In this episode of Sekulow, we dive into the breaking news regarding the escalating tensions between the United States and Iran. Scheduled diplomatic meetings have been in flux, indicative of a complex relationship akin to a geopolitical chess game. We explore the intricate details behind the scenes, discussing President Trump’s hard stance and the implications for regional stability. Our expert insights with Rick Grinnell provide an in-depth analysis of the potential outcomes and the stakes involved in these critical negotiations.
SPEAKER 05 :
We got breaking news. Iran braces for a critical showdown with the United States.
SPEAKER 12 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 05 :
Welcome to Sekulow. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. It’s a Thursday, Will. It is. Happy Thursday. We got Rick Grinnell joining us a little bit later in the U.S. and Iran. You may have tuned in, seeing that headline on our YouTube channel. The on-again, off-again relationship between the U.S. and Iran, well, it is like a Hallmark movie with bigger consequences.
SPEAKER 09 :
That’s right. And not the Hallmark movie that we probably would want to watch around the holidays. But what you’re seeing now is this get-together between the Iranians and the United States that was supposed to be occurring on Friday. Yesterday, the United States was calling off their plan to be meeting in Istanbul and
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, we need to back it up. For those who maybe weren’t listening earlier in the week, there was conversation between President Trump saying, look, we’re going to meet. We’re going to actually sit down and do this because Iran had started to really kind of push saying, yeah, a regional war is bound to happen. If we don’t really come up with a deal, America kind of called their bluff a little bit.
SPEAKER 09 :
And that is with the U.S. having an entire carrier group very close to the Iran region where they could launch an attack from. Iran, as you mentioned, warned this could spark a regional war. And they were supposed to have a sit-down, a face-to-face negotiation between the Iranians and the United States in Istanbul this Friday, tomorrow. Yesterday, the Iranians started to make changes to the plan, saying, no, we are no longer going to meet in Turkey. We want to meet in Oman. We no longer want it to be about the nuclear issue, plus human rights, plus ballistic missiles, plus our support of the proxy groups, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen. We just want it to be about the nuclear issue. So the United States said, okay, fine, we’re not meeting. By the way, we told you, if we don’t come to a deal on Friday or at least get somewhere, we’re going to bomb you. And then after major pushback from regional allies that… probably don’t want a war with Iran in their backyard. The U.S. has now agreed that they will move the location from Istanbul to Oman. Now, also think about that, the security involved, all of the logistics of moving an entire different country where your talks were supposed to be held, Turkey, to a different country, Oman, in just a couple days. That’s a headache at least. It’s a game from the Iranians. But the U.S. has said… They agreed to hold meetings in Oman and that it will be respectful to the allies in the region and in order to continue pursuing the diplomatic track. Now, what we don’t know, what the agenda is going to look like. Will the U.S. still insist? that the human rights, the protesters, that’s what all of this stemmed from, as well as the support for the proxy groups and the ballistic missile program. Are those things going to remain on the agenda tomorrow?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, and we know, look, here at the ACLJ, we’re involved in this directly. We’re involved in it because there’s a lot of Iranian Christians, a lot of Iranian Christians that are under persecution. This week, we actually filed a submission to the UN Human Rights Council on Iran to stop the persecution of Christians and call out Iran’s human rights abuses. Of course, Jordan was a featured panelist earlier this week at the International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington, D.C. All of this happens because the ACLJ gets involved. So when you hear us bring up these topics, it’s not always what the number one story is in the news. Of course, a lot of people, number one story right now is the Guthrie family. Of course, that’s something we are, you know, her family and all of that is in our prayers. And we are monitoring as the world kind of holds their breath on it. But the ACLJ is directly involved in some of these international affairs that are happening. And while it may not always be the number one story, we got to make sure we get the information to you because it is life or death situations in terms of the Christians. And really, honestly, this is the people of Iran. They were on the verge of a true revolution. What does it look like now? What is the future for the people there in terms of their freedom? We’re going to dive deeper into that. I’d love to hear from you. 1-800-684-3110. I know that sometimes you can get a little heady. It may not be the conversation you even know how to ask a question about. Hit us up also in the comments. If you don’t know what to comment, let me know where you’re watching from. I’d love to read that during the break and see where everyone’s at worldwide, on YouTube or on Rumble, or of course at ACLJ.org. If you want to support the work of the ACLJ, great time to become an ACLJ champion. Do it today at ACLJ.org. I think you should hear from President Trump himself on this situation. I know a lot of you are just chiming in. I know there were some technical issues maybe on our YouTube stream. So for those of you, hopefully you can hear us and we’re back and everything is good. We didn’t have anything on our end, but we saw a lot of you did. So I’m sure there were some problems there. Phone lines are open at 1-800-684-3110. But let’s hear from NBC News. This is a conversation with President Trump just yesterday.
SPEAKER 09 :
Should the Supreme Leader in Iran be worried right now?
SPEAKER 10 :
I would say he should be very worried, yeah. He should be. As you know, they’re negotiating with us. I know they are, but the protesters have said, you know, where are the Americans? You promised them we would have their back. Do we still have their back? Well, we’ve had their back, and look, that country’s a mess right now because of us. We went in, we wiped out their nuclear… So I didn’t take out peace in the Middle East. If I didn’t take out their nuclear, think of it. If we didn’t take out that nuclear, we wouldn’t have peace in the Middle East because the Arab countries could have never done that. They were very, very afraid of Iran. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Interesting, almost antagonistic approach from NBC News a little bit there. Surprise, surprise. Or just more, maybe it’s more conversational, but pushing President Trump on these issues, saying, well, the people are saying, where’s the United States? I do think there’s a discussion point they had of… how far you take this, and I think a lot of Americans, and we’ll ask Rick Grinnell about this later on, because Rick has been one of those original voices within the Trump administration, a guy who worked, by the way, for the Bush administration during the war on terror, saw the good and the bad that came from that, and very much was in favor of the way President Trump kind of pitched the no new wars and that feedback. So when you have a moment like this where President Trump, and I quote, says he should be very worried, that does throw a little bit of a different plan for people who aren’t expecting. Now, again, this doesn’t necessarily mean there’ll be the boots on the ground kind of war if they’re happening.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, and here’s what I want to hear from the audience about, because if if the president and the negotiators go to Oman and it is only about the nuclear issue, all of this stemmed from the protests on the ground that we saw. That is why Iran, as the president said, if you start killing your civilians and we will get involved, that’s where all these getting back to the negotiating table happens. stemmed from. And remember, the president and his team were negotiating with the Iranians in the summer of last year, spring and summer. He gave them a 60-day deadline to actually come to a deal. The Iranians kept moving the goalpost, as they tend to do, to stall. And what did the president do? He bombed their nuclear facilities on June 22nd of 2025. And remember what our press, and when you hear this reporter from NBC saying, should the Supreme Leader be worried right now? On June 21st, The Atlantic wrote a piece, it was by David Frum, that was titled, What Iran Knows About Trump. And the subtitle was, the mullahs of Iran joined the bet that Trump always chickens out. The next day, their nuclear sites were decimated by those B-52 bombers that went in Operation Midnight Hammer. So I feel like the Ayatollah and the mullahs in Iran are coming to this negotiation with a different context. That being said, they’re still playing games, moving the site two days before, saying things are off limits with negotiation. I feel like they should be a little bit more apprehensive based off their last round of talks. But here’s the question I have for our audience. Okay. If the president agrees to only a nuclear issue negotiation. And they come out of this agreeing to get rid of their entire nuclear program. We one, know the Iranians are patient because they will wait as long as they can to build up that arsenal. And with their end goal, destroying Israel, destroying the United States, if they can attempt that. Are you fine with… sidelining the issue of the human rights for a more America-first policy of like, yeah, they don’t have nuclear power. They can deal with themselves. It’s less of a stress to you. Or is it concerning that what got us here again is… is something that we have been calling for for a long time, the liberation of the Iranian people. We’ve been upset with what Obama’s deal did in propping up the regime longer. It was a terrible deal. But would you trade a non-nuclear Iran for at least a long time where they have to hit complete reset buttons, start at zero if they are wanting to build up a nuclear program?
SPEAKER 05 :
for uh would you trade that for leaving them in power for longer or would you like to see a more aggressive campaign that ends up ousting the mullahs in that theocratic death call people ask about this you know how do you monitor a foreign country like this when you say in your nuclear program we do send people checks and balances to do routine check-ins there’s people who will be stationed there there are ways to be a little bit more vigilant However, I don’t trust that behind the scenes, there’s not a way they’re working on these things. It’s not happening. So personally, do I want to see us get involved in another war? Absolutely not. But do I think we should help the current situation there to maybe lead to what could be a good day for Iran when it has been so long? Again, a country that has been written off. When just a few decades ago, it was a thriving multicultural Western-ish society, maybe not Western, but closer to a Western society than a lot of what’s happening, maybe closer to a Saudi Arabia, to what’s happening over there now. yeah I would love to see that I would love to see uh the Persian people and the Iranian people be able to live in peace and actually thrive brilliant people who have contributed so much to our society in America that if they have a moment where this could happen and I feel like this now gets on repeat where they get close and then as Will said but in a different way the reset button is hit and you still have this dictatorship uh in control and instead of seeing actual potential freedom being brought to these people. Now, I want to pivot very quickly. Well, Will’s question is asked, because I do want to hear from you about that. 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110. Call in. Let us know your thoughts on this. What would you rather see? A relationship with Iran that ends their nuke program, but doesn’t necessarily set their people free, if you will. Or for us to get involved militarily. That could lead to a better future for the people of Iran. There’s no wrong answer here. Give us a call at 1-800-684-3110. I’m going to pose that question later on to Rick Grinnell. Just to pivot slightly. In the next segment, we’re going to talk more about the ACLJ’s work, and I want you to hear a big update coming out of one of our cases. It’s one of those jaw-dropping moments when you see this in real time. You hear us talk about these cases. When you actually see the clients, you actually hear them. It hopefully does change the way you feel about them, makes it feel a little closer to home. We have a call coming in. It has more to do with our conversation yesterday, talking about Minnesota and Tom Holman and all that. And I want to go to it because Candy called in from Georgia yesterday. We weren’t able to get to her call. Let’s go ahead and take it, though. Candy, go ahead.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes. I like Tom Holman. I was taken aback at first when I saw that he was honored by President Obama. But that doesn’t make him a bad person. He’s doing a good job. And also Scott Besant worked for George Soros, but he’s doing a good job as well and maybe had a change of heart. I also like what Ann said. yesterday that the ice is not melting. But real briefly, about Iran today, I think that we should be involved militarily to free the people and get rid of the mullahs because they can’t be trusted. That’s all I have to say.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, and Candy, I think that based off what I’m seeing on YouTube and Rumble, and I see when you gave the phone number, Logan, the lines have lit up, which we will definitely get to. But to that point, a lot of people on Rumble and YouTube are agreeing with you, Candy. One comment said, if you take a murder weapon away from a murderer, they will find another weapon to use. That basically… The Iranians and their bad activities, especially with their proxy groups, them being behind the planning and execution of October 7th and what we see around the world, their assassination attempts on U.S. soil, having fatwas out against our president, against Mike Pompeo, who’s on this broadcast multiple times a week. their bad activity won’t end just by containing their nuclear program. And even if President Trump can get the best deal ever where every single bit of nuclear material and nuclear infrastructure is taken out of their country, we know that just begins day one for them and they will find a way to start again because that is their ambition. That is their goal. So any deal that is a great deal of taking away that nuclear threat, is still a delay. It’s still kicking the can down the road as long as that regime is in power. The question is, is it worth it for the U.S. to take that deal and not have to go more active militarily? And I think that’s what we’re going to hear from our audience while they feel. And I don’t know that I know which is better at that.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, phone lines are filling up, but there’s one open at least right now, 1-800-684-3110. We’ve only got a minute, so I’m not going to take a call in this segment, but in the next segment, we’re going to take a bunch of them. Stay on hold if you’re on hold. Let our phone screener do its job. Be patient. We’ll do our best to get to all of you. Just give us a call, as I said, 1-800-684-3110. If the phone is ringing, someone will get to you. So just give it there a minute. We’ve got two lines now open as we kind of go through it. Sometimes people don’t make it up and they hang up. Call, wait. When the lines fill up, it takes time for phone screeners to go through it. So give them a little bit of a moment. Hey, I’m going to encourage you. And what I’m hoping is you see the next segment when we talk about the work of the ACLJ a little bit more and you see our clients firsthand. They’ll encourage you to not only give and support the work of the ACLJ financially, maybe some of you can become ACLJ champions. They’ll give on a monthly basis, automatically, recurring. Of course, you can cancel whenever, but it really does help us out. So right now, I’m going to ask you to do that. Go to ACLJ.org, spend a little time. There may be a video in the break here where you’re going to see a little bit of that. So if you are watching, then we have a bit of a preview of what we’re going to show. And again, these are our clients live and in action. Welcome back to Secular. We’ve got a lot of calls coming in. We’re going to talk. We’re going to get to you. I think we should. But I do want you to know the ACLJ team is hard at work. When you hear about what I said, our participation even in the support of Iranian Christians. But that is our worldwide efforts. That’s the European Center. That’s the ACLJ. That’s us at the UN. Jordan at the International Religious Freedom Summit. These are big picture, big ticket items, if you will. But just as important is the individual parent, maybe in a state like Kansas, where you don’t think there’d be a lot of persecution going on for people because of their beliefs, or you wouldn’t believe that there’s a lot of pushback and hostility. But we’re not talking about anything normal. We’re talking about the public school system. And Will, a lot of people may remember this because we were talking about it for the last few weeks.
SPEAKER 09 :
That’s right. And it’s shocking when you’ve heard us talk about it. And it was shocking when we heard about the case. This is where there was a find your voice assignment for sixth graders and individual students were told they could not put President Trump as a hero when they went up to write their heroes on the board. Charlie Kirk as a hero, even religious people post. the attempt so they tried the assignment starts they go up to write their hero write the hero and then are reprimanded and told that can’t be your hero then we told you how it got worse how they said don’t tell your parents about this they tried to handle it internally but in kansas the education committee is debating a bill right now in the state legislature whether or not to try to fix this to try to help protect the students rights And it all stemmed from this case and this client. And our client, the parent of the student, went and testified yesterday. And Garrett, who is one of our attorneys, was there with her. And we have that testimony.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, I think you all have to see this. It’s just a couple minutes. But it gives you a real understanding of the emotion and the feel of these parents that are put in these really horrible situations. It’s different when you hear it from Will and I. Of course, we can tell you about it. And maybe you think that we’re spinning things. Maybe you think that we’re riling you up to ask for support or that we’re not necessarily giving you 100% of the facts. Or maybe you just think we’re presenting it in a television style way. Well, this is not it for television. This is the real deal. So I want you to watch this. It’s a couple minutes long. It is a testimony. Again, how long are we talking about?
SPEAKER 09 :
It’s about three and a half minutes.
SPEAKER 05 :
It’s about three and a half minutes. And I think it is important for you to see all of this in its entirety. Stay on hold. If you’re on hold, we’ll get to you coming up a little bit later. But this is very important. This is the work of the ACLJ in action. When you support the work of the ACLJ, remember this client is not charged a dollar to have our incredible legal team be a part of this and to help her. It is only because people like you support. So let’s take a listen.
SPEAKER 01 :
My name is Brianne Vincent. I’m here testifying in support of this bill because my daughter and her sixth grade classmates were censored for expressing their religious and political views at Marshall Elementary School in Eureka. As a result of this discrimination and the school’s response, I had to withdraw all three of my children from the school. On October 28th, the guidance counselor gave students an assignment called Find Your Voice. It should have been an empowering exercise. Instead, it became a lesson in censorship. the impact on these children was immediate and the message was clear find your voice really meant find the voice your teacher approves of but it gets worse after meeting with the principal and counselor the next day they addressed the sixth grade class multiple students including my daughter reported that the principal told them that in the future they should bring concerns to school officials first not to their parents i questioned the principal about this statement she suggested that i homeschool my children
SPEAKER 03 :
if you listened to miss vinzen’s testimony about what occurred with her daughter what is the recourse for that family other than pulling their children out of school which is what was suggested to them if if what she says is legitimate and somebody said oh go home your school go home school your kids that’s a legitimate you know concern now i think she’s taken the actions that she can but you know When the school board, and I’m not saying she’s not telling the truth, but if the school board did what she did, she needs to do those actions. And there is that provision. But to pass a bill like what we’re talking about, what would it do to all the schools in the state of Kansas? I think she’s doing what she feels is right. And I can’t make any other suggestions for her. It’s unfortunate that the school board didn’t stop it at where it was at but you know like i said there are there are she’s doing what she can do
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s sort of a highlight reel of what happened. We ran out of time to play the whole segment in full. When we get back in our second half hour, I’m going to play you the full testimony. You need to hear it in its entirety. So we had to cut it short a little bit for this segment. But no, when we get back, we will do it. I’m going to go ahead and listen. When you even hear just the moments there. from that mother. You see some of the passion that’s coming in here. Again, this is the real work of the ACLJ, the on-the-ground work our team is involved in, our legal team, where you have a parent who doesn’t know what to do, who is told in the public school system, well, maybe your best bet is to homeschool your kids, as if that’s a luxury that everyone can afford. Why? Simply because a kid wanted to state who their hero was. And look, they could have preemptively said, we’re not talking about politics. We’re not talking about religion. We don’t want to ruffle any feathers here. And look, we probably would have said, you know what? If the kid went up there and did the same and still said those things, you know what? Maybe this is not where the ACLJ gets involved. This was post. And of course, after, then they said, which to me is the most egregious part. Next time, come talk to us before you talk to your parents. This is where the public school system gets out of control. And look, I would probably say the private school system does too. This is where academia and education gets out of control, where they think they can control the minds of your children more so than you even have the right to hear what’s going on in their classroom. But the ACLJ team is hard at work to make sure this doesn’t happen. And Will, it doesn’t stop there. That’s right.
SPEAKER 09 :
And as you see, that mother who has the courage to go before a legislature and talk about what happened and when her student is told, hey, you can’t do this, they go and talk to their parents. And what does the school say? Don’t go talk to your parents. Talk to us first. The parents go forward and then they say to them, Listen, if you don’t like this, how about you homeschool your kids? Which many people do because of situations just like this. And they’re applauded for that. And we celebrate that. And the ACLJ has supported homeschool families where states have gone after them for decades. But here’s the problem. Not everyone can do that. And not everyone that wishes they could and can’t do that then should be subjected to constitutional violations because of it.
SPEAKER 05 :
And not everyone feels like they should be teaching their kids. They feel equipped to do… Homeschooling is not something that’s just an option for everyone. I think that that is absurd. Not everyone is an educator. Not everyone has that ability to do that. Not everyone has the financial ramifications that come with homeschooling your kids because clearly that means someone’s got to be at home and not… uh you know taking your kids to school and going and supporting your family financially there’s so many things it’s such an egregious moment again that it’s shocking and you need to be a part of this team we got a second half hour coming up It’s available on ACLJ.org. It’s available on YouTube, Rumble. We’re live always 12 to 1 p.m. Eastern time. So make sure you’re always getting the full show. When we get back, we’re going to take some of your phone calls. A few people did drop off, so we do have some lines open at 1-800-684-3110. But I’m going to encourage you right now. Whether you think the ACLJ’s involvement in what’s going on in Iran is what’s important, Of course it is. Or maybe you think making sure the ACLJ team is available to that mother in Kansas who are told, if you don’t like the way your public school is treating their beliefs, go homeschool your kids. Get them out of here. We’re not going to stand for that. Go to ACLJ.org today. Become an ACLJ champion back in less than a minute on ACLJ.org. I’ll have you at your podcast.
SPEAKER 12 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 05 :
Welcome back to Sekulow. Phone lines are open at 1-800-684-3110. We’re talking about a couple different topics here today. President Trump has essentially warned Iran once again as the plans for a diplomatic meeting are, at least as of this second… Back on for Friday. Rick Grinnell is going to be joining us coming up. We had a lot of discussion in the last segment, in the last 30 minutes, about whether we want to get involved militarily to help the people of Iran, or do we want there to be a situation where we come to some kind of an agreement, no bombs are sent. However, the current administration stays in control. Got a lot of feedback. A lot of you have called in. I want to take some of those calls. Let’s go first to Sheila. I think this is an interesting one. Sheila in California on line five, watching on YouTube. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 02 :
Hi, I’m a three-time Trump voter. I was born in Iran. And I just want you to know that Iran was a Western country. They even had more women in power than they did in America. And the difference between Iraq and Iran and why regime change in Iran will work is is because Iran is not going to be an Islamic country. They don’t want to be run by Islam. That is the secret. Reza Pahlavi, he’s the name that you hear being called out in the streets. He’s got a six-point plan, and he’s going to bring a a secular constitution, and that is the key to success. When Iran has the secular constitution, it will be successful. That’s the difference between Iraq and Iran. And President Trump said help was coming. He drew a red line. If he doesn’t help, it will hurt his credibility and his legacy. So I just pray that Trump takes some sort of action and just a little bit of help. can make a big difference because Iran will be a successful country with regime change because of the secular constitution. And I just want people to know that that’s the difference. That’s why it will work.
SPEAKER 09 :
Sheila, I think when you look even at individuals like yourself, I know many people here in our area that fled Iran, that are here, that are wonderful members of the community. There’s a very strong Baha’i community here in the Nashville area. Wonderful people want a restoration of what Iran was. And I know there are different factions that want restoration. different things for a post-Ayatollah Iran. But I tend to agree with you on many of your points is that President Trump did draw a red line on helping the protesters. And so it would be part of me disappointing if that gets lost in the shuffle. If then it becomes a, I took away the nuclear option for Iran, but left those people in power because the people of Iran are still suffering. And it could be and should be, One of the greatest places in the Middle East, one of the crown jewels of the region where it is a Western society, where it is a thriving economy, where it has great relationships with neighbors in the region and with the United States. But because of what the mullahs and the Ayatollah and the original Ayatollah before him have brought upon that country, it has been driven into the ground. It’s devastated economically. And whenever there is any sort of aid or sanctions relief, the mullahs and the Ayatollah do nothing to help their people. They only use that money to reinvest in terrorism and reinvest in the destruction of Israel and reinvest in the destruction of Western values.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, look, we only have about 55 seconds here before we need to go to break. Rick Grinnell’s going to be joining us. We’re going to pose the question to him as well. Stay on hold if you’re on hold. Paul, Mark, we actually cleared a bunch of lines. So if you want to call in. Last segment of the show, we’re going to take as many calls as we can. As we all pose that question, how do you want us to get involved? It’s at 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110. Support the work of the ACLJ if you can. You heard, if you watched the first half hour, you saw firsthand our clients in Kansas and their issues going on with their school system there. We’ll play that even more so coming up in the final segment of the show if we have time. We’d love to hear from you. 1-800-684-3110. Check out ACLJ.org during the break, but we’ll be back in just a moment. Look, if you aren’t watching the show, it’s a great way to really engage. One, you get comments. You can interact on our YouTube streams or on Rumble. Be a part of the great community that’s there each and every day on our YouTube channel. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Sekulow. In the next segment, we’re going to be taking your calls at 1-800-684-3110. I want you to call me if you can. Again, we’re opening up that big conversation here about Iran, what it looks like, what the future looks like, and the U.S. involvement. Rick Grinnell is joining us right now. Look, there are shades of the war on terror. You’ve been a part of that for so long. You have seen what it was like to be within that administration during the George W. Bush years. Of course, now during the Trump years, we have people calling in. They feel both ways. Some people feel like, hey, we need to get involved militarily. We need to be supporting the people of Iran. That’s where we need to go. We have other people calling in saying, look, the president Trump I voted for was more of the America first side, which was the let’s get a deal done. With Iran, we know that there are these meetings that keep going back and forth for Friday. How do you feel American people should be feeling right now?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, first of all, let me just say the obvious, which is I am an America first person. I am a diplomat. I don’t want war. I feel like the diplomats are always the ones that are in trying to find the solution. And we need to have diplomacy with muscle. Diplomacy isn’t easy. If you want to avoid war, you better have diplomats who are very tough. With that being said, we also have to remember that the goal of foreign policy is to keep the American people prosperous, strong, and safe. And so there are times where we have to make calculations to keep America safe. You may have to do strategic strikes. I get that. President Trump has been very good about figuring out how to do strategic strikes in Iran, taking out Soleimani. I think the evaluation of the government should be about that. are we in danger and if we are in danger we need to act sooner rather than later and it needs to be precision driven i know that’s what president trump views uh his criteria and and how he looks at the world iran has been a problem for a very long time remember joe biden and barack obama gave the iranian regime billions of dollars and that terrorism is funded the terrorism in the region from hezbollah from hamas from the hezbollah in lebanon that terrorism is funded by iran And so we need to be very strategic about freezing that money, making sure that terrorism stops and keeping Americans safe. We know that Iran has a motive to go after America, Americans, President Trump, Any American that they can get their hands on. And so this is this is a dangerous regime with lots of money and they are going to be a constant problem unless we figure out a way to deal with it.
SPEAKER 09 :
Rick, when you look at what happened last year with a 60-day, hey, you better come to the table and actually make a deal or else we’re going to do something about it. And then you had the famous David Frum article in The Atlantic on June 21st that said, what Iran knows about Trump, the mullahs of Iran joined the bet that Trump always chickens out. That aged so well that the next day we took out their nuclear sites with B-2 bombers. But you would think that the way that the Iranians are playing this right now, what brought this about was the protests and the red line that the president drew that, hey, we’re going to have to get involved if you start killing your people, of which they’ve done. And then the Iranians ran begging to discuss things. Now they’re moving the goalpost again. It’s like they learned nothing last summer and they still believe this, that they can keep playing these games, holding talks, then start to change the agenda, change the location 48 hours before it’s supposed to be in Istanbul. Now we have to move it to Oman. I’m just I’m boggled that this Iranian regime still thinks they’re dealing with Joe Biden or Barack Obama because he showed what he will do if you keep playing these games last summer.
SPEAKER 08 :
Look, I’ve been working on the Iran issue since 2001 when I was at the United Nations. This is something that has been frustrating for a very long time. But there are two constants when it comes to this current Iran regime. One is they are seeking money constantly to fund terrorism. That’s a constant. And two, they are really politically stupid when it comes to diplomacy. They always trip up. And I think it’s because they’re just not strategic and they misread the situation and they’re self-indulgent. And so I think that we need to constantly think about diplomacy, run diplomacy to the very end, but remember at some point to keep America safe and when the diplomats are not able to forge an agreement, you have to take that Iranian file and hand it over to the Pentagon and then the Pentagon doesn’t negotiate. If that comes to the case and diplomacy fails, I think that we can absolutely say we’ve tried everything, we keep trying different angles, but also President Trump is not gonna make some weak deal like the JCPOA. President Trump has been very clear that that deal made America less safe.
SPEAKER 09 :
And I think that is part of what some of the concerns we’re seeing on our broadcast with whether it be rumble callers through YouTube is that the Iranians are now trying to once again change the focus of this. They’re trying to take the human rights issues off the table, take the ballistic missile program off the table, as well as their funding of proxies. That’s that is what they are trying to do at this very moment. I think maybe some of it is trauma from the Obama and Biden years, but also the issue of if if a even the best deal on paper that every single nuclear facility dismantled all the materials gone. We know that the ambitions of the Iranians have not changed. And we also know the bad actions will not have changed. And so I think the concern we’re seeing is that a deal only focused on something nuclear leaves the bad actors in place that are still causing great national security harm to Americans.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, look, our negotiators are fantastic. They’re different than the Biden era. There’s no question that President Trump isn’t going to go along with a weak deal that makes America less safe. He’s going to be very creative. He’s going to try, but we’re not going to wait forever.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, Rick. And look, when our listeners are calling in and we see some of their thoughts right now, we’ve had people that call in with backgrounds who grew up or families grew up in Iran. Maybe they moved here. We know here in Nashville, there is a large group of people who are celebrating a potential changeover. So there is that conflict where there’s a lot of great American people. There have been so many contributions to America, to technology from Iran and from Iranian people. However, they have been so stifled for so many years that I think our generation has no recollection of that, has no recollection of where this historic legacy of technological improvements, of all the things that they provided, other than, again, the incredible, really, Americans that have now come out of the Iranian community.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, look, I speak to the Iranian American community all the time. I try to remind them, look, you live in America. You’re going to fight for America. You’re going to protect America. You’re going to make decisions according to what’s best for America. And I try to really push them to say, we understand the threat from this Iranian regime, the threat to America. That’s our criteria. And for me, it’s the only criteria. I want to spend money and time and diplomacy on issues and and initiatives that actually make America stronger, not are trying to help some other country. But our focus is on America. That’s what America first needs.
SPEAKER 05 :
All right, Rick, thank you so much for joining us today. Look, in the next segment, you’ve heard from Rick Grinnell. Again, we bring on these experts, people who have been around. Again, Rick’s been working on this for 25 plus years, specifically professionally. You don’t hear those kind of voices anywhere else who can really speak into this. But now that you’ve heard it, I want to hear from you. We do have a handful of lines open right now. 1-800-684-3110. Mark and Paul, stay on hold. We’re going to get to you. And I also would love to, in the next segment, be able to play a little bit more from that testimony. I’m not sure if we have it, but if we have the full length. segment from, again, one of our incredible ACLJ clients who is out there making a stand. And again, this is a school in Kansas who said, you know what, students, not only are you not allowed to pick your heroes and raise your voice, as you will, for people that we deem to be insensitive or offensive, those aren’t heroes. And of course, we’re talking about conservatives, you’re talking about Christians, you’re talking about President Trump, you’re talking about Charlie Kirk, these kind of people. That’s egregious enough. You could have said that earlier, by the way. You could have said, hey, no religious or political figures. And I think most of us would have said, okay, I understand. You don’t want to cause any sort of divisiveness within your own school and your own class. I don’t necessarily agree with the legality of it, but we understand why you put that in place. No, they did that after the fact. And then they said when the kids had an issue with it, by the way, if you have an issue with this, don’t go talk to your parents. Go talk to us. You are, quote unquote, not a direct quote, We are your parents here. When you enter the school, the administration is who your parental guidance should be coming from. We don’t believe in that. We don’t stand up for that. That’s why the ACLJ team is hard at action right now. Why don’t you go to ACLJ.org, support the work financially so people like this mother and these students don’t have to have any sort of financial ramifications. Of course, because you donate, we’re able to provide legal help for them at absolutely no cost. We do have a handful of lines open, 1-800-684-3110. You’ve probably got about two minutes to call in before it’s too late. 1-800-684-3110. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Tech Yellow. Phone lines are open for you if you want to call in 1-800-684-3110. As we head to the end of this broadcast, before we take calls, though, I want you to hear directly. This is in Kansas. This is one of our clients. Again, her children were told in class, sixth grade, to essentially come up to the front, name your heroes, put them on a board. They picked people who, you know, maybe are a bit controversial to the public school system. President Trump, Charlie Kirk. And with that, they were told, okay, okay, forget we said that. It can’t be anyone political or religious. The kids then took that back and told their parents what happened. Parents brought it to the school. They had conversations. Before you know it, the school is talking to the kids privately saying, you know, next time, don’t talk to your parents about this. Come to us first. When the parent was approached, she said, what should I do about this situation? They said, maybe homeschool your kids. Maybe pull them out of school. You can figure that out, right? These are the real stories that are happening to our ACLJ clients around the country. And you can hear me say it. You can hear Will say it. You can hear someone of our attorneys say it. But it’s not nearly as impactful than when you actually hear the client get to say it. So, again, Will, set up what we’re about to see.
SPEAKER 09 :
That’s right. This is the parent who is our client whose daughter was involved in this situation. And this is the parent being bold because… It became a news story around the country, but specifically in Kansas, in the Kansas legislature. There are members that are elected there that said, we have to make a law that gives reprieve for students. It gives an opportunity to fight back on the state level against these constitutional violations. And so this is in the Senate Education Committee in Kansas, where they are debating this bill that has been introduced and whether or not it will move forward and hopefully become a law there. And our client is testifying in favor of the passage of this bill. Let’s go ahead and watch the full testimony.
SPEAKER 06 :
We will follow the same format as the previous hearing. We will begin with proponent testimony. Two minutes each. Save questions after all proponents have testified. And we will begin with Breanne Vincent, parent. Welcome to committee. Thank you.
SPEAKER 01 :
Chairwoman Erickson, Vice Chairman Thomas, ranking minority member, and members of this honorable committee, my name is Breanne Vinson. I’m here testifying in support of this bill because my daughter and her sixth grade classmates were censored for expressing their religious and political views at Marshall Elementary School in Eureka. As a result of this discrimination and the school’s response, I had to withdraw all three of my children from the school. On October 28th, the guidance counselor gave students an assignment called Find Your Voice. It should have been an empowering exercise. Instead, it became a lesson in censorship. The impact on these children was immediate and the message was clear. Find Your Voice really meant find the voice your teacher approves of. But it gets worse. After meeting with the principal and counselor, the next day they addressed the sixth grade class. Multiple students, including my daughter, reported that the principal told them that in the future they should bring concerns to school officials first, not to their parents. I questioned the principal about this statement. She suggested that I homeschool my children. When I requested that my children be excused from this guidance counselor’s class, the school initially put them in detention during class, punishing them for my objection to unconstitutional conduct. When my daughter was sent to class anyway, despite my clear instruction otherwise, sorry, when my husband questioned them, he claimed it was misunderstanding and that they would no longer accommodate us at all. I presented these concerns at a school board meeting in December. The board went into executive session, no public response, no corrective action, nothing changed. Due to the constitutional violations, I have filed federal discrimination complaints against the school with the Department of Justice and the Department of Education. This bill will protect future students’ rights to express their political and religious viewpoints in the same manner as other students, while giving families legal recourse. This isn’t a war on teachers. It’s a call for accountability, transparency, and respect for families. This isn’t about one counselor’s bad day. I went to the principal. She defended it. I went to the school board. They ignored it. This is about a system that punishes students for their beliefs that tells children to hide concerns from their parents and that retaliates when families speak up.
SPEAKER 06 :
It’s been tonight. I’m sorry. Your time is.
SPEAKER 05 :
That is our ACLJ client directly. And again, our attorneys were out there with her. This is insane that you are hearing this coming from a school district in Kansas. Now, the ACLJ team, we don’t just take it. We’re taking it to court. We’re going to make sure that this person is fully represented. Then, of course, if it has to go, it’ll keep going and going and going. None of that happens, by the way. Do you think that this mother would want to take on the financial bills of a lawyer and a legal team? Or maybe even has, I don’t know their personal background. But because it’s within the scope of the ACLJ, our attorneys and our team jump into action. They fight the good fight and they’re out there with her making sure she’s represented at zero cost to her. This is also what’s happening. You got to be very, very, you know, have good conversations with your kids, your grandkids, whoever it may be, the children in your life to make sure you understand what’s going on inside the walls of their classroom. Because there are probably plenty of kids, there’s all, don’t talk to this about, don’t tell your parents. And maybe they take that as someone who is giving them from a place of authority. We got to make sure that doesn’t happen. This is not the way our school system is supposed to run. The public school system is not set up to be the judge and jury and the censor of your children and the censor of, again, American citizens, your kids who are there. And then, of course, specifically are told, again, to me, the most ridiculous part is don’t tell your parents. But none of that happens because… people like you it only happens we only have a team there because people like you support the work financially at aclj.org we got a couple calls coming in i just wanted you to hear all that i want to make sure we have time to get to them though because some have been a hold for a while it’s about more about iran i’m gonna pivot back paul calling in north carolina paul go ahead
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, thank you. Pretty much what you all have just talked about earlier and what that lady professed and what you subsequently mentioned is pretty much in line with what I was going to say. I did mention earlier, though, that the with respect to moving the venue that you know i we’re dealing with an honor shame culture when you’re dealing when you’re having negotiations with you know the vast majority of people from that region so sometimes you know you have to give them a victory so to speak so i think that in that sense saying okay you want to move the venue that’s great you know we’ve given them their little victory now let’s move forward and negotiate but More importantly, you know, these people, the leadership, at least, the regime, they are not going to acquiesce. They’re not going to go away. It doesn’t matter, you know, what we end up negotiating with them. They will sacrifice, if need be, hundreds of thousands of their citizens because their endgame is, at the end of the day, you know, to unleash chaos. And, you know, it’s more of a, it’s a spiritual belief that they have, you know, that they want to cause chaos, confront Israel, confront us, and usher in, you know, the next segment where the IMAM would then come in, you know, their global leader.
SPEAKER 05 :
Hey, Paul, I’m only cutting you off for time, and I hate that because you’ve been a hold for a long time. But I think I appreciate your comments, and I think you’re right. I want to quickly, we only got a minute. Can we go to Mark really quick? Mark in Arizona. He’s been a hold for a long time as well. It’s okay if we don’t have to play the music. Mark, go ahead. Hey, how you doing?
SPEAKER 04 :
30 seconds. I’m sorry. Go ahead. I want to do it quick. I want to boil this down to what I really think is a crucial issue. President Trump got on TV or made a proclamation, keep fighting, help is coming. People went out in the street and died over that. Okay? They died. Lots of people. I mean, even Obama didn’t do that. So, I mean, I don’t see any other way. And I’d like to, if you’ve got an explanation for how he could wiggle out of this. Yeah, we only got 25 seconds, so I don’t know if we can give you a full explanation.
SPEAKER 09 :
But, Will, how do people feel that way? I mean, that is partially the concern that I was expressing earlier, is that where this began, we haven’t talked since we bombed them. This all began because of the protest. And I want to see what plays out, give some benefit of the doubt. But, I mean, Mark, you’re not wrong. Yep.
SPEAKER 05 :
All right, five seconds left.
SPEAKER 09 :
I’m just going to tell you, go to ACLJ.org today. Become a champion if you can.
