SPEAKER 09 : 0:00

we got breaking news major union breaks with democrats calls to end the shutdown keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever this is seculo we want to hear from you share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110 And now your host, Logan Sekula.

SPEAKER 04 : 0:25

Welcome to Sekula. We’ve got a show for you. Will Haines is joining me in studio, executive producer. This is Logan Sekula, by the way, in case I needed to double down and let you know. We have one of our attorneys, Liam Schumi, joining us from Washington, D.C. as we’ve got to update a pro-life case out of Georgia. Not always where you think there will be issues with pro-life demonstrators or pro-life protesters, if you will. But that is not the case. We’re going to talk about that coming up. But, of course, we are starting with the breaking news, and that is one of the largest federal workers’ unions has called to end the shutdown saying it is time to put partisan politics beside us. Stop this. We have to wrap this up at any means necessary. And look, I’ll tell you, I was at a drugstore this morning and that was the talk. And you only see that a lot. of even the staff working there was about the government shutdown was about the fact that you have military now having to go to food banks and the situations that are at hand. This is the conversation that led them to other conspiratorial things that I just say were being talked about where I went, okay, you know what? It’s now the trickle down of the government shutdown is, is now headed to your local big box pharmacy, it is maybe time to really start to talk about the options for wrapping this up. And of course, we all want it to be wrapped up. But now you have, Will, one of the biggest unions in America, the American Federation of Government Employees, saying it’s time.

SPEAKER 07 : 1:43

That’s right. So this is a union that specifically has members that are members of the federal workforce, government employees. They have about 800,000 federal workers that are members of this union. Now this union, as traditionally unions are more progressive, they normally are more sided with Democrat politics. We saw that change. shift in the last election however this one the one that represents the bureaucrats and all the government workers uh endorsed both joe biden and kamala harris publicly so they were on record of the direction they wanted to go certainly more liberal leaning this isn’t just a traditional union That’s right. So now this labor union with 800,000 federal workers has put out a statement from their president, Everett Kelly, this morning that says it’s past time to end this shutdown. In the preamble to this letter, it does try to throw blame at Congress in general instead of just the Democrats. However, here is their path forward. It says the path forward for Congress is clear. Reopen the government immediately under a clean, continuing resolution that allows continued debate on larger issues. Ensure back pay for every single employee who has served or been forced to stay home through no fault of their own. Work together on a bipartisan basis to address important policy matters like addressing rising costs and fixing a broken appropriations process. So they are calling, though, for the clean CR to pass and reopen the government. That is what the Democrats have voted against 12 times thus far. So this is, while they are couching it as Congress needs to do their job and both sides have made their point, this is targeted at one party, the party that they align with, the party that they endorsed, both presidential candidates in this last cycle. They are saying enough is enough. Reopen the government. Let’s stop these political games.

SPEAKER 04 : 3:40

Yeah. I think now the hurt is on for real and it’s starting to really impact a lot of people. And of course we have been pushing. for this to be wrapped up since the beginning. But now, this could put a lot of pressure on Democrats to finally end this. We know the unions have a lot of power. And look, you may be for or against unions in general. I think a lot of us have felt actually our grow towards understanding why the unions need support. I believe there should be some. Some of these unions are really great. Some of them are not. Some of them create completely unnecessary red tape for the job provider and all the things that come with it. However, There are these situations where the unions do have power and maybe with their power we can get this closed. We’re also going to talk about the 2028 election. Not something I want to be talking about in 2025, but it seems to be one of the top stories of the day as the voices who seem to be the potential running candidates have started to at least lay the groundwork for those official announcements. And it happened from at least three different people. So I’d love to hear from you whether that is on the shutdown or whether that is going to be on this pro-life street protester that you will hear creature outside of Georgia. You’re going to talk about that, of course, later on that 2028 presidential run. What’s it going to look like? If you’ve got questions about that, 1-800-684-3110, 1-800-684-3110. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Seculo. Again, we have a packed show today, but of course we are leading with the breaking news. So many of you are just joining us right now. I think we’ve got to restate what we’re talking about is that one of the biggest unions, the American Federation of Government Employees, has now said this is an avoidable crisis. It is time to wrap up the showdown. The shutdown feels like that. Both political parties have made their point, and there is still no clear end in sight. It’s time to pass a clean, continuing resolution. And in this shutdown today, no half measures and no gamesmanship. This is a big moment because this is a Democrat-led, really, and they endorsed both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris last time around to be the president of the United States. So this is not talking about one that’s maybe, you know, some of these different ones that have now come out and support more Trump. Maybe these are ones that are not necessarily federal employees, the American Federation of Government Employees. Now, this is starting to hurt people for real, and I did have, I kind of overheard a conversation that said that today, and I started realizing, oh, if it is starting to kind of work its way into the American people’s lives. And then, you know, in their defense, they see the East Wing construction, that we know the funding of that. I’m talking about the optics. They see, of course, that your representatives still receiving their paychecks. And then you see the military having to go to food banks in Chicago. This is where the American people start to turn. And when you have something like the American Federation of Government Employees saying, it’s time to wrap it up, as Will said, these unions have more pressure Or can put on more pressure than maybe you think.

SPEAKER 07 : 6:40

That’s right. They’re very powerful. A lot of times they are very large donors to specific political parties. And then their membership as well many times is donating to that political party as well. And when you see someone who represents over 800,000 federal and D.C. government workers and writes things like this to ensure they ensure our skies are safe. Our veterans receive care, our borders are protected, and our food is inspected. They come from every political background and every corner of this nation. What unites them is a simple belief that service to country is honorable work. Today, that belief is being tested. The Army nurse in San Antonio, the TSA officer in Atlanta, the USDA food safety inspector in Iowa, and hundreds of thousands more like them are being asked to keep our country running, without the paychecks that keep their households afloat. When you think about this language, and once again, I want to point also that although the blame is being shared equally or thrown equally at Congress and in both parties by the president of this union, the solution that he is asking for is the one that the Republicans have put forward 12 times and been voted down in the Senate 12 times by the Democrat party. He is calling for just reopening the government as well as getting away from this recurring tactic that is being used in D.C. to try and fight over policy by shutting down the government. And when you start to also think about how you’re talking about hearing it now at the pharmacy. I was doing some reading and research over the weekend and starting to think about when it goes this long, where the trickle down happens, because you think, OK, well, the private sector, the economy is doing fine. But then you start to think about ranchers or people that are starting products, projects like construction that require federal permits. things of that nature when it’s been shut down that long you could say okay a couple weeks it just kicks down the road a little bit once they get back open i’ll get that move forward but if you’re a rancher and your product has to get approved by the fda or by the usda or if you’re a construction project that requires federal permits and leases that are not going through at this time the That starts to affect the private sector a lot more when you start to get into this three weeks, one month of being shut down. And that’s what we’re starting to see now. So last week when we talked to people that most people would call in and say, I haven’t seen it affect me yet. I’m not a government employee. And you had the division where the government employees would call in and be like, I have worked for two decades at the federal government and here’s how this is affecting me. We have some calling in even now.

SPEAKER 04 : 9:25

Yeah. we should do it.

SPEAKER 07 : 9:26

But I think that’s where you’re about to see the split and why this union breaking from party lines is a really big deal because of this.

SPEAKER 04 : 9:34

When you brought up this morning and I literally just walked out of an overhearing conversation that I never thought I would hear, it was that, oh, okay, things are real now and we need to wake up here. Mike’s calling in New York. Mike, go ahead on line two.

SPEAKER 03 : 9:46

Yeah, hi. I’m a long-time listener, first-time caller. This really affects my household because my wife’s Uh, she went through the RIF program for the last, uh, she’s been on three weeks now. We had to go to a food bank, uh, last week and we saw some of her workers there and the team is just, you know, I mean, we’re praying and, and, and hopefully what you just said today could be a revelation about this American, uh, federal union worker, uh, I know they’re huge, 800,000, so I’m hoping that today there’s a breakthrough because we’re struggling. Our mortgage is tied up on this. You know, it’s really hitting home.

SPEAKER 04 : 10:28

Yeah, Mike, I will say there are obviously a lot of people are having those concerns. I know that some banks and some of the lenders make sure you look into it. I know I’ve logged in and they said, hey, if you’re currently being affected by the shutdown, please let us know. There’s things we can do to help you out. I don’t know the details of that, but I am seeing those come up from time to time. So make sure you’re paying attention to that as well, Mike. But yeah, this is kind of it’s got to be done. We’ve hit a breaking point. I can tell the American people you can feel the change this morning. I mean, that is the difference. The fact that you could feel a change happen almost overnight is where we’re at. And look, I don’t take any of this for granted. I look at it and go, okay, what are we doing here? Outside of partisan politics, where do we end up and where we’re going? And it does feel like, well, we’ve been in a stalemate for such a long time. There is no progress. And when there’s no progress, I think that’s when the American people start to also lose any hope and just see politics. Because when no one will come to the table, when it is just, well, I’m not…

SPEAKER 07 : 11:22

you know budging and i’m not budging well we’re just going to make everyone suffer that is where you start to uh feel a bit like a revolt is coming well and to the point of mike uh who said his wife works for the internal revenue service the there was a story out this weekend some some ran it as kind of like a a fun interest piece and others were like this is how ridiculous it is but that there’s someone in dc that’s a irs employee that has started running a hot dog cart to make money in D.C., on the streets of D.C., and he’s going in his suit. He’s obviously making almost a marketing thing out of it, but that’s what it’s come to.

SPEAKER 04 : 11:58

Probably end up making more money than working for the federal government.

SPEAKER 07 : 12:00

I mean, in some cases, yes, he may be. There’s always money in the hot dog stand. go back to this this union statement it says both political parties have made their point and there’s still no clear end in sight that’s exactly what you’re saying is that the stalemates there they’re not budging either way and it is starting to trickle down and not just hurt federal government employees which is awful but also it’s going to start seeping into the entire economy and then you’re going to get real vocal people from all over the country on both sides of the aisle saying knock it off

SPEAKER 04 : 12:34

Yeah, it’s happening, folks. It’s happening. We need to be really keenly aware of that. Like I said, I’d love to hear from you about it at 1-800-684-3110. In the next segment, we’re also going to hear from an ACLJ attorney. Look, the ACLJ is hard at work. We’re not stopping just because of any sort of shutdown. So I need you to go to ACLJ.org right now. Look, we have been defending free speech and religious liberty for over 35 years. We have been helping people preach the gospel for 35 plus years. That is why we are always taking legal action to stop any attempt to criminalize and silence those that are on the streets. We’re going to hear from that coming up. The public sidewalk has been the public sidewalk since it was decided in a case that we did in the early 90s. And you’ve been a part of that with us since then, saying it is okay to be, whether it’s protesting, whether it is praying, whatever it may be, if it’s a public space, it is yours to do with limited restrictions what you can do. And that’s thanks to our team at the ACLJ and obviously thanks to God. But none of that happens without you. even when the targeting is unmistakable and is aimed at Christians, you need to support the work of the ACLJ. I know it’s a tough time. We just got off of talking about the economy. So for me to then do a fundraising pitch, it feels a little tone deaf. But for those that’s not affecting, know that is really important. especially as we start heading in towards the end of the year. Things start getting a little crazy, always in November and December. That is where not only do obviously we see a lot of people who decide this is when they want to donate, but we also see a lot of cases come in because now people have been back to school for a while. Now they’re heading into the holidays, into Christmas. And we know, you know, the quote unquote war on Christmas is actually more real than a lot of people want to admit. And that stuff happens all around the country, especially to kids. kids that are silenced at their schools. Well, with that, the ACLJ is always available for your help. So I want you to go to aclj.org and go to our help desk if you need to. It’ll be attached to a lawyer, but of course you can support the work financially. We never stop working. We’re here for you. I wanted to say that though, as we head into the next segment, because in the next segment, you’re going to hear from one of our new attorneys, newer attorneys, young attorneys, I’ll say that, who is, you know, these are the guys that are in the field. They are working hard for you. They are doing the grunt work. They are there. We’re going to discuss that coming up. This is out of our Washington, D.C. office, talking about a pro-life preacher out of Georgia who is being silenced again. This is coming in Georgia. You know, we’re talking about the Bible Belt here, but still, this stuff is happening. It feels like it’s always been Georgia. It’s where I was born and raised, and it feels like this has always been one of those hotbed places for restriction of pro-life speech. With that being said, phone lines are open at 1-800-684-3110. I want to hear from you about the shutdown. I would like to hear about that. And then also… We’re going to talk about 2028. And I know you’re saying, Logan, why? Because everyone else is. You know what? President Trump is. Gavin Newsom is. There’s some others. Talk about how that’s going to shape out. Of course, we’re talking about a lot of people who want to run as the Democrat and some that want to run as a Republican. And those voices are already starting to make waves. As we know, we’ll be heading into a brand new presidency, at least according to most people. We’ll be heading into a brand new president in a few years. We’ll talk about all that controversy that lays with it as well. And again, Liam from the ACLJ is going to be joining us here in the next segment. The phone lines are open for you. I’m going to say it slow because you always say I say it too fast. 1-800-684-3110. The number’s right there below me. 1-800-684-3110. We’ll be right back with more on Sekulow. Welcome to Secular. Phone lines are open for you. 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110. I’m going to kick this to Will. We’re bringing Liam from the ACLJ on our legal staff because I want to make sure that we get all the facts straight, Will. This is coming out of the state of Georgia, which I know some of you may be listening going, that’s a surprise, especially when it comes to limiting free speech or limiting pro-life speech.

SPEAKER 07 : 16:25

In some ways, though, it’s old school, because some of the original cases were not even able to pray quietly in front of an abortion clinic without the police being there ready to cite people like my father, who was there in front of it over 35 years ago. So quite some time ago. But Liam, this is quite an interesting case because. This is not just someone who was going out in front of an abortion clinic on their own anytime. They were trying very hard to follow the rules of the city where this clinic was located. This pro-life advocate and Georgia member of the pro-life community went out to this clinic, but got a permit from the city to be able to use some voice amplification and things of that nature and was issued that permit. goes out, starts doing his thing, and then ends up being cited by police in this. Give us a little bit of a rundown of the backstory here and how outrageous this is.

SPEAKER 01 : 17:31

That’s exactly right. Jason had a permit for what he was doing issued by the city. He had it with him in July back when he was cited. And Jason was ready to comply with the law. But what the city did was they put a requirement on the permit that said, if you receive any complaints, this permit is null and void. They completely baked in what we would call a heckler’s veto.

SPEAKER 07 : 17:56

And Liam, I think that’s what’s most fascinating here is that you get a permit as long as no one objects. And you mentioned the heckler’s veto, something that we’ve had to fight many times here at the ACLJ and we’ll continue to fight it here. But the irony of having a clause like that in a permit in and of itself is, I mean, if a farmer’s market, if someone didn’t like that this farmer’s market had obstructed traffic that day and complained, would they be cited? No, we obviously know that there’s also a layer of discrimination here. It’s because of the content of the speech that this got this far anyways. They give them the permit and then as soon as someone complains, it’s not just that you have to leave, but there’s a citation issued. What are we doing for this client in these next steps?

SPEAKER 01 : 18:46

I mean, that’s absolutely right. So we’re going to make sure that he’s not going to court alone, that he has the full power of the ACLJ legal team defending him to make sure that, one, that he doesn’t have to pay any punishment for this citation. Two, that he can continue to spread his message that’s being a voice for the voiceless and the unborn. And three, fixing this policy moving forward.

SPEAKER 04 : 19:29

Yeah, Liam, I think there’s a lot of people interested right now in the chat asking for a lot of details. I think it’s important also to know that we’ll reveal a lot more as we get later on. Sometimes you want to make sure you’re protecting your clients, protecting people. Look, as we’ve seen before and more recent history, you’ve seen violent attacks on some of these pro-life demonstrators if they’re out there. They are making a big risk, not just from a legal point of view or from a police. They’re taking risks. from physical protection. So when some people have asked specifics on city and location, a lot of that will be revealed later on when we have a resolution. I want people to know that we’re not just hiding that. We have to protect some of this because it is such an active moment here right now, and it is such really an egregious moment for the American people to really be looking at people who are demonstrating on the streets and know that they can do it safely and protect it.

SPEAKER 01 : 20:20

Absolutely right. I mean, we need to do everything we can to protect our client and make sure that he can continue to do this work. When it comes to these kinds of cases, it’s about hearts and minds. And these people on the front lines, they’re doing amazing work. And I think everyone here at the ACLJ is just happy to be able to support them in that role.

SPEAKER 04 : 20:37

And that is why that ACLJ team is there. And that’s why people like Liam are ready to go whenever we have a call me. It’s legitimately all year long, 365 days. We’ve dealt with this kind of thing on Christmas. We’ve dealt with it on major holidays. It’s important to make sure we have a team that is ready and understanding that when you become a member of the ACLJ as a member of our team here officially, like a staff member or a member of the legal team, that there’s not office hours. Things don’t shut off. We’re working 24 hours a day, 365 days out of the year worldwide. Because remember, we have offices in Europe. We have offices in Jerusalem and in places we can’t talk about. The ACLJ is always active. It’s always happening because none of these are on some sort of restricted business hours.

SPEAKER 07 : 21:17

And one other thing I wanted to bring up with Liam is Liam. inadvertently, I’d say, almost has become one of our experts here on defending these clients that are targeted by local officials, whether it be pro-life advocates or people preaching the gospel, whether it be in Chicago, Ohio, now Georgia. But Liam, we’re starting to see this pattern. We’re getting more of these clients coming to the ACLJ for help, almost in a surge that we haven’t seen in some years. Just what you’re seeing across the country It seems like the local municipalities are taking things into their own hands because maybe the temperature in Washington and the federal government isn’t restricting Christian or pro-life speech as much as they were under previous administrations. Is it fair to say that you’re seeing an uptick in these kinds of cases that are coming into the ACLJ that you’re having to many times go to court to defend these people?

SPEAKER 01 : 22:16

You know, what you guys said, it’s exactly right. We are getting requests from all across the country at an unprecedented rate. I don’t know what’s causing it, but I can tell you what I see, and that is that voices are being silenced. Well, at least they’re trying from cities all across the country. We’ve seen it in Chicago. We’ve seen it in New York, now Georgia. What I think our legal team is really focused on is being able to respond to as many of those and as much as we possibly can. Our goal is to make sure that anyone who comes to us, hey, I’ve got a citation, I’ve got a court date, I don’t know what to do. We want to make sure that every one of those people has the legal representation they need.

SPEAKER 04 : 22:59

Liam, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it. Obviously, the work of the ACLJ, as I said, is important and continues. And that work is twofold. It’s the media side of what you watch here, and of course, our legal team that’s out in the field doing the hard work each and every day. Of course, our incredible media team here and around the country that is working hard as well. But these are… equally important. We need to make sure we can get the voice out there and make sure we can also be a voice for you in court. And none of that happens without your support at ACLJ.org. So I’m going to continue to ask you to support the work as we start heading in towards the end of this year. I can’t believe we’re here, but this last week in October, everybody, I know it’s hard to believe, but you know, we’ve got the holidays around the corner and that is going to be a big time for the organization. So I need you to start considering your support. And of course, phone lines are still open for you as we head into the second half hour and If you don’t get us on your local station, if you’re listening on terrestrial radio or you’re listening in a way that only carries the first half hour, no, we broadcast live for an hour. That’s from noon to 1 p.m. Eastern time. If you’re listening to this later, you can find us, of course, archived on ACLJ.org on YouTube. However you get your podcasts, we’re there. But I’d always love for you to join us. We do it every day, Monday through Friday, from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. And, of course, that is Eastern time, and you can work your way back from there, where you are. We always want you to be a part of it. You can always be a part of the conversation on YouTube or on Rumble. And you can get your comments in that way. I always like to ask if you got nothing to say and you don’t want to call in, let me know where you’re watching from. We have people that watch this show from around the world. And I always love to hear from people that are five miles down the road or 500 miles or 5,000 miles. It’s really fun to see how big the reach can be online now thanks to you and your support. There’s tons of you who are watching right now who’ve never watched before. I can tell you that by looking at the numbers. You’ve never seen us before? Hit that subscribe button if you’re watching on YouTube. That’s all I ask. Or the follow button. Whatever kind of platform you’re watching on, do that right now. It’s a great way to help join the over half a million people who do that each and every week. Be a part of it right now. That’s at ACLJ.org on YouTube. Hit subscribe. Be right back in less than a minute.

SPEAKER 09 : 25:00

Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.

SPEAKER 04 : 25:09

Second half hour of Sekulow coming up right now. And before we were at break, I said, hey, let me know in the chat where you’re watching from. We have a lot of people watching. I want to say, hey, where are you coming from? There’s a lot of people who are watching. Some of them may be honest. Some may be not. But I don’t know. We’ve got people listening right now from around the country. Of course, a lot of people in New York. A lot of people who are concerned about what’s going on in New York with the election coming up. Where else we got here coming in? We got… We got someone watching from West London in the UK. That’s always fun. California, Maine, Missouri, Arkansas. I like reading states, Will. There’s a lot of people who are chiming in. Southern California always.

SPEAKER 07 : 25:40

Which is your favorite state to read? Of all the states? Yeah. Like when you’re reading them off and you’re like, ah, I like to read that, that that person’s watching from there. Alaska’s a good one.

SPEAKER 04 : 25:50

The more rural, the better. Yeah.

SPEAKER 07 : 25:51

I was going to say Alaska, maybe some Idaho.

SPEAKER 04 : 25:53

One person says Antarctica. It’s really cold and YouTube is all we have here. If that’s true. Rock and roll. Call in. Yeah. 1-800-684-3110.

SPEAKER 07 : 26:03

Send us a picture. Right. We got to have proof. How cold is it?

SPEAKER 04 : 26:07

Very cold. All right. Let’s reset what we’re talking about here. A lot of people saying ACLJ champions. A lot of champions chiming in. That’s great. Canada representing. There you go, Will. And they did the live long and prosper. Oh. Is that a Canadian? Well, they are Canadian, aren’t they? William Shatner Canadian. Yes. I’m not sure about Nimoy. I don’t know where he was from. You can find that out, I’m sure.

SPEAKER 07 : 26:26

There’s a lot of people watching right now. We should tell them what’s going on because the largest federal workers union, so this is the American Federation of Government Employees.

SPEAKER 04 : 26:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER 07 : 26:37

They represent more than 800,000 federal workers. They’re very influential. They endorsed both Biden and Harris in the last presidential run. And then we’ve got some kind of surprising statements coming out of their president. He issued a statement that says it’s past time to end this shutdown. And what he’s calling on Congress to do is what the Republicans in the Senate have tried to do 12 times with the Democrats blocking it. They need five Democrat senators who will listen to someone like the president of the American Federation of Government Employees. to end this shutdown says pass a clean continuing resolution and in the shutdown today get the paychecks flowing back to the workers that are forced to work as well as those that have been furloughed allow them to come back to work and logan we’ve been talking about how one this is one of those big influential type organizations this union that could start to sway democrats why because Because they’re a lot of times the ones that fund these campaigns of these Democrats and especially heading into next year, a midterm election cycle. There’s going to be a lot of Democrats that want to make sure that those funds are still coming in for the reelection.

SPEAKER 04 : 27:55

Well, a lot of people are asking that. They go, how do you feel like this is going to push them? And where are Democrats right now? As far as right now, as we stand, there has been no real movement. No. There’s been no real movement over this nearly 30 days. That’s right. That this has been happening. So, again, that is why you’re going to start seeing the pressure from some of these unions and other places come on, because this is the point where not only people losing money, they are losing a lot of revenue. you know, indirectly. So whether that, again, is the public parks or all those kind of things that start really having this trickle-down hurt that is gonna happen, you’re gonna want to push, wrap it up. And I think that’s why we’re seeing so many people even watch right now well on YouTube. We’re having some pretty big numbers right now of people watching live. If you’ve never seen us, hit subscribe. And we’re seeing people chiming in from around the world. We have people in the UAE watching right now. We have people chiming in from Boston, Alaska, Saskatchewan, a lot of Canadians. Because probably Canadians are starting to get concerned, too. Right. Because the government shutdown starts to even affect them. Because they are just your neighbor to the north. There’s a lot of transactions going on. Of course, you got all the tariffs happening. Someone says hello from 8 Mile. Will and I, fun fact, went to see 8 Mile at midnight together. The film.

SPEAKER 07 : 29:04

A lot of fun trivia here.

SPEAKER 04 : 29:06

Fun fact. That’s right.

SPEAKER 07 : 29:07

And we’ll get into more of this in the next segment because we have so many people joining us on this. We’ll talk a little bit about 2028 politics as well because I think all of this plays in. And once again, you think back to what Bernie Sanders said last week when he said, you know, oh, on The View, well, we can’t not let Congress get paid because there’s a lot of people who can’t afford it. That’s right. I think when you start to get these self-proclaimed socialists like Bernie Sanders that miss the plot here, and don’t realize that’s exactly the pain that they’re putting on the federal workers by not moving forward, that that’s where you start to lose. They will start to lose money, their campaign money, in the midterm elections. And that’s why it’s important that a union like this speaks out. Phone lines are jammed.

SPEAKER 04 : 29:49

We’re going to continue to take some more calls. Hey, one just opened up. Give me a call. Be Rabbit. Maybe he’ll call in. 1-800-684-3110. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Secular. Phone lines are open for you, and there’s only one line open. We have two calls that are on hold right now with two very different points of view. I think that’s okay, and I think we should be able to share both of them. Both are dealing with different situations. Let’s go first to Melissa, who’s in South Carolina watching on Rumble, one of our favorite platforms. Melissa, go ahead.

SPEAKER 02 : 30:24

Yes, I really don’t want the Democrats to cave to the Republicans to Democrats. Oh, gosh. I don’t want the Republicans to cave to the Democrats, period. Republicans need to stand and we need to keep standing until they bow down to what we want, period. And what I’m doing is I’m giving money and food to people around me that are struggling because I know there are people, but I just don’t want the Republicans to cave at all.

SPEAKER 04 : 30:53

I mean, there’s no indication that they will, Melissa. I think if anything, you may see quite the opposite start to occur if you have people like this union saying, hey, it’s time to end this. Melissa, on the other hand, though, of course, that’s great. Thank you for supporting people in your local community. I believe we’re called to do that. I think if you can support people, if you can donate, if you can donate food, whatever it may be, should that be where we are with our government employees, people that are working hard, especially financially? Those are maybe in the military. No, I hate the idea that military people are ever having to rely on food stamps or anything like that. I always say, you know, if there’s one thing that we can spend government money on and just, you know, take care of people, maybe we need to be paying them enough to take care of their grocery bill if you’re willing to be a member of our United States military. But of course, that seems to be too big of an ask for a lot of people. But Melissa, I appreciate your call and your feedback. Now I want to counterbalance that one with Roy, who is also watching on Rumble, who is calling from Texas. Roy, go ahead.

SPEAKER 03 : 31:49

A central tenet of conservatism is to conserve. How do you justify being in the world’s stupidest cult that wants to destroy everything?

SPEAKER 04 : 32:00

Not exactly what he told the call screener. So I said he’s going to counterbalance it. Right, I mean, that’s interesting. He said his son is in the military and he’s concerned with them going without a paycheck. I thought that was actually a nice thing to go to, but Roy, you had to ruin it. That’s okay, Roy. We can drop him though. Is that all right? Can we do that? Thank you. That took a little long there. No, I’m kidding. Phone lines are open, by the way, now. Because look, a lot of calls who were really like what Roy said have come in, which is people that are maybe traditionally conservative. Republicans who believe in the conservative causes, but are going, you know, my kids are in the military. My kids work for the federal government. My son or daughter work or I work at a public national park. These are not necessarily always high dollar paying jobs like you have a lot of savings. Probably you’re probably living paycheck to paycheck. And now you’re in a situation where the government. Still goes on. Like I said, the optics aren’t great when you are building the East Wing, though I know that is not funded by the federal government. It doesn’t look good. That was what I was overhearing today when I was just at a local Walgreens. I heard people talking about it, including people who work there, saying they were having concerns about, you know, they can build that East Wing, but they can’t. figure out how to pay our military workers. And they’re going back and forth. And then it starts, like I said, the spiral of conspiracy starts happening. And then you start realizing how much influence people have on social media. And then that becomes an even bigger thing. So when we talk about wrapping this up, we need to wrap it up. And speaking of that also, we got one line open, but let’s get some of these phone calls screened.

SPEAKER 07 : 33:30

I want to actually address what Roy had to say, you know, talking about conservatives, it means to conserve. I’m not sure what angle like he was coming from, but I’m going to take him at what he told the call screener that it’s about the the shutdown. Right. So if you want to go to that. What the Democrats are asking is for something added. They’re trying to add an appropriations to the shutdown bill to reopen the government. So if you’re talking about conserving, the Republicans are saying, let’s keep status quo. Let’s keep this going. We can negotiate policy. But however, that’s not what the Democrats are allowing. And. by keeping that status quo they would be paying the military they’d be paying all these federal workers and then they could debate the policy later which also would give the democrats something to run on in 2026 in the midterms so if we’re talking about conserving that’s exactly what the continuing resolution the clean cr would do it would conserve the status quo Whether or not you think that’s way too much spending, as many people do, it would not be messing around with the funding levels before a midterm election when the Democrats can make their case to the American people and they can get elected if they want. They can make that compelling case and they can vote. get elected, take over the House, and then they can be the ones that are drafting the funding legislation going forward. That’s literally how this works. But instead, you have senators like Chris Murphy, who’s one of these people that could end this shutdown by voting with Republicans on the clean CR. He has this to say. This is how he wants to spin the shutdown. Well, we’re seeing bills last week getting voted down by Democrats to pay the military. When you have all of a sudden this large, the largest federal workers union going ahead and saying, you know what, let’s end this. Let’s do the clean CR. Here’s how he’s trying to spin this as if this is going to be a winning talking point. This is bite 11 about what he thinks the continuation of the shutdown really means. Let’s hear from the senator.

SPEAKER 06 : 35:41

Well, I think one of the reasons that President Trump is refusing to negotiate is because he likes the fact that the government is closed because he thinks he can exercise king-like powers. He can open up the parts of the government that he wants. He can pay the employees who are loyal to him. I mean, this is a leader who is trying to transition our government from a democracy to something much closer to a totalitarian state. And so this is part of what happens in totalitarian states. The leader, the regime only decides what things get funded and what don’t, often in coordination with their oligarch friends.

SPEAKER 07 : 36:20

So what the senator there is trying to allege is that President Trump wants the government to remain shut down. because then he can be a king and can say, you get paid, you don’t get paid, you don’t get paid, you get paid. That’s actually not what’s happening. They did find some funds that they were able to reshift to get some people paid longer, like the military. However, that’s vastly not the case at all anymore now all of that those little techniques they were able to find in the short term have dried up so one it’s an outdated talking point but him trying to say that this is now what he wants it’s becoming a totalitarian state because he’s paying loyalist and not loyalist is just so absurd and out of touch and is is devoid of fact or the entire way through it so i don’t know how they can get out there and say this on cnn with a straight face and still think that they’re going to be rewarded by their constituents going forward because it’s just the absurdity of it no part of this they’re the ones that are being hardliners and saying we are going to get everything we want or we’re going to keep the government shut down Meanwhile, the continuing resolution, it’s not like it’s the laundry list of Republican spending desires. It’s just everything in the government stays the same way. That’s a lot of projects and a lot of funding that conservatives don’t like. That we have all of the Republican senators voting for to keep the status quo. So that’s where it’s a lie saying it’s, oh, they just want to be able to pick and choose what they want to spend money on. Right now, they’re not spending money on anything. And I just it gets so infuriating when you see this. And that’s part of the reason why you see. The first big crack in the base of the Democrats over this is from this union.

SPEAKER 04 : 38:14

And if the pressure comes on, maybe that will cause some sort of change. We’re going to call Kathy in Ohio on a take because it kind of refers to that, which is essentially what can we do now? Go ahead.

SPEAKER 05 : 38:25

Well, what I’m suggesting is let’s figure out. who the Republicans are that might hold and give them a call, tell us who they are, and then identify the moderate Democrats that need a little pressure to say, okay, let’s deal with this.

SPEAKER 07 : 38:43

Well, at this point, none of the Republicans seem to even be talking about folding. So I don’t think that there is that concern, especially, like I said, when you start to see a major interest group like this union openly starting to say this, you’re not seeing that from a lot of the conservative groups yet. Now, that could happen if more pressure doesn’t hit the Democrat side and something goes the other way. But right now, they are seeming to hold pretty strong about let’s do this clean CR and move forward. Now, you’re already seeing senators like John Fetterman. And what are they threatening to do? Because he’s being kind of rational about this. Primerium. because he likes Israel and because he’s, hey, I’d like to reopen the government. They’re thinking he’s not Democrat enough for us. He’s not liberal enough, even though they praised him when he was running against Dr. Oz as the most liberal potential senator we could ever get. He’s a union guy. He’s a blue collar guy. And that’s where you’re starting to see the cracks.

SPEAKER 04 : 39:49

the democrats won’t stand for that so they’re even talking about trying to get him out of their party by pushing him out and primarying him well you know what folks hey we just lost a bunch of our calls i’ll be honest so usually in the next segment i like to take as many calls as we can if phone lines were busy when you tried calling they have reopened we have about four lines open for you right now maybe five one eight hundred six eight four three one one zero i want to hear from you five lines open perfect time to call in and get your voice heard on the air, whether that is on pro-life protesters. We can talk about that. We can talk about the end of the shutdown. We can also talk a little about 2028. As we have said, you know, Kamala Harris has said she’s not done and she’s not the only one. We got a lot more to cover on that as well, but phone lines are open for you. But I also encourage you to support the work of the ACLJ is that the government may be shut down. We never do. And that is only because you are there for us. encourage you not only go and donate go check out the website there’s such incredible amount of content or download the app it’s all available for free nothing’s behind a paywall and that is because people like you support the work of the aclj we can get all of this out there as much as we can that’s at aclj.org we’ll be right back Welcome back to Sekulow. To wrap up our Monday, I do want to hear from you, so we’re going to take some phone calls coming up. Let’s go ahead and start with that. Let’s go to Warren, who’s calling online, too, who’s watching on Rumble. Warren, go ahead.

SPEAKER 12 : 41:14

Thanks for taking my call. It’s twofold. My son is considered essential, so he’s working without a paycheck, and yet we’ve been trying to get my wife on disability, and disability said even if she’s on, she’s not eligible for health care for two years. So I need the Republicans to stand strong because it infuriates me that my son’s paycheck is held a hostage while they’re trying to get free health care to illegals and my wife can’t get health care.

SPEAKER 04 : 41:44

Again, this is the pressure that’s on right now. And I think that people like you are going to start feeling that and start speaking out your voice. And if your voice is strong enough, you will see. break on one side or the other and right now it seems to be the breaking when we have to come from the democrats because uh the push the push is even coming from their own party it’s coming from the unions that are very much uh democrat stronghold i’m not talking about the unions that started to go more trump here in the last time around more of the The blue collar unions were talking about the American Federation of Government Employees that again, Will said to 800,000 federal and Washington government workers. They said it’s time to pass this. Both political parties have made their point. There’s still no clear end in sight. I think that’s the big concern is that it just feels like nothing is happening. It feels like there’s no movement. And when it feels like there’s no movement, that is where all of a sudden the pressure is going to become more extreme because you can’t – feel like, okay, we’re shut down. We’re going to figure out how to get there. And when no one is coming to the table and it just feels like there’s silence, man, it’s deadly. Let’s go to Michael in Florida. I want to start with the New York election. I think that’s okay. We can pivot to that and then maybe talk a little about 2028 as well. Go ahead. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER 11 : 42:50

Doesn’t it seem like it’s oxymoronic to call yourself Democrat socialist. And secondly, Can you imagine how sick the hypocrisy will be on the 25th anniversary of 9-11 if this man is mayor?

SPEAKER 04 : 43:09

Yeah, of course, you’re talking about Mamdami. I think the likelihood of him being mayor is very high. I think maybe this week we’ve seen maybe some shift, that maybe there’s some cracks there that you could see Cuomo having a bit of a comeback as people start seeing some of his more radical views or they’re seeing some of his lies that are kind of coming to fruition. Some of the stories maybe are a bit more storyteller-y. than realistic. Of course, the democratic socialist has become a very popular brand. I mean, you may say that it’s oxymoronic, and I understand your point of view with that. However, it’s the nice way to say, if you want to say communist, it’s a nice way to say other things without having to say it. It means a lot. It carries a lot of weight when you say democrat socialist. I think, of course, if you’re looking at the group who could potentially be mayor, I don’t think you have a real strong group of people You have Cuomo. You have Curtis Sliwa. And, of course, you have Mamdani, none of which are the biggest and the loudest of voices. Mamdani, of course, has a big rally this weekend in Forest Hills, New York. They’re big up into that venue, beautiful venue. Thousands of people show up. I know all the young people that I know. Of course, they’re voting in New York. They’re all voting for Mamdani. Yeah, these are people that didn’t live through necessarily the 9-11 era. And of course, there does seem to be that progressive push to go, yeah, but doesn’t that show you how far we can come? That we can come from September 11th terrorist attack to then having the first elected Muslim mayor of New York City. Yeah, on paper, that sounds very nice. It sounds like somewhat the American way to go at it. But when you have someone who is publicly… going with unindicted co-conspiracies of the first World Trade Center attack and campaigning with them, that’s a little bit different than just your family down the street, which of course we all have and love and support those people. You’re talking about someone who has been very radical, who has called for the support of the people who are really involved directly in terrorism and some of his hip hop songs. This is not a casual guy. Now you could say over the time, of course it could be very different when he was 19, 20, 25 than he is now. And look, like I said, if he wins, I’ll be praying for him and rooting for him because I would love to see New York thrive once again. But when you have Bernie Sanders and AOC and him in the middle, it should be pretty loud where he’s going to end up being in these positions. And of course, now we can start looking because I think it will be a bellwether of where 2028 is going to go, and specifically for the Democrats. When you have people like Gavin Newsom already saying, hey, and you know what? You got to give it to him again. Because I feel like everyone avoids that question. Are you considered running? And he didn’t. He said, you know what? I’d be lying to you if I told you I didn’t. That I wasn’t considering it. And that is where he does come from a little bit of a different political background. He’s slimy. He is who he is. He’s slick. Again, he’s Harvey Dent. But…

SPEAKER 07 : 46:04

Even Republicans usually, well, we’ve got to save that announcement. Well, in some ways, he’s not telling the truth because he’s been actively running for a couple years now, raising money, doing the events, going to South Carolina, going to Nashville, Tennessee, going to places where he’s going to need the support in a primary. going to the South, going to places where even Joe Biden was not going to win. He lost the first two primaries and then turned his fortunes around in 2020 in South Carolina. So I think it’s a little bit, sure, you’ll give him some credit saying at least he’s being open about it. It’s three years early. But you got to start early. But he has been actively running for president already.

SPEAKER 04 : 46:48

Of course, we’ve all known it. But now he has said it. Let’s hear about one.

SPEAKER 07 : 46:55

after the 2026 midterms you’re going to give it serious thought yeah i’d be lying otherwise i’d just be lying and i can’t do that you can’t lie of course that is actually the slickest answer logan i think he’s ever given george washington yeah i cannot tell a lie he chopped out the cherry tree right that that’s the story that is the story not a true story though Just a fable, a parable of sorts. It’s a true-ish story.

SPEAKER 04 : 47:21

Ish story? It’s like a story that’s an amalgamation of a few stories.

SPEAKER 07 : 47:26

Is it now?

SPEAKER 04 : 47:26

There was a cherry tree.

SPEAKER 07 : 47:29

There have been, yeah. On his property. Okay. Did he chop it down? I believe he did. But did he not tell a lie?

SPEAKER 04 : 47:35

I don’t think he said, I cannot tell a lie. I think he may have said that later on. And then we, you know what? I’m not much of a historian. I look forward to that young Washington movie because then they’ll tell me more information. It better have that story in it. Yeah. He’s saying, I will not tell a lie. It’s an old Norm Macdonald bit, I think. That’s the scariest thing ever, to have a kid with an axe going, I grew my toe off. Let’s go to Marty, who’s calling on YouTube, watching in Florida. Go ahead.

SPEAKER 08 : 48:04

Okay. Did he chop it down?

SPEAKER 10 : 48:05

Yeah, Modami, I tell you, if they elect this guy, they’re going to destroy New York City. It’ll be the end of it. They’ll totally demolish it.

SPEAKER 04 : 48:16

Yeah, Marty, there’s been concern about that. Obviously, New York is not in the best place it’s ever been. I love it. It’s my favorite places in the world and I want it to be restored to what it once was and actually be much better than it could be a lot better than it ever was. But when you do have Bernie Sanders AOC and him in the middle, it is that concern of going, oh no, now we’re headed towards a very different direction. Again, if he wins, I’ll be praying for him and hoping for all of our leaders here because the mayor can only do so many things.

SPEAKER 07 : 48:41

You know, there was an interesting story that got reported out in this weekend that when he was running for vice president of his high school class at this very elite prep school in New York, he promised free, fresh squeezed juice every day to the student body. However, he later told people, I just went and promised a bunch of impossible things to people.

SPEAKER 04 : 49:04

Yeah, the impossible task.

SPEAKER 07 : 49:05

And so I think a lot of that is when you see the grocery stores and all this.

SPEAKER 04 : 49:08

Can we take this real quick, line one? All right, so I just realized we have a call coming in from Australia. Let’s go ahead. You only got like 25 seconds, but go ahead, Chris.

SPEAKER 08 : 49:17

Good morning. Calling from Australia. It’s four o’clock in the morning here. So I’m a psychiatric researcher in Melbourne, Australia, and we interface a lot with American health care systems, particularly hospitals across California, Colorado, Florida. And the government shutdown is even affecting us down here just simply because we’re having… very common issues with getting communications through to people. That makes sense.

SPEAKER 04 : 49:49

Chris, I hate this. Call me back tomorrow earlier in the show. It’s three in the morning. Talk to you tomorrow.