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In this episode, we delve into a surprising shift in rhetoric from prominent Democratic figures, including AOC, regarding their stance on Hamas. We dissect the timing and potential motives behind these changes, especially in the context of ongoing protests and anti-Semitic sentiments in New York and beyond. We also explore how these shifts might relate to larger political strategies, and what this means for American political discourse. Join us as we engage with expert opinions and take a closer look at the policies that have driven these narratives.
SPEAKER 09 :
On today’s show, why is the left suddenly changing their talking points on Hamas?
SPEAKER 04 :
Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 09 :
Welcome to Sekulow. We’ve got a packed show for you today. And one of the big questions we’ve been asking is why all of a sudden are people like AOC going to social media, Will, and seem to be changing their tune?
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right, Logan. So as we saw and as we’ve talked a lot about things like the protests in Iran this week, as they continue to get… more bold from the people on the streets there. You’re seeing support for the people in the street from members of the Democrat Party, which previously had not been so bold, but also they changed their tune on Hamas, on people openly supporting a terrorist organization in the streets of New York. You had almost simultaneously all these members of the left. Like it was planned or something. Like there was some kind of i don’t know collusion if you will you can’t say that logan only only president trump can collude you know that that’s a there’s no way anyone else will right but and this is what’s so fascinating because it is the people that said nothing during the uh protest on columbia university and how boldly people even then were supporting a foreign terrorist organization hamas in new york uh and you saw people like the mayor the current mayor now was unable to even condemn things like globalize the intifada or say i condemn those that are standing with hamas now all of a sudden is joining with aoc with chuck schumer with the the governor of new york kathy hochul uh all of them with very similar messaging like of course they’re a terrorist organization This isn’t that hard. We can say this. And it’s very shocking that it’s happening now, but also there has to be a deeper motive.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, I mean, this was from AOC just a few days ago. Protesters took to Queens as they do. And look, it’s not like this is new, that there have been protesters talking about what’s going on in Gaza, specifically even Hamas. Protesters in Queens started chanting, say it loud, say it clear, we support Hamas here. AOC reposted that on X and said, hey, so marching into predominantly Jewish neighborhoods, and by the way, this is probably in her district, I would assume, and leading with a chant saying we support Hamas is disgusting and an anti-Semitic thing to do. Pretty basic. This is a major change in tune. Look at the comments on that. Most of them are her supporters saying, how dare you? You’ve turned on us. Who got to your account? Who hacked you? You know why? Because even their supporters… uh agree with those protesters likely so what is it is it a change in polling numbers is there the thought that if you say this about iran we know that whatever will be the new iranian regime will likely be a little bit friendlier to israel a little bit more friendly to united states hopefully that’s the goal hopefully as you have that uh as it has been in the past Maybe that’s their thought process. I don’t know, but we’re going to keep breaking it down. We’re going to talk to experts on this. We’re going to hear from a lot of people because it is one of those curious cases that things have changed. And with that, you know, the ACLJ has been on the forefront of supporting Israel for decades, long before it was cool. And certainly now that it’s not cool, we are still there. supporting the state of Israel. And again, that doesn’t mean you agree 100% with anyone’s political administration. What that means is you support the right for the country to exist, that a Jewish homeland exists. A Jewish homeland, by the way, that is home to Christians, that is home to Jews, that is home to Muslims, to Baha’i, to people of all religion or no religion at all. You can be an Israeli. Doesn’t mean you are Jewish, even religious at all. That’s not true really outside of many of the other countries in the Middle East where religious persecution is one of the top issues that we’ve had and we’ve worked directly. That’s true even in Gaza where, of course, there’s always talk about the Christians in Gaza. We’ve helped those Christians in Gaza. You know where often they escape to? Israel when they need to. With that, I want to encourage you to go to ACLJ.org. Support the work that we’re doing here. It’s not just about this show you hear each and every day. We also have an incredible legal team. We have the best media team and the best legal team because people like you support the work. It’s not coming from major sponsors. It’s not coming from major donors even. I mean, yes, there are some major donors. There are people who love this show and love what we do with our legal work. And trust me, if you’re one of those people, you want to be one of those major sponsors, feel free. We’d love our major donors. We’d love to have you. However, most are people like you, individuals who say, I can give $25, I can give $75, maybe I can become a $10 a month ACLJ champion. I’m going to encourage you to do that today at ACLJ.org. Welcome back to Secula. We’ve got two lines still open at 1-800-684-3110. In the next segment, I’m going to try to take absolutely as many calls as I can. I know many of you have been on hold. We will get to you if you’ve been on hold for that long. Just stay on hold and we’ll get to you. Jeff Balaban’s joining us, head of ACLJ Jerusalem. Jeff, obviously a very interesting weekend. Sad weekend again. We had a historic synagogue in Mississippi burned. Sounds like a headline, you know, from… 100 years ago at this point. It doesn’t feel like this should be what we’re seeing in America. And at the same time, we had some interesting rhetoric coming out of the top Democrats. Some of them in New York City. We’ll discuss those because they just feel about time, but also feel, why now? But let’s start at least with that unfortunate, not unfortunate, it’s a hard word, that a horrendous attack, once again, on a place of worship, and specifically it being this historic synagogue in a state like Mississippi, one that doesn’t necessarily need the PR for anti-Semitism.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I mean, people are making much of the fact that this is not the first time that this synagogue was attacked. The synagogue was attacked in the 1960s by the Klan as well. And once again, it’s not safe really to be a Jew anywhere. in America, unfortunately, and be conspicuously Jewish. It’s, you know, as you know, I travel back and forth to Israel quite frequently from Israel to Israel and the States. And I keep on noting that the one terminal at the airport that has direct flights to Israel is the one terminal that since October 7th has had to have a SWAT team outside full time because even going there is a danger. Every synagogue is considered to be in danger. Every kosher restaurant, every place Jews congregate is considered to be in danger. This is very painful to see. It’s very frightening to see. And it’s also painful to see that the mainstream media didn’t really cover this for the first 24 hours. It wasn’t covered at all.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, I think a lot of people… I sent Will the article the morning after, a few hours after, and look for some of us that’s kind of in our algorithm, if you will, unfortunately, when these things happen. If you’re following certain accounts, you’ll see this come up. But no, it made very little news. It made very little news about this. And of course, thankfully, it doesn’t feel like people were injured or anything like that. So that obviously does lead to that. But you’d think it would at least pop up a bit more. And at the same time, Jeff… I was on X looking at this, and there was the calls, specifically the Iranian protests that were happening this weekend. The people of Iran, that’s great, that’s happening. There’s some good things happening in that world. But there was also protests in Queens. People were chanting that they supported Hamas. Say it loud, say it clear, we support Hamas here. And then you had a response from AOC. Of all people, AOC saying, hey, so marching into predominantly, oh, it starts with hey, hey. So marching into predominantly Jewish neighborhoods and leading with a chant saying we support Hamas is a disgusting and anti-Semitic thing to do. Pretty basic. You know, this is the kind of thing we would have loved to have had. a couple of years ago, it does feel a little too late that now they’re in your neighborhood. What happened here? Have polls shifted? I mean, it feels like there’s these moments because now we also saw a response from Mom Dommy. There are moments where it feels like the narrative maybe gets shifted. And look, I’m all for her saying that. I did repost it and put, well, it’s about time. Put Kenneth Copeland, I say it’s about time. Because it does feel like not only a little too late, but it just feels a little maybe opportunistic in a weird way. Again, I want to condemn her saying it. I’m happy she’s saying it.
SPEAKER 03 :
I’m not. Honestly, this is gaslighting. There’s no question about it. It also took them a long time to react to this. Mamdani took him also many hours and a lot of criticism and complaint that he was being silent when there were pro-Hamas chants. And let’s be very clear, being pro-Hamas isn’t being critical of Israel. No. And going to an American Jewish community, which has nothing to do with Israel. It’s a foreign country. Jews in America are Americans. But this has been happening, and people think it’s normal, and it’s become part of the entire background. That’s what we work on at ACLJ. It happens at places of work. It happens in universities. It happens on the streets. People just walk up to somebody they think is a Jew and start attacking them with whatever the excuse is. And it took him a long time. But no, you know, in politics, we talk about the Overton window, which is that which is acceptable to talk about in politics. Most things, you know, are fine to talk about. Some things are considered too fringe or too radical or too crazy or too evil, too immoral. And that window sometimes shifts dramatically. And so what I think is happening here is that with the election of Mamdani, who was an overt anti-Semite, There’s no question about it. And he stands for everything anti-Semitic. And he hates Israel. And he was very supportive of the whole, you know, he wasn’t going to condemn globalize the Intifada. What does globalize the Intifada means? It means enact brutal murder against Jews all over the world. That’s what globalize the Intifada means. It doesn’t mean anything else. And he wouldn’t condemn it. I think they’ve realized that his election has so shocked and alarmed people, even the reliable leftists, even groups like the ADL, which claims to be against anti-Semitism, but somehow only sees it when it’s on the right and never saw it on the left. They’ve had to react to this because it’s so extreme. And so the Democrats, I think, are beginning to reel back on how extreme they’ve become, the Mamdani thing is a shock factor. And so I think now people like AOC has been leading the charge against Israel and the Jews now for quite a while. When she came in with the squad, she was very much part of that. I think they’ve realized that it’s gone too far politically for upcoming elections. And so we’re seeing now is gaslighting. It’s not helping the Jews. It’s not fighting anti-Semitism. It’s pretending that they care when in fact, everything their actions have done until now and continue to do, supports Hamas’s agenda here in America.
SPEAKER 05 :
And Jeff, it’s not like this is the first time in New York over the past few years there have been major protests where slogans supporting directly Hamas, not just globalize the Intifada, which we know what it means, but directly supporting Hamas. Going all the way back to Colombia when they were saying, leave the students alone that are shouting that they support Hamas. Don’t send the NYPD there to stop this where they’re harassing and targeting Jewish students. This has been going on for years and they were silent about it. But now it isn’t just AOC. That’s what we need to point out to people. This is coordinated. It is a democratic op that’s going on because you have… The newly installed mayor of New York, Mamdani, who said that chance and support of a terrorist organization have no place in our city. You have AOC, which we talked about, Chuck Schumer. Let’s be clear, Hamas is a terrorist organization committed to the destruction of Jews while imposing its brutal rule on Palestinians. Letitia James, Hamas is a terrorist organization. We don’t support terrorists, period. The governor, Kathy Hochul, Hamas is a terrorist organization that calls for genocide of Jews. Senator Gillibrand, Hamas is a terrorist organization committed to the murder of Jews. It’s all coming down from the same, it’s the same talking point. They all posted this within an hour of each other. This is not organic reaction to what is horrific, but seems like people got desensitized to in New York. This is a political operation happening. And I mean, I would venture to bet as well that not only are they being opportunistic, not only are they seeing some polling numbers that they can maybe exploit, but my prediction is they’re going to flip it and say, Look at the Tucker Carlsons. Look at the Candace Owens. As they go into this midterms, you know who the real anti-Semites are? It’s conservatives. It’s Tucker Carlson. And don’t disagree with that statement. However, but they are trying to now, as you said, gaslight the American people.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I would say Tucker has lost any right to call himself conservative anymore. There’s nothing conservative about Tucker. Fair. But yeah, I think you’re right. I think they’re going to try and point as they do to the other side. And by the way… Both sides need to be careful about this. Politicizing it doesn’t help the Jews, doesn’t help America, and doesn’t help the war on Judeo-Christian civilization, which all of these guys are fighting the same war, whether it’s the Islamists or the progressives or this new Tucker faction that call themselves Christian nationalists, but seems to have very little to tolerance for much in the way of Christians and this country. And they talk about Judeo-Christian as blasphemous and satanic. So it’s all the same. But yeah, this is clearly coordinated political messaging. We’re all very familiar with this. And it’s gaslighting. I mean, it’s adding insult to injury. This is not protecting the Jews. It’s not protecting America. It’s further undermining it for political reasons. And it’s very, very dangerous. And it’s very frightening. And the fact that they’ve decided, oh, well, under the polling, Hamas is something which is bad enough that we can, you know, use them as though they’re the bad guy. The other thing that they’re going to do is this particular faction is going to equate, you know, the Israeli leadership with Hamas, which is, they’re already kind of doing that in the weeks leading up to this, right? With Mamdani saying that he would, you know, arrest, he would arrest Bibi or others if they came into New York. And so this is trying to recalibrate the narrative of, in a way that’s very dangerous because it’s all gaslighting. It’s all lying to us. These people do support the genocide of Israel, the annihilation of Israel. They’ve done it all along. So it’s a dangerous week. Just to wrap up these two parts of the same story, which is the mood in America is extremely dangerous right now. The fact that people are willing to be violent against institutions, arson, other violence, chant for death and murder in our streets against American citizens, it’s something which should alarm all Americans. The fact that they haven’t been focused on Jews in these cases is very alarming, obviously, to all of us who care about that. But don’t forget, they are very much hostile to Christian America as well.
SPEAKER 09 :
That’s right, Jeff. Thank you so much for joining us. Always great to have your work in support of ACLJ Jerusalem. Again, when you support the work of the ACLJ, you support people like Jeff in the offices that we have there and making sure that we are supportive of not just the Israeli people, but the Jewish people here in America as well. With that, we’re going to take a lot of your phone calls coming up. We have a full bank. Well, one call. One line open, actually. 1-800-684-3110. Get in line. Some of you have been on hold for close to 40 minutes. We will get to you, I promise, the next. Stay on hold. We’ll be right back with more on Secular. If you want to support the work of the ACLJ, support this show, go to ACLJ.org. We’ll be back with more coming right back. Welcome back to Seculo. We do have two lines open for you at 1-800-684-3110. If you want to speak your mind and your thoughts on what’s going on in Iran, we’d like to hear from you. I know that it’s a big deal. And obviously, we’re going to be talking to Jeff Balabana, ACLJ Jerusalem, about the attacks over the weekend and Mississippi’s largest synagogue was burned. We also had a lot of interesting messages coming from Democrats actually seem to be condemning anti-Semitism for the first time in, I don’t know, what feels like many years. Maybe they got some poll numbers back. We’ll discuss that as well. And you can be a part of that at 1-800-684-3110. But Jordan is joining us. My brother, Jordan Sekulow, joining us by phone, executive director here. Jordan, I know you got an update as you are traveling on the road and working on some big cases. So let us know what’s going on.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, so there’s a huge case tomorrow at the Supreme Court of the United States involving, of course, this whole sports issue with can boys play on girls’ teams. And this issue is really relating to basically starting even one of the cases, two cases that are combined, one out of Idaho. We’re close, of course, with the West Virginia Attorney General. That’s the main case. That’s a case involving mostly high school sports. which is the crux of sports anyways when it comes to the state level before you get to the collegiate level where the NCAA would be the one in charge of all those kind of decisions. And people might have already thought that this was kind of decided because of some other moves by President Trump. But in fact, it’s still being fought out. It’s been fought out for four or five years. West Virginia has the case that just says it’s just basic it’s that if you’re a boy you play on the boys team if you’re a girl you play on the girls team and there’s no crossover They’ve taken this now all the way to the Supreme Court. They won at the district court, lost at the appellate court. And so now the Supreme Court has the ability to kind of settle this once and for all for the entire country. And I’m really proud of our attorney general, who’s a ACLJ alumni, J.B. McCuskey, and his team in West Virginia, leading the charge there to kind of finalize this. And I think that really… people, Logan, when you talk to people about this whole issue, it’s even past kind of this trans politics issue. It’s really about kids and sports and safety, and especially women’s sports and protecting women’s sports from From boys or men, and it’s men, 18-year-olds, who might not be good enough or weren’t the best on their men’s team, but could be the greatest and set all the state records if they decide to be on the women’s team and all the injuries that involve. So I think once and for all, the Supreme Court now has a chance. before in a multi-hour oral argument tomorrow to finally make that decision, which I know for so many of us who have children, especially daughters, want to know that Title IX was there to protect them and the sports and so that they can play those sports amongst themselves, amongst equal rights. athletic ability and it’s still very difficult to make those teams even in high school you have to be a great athlete but again this is people might have thought this was kind of over because of executive orders and other kind of decisions by the statements by states and presidents but in fact most of these laws have been stopped by lower courts so this is the chance for the Supreme Court to put an end to this hopefully once and for all which seems crazy that we’re even having to argue it in 2026
SPEAKER 09 :
I think you bring up an interesting point because President Trump has certainly been one of those presidents that will make some big statements and will call for a lot of things. We saw them over the weekend. We saw even things like, hey, we’re going to make credit card interest rates no more than 10%. We saw big businesses, the big corporations can’t start buying up single-family homes like they’ve been doing. Whether you agree or disagree on that, I think we can have a whole different discussion on what that looks like and whether the legalities are. But he makes a lot of these big statements and some of them can happen, but some, as you say, then get fought out after those are made.
SPEAKER 06 :
Right. They get fought out after. And remember, this initiated with some of the college funding. These cases involve elementary and high school and middle school. So more of what the state controls directly. Colleges in the NCAA have already been implementing their own rules. And there was a lot of talk about that with federal funding tied to it. Remember that with California and Gavin Newsom and back and forth there. So on some of these issues, yes, it’s, it’s been settled, but it has not been settled yet at the, at the high school level and even at the elementary level. And I think that this case, it presents the Supreme court’s why they’re taking two hours with it tomorrow, the opportunity to finally say, uh, you know, to come down to this and, and we hope, you know, the reason they took the case, which again, West Virginia lost on appeal. So Supreme court decided to take the case, uh, knowing that the lower court decision that held would say, no, you can’t, that you can’t have these boys play on these girls’ sports teams, that they took the case. That’s always a good sign. It doesn’t mean you guarantee a win, but we’re just proud of our alumni and someone we work with very closely still at the ACLJ with the West Virginia Attorney General’s office and his Solicitor General and their whole team, that they are literally leading the charge on this case. And, again, that can kind of, I think, settle it for everyone, and I think it should be settled for everyone. And I know that as someone with two daughters, and Logan, you with two daughters as well, that this is something, again, that just needs to be really not be an issue. It shouldn’t even be a discussion. If you’re a boy, you should play on the boys’ sports team. If you’re a girl, you should play on the girls’ sports team. We don’t really need to get into the complications of sexuality or anything like that. This is just about sports and fairness.
SPEAKER 05 :
And Jordan, I think, once again, I want to bring up what you said about the Attorney General of West Virginia, J.B. McCuskey, who many people on this broadcast have seen many times on this show over the years, even before when he was state auditor out of West Virginia. But also the importance of what we do here at the aclj when we have individuals that are aclj alumni that they come they work here they get those chops they know about which types of cases to take and how to fight for eventually the people of their state but how that still ends up leaving a lasting legacy, not just on wherever they go next or wherever they serve next, but for the entire country, that it’s important that strong conservative lawyers like JB who come out of a system like the ACLJ are able to continue to impact the entire country going forward.
SPEAKER 06 :
but they know the arguments to make to win. You know, I think that that’s what we do at the ACLJ. It’s not just about getting controversial cases. That’s pretty easy to do as a lawyer. You can go and find controversial clients. People do it all the time. They get lots of media attention for it. This is about winning for the right reasons. And the right reasons here are not to be nasty to people who may be going through some problems in high school or even lower or whatever their parents are pushing on them it’s about protecting the other people who play on the team you know your daughter um that makes sure that you know if they’re at the top level they’re the ones that can set the records and they’re not going to have some some 18 year old boy decide he’s going to be a girl for next year and you know set state records that can never be beaten again um so this is about i think writing a short-term wrong in our country that has just been ridiculous. And West Virginia, like you said, Will, brought the case for West Virginians, but it’s made its way all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. And because of that, the Attorney General J.B. McCuskey, his Solicitor General, they will, with a victory here, again i could set the stage for for the future so this is no longer an issue and i think that’s where i think that’s where the majority of the country is i think most people if they can take their politics out of it and just think about the sports aspect they understand They understand the strength situation, the testosterone situation. They get it. And so we will give you updates. It’s going to be a long case, so we might not have updates from the case on the show until Thursday. If we do get some updates while the show’s going on tomorrow, we’ll try to get them to you.
SPEAKER 09 :
All right. With that, we have a second half hour coming up. Thanks, Jordan, for joining us. Jeff Balaban from ACLJ Jerusalem is going to be joining us. We also have a packed phone bank right now. So we’re going to do our best to get to as many of these calls as we possibly can. So stay on hold if you’re on hold. If you want to support the work of the ACLJ, ACLJ.org. It’s a great place to do it. Find all the incredible free content. But of course, if you want to support, great way to do it. Becoming an ACLJ champion. Someone who gives on a monthly basis. We’ll be right back. keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever this is seculo and now your host logan seculo welcome to seculo we got a packed show for you today and one of the big questions we’ve been asking is why all of a sudden are people like aoc going to social media will and seem to be changing their tune that’s right logan so as we saw and as we’ve talked a lot about things like
SPEAKER 05 :
the protests in Iran this week as they continue to get more bold from the people on the streets there. You’re seeing support for the people in the street from members of the Democrat Party, which previously had not been so bold, but also they changed their tune on Hamas, on people openly supporting a terrorist organization in the streets of New York. You had almost simultaneously all these members of the left, like it was planned or something. Like there was some kind of, I don’t know, collusion, if you will. You can’t say that, Logan. Only President Trump can collude. You know that. There’s no way anyone else can.
SPEAKER 08 :
Only one party colludes will.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right. And this is what’s so fascinating because it is the people that said nothing during the protests on Columbia University and how boldly people even then were supporting a foreign terrorist organization, Hamas, in New York, and you saw people like the mayor, the current mayor now, was unable to even condemn things like globalizing the Intifada, or say, I condemn those that are standing with Hamas, now all of a sudden is joining with AOC, with Chuck Schumer, with the governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, all of them with very similar messaging, like, of course they’re a terrorist organization. This isn’t that hard. We can say this. And it’s very shocking that it’s happening now, but also there has to be a deeper motive.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, I mean, this was from AOC just a few days ago. Protesters took to Queens as they do. And look, it’s not like this is new, that there have been protesters talking about what’s going on in Gaza, specifically even Hamas. Protesters in Queens started chanting, say it loud, say it clear, we support Hamas here. AOC reposted that on X and said, hey, so marching into predominantly Jewish neighborhoods, and by the way, this is probably in her district, I would assume, and leading with a chant saying we support Hamas is disgusting and an anti-Semitic thing to do. Pretty basic. This is a major change in tune. Look at the comments on that. Most of them are her supporters saying, how dare you? You’ve turned on us. Who got to your account? Who hacked you? You know why? Because even their supporters… uh agree with those protesters likely so what is it is it a change in polling numbers is there the thought that if you say this about iran we know that whatever will be the new iranian regime will likely be a little bit friendlier to israel a little bit more friendly to the united states hopefully that’s the goal hopefully as you have that uh as it has been in the past Maybe that’s their thought process. I don’t know. We’re going to keep breaking it down. We’re going to talk to experts on this. We’re going to hear from a lot of people because it is one of those curious cases that things have changed. And with that, you know, the ACLJ has been on the forefront of supporting Israel for decades, long before it was cool. And certainly now that it’s not cool, we are still there. supporting the state of Israel. And again, that doesn’t mean you agree 100% with anyone’s political administration. What that means is you support the right for the country to exist, that a Jewish homeland exists. A Jewish homeland, by the way, that is home to Christians, that is home to Jews, that is home to Muslims, to Baha’i, to people of all religion or no religion at all. You can be an Israeli. Doesn’t mean you are Jewish, even religious at all. That’s not true really outside of many of the other countries in the Middle East where religious persecution is one of the top issues that we’ve had and we’ve worked directly. That’s true even in Gaza where, of course, there’s always talk about the Christians in Gaza. We’ve helped those Christians in Gaza. You know where often they escape to? Israel when they need to. With that, I want to encourage you to go to ACLJ.org. Support the work that we’re doing here. It’s not just about this show you hear each and every day. We also have an incredible legal team. We have the best media team and the best legal team because people like you support the work. It’s not coming from major sponsors. It’s not coming from major donors even. I mean, yes, there are some major donors. There are people who love this show and love what we do with our legal work. And trust me, if you’re one of those people, you want to be one of those major sponsors, feel free. We’d love our major donors. We’d love to have you. However, most are people like you, individuals who say, I can give $25, I can give $75, maybe I can become a $10 a month ACLJ champion. I’m going to encourage you to do that today at ACLJ.org. Welcome back to Secular. We’ve got Rick Grinnell joining us right now. And we have some phone lines open for you if you want to be on the air in the next segment. We will take some calls to wrap up the show. That’s at 1-800-684-3110. And it’s been a packed show today, Rick. We’ve been talking a lot about what’s going on in Iran as President Trump has made some pretty aggressive statements. But it’s not necessarily the only thing we’re covering here. We’re talking about a lot that’s happening, Will.
SPEAKER 05 :
know it has been a a wild week that’s right so rick what we’re seeing coming out of uh iran the images it’s very hopeful um it feels especially in these last 72 hours i’d say it feels like it has reached another level as the brutality of the regime has not caused the people to back down even though we’re seeing reports of thousands of deaths of protesters in iran But when we look at this, I just want to get your take, just top line. How does this feel to you as someone who has studied this a long time, has studied the Middle East and understands these? To me, it feels like something is different and we’re on the brink and we see the president supporting the people of Iran, unlike what we’ve seen from some other administrations.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, just to give a little context here, one of my first jobs in 2001 was at the UN. I was the top political appointee and spokesman for the US at the UN. And we’ve been talking about Iran ever since, ever since 2001 and even before. The one thing I think people need to understand is that this is not a easy situation. It’s incredibly difficult. Remember that Iran is the number one funder of terrorism. They fund the Houthis in Yemen. They fund Hezbollah in Lebanon. They fund Hamas in multiple places. And we know very clearly that this Iranian regime is Always looking to wreak havoc and terror, especially on Americans. And so this is a threat that we see very clearly. We’ve been talking about for a long time. Thank God President Trump is somebody who is seeing this over and over and is not having it. And I believe that we are getting very close to the Iranian regime, seeing the wrath of the United States finally come to it. Now, I don’t say those words lightly. I am somebody who believes in the America first policy and no war and we’ve got enough. to concentrate on in the United States. But this issue clearly impacts Americans, our men and women overseas and the terrorism issue that we’ve been fighting for a long time. So I see the Iran issue very differently than any other issue.
SPEAKER 09 :
I think a lot of people feel that way. You know, we’ve kind of been trying to read the room here, even with our own audience, to say, OK, well, how do you feel about this? You know, President Trump certainly ran on no new wars and trying to keep ourselves out of those kind of situations. But this is different. And what I’ve seen massively from a responsible look, there’s some people on the other side, of course, but the mass majority of people say, yeah, yeah, this we understand. We understand why this is different. Like we’ve said many times, it’s easy, maybe if you are of a certain age, including even our age, to say, you know, I don’t remember a time when Iran wasn’t what it is now. But for those just slightly older, they do remember a time when Iran was a thriving nation and you have other countries, you have Israel, you have a lot of people on board saying, look, There would be nothing greater than for us to have this return back to what it once was. And most people have had incredible interactions with Iranian people, with the Persian people in America, people that had to flee. So I think what we are seeing is a very different point of view to even some of the other ways America has gotten involved in the foreign stages in recent years. We’re seeing a pretty overwhelmingly positive response.
SPEAKER 01 :
Look, I want to speak to that a little bit because I’m in that camp of really understanding that the America First mentality and the no new wars is the reason we voted for President Trump, is the reason I’ve been with him for so long. I love that. I spent too many years in the Bush administration where we tried to export democracy. And I’ve rejected that. President Trump has rejected that. And I have been the guy that’s been trying to do diplomacy in every single issue. But I think this is different. I think the Iranian issue is the only one that is different. And I’m super sensitive to not wanting to do wars and to always do the diplomatic solution. We’ve tried diplomacy. I know President Trump has tried diplomacy with the Iranians, but the reason it is different is because they have taken billions of dollars from Americans through bad diplomatic deals, the Iranian regime, And they have funded terror. I think that that October 7th is one of the reasons. And that’s not the only reason that I look at this issue and say enough is enough. It’s because we are constantly fighting against the Iranian regime money. And remember, the Obama team gave them six billion dollars. They still have a lot of that money. We are we are faced with. 20 years of more Iranian funded terror because of the money that they have received from the Obama and the Biden administrations. So we are faced with a very real threat going forward. We know that they’ve constantly wanted to do terror and and terrorism against Americans. This is going to get worse unless we deal with it. This Iranian regime has demonstrated over and over. They are a threat to Americans. And I see it very clearly. We’ve tried diplomacy. I’ve been a part of the JCPOA. I’ve tried doing the diplomatic push. I am not somebody who has advocated for any type of military action over the last 20 years. And I’m not suggesting that we immediately do that with Iran. But I am suggesting that President Trump is right to confront this issue because of the terrorism. And I fully support that he is losing his patience on the diplomatic end.
SPEAKER 05 :
Rick, one of the interesting things about this story, too, is how little I feel like attention it’s getting from the media. And we are starting to see some on the left, even AOC, coming out and saying, I stand with the protesters. They deserve to be able to protest their regime there. It’s something that… is a lot further than President Obama went with the protesters in 2009, at least saying that she supports them. So we’re at a time, though, where it’s not getting that much coverage in traditional venues. If you look back at the revolution in 79, it was front page in every newspaper in America every single day. Now, obviously, there was also a hostage crisis that followed that, that did have American interest right on the front page as well. But then even with the JCPOA, that was endlessly discussed, endlessly given ink on the newspapers of America. And I feel like maybe there is is protest fatigue within Iran. But I don’t know. It just it feels different from an observer. Yeah.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah. I think we’ve had 25 years of talking about the Iranian issue, even longer, right, for those who remember the Iranian hostage crisis. But in terms of the nuclear issue, in terms of the terror, it feels like my entire adult life in foreign policy, that’s all we’ve ever talked about is the Iranian issue. And I think the media is probably getting bored or they don’t know the new angle. I think you’re right about that. However, my mother would tell you that I am a great contrarian to authority. And I’ve been that way my whole life. So when you tell me that AOC is supporting the protesters, it immediately makes me want to rethink my position and say, what am I missing here? Because I’m supposed to be the great contrarian. I certainly don’t want to be agreeing with AOC.
SPEAKER 09 :
We had a statement she made just the other day that was like, People walk into your city and start chanting that they stand with Hamas. That is purely anti-Semitic. And I’m like, OK, what’s happening now? And I think I put that, you know, I retweeted it with a reposted it with Kenneth Copeland saying, you know, it’s about time because there are those moments where you go, OK, are they just reading the political tea leaves? Are they just saying that, oh, we can’t be, you know, we can’t go against everything happening in the Middle East.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, let me tell you something about Rick Grinnell. As soon as I hear somebody like AOC agreeing with me, it makes me immediately go down into my intellectual bunker to say, what am I missing?
SPEAKER 09 :
All right. Well, Rick, thank you so much for joining us. Hey, in the next segment, we are going to be taking your phone calls. I want to hear from you. We’re also going to be a preview of some of the work the ACLJ is doing on the pro-life front. You’re not going to want to miss that. That’s something that, you know, while we’re talking about Iran, we’re talking about what’s happening around the world. This is some of the work the ACLJ does from a legal perspective. that you need to make sure you’re paying attention to. And you could also get involved in many different ways, including brand new petitions that have just been launched over on ACLJ.org. So don’t miss that. But right now, I do want to encourage you, if you haven’t seen what we’re doing in the pro-life sphere, there’s a lot going on and I want you to be a part of it. Last thing though. I want to hear from you. There’s thousands of you listening right now. Thousands of you just watching on YouTube right now. But there are thousands of you, maybe millions of you who are listening to this throughout the day. I want you to give me a call. 1-800-684-3110. Get in line real quick. If you call in the next minute or two, we’ll likely get to hear from you on air today. I want your point of view when it comes to Iran. Should we be getting involved? Do you want the U.S., as Rick said, do you feel like there’s some reasons that we should not be there? Same with what is going on on all these fronts. If you have any questions or comments, good time to call in. We’ll do our best to get to you. And that being said, I want you to go to ACLJ.org. I want you to sign that petition. I want you to scan the QR code that you see in front of you if you’re watching on YouTube, Rumble, the Salem News Channel, however you get this video feed. By the way, you should be watching the video feed. Well, you get to see your pretty face, which is good. But also, you get full television-style production. It’s a great, more interactive way. And of course, if you watch on YouTube or on Rumble, there’s a chat function. You can be a part of that whole community that has broken out there. And it’s really always fun to see some familiar names pop up. We’ll be right back with more on Sekulow. Welcome back to Secula. We are going to take your calls and comments coming up, so I want you to get involved. 1-800-684-3110. Obviously the main topic of the day, we are talking about the Minnesota whole situation, but the articles of impeachment have been filed against Tim Walz. We’re going to get back to that. So I know a lot of you are watching because of that, so stay tuned. We’re going to get back to that in the next segment. Now we are joined, though, by West Virginia Attorney General, a good friend of the show and ACLJ alumni, J.B. McCuskey. And what a day you’ve had, and it’s definitely a year, but quite a day yesterday, Will.
SPEAKER 05 :
Thank you. That’s right. So the Attorney General is joining us now. And from what we saw yesterday, there was a very large presence on Capitol Hill. We’ve seen as well that there was a lot of coverage when it comes to… When it comes to what was going on within the Supreme Court yesterday. So, JB, yesterday, as I saw you on a lot of the news, a lot of media yesterday, your Solicitor General was arguing before the Supreme Court. Give us kind of a rundown of how that went yesterday as far as your eyes as the Attorney General.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, let me start by saying, you know, all of this for me started right here at the American Center for Law and Justice. I’m a proud alumnus of the ACLJ. I’m in the ACLJ studios here in D.C. today. And I owe so much of what I have and who I am to Jay and Jordan and everybody here at the ACLJ. So thank you. And yesterday at the court, we had. The ability to defend West Virginia’s law that quite simply says that biological boys shouldn’t be on biological girls or can’t be on biological girls sports teams because we know that boys have an unfair physical advantage over girls. And Title IX, as well as the Equal Protection Clause, instruct us that we have to find safe and fair playing spaces for women so that we can ensure that they have the same opportunities that men do and have had for the last 50 years.
SPEAKER 09 :
Look, wherever you land on the broader issue, this is that kind of one spot that I feel like most Americans seem to agree on. It doesn’t seem like that you have this much. I mean, you do from D.C. You do from the political landscape. I feel like when you actually are polling normal Americans talking to people, they go, yeah, you can feel whatever you want to feel on the actual merits of the situation. But when it comes to the sports one, it seems to be that is the red line for a lot of people.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, and you know, it’s funny, because if you would have said that five years ago, nobody would have agreed with you, right? And so the sea change that’s happened in the last five years with really being led by young female athletes who took a leadership position when it was very unpopular to say these things, people like Riley Gaines, who have spoken out about this from the very beginning, they showed real courage. And this case wouldn’t be happening wouldn’t have happened yesterday if it wasn’t for the courageous actions of women like Riley Gaines and young female athletes all across this country who are willing to stand up and say that when it wasn’t popular.
SPEAKER 05 :
And JP, once again, it also takes states like West Virginia, states like Idaho that are we’re willing to also put legislation forward to say, hey, as a state, we believe that this is how it should be. We want to protect the citizens, in many cases, the youth of our state. And so we’re going to move forward with legislation on this, knowing that we’re going to get challenged, knowing that it is going to come to a cost to the state to defend this and knowing that that is the right way forward. And it takes attorneys general like yourself that are both savvy, but as well knowing we have to fight this, but we also have to win it. And we have to take it all the way to the Supreme Court to win this, not just for our state, but for the whole country and for an entire generation of young women that are currently in limbo under all this. So I just want to say, one, what does that mean for you? You’re very early into your tenure as Attorney General of West Virginia, but knowing the stakes could not be higher in that position today.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, yesterday and really this whole week was quite nerve-wracking, but I will tell you that, as my wife would say in true McCuskey fashion, I did somehow manage to get to argue a landmark Supreme Court case on the one-year anniversary of me becoming the Attorney General, something that doesn’t happen all the time. But, you know… It is when you’re a public servant and you have the opportunity to do something that’s good and something that is right, that’s going to make a difference for everyone around you. That’s what this is all about. Right. And I’m just so grateful to the people of West Virginia for electing me here. And I’m grateful to our legislature for taking this step. And I’m equally grateful for the incredible team of lawyers that we’ve assembled in the attorney general’s office who are able to argue these kind of tough cases on a big national stage and really show the world why West Virginia is is truly unique and wonderful.
SPEAKER 09 :
It’s really great to really have you on and discuss this because it became a big topic. It’s what they’re covering right now on a lot of the news of the day. So to have someone who, when you all are listening, you all are supporting the ACLJ and understand that our team’s have uh some of them have been with us for a long time some are no longer with us but again as you said jb been with us in some form or fashion for you know the majority of our lives at this point and you get to see what the influence is on the future of washington dc and where that that ends up and for you specifically in a state like west virginia that i do think needs more love gets needs to get more attention because you’re on the forefront of a lot of big uh cultural issues
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah. And I’ll tell you, the world is healing. And West Virginia, as a group, has a set of values that really mirror the rest of this country and really value what it means to be an American and why that’s so important. So anybody out there who’s listening is trying to get out of a blue state with high taxes. I got to tell you, wild and wonderful West Virginia is the place you want to be.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you so much for hopping on today. And look, I think that it is always important for our audience to understand the scope of the work well that we do here, but also our friends that are in high positions at this point.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right. And our work doesn’t end with people in those positions. JB, I know that there are ways that Our legal team are always in discussion with you and ways that we can fight together because we have that same set of values, that same common goal for this country. And we know that sometimes it’s got to be groups like the ACLJ that take the action with a private client. Sometimes it’s the states that are bold enough to stand up.
SPEAKER 02 :
Let me interrupt you just real quick, Will. And to your listeners, I think what you all need to understand is that there are 27 other Republican attorney generals who would have done exactly what I did. But the ACLJ is the premier First Amendment and religious freedom law firm in this country. And I know that because I worked here. And I meant it when I said it, that I would not be sitting here if it wasn’t for Jay and Jordan Sekulow. And I am just immensely grateful for you guys for giving me the skills and the opportunity to get where I am today.
SPEAKER 09 :
Again, thank you so much for joining us today. Best of luck. We’ll certainly be following all of it very, very closely. With that, we have a second half hour coming up. Don’t go anywhere. If you lose us on your local radio station, we are broadcasting live on ACLJ.org, on YouTube, on Rumble, however you get your podcasts. We are there right now for the next half hour. We’ve got some phone lines open at 1-800-684-3110, and I want to hear from you. You heard about how we’re getting involved in Minnesota. There’s a lot of you watching right now. So many of you are watching and you’re going, hey, when are you going to get back to Minnesota? I love what JB is doing about West Virginia, but don’t worry. In the next segments, we are going right back to it. We’re going to give you the discussion. This was not clickbait. Articles of impeachment have been filed against Tim Walz. What that means, if you’re brand new, if you’re just joining us right now, we’ll get into what it means. It means actually more than you’d expect. It’s not necessarily just a political stunt. There are real ramifications that come from this. Let’s talk about it. Let’s chat it out. Phone lines are open at 1-800-684-3110. If you want to be involved, though, if you see what’s going on in Minnesota and you go, Logan, I want to do something about it, you can be a part of our team. Join the ACLJ. Become an ACLJ member. And also sign that petition. ACLJ.org slash sign. Because right now. We have filed five Freedom of Information Act requests to expose and defeat what we feel is an industrial scale fraud in Minnesota. And you know what? It could be all around the country. We’re going to take a hard look at it. And we have a team of lawyers ready to take action. Be a part of it right now. That is at ACLJ.org slash sign where you can be a part of it. You can also become an ACLJ champion while you’re there. Give a donation or give to us on a monthly basis. It’d be fantastic. That’s going to do it. We’ll talk to you next week.
