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Join us on this episode as we delve into the breaking news of John Bolton’s surrender following a federal indictment. We explore the details of his charges related to handling classified information, drawing comparisons to previous high-profile federal cases like those of James Comey and Letitia James. Our hosts provide insights into the political ramifications considering past presidential administrations and the broader implications for national security. Amidst this legal turmoil, we also spotlight President Trump’s success in brokering peace in volatile regions such as Gaza, reflecting his unique leadership style and its responses on the global stage.
SPEAKER 05 :
We got breaking news. John Bolton surrenders to authorities after his federal indictment.
SPEAKER 07 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 05 :
Welcome to Sekulow. This is Logan Sekulow. Will Haines joining me in studio. We’ve got some special guests joining us later on. It’s going to be a packed show, but we want to hear from you. As we said, phone lines are open at 1-800-684. Actually, not open. Let’s open up those phone lines. Let’s see. Can we do it? There they are. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110. Have your voice heard today on the show. Of course, we are talking about some of the big breaking news. President Trump, by the way, is about to host Vladimir Zelensky at the White House. So we will follow that. As you know, he has made so much success in Gaza. Now eyes are turning to what’s going on in Russia and Ukraine. We’ll keep the update if there’s anything. Yesterday, he had a call with Vladimir Putin, and maybe this is headed towards another conflict resolution. We will see. But that is not the breaking news we want to start with today. The big breaking news, of course, that John Bolton has surrendered. to now face charges of sharing classified information. Some of this on an AOL account, which look, no shade. Some of us still have our AOL accounts active. Not going to say who, but some of us maybe. You’re looking at one of them. You know what? It’s okay. A lot of deep history there. You got to do it. But with that being said, Will, why don’t you give us a bit of an overview of what led to this moment?
SPEAKER 08 :
So we remember that there was that raid of Bolton’s office and home just a few weeks back. Now he has been charged with 18 counts of mishandling classified materials. Eight of those counts are related to transmission of national security information, and 10 of them are related to retention of classified material. All of this falling under 18 USC section 793. That was a part of the Espionage Act and that is the code section in the U.S. Code, gathering, transmitting, or losing defense information. He surrendered to authorities this morning was processed and then already had his first appearance before the judge who explained the charges, asked if he understood them. And just moments ago, he entered a not guilty plea before the court.
SPEAKER 05 :
Oh, that’s really breaking news.
SPEAKER 08 :
That’s right. And so what we’re looking at here though, He’s a third critic of President Trump that has been now indicted federally. We remember James Comey and Letitia James. While the media would love for this one to be another look, retribution, you’re already seeing headlines like this from CNN. Why the Bolton indictment is different from the Comey and James cases. In this one, it’s a 26-page indictment. It’s what they call a speaking indictment where it really lays out the narrative of what they found. And it appears that this investigation actually began under the Biden administration. The prosecutor here, Thomas Sullivan, is a veteran U.S. prosecutor. He’s out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland. and has dealt with national security type cases over his career he’s seen as a non-partisan person this isn’t a new u.s attorney that was put in by the trump administration but we’re going to get into some of the allegations because they are kind of shocking especially when you think about how critical john bolton was of president trump during that classified documents case of course we got to back up a little bit remember he was working
SPEAKER 05 :
For President Trump. So again, this is not necessarily someone who’s unfamiliar with the situation. Of course, John Bolton has been a voice that people have known for years. If you go back far enough, you’ll probably find him in some of our documentaries, some of the works that we’ve done before.
SPEAKER 08 :
He used to be on this broadcast.
SPEAKER 05 :
He used to be on this broadcast, so it’s not like someone who hasn’t been around. But of course, things change, and Trump kind of changed it all. What do you think? Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. Look, our legal team has been working hard. And today we’ll be filing 16. Today’s filing, we’ll make 16. Not just today. Amicus Briefs, Defending President Trump’s Executive Authority. If you want to be a part of that, you can take action with us. I encourage you right now. Become an ACLJ supporter, ACLJ champion. Hey guys, there’s something going on there. Thank you. ACLJ.org. slash sign to sign our petition or aclj.org slash champions to become a champion. That’s someone that gives on a monthly recurring basis. But as I said, phone lines are open for you and I want to hear from you. 1-800-684-3110. But of course, go to aclj.org to support the work and to check out all the great contents available there with no paywall, all available to you for absolutely free. Be right back. Welcome back to Secular. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110. Let’s restate what’s going on. And that is, of course, right now, there is the current breaking news, what’s going on at the White House right now, as President Trump is about to greet Zelensky. Remember, he had a call with Putin yesterday. This is, of course, heading to what could be another potential peace deal. We hope that’s where it’s headed. It’d be nice to have that war wrapped up as well. But the topic of the day is that John Bolton has had to surrender and Will said just pled not guilty in this moment. Of course, as you said, this sounds political, but of course, John Bolton had been around President Trump for a very long time and then kind of flipped on him, turned on him. And then you had the Biden administration actually open up this original investigation into John Bolton. So someone who is on not necessarily the good side of either political parties.
SPEAKER 08 :
That’s right. So what we’re looking at here as well is 18 counts of mishandling classified materials under 18 U.S.C. Section 793, the gathering, transmitting or losing defense information. And it appears from the indictment that what John Bolton was doing was he was sending. diary entries that he would memorialize classified information, some including attack plans, sources and methods, human intelligence sources, and things about our allies as well. that he was sending this through an AOL email account, a Gmail account as well, and he would send them to what, according to the indictment and according to the reporting on it, was his wife and daughter. There was even conversations back and forth where he would say, we didn’t talk about this, and someone would respond with, shh. as if they understood that this wasn’t material that should have been transmitted in this way. He makes reference that he’s going to use it for a book in one of the messages, not just memorializing it. As we do know happened. Exactly. And even in that case, because the Trump administration tried to block the publication of that book, a lot of because there was national security information that was classified not for public release in his book. And the judge in that, which… ended up letting the book be published, did chastise Bolton by saying in the ruling that he likely jeopardized national security by disclosing classified information in violation of his nondisclosure agreement obligations. So even a judge noticed and was saying that judge sided more with the First Amendment with his right to publish, but was pointing out it was also a civil case. There wasn’t a criminal angle to that. That, look, you likely jeopardize national security by even writing this. So that has been the pattern. We also know that this apparently was a case that was started under the Biden administration. The Department of Justice attorney started looking at this in the U.S. attorney’s office in Maryland, and they went forward. It is just coming to a culmination now. When you look even at the left media that has been trying to frame all this, even with Kash Patel talking about, you know, you will see more indictments. We’re looking at people in positions of power that have abused that position in criminal ways. He even said the ones you’ll see coming aren’t even the end of it. It’s just the beginning. But the media has been trying for so long to frame this as political retribution that And even CNN is having to, a frequent person on CNN is John Bolton, are having to frame it like this. We’re going to play Byte 4. This is from one of their reporters that has been following this and reports on these things. And this is Caitlin Palance. Here’s how even she framed it when talking about this indictment that came forward this morning, Byte 4.
SPEAKER 01 :
And that is the sort of thing that the Justice Department does say frequently, not just in the climate of a Trump administration, that that’s something that you should not do. We have seen many charges like this before of other high ranking officials. And that also with John Bolton in those search warrants and what we’re very likely to see in court going forward is that the Justice Department saying he should have known better.
SPEAKER 08 :
And I think that also, when you look at Logan, the way he likely did well and won, he did know better. And clearly in some of the messages, it seems like that intent and knowledge that this wasn’t OK seemed to be present in even some of these messages back and forth. The other thing is that that AOL email account also was allegedly and apparently hacked by Iranians. So it wasn’t just that he was- Probably most of our AOL accounts at this point.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, fair.
SPEAKER 08 :
That is probably a fair statement, but he wasn’t taking the necessary care when sending and transmitting all this information by making sure it couldn’t fall into the hands of foreign adversaries that then had, like we’ve already talked about, future attack plans. human intelligence sources, things that are, as other commentators have said, could get people killed. It wasn’t just like, oh no, they know that we’re going to spend more here in the Department of Defense. No, these were very real things that related to our national security that our adversaries even gained access because he wasn’t using secure channels. He had an accredited SCIF in his home. He could have, if using this for work, could have taken it and done what needed to do in the proper channels. But that wasn’t the point. The point was he was trying to use it to write a book, to make money off of his service in government, to use this national security secrets in a way that would benefit him to the detriment of the country. And I think that’s where you’re starting to see the difference. And this is the guy that was out there so loudly. talking about the President of the United States in that entire special counsel investigation retaining classified documents, it was saying this is the worst thing ever. This is the end of President Trump’s career. He needs to go to prison for this. This is terrible. How reckless, how careless. But yet, there’s a very key difference between John Bolton and President Trump. One is the President of the United States. Facial hair. That has power to, one, yes, facial hair. That’s a key difference. But also has the power to declassify.
SPEAKER 05 :
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER 08 :
The classification is with the president, not an advisor that’s not even a position that’s not even confirmed by the Senate. This is just a national security advisor that gets to be a part of this process, but then acting as if you are the supreme authority in the United States government and able to do whatever while then criticizing the president for something that he actually has the power to do is just so rich because it always seems to be the things they criticize you for are the crimes that they are actually committing.
SPEAKER 05 :
We got a call related to that. It’s going to Michael in Florida. I was watching on YouTube where thousands of people watch each and every day. Michael, go ahead.
SPEAKER 06 :
I think sometimes I really need to kind of sit back and kind of understand just how blessed we have been given someone like president Trump. He is legitimately a force of nature. And again, Just as Charlie Kirk even once said, look, I’m not a Trump minion by any means. I mean, maybe eight, nine, ten times out of… I agree with him, but there are certain things that I don’t necessarily… But he’s just… He’s a man of our culture who’s just made…
SPEAKER 05 :
tremendous difference well michael i think that’s true i think you can look at it and go look i i i’ve been very vocal my thoughts on president trump the the stuff i agree with him on the stuff i disagree with him on there are many times where that has happened uh however when you look at something like what happened in gaza uh honestly his middle east plans first term and this term No one’s done it better. No one has done it better, and you can’t take that away from them. You can’t take away what happened with the Abraham Accords, and you can’t take away what happened now with the current peace plans that are hopefully going to continue on, but at least the freeing of the hostages in Gaza. Because those moments are incredibly difficult, and we see, you know, there’s sort of the blessing behind the curse of having the Biden administration for four years. We’ve got to see how quickly that can fall apart. when you have an administration that is not staying up on what’s going on in the Middle East, who does not care as much, who does not have as much tact or as much trust or as much fear. Does it put as much fear into his opponents? So you have to say, for President Trump, there are things that I agree and disagree on, but there are moments that you do have to look at and go, you’re right, he’s a force of nature and completely different than any other president that we’ve had in our lifetime. That being said, phone lines are open. I’d love to hear from you in more conversation like that. Because look, it is a, you know, they’re going to spin something like this well with John Bolton as this is political retribution. Of course, we saw what happened in the four years of Biden. We know what that looks like firsthand.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, and we saw a lot of political retribution, but not to big names under the Biden administration. That’s how they got away with actual political retribution, by chilling the speech of their opponents, of conservatives, of voters, by going after parents that wanted to advocate for their children at school board meetings, to want to go after those that were standing up for the unborn, that were pro-life advocates. That was a much more political retribution regime because they went after everyday Americans that weren’t going to be talked about on the news, whose name you didn’t know. And they did that to silence their speech, to get them to back down. And this is a different era. Now, it’s also going after people that are bad actors that according to the indictments, committed crimes. So therefore, they will have their day in court, unlike a lot of people who were spied on, surveilled, and put as a threat tag as a domestic terrorist to try and chill the speech. That’s what was happening under the prior administration.
SPEAKER 05 :
All right, we’ll be back in just a moment. Before we do that, though, I want to encourage you to go to ACLJ.org. Spend some time on there and take action with us if you can. That means supporting the work financially, not just our legal work, but also this show and the media work we do here. We can’t do it without you. Go to ACLJ.org. Great way to also be a part of it. Sign our petitions. That’s an absolutely free way to do it. Or become an ACLJ champion today. We’ll be right back with special guests. Welcome back to secular. Do we have a special guest on today? Craig Bouchon is joining us. He is a, not only just a media host, someone who has his own show entrepreneur and founder executive director of unified America. Uh, he is also, like I said, creator and host of the Craig Bouchon show. And look, there’s been a topic that has come up. We’ve been talking about it for years, but thankfully it is finally making news. Well, of course this is, uh, the persecution, persecution and genocide of Christians that’s happening around the world. Uh, You know, I’m not talking about what’s going on in our country necessarily. We hear a lot about the issues that happen with Christians in our country. But there is so much bigger happening. And finally, it’s starting to work its way into the mainstream media. Thankfully, people like Craig as well.
SPEAKER 08 :
That’s right. up at CraigBouchon.com that’s titled The Silent Genocide, Why the World Ignores the Slaughter of Christians. And it’s an important piece for people to read. I encourage everyone to go read it at CraigBouchon.com. But it goes through these nations like Nigeria, Syria, the Congo, Pakistan, as well as others that there is a, as titled in the piece, a silent genocide. This is a systematic process purging of Christians in these nations and the world looks away. And so, Craig, we wanted to bring you on today to talk about this piece and really what prompted you to publish it and what you’ve learned in looking into this silent genocide.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, you know, thank you so much for having me on today. And I wish I was on for a better subject for sure. But the fact is that ACLJ has been covering this subject for many years. And I wish it was harder for us when we were doing our digging. We didn’t have to dig too far to put this information together. It should be top of mind. And it is really an atrocity that’s happening across the globe. It’s a full spectrum scenario that we need to discuss. And specifically in this country, you know, we are still a majority Christian country. Of course, there’s many other religions here as well. But We are a majority Christian country, and it’s just not spoke about. And it is a real problem. So we were trying to put together something that was simple enough for people to understand, not get too deep into the weeds. But the fact is that more and more news agencies, podcasts, churches, political leaders need to speak about this because it is happening every single day.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, and as we’ve seen recently, one, we know what makes headlines. We know the conflict between Israel and Gaza has obviously taken over for years now, the headlines. But this is something that when you look at a nation like Nigeria, where they have the most persecution of any country in the world, and they’re systematically killing Christians with Boko Haram and other Islamist groups that attack them there. But we are fortunately one. This piece is digestible and it’s shareable and it gives you a primer and also allows folks that once they read that to dig deeper, to find out more information about these these nations that you may not have been top of mind thinking about the persecution that’s going on. But you are starting to see, to some degree, alternative voices start to bring this up more. We spoke about a couple weeks back on the show where Bill Maher even brought up on his show that, listen, everyone should be talking about what’s happening in Nigeria. This should be something that the UN is writing resolutions about all the time because of how devastating it is and how many people are being massacred and churches burned down and lives destroyed. But once again, it’s taking people even like Bill Maher, who’s very proudly an atheist, does not love organized religion, to call out these atrocities because our mainstream media just won’t touch it.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, it’s a fact. And again, the whole goal of this piece that we did is to make it digestible, bring it top of mind, let people know what’s happening, start asking more questions, make sure that we’re focusing in on the protection of Christians around the world. It can be a controversial conversation for some, But the fact is that it is a genocide that is happening. There are particular leaders around the world that they’re doing it on purpose and that needs to be showcased. And you’re right. There are people, I think, because there’s more than mainstream media now. We have a tremendous amount of ways to get information out, just like this show, for example, that more and more people are talking about it. But it needs to be broadened. It needs to be top of mind. We should be seeing statistics, data. Yes, Nigeria, Syria, the Congo, Pakistan. There’s a whole lot of data there. And we’re doing some updates, as a matter of fact, because we did another post called Follow the Money, Why Global Christian Persecution is Met with Silence. So the next thing we’re working on is we’re following who’s stopping this information from getting out, because there are those people as well. Look, we’re all in this together. I’m a huge fan of what you do with with your show and with the ACLJ and the bigger picture. And we’re proud to be a part of that messaging. Get the information out. And so we’re going to stay on the subject. And it’s important. And me as a Christian, I think it’s also my duty to do it.
SPEAKER 05 :
Absolutely, Craig. And I wanted to maybe the last question that we get to today. But as you state in your article, it feels like evil isn’t hiding anymore. Do you think this is more of a spiritual battle, spiritual warfare than anything else? You brought up your faith. And I think that is something we look at. Of course, this is a targeted Christian. So it feels like that this is something much, much bigger than some sort of political violence.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, absolutely. We are, and I’ve said for years, you know, many years ago when I was on air in Austin, Texas, I was even talking about this. Now that I’ve come back on the air after a hiatus, I’m talking about it again. We are in a holy war. As a Christian, it goes back all the way to Genesis. This is a biblical fight. At some point, we have to start having the real conversation about what we’re doing, why we do it. What does it mean to be a Christian nation? What does it mean to be an American? What is our relationship with Israel explained in more detail from a biblical standpoint so people understand and just kind of get it right? I personally believe that we’re in a holy war, but it’s not a new war. It’s a war that’s been going on for generations, thousands of years.
SPEAKER 05 :
There’s a lot of great content in your article and so much more. I want to give you a second. We only got about a minute and a half here to plug, though, how people can follow you and check out this article and hear your show.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, go to CraigBouchon.com. We have articles up every single day. We’re also partnered with the Spreely Network as well, where we’re going to have our video podcast. We have our audios up right now. Again, go to CraigBouchon.com. And we’re excited about getting reengaged in the conversation because, you know, the First Amendment to the Constitution is… that important. And we talk about that. The motto on my show is the truth is not hate speech. And so we coin that phrase every single time because the truth is what sets us free. And we got to talk about it every single day. So I thank you so much for having me on. Keep up the great work. please go to CraigBouchon.com. We read between the lines. We just don’t follow the top stories. We actually read between the lines of what’s driving those stories so we can hopefully find a solution to some of these issues that we’re facing in our society.
SPEAKER 05 :
Craig, thanks for joining us. We really appreciate it. Always good to hear from you. Again, you can check out Craig’s work. Hey, we do have a second half hour coming up on this broadcast right now. So if you don’t get us in your local station, find us broadcasting live each and every day, 12 to 1 p.m. Eastern time. That is on ACLJ.org, on YouTube, Rumble, however you get your podcasts. We’re there. Of course, you can catch us on Archive on all those platforms as well. And support the work of the ACLJ while you do it. We only got about a minute break, but it’s a great time to go make a donation, support the work. Come in, ACLJ champion. If you can, that’s someone that gives on a monthly basis, automatically, like a membership. Do that today. It helps create a great baseline. Join the tens of thousands of you that have already done that at aclj.org. Opt in. Become a champion. We’re back in less than a minute.
SPEAKER 07 :
Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Seculo. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 05 :
Welcome back to Sekulow. We got a second half hour for you. It’s just Will and I for this half hour. It is. So what are we going to talk about, Will?
SPEAKER 08 :
We’re going to talk about a lot of things. We’re going to talk about this Bolton indictment.
SPEAKER 05 :
You said that like a beetle. We’re going to talk about a lot of things.
SPEAKER 08 :
A lot of things. A lot of things. John Bolton, yes. We’re also going to talk about that wonderful… like had to watch debate last night in New York City.
SPEAKER 05 :
I watched the highlights. Highlights, you had Mamdami, you had Cuomo, and you had the guardian angel, what’s his name?
SPEAKER 08 :
Curtis Lewa.
SPEAKER 05 :
Curtis Lewa. It was, you know, which of all the Siwas, My favorite is Curtis. It was an interesting debate. We’ll discuss it. If you watched it, I’m curious, because a lot of it was not about New York City. I think we had a discussion about that. Half of it, I’d say, was about New York City. If that, half of it was about President Trump and about other things in national politics. What do you think about it? Obviously, Cuomo kind of came in as trying to be almost- a trump conservative in some ways those things because president trump will listen to him he’ll still he’ll back down if i tell him to back down of course you had on the other side and cuomo comes off like the most i mean if you want to look at like who would be if you’re casting a movie to be the mayor of new york it is uh andrew cuomo i mean he’s just exactly the character you think he should be i had a lot of good things to say it’s like he was in ghostbusters I mean, he really does feel like that. And then you turn, because I mean, their dad kind of was. Their dad’s basically a character. And then you go over and you look at Mondami, who I have to say, came off super slick. Though I think he dodged a lot of the answers, he had good dodges for those answers.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, that’s what the New York Post front page was today.
SPEAKER 05 :
I couldn’t even read that.
SPEAKER 08 :
Mom dodger.
SPEAKER 05 :
Mom dodgy. Mom dodging.
SPEAKER 08 :
Not their best work. Of all their puns. Normally pretty good.
SPEAKER 05 :
That one, boned it in. Yeah, I mean, look, I think that the polls are showing that he’s running away with it right now. And if you watch that and say that you are a liberal Democrat who is voting in the mayoral race in New York, I think your answer is pretty clear, even though I think it could end up being an absolute disaster for the city. Someone who loves New York City had seen what it looks like under Republican control, under Democrat control, under independent even control, what it can look like. And I think you can flashback 20 years, then flashback 10 years, flashback five years and see how different New York City has gotten, you know, as what you’d say is the capital of the world. You would hope it is a place that people want to travel, visit, the crime is taken care of, that things are under control. And look, President Trump has talked about doing what he’s done now in Chicago, doing what he’s done now in Memphis. And Memphis, look, you’ve got to give it up. President Trump, it’s a little scary. We’ve said when you bring in the National Guard and those things start happening, you have to start going, okay, where does federal control come in? 45 children, missing children, were located in Memphis, Tennessee in the first few days of this campaign. 45 missing children. Some of them runaways. Some of them runaways that ended up getting involved in trafficking just because they ran away and had to have something to do. So you have to say, those are the kind of stats and the numbers where you go, all right, there’s something to this right now. And really it’s saying there’s something to what’s going on locally in these areas that they can’t control this themselves.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, even at that point, we have to give credit to one, the governor of Tennessee for requesting and working with the president, but also Senator Bill Hagerty, who worked very closely with the president to make sure that happened. And in the two weeks that the National Guard and the federal task force was in Memphis, they made 854 arrests and seized 180 illegal guns. And they took violent criminals off the streets, as well as you mentioned the children that were rescued. But just think about that. 180 illegal guns were seized by the federal task force in a city that is just has so much rot with crime in it. The fact that this isn’t being celebrated by the left taking illegal guns off the streets. This should be New York Times front page headline of look at what is success to bring down and combat gun violence in this country.
SPEAKER 05 :
We’re here in Tennessee. We’re here in Tennessee. I love Memphis. Memphis, my favorite places here in the state. However, the last few years, it’s gotten out of control. I took my family there just about a year ago, and look, they’ll tell you some stories. Those stories aren’t the most flattering for what happens in Memphis, and I would love to see a better place to visit and a better place to live for those who live there as well. Because it’s a great city, great culture, great food. With that being said, we’ve got two more segments coming up, and I want to hear from you. Give me a call at 1-800-684-3110. We’re going to play some bites also from that debate. And so much more coming up in the next segment of Secular. The Seculo phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. Wasn’t going to spend a whole lot of time on the debate, but I do see a lot of comments coming in. Clearly, a lot of you did watch that New York mayoral debate between Andrew Cuomo, Mom Donnie, and Curtis Lewa. Right. And it was an interesting one. Look, I have to say. You have to take your political blinders off and go, look, there are a lot of things I disagree with. I would actually say almost everything that I disagree with with Mamdami. But what you can’t take away from him, he is a very gifted speaker. And as someone who comes in as a young man, this is a guy we got to keep our eyes on because he is someone who could take it further and further because of his charisma, the way he’s able to speak. Even if he’s dodging a question, it comes off a better answer. He had rebuttals to almost every gotcha moment. It was pretty impressive. Now, of course, he is competing against two old guys who’ve been around forever. And I don’t mean that in a mean way, but they’re certainly not the next generation of New Yorker. These were two classic New Yorkers, one of which was Andrew Cuomo, who had a pretty rough ending to his career after COVID and all the things he’s had to go unapologetically. He made an apology to the Jewish community for the way he treated them during COVID. There’s so many things he’s had to do to try to make up for it. Honestly, if it was anyone else, I think he would have a much better chance. But the fact that it is someone who New Yorkers have a love-hate relationship with already… isn’t going to go over super well. And the poll numbers are really saying that Mamdani is running away with it. That’s right.
SPEAKER 08 :
So the polls that came out before the debate have among registered voters a 21 point lead with Mamdani at 49% then 28% to Andrew Cuomo and 13% to Curtis Sliwa but then when you go to the likely voters it’s 52% for Mamdani and then you have 28% for Cuomo and 14% for Sliwa so And just based off those numbers, it’s not an overcomable margin there for someone like Cuomo, even if Sliwa were to drop out or vice versa. The other problem with the Republican candidate Sliwa is that he, one, has been around a long time. He was a fixture in old New York, helping clean up the city, which I think he’s tried this multiple times running for mayor. I think that he’s thinking, okay, we’re at that time where everyone’s talking about cleaning up New York. This is my moment. But it doesn’t play the same way. I feel like the nostalgia for the Guardian Angels probably just isn’t even there in New York anymore, as well as… He has a contentious relationship with President Trump. When President Trump became president, he left the Republican Party. He said, I don’t want to be associated with him. So it’s not as if he can even play off that and try to reach a base in New York that may be a silent majority or something or old school, you know, blue collar populist New Yorker. That’s not who he’s necessarily going to win over there. So then you take all that when you’re up against a charismatic candidate like Mamdami. You have to think he has higher aspirations. Obviously, he cannot be president of the United States based off the Constitution. He was born in Uganda. But senator, congressman, governor of the state. I mean, those are options that he has to gain more power, although being the mayor of New York is a very big position. But he did have some issues. You know, he’s talking with there. You talked about dodging and everything. But then he was even asked by the moderator about making things free. This is by 10. We should play because it. It shows how slick he can be, but also that, I mean, there’s not a ton he can do. You can run on these campaign promises, but also as mayor, he doesn’t have the authority to raise taxes by himself. It’s either through the city council or through the state legislature. Let’s go ahead and play by 10.
SPEAKER 01 :
The question is how you’ll make them free.
SPEAKER 03 :
We will fund the revenue that would have otherwise been brought in from fares. And that’s something that we would do in partnership with Albany. And I’ve put forward two proposals. The first is to raise taxes on the top 1% of New Yorkers by 2%. That would raise $4 billion. The second is to raise the state’s top corporate tax rate to match that of New Jersey, which would raise $5 billion.
SPEAKER 08 :
So right there, he’s saying he wants to raise the state’s top corporate tax rate as mayor of New York. This isn’t something he can do. So he can offer these things and run on these campaign promises. But it’s also very slick because then he can blame Albany. He can blame the governor. He can blame the legislature of saying that. I ran on this. The people want it, but they won’t give it to me. Throw them out of office. And then what’s he doing? He’s running for governor next. I mean, there’s that you see the trajectory there because his promises are not something he as mayor of New York has the authority or capacity to even pull off.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, I think that it’s an interesting time for New York City. I would have not thought this is where they would have gone after Eric Adams and after all the issues they’ve had to then go this way. But it does feel like they want a new fresh face. And look, there are times they’ve called him out for his rhetoric around Israel, because obviously the largest Jewish community outside of Israel is in New York City. It accounts for about 10, 12 percent of the residents of Manhattan, which is a lot in that area. And whenever he brings that up, he quickly dodges it, says, of course, he agrees that Israel should be a state. He definitely doesn’t think it should be a Jewish state. He’s been pretty clear about that should be a state for all people. And of course, Israel already does that. But it is founded in in the Jewish homeland. Now, they’ve also brought up tweets he’s stated, and you had him going back and forth with Cuomo. I think you should hear this to kind of hear how he kind of could speak the language of both sides here. So let’s take a listen. Byte 11.
SPEAKER 03 :
I have been clear time and time again that as much as Andrew Cuomo wants to bring up tweets from 2020, which is around the same time that he was sending seniors to their death in nursing homes, I am looking to work with police officers, not to defund the NYPD, looking to ensure that officers can actually do one job when they’re signing up to join that department.
SPEAKER 01 :
Not the many jobs we’re asking them to do today with the mental health crisis. He was specifically referring to comments you made. We will come back to that, but we’re out of time. You said they are waiting to interrupt.
SPEAKER 05 :
candidates and racists we’re moving on that’s what you said your words your words we’re moving on see they’re moving on they’re moving on he was saying that your words were racist trying to talk to him and of course like an interesting moment as i said mamdami plays about three conservative talking points right there talk specifically about not defunding the police giving the police more authority to do the job that they were hired to do talks about the nursing home situation that happened during covid Under Andrew Cuomo, again, another talking point that is largely being presented by conservatives. This is someone who is certainly understanding how to talk to the masses, and we need to keep an eye on it. Because as you said, New York City, though it is not a city that most of our listeners probably live in, there is consequences, just like what goes on in California, just like what goes on in some of our major states, Texas, Florida.
SPEAKER 08 :
um there’s ripple effects that happen when you elect somebody like this in uh again one of our biggest cities that’s right this isn’t just someone that’s like i’m a democrat and you look at their policies and you say oh these are socialist policies this is someone who says he is a democratic socialist this is someone that will then lead one of the largest economic centers in the country based off socialist policies that has been having a rough go at it And it’s a very dangerous thing when you start to bring that in. Now, to some degree, there are people on the right that are like, okay, let him get elected and see the failure of those policies in a place that’s an economic center. But that does do damage to the rest of the country, but it also makes it more attractive to other places. It normalizes democratic socialism This is the same party that was criticizing the Hamas-Israel deal because it said just last week that, no, it doesn’t give back all the stolen land that Israel has, meaning all of Israel, from the river to the sea. So this isn’t a group that… has normal mainstream thought that’s just a little wonky on economics. This is a very anti-American ideology that he’s going to bring forward and lead the city. I mean, anything can happen in politics, but he has a very clear trajectory to being the next mayor of New York.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, I think if you’re a betting person on it, the odds look very much in that favor. Hey, I want to hear from you. Coming up in the next segment, we’ve got a few lines open at 1-800-684-3110. We can talk about John Bolton. We can talk about what’s going on right now. President Trump meeting with Zelensky after having that conversation with Putin. They’re looking like he’s going to have a meeting with Putin here coming up, I believe. I forgot what they said it was going to be. We’ll look up where it is. where they said it was going to be a neutral playing ground, another neutral playing ground with Putin. Of course, the last one didn’t turn out as well as maybe they had hoped, but we’ll see what that is. Maybe you have a thought process on that’s going to be in Hungary. That’s right. Phone lines, again, are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. That’s 1-800-684-3110. I do want to take a minute right now. Look, we have been working hard here at the ACLJ. It’s not just our media team. These kind of shows we come in we kind of give you some breaking news items we discuss what we’re working on a little bit but in you know behind the scenes not just on this show since president trump’s inauguration our legal team has been filing amicus briefs in cases where the president’s executive authority is under a relentless attack You heard about what’s going on in all these areas, the good and the bad, and of course, all the rogue judges. And today, we file in Trump v. Slaughter, defending President Trump’s authority to remove federal trade commissioners according to his policy agenda. Today, today’s filing will mark 16th. briefs defending president trump just this year we have had two big wins on this issue with executive authority so we’re hoping for another one that was with planned parenthood being defunded and take action with us right now you can help us really right now there’s a great way to do it we only have 15 seconds so i can’t even read the rest of my pitch just go to aclj.org sign a petition play around on there but most importantly make a donation if you can of any kind five dollars fifty dollars whatever it can be we’ll be right back Last segment of the day. Welcome back to Secular. We are going to take your calls. We’ve got four lines open right now, so this is a good time to call in at 1-800-684-3110. Let’s go to Jim in Ohio on line two. Go ahead, Jim.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, hi. Good afternoon. Yeah, thanks for taking my call. I just have a question. Does President Trump have an avenue that he can go down to be financially reimbursed from all of the… privileged lawsuits that were brought against him?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, Jim, one, these were, most of them would have been the federal government in some ways. Not all lawsuits. These were criminal cases in many cases. When you talk about the special counsel, you think about there was that civil lawsuit in New York where the judge actually threw out the $500 million judgment against him in that appeals court. So As far as that goes in the criminal cases, no, there was charges. They were dropped in most cases. So it wouldn’t be something that they’d be being an avenue of a frivolous lawsuit. Although we look at them and say these are frivolous lawsuits, it wouldn’t necessarily be to that standard as well as I think the president isn’t looking to necessarily get reimbursed. I think he’s doing OK and is just more focused on leading the country at this point.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah. Thank you, Jim, for calling. We do have some lines open again, as you said, 1-800-684-3110. We are following. President Trump still has not greeted Zelensky. It has not happened yet. They’ve been talking about like it was going to happen in any second. Of course, this has been multiple meetings that have happened now with Zelensky over the last few months. After that, the one we kind of think of is the one that was. Very contentious. Then after that, it seems to have been a friendship that has blossomed a little bit, specifically after the end of the war in Gaza. Now, of course, there are still updates going on what’s happening in Gaza. President Trump said if they don’t quit killing their own people, we’re going to go in and take care of them. That has been some of the threats coming from President Trump over the last 24 to 48 hours. Of course, we’re all monitoring that to see what that looks like. But I’m sure he sees, look, if something like this can happen, it’s a different kind of scale war. when it comes to ukraine and russia but in some ways i don’t want to say it’s a different kind of dispute but it’s a it is a different kind of you know it’s not religion necessarily there is some religion involved they’ll like they’ll certainly say that there is a religious uh backbone to it but it is more of a uh i don’t say a traditional land war but there is some of that
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, yesterday we spoke with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about this and talked about some of the momentum that the president has by even getting Hamas to that first step, like getting them to agree to the terms, even if they don’t live up to it, was such a monumental task that it shows the difference in the strength that President Trump projects instead of just telling the adversaries don’t. Don’t go forward. Don’t attack your neighbor. And that’s what the previous administration was. So while the first rounds may have not been successful, just like the first rounds of him trying to end the Gaza conflict didn’t necessarily get that far. We also are only seven months into this presidency at this point. I’m sorry, no, nine months into this presidency starting in January. That’s wild. But when you look at what has happened in that time is that we’re not even a year in. You’re like calendars, man.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 08 :
gotten to this point where he’s having these summits with putin and i think putin sees what he was able to pull off and actually praised what he’s able to pull off in israel that it starts to show that okay the president has these economic tools that he can use he has these military tools they they said in that phone call he joked about would you mind if i uh sent a couple thousand tomahawks to ukraine like that’s how he’s talking to putin uh showing that he can be almost like whimsical about it but also I’m dead serious about what I’m doing.
SPEAKER 05 :
How do you scare somebody? I think President Trump has known that really that’s maybe one of the only answers for dealing with Putin and dealing with Russia is to give them that 10% of maybe you’ll do something great.
SPEAKER 08 :
But that’s also what a lot of this discussion with Zelensky is supposed to be today, is talking about increasing what the United States gives to Ukraine. It’s not sending more troops or more advisors, as the Biden administration liked to call all the special forces units that he had stationed in Ukraine. But what it really is, is going to be, hey, we’re going to give them weaponry. We could give them arms that could really make a difference in Tomahawk territory. It is an escalation of what the armaments that we would be giving to Ukraine would be that would allow them to hit targets a lot further into Russia, a lot bigger targets. This is a different phase of that. And then if you couple that with putting more economic pressure on the trading partners of Russia, it really could bring about a Hamas-Israel style agreement that comes out of it. Now, one other thing. The people on the left aren’t going to be happy with that either. Because when you look at what the Hamas-Israel agreement was, if you are Israel, you had to give up a lot. There’s a lot of things that takes it out of Israel’s control, such as the presence in Gaza, pulling back, the releasing of thousands of Palestinian prisoners.
SPEAKER 05 :
So on the face of it, there were a lot of… I think we have to bring that up because I keep saying hostages. I keep seeing the term hostages.
SPEAKER 08 :
It’s because you have so many leftist friends, Logan. I do.
SPEAKER 05 :
It’s also because they don’t understand the difference. Let’s say hostage release for hostage release. And of course what we’re talking about is here. We’re talking about who got released from Israel back into the Palestinian territories, back into Gaza. You’re talking about people who were arrested for crimes, not hostages in war. Murderers, terrorists. People that involved mass murders, people that planned the bus bombings, all those things in the early 2000s that they were dealing with. So don’t think that Israel didn’t give up anything. They weren’t giving up hostages. They were giving up hostages, not innocents, which is what was going on in Israel, which were the ones who were kept in Gaza.
SPEAKER 08 :
Someone that was running a soundboard at a music festival. Right. I mean, that was one of our clients. That’s the type of people that were the real hostages. And then you’re talking about terrorists on the other side. And that’s my point to that, is that If you are an Israeli or even a diehard Zionist, that deal on paper, there are some things that we even talk about that we didn’t love because you look at it and you’re like, oh, this is an actual deal negotiation. I think the same thing is what is likely to come out of if President Trump is able to broker something between Ukraine and Russia. It will look like that. So people on the left will have a lot to be upset about. they will have a lot to say. How dare he force Ukraine to do this? But if there’s resolution, I think that is more what it would look like rather than a Russia go home, Ukraine gets all the land back.
SPEAKER 05 :
I think the hope is that it comes to a solution where both Ukraine and Russia also come back can get back open to trade with the United States and all of those things. I know that’s kind of controversial. People are like, how dare you? It’s like Russia, the import export business, what was going on in Russia, that being shut down, that’s a whole nother show we can talk about. But man, you’re talking about an economic boom that would probably happen in some ways if you were able to reopen Russia to trade. So hopefully there can be an end of war scenario here. And if President Trump could broker it in Gaza, I’m pretty confident he could probably figure out how to deal with it with Ukraine and with Russia.
SPEAKER 08 :
And I think that’s what’s interesting about his approach to all these wars is what he leads with is I just want people to stop dying. It’s a very humanitarian approach, which a lot of people may criticize because it isn’t a very geopolitical approach. It’s not a picking a side, winner, loser. Whose politics do I like better? He’s just like, I just want these people to stop killing each other, whether it be Gaza in Israel, whether it be Russia and Ukraine. And I think that is what makes it such a novel approach because everyone else is colored by all the geopolitical baggage that they have when they approach these things.
SPEAKER 05 :
All right, that’s going to do it for today’s show and for the shows of the week. I think we made it. Another week. And over the weekend, we’ll be keeping you updated at ACLJ.org on all our social media platforms to make sure you’re following the ACLJ and all of our accounts. Over on Instagram, on YouTube, on Rumble, however you get this show. Facebook, of course, we’re there. We’re everywhere. And you can be a part of this incredible organization as well. And I encourage you right now to do that. If you like the show, if you like the legal work we do, none of it happens without your donation. So go to ACLJ.org, make a donation of any kind. Today, become a champion if you can. That’s someone who gives on a monthly recurring membership type style. It really helps us out. Talk to you on Monday.
