :
I knocked on the door and to my surprise, somebody actually answered the door. Hello. Can we speak? I would like to check a child in the daycare. Can I speak to a manager? Where can I get paperwork to file for my son? I wanted to put my son Joey in daycare. And after a few questions, the lady went silent. Looks like little Joey surely ain’t going to daycare here.
SPEAKER 02 :
And a lot of, you know, there’s plenty of more versions of this you could see as they continue to uncover more and more. Now, look, the first question I had, well, is this because it’s over Christmas break? Is this something that they, you know, kind of set up here to show? But the answer to that seems to be no, that he’s been doing this investigation for quite some time.
SPEAKER 04 :
And what we’re also seeing is that now some of these individuals seem to be trying to play catch up like that famous one that had the misspelled name where neighbors had even said they had never seen children there. A state official tried to say it wasn’t even open anymore. And then all of a sudden today, 20 children are there. And so now they have 20 children that are attending this daycare. It all seems like trying to cover up the fact that there was no one there. Now, once again, these are all allegations there are. There is a now an investigation being led by DHS and the FBI, but also caution people just because you see it in the YouTube video or go to a certain site. And at the time, doesn’t mean every single one of these people are engaged in this sort of fraud.
SPEAKER 02 :
I want to know your thoughts. Do you think this is where we should be deploying our resources? 1-800-684-3110. Do you care? I’d love to hear from you about that. Of course, we are rapidly approaching the end of the year. Tomorrow is it. Can you believe we made it here? So our year-end drive is coming to a close. in just a little over 24 hours. So you have your donations tripled. It was a big day yesterday. Let’s continue to do that. Let’s keep the momentum going. The ACLJ is hard at work over the holidays. You know that we’re even going to be taking on Governor Gavin Newsom in the state of California. You’ve been doing that at Supreme Court and so much more. We’re going to get into that a little bit later. And we’ll be joined by Jeff Balaban from ACLJ Jerusalem coming up in just a few minutes. Be right back. Welcome back to Seculo. Phone lines are wide open for you right now at 1-800-684-3110. I think we need to restate what’s going on. Of course, we are continuing our conversation about the fraud scheme that happened in Minnesota as now Department of Homeland Security agents have been deployed to Minnesota to some of these sites. As an independent journalist, a viral YouTuber, put out videos showing that a lot of these daycare centers and other places seems to be You know, fronts, shells, they don’t seem to be fully operating. Now, of course, you got to take it for what it is. We can’t just say 100% that that is what’s happening. Of course, it is independent journalists. Of course, it is someone on YouTube. So you got to do your own facts. But now the Department of Homeland Security at least thinks it’s serious enough. to be sending agents there, deploying more resources to this. And that was a question I had. Do you think we should be actually deploying more resources to this? There are other things that we need to be focused on. Obviously, you could do a few things at one time. The Department of Homeland Security doesn’t just have to be focused on one thing. Give me a call at 1-800-684-3110. We’re also in the last day. you know, 36 hours, not even, left in our final drive here, which is really amazing, our year-end Freedom Drive, and the donations are tripled right now. We had a record-breaking day yesterday, and look, it has been a year for a lot of organizations like ours. We know the economy has not necessarily bounced back fully in a way that helps organizations like ours, which is really, when you have extra revenue, maybe it’s somewhere you’re gonna put But we know towards the end of the year that that sort of started to change. And we’ve seen some massive change here in the last few weeks, to be honest, and really in the last couple days. So I encourage you, if now you feel like you have the funds to do this, do it. Now think about it, pray about it. Of course, if you don’t, there’s no judgment here. We wanna make sure this content’s always available to you for free. That’s how we’re able to do that is because people like you donate. And one of the things that you can also do is just engage. If you’re watching on YouTube, comment. Right now is a great thing to do. If you don’t have anything to say, tell me where you’re watching from. I like to always look at that. But one of the big things that has come out of this Minnesota fraud scandal, Will, is just really, I think, another one of those illuminating moments where people… can see when they start realizing that we’re talking about the billions and the multi-billions, how government waste does get out of hand. It’s sort of a shame that something like the Doge Department, not necessarily that it doesn’t exist, it clearly still exists, still running in some ways, but sort of those early days aren’t necessarily going as much as they were because this is where I really want them to step in.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, that’s right. And when you think about what Doge was saying they wanted to do is go after waste, fraud and abuse. But anytime that they would start to look at programs like something like maybe childcare, helping people that can’t afford childcare to get that so they can enter the workforce. The pushback from the left was like, you can’t go near that. They’re going to dismantle this.
SPEAKER 02 :
Look, probably some from the right as well.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right, but here’s the problem. The ways fraud and abuse is rampant throughout the U.S. government, throughout these state governments, so much so that even the programs that should be helping people, whether you agree with them with your political philosophy or not.
SPEAKER 02 :
Like if they should be funding it. Right. But at least in general, they’re humanitarian in nature.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. Being able to have a safe place for children to go if they have parents that work and need a place for them to go. That’s on the surface a good thing, or at least noble intentions. When you see how widespread, and this is something that even appeared to be investigated by local media in Minnesota about 10 years ago as well, where there was even… People would go sign their children in, get a kickback from centers and leave with the children so that they could bill the government for the services. Some of these these daycare centers that were visited by this independent journalist. They were getting millions of dollars in taxpayer money to provide these services. And when they were visited, there was no one there. Now, it is incumbent upon the federal investigators that are there to figure out the truth, to find out whether or not they are fraudulently billing, whether or not they are breaking laws, and to prosecute them to the fullest extent. But what I think is so telling… is that the governor’s office issued a statement to Fox News and it wasn’t that this is all fake we have looked into this yada yada yada they gave a mea culpa like we are not to blame here kind of statement they said That the governor has worked for years to crack down on fraud and asked the state legislature for more authority to take aggressive action. He has strengthened oversight. So one, he’s already trying to push it. Maybe it’s the legislature’s fault for not giving me more authority. But two, trying to say he has been strong in this. I want to contrast that with what we heard from the assistant U.S. attorney, Joe Thompson, just before Christmas. We played this soundbite because this was still talking about the food centers and the food fraud and the fraudulent billing and all that, where he had said of the 18 billion dollars that had federally gone to Minnesota, about half of that. was was taken fraudulently so nine billion dollars of taxpayer dollars were stolen wasted but here’s what he had to say and i think it was very telling that this statement came before what this journalist is putting out there because it’s illuminating let’s go ahead and play bite two joe thompson assistant u.s attorney
SPEAKER 05 :
taxpayers deserve to know the truth of the fraud the fraud is not small it isn’t isolated the magnitude cannot be overstated what we see in minnesota is not a handful of bad actors committing crimes it’s a staggering industrial scale fraud it’s swamping minnesota and calling into question everything we know about our state
SPEAKER 04 :
So the assistant U.S. attorney there, Logan, is saying that it’s industrial-scale fraud, it’s swamping Minnesota, and calling into question everything we know about our state. That’s from the Department of Justice. It’s an assistant U.S. attorney. that has started looking into this. Now that you know the FBI is surging resources, and Kash Patel even said we were surging resources when these first allegations came out, even before this video went viral with over 126 million views on X and over 2 million views on YouTube, they were already sending resources there. We know Department of Homeland Security is sending resources there. not just Department of Homeland Security, not just for immigration enforcement, but to investigate how this fraud was taking place among immigrant communities as well. This is a big deal. And I think that we almost thought this story would kind of go away with the news cycle, right? You have the shocking numbers that came out. First, it was the $250 million from one organization that was stealing COVID money to provide meals, and they were fraudulently billing that. Then it comes that, oh, okay, they’re saying it’s a lot wider, a lot more widespread. Now there’s another layer going into that these daycare centers could be potentially a piece of this as well. It is showing a state in the United States that has lost all control of the fiscal arms of being able to control where money’s going. And what is it doing? It’s not helping the citizens, helping Americans. It’s enriching thieves and fraudsters.
SPEAKER 02 :
No.
SPEAKER 04 :
And that’s a problem.
SPEAKER 02 :
And there’s a lot that’s going to be done. And I think there will be some political ramifications as this becomes more of a… I’m curious if you’re in Minnesota and you’re watching this or listening, what does the news cycle tell you there? kind of whose side are they on if you will i’m very curious about that because i think universally even on on the left there’s a lot of people saying this has clearly been abuse this has clearly been a big issue they may not be blaming tim walls they may not be blaming all of them but there is that and there’s a lot of calls for what could happen to tim walls’s political career here as it seems he has been covering up at least if not covering it up at least should have been paying more attention to what was going on with the funds in his state. Let’s actually take a call. Let’s go to Dee, who’s calling in California on line one. Dee, go ahead.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yes, my question is this. Is there any way possible for our Congress to get involved and impeach Tim Walz since he’s unwilling to resign as governor?
SPEAKER 02 :
No, it would probably need to happen on more of a state. Honestly, a lot of it would just be political pressure. I think there’s a lot of pressure that can come within the state to say, this guy not only does not represent us anymore, but has failed us. I’m not sure where his term is up or any of that, though.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, he’s up for reelection in 2026. He’s trying to become the first third term governor in the modern era of Minnesota. But D, no, the United States Congress can’t impeach a state official, though the House of Representatives in Minnesota could do that, according to their constitution. Very similarly structured to the U.S. Constitution when it comes to impeachment. House shall have sole responsibility. uh power of impeaching through a concurrence of a majority of all its members so majority impeachment in the house and then it’s tried by the senate and so therefore they can no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the senators present so the structure of an impeachment at the state level minnesota mirrors that of the u.s constitution um now the it’s pretty liberal state in minnesota They would have to see it would have to be so bad that members of his own party feel like, you know what? We got to start fresh.
SPEAKER 02 :
And it could get there. I’m not saying it’s not going to get there. I think you are seeing the signs that that could be where things are going. I did see a comment come in just because all I hear is talk, talk, talk. Who’s getting arrested? What’s going on? Well, they have deployed Department of Homeland Security agents just today. to get to Minnesota to see what’s going on. These are not short processes. Nor, by the way, do you want it to be in America. You want to make sure we do our job, our due diligence. Look, I understand that can be frustrating at times. We’ll keep you updated on that. We also have a big victory coming out of the ACLJ. We’re going to talk about that in the next segment. So you want to stay tuned. As we are wrapping up our year in drive, we need your support. If you like this program, You like what we do here on our YouTube channel, on Rumble, on X, or on Instagram, or maybe you watch on the Salem News channel, or you listen on the radio. None of that happens because we want to do it without a paywall. None of it happens without you, the supporter, the ACLJ donor or champion. I need you to do that for me today. This is the best time to do it. Your donations are tripled right now, triple matched by other great ACLJ supporters. So today, go to ACLJ.org and make your donation. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Secula. We are going to give you some updates on some ACLJ victories and wins, but I know a lot of you are watching right now because of this breaking news item, so I don’t want to divert too far off of it. There’s a lot of calls that have come in. I want to make sure we get to some of those. Let’s go first to Todd in Georgia. Todd on line three. Go ahead, Todd.
SPEAKER 07 :
Hey, thanks for taking my call. My question is, since they’ve uncovered so much fraud with the NGOs, whether in Minnesota or the U.N., is it time for NGOs to have to pass an audit to have to prove that the taxpayer money they’re getting is actually going where it’s supposed to go? It seems like they get the checks and then they’re out the door.
SPEAKER 02 :
You would think that that was happening to begin with. You’d think there’d be some kind of accountability when millions or, I don’t know, billions of dollars are going out the door that there would be someone checking up on these organizations. But we know that this has been a problem. During COVID, it was a big problem where organizations were just… being funded without websites, without any sort of track record of any sort of existence in an organization. This was happening so much, we all became acutely aware of it. I think that’s what’s crazy, is that who knows how long these organizations have been doing it this way because of the way government funding clearly does not have Those crossing the T moments where you think they’d be actually checking what’s happening, that you have somebody involved on that level. The massive corruption, I doubt, I doubt, maybe it’s not to the $9 billion mark, I doubt only exists in Minnesota.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, and what you… What you have to remember here is that for years we’ve talked about the bureaucracy almost being like the fourth branch of government, that it was hard to control. It was an unelected branch of government in a way, and that they had so much power given to them, it was almost impossible to fight back. That was the deep state, right? You have this fifth branch of government almost that has been more and more exposed because of how much money they got and how much power they had over politicians, it seemed, was the NGO set that’s not a non-governmental organization in the sense of a non-profit organization, one that does charitable work, that receives donations. This is where basically their entire budget is. is given through grants from you not directly but through the government and so we already saw all the ridiculous things that were being funded at the USAID and things of that the State Department when Doge really got to it but there were so many things that everyone was told you can’t look there you can’t look there because that is a good service that’s being provided and it’s helping people and people will die If you do not, if you take away that money and you look at it. But in reality, what’s probably happening and why these are being shielded is you’re going to find that less people are being helped than should be. And wouldn’t you, even if that money is appropriated and sent out the door, at that point, you’ve lost control over it as the taxpayer. They’ve already appropriated it, whether you agree with it or not. Would you rather that money go to actually doing what it’s supposed to or just being stolen by people? Right, and that’s the crazy part.
SPEAKER 02 :
And that’s what we’re seeing here, is that you don’t have these checks and balances. And I think that’s something that you, if you’re in the state of Minnesota, or honestly any of these states, you need to be calling on your representatives to actually be checking up on this, make this a big deal. If we know that $9 billion or so is where the fraud is in Minnesota… I think it’s time we start checking on all these states, whether you’re a Republican state or the Democrat state, where’s the money going? Is these organizations actually doing, like Will said, you may not agree with the idea of a social program like this, but you may still want, well, if I’m going to have to do it, I’d like it to at least be going to, I don’t know, childcare and not have a bunch of shell childcare companies that are just receiving funds for no work.
SPEAKER 04 :
Here’s what I also think, Logan, is a big thing we have to wrap our heads around. Because it used to be, and I think on the right, conservatives still talk about it this way. We’re still discussing whether or not a program is good to fund because of political ideology. Do we think a welfare program is going to actually help bring people out of poverty? Or is it going to keep them trapped in a cycle of poverty? That’s the old argument that we would have with members of the other ideology. is not that we didn’t think that people needed help. It’s just that by just giving away money and money and money, it doesn’t actually help people out of poverty in the way that it’s supposed to. I mean, that’s why Bill Clinton was able to pass welfare reform in the 90s because that was the debate. The debate was, let’s make it so that if we’re going to be helping people, it at least gives them a pathway out of it. That’s no longer even the discussion. Now the discussion is, should we just be throwing this money? You can’t even question it. And we’re not even going to make sure it’s going to try and help, but you’re not allowed to question it. Because if you do, you’re an evil Republican that just wants people to languish in poverty and wants people to die because you won’t give them your taxpayer money.
SPEAKER 02 :
You clipped out a wheel just saying that, you know, just that last part. Right, that’s how you use that against you. Let’s go to Rachel who’s calling in New York with a question a lot of people are asking, but I think there’s a pretty easy answer. Go ahead, Rachel.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yes, hi. I’m just wondering, since all this focus is being put on walls, okay, why isn’t any being put on Omar?
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, I don’t know about if any of it’s not, but I do believe it’s because he’s the governor. This is where a lot of this money is being kind of funneled through, different than your representative.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right. Well, he’s in control of the executive branch of the state, and many of these programs are facilitated by his agencies. Through them, yeah. She is a member of the U.S. Congress. Now, yes, like the Meals Act of 2020, which helped get money to all states, not just Minnesota, was one that was exploited by fraudsters in Minnesota. I don’t think you can necessarily draw a direct tie to her other than maybe a bad piece of legislation because didn’t have the controls on there to help not stop the fraud. But people are, she’s referencing that a lot of people are trying to point out her net worth. I mean, look at 450 some odd members of Congress and shockingly, a large majority of them, their net worth goes up making $160,000 a year. But her husband who they like to point to is a political consultant. He’s not an NGO person running one of these programs. So
SPEAKER 02 :
i’d be very careful when you read an allegation like that when if there is no proof behind it but if there is i’m sure the federal investigators will look into it i also want to say this you make them into celebrities celebrities end up making a lot of money right uh you know whether that’s from speaking whether i mean i don’t know what they can how the money all works in that there’s a lot of ways for celebrities to use their influence to make money so when you do make these people into stars And that’s what we do in American politics. We seem to always forget that, but we do. We make them into household names. There’s money that’s going to come in. And I’m not saying that she doesn’t have anything we need to look into. I’m just saying that I think it could be a little bit easy, as Will said, to read a meme and go, well, look, her net worth went up like this. Yeah, it’s kind of the way we do things. I’m not saying it’s right, but it’s sort of the way Americans have done when you become a celebrity politician. Look at any president. Look at any of these names. There’s book deals. There’s so many things that they can exploit. and sometimes it’s not nefarious now it’s coming at a time when her state is under a lot of scrutiny so of course that should be scrutinized as well hey we got one minute left In this segment, some of you only listen for the first half hour, or some of you only get us on your local radio station on the first half hour. We broadcast live for a full hour. That is on a lot of stations. That is on YouTube. That is on Rumble. That is on ACLJ.org. That’s the best place to watch and listen to these shows. Salem News Channel, because it’s the full hour, unedited. We get to do a great live show for you. If you only get us for the first half hour, find us on one of those options. However, if this is where we lose you, I also want to give you a moment. to support the work of the ACLJ. And we’re going to talk about in the next segment, some of the big success stories. I wanted to get some of those calls out of the way because we’ve had a lot going on in the world of the ACLJ, even the last couple of days. And we have stuff that’s even happening today and tomorrow. And of course, this is a new year in just two days. We need you to help us out. Your donations are tripled right now because great ACLJ supporters and champions are ready to unlock their pledges. But they only unlock those pledges if you make a donation today. So if you like what you hear here, if you like our legal work, if you like the media side, if you like all the great content, I need you to go to ACLJ.org right now. We’re going to be back in less than a minute. Still live.
SPEAKER 06 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 02 :
Welcome back to Sekulow, second half hour of the show today. Of course, we are just a day away from the end of the year, which also means the end of our year in drive. And right now, because amazing ACLJ supporters and ACLJ champions, and by the way, a champion is someone that gives on a regular monthly basis. They essentially sign up to have an automatic charge, an automatic donation each and every month. And with that, it really helps us create a great baseline. There’s about 20,000 people that do that. I know that sounds like a lot, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s a very select group that does this. I would love to see that grow. You obviously can cancel anytime. Donations are tax deductible. If you become a champion today, your first donation is tripled still through our triple match that’s happening right now, which is really amazing that we’re able to offer that for the next couple days as we wrap up this year in the year-end drive. And like I said, we had some really… big days over the last couple days. Put a smile on a lot of our accountant’s faces who are doing a lot of the accounting for next year, the budgeting for next year. Because look, it has been a hard year for a lot of organizations as the economy has been in flux. Over the last few years, the economy has been in flux, but it’s still recovering. But we’ve seen some changes over the last few weeks, last few months. So if you can, prayerfully, think about it. If you can make a donation, this is a great time to do it. That’s at ACLJ.org. For those who are just tuning in, of course, we have been discussing what has been going on in Minnesota. But what’s interesting, and it’s something that the ACLJ has been a part of for a long time, which is the fight for parents and for parents to be able to send their kids to the schools of their choice, whether it’s school choice, whether it’s Christian schools or magnet schools, whatever it may be, where they’re able to have a different education than just what a zip code dictates. And when you bring up a moment where in Minnesota we see money just going out the door, we see it going out the door to organizations and to child care companies that may not even exist allegedly, that may just be shell corporations. And then you have a moment like we had currently in New Jersey, where a parent was just refused simple transportation for their child who wanted to attend a Christian school. And by the way, it’s required by law at this point that they should be able to do this, but they were denied it because of the fact that it’s a Christian school. Well, the ACLJ took action. And, Will, it’s been a good week.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right. Well, I want to draw this contrast of what we’re having to do here on December the 30th. We are still fighting for this student.
SPEAKER 02 :
Just make sure we’re not taped. This is live. We are December 30th.
SPEAKER 04 :
As Logan pointed out, the contrast in one blue state like Minnesota, where they’re just throwing money at whatever and all this fraud. And then you have in New Jersey, it’s required by law. It’s a school choice law. Surprising that they even got this through in New Jersey, where that you can take part. They can provide transportation if you’re within the certain parameters to your school. If you do not go to the public school, you get to use the taxpayer benefit that you are paying into as a taxpayer and be taken, transported to your school. The school has been fighting. The district has been fighting this tooth and nail. We won. And they’re still going to use more state resources to continue to fight this because they’re appealing it. And we’re filing our response to that appeal today. But we won. It should be over. They should just give in and say, okay, yes, we’re going to follow the law. Instead, they’re trying to find everything. They have gotten surveyors out there. So they’re hiring companies to try and disprove that one student shouldn’t be taken to the school as required by law. Fighting it. They are fighting it, wasting more money than it is going to cost to transport this student. But if you go over to another blue state like Minnesota, They’re fine with just throwing money and federal dollars everywhere. That’s the contrast. If you’re trying to follow the law and take part in American society and do these things that are afforded to you, they’re going to fight you if you’re conservative. They’re going to go after you. We at the ACLJ, we aren’t getting huge government grants like daycare centers in Minnesota. So we are fighting at no cost to this family that just want the law to be followed only because of you. And right now your gifts are tripled at the end of the year.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s right. And as we head into break, I want you to call in and get in line. 1-800-684-3110. I always like to end our show with your voice. Because you’re the most important voice in the room. I always say it. I believe it. Even if you’re calling just to talk about the ACLJ, thank us or whatever it may be. Talk about the new year, what you’re hoping to see us get involved in. Give me a call. 1-800-684-3110. Headed to ACLJ Jerusalem. Coming up. Welcome back to Sekulow. Hey, we are going to take your calls in the next segment. We have a lot of people watching. I know specifically about the Minnesota fraud situation. We’re going to discuss that even more when you have calls coming in, if that’s what you want to talk about, or any of the topics that we have here on the ACLJ, or if you just want to talk about the work of the ACLJ. Give me a call at 1-800-684-3110. We’re now joined by Jeff Balaban from ACLJ Jerusalem. Jeff, it’s some interesting comments that are coming in. You know, we saw this over the Iranians essentially saying we’re in a full scale war. Is that really what was that?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes. A full scale war with the United States, Israel and Europe. And that was just a few days ago. But now also. We’re seeing that he’s got trouble at home as some of the largest protests in years have hit the streets of Tehran.
SPEAKER 02 :
So he knows how do you win over that crowd? Just say, we’re at war with America and Israel.
SPEAKER 04 :
And Jeff, also, as we see this, it’s because the sanctions seem to be working, that the currency is plummeting, the value of the currency in Iran, as prices surge. And as we’ve pointed out for years, it’s because when you have lessened sanctions, like we saw under the Biden administration, what do they do? They fund terror. And when you tighten down sanctions, their money is not there. They’re not funding terror, as we have seen. But also the people start to get restless because they are not helping their own people.
SPEAKER 01 :
That’s right. The people of Iran understand that their rulers are their enemies. The rulers are not their friends. And the rulers have, you know, now that the economy is getting tougher and tougher, sanctions are working, they’re not rising up against those imposing the sanctions. They’re rising up against those who are the cause of the sanctions, the terrible rulers who’ve declared war on humanity, declared war on America, on Israel. on Jews, on Christians, and have been striving towards that war and sending all their treasure to funding up this global, literally global terror war for years and years and years against America’s assets, against Israel. And now it does look like the sanctions are working as the economy is falling worse and worse and worse. They’re rising up against their leaders. and really the world is waiting for a regime change there um people are always afraid of regime change they’re always afraid that what’s going to happen could be even worse it’s hard to imagine it being worse than what’s governed iran for the last 47 years pure evil well and
SPEAKER 04 :
Jeff, what we saw was a real moment that could have been taken by not another faction of religious radicals back with the Green Revolution back in the Obama days that was ignored by the U.S. It wasn’t even as though the U.S. had to send boots on the ground and get involved in that way, but just even give a nod to the people that what they’re doing is just and noble. And the Obama administration could not bring themselves to do that. Meanwhile, Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, great. Let’s go ahead and support this Arab Spring all over the world. And we saw how well that turned out. But you’re seeing now even the chance in Iran get… more bold they’re not just saying uh down with the ayatollah which they’ve said in previous ones they’re even explicitly calling on a return of the shah they are getting more bold they are saying things in the streets that they know they can their lives are at stake for being bold enough to say in the streets is is this and i know logan you’ve got something to say i think that’s something maybe we have to educate people on also is
SPEAKER 02 :
When you think of Iran, I think for a lot of people maybe under the age of 50, you kind of lump in a lot of these Middle Eastern countries as sort of the same concept of what they are. And maybe you have a visual of what it is. Iran, before the revolution, before everything that happened, we are not talking about the same kind of country. You’re talking about a thriving economy, really one of the greatest places to visit, we were told. I mean, obviously, I didn’t go. I was not around then. But in the area, we were not talking about this sort of, you know, in your head, you have this idea of what some of these Muslim nations look like.
SPEAKER 01 :
No, that’s true. Iran, first of all, I know many people tend to lump it in as an Arab country. It’s not. It’s Persian. It’s its own culture. It’s an old, ancient, venerable culture. It had its own religion, which was sort of overwhelmed by Islam. Zoroastrianism was a very, very big religion. It still exists in some places, but it was overwhelmed by Iran. It had ancient communities. The Jewish community in Persia goes back, as we know, obviously to biblical times. The story of Esther takes place there. in the capital. So, this is an ancient, ancient culture, and the current Islamic regime, the Shia regime, is relatively recent. It’s 47 years old. When they had the revolution and they overthrew the Shah, the Shah was fairly Western and secular in that respect, and It really changed everything for that regime. And so what’s fascinating now is that the 20 somethings who grew up only knowing the oppression of an intense Shia Sharia law only knew this. They’re really rising up because they see what’s happening in the rest of the world. And because they have some visibility into it and they’ve had enough. And they want to be open to, you know, in Israel, for example, and we’re talking as ACLJ Jerusalem, you know, the Israeli people would desperately love to see the Iranian people be free. There’s not like there’s a sense of an enmity or hostility or anger between, you know, the Israelis or the Jews and the Persians themselves, the Iranians themselves. It’s this regime. Now, this regime has been chanting death to America from its inception. It started with the horrible, I mean, again, those of us old enough to remember, maybe not everyone here is, You know, when they took Americans hostage and everything changed. And since then, they’ve been chanting and fighting to destroy America. And make no mistake, you know, a threshold nuclear power with the ability to deliver nuclear weapons to America is a genuine threat. And that’s what they were until moments ago. It was only this past year. when finally israel responded to their attacks by taking out their defenses and take ruling the arab of tehran and then finally america delivering the crushing blow to to couple their their most fearsome uh energy you know nuclear facilities that we’ve had a new ability to see this kind of regime change and we’re all very hopeful that there will be regime change from within that the iranians will finally take back control of their lives and not be our enemies
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I mean, Jeff, you bring up the story of Esther, which it also shows that the plot against the Jewish people from within the Persian Empire is ancient as well. What we saw in that story, though, is good conquering the evil of the plot against the Jewish people. And now in modern times, we know what happens when you let that plot take over and rule the empire. And that’s what’s happened. That’s modern-day Iran. That is what we’re seeing. And it’s not just a hatred of the Jewish people, as you said. It’s a hatred of America and everything that the West stands for, everything that Judeo-Christian values stand for. That is what is being, one, suppressed in their own country. from a brilliant people the Persian people if you meet Persian people that are Persian that have moved to America some of the hardest working kindest people that you’ll meet and what do they long for for Persia to be made what it once was again. And it would be a wonderful thing for the world to see, one, not just the fall of Iran, but what that culture in Persia can give to the world if they’re able to thrive again, not under the thumb of the theocratic dictatorship.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, look, in the story of Esther, when there’s the big turnaround, first of all, what is it that gets everyone in trouble, that Haman demands that everyone bow to him, and Mordecai, that you won’t bow to him? Well, that is very much a Judeo-Christian concept. We won’t bow to tyrants. That’s what America was founded on, that idea that we won’t bow to tyranny, we only bow to God. And they want us to bow to them, and they want their people to bow to them, and they’re keeping them under their thumb. And when there’s the reversal, many of the people of the country join in. to destroy the enemies, those who were trying to commit genocide against the Jews. So yeah, the biblical stories that we have obviously repeat generation after generation, millennium after millennium, but we see here there’s an ancient proud people now being ruled by dictators who have said from the beginning, death to America, America’s the great Satan, Israel’s just a small Satan, and we’re at this moment now where there’s a lot of hope And hopefully this can be done with regime change where they had a lot of bloodshed would be ideal, but that the people finally have their leader back that they choose. And I think that would change dramatically. And obviously it’s early days. We don’t know what’s going to go. You’re right on the Obama administration. The potential uprising was completely crushed. America really didn’t just basically suffocated it. And they’ve had to suffer again for the last 15 years. Hopefully now we will see the people really rise up and take control of their own destiny.
SPEAKER 02 :
Jeff, we only got about a minute here until we need to get to break, but I just wanted to give a quick question for you. Obviously, we saw Prime Minister Netanyahu appearing yesterday with President Trump. Just sort of an update of where things are in terms of the ACLJ Jerusalem and where things are in Israel.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, you know, it’s a lot hinges on this particular relationship right now. I think that we know as we head into the midterm elections in America, you know, we’re looking very carefully. We Americans are looking very carefully at the dynamic in the Republican Party, which has been one we’ve talked about a lot on the air here, which is causing some consternation. But we’re hoping that there’s, you know, we still believe that most Americans, certainly most Republicans are stand with Israel. and therefore Donald Trump stands with Israel. Well, he himself does because of his own commitments and his own belief set. And so we’re all very optimistic and hopeful that this will go in the right direction. And look, that relationship between Trump and Netanyahu has proven to be incredibly strong. Incredible things were accomplished going back even to the Iran situation. And so hopefully we’ll see more positive coming out of this year. We have to keep on praying for it because, you know, there are a lot of very strange and difficult forces in that region that are not our friends, not the friends of America or Israel. And we continue with the ACLJ to work together with, you know, with the capitals of both countries as Americans to try and help have our influence and input be effective as we move forward to forge hopefully a new peace for the entire region and the world.
SPEAKER 02 :
Absolutely, Jeff. Thanks so much for joining us. Taking your calls coming up in the next segment, 1-800-684-3110. Welcome back to Secula. We’ve got a couple lines still open at 1-800-684-3110. That’s 1-800-684-3110. This is our last segment of the day. We’d love for you to call in. Of course, we are at the very end of our year in drive. That means you’re only going to hear me talk about this for another day, folks. But during this last day, Your donations are tripled until midnight tomorrow night, right as the year rolls over, will be the end of our year-end drive. So be a part of it if you can. This is the time to do it. If you’ve already made a donation, we appreciate it. If this is your chance to do it, do it. Or if you’ve already done one, hey, may you want to do it again so it’s tripled? No one’s stopping you. ACLJ.org, we know we really appreciate it. Want to take some calls? Because a few of you have been on hold for quite some time. Let’s go to Ernest in Kentucky. Ernest, go ahead.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yes, I love you guys. I love what you do. But one thing that just really gets under my skin for a long time now, we gave Hillary all this warning. She had time to destroy all her electronic devices before they really went in and got her. Why aren’t we putting handcuffs on these people and then investigate them? You know, Peter Navarro, Michael Flynn, Roger Stone, Donald Trump himself, Mike Lindell, you know, they all found themselves
SPEAKER 02 :
being investigated yeah without any process at all yeah maybe that’s what separates some of the people up here is that we don’t do that but i understand the feel and the push for that when you see uh things get away with like will said some of those daycares seem to magically have opened today after being closed for maybe their entire existence but now all of a sudden there’s randomly 20 kids there how’d that happen of course we gave them time as you said i think also uh he mentioned mike lindell is very interesting he’s running right for the minnesota governor you know uh god bless him we’ll see what happens there uh but look ernest i understand the frustration there i don’t know if we want to get into the business of being the people that are gonna uh you know arrest before asking the questions and before the investigations but uh it does it does bring up an interesting thing and i think it’s kind of similar to the new case that we are taking on with alan dershowitz against cnn which is just because it has been sadly the legal industry standard, maybe the way the news cycle runs and the way that we are able to become a little bit more aware of what’s happening here. We need to be a little bit more open to change in the way things get handled.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, and to Ernest’s question there about how can we be more swift, we are blessed in America with a system that presumes innocence until you are proven guilty. I know I want that because when the power of the government is in those that don’t like you, that do want to pursue political prosecutions, If they can assume you’re guilty and then you have to prove your innocence, that is a bad place to be in America.
SPEAKER 02 :
And the pendulum shifts so quickly, Ernest. We had a caller yesterday going, well, I don’t know if there’ll ever be another Democrat. Yes, there will. Look at your entire lifetime. There will be a Democrat president in our lifetime. There could be a Democrat president next time. My life, it’s ping ponged back and forth my entire life. Uh, so I have no reason to believe that all of a sudden the 51% of the people who vote Republican, the next time that that 2% that adjusts isn’t good to adjust the other way. And when you have moments of political, um, prosecution, you have moments of political pressure, uh, Legally, like Will said, you don’t want to be that. But I do understand the frustration.
SPEAKER 04 :
You don’t want to follow their path so that no one is protected. We saw what the Biden administration did going into Catholic churches, sending spies, prosecuting pro-life advocates to the fullest extent of the law, raiding their homes with the FBI. Yeah, I understand. They’re like, well, why don’t we use that tactic on those that are clearly breaking the law? Because we don’t want it to be the norm. And I want them to have a case with probable cause before doing those types of actions. Remember, the FBI was torn on whether they had probable cause to search Mar-a-Lago. And they did it anyways. I don’t want more of that. I want less of that. And so I think riding the ship is a part of that is also not falling into their own trap.
SPEAKER 02 :
Let’s go ahead and take one more call at least. There may be time for another, so stay on hold. Warren’s calling on line one. Warren, go ahead.
SPEAKER 08 :
Thanks for taking my call, guys, and Happy New Year, Merry Christmas. I think we do need to investigate so many red states, blue states, whatever, the NGOs, Even on the Medicare side, there’s so much fraud. We can’t keep letting them just get buying without audits, and we need to stop that. The amount of taxpayers and money that we’re pouring into the fraud is ridiculous.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, Warren, I think a lot of people are having their eyes open to that. And look, I think what could also be helpful is if you have people who are controlling these states who actually care about those kind of things, that aren’t getting their eye off the ball, aren’t looking for their next big political win, aren’t looking for reelection or become the vice president of the United States. Maybe they are looking to keep their state running. Maybe there are governors who actually want to. That’s their goal. Their goal is to run the state efficiently. I think you should look at who your political leaders are and look at what their goals are beyond the state level. And look, some of them do great jobs. There are some great governors. There are some great representatives out there. But remember, for them, this is a job. And to keep that job, they should be accountable. In some sort of process, I’m sure a lot of them do have some sort of auditing process. The difference is, if you’re not paying close enough attention, $9 billion can get in the way.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, and once again, remember, Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, this is his second term. He’s running for a third term. He was on the ticket to be the Vice President of the United States, a heartbeat away from the presidency. One year ago. And the Democrat Party thought that he was the best choice to run with Kamala Harris. And remember, they never had a primary, so no one ever voted. The people of the party didn’t get to voice whether or not that’s who they wanted. But that is what the leadership of the Democrat Party thought was the best choice to try and win. They lost.
SPEAKER 02 :
He was the only one that would say yes. I’m not so sure.
SPEAKER 04 :
But at the same time, that was real close to being people who were in charge of the federal government. If you thought waste, fraud and abuse was bad as it is, which we know it’s bad. Imagine if the controls are the people who waste in the federal government.
SPEAKER 02 :
What are you talking about? Uh, look, we only got two minutes left and tomorrow will be new year’s Eve. We know a lot of you will be maybe checking out once again. Uh, I want to encourage you over this next two minutes to think about, pray about supporting the work of the ACLJ here. We have had a lot of great calls today. We’ve had a lot of great segments. We haven’t spent a ton of time talking about the amazing work we do here because I think we always have to balance the work that we do, the ACLJ incredible legal work, as well as getting you news of the day and that kind of thing. The show has evolved into that. And look, there’s a lot of people who are saying at this moment they’re deciding to not be on the air anymore. Maybe they decided that radio is not important or that TV is not important. And there’s all these options. But we’re here right now for you. And the ACLJ has been available, whether it’s our organization or our media work, with no paywall for as long as I can remember. It’s been one of the big pushes I’ve always had here. You know, I hate going out to a news site and they say, please, you know, just you want to read this incredible article you have to read? It’s five dollars. And I just I find myself getting turned off by that and going, no, I don’t I don’t want this. I’ll find my sources somewhere else. I don’t want the ACLJ to have to do that. I want people like you who love this show to support the show. You hear advertisers in your local market, that doesn’t go to us. That goes to your station or to the network at large. A lot of times we pay to be on those. Specifically those who want us to still be on terrestrial and satellite radio. I want to hear from you. If you really want us to still be here, because there’s a lot of people abandoning ship. on those outlets. But we believe, at least for right now, that that audience is still there. We still see you call in every day. If you want us to remain, it is not inexpensive to be on those. I understand people’s concerns when they’re deciding whether they’re gonna put their money. It is not cheap to have your message heard coast to coast on terrestrial radio. We need to hear from you if you want that to continue. Speak up today. If you want us to continue to be without any sort of membership costs or fees, We want to hear from you today. And your donations are tripled. They’re tax deductible to the ACLJ. So go to ACLJ.org right now and have your donation tripled. Talk to you tomorrow. New Year’s Eve.
