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SPEAKER 02 :
Justice Department opens investigation on the Biden auto pen controversy.
SPEAKER 04 :
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 02 :
Welcome to Sekulow on a Tuesday. Well, it feels like a Friday. I mean, even just sitting here with you for 15 minutes, getting ready for the show. felt like a long time you know sometimes there’s a lot of news sometimes there’s not too much news this one though has kind of keep coming back up and of course it has to do with president biden and his use of auto pins specifically on pardons that’s right pardon me while i burst to quote our friends in incubus uh no i don’t think uh i don’t think the same thing but using the auto pin I’ve used an auto pin. Yeah. I have operated an auto pin machine. Now the auto pin machine I operated was in the 1990s. So I have a feeling they’ve gotten better. Yeah. But before it was like operating an organ at an old church where you had a pedal and a, you know, pressurization. And it was a lot to work with because look, if you’re running a business, a lot of people have these auto pin situations. The question now comes to, if you were doing these presidential acts, does it matter if you are just, if Joe Biden was aware that, And I guess that’s going to be the big question. If he was aware, does it invalidate it if you use an auto pin or pre-printed signature or a docu-sign, if you will? I mean, a lot of us have bought houses now online. You used to have to sign every document a million times. Now you go through and just say, that looks like my signature. And you go through it. I think Will and I are going to have similar takes. And look, they may not be the take that you want to hear. I know that big question, though, is it was President Biden aware of how often his signature was being used and what is being used for? Not necessarily. And I do think you’ve got to get stop getting in the weeds here of whether it’s OK or not to use the auto pen. As we know, it has had been kind of part of standard operation for a very long time.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right. And we will get into some of that in the next segment. But the big news item here is that Trump’s Justice Department is examining pardons issued by Biden. And this is Ed Martin, the Justice Department pardon attorney, wrote in an email and several news organizations saw this, were privy to it, that the investigation involves whether Biden was, quote, competent and whether others were taking advantage of him through the use of auto pin or other means so trump’s department of justice right now is reportedly looking into many of these last day pardons some of them were the preemptive pardons against his for his family in favor of his family some as he was walking up during the inauguration they were dropping that’s right and and once again that in and of itself is not abnormal in a presidency what’s abnormal is all the reporting that we’ve seen about the mental state and the decline of president biden and i’m about three quarters of the way through three quarters away through the original sin and what and what even is coming out of that is that The running from the basement kind of meme about President Biden in 2020 was a reality. And honestly, the people around him saw a decline even while he was running for president the first time. So this is what is bubbling up all these questions about the state he was in at the end. But as you said, we’re going to get into our take kind of on it in the next segment and some of the dangers to look at around this conversation going forward. Yeah.
SPEAKER 02 :
I think that those who maybe are not that familiar with the auto pin machines in the system, you’re not talking about just a pre-printed signature that goes, this is a machine that essentially creates a live style signature. You put a pin in, you can put a Sharpie in, you could do different kinds of instruments to create these signatures. Sometimes they will create little variances in them. A lot of times they do not. However, someone will in the autograph collecting world. And I’m in a lot of autograph groups. I’ll be honest. There’s some pretty big tells if it’s an auto-pin. So it’s not hard to push through to find out, are these actually auto-pin signatures? Whether that matters or not to you, I want to know. 1-800-684-3110. Again, I think the controversy may be, was his ability to do it? Not, could they use an auto-pin? Just from a clerical statement. 1-800-684-3110. What do you think? I want to hear from you today. I want you to also support the work of the ACLJ. We’re going to tell you why coming up. We’ll be right back. Both lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. We also keep an update of what’s going on in Boulder, Colorado, as we know that terrorist attack on those Israeli demonstrators. There’s a lot more information coming aboard, including that the attacker said he’d been planning this for over a year. He had worked as an Uber driver, had been a part of the community for quite some time and had been building to this moment. So we’re going to keep you updated on that as well, including some of the work the ACLJ is doing. Phone lines, though, are open for you. When this auto pin controversy hit, I think Will and I both had a similar feeling, which is this is where you can’t get stuck in the weeds. I felt that way when Dan Bongino and Kash Patel said, hey, we’re opening up three investigations. And one of them was the illegal substances found in the White House. I go, this is a waste of time. There are things that I agree with. the leaking of the Roe versus Wade overturning when Dobbs decision came out. We should find out more information about that. I’m totally fine with that. Jeffrey Epstein stuff. Sure. Let’s find out more information about those things. I don’t think we need to undersell those moments, but sometimes I feel like we’ll get lost in the weeds in terms of something like this or this auto pin situation where, again, it’s not whether you can use an auto pin or not. Well, I think you said it’s been standard practice for decades, is whether President Biden knew what his signature was doing.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right. So the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice had a memo in 2005, and that was actually authored by an individual who was at the DOJ, now is a federal judge that was appointed by President Trump. So this isn’t someone on the left or something like that. But this memo… was to kind of flush out the legal theory whether it was constitutional for a president to use an auto pin or some other device to sign legislation. And why this is important, because people will say, well, we’re talking about pardons, we’re talking about EOs. The only thing in the U.S. Constitution that requires a signature from the president is…
SPEAKER 02 :
is legislation right that lays out the process of house and senate pass it it goes to the president for a signature we’ve always discussed whether president can almost speak things into existence can you declassify by just saying right this is declassified because the the constitution as you said and our laws don’t necessarily say they have to have a live wet signature
SPEAKER 05 :
Right. And what the Office of Legal Counsel decided in 2005 in this standard practice is that even signing legislation, what is required to be signed by the U.S. Constitution is fair game for auto pen, because if the president has made the decision and told a subordinate to affix his signature, his or her signature to that legislation, that is within the constitutional requirements of signing it. Now, Now you get to the question about executive orders. Executive orders aren’t explicitly mentioned in the Constitution for obvious reasons, but they come under the president’s power through the take care clause that the president shall take care of faithfully executing the laws of the country. And that manifests in many ways. One of those ways are executive orders. So while they are signed. There is a constitutional requirement that an executive order be signed by a president. And then the third thing, pardons. You get into and you say, okay, if he signed these pardons and didn’t know about it, is it valid? Well… pardons are very simple as well and this is kind of like the declassification argument where pardons it just says that the president shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons except in the case of impeachment so that doesn’t say can sign a pardon in the text of the constitution that goes to that broader question like pardon can a president who has the power to classify just say declassify that’s actually an argument president trump made about the classified documents issue is i believe so Right. I would argue that, yes. We’ve argued that there is broad power within the executive. Here’s the concern for me, is that by this president looking back and trying to add limits to the executive power before him, when many of them, pardons can’t be undone, but executive orders, you don’t need to decide whether he was competent or not. You can just do away with them. You can re-executive order the executive order. Exactly. Very easily. Now, the pardon issue, if you start to put limits, on the president’s uh power from the previous president by saying he wasn’t cognitively okay uh he didn’t know about it one i don’t think that’s ever going to be provable in a court of law because now we have all the uh the evidence that he was declining from all the reporting but There is a remedy in the Constitution for someone that is president and unable to fulfill their duties. 25th Amendment. That was not invoked. So now, we’re already seeing the case in the media that President Trump isn’t fit for office. He’s in a state of mental decline. What happens to all the January 6th protesters that were pardoned by President Trump or the Chrisley family that was just pardoned by President Trump? If under the next administration, they try to do this and say, we don’t think he was mentally fit for office. They’ve been arguing that for years. Therefore, his pardons don’t matter. That’s the slippery slope I see on this issue.
SPEAKER 02 :
It’s too slippery of a slope. It’s too dangerous. And it’s a waste of time. Look, I’m looking at the comments. I fully expected you all to kind of go after me and Will and be like, oh you guys just don’t get it very few of that most of you understand there’s so many big things happening in the world that this one is sort of completely unnecessary uh i think that there’s a way you could look back and do an investigation into how it was done if it was done properly but like will said the idea of we’re going to unpardon pardoned people i i don’t see that getting any sort of traction i don’t really want it to get any traction We have to call things out when they get called out, and you have to also look. And look, I know the FBI and the Department of Justice always goes, we can do a couple things at once. We’re a big department. It’s not like everyone has to work on these things. That’s right, but it is taking away valuable resources when there are some real trying times happening right now. There are real things happening on the streets of America. You can go back and listen to my show yesterday. I’m not going to spend a ton of time talking about what happened in Boulder, Colorado, because you know that weighed on me pretty hard. Again, another night, another kind of sleepless night last night. That’s the situation happening in the United States of America. So do I care whether President Biden or any president used an auto pin to sign a document? I mean, look, let’s just be honest. When your kids see get their presidential fitness certificate, do you really think the president has signed that? I mean, maybe he did. I don’t know. I can’t say with certainty. I have not seen it. If I could, I could see. Because there’s dots that you can, there’s a tells will in the auto-pin. But likely, no. Likely that’s not been worth his time and they will auto-pin those. And that’s why it’s there. That’s why it should exist. If the big question, as you said, Will, is something that’s kind of undefinable, which is, was Joe Biden… We can all say, as you’ve been reading that book, you can all say, look at it and go, he was not probably able to do this. But if we start peeling back that onion… The ramifications are huge.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right. And in reality, and many people are pointing out the her report from the special counsel Robert, which during that he said he would not he would not be able to convince a jury that President Biden was anything other than a well-meaning older gentleman with a poor memory. And that he wouldn’t be able to bring this before a jury because they would see him as sympathetic and that he wasn’t fit to stand trial is kind of the way that people talk about this. But we need to also remember. We fought against special counsels investigating the president as well. What Robert Hurd did was decline to prosecute after the president would have left office because he would not have been able to prosecute him while in office and made a decision that once he was at that age, would not have been able to secure a conviction, nor would have been worth the time of the Department of Justice. Now, If people had done their constitutional duty and read that and thought he is unfit for office and take that with the context of everything that they’ve done. 25th Amendment, Section 4, something they tried to talk about that President Trump should have had used against him. is where the vice president and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or other such body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the president pro tem of the Senate and the Speaker of the House their written declaration that the president is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office and the vice president shall immediately assume the powers and duties of office as acting president. Then the president can respond and then it takes a two-thirds majority to permanently dismiss put the vice president in his acting. No one did that. Kamala Harris didn’t do that. None of the people that were cabinet members that in this book are saying like, he wouldn’t even talk to us. He tried to minimize our contact. They had that constitutional power and didn’t use it. If that is the case, that they believed that, they were asleep at the wheel. They didn’t do what they could have done if they truly had the best interest of the country at heart by saying, he is not able to do this. Instead, they left someone who was President of the United States in office and continued to go down this path. So I don’t think, though, that starting to put limits on the executive that is elected after the fact… is a smart path to go down at this point in this country.
SPEAKER 02 :
Phone lines are open for you. In the next segment, we’re actually going to take some of these calls because I think we need to go through a lot of you that are on hold right now who have a lot of conversation, a lot of issues maybe with this whole debate. Let’s have some fun. Let’s discuss it. Let’s get granular, if you will. You can give us a call at 1-800-684-3110. I also don’t want to miss this opportunity to tell you about the amazing work of the ACLJ. Today, we’re filing a preliminary injunction on behalf of those with pro-life viewpoints who have been silenced by law enforcement. You got to get behind this. Just last Friday, we filed a civil lawsuit in Ohio on behalf of our client. We won in court, getting the criminal charges dismissed, but the law still stands, so we got to go fight now to get the law changed. So many issues in the pro-life world that we still need to fight. Just with the overturning of Dobbs a few years ago doesn’t mean the fight for life doesn’t continue. It’s actually much harder now. Go to ACLJ.org, support the work right now, sign a petition, become a champion, do all those things. We’ll be right back with more. Welcome back to Seculo. As I said, phone lines are jammed right now, but they’ll open up at 1-800-684-3110. I want to take some calls because a lot of you are on hold about what you say, the auto pin gate, if you will, and whether we feel like it is a necessary fight. I think that is going to be the big question. Let’s go to Chris in Virginia. Chris, on line three, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 10 :
Hey, how’s it going, man? I agree that good talk with you guys. I agree that It’s better to be left alone. I believe that President Biden was puppetized by those morons in Congress, those liberal morons who pretty much ran the show, but that we’ve got bigger fish to fry, such as Comey and those FBI idiots that committed crimes against our country and the president. and some of those liberal judges that are trying to block all the things that we conservatives voted our president in the office to enforce and that we would you know just spend our time better going after those yeah chris just leave president biden yeah i think a lot of americans feel that way you can reopen things that we feel like are of utmost importance is this one of those i would argue not
SPEAKER 02 :
Just like when they said we’re going to reopen three of the unsolved mysteries, if you will. The one about who brought substances into the White House. I don’t care. I don’t care. You could tell me it was the President of the United States himself. And I would not care at this point. We have moved on beyond that. Now, do I think having people that are internally leaking documents from the Supreme Court of the United States needs to be investigated? Absolutely. So that’s one. I’m four. That’s important. That’s creating, make sure we have safety within our branches of government. That is what you elected this president to do. You can get caught up in the weeds. You can get caught up in sort of the hate. And look, I think there’s a lot of people who have issues with some of even the overall, you know, we’ve had Elon Musk now wrap up his time at Doge. And I think you could say there’s some people who feel like there are some mixed results with that. There were things they wanted cut, that got cut, things they didn’t want cut, that got cut, and then vice versa, where it maybe didn’t have the impact that they were hoping for. That’s okay. They tried. He ran on doing that. And you know what? That’s a campaign promise. And you know what? They’ve done what they could do to try to make that promise. This one… I just don’t see it. I just don’t feel like it’s necessary in the big grand scheme of things.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right. And honestly, to Chris’s point that called in and when we talk about some of the bigger issues, and I think that’s why the key to like reforming the FBI, rooting out corruption at these agencies is so important. It’s forward looking. Many of these things are backward looking and not something that other than buzzy and stirring up conversation online and a headline, I just don’t feel like it is the right thing to do. Now, Larry on Rumble, he said, I have a lot of respect for you guys, but your argument is weak. We have to be able to get indictments of many of the people who were pardoned. to let people like Fauci go unpunished as criminal. Now, where I will push back and I understand the frustration, obviously, but the Constitution is not a weak argument. The Constitution, as we laid out about the signatures and also that they can use it for legislation, that’s not talking about pardons. Pardons don’t require a signature in the way that legislation does under the Constitution. And it’s actually pretty open-ended, where it says that the president shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment. That is a very… Very powerful line because the president of the United States has nearly open ended pardon power with no exception except for cases of impeachment because that is the political process and they can’t pardon themselves if they were impeached. So I would argue that, yes, I understand the frustration, but it is important to preserve the power of the executive that’s in there. People will get pardoned you do not like. Yeah, and there will be another Democrat president likely in our lifetime. And so if there are pardons of people that were politically motivated trials, politically motivated prosecutions of people that were doing the right thing, then… The Democrat comes in and says the president wasn’t in the right state of mind. And here’s our evidence from news reports. Therefore, no matter what the Constitution says, we’re going to be able to undo that. I don’t think that is where the United States needs to go, because I think the damage to the country long term. would be so much greater than getting the indictments that we need, that we are wanting in many of the cases where you see injustice. We know that a lot of injustice in this country happened during the Biden administration. It was four years of it. You see everything that happened with how porous the border was. The fact that an individual that attacked people with Molotov cocktails just two days ago came in under that lawlessness. and was able to firebomb people because they are Jewish. It was four years of lawlessness under that administration. So I don’t think the right thing to do is to start dismantling powers within the Constitution now. I think it is actually our duty to defend and shore up the power of the Constitution.
SPEAKER 02 :
Look, I want to make sure that all voices are heard on here. I’m seeing some of your comments now saying, well, Logan, you’re going too far. You’re beating a dead horse. You’ve said this now a million times. We understand. Move on, move on, move on. We’ve got a lot of calls still coming in. Some on our side, some on the other side. Either way, there’s no real sides here. Jerry in Rhode Island, I know you have a different point of view, and that’s okay. Jerry, go ahead.
SPEAKER 08 :
You know, I’ve been listening to everything. I kind of see the point of the previous two callers. But having been a member of government, if people understand you take the wide angle snapshot lens and the cost benefit analysis and time allocation of what we have left before the midterms, what on the laundry list do we prioritize? So therefore, I’m kind of landing on what you guys are saying. But however, I do remember the day that Biden got sworn in to the stack of executive orders, which he then could sign. Because Will had said the only thing that needs signed is legislation. What about the executive orders? And somebody in the background saying, hey, Joe, just sign it.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, Jerry, we only got two minutes left in this segment before we head to the second half hour, but Will’s got it.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, I will say executive orders are signed. I’m just saying that they are not required by the Constitution to be signed because executive orders aren’t even mentioned in the Constitution.
SPEAKER 02 :
Pardons are signed, like you said, to just firm up the paper trail.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right, but in theory, based off a very textualist theory of the Constitution, a president could speak a pardon, much like people argue that President Trump could speak the declassification.
SPEAKER 02 :
When they said, was he taking declassified documents and all that? Well, he’s like, well, in theory, there isn’t a… formality always, a constitutional formality to the declassification.
SPEAKER 05 :
And this isn’t defending President Biden. I mean, like I said, I’m reading the book and we all saw it with our own eyes. He was not fit to be president, but there are also methods within the Constitution, if that is the case, that is the duty of the vice president and the cabinet and the Congress to do, and they did not. They also were derelict in their duty. So we can’t start chipping away at the Constitution because people didn’t do their job.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, there’s no forward-looking if you do that. Look, phone lines are still open for you. I’ll hear from you. Whether you agree with us, whether you disagree with us, okay. And we’re also going to talk about some other topics as well, and Harry Hutchins is going to be joining us in the second half hour about what’s going on with President Trump. and Xi Jinping and what’s happening in, or no, Xi, and what’s happening in China. We’re gonna discuss that coming up with Harry Hutchinson. That is Xi Jinping. Xi Jinping? Yeah. I felt like I had to correct myself. You didn’t. You nailed it. I know. There you go. I’m smart, Will. Regardless of what the comments say. phone lines are open for you and look the ACLJ hard at work that got you the biggest laugh of the day I don’t know if I like that I don’t know if I care for that we got a second half hour coming up if you don’t get us live on your local radio station find us broadcasting live right now 12 to 1 p.m. Eastern time each and every day on ACLJ.org YouTube Rumble however you get your content and of course support the work of the ACLJ if you can ACLJ.org we’ll continue to take your calls and comments for the next half hour stay tuned less than a minute break
SPEAKER 04 :
keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 02 :
Welcome back to Sekulow. If you’re just joining us, we’re talking about this auto-pin scandal. Look, I think I’m the only one in this room who can say, well, you may have two. You may have just played around with one. Yeah, for sure. I’ve operated an auto-pin machine. I’ve seen it in action. And look, I’m talking about the ones from the 90s where there was like, you had to crank it. Not really, you had to crank it. But you had a pedal, and it was all controlled with hydraulics like you were doing the Rock-A-Fire explosion at a showbiz pizza place. Yeah. where you’re like, man, this thing’s running off of a Macintosh from 1986. It felt very steampunk. It did. Yeah. Hey, put in the comments if you understood Will. You know, I think he’s going to actually not like it. If you do. I don’t know that I know what I was talking about right there. You felt like you got it right. Yeah. So, okay, we’re going to take your calls about this. Do you think this is an important thing to be investigating? Whether Joe Biden, not whether he could use an auto pin. I think the answer to that is yes. Every president for a very long time has used auto pins in some instances. But was he… mentally ability I’m saying it now was his mental ability at the point where using the auto pen could have been used against him what does that look like and I think what we have to look at and go is you know what pardons were pardoned things happen we got to move forward we got to move forward in America there is not much left and I know this sounds scary and I know this sounds like that I’m thinking too short-sighted here there’s not much left in a Trump presidency right in the grand scheme of things You’re talking about two or three years of actual work that can get done. If something happens in the midterms, you’re talking about a year. A year to really get a lot of things done. Is this where you want to spend your time? And I know you said I’m beating a dead horse. I’m seeing the comments saying, Logan, you’re talking about this. A lot of people join us at the half hour break. So I got to reiterate a lot of this. So if you’re still with us, I appreciate it. But know that that’s why we do this. You know, you give a little behind the scenes. Well, 1-800-684-3110. I do want to hear from you. We are going to take some calls and comments in this segment and then towards the end of the show. Actually, just go ahead and do that real quick because there’s an ACLJ champion on the phone. Jill in New Jersey. I just looked down and saw. she gets bumped up to the front of the line because she gives on a monthly recurring basis to the ACLJ a little perk I like to personally offer is to get them to the front of the line so Jill you’re on the air
SPEAKER 03 :
Thank you. Nice talking to you all. I think it definitely it should definitely be pursued because this needs to be exposed because it could and will happen again. Maybe we could put another group or some of the money saved on Doge could go into looking to what happened so everyone knows that what truly happened can happen again. And if we don’t, they’re going to do it again or maybe the Republicans will try it. It has to be exposed to the American people. Yes, I understand that there’s definitely things that are priority. Maybe we could put this somewhere on a back low financial priority, but I think it needs to be investigated and exposed to everyone because no one would believe that this could happen in our country. And it did.
SPEAKER 02 :
Jill, I respect your opinion. I think that you’re right in the sense of we don’t want this to keep happening over and over again to where people are taking advantage of a president of the United States, potentially for their own political or personal gain. I get that. Totally do. But I also want to look at what the outcome is. And I think Will’s concern in this is the outcome and how it can play out for future presidents of the United States and the current president of the United States.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and I feel like the outcome from an investigation, I don’t think you’ll ever get a smoking gun where they say you have individuals that are like, we 100% were just signing stuff. And he had no idea. Because one, I think they don’t want to go to jail. But two, it would be such a small group of people that had that access. And I don’t think if you were to ask President Biden, he would ever admit, I had no idea they were doing all this and whatever. Because… I don’t think he wants them to then say, undo everything that was done under my administration.
SPEAKER 02 :
The closest thing you’ll have is maybe that clip that we just showed during the break with Mike Johnson saying, in a meeting I had with him, he did not recall signing any of the laws that he had put in place. I didn’t do that. But again, that’s sort of hearsay. It’s kind of secondhand. Right.
SPEAKER 05 :
I don’t think any of that’s going to hold up in court or if you had to litigate it through federal court to try and get some of these things undone. That’s where I think it’s also a distraction.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yep. Phone lines are still open. 1-800-684-3110. Next segment, Harry Hutchinson is going to be joining us. If you’ve been looking for a pivot in conversation, it’s coming. Don’t worry. Stay on hold if you are on hold, and give us a call if you want to be on the air coming up in the next segment. I’m looking through a lot of your comments, a lot of great comments coming in. I’ll keep reading those during the break. Let me know where you’re watching from, too. I always appreciate that. And support the work of the ACLJ as we continue our fight for life. This is a great time to do it because we are this week so actively in court that it’s hard to cover all of the talking points they have given me here that we need to cover. We’ll do that, though, for sure, before the end of the show. Go to ACLJ.org. Do it right now. Back in just a moment. Yes, for those that wanted a pivot in conversation, it’s happening now. Don’t worry. Okay, we’re not going to only spend our time talking about an auto pin. I kind of do, though. I kind of want to today. I mean, I think people should look into them. You should buy one.
SPEAKER 05 :
I already ordered three. Oh, no. I’m not using them for anything official. No, unofficial. Just birthday cards.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, oh, that’s nice. Christmas cards? Yeah, I don’t like signing those either. Much easier. Yeah, exactly. So, hey, phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. I’m going to take your calls in the next segment, but Harry Hutchinson is joining us in studio right now. We’re going to take things over to China as there have been this ongoing struggle right now between, it was a pretty respectful good relationship between President Trump and Xi Jinping for a very long time. Obviously, COVID threw a big wrench in a lot of that. However, then you have tariffs and then you have, hey, we’re going to stop funding the universities and allowing new international students to come in. That has thrown their relationship into a bit of a chaotic moment, depending on how you want to look at it politically.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right. And what’s expected this week is a call between President Trump and Xi Jinping in China. And it’s about the trade issue, about the tariffs issue, to try and reset where the United States and China are in that relationship. We know that that was worked out in Geneva with the Treasury Secretary and his Chinese counterparts just over a about a month ago, I believe, where they were able to kind of lay out a framework. And that was actually a big surprise because people didn’t expect really anything to come out of that meeting other than just we agree that we will talk again. But they did make some moves in the right direction. But Harry, now we’ve seen both sides kind of finger pointing about some violations of their agreement. The United States calling out China on some things and then the United States canceling the visas for every member of a university here that is Chinese. But now we have this phone call. What do you think can happen or will maybe happen with this now high level talk between the premier in China and the president of the United States?
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, I think a number of things are likely to happen. First, it’s important to look at what is actually happening on the ground with respect to imports. So the South China News reports that Chinese exporters are absorbing up to 65% of the tariffs imposed by the United States. And the question becomes, what does this mean to U.S. consumers? Well, it means US consumers are escaping most of the inflationary pressure that might otherwise come from US tariffs. But it also means that Chinese exporters are being squeezed, if you will, economically. So that provides an incentive, I think, for the Chinese to complete tariffs. these negotiations with the United States. The second point, which is equally important, is consistent with the fact that China is absorbing the tariff, and that is US prices are flat or coming down. So U.S. inflation is at the lowest level since, I believe, February or April of 2021. So that is absolutely huge news. So I think at the end of the day, the evidence is suggesting that the US is winning the trade war, if you will, with China, which provides an incentive for the Chinese to negotiate. Clearly, they are being stubborn with respect to mineral exports, particularly to India and Europe. What does that do? It means that the U.S. supply chain has been affected with respect to so-called critical minerals as well. So at the end of the day, I expect there will be bumps in the road, but I think we will proceed to an agreement unless, of course, U.S. courts intervene again.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and Professor Hutchison, what’s kind of crazy to me is you look at the media that have been saying the tariff war is going to tank the economy. They found every economist at Yale and Harvard and University of Chicago that is just shocked it’s going to ruin the economy and set this fear among the American people. And in reality, and I’m not seeing the headlines everywhere across America that this is happening, but the numbers came out over the weekend that the trade deficit of the U.S. has been cut almost in half. It’s down 46% from $162 billion in March last year. to 87 billion in april so the trade deficit cut in half as well because of the trade deficit going and being cut in half the second quarter gdp grew so all of the economists that were saying this is going to completely kill the economy and you’ve seen the stock market going crazy in reality The things that President Trump said he was wanting to happen seem, at least in the short run, to be happening. And instead of that meaning the economy’s bad, he’s going to chicken out, as they say on tariffs, I think this economic data gives him a much stronger negotiating standpoint with China saying, look, our economy’s doing better without all of this trade.
SPEAKER 01 :
Absolutely, and it’s important to look back to Trump’s first term in office. How did tariffs work out for the U.S. economy back then? Low inflation and economic growth, and to the extent that inflation remains low with core inflation falling, what will likely happen to mortgage interest rates? Mortgage interest rates will likely come down because I think at some point… We can only hope at this point. Yes, the Federal Reserve will have to cut interest rates. Right now, the average 30-year mortgage is still around 6.9%. So that is much too high in light of core inflation… Which is going at a rate of 1.2% on an annual basis. And so I think the Federal Reserve has been very, very slow in actually looking at the economic data. And, Will, I think you’re perfectly correct. in terms of how many economists have come up with all of these conclusions about Trump tanking the economy. But it’s important to keep in mind one of the first lessons I learned on going to economic school, which is if you laid all of the economists in the world end to end, you would not reach a conclusion.
SPEAKER 02 :
All right. Well, hey, we do have – oh, we still got three minutes left.
SPEAKER 01 :
I know.
SPEAKER 02 :
That was a great zinger there. We got phone lines open for you at 1-800-684-3110. Maybe we want to talk about this, too, because I think you’re right. When you have the interest rate situation, that is something that is affecting a lot of people because it’s stagnating a lot of the economy as well because a lot of people who would have – purchased a new home would have moved would have upgraded would downgrade would have done something are feeling a bit stuck i was talking to my friend yesterday who lives in knoxville tennessee you know not not nashville but still a very rising area an area that is doing very well and he is completely stuck saying look my family should have uh you know been able to move up in our our neighborhoods we should be able to move up in our house financially i’m doing very well But when you look at the interest rates and you look at what your mortgage payment changes, I mean, legitimately right now, if I was to move, this is me, Logan, if I was to move to a house that is just the same price, just the same price, my mortgage payment, because I bought the house almost 11 years ago now or 10 years ago, would trip at least.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and also, Professor Hutchison, we’re seeing for the first time really a record number of the housing market having more sellers than buyers. First time in a long time. And it’s almost at a record number. So all of those could be deflationary on the housing market that could, while those that have a ton of equity or bought recently, it may not be the best position. It could end up helping the housing market exponentially if those prices settle a little bit.
SPEAKER 01 :
Absolutely. And I think the Federal Reserve has been very, very slow. If you look at central banks in other countries, they have lowered interest rates and that has brought down mortgage rates. And I think Jerome Paul actually needs to examine the data. And as usual, Donald Trump’s instincts on the economy are better than the professional economists out there.
SPEAKER 02 :
Look, thank you so much, Professor Hutchinson, for joining us. Look, we only got a minute left before we get to the last segment of the show, which is when we take as many calls and comments as we can. We have two lines open right now. So 1-800-684-3110. Maybe we’ll talk about China. Maybe we’ll talk about Autopengate. We’ll open it up to a little bit more topics if there’s other things you want. What? I love Autopengate. Autopengate. It’s too long. APG. Autopengate. Yeah. Start calling it that. I want to hear from you. 1-800-684-3110. I’m also going to be monitoring some comments as well on YouTube and on Rumble. And I want to thank everyone who watches this show each and every day. Know that it means a lot to us and it means a lot to the ACLJ team. The show is not funded by major sponsors. It is funded by people like you that give on an individual or recurring basis. And we call those ACLJ champions, people that are champions for life and for liberty. And of course, right now we are fighting for life in such an aggressive way that we really need your support. All these cases, all of this show takes immense resources. Can’t do it without you. I know it’s a hard time for a lot of people, but if you can, please give 1-800-684-3110 to call in. We’ll be right back with your comments. All right, we got three lines open for you, fam. Come on, 1-800-684-3110. Give us a call. I want to hear from you. Well, Papa Will over here every minute here. Let’s go to Simon, who’s calling and watching on the Salem News Channel, which, by the way, we haven’t talked about that in a few days. The Salem News Channel, it’s a 24-hour network that’s available on a lot of different streaming options, including Pluto. It’s free. It’s on the Salem News Channel website. It is on, I think, Samsung TV a lot. Wherever you get your fast channels, that is where you can find the Salem News Channel. It’s a great lineup of hosts, and we are happy to be on there live each and every day. But, Simon, go ahead.
SPEAKER 11 :
Hi, thanks for taking my call. I just wanted to comment about the auto pen. I think that the focus should be on who or what entity hijacked our government. And every policy that was coming out of that Biden administration was detrimental to this country and was trying to destroy our country. And those people should be held accountable.
SPEAKER 02 :
All right, Simon, I think that it’s an interesting take. I have sort of a question, Will, when you’ve gone through this book and you’re starting to read more about maybe the diminishing issues that were happening with President Biden, does it come across that the people who were involved in this were doing what he was saying, were making kind of nefarious actions that would go against what President Biden’s normal thoughts process was? Because, look, we know a lot of people… move to their political party’s mainstream talking points or even sometimes to their extreme talking points to try to get voters out. We know Joe Biden, pre-vice president, at least you could say, was not historically the most liberal. He was a liberal Democrat, but he wasn’t an extreme liberal. He had a pretty soft thoughts on life. He was one of the anchors of the Hyde Amendment. He is someone who actually had a pretty good Catholic track record. where you may not agree with him on his economical issues, but socially was kind of in the realm of conservatism.
SPEAKER 05 :
So one of the major themes in it that was fascinating to me because Joe Biden wasn’t just like he came out of nowhere. He was a career politician. It was well before any of us were born. I think one of the biggest things, and this is kind of what the original sin is referenced to in the title, is that Joe Biden had this almost mythos about himself. Actually, Jake Tapper calls it a family theology. Like they believe so religiously. in the joe biden is the underdog that can overcome even when everyone counts you out and this sense of denial that goes around with that and translates into hubris and so therefore many people were even saying back when he was running the whole he’s running from the basement thing uh i i genuinely think that is the only way that, and people are going to hate me for saying this, but, but the, the only way that Joe Biden could have won a presidency was during that time when he didn’t have to go campaign. And when they flooded ballots everywhere, because he wasn’t up for the job then, but the hubris and the theology that Joe Biden will overcome, that he is the underdog that always wins. He’s scrappy. Uh, They knew and he should have known at that time he was not up for the job, but their denial and their belief and their quest for power, it started within the family. And so I don’t think it was someone came from the outside and hijacked Joe Biden for that purpose. I think it all began with Joe Biden. And yes, he’s responsible for that. And he was the one in that office.
SPEAKER 02 :
Let’s go ahead and continue on. Kennedy’s calling. California, Kennedy, you’re listening on the radio and I appreciate it. Uh, give us a call by the way, you’ve got time for maybe to pick up a couple more calls. 1-800-684-3110. Before we head to the end of the show, but Kennedy, go ahead.
SPEAKER 07 :
We elected Trump and we elected him to put together a weed whacking administrative team with government corruption. If you don’t take out that weed, like you do Bermuda grass aggressively digging the roots out, it’ll spread. And this kind of sounds like the Democratic thing of let’s move on. Let’s just move on. I think we need to address all these issues of corruption.
SPEAKER 05 :
See, here’s the thing, though, Kennedy. They are gone. They have been taken out of office. All the people in the executive branch, we won that. We took out that corruption. Those that voted for change. And so I think that’s where my mind is, is that, okay, that’s been removed. So don’t then start to put limits and change the way that subsequent presidents can affect their prior administration, the one that they succeed. I think that is what could do damage. I agree that they did damage to this country and they had bad policies and they are the ones that fueled this anti-Semitism in this country in many ways. And all of those things are awful and we got to fix that. But I don’t think that trying to wiggle around and fiddle with what the Constitution says and what is the plain text. I’m a textualist. When I see the president has the power to pardon. I don’t see many ways to get around that retroactively. And so I think what you need to do is ensure that you show the strength of the presidency and don’t try to chip away at that power so that others can do that to you later.
SPEAKER 02 :
All right, let’s continue on. Bill in Wyoming. Watch it on ACLJ.org, which is probably the simplest way to do it, by the way, on the ACLJ app or ACLJ.org. It’s always there. And look, if something ever happens, like a Rumble feed goes down or YouTube feed goes down, there’s always an alternative option. That’s at ACLJ.org. And of course, while you’re there, you can sign petitions. You can support the work of the ACLJ financially. You can read all the incredible content. Of course, none of that content, as I always say, is behind a paywall. It’s because people like you step up. I want people to be able to actually share this content and see it. Bill, you may be our last call of the day. Wyoming. I know you’re a long-time caller. Bill, go ahead.
SPEAKER 09 :
Hi, I appreciate you taking my call. I just, maybe I’m wrong or something, but my opinion is I’ve been hearing nothing but lack of respect of those who are up there. This country, the true history, the laws of the land, as well as respecting the people who actually hired them to represent us towards the rest of the world.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, Bill, I understand the frustration when you’re looking at this. I know you said to the call screener that you think exposing the lack of respect for the country and the laws is worth it. I think it’s okay to have these discussions, to have these real debates and go back and forth about what’s happening so they don’t happen again. It’s when you start messing with the law.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and to Bill’s point, I think that’s why all the reporting that’s coming out about it, even if it’s way too late and then whatever Jake Tapper’s reasons are, at least these things are coming out now. And I think the discussion around that is very important. And I think to Bill’s point, yeah, we need to get the country to respect the Constitution again. We know that the left doesn’t really respect the Constitution and tries in many ways to subvert it. But I think that highlighting this and talking about it is great. I just don’t know that the Department of Justice pardon attorney needs to be on his list of to do right now.
SPEAKER 02 :
All right. Thank you so much for everyone who’s joined us today. I think it’s been a lot of time talking about the work of the ACLJ. We are right now. We have some really significant cases going on for religious liberty and for the fight for life. I could list them all here, but what I’m going to encourage you to do is just go to ACLJ.org. Spend some time on there. Read some of the great articles that are written by our team. Listen to them as well. Check out our YouTube channel. Get educated and informed. And you know what you could do, real simply? You could just send that content on to your friends. You don’t have to give them any commentary. You don’t have to tell them how you feel. Just go, hey, take a look at this very well-thought-out piece. That’s what our team does here. They do a great job making it easy to understand while not dumbing it down as well. Support their work. This is important work. We’re not behind a paywall. We want people to actually see our content. We can’t do it without you because there are ACLJ champions. Again, if you have an article being posted, we want to make sure everyone can see it, not just those who support the work of the ACLJ. We’ve got to change some hearts and minds. Go to ACLJ.org. We’ll talk to you tomorrow.
