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In this riveting episode, we delve into the breaking news of Dan Bongino’s appointment as the Deputy Director of the FBI. Join Logan Sekulow as he unpacks the implications of this unexpected career move, examining Bongino’s background in law enforcement and broadcasting. With an in-depth analysis, this episode investigates the challenges and opportunities that await Bongino as he steps into a pivotal role within one of America’s most scrutinized institutions.
SPEAKER 06 :
We’ve got breaking news. Dan Bongino reveals plans as deputy FBI director live on air.
SPEAKER 08 :
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 Sekula.
SPEAKER 06 :
Welcome to Sekula. Will Haynes is joining me in studio. This is Logan Sekula. And phone lines are open for you. And I’d love to hear from you at 1-800-684-3110. That’s 1-800-684-3110 to have your voice heard on the air. Reporting on the breaking news, and he’s on air. He was just on air. He may still be. That Dan Bongino has been named Deputy Director of the FBI. Obviously known as a… for his role as a broadcaster. Right. And we’re seeing that come out. People are like, how dare President Trump pick this podcaster to do this? Of course, he spent time in law enforcement, spent time in a lot of different places, New York Police Department, the NYPD, and a special agent with the United States Secret Service. And of course, later on, had his broadcast career, whether that’s on radio, whether that’s on Fox News, or then being one of really the biggest names on the Rumble platform. I think the biggest live streamed show And on the internet is the Dan Bongino show. So the fact that he decided to step away from that and move to this role, really stepping up, and he made some great statements I heard saying that, you know, if you get called upon in these moments, it’s not about money. Clearly the guy’s making a good living being a broadcaster, but it’s time to step up into this situation. So we’re going to talk about that as well. Some of the shakeups coming out of NBC and MSNBC, including the announcement that just happened moments ago that Lester Holt, will be stepping down, as well as the cancellation of Joy Reid’s program, among other programming shifts happening at the fledgling MSNBC. And again, what I’ve told you, I believe MSNBC does not fit currently in the portfolio of Universal, Comcast, Xfinity, whatever you want to call it, properties. I always felt that it was very out of place, that this very kind of holistic family entertainment company would decide not only to have a news department, but to have an extremely partisan news department, to be known as the far left when everything else in their business is really trying to reach everyone in the middle, whether that’s vacationing or your cable company provider or even shows that are just fun and entertainment. But for some reason, they decided to have this. But we’re seeing some big shakeups there, of course, as well as the Dan Bongino news. But, Will, it’s a pretty big deal.
SPEAKER 07 :
That is, when we saw this come across last night, that President Trump and Kash Patel had decided to place Dan Bongino in this deputy director role, it was an exciting time. We know the criticism, and we’ll play some of that in the next segment, that Dan Bongino has had about the way law enforcement in this country has operated, especially during the last four years, and even during the first Trump administration, as you saw yesterday, The FBI still trying in the wake of the Comey scandals to target the presidency and go after him through the deep state. But another interesting thing that makes me a little bit sad about this is that the deputy director of the FBI doesn’t need to be Senate confirmed. The deputy secretary of state, other cabinet level deputies. Why does that make you sad? Well, because you know what I would love more than anything in the world? seeing Adam Schiff having to talk to Dan Bongino during a confirmation hearing.
SPEAKER 06 :
Trying to out-argue Dan Bongino. Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to happen.
SPEAKER 07 :
Obviously, I would rather him just be in the position, which he will be, because it’s not a Senate-confirmed position. But I am sad that we get to miss out on that great historic moment of Adam Schiff on the Judiciary Committee having to discuss things that maybe he’s done with Russiagate in the past as they go through confirmation.
SPEAKER 06 :
Hey, phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. We’d love to hear from you. And, of course, the news that came out over the weekend where Elon Musk said, hey, we’re going to send you a quick email if you’re a federal employee. Tell us, what did you do here this week? And of course, you didn’t respond. He said, hey, we’re going to take that as a resignation. Now, I think Kash Patel pushed back on that. A few others even pushed back on it. But look, I know friends within the government who received this email. And it was pretty basic, to be honest. It was, you know, give us a couple bullet points here. But phone lines are open at 1-800-684-3110. We would love to hear from you. And of course, congratulations to Dan Bongino, who has been a friend of ours as well for many years and a big supporter. So we appreciate that. All that he’s done and another great friend that will be in this cabinet. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Secular. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. Three lines open right now. We have some ACLJ updates as well coming a little bit later. Harry Hutchinson is going to be joining us and Rick Grinnell will be joining us later on as well. So stay tuned for that. Let’s go ahead. I’m going to take this call really quick because Adrian called in Chicago on Friday. We just didn’t get to you. So we’ll make sure I don’t put you on hold for any longer. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 09 :
Hi, thanks for taking my call. I’m in ground zero. Illinois, Cook County and Chicago is ground zero for corruption. And it seems like each day they come out with more and more things to try to take away the lights and liberty of the people. I’m a past Republican committee woman in the third ward and also I’m a Trump delegate. So I’m really, really passionate about cleaning up this state. I learned today that there’s a house bill homeschool registration act that the Democrats are trying to force homeschoolers parents who are homeschooling their children to, um, register a homeschool declaration form, which would is with the Illinois board of education, which would extend essentially mandate homeschoolers to have a declaration form. that they have to fill out, produce an educational portfolio, and comply with medical immunization.
SPEAKER 06 :
Very interesting. Adrian, I’m not cutting you off. That’s actually a very interesting thing. I’m going to tell our team to make sure we dig in onto that. Because, look, Chicago and Illinois, and I’d say Chicago, much like New York, much like San Francisco, should be sort of our shining cities that everyone looks to. I love Chicago. I love New York. I love Los Angeles. I love San Francisco. But what’s happened to them over the years, and of course, it’s no shock that Chicago has corruption. I think we have known that for a long time, that Chicago is one of the hotbeds, as well as New York and any of these places. But that doesn’t mean we need to give up on them. I don’t think we need to give up on cities and states that really are major tourist destinations. They are destinations that are important to our economy. And if they’re doing something like this, we need to get to the bottom of it. So Adrian, maybe we could put you on hold and get your info. Can we do that about specifically that bill? Because I think it’s something that our team will certainly need to look into and see how we can help out if it is that case.
SPEAKER 07 :
And the ACLJ for decades has been supporters of, fought for the rights of homeschool families. We believe in school choice very broadly.
SPEAKER 06 :
And Will and I are both homeschooled, at least for portions of our careers.
SPEAKER 07 :
We also have… Careers are… We have cases ongoing right now where… cities that are more liberal cities aren’t following the law that allows for more freedom of school choice for the parents and so we’re fighting those actively right now one’s in Ohio one is in New Jersey this is an interesting thing we have gotten involved in on legislative level many times and I am thankful that Adrian called because our attorneys can look at it and see if there’s any way that we can either, even if it’s a public awareness campaign of something, or if there is something that runs afoul of the Constitution that needs to be looked at with the oversight of the government trying to get too involved with the homeschooling families.
SPEAKER 06 :
While we’re at it, I’m going to send this message to our media team who’s listening and say, we need to probably come up with some sort of video or text. It’s very easy to understand of why we are on the side of school choice. Because I think that the… Teachers unions and the educational system that have so indoctrinated people that they have a lot of talking points very quickly, very easily of why it’s a bad idea. And of course we know, and I can give you a long winded answer of why we do support school choice and why we think that kids education shouldn’t be dedicated based on the zip code that they are born into. But I think we come up with an easier to understand version of that. Phone lines are open at 1-800-684-3110. Of course, we’re talking about the major news that’s coming out of Washington, D.C. as Dan Bongino, who you may know from Fox News, you may know from Rumble, but you may not know from his time at the NYPD or as a member of the Secret Service, a special agent with the Secret Service, has now been named the FBI deputy director. Now, this, as Will said, is not a confirmed position, so he could start pretty much immediately. I was listening to his show before we went on air today as he made this official announcement, and he talked about that, that this will probably be starting the wrap-up of his broadcast over the next few days.
SPEAKER 07 :
I believe he said he’s going to have three. three shows left. So if you look at that midweek, you’re probably done with that portion of his career, at least for now. And then he will be making the jump to the Hoover building at the FBI.
SPEAKER 06 :
up we could play uh this is from again minutes ago dan bongino uh took to rumble again the largest show and look i would love to have that claim too the largest live stream broadcast uh on the internet is dan bongino so again he’s not taking this lightly not taking this job lightly he certainly doesn’t need it from a financial standpoint uh but let’s hear from dan bongino from just a few minutes ago vision of president trump attorney general bondi and director patel
SPEAKER 02 :
I am going to do my job to implement that vision. And I can tell you right now, we are going to try our best. Every single thing I have in me, every single strand of DNA cell in my body is going to be dedicated towards keeping this homeland safe, no matter what. No matter what, that’s my job. We’re going to reestablish faith in this institution and the good people there doing their job, hitting the streets, developing sources. We’ll have your back. We are going to reestablish faith in this institution. The FBI belongs to the American people. Doesn’t belong to me. Doesn’t belong to anyone else but the American people. But this is the honor of a lifetime. And it’s a serious mission. And I plan on implementing that vision.
SPEAKER 06 :
There you go. There’s Dan Bongino. We’ll have more from him as well later on. And again, a guy who’s been a friend of ours, has been someone who we know is supportive of a lot of the causes and missions. We have members of his team who now work here, especially from his Fox News days. So again, phone lines are open. I’d like to hear from you at 1-800-684-3110. Again, 1-800-684-3110. If you’re just joining us on Rumble, hello. Sorry, we had a glitch there. I think maybe there was just so many people going to Rumble to watch Dan Bongino play. that maybe we had a problem there, but welcome. I’m glad you’re here. And for those watching on YouTube as well, if you’re brand new on YouTube, I always encourage you to subscribe. If you’ve never seen us before, if you have seen us before and you like what we do here, we’re starting to wrap up the month of February. Can you believe we’re here? End of the week will be the end of this month. We could really use your support because we are there right now fighting for the things you care so deeply about. And one of those things is, of course, the fight for life. We’re engaged in 182 pro-life legal matters just over the last year. And we have a lot going on, Will, even this week. And today, we’ll even step in and fight for the unborn. It’s what our team does. You’ll hear from them from time to time. You’ll hear a lawyer pop in and talk about it. You’ll hear from Harry Hutchinson and CeCe Heil, obviously. But even last week, you had pastors that were on the streets that were being arrested just for simply preaching the gospel. Having that case won incredibly fast, thrown out. Because we’re able to put a lawyer with that client at absolutely no cost because of people like you who support the work of the ACLJ. So I’m going to ask you to take action right now. And then we’re going to take some calls. Take action today. Become an ACLJ champion. Give now at ACLJ.org. And to get a champion is someone that gives on a monthly recurring basis. We’re going to be joined in the next segment by Harry Hutchinson, as well as Rick Grinnell will be joining us a little bit later. Let’s go ahead and take a phone call. Again, phone lines are open for you. I’d love to hear from you. James is calling in North Carolina. Watch it on Facebook. James, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 04 :
Hey, how are y’all today? My question is, and this is the problem with government. I used to work with the government, but yet our elected politicians have become multimillionaires. When is Donald Trump going to appoint a special counsel to investigate our congressmen and our senators who have became wealthy over the years off the tax dollar? That’s a problem, and it should be investigated. Then we can really expose the corruption in this country where these people are called out. Look at Nancy Pelosi. She’s worth $250 million. Look at Harry Reid, the old Democrat senator. Look at Mitch McConnell. These people need to be exposed, and I’m going to tell you, if they wouldn’t let Matt Gaetz in the FBI, Donald Trump would appoint Matt Gaetz as a special counsel to investigate these people.
SPEAKER 07 :
You know, James, I think one thing that will maybe to some degree make… those of us that are conservatives not as happy is that unfortunately, but fortunately, because they’re following the Constitution, and Dan Bongino has talked about this, is that the difference in the way that we follow the rule of law is that when you see a crime, you investigate the crime and then find who it leads to. What the Democrats did is they would just investigate people until they found a crime. And that’s not the way it’s supposed to work. Now, unfortunately, much of what these congressmen and senators do is on the books legal because they have access to a lot of information. And they’re not barred from trading stock and actively trading off the information they’re getting. And there’s many in Congress trying to pass bills that would put an end to that. But to some degree, yes. Now, is there other corruption? I can’t prove it with the documents right now, but certainly you see public officials that that do break laws. And then if the attorney general finds that they can move forward with cases against them.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yep. And hey, phone lines are open, as I’ve said, 1-800-684-3110. And Professor Harry Hutchinson is joining us in the next segment. We’ll keep discussing Dan Bongino as well as the impact on the ACLJ. What does that look like with our Freedom of Information Act request? And we’ll connect all of those dots coming up in the next segment. And Rick Grinnell will be joining us in the second half hour of the broadcast. You want to stay tuned. Again, support the work of the ACLJ. If you can right now, take action. Become an ACLJ champion. That’s someone that gives on a monthly recurring basis automatically. Of course, you can cancel any time. And it’s tax deductible. But you can scan the QR code on your screen right now. Become an ACLJ champion. I got five lines open right now. So this is a great time to call in. 1-800-684-3110. What do you think about Dan Bongino? Welcome back to Secular. Phone lines are jammed right now, but they’re going to open up. Make sure our phone screeners are on it because, man, it’s ringing right now. Let’s get everyone on hold. We’ll do our best to get as many calls as we can over the next half an hour that we are with you. I want to welcome Harry Hutcherson to the studio right now. We are just going to restate if you’re just joining us right now. Well, Dan Bongino has been named the deputy director of the FBI. Maybe we need to go over a little bit of what that position even holds, because obviously, you know, Kash Patel is the head of the FBI. Well, what does this look like for Dan Bongino? It’s not a confirmed position, so he doesn’t have to go through the rigorous confirmation process. Seems like he will just be able to start work here a bit later this week.
SPEAKER 07 :
That’s right. So officially, the deputy director is appointed by the director of the FBI, so Kash Patel. So on paper, even though President Trump announced it and obviously was advising in this as well, that the way that this works is the director of the FBI appoints the deputy director. And it is the second in command. If there is a vacancy, that person becomes acting director. And it’s the highest position attainable in the FBI without being appointed directly by the president of the United States. So in theory, Kash Patel could have just done this on his own. Obviously, we know that they are walking in lockstep with the president and the very much trying to rebuild the FBI. Dan Bongino on his show even said, you know, we want to rebuild the faith in this institution. And Professor Hutchison, that’s one of the concerns that I know everyone listening and watching this broadcast has had and that we share is that the faith in the FBI was completely shattered over really the last eight years, really with james comey and the way he meddled in the 2016 election with his statement about hillary clinton then pulling it back then reopening it and then immediately after sending spies into the trump white house uh because he could that was literally the statement he said sending agents into the white house to try and start to target administration officials um When you look at this and the work that we’ve done at the ACLJ, we have six open cases against the FBI. They are FOIAs that have turned into lawsuits. Going back to the Comey spies, the abuse of FISA in Section 702, the politicization of social media platforms and the censorship there, the anti-Catholic memo that they said it was first just out of Richmond. Then we knew it was nationwide and they wanted it to be a national directive. The selective leaking of whistleblowers. We’ve also defended and currently are still defending one whistleblower in federal court. The other we got him restored his security clearance and pay. And then also that thing right there at the end. where the FBI at the National Academy unilaterally declared a state of Palestine. And you had Director Wray right there as they welcomed someone from the state of Palestine that they had been training at the National Academy. All of these things diminish the trust in the institution. How important is it that we have these people in there to help continue this work that we do at the ACLJ?
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, it’s very, very important. And so I think virtually everyone who’s been alive for the last seven to eight years, perhaps even 10 years, realizes that the FBI has not operated as an even-handed organization. It has basically put its thumb on the scale with respect to particular targets. Keep in mind that the investigations targeting Donald Trump actually commenced in 2015. We had the operation called Hurricane Crossfire. which was initiated by the FBI. We had Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Andrew McCabe, and other individuals who were involved arguably in a conspiracy to prevent Donald Trump from assuming office in 2016. And it almost worked. So what we have seen over the last couple of days is absolutely fabulous news for the American people who are interested in the rule of law. And so President Trump’s announcement that Don Bongino is the next deputy director of the FBI is triggering seismologists who suggest that this announcement has led to an increase in Google searches among deep state operatives. They’re looking for defense attorneys. Trump’s appointment may mean that Andrew McCabe, James Comey, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page may already be quaking in their boots, unless, of course, the statute of limitations has run out.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, what’s interesting with this is when you look at what President Trump is doing compared to even the last time. So you look back, you said 2016, we were headed towards that being a decade ago now, nine years ago that all of this was happening. Now we are headed towards the 10th year. We’re heading to the second Trump presidency. It’s somewhat because of that time. you are able to now see him put in people who, again, are not necessarily establishment, are not necessarily uncontroversial. I mean, I wouldn’t put Bongino as one of the more controversial, but he would be purely based on maybe the brand that he has had the last handful of years, whether that, again, was someone who was a Fox News host, was one of the really big personalities on Rumble, our favorite free speech platform, our friends over at Rumble. But again, has a deep background in, and fully qualified for this. So he’s picking people that are going to go in, they can be strong, they’re not playing politics, but are at least qualified. And I think that’s the weird trajectory people, and really the weird point of view that people keep saying is that Trump keeps picking people that are unqualified. Show me one of these people that aren’t qualified. I had a conversation with a family member recently, and they were like, oh, that person, I think it was, it may have been Pete Hexeth. And they’re not qualified. Well, what makes him not qualified? And we went down his record, what he’s done, where he’s worked. It’s only because he’s a Fox News host. You don’t take into consideration anything else. And I think that’s going to be the same. But again, they can go in and actually get work done. Honestly, they’re used to working in very high-pressure situations, whether that is working for the NYPD, whether that’s working for the Secret Service. And I hate to break it to you, working for Fox News. Those are not… Stress-free environments, as many of you know, whoever worked in production.
SPEAKER 07 :
You got to have, you got to be pretty strong. Well, and you mentioned that Politico’s headline, Trump names podcaster Dan Bongino to be second in command at FBI. This is the same way that they tried to smear others like Sean Duffy. It was Trump picks reality TV star. They completely leave out that he was a district attorney. Yeah. a member of the House of Representatives, and they just go for the low hanging fruit of where they can try to diminish these people in the minds of the American people to make you think it’s not a serious pick. So just because Dan Bongino has a very popular show and reaches a lot of people, he is all of a sudden not qualified. All of his background in law enforcement is disregarded. He’s just a podcaster. This isn’t serious pick. You should be terrified of what’s going to happen here in the United States. It’s disgusting.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, we got a second half hour coming up in this broadcast, and I want to encourage you, if you don’t get us on your local station, if you’re listening on terrestrial radio, find us broadcasting live each and every day, Monday through Friday from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. Eastern time live. Instead, of course, you can replay it at any time on demand at ACLJ.org, on YouTube, on Rumble, on X, on Facebook, pretty much anywhere you get your content. We are there posting great clips on Instagram. Make sure you’re staying informed. But right now, I’m going to encourage you to become an ACLJ champion. That’s someone that gives on a monthly recurring basis. It’s the perfect time to do it. We’ve got a one-minute break coming up. Just one minute. It’s a good time to scan that QR code right now and become an ACLJ champion. And if you can’t do that, you can still take action with us today. Sign petitions, get involved, or make a one-time donation over on ACLJ.org. I got two lines open if you want to call in. 1-800-684-3110. Rick Grinnell is going to be joining us in just a few moments. But again, right now, support the work of the ACLJ as we approach the second half hour of this Monday’s broadcast. We’ll be right back.
SPEAKER 08 :
keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 06 :
Welcome to Sekulow. I’m Logan Sekulow. Will Haines joining me in the studio. Rick Grinnell’s going to be with us in the next segment. And of course, we get to hear from you, the most important voices in the room. Let’s go ahead and kick off with one of those. And of course, we’re addressing the breaking news item. Came out last night as the Dan Bongino has taken the gig as the deputy director of the FBI. Dan Bongino, someone who we’ve been friendly with over the years. Good guy. And another exciting pick. For Kash Patel and for President Trump. Let’s go ahead and take a phone call about this, though. Let’s go to Patricia, who’s calling in Idaho on line three. You’re on the air.
SPEAKER 11 :
Hello. Thank you for having me on. I just have to say I am truly going to miss Dan Montagino. I really love what he always has to put out there for everybody to hear. And he always speaks the truth.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, Patricia, I’m sure there’s a lot of people like you who enjoy his broadcast who sadly won’t have it. Now, I don’t think this will be the last we hear from Dan Bongino, but for a time, it may go a little quieter, but we’re actually going to see the kind of real work he can get done. But yeah, Patricia, I think that him getting this gig, though, is very important for the American people. What do you think?
SPEAKER 11 :
I think so. I think what he knows when he’s been there before, he’s going to do a great job. He’s going to help a lot of people. He’s going to open a lot of people’s eyes that haven’t really opened their eyes yet.
SPEAKER 06 :
Patricia, worldwide, we’re talking about a very different administration. We’re seeing President Trump and his administration meeting with some very interesting people. I mean, right now, as we’re speaking, President Trump just greeted the French President Macron at the White House. All of this is happening at sort of lightning speed.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, and also Dan Bongino on his show today, he said he is committed to service. He said that the vision of President Trump, A.G. Bondi and Director Patel, he will work to implement. He wants to get back to the four corners of the Constitution. And he also said that he won’t rest easy until they find as many bad people as possible. And he framed that as drug traffickers, cartels, people that are in human trafficking. Verifiably bad people. Right. And so while we are excited that the FBI is hopefully going to clean house. It’s also important to remember that they aren’t like the Democrats in the deep state, that the only thing they’re going to focus on are the bad actors within the government. They also care about the core mission of the FBI, which is to keep Americans safe from legitimate bad people that could do you harm.
SPEAKER 06 :
As Harry said just a little bit ago, 10 years ago, this would have been, it would sound horrible, it would sound unpatriotic. really, to be out there saying that the FBI was doing these kind of things. But now we know really what happened, and now it’s time for the FBI to get back on course. We need the FBI. We need the CIA. We need all of these security intel organizations. We have Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. We need all of these departments to actually be doing their job and their stated reason to exist. Because that is what is important. That’s what’s going to keep us safe. Not going after pro-lifers, not going after radical traditional Catholics or whatever they call them. To actually go after people that are terrorizing this country. Whether, again, that’s through the drug trafficking, whether that’s through fentanyl, whether that is child trafficking. All these things, and again, as Will said, are not controversial. They’re verifiably bad. And hopefully they will get back on track. And they’ve seen really big problems with everyone. Everyone has suffered from those crises. No family has been untouched. I want to hear from you. Two lines are open. 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110. Well, Will, why don’t you tease it a little bit? We got Rick Grinnell coming up next. What are we going to talk about?
SPEAKER 07 :
That’s right. We’ve got a few things on deck. One, the president of Ukraine made a very interesting claim of what he’d be willing to do If Ukraine, either there was peace or they were able to join NATO, something that President Trump has said is off the table. And also there was an election in Germany that Rick has special insight into. We’ll get his take on that and why it matters for you as an American and the rest of the world.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, one of the other things I want to talk to Rick Grinnell about, the New York Times tried to do a hit piece on Rick Grinnell this weekend saying, how dare he try to bring the story and the birth of Jesus to Christmastime at the Kennedy Center as he has taken up control and leadership there. And of course they thought, how dare he do this? It’s hilarious. We were texting about it this week, and I’m going to bring that up as well. Again, phone lines are open for you. 1-800-684-3110. If you become an ACLJ champion and you let our phone screener know, you get bumped to the front of the line to get your call answered. That’s a little perk. Welcome back to Sekulow. Will Haynes joining me in studio today. And Rick Grinnell’s joining us live today. Coming off of a fun weekend at CPAC. Look, we’re going to get to some really important, look, all this is very important, but some serious topics coming up as we’ve seen President Trump making statements about what’s going on with Russia, Ukraine. He’s currently meeting France. You’ve got Dan Bongino being named the deputy director. But I did want to start this because I teased it in the last segment. Rick, we were texting over the weekend because you’ve made a controversial statement at CPAC. You said, that the Kennedy Center at Christmastime, how dare you, is going to honor the birth of Christ and tell the story of the birth of Christ at Christmastime at the Kennedy Center. And the New York Times said, how dare this Trump appointee come in here and want to talk about Jesus during Christmas.
SPEAKER 01 :
They were so pathetic in their reporting. It was so pandering. It was so They were treating me like I was just a dumb, you know, young, naive person to think that you would want to put a story of the birth of Christ at Christmas at the Kennedy Center. But that’s exactly what we’re doing. It’s going to be big. Wait until the announcement. We have a production team working on it now. It’s fantastic. It is big. And most people are just gonna say, well, of course you should be celebrating Christ at Christmas. How controversial is that? But it’s controversial in Washington, D.C. It’s controversial in the newsrooms of Washington, D.C. The New York Times is rolling their eyes and they just think we’re so parochial. And so I’m looking forward to it. This is exactly what President Trump has been talking about is saying Merry Christmas again at Christmas time. I think this goes to the heart of what JD Vance’s speech was at the Munich Security Conference talking about canceling people when they have a different opinion or uh canceling someone who doesn’t share the woke uh view and so we’re gonna say merry christmas we’re gonna celebrate the birth of christ and we’re not gonna apologize for it right exactly i think hey you mentioned music it’s a good segue because you obviously were uh the ambassador to germany you know that very well we’re coming on the heels of a pretty important weekend in germany well
SPEAKER 07 :
That’s right. And I told our audience before this segment that it’s always good. We’ve had you on many times after there’s been either an election or some sort of move in Germany to kind of explain to our audience why the politics of another country over in Europe. matters and means something here in the United States. It would be a disservice to have you on today as the former ambassador to Germany and explain to our audience what happened a little bit and what it means as you look at a changing Europe and with the Trump administration in office as well.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, Germany is the largest economy in Europe, and so many believe that Germany leads Europe. When you talk about the manufacturing base, the car industry, Bayer Pharmaceuticals, they’ve got some really behemoth companies in Europe. It’s the most business friendly country in Europe as well. And so it does matter. I don’t think it matters as much as the Washington, D.C. types think it does. But imagine this, Will. They had a vote in Germany. The entire country voted on Sunday. And they announced the results like an hour and a half later. And so we knew exactly who won. And the situation is this, is that Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party is called the Christian Democrats, the CDU. They have traditionally been the lead party. They win the most votes and they usually get into, you know, 35, sometimes even 40 percent of the vote. Well, they got into the high 20s. this one and the far right party which is called the alternative for deutschland afd uh usually gets around seven or eight percent far right however they got 21 of the vote and so what does that mean it means that the traditional center-right party is so uh watered down it’s filled with people who really don’t want to make change they don’t want to make progress so there’s a huge frustration in germany and people started voting for the the far right the afd party in record numbers again they got 21 of the vote unbelievable amount and this is the party that elon musk uh was talking about and and supporting look my attitude is that i just wish that the center-right party the christian democrats would get their act together that they could be a solid conservative party and grow back into their 40 45 even maybe even 50 but because they’ve been so poorly run uh they’re really losing votes and this other party kind of climbed forward i don’t think it’s too too much different than the Republican Party and Donald Trump. Where Republicans were losing, Trump came along and redefined the party, brought in Democrats, brought in Libertarians, completely changed everything, and we pulled in, as Republicans, a whole bunch of people who just were filled with common sense. That’s what the CDU has to do, but they’re really at the bottom of the barrel. This is one of their worst performances And I’ll finish with this. Their leader is a guy named Mertz. And he, after he won, criticized Donald Trump. Now, throughout the whole campaign, he really kept his mouth shut because he wanted Trump’s support. And he’s been reaching out to all sorts of Trump team members. But right after he won, he criticized Trump. He’s not off to a great start. Friedrich Merz is his name, and I just have to say that his duplicitousness is the exact reason why the CDU is not winning in bigger numbers.
SPEAKER 06 :
I wanted to move our attention because we’ve only got a few minutes left here with you, Rick, and talk about what’s going on in the negotiations to hopefully end the war in Russia and Ukraine. President Trump made a statement just a few minutes ago, actually, on Truth Social. Will, we have that, right? That’s right.
SPEAKER 07 :
He’s meeting with President Macron of France, but he also wrote, at the same time, I’m in serious discussions. with President Vladimir Putin of Russia concerning the ending of the war and also major economic development transactions will take place between the United States and Russia. Talks are proceeding very well. We saw a statement from Vladimir Zelensky that said, if there’s peace or if Ukraine can join NATO, I’d be willing to resign. Obviously, The president that canceled elections because of war didn’t like being called a dictator by the president of the United States. So now he’s trying to show I’ll get out of the way if we can get to the big goal of NATO. What is your read? I know things are very fluid because that’s the way negotiations work. But of kind of where we’re at right now when it comes to ending this war.
SPEAKER 01 :
I’m not sure that we’re going to trade getting rid of Zelensky for a NATO membership. That sounds like not a good deal. Look, what I think that the Ukrainian president should have said is as soon as we sign a peace deal, we’ll have elections and I won’t run. That would be a better message to say, you know, this future of Ukraine is about someone else. And so we’ve got to be able to right now negotiate an end of the war. Let me say a couple of things that I think are really important. One is we handed Joe Biden peace in Europe and peace in the Middle East. Joe Biden handed Donald Trump a war in Europe and a war in the Middle East. So we’re a little bit annoyed that we have really poor choices left because we have wars everywhere after really cleaning up the mess and launching into peace deals. Now we have to go back and make really poor choices against really bad choices. We don’t have a lot of great options, but Donald Trump is absolutely going to be the one in the middle drive a peace agreement, end this war. And to do that, to be a diplomat in the middle, both sides have to be able to say they like you and don’t like you. You can’t be one sided. You’ve got to be right in the middle. And that’s exactly what President Trump is focused on, is stopping the war and letting everybody else kind of scream and holler about he’s pro this, he’s anti this. And Donald Trump is very comfortable as a negotiator being right in the middle.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yep, clearly getting in there and getting things done. Rick, thank you so much for joining us today. It was great to see you. I know you’re always going. I said the hardest working man in politics feels like is Rick Grinnell, or maybe around the world. Just the hardest working man around the world is Rick Grinnell. So thank you for joining us today. I know, again, busy weekend, a busy week, and busy life. So again, we’re incredibly blessed to have people like you on our team. Look, phone lines are open 1-800-684-3110. I’d love to hear from you. We got three lines open right now. If you’re on hold, we will get to you if you’re on hold right now. If you’re not on hold, we’ll do our best to get to you. 1-800-684-3110. Encourage you. If you just like what you heard from Rick, you heard from Harry Hutchinson, you’ve heard from Will and I today. Support the work of the ACLJ. We couldn’t put together this incredible broadcast without our incredible team. Many of you who never will see all of the incredible people that work on this team, but I assure you, there is a lot of people putting in a lot of work. So whether that’s in the courtroom or whether that’s here, disrupting media, you can be a part of that. Become an ACLJ monthly supporter. And of course, in the fight for life, it cannot be a more important time. Today we fight the Supreme Court to save babies and battle Planned Parenthood’s seemingly unlimited taxpayer-funded resources. And we need you. So whether that is if you just like this show or you just like the causes or maybe, probably, you like both. Be a part of it right now. Be a part of that deadline right now. We’re headed towards the end of the month. It’s a great time to do it. Become an ACLJ champion. Again, if you become a champion, tell our phone screener, hey, I’m a champion. You get to be bumped to the front of the line. If you’re on the ACLJ app, which just released, brand new app, you get a little special version of the app as an ACLJ champion. Some nice little perks there. As an ACLJ supporter, again, we’re going to take your calls. at 1-800-684-3110, 1-800-684-3110. We’ll be right back in just a moment with your calls. Welcome back to Secular. We’re going to take your calls coming up at 1-800-684-3110. I got a couple lines open. Last chance to get on the air for today. Let’s go ahead and kick this off. Some of you guys have been holding for close to a half hour. We appreciate it. We know we had a lot of content to cover. Leslie’s calling in Texas, who is listening on Sirius XM. You’re on the air.
SPEAKER 10 :
Hi. Hey.
SPEAKER 06 :
Go ahead. Leslie?
SPEAKER 10 :
Yes, I’m here.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, go ahead with your comment.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, I love Dan Bongino, but I am thrilled that he has decided to go back into public service. I listened to him today and he encouraged all Americans, especially Patriots to get into public service. I’m a public servant for the state of Texas. And I just know that we need more patriots. And I could not be happier about Dan Bongino stepping into that role.
SPEAKER 07 :
Leslie, Dan Bongino said today, you know, he talks about often that do matters, like what you do matters. It’s not just about talking about it. And he’s saying, I would be hypocritical. I wouldn’t be true to what I say anymore. if when given this opportunity i didn’t take the opportunity to do something not just talk about it and i think you know you look at this he’s built as we said one of the largest shows streaming shows on the internet as well as a large terrestrial radio broadcast this is not an insignificant decision to put service to the country over comfort i mean right now he’s pretty comfortable he’s he makes millions of dollars, I would assume. I don’t have firsthand knowledge of his contracts. Yeah, we could just assume. But that he is doing very well being a voice and being something that is entertaining, speaking truth to power through broadcasting. And he’s deciding that he’s going to step away from all that, the comfort of that, and go put himself in the political crosshairs, so to speak, by being at the center of reforming the FBI with Kash Patel. I think it is a testament to his integrity and That he means what he says. He’s not just another talking head. And it is. It’s refreshing to see people. I mean, you can say the same about many of the people in even the cabinet, whether it be Pete Hegseth, whether it be, I mean, even Pam Bondi and those that have high profiles. Look, Tulsi Gabbard.
SPEAKER 06 :
And she’s one of our contributors here for a couple of years there. We know that these are not insignificant roles that they were taken. But yeah, it’s good to see him take on this. We will miss his voice for sure. But I have a feeling this is not the last you will hear from Dan Bongino. Let’s go ahead and take some more calls. Let’s go to Ann calling on Washington State on line four. Ann, you’re on the air. And hey, this is the perfect time. Last chance. For real, last chance. We have five minutes left in the broadcast. Call in 1-800-684-3110. Ann, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 12 :
Thank you so much. I appreciate what you do. Long-time supporter. I was thinking, Rick just talked about Christmas, and it’s like Christmas every day. You know, all the wonderful things that are happening, the things that are discovered, and the appointments. And so I just wanted to say I was thrilled with Dan Bongino joining Cash. And I wanted to say that 45 communist goals that were read into the congressional record in 1963, I printed out a number of years ago. And it is stunning to see how far the communists have come, like infiltrate the press, gain control of key positions in radio, TV, eliminate laws, break down cultural standards, present homosexuality. It goes on and on. There’s 45 of them. But number 35 is discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI. So that was their plan initially. Just let it kind of self-destruct. And now we have this miracle of God and it’s going to be resurrected into something that it was established to be in the first place.
SPEAKER 06 :
And I think that’s a lot of people’s opinions is mainly it’s not that we think there should be no FBI. There should be no Secret Service. There should be no CIA. That’s ridiculous. What we think they need to be is actually doing the jobs that we intended them to do get them back on task and what you hopefully have is someone like Bongino as well as Kash Patel as well as President Trump and the whole administration Tulsi Gabbard and National Intelligence you have a great group Attorney General Pampandi that can go in there and actually get things back the way they were supposed to be it’s not about necessarily just going in and rooting out the bad people or the bad things happening it’s reestablishing trust and I think Dan Bongino even said that today it’s about making sure you trust your FBI not about removing the FBI and getting rid of all the great people that probably work there still, that have been under the control of people who they could not have anything to combat with. It’s about getting it back on track. Let’s go to Bob, who’s calling on line two. Bob, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 03 :
Hi. In the spirit of citizen protection under the U.S. Constitution, theoretically, if Adam Schiff were I’m indicted for suborning the perjury of Eric Cheromelo. Could they investigate his financial connections, and could that snowball and unravel all of the dirty dealing in Congress?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, Bob, there is kind of a bit of a problem with investigating Adam Schiff for many of that, and that is because Joe Biden gave a full and unconditional pardon to the members of Congress who served on the Select Committee to investigate the January 6th attack on the United States Capitol. It reads very broad. I’m sure if that was the fight they really wanted to pick, there may be angles or loopholes, but one, I don’t think… that it would be seen well won by the courts because of the full and unconditional pardon for any act they may have committed or taken part in arising from or in any manner related to the activities or subject matter of the select committee to investigate January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. It reads pretty broad. I don’t think that there’s a lot of loopholes there and i don’t really see that that’s going to be what the department of justice is going after at this time but i mean in theory if someone’s investigated and when they start investigating they find more crimes yes that is how a typical law enforcement investigation would operate but i don’t see that happening i know that a lot of people don’t want to hear that but i also think it’s time to move on. He’s a senator. He’s in the minority in the Senate. And maybe we just isolate him there and try to keep him from doing any more damage to the country.
SPEAKER 06 :
All right. Thank you so much for calling, Bob. Thank you all for calling in and being part of the show today. I really appreciate it. This could be my last minute and a half pitch here. It’s an important time here at the ACLJ. We are involved in so many cases. You heard about a lot of them today. If you’re a pro-lifer like a lot of us are, We’ve engaged 182. I’m looking at this letter right here. This tells me some of these facts. 182 pro-life legal matters over the past year alone. Okay, think about that. This is two a week, more than that, that’s happening right now. That we’ve been engaged in almost three. And none are bigger than this moment. Here’s some of the things that are happening right now. Just moments we are filing at the Supreme Court to attempt to shut down pro-life centers. And you know we’ve been talking about what’s going on in Massachusetts. In the other room, Right now, they’re putting together that ad campaign that’s going to be running in the state of Massachusetts to support pro-life pregnancy centers. All of that is funded by you, the ACLJ supporter. We can’t do any of it without you. And today, we’re going to be the Supreme Court, and we’re also going to be in the media. We’re going to be involved in every instance we can be, but we can’t do that because there’s no ACLJ major sponsors. There’s not even very many major donors. Now, if you’d like to be one of those major donors, surely we’ll talk to you. But most of it, the bread and butter, the backbone of the ACLJ is you. who give either on an individual basis or give on a recurring basis. Maybe you’re giving $45 a month. Maybe you’re giving $50 a month. Maybe even $100 a month. That makes such a big impact. There’s over 20,000 of you are ACLJ champions right now. We had a little bit of a dip after Christmas. It’s time to get that number back up. Become an ACLJ champion today. Do it and make sure you let everyone know in your family that you’re doing it because you’re going to be an ACLJ champion of life, liberty, and freedom. Scan the QR code if you’re watching right now on YouTube, Rumble, Sirius, or not Sirius, Salem News Channel. If you’re listening on Sirius though, go to ACLJ.org and do it today.
