Even prominent mainstream media members weren’t impressed with Vice President Kamala Harris’ answers during her presidential debate against President Donald Trump. CNN anchor Jake Tapper criticized VP Harris because she “generally reverted to talking points” when asked direct questions from ABC News’ David Muir and Linsey Davis. The Sekulow team discusses Kamala’s dodging questions on the economy/inflation, the border, and foreign policy, the ACLJ’s legal work to defend school choice, the latest election polls – and much more.
Today on Sekulow, is there trouble for Kamala? CNN’s Jake Tapper?
Blast her debate. 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, Jordan Sekulow. Interesting twist. Sometimes it takes time for people to fully digest debates. You look at the optics first, you look at the lines you remember, the moments that were unique, what it looked like, what it felt like, and also the clips that you saw. So many people base the debate off of what they hear from the news the next day, or even the commentary following the debate to break it down for them. And you could just see certain clips, and if you hear certain clips you could think, well one person was really dominant, if you hear other clips you’d think someone else was dominant. But Jake Tapper from CNN has seen some problems with the Harris debate performance that has not been pointed out by many on the left, or certainly not in the mainstream media. And what he was concerned about is exactly kind of what we were talking about yesterday, started off with the first question, which is are you better off today than you were before the Harris-Biden administration? And it’s a pretty easy comparison.
Were you better under Trump, or are you better under the Biden-Harris administration? And she totally skipped over that, and that was the first question of the night, and the moderators never pushed her. But he’s also got a lot of concern that by punting that first question on the economy, that it just kept going.
Because as we said, Will, there was never pushback from the moderators to say, yes, that’s wonderful what you just said, but that was not our question. They had no problem saying that to Donald Trump. That’s right, and what you’re seeing now from Jake Tapper is after the dust settled, I will say him immediately after the debate was over was glowing about Kamala Harris. Chris Wallace on CNN said that Trump’s debate performance was as disastrous for him as the Biden-Trump debate was for Biden, which is an absurd statement.
But once the dust settles, and we’re going to play this in the next segment, so stick around. You’re going to want to see how Jake Tapper, after the dust settled, had a moment of reflection and actually called out Kamala Harris for her debate performance. But this isn’t the only thing that CNN has done just this week that seems to show that there may be some discontent within the ranks of the alleged journalists, if you want to call them that. I don’t know, our audience would prefer that I not use that term for them. But those at CNN that would traditionally give Kamala Harris the pass, Aaron Burnett and Andrew Kaczynski from The K File have done two lengthy segments.
Yeah, we spent time on one. The one on the border wall, just blasting Kamala Harris for her flip-flops and calling out the hypocrisy and basically saying, which Kamala do you believe? So seeing CNN do journalistic work for once is a breath of fresh air.
I don’t know how long it lasts. We only have less than two months till election day, but you’re going to want to see how Jake Tapper broke down her debate performance not 24 hours after she walked off that stage. You know, it was interesting too, Will, because we talked about her ads showing the Trump border wall, that she’d be tough. It was actually one of the most controversial portions of the border wall built in Arizona. Remember, this is a party that says he didn’t even build any new wall. And then she used it in the ad, brand new wall, as Donald Trump likes to call it, that she’s going to be so tough. What was the second issue? Because I’m sure people missed that this week on CNN2 that they went after. It was a questionnaire she had filled out for the ACLU in 2019 when she was running for President. And it was as far left as you could get about the government services she would be willing to provide to illegal migrants that were detained by the federal government.
Illegal immigrants that are also prisoners. Exactly. Alright folks, 1-800-684-3110, if you want to talk to us on air, we certainly want you to join us. We’ve got a lot to talk about too, especially a new ACLJ filing in Ohio, taking on teachers unions, taking on the Columbus Board of Education with school choice.
Very important. But also, we need you and we need your support to help us protect. We’re going to be joined today by Jeff Balaban in Israel, our ally Israel, and your rights and freedoms.
Please become an ACLJ champion and make a monthly recurring gift at ACLJ.org slash champions. We’re prepared to make not one, but two critical oral interventions in the coming weeks at the UN to defend Israel because Biden and Harris won’t. Welcome back to Secular. Of course, something that is now coming to light more and more. We discussed it yesterday on the broadcast, but now CNN is picking up on it. The left is picking up on it.
Business reporters are picking up on it as well because the trend in the U.S. economy. And we told you about Jake Tapper from CNN, who, by the way, just so it’s clear, as Will said, had tremendous praise immediately following the debate for Kamala Harris. So it wasn’t like he was already, right after the debate, kind of scratching his head and going, hold on everybody who thought this was so great. The problem is she didn’t answer any of the questions that were key to the American people. So 24 hours, 48 hours later, you start thinking about it more, especially if one of your jobs is to analyze politics and to analyze this for the country.
It is for us. That was actually the first thing that stuck out for me in the first question of the debate. I tweeted about it because if you start with your answers that way, you kind of know how the night is going to go. And what she did, the strategy she went for, and I’m not saying it’s a strategy that doesn’t work in debates. It can work in debates.
It can work in court cases. She had five or six main points she wanted to make throughout the night. She had memorized all of them. Some were digs at Trump. Some were statements on the economy and other issues. And she kept going back to those. It really didn’t matter what the question was.
The question might direct her to what she had memorized, and then she went with that statement. So I want you to listen to a Jake Tapper who was praising Harris immediately after the debate to the Jake Tapper of yesterday. Take a listen. Vice President Harris began the debate by punting the first question on the economy. Do you believe Americans are better off than they were four years ago? So I was raised as a middle class kid, and I am actually the only person on this stage who has a plan that is about lifting up the middle class and working people of America.
It went on from there. Despite the economy being the number one issue facing the country, the sitting vice President generally reverted to talking points about a few of her policy proposals. Even Harris’ allies today are saying that she needs to talk more about what she will do for Americans if elected. Senator Bernie Sanders will be here in a second to talk more about the need for her to fill in some of those blanks. On the border, another vulnerable issue for Harris, she also dodged. Would you have done anything differently from President Biden on this? So I’m the only person on this stage who has prosecuted transnational criminal organizations for the trafficking of guns, drugs, and human beings.
Okay, that wasn’t the question. When asked how she would break through the Israel-Hamas war stalemate, Harris said this. We need a ceasefire deal and we need the hostages out. And so we will continue to work around the clock on that.
Okay, but again, how? So again, a lot of statements about what they want to see happening, you know, the end goal, but no how, or just completely ignoring the question. I want to go to Harry Hutchinson, who is our director of policy at the ACLJ, because Harry, there’s also an interesting breakdown in consumer prices that has come out in the last 24 hours that compare kind of the Biden era with the Trump era just four years ago. And they start off, of course, which is critical to families everywhere, which is something we all need to survive, you know, food. And they start with those prices. Let’s walk through some of those for people because the numbers are extreme.
Absolutely. So food prices have risen by 23% during the Biden-Harris regime. Egg prices are up by 61%. Since August of 2020 gasoline prices are up by 50%. Shelter prices are up by 23.4%. Energy prices overall are up by 42%.
New vehicle prices are up by 19.5%. Mortgage interest prices have tripled during the Biden-Harris regime. So there’s no wonder why Kamala Harris dodged the question whether or not Americans were better off after three and a half years of the Biden-Harris regime. A truthful answer would have impeached Kamala Harris. So in other words, the American people are much, much worse off after three and a half years of the Biden-Harris regime, whereas under Trump, the economy delivered a 15% increase in real wages for American workers. So it’s an easy question to answer.
But of course, Kamala could not answer the question truthfully. Well, and Professor Hutchison, I feel like that is the question why they led the debate with the economy question is because that is the most important question for everyday Americans. And when you look at the growth of wages, which has been relatively stagnant around 4% or less over these last three and a half years, and you compare that to the consumer price rising. Individuals that are working hard have a steady job and are getting moderate income increases through raises or cost of living adjustments. Nowhere are you seeing cost of living adjustments that are approaching over the last three and four years at 23% for shelter, 60% for some food items, 20% for the majority of food items. So the factor in all of these price increases with meager rising wages for the individuals, they may be able to point to numbers like job numbers or look, we got inflation back down to 2 point something percent this last month when that’s down from the peak of 9%. But what you’re seeing in reality is that one, the prices aren’t going to go down, they’ve already been inflated, but individuals that are working hard, their ability to tread water in an economy is getting more and more precarious for them as prices for things like shelter, vehicles, gasoline. Basic necessities in the American economy are becoming increasingly out of reach as their wage rises don’t meet the price rises. I think you’re precisely correct. So I think the essential point is elites like Kamala Harris don’t really care about average Americans.
Indeed, they disdain the lives of average Americans, whether they live in Springfield, Ohio, whether they live in a suburb of Detroit in Michigan, whether they live in a fracking community in Pennsylvania. At the end of the day, Kamala Harris and the elites that run the Biden Harris regime don’t care. So the people that have done really well, they are supporting Kamala Harris. So you have billionaires who are supporting Kamala Harris. They have done very, very well. In fact, if you look at the top of the stock market, many of these companies have seen their market value triple over the last three to four years. So these rich individuals are indeed supporting the Kamala Harris regime.
And if I were a billionaire, I might have some self-interest in supporting Kamala Harris, even though her economic and other policies are absolutely awful. You know, it’s interesting. We’ve got some phone calls on this. Will, do we have time to get to the first call of the day? Yeah, let’s go to Helen calling from Arizona on Line 1. Helen, you’re on the air. Hey, Helen.
Oh, hi. Yeah. I think that Trump should have another debate on Fox News where he can get a fair chance at it. You know, I think Helen, Helen, going through all these points that we have, even what Jake Tapper went through, I saw Trump in the news just speaking to reporters, you know, candidly, which Harris never does, about whether or not he would do a second debate. And there was one, I think, on the table from NBC.
There’s also one on the table from Fox. He said he would do NBC, would also do Fox. I don’t recall yet if he said it has to be Fox first or if we do Fox, I would also do NBC, but he’s willing to continue on. Harris was the first to call for a debate. Usually, if you’re calling for another debate, even if you think you had a good performance, you think that you’ve still got a lot of ground to make up in the campaign. The question is, would Harris ever do what Republicans have to constantly do, Will, which is walk into debates that are moderated by former Democrat staffers, including even the CNN debate with Jake Tapper.
He was a former Democrat staffer on Capitol Hill before joining the news. And these very, you know, one-sided anchors like we saw with ABC, Republicans do it all the time. But it’s hard for me to imagine right now, and maybe that changes, Harris doing a Fox News debate.
That’s right. She would never agree to what Republicans would agree to, which is to walk into the lion’s den. That’s why her first and probably only sit-down interview was with a friendly network CNN. And even that was probably a little too tough for her when you look at how spoon-fed she was by the ABC moderators that we saw the other night. We’ll see if there’s another debate.
I think when it all shakes out, it’ll be interesting if there is another one. Yeah. All right, folks.
1-800-684-3110. We come back, a new legal filing by the ACLJ. Taking on the school boards, taking on the teachers unions, and of course, fighting for school choice. We’re going to explain that to you as well. We know that Harris won’t show up in support of Netanyahu.
He shouldn’t even show up when he spoke to Congress. When we go to Israel to Jeff Balabon later today, and he’s got some interesting photos to show us about where he visited, I think you’ll understand why the ACLJ not only needs your support here in the United States for the battles we’re taking on, as you’ll hear about in Ohio, these new battles every day, but also around the world for our allies. We want you to donate today at ACLJ.org, and if you can, become an ACLJ champion or a current donor. All right, folks. Remember, we are taking your phone calls too.
We already have taken calls today at 1-800-684-3110. As you kind of settle down from the debate and you get some more analysis, we’ve seen the left with some interesting takeaways that they did not have that night, because again, you’re watching something for an hour and 45 minutes. The first kind of way people judge debates is kind of how did it feel to them and to people they were talking to. And I will tell you, a lot of people were nervous about the debate outcome.
I got plenty of the text. A lot of folks here at the ACLJ did about whether or not this was going to hurt election chances for Trump. And did we see a new Harris? I think we saw actually the Harris that has existed previously that has just not been able to kind of blossom under the Biden administration, if you want to say it that way. And I think more and more we’ve learned why. That’s because, even if you don’t agree with the policies, that the Biden administration was out of control from day one.
He was never really in charge, and it kept getting worse and worse. So you can imagine the vice President not feeling real confident when she went out to try and defend the administration or defend the decisions of President Biden. And certainly she didn’t want to do that in the debates. And, Will, that was a serious problem for Jake Tapper. But it was also a serious problem when they had these focus groups going on, and the focus groups were really in on the issues.
And it was very interesting. I’d say independent voters, which are a key voting block when the country is basically divided 50-50. Most people in America who are going to vote already know who they are going to vote for, and nothing could have changed their mind from what happened last night. But there are enough votes still out there that could change the outcome of the election for people who have not yet made up their mind, who are still not sure who they will vote for, or if they will even go vote. Will they request an absentee ballot if they think they’re going to be out of town?
Will they actually wait in line for an hour or two? But what was found by this focus group, Will, was something I’m sure a lot of people in our audience will be surprised to hear. That’s right, and even the pollster that conducted this from Molenski and Partners said that it was shocking seeing what happened with the independent voters in the focus group.
There were seven Democrats, five Independents, and five Republicans. Now, obviously, very small sample size, but when a focus group is chosen, they try to choose people that aren’t going to just fulfill their narrative. They’re trying to actually pick people that they think will give them insightful data. That’s the entire point of these polling firms doing a focus group. And, you know, they do those little knobs, and sometimes on some networks they’ll even show it live during the debate. I know they used to do that definitely during the Mitt Romney-Obama debate.
That was one that was always fascinating because they had the ticker at the bottom, and you’d see the lines go up and down of how people were responding. But this showed that the independent voters, when President Trump was talking about things like the economy, or even the migrant crime issues that Jake Tapper actually hit Kamala Harris on in that segment for not bringing up, the independent voters were tracking with the Republican voters favorably, and at some points talking about migrant crime, actually more favorably than the Republican voters in this focus group. So when you take that data, throw away all the media commentary that’s going to be biased against President Trump no matter what, and even forget the debate performance if you didn’t like his style. The problem that Kamala Harris has is that even when he says things in a non-polished way, he’s still hitting at the issues that matter to middle America. In the Rust Belt, the places where both candidates need to show up and win if they want to win the presidency. Of course Californians aren’t going to care what President Trump says about rising migrant crime in the Midwest.
But you know who does? The voters in the Midwest who are going to determine the outcome of this election. That’s why you can’t take performances and debates as you see it. That’s why a lot of times they say, watch the debate with the sound off and tell me who you think won.
It’s a lot of times different because of the way people compose themselves, the way it looks, and I think that the story is yet to be finished on how this debate plays out. I think that is once again why Kamala Harris so quickly called for a second debate right after the media was claiming she won it in a landslide. When you see these independent voters quoting them, when they were asked directly by the moderators, Harris didn’t even make an effort to defend the administration’s policies at all. She can’t. It’s indefensible, so she pivoted, but they totally rewrote all of Trump’s immigration policies year one.
I would have liked to see the explanation for the country as to why they did that. So again, when you take this away, again, there are debates that change elections. This remains to be seen whether this is one. It feels like we’re moving to potentially another Presidential debate. So in the sense that it might expand on the debates, that might be the biggest influence this one has is that it actually encourages more debates than we thought we were going to have. But remember, I think these ballots are going out in Pennsylvania next week?
Yes, I believe next week. People will already be voting as early as next week in states that are of course crucial to the election efforts of both Harris and Trump. Now I do want to tell you, in one of those states also that’s very important, in Ohio, the ACLJ has filed a major new, it’s a legal action, a writ of mandamus with the Ohio Supreme Court demanding that the Columbus School Board stop violating school choice law and provide students with transportation to Christian schools. Part of the Ohio school choice law says that if you’re a parent and your child decide to take part in their school choice program, that you can still use the school bus system to get to school. And the school districts were actually provided millions of dollars so that they could do these additional routes. Just in Columbus, this is by the way not affecting like five or six students, this is about 1,700 kids who have not been getting the service that the state is paying for with their parents’ tax dollars. Remember, the state of Ohio said we’re not going to just ask the school districts to do this for nothing, we’re going to give them millions of dollars. But Columbus has said, you know what, instead of actually doing the pickups this year, so they left 1,700 kids waiting outside at bus stops, didn’t pick them up. And this is all about school boards, their left, the teachers unions, that’s who we’re fighting with here.
Think about how sick this is. They’re taking the millions of dollars of taxpayer money, but they’ve decided it’d be better to pay the millions of dollars of fines since they get money from the state to do this program. They’ve got money to pay the millions of dollars in fines rather than pick these students up. I mean, Will, the fact that these school boards are so left that they have this animus for those young people and their parents who decided their kids needed something different, they would literally leave them waiting on the sidewalk, waiting at the bus stop. And they’d rather use the parents’ taxpayer dollars and the citizens of Columbus’ taxpayer dollars to pay penalties rather than take those kids to school. We learned, the entire country learned, that the teachers unions were not for students, they were for themselves during the pandemic. This is another symptom of that sickness with the control that teachers unions have on the public schools.
All they care about is themselves and wanting to prop up their public education and their woke agendas in the schools. And so they will willfully violate the law of Ohio in order to further that agenda. This goes right to the Ohio Supreme Court. The ACLJ is the direct representation here. So, again, I want to encourage you right now to support the work of the ACLJ. You know, the majority of a lot of these students are going to Christian schools, religious schools, surprise, surprise, they don’t want to drop them off. But they’ll take your taxpayer dollars, leave the kids at the bus stop rather than take them to school and take your money to pay fines.
Go to ACLJ.org, donate. Keeping you informed and engaged. Now, more than ever, this is Sekulow. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. Welcome back to Sekulow. We are talking about if you’re just joining us maybe on the broadcast or you’re watching on various places the show is at, like YouTube, Rumble, Facebook, wherever you might be, X, or you’re listening to your local radio station or Sirius XM.
We started the show today because it’s different than what you might have imagined. You might have said, Jordan, what headline are you reading? This is not what I’ve been hearing in the media about this Presidential debate between Donald Trump and Harris. But there is trouble for Kamala Harris. And CNN’s Jake Tapper has blasted her debate performance. Now, initially, his first takeaway was praise. And I think that was, again, most people on the left, even on the right, said it wasn’t like Harris did a bad job that night. Now, all of us pointed out that, for the most part, that we’re listening closely, that she wasn’t answering a lot of the questions, that she kind of had what she had to say, she memorized it, and she was going to deliver it the way that a prosecutor can like she is.
And I’ve told you a number of times, I don’t know where the Harris that I remember went. And I think she came back in that debate, and she was, again, she was dedicated to kind of what she decided her debate performance would be. But when the kind of media figures, I think some on the left, too, went back and kind of said, okay, these sound bites, there were a lot of questions she got asked that were the basic questions you get asked in Presidential debates, and she refused to answer them. Now, the only difference here is that, and I think why Jake Tapper said, you know, initially, with such high praises, she never got the follow-up that Donald Trump did that said, you know, you didn’t answer the question. So Jake Tapper goes through these questions for you with the follow-up.
Take a listen or watch. Vice President Harris began the debate by punting the first question on the economy. Do you believe Americans are better off than they were four years ago? So I was raised as a middle class kid, and I am actually the only person on this stage who has a plan that is about lifting up the middle class and working people of America.
It went on from there. Despite the economy being the number one issue facing the country, the sitting vice President generally reverted to talking points about a few of her policy proposals. Even Harris’ allies today are saying that she needs to talk more about what she will do for Americans if elected. Senator Bernie Sanders will be here in a second to talk more about the need for her to fill in some of those blanks. On the border, another vulnerable issue for Harris, she also dodged. Would you have done anything differently from President Biden on this? So I’m the only person on this stage who has prosecuted transnational criminal organizations for the trafficking of guns, drugs, and human beings.
Okay, that wasn’t the question. When asked how she would break through the Israel-Hamas war stalemate, Harris said this. We need a ceasefire deal and we need the hostages out. And so we will continue to work around the clock on that. Okay, but again, how? You know, I think, Will, that was exactly what we were waiting for, that debate. A lot of us knew, you know, after that first question, obviously, unless they, maybe they slipped once, so we waited for the next time, and then they slipped again. It was only President Trump who would get the follow-up of, that’s not exactly what we wanted, can you be a little bit more direct?
Harris never got that. That’s right. And I think what you’ll see in reality is that a lot of times debates don’t really matter. At the end of the day, unless it is one like the disastrous performance of Joe Biden. Which really wasn’t, Donald Trump did a great job, but it was mostly on Joe Biden showing that he should, he did not, he was not at the age, or his age has caught up to him, or just he was not, you know, not ready to be President again.
That’s right. I feel like that, Jimmy Carter with Ronald Reagan was another disastrous performance. And just, and maybe the Nixon and JFK were the optics were so bad for Nixon. But at the end of the day, I think it’s more like watching a football game for political junkies.
They get excited by their candidate, they hate the other team, and those in the middle probably turn it off after 30 to 45 minutes. All right, folks, we want you to support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org. We’re about to go to Jeff Balaban, the director of ACLJ Jerusalem.
He spent time near the Gaza border. We’re going to talk to him about that. Become an ACLJ champion. You know, that’s somebody who is financially able to commit to a certain amount that donates automatically each month to the ACLJ.
Do it at ACLJ.org slash champions. Welcome back to SecYo, and remember, we’ve got another segment coming up. We will take your phone calls.
So Joe and Leland, who are already on the call, are holding on. We’ll get to you. If you want to be on the air with us, give us a call now.
1-800-684-3110. Especially if you want to weigh in on any of the topics that we’ve discussed today, but the debate and maybe the potential for future debates. And you may want to weigh in on what we’re about to discuss now with our director of ACLJ Jerusalem, Jeff Balaban. I want to use a moment in that Presidential debate.
I keep wanting to call it the first, because it was the first Presidential debate of the current Presidential candidates, Harris and, of course, Trump. And when Harris was asked about Israel and the situation there, of course, with the war with Gaza and Hamas, let’s play Bite Four. President Harris, he says you hate Israel.
That’s absolutely not true. I have my entire career and life supported Israel and the Israeli people. He knows that he’s trying to, again, divide and distract from the reality, which is it is very well known that Donald Trump is weak and wrong on national security and foreign policy. It is well known that he admires dictators, wants to be a dictator on day one, according to himself. All right. So, again, with that kind of statement, I want to go to Jeff Balaban in Israel, because, Jeff, this idea that, you know, Donald Trump can’t get this done, can’t get this fixed, can’t get this change.
A lot of people point to the fact that this would not have happened, including President Trump, because of the resources that flowed to the terror organizations. But you had a unique experience, and you’ve sent us pictures, too, so those will be up on the screen while we’re talking, to visit neighborhoods very close to the Gaza Strip. I mean, I think you were, like, 500 feet away. You can actually see the border fence in the photos that you sent. Tell people about the experience. Like, what do they see? I just saw those cars. Tell people about that.
Sure. Well, this is, especially a car graveyard that the Israelis have set up, that you see right now, that’s an ambulance, a couple of ambulances that was at the Nova Festival. Just as an example, this ambulance was used to ferry bodies living and then dead, and it was attacked by an RPG. In other words, point blank, they tried over and over to destroy this ambulance, and they couldn’t. Finally, they got it with an RPG, and when the Israelis finally went through the rubble, they found the DNA of 18 dead bodies. And this is the father, and behind him is his son’s car.
His son jumped in the car and went back and forth and back and forth, shuttling out as many people as he can, shoving eight, nine wounded people in his little Subaru until he himself was killed. This is the father who comes there every day to talk about his son, and he said to me afterwards, you know, I’m here every day and I’m fine every day, and then I go home and I cry at night. And while we were there, we saw soldiers being briefed, we saw police being briefed, we saw border guards being briefed, and we saw people from all around the world. I was there as part of a group with the Israel Defense and Security Forum, which is a group composed of 35,000-plus IDF commanders who are very strong about what the future must be in Gaza, in Judea and Samaria, for Israel’s future, and this is a briefing with them and by them, and it was the second day, the first day was actually more of a think tank summit situation. And I’m going to go back, Jordan, to the first part of when you intro this segment, where they were talking about at this meeting, and it was the IDSF, it was me as the American, and it was mostly Europeans. And we were talking about the current situation as calamitous, and it was very, very clear that none of them would have agreed with Kamala Harris’s answers on the debate stage about who actually is pro-Israel and what her record is.
There’s a sense of concern both here in Israel, and I see among those Europeans who do support Israel, there’s a sense that this election could be really life or death for the West, and of course, Israel being very much on the border. And as you say, I’ll wrap up with this just quickly, yes, we were in people’s homes that were, literally their homes were 500 feet from the Gaza border, and they’re the most beautiful homes. And unfortunately, in some of these communities, like the one we were in, 80% of those homes remain empty because many people are afraid to come back because rockets are flying nonstop. You know, Jeff, I want to put those images up again so that people can see the neighborhoods that you were in. And just to describe, can we get to the houses, guys, the photos of the houses, the neighborhood where, I think, Jeff’s like an outdoor grill, and kind of explain to people that this is not a cheap place to live where people have completely evacuated.
These are absolutely beautiful. Well, that’s actually what you’re seeing now is a bomb shelter. They’re all over the place. Every few hundred feet or yards, there’s a bomb shelter. And the Israelis decorate them because they don’t want them to be fearful sites of war, but the truth is, unfortunately, they have to use them.
You know, we, all of us at ACLJ, not all of us, many of us have the alert, which tells us when rockets are coming over Israel. Here’s just a grill, and right beyond it, that’s 500 feet from Gaza. And this household came back. The homeowner is part of what they call the kitakoninut. He’s part of the defense force of the community.
And he’s back with his family. These are, you can’t really see from this picture, these are magnificent, truly magnificent suburban homes in a beautiful, beautiful neighborhood. And you see this love and peace and family, and it was just turned into a slaughterhouse. And these now, it’s completely, is that completely empty now, Jeff, those neighborhoods? Those neighborhoods, well, that particular neighborhood is about 80% empty right now. 80% empty right now. Will?
80% empty, yeah. And Jeff, this is something you and I have been talking about, but we want to play this bite for you. This was from Kamala Harris at the debate just two nights ago, where she was asked about basically the ineffectiveness of Joe Biden to broker some sort of solution to what’s happening in the war in Gaza. And this was where she took the turn. She did, to her credit, call Hamas a terrorist organization.
That’s a very low bar to reach for a politician. But she utilized her time to push for something a little bit worse at this time. Let’s go ahead and play this bite, and then I want to get your thoughts on it. And the way it will end is we need a ceasefire deal and we need the hostages out. And so we will continue to work around the clock on that.
Work around the clock also understanding that we must chart a course for a two-state solution. And in that solution, there must be security for the Israeli people and Israel and an equal measure for the Palestinians. So at a time where she just referenced that Hamas is a terrorist organization does nothing to say that first we got to get rid of the leadership of Gaza in order to get to any sort of peace, but instead uses her time to prop up the idea of a two-state solution.
Yeah, this is absolute double talk. This is saying words, gaslighting America, saying we support Israel, we’re working for peace, but when you call for a ceasefire, that means Israel’s surrender because the only people on whom they’re putting pressure is Israel while Israel’s trying to rescue its hostages. And dismantle Hamas, which, by the way, keeps on rearming thanks to the U.S. forcing through what they call humanitarian aid, which is actually direct military aid to Hamas. All that material, most of it, is being used to arm the terrorists to kill Israelis and Jews.
So that’s number one. Number two, yes, when you say a two-state solution or a Palestinian state, you are saying we want to reward the Gazans, we want to reward the Palestinians for what they did on October 7th and what they’re still doing with the hostages and everybody in Israel understands it. It’s saying nice words, but really it is absolutely putting pressure on Israel and trying to dismantle and destroy Israel.
There could be no greater disparity between words and truth in what she’s saying here. Jeff, just quickly, we’ve got about 30 seconds here. That’s why it’s so important that we are in Israel and we have that presence in Israel and you’re able to attend those events like you did, to be there in person, to show up, as we call it, like the ministry of presence. You have to actually be there on the ground working with the leaders. Yeah, I’ll just say quickly, the other thing we didn’t talk about is yesterday was 9-11 and I went there to commemorate it in Israel at a site right outside Jerusalem where there’s a 9-11 memorial where the names of every single person killed in 9-11. There you go, that’s the picture I took from the memorial. It’s the only place outside the United States where all those victims are commemorated for eternity.
Here’s the quick thought. There was an American firefighter who works here now who was talking about what he does here and I was thinking just the same way the firefighters ran into those buildings on 9-11. That’s what happened in Israel on October 7th. The Israelites streaming in to try and save people and that’s the spirit and spirit of faith and belief in the righteousness of the existence of the state of Israel and of the United States of America. That’s truly moving and it’s important to point out it’s the only other monument that lists everyone killed on 9-11.
Jeff, we appreciate you joining us with all that insight and getting those images as well so people can have that in their mind. Folks, we know that Harris, we just talked about this, was absolutely dishonest in the debate, hiding her true intentions behind platitudes about Israel. The Biden-Harris administration has given billions of dollars to Iran. It’s funded their terror attack on Israel. That’s how they were able to do it by getting money into Hamas and groups like Hezbollah. They’ve also withheld arms shipments to Israel for months.
It hasn’t been considered technically a full embargo but they did not keep the arms flowing the way they have to other countries in conflicts that are not as close of allies. Harris wouldn’t even show up in support of Netanyahu when he spoke to Congress. They made that very political as well, getting involved in the domestic politics of Israel.
You hear that a lot from the left right now. We’re going to need your support to help us protect Israel and your rights and freedoms so we encourage you today to become an ACLJ champion and make a monthly recurring gift at ACLJ.org slash champions. We’re prepared to make not one but two critical oral interventions in the coming weeks at the UN to defend Israel because Biden and Harris won’t. But because of your support, we will.
Become an ACLJ champion today at ACLJ.org slash champions. All right, welcome back to Sekio. So, Will, not everything is always negative on the campaign trails or at the events and maybe Joe Biden is feeling a little lighter these days knowing that he’s not up for re-election.
So maybe enjoy this final time as President. But it was an interesting moment. Where was he? Was he in Pennsylvania?
It was at an event that was kind of a 9-11 memorial type celebration, but it was in Pennsylvania and had a very interesting scenario play out before him. And we’ve got the video. We’ll play it for you. So if you’re watching on YouTube, Rumble or Facebook or on ACLJ.org, you’ll get to see it. You’ll hear some of the audio.
This is obviously from a cell phone, so it’s a little bit quieter, but we’ll give you a recap here, but let’s go ahead and run that video. I like my Presidential hat, Presidential seal on it. You’re going to autograph it?
Oh, sure, I’ll autograph it. Huh? You remember your name? I don’t remember my name, I’m slow. Well, you’re an old part. You’re an old part, man. Yeah, I know, man. I’m an old guy. You’re an old part. I know you would know about that.
Why? Puppy and old. Oh, I know.
All right, I’m a young timer. Who reminds me of the guys I grew up with? There was always one in this neighborhood. Yeah, I’m the only one. There you go, man. I need that hat. You want my autograph? No.
You know my name. Come on. I ain’t going that far.
I ain’t going that far. There he goes. Hey, I’m proud of you now.
Remember, go eaten dog and cats. Hey, they’re good. Thank you. They’re good.
I hope you like the pizza. For those of you who, again, were listening, it may have been a little more difficult. So Joe Biden’s at this event. There was someone there with a Trump hat on. It was a commemorative event, and they had a funny kind of exchange, both older guys. And Biden said he’ll get him a hat with a Presidential seal, and he’ll sign it for him. And then he said, hey, would you shoot if you want to wear my hat? It was not an official, like, Trump hat.
It was one of those you can buy at the stores. You see him across at gas stations and other Trump stores that you may drive by across the country. And at the end, you know, Biden had a little fun with what’s going on and some of the moments that came up during the debate, Will.
That’s right. And so he was visiting firefighters in Pennsylvania not far from where the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania had crashed on that day. But the White House released a statement saying he did it as a unity gesture on 9-11. But I do think, you know, it’s a humanizing moment for Joe Biden.
Obviously, you can tell the weight of a campaign has taken off. Him putting it on, having a good time, and then even making the joke about don’t eat dogs and cats. It was funny. In such a serious time, it’s one of the few times you’re like, ah, good on Joe Biden for having a little fun when easily he could have said there’s no way I’m putting that hat on. What are you talking about? And made it a political moment.
He decided to put it on and have a little fun with it. I’m sure the folks over at the Harris campaign were very displeased because now just the still image of Biden wearing a hat that says Trump large is going everywhere, especially after Trump said in the debate, you know, by the way, he hates her. Talking about Joe Biden. I’m sure that there was some indigestion at the Harris campaign. It does seem like they never really worked as a team and their teams never worked together either. I mean, I know we were talking about a moment of levity, but the truth is it does seem like if you were really, you know, behind Harris, his team would have probably prevented that from happening. And I think there probably is some animosity towards what Harris pulled on him.
I mean, you know, the fact that she didn’t say no to those, to the donor class, to the Pelosi types, the Schumer types, where they said we want you to get to him and say it needs to be me. That’s right. Let’s go ahead and take a call. Let’s take Leland calling from Colorado on line three. Leland, you’re on Sekulow. Hey, Leland, thanks for holding on.
Hi, thanks for taking my call. I got comments on two subjects. The first one is Kamala’s 25% on unrealized capital gains, which that is very concerning to me because me and I’m a business owner. I have real estate investments and I have stocks. I could potentially get a 25% tax on my unrealized capital gains individually on each one of those different investments. If that’s implemented, that right there would completely wipe me out from everything I’ve ever been working for my whole life. It would change the economy.
I mean, I’ll get to your second question, Leland. I mean, Will, that would fundamentally change the economy because we encourage people to invest in the country, to invest in the companies, small businesses, their own businesses, like a real estate business where the prices go up and down. You know, if you’ve had a year where there’s unrealized gains, but you decided to keep those gains with the property or to utilize it to be taxed, where does that money come from? I mean, the money stuck. And the Harris campaign is trying to say that, oh, this only affects people that have $100 million in assets. So we’re only going to target people that are super wealthy. They’re completely ignoring the fact that tax policy in the United States, when you open up a flood gate, a new revenue stream for the federal government, sure, it may start there. Where do you think the income tax started? It was only on the top, top earners in the United States when Woodrow Wilson got that through to have an income tax.
It wasn’t on everyday Americans, of course. Don’t worry, nothing to see here, but it trickles down. And now it is a monstrosity. Our tax code is longer than the Bible. It’s absurd. So they can try to make it seem like, oh, it’s only $100 million in asset. Not long it will then be for people who have $1 million in assets, which would be every small business owner, if you have property and equipment, then your assets are factored in. Then they’re starting your unrealized gains every single year. And then soon everyone’s 401k is going to get hit. Yeah. I mean, remember, even those $100 million earners, I mean, you know, a big company, a mid-sized real estate company with those kind of holdings is building a neighborhood, things like that. And then now suddenly if it’s independently owned and you work for them and the owner’s got to pay a 25% tax on the unrealized gains, which means that it was a good investment and that was going to also benefit their employees, that kind of investment.
But now all that benefit would be gone. I don’t know if we have time to take this final call of the day. So Mona, we will get back to you later this week. We appreciate you calling in. I want to encourage everybody, again, there’s going to be a lot to talk about politically as we continue to do so.
There’s a lot to break down as we see maybe some new polling. I’d say the next, really, probably next week more than this week, we will keep you updated on the case in Ohio involving school choice and those students that we have filed that writ of Ben Davis with the Ohio Supreme Court. To make sure those 1,700 students aren’t left at the bus station or outside their home, not getting picked up to go to school. Even though taxpayers in Columbus are paying for them to be picked up, even if they are part of a school choice program, that means they aren’t going to a public school. And it’s not like five kids we’re talking about here. We’re talking about 1,700 students. 1,700 students were being left out by the Columbus Board of Education and backed by those teachers unions. And their parents are not able to rely on where their taxpayer dollars are going. This is a very important case for school choice that affects, even nationwide, that debate. So we also encourage you to support the work of the ACLJ. It’s how we do this work. It’s how we are able to represent those parents and they don’t have to make a financial decision where the ACLJ says we will represent you. We do it the ACLJ, but because of your financial support, I don’t have to worry at this moment about whether or not we’ve got the resources to do that case. Make sure we’re always in that position. Join us as an ACLJ Champion at ACLJ.org slash champions.
