Join us for a thorough discussion on the implications of the U.S.’s newly signed mineral deal with Ukraine. As tensions continue to simmer between Ukraine and Russia, this strategic agreement plays a pivotal role in shaping future diplomatic efforts. Plus, we update you on the National Day of Prayer and its significance in today’s geopolitical climate. Tune into Sekulow for all this and much more.
SPEAKER 03 :
We’ve got breaking news. Details emerge as National Security Advisor Mike Waltz is set to resign.
SPEAKER 06 :
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.
SPEAKER 03 :
And now your host, Logan Seculo. Welcome to Seculo. I first want to start off by just saying thank you to everyone that gave during our life and Liberty Drive. It really was a one for the books. We appreciate all the support. Of course, you continue to support if you’d like. But again, I just wanted to say thank you. And again, also today is the National Day of Prayer. So I’m going to encourage you today. Say a prayer for our team at the ACLJ. If you’d like to get our prayer guide, we have a prayer guide that our team puts out. Go to aclj.org slash pray. It’s a free prayer guide that will lead you through some prayers about some of our top issues. So you can do that as well. But of course, we’re going to cover the breaking news that just happened. And it’s being reported right now that Mike Waltz, National Security Advisor, look, friend of the show. He’s done documentaries with us, been someone that we’ve been friendly with for many years. is set to resign, is out as that position as well as his deputy. This is what’s going on right now. Of course, this comes a couple of weeks, what, six weeks or so after the initial signal gate, if you will, that happened. Of course, Mike Waltz or Mike Waltz’s team kind of took the fall for that. This happened, though, weeks later. It wasn’t something that was done aggressively or quickly. And I think that says a lot about the Trump team and figuring out what’s next. But, Will, I’m sure you got some analysis.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right. So when this first broke, when the story about the signal chat and the Yemen strike and also that it was Mike Waltz, his account that added the journalist Jeffrey Goldberg from The Atlantic to that chat, I kind of thought he would be out early. That’s normally something, you know, an administration, they have someone that takes the fall and normally it’s that person that may have had that hand in it, whether it be a team member or the principal himself, but that there’s kind of a moment where you’re like, okay, we’re going to shift. We’re going to change direction. And you kind of get that story behind you. They didn’t. They actually doubled down and stood with President Trump’s national security advisor. And he had been there continuing. He was in a cabinet meeting yesterday, is still fulfilling that role. But as scrutiny has come more. much more into focus on Pete Hegseth from the media. That’s kind of been the target from the left in the media. And it all stemmed from that Signalgate chat issue where they’ve really been going hard after Pete Hegseth in trying to get him, trying to take him down as the Secretary of Defense.
SPEAKER 03 :
And there’s a lot of conversation right now. People are saying, hey, was Mike Waltz asked to leave? Did he resign? Is he out? Is he fired? Of course, you never really know what happens behind the scenes. But I think the unofficial official word is they’re using the word out a lot. So we know that this would happen. Now, Mike Waltz, remember, left a pretty high profile position to do this. So it is unfortunate for him. I do feel for him and his family because this mistake potentially led to him leaving office as well because he was serving in Congress in an area of Florida that they just had their election to replace him. That happened only a couple of weeks ago. He was on a lot of committees. His first Green Beret ever to be serving in that position. So a guy who has a bright future, and I hope for him still has a bright future. Every time I’ve spit with him has always been positive, whether that was virtually or we’ve done Zooms with him because he just seemed like a solid guy. So though he may be taking the fall here, hopefully it is not the end. I do want to say again, We’re having that glitch on Facebook or on YouTube, I’m sorry, where occasionally this happens. So if you are watching right now and you can see us on YouTube, I’m going to ask you to hit that thumbs up to make sure we get back into the feeds of some of the people that we lost. Phone lines are open for you today at 1-800-684-3110. That’s 1-800-684-3110. What do you think about Mike Waltz? resigning out let go we’re not exactly sure of the words but we know out as his position of national security advisor this is not a position that has to be confirmed so it could be very quick to see who will serve in this position if anyone at all so i’m sure someone will be and we’ll take your calls and comments about that at 1-800-684-3110 again today’s national day of prayer so i’m just going to ask you today Say a prayer for our team. Say a prayer for our ACLJ team as they are hard at work. We’re going to go over some of that work coming up here in the next few segments. You can get our prayer guide for free at aclj.org. Welcome back to Secular. Phone lines are open for you. I want to hear from you at 1-800-684-3110. This is one of the big shakeups that’s happening right now. Maybe the first big shakeup of this administration as Mike Waltz, who of course got involved a bit in that whole Signalgate situation that happened just a few weeks ago, is now set to resign as National Security Advisor. How does this make you feel? Did you like Mike? Were you upset about it? Do you feel like it’s good for him to essentially take this fall and for them to move on? Give us a call at 1-800-684-3110. President Trump right now is speaking at the National Day of Prayer. Is this something we can pipe in and go to live here in a moment? Is that possible, guys? No one’s looking at me yet. Can we do that? Let’s hear from President Trump. He’s talking right now at the National Day of Prayer.
SPEAKER 10 :
We’re going to put them all together. It’s the first time they’ve done that. And I’ll give it a shot. All right. I hope we can entertain. I will give it a shot. But before we begin, I want to let you know what I was just doing in a really great meeting with Speaker Johnson. We had also Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Chairman Brett Guthrie, who’s a fantastic guy, and Chairman Smith. Everybody knows Chairman Smith. He’s the most knowledgeable person on taxes and finances there is, to be updated on the progress of the one big, beautiful
SPEAKER 03 :
bill we love that bill baby if he starts talking about you know giving sort of the prayer speech let me know guys i would like to cut into that because it is the national day of prayer when you have a president out there making these kind of statements i think it’s important for you to cover it as well at least you’ll be able to decide how you feel about these moments of faith that are being uh expressed at the white house
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right. And as we go back to this story about the national security advisor, Mike Waltz, I expect it will be a resignation, but a forced out resignation. He’s also his deputy, Alex Wong, will be leaving. He’s the deputy national security advisor. And as Logan, you mentioned, this isn’t a confirmation situation where someone leaves and they have to go back to the Senate and get a new national security advisor confirmed. This is a position that serves at the pleasure of the president and you’re just hired for it. You don’t have to go through the confirmation process. But I do think it’s important to look back at this because I think the president wanted to show strength initially with his team. When this the signal gate, the whole chat about the war plans and whatnot with Yemen and attacking the Houthis by not letting anyone take the fall. They said he said originally Mike has learned his lesson and we’ve moved forward and he had been around for weeks now. I think what is pushing this right now is. is all the pressure the left and the media are putting on Pete Hegseth. I think that President Trump stands by Pete Hegseth. I think he believes in the mission that he has tasked Pete Hegseth with, as well as that role does have to go through Senate confirmation. So if the pressure isn’t taken off And they’re concerned that this could consume the Department of Defense with all these people coming out trying to say it’s chaotic and all of that, that if they don’t do some sort of pivot and maybe try to change the narrative or show that there’s something else happening and that they are making changes. They may be concerned that Pete Hegseth may be backed into a corner and in a place that he can’t recover from. So they say, all right, we’re going with a national security advisor. It is who the logical person when that story first came out would have been to take the fall for it. But it’s just weeks later than we expected.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I think that we weren’t really talking about it right now. So it is one of those things that’s kind of odd to now all of a sudden bring up. But we don’t know really what goes on behind the scenes. We don’t necessarily know. There could be something else. There could have been more investigation done into that or other chats or other things that’s come to light. I know also his deputy, they said, right, is going away. And a lot of times he was probably brought in by him. So you’d assume he probably is maybe loyal to Waltz. But also, you know, you don’t know what the details are from that as well. And maybe taking the fall for something that… Happened with his team in general, not just with him directly. I do want to hear from you. A lot of you are watching right now, and that means a lot of you are interested in this as the details start to emerge of Mike Waltz being removed, outed, fired. We don’t know the proper word yet. We’ll find out, I’m sure, later. But I’m sure the word will be somewhat like resigned. That’s sort of the unofficial official word always. They don’t try to defame people on the way out unless there’s just something really egregious. And again, he’s a good guy and someone who I really enjoyed speaking to, who I think has immense amount of information and resources. And he’s someone that I hope can recover from this and have a thriving career. Actually, I think he is someone who was to me before all of this was in line for a potential presidential run in his future. It felt that way and hopefully it still can feel that way. This could just be a bump in the road, but we’ll see. And hopefully President Trump, we don’t know what he’ll say or what he does. Sometimes he’s good with these guys leaving. Sometimes they become an enemy pretty quick and quickly may become someone that he’s willing to sort of throw under the bus, if you will. So we’ll see what happens here. Again, phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110 on this, the National Day of Prayer. Is President Trump speaking about that? Is he still talking about the big, beautiful belt? What’s going on? Anybody know? Anyone follow it? Still not talking about the prayer?
SPEAKER 05 :
All right. We’ll keep going, Will. That’s right. So as we also look at this, because this replacement could come quicker than others because it doesn’t require confirmation. There’s some names. Some people are talking about Steve Witkoff, who is the envoy that is doing the principal negotiations with Russia, with Ukraine, with Iran.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, can you serve in both of those positions? Yes. He’s doing a… I don’t know if he’s doing a good job, but he’s doing a job right now. He’s working.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right. Because I think both of those, one is an envoy position and the other is national security advisor. I think your national security advisor could be your envoy. I do think, though, it would… It would come at a cost for the president because the national security advisor is typically there with the president. Their office is very close to the Oval Office. And so that you have this person that you can get advice from and be a sounding board and kind of help corral information to you in a real time basis. I think it would be a little unusual to have a high profile envoy with some very high profile negotiations involved. also serve in that role so I think Steve Witkoff would probably have to pull back from that now I know he is going there for those negotiations I don’t know how much he is just there kind of as the manager or if he is the actual person that is doing the negotiations or if it’s his team I think that would have to be more fleshed out for the public to understand how that would work but I Typically, the national security advisor needs to be in Washington or travel with the president if the president is traveling because of that relationship and how they discuss matters of national security and great importance. I think the other thing, there are many people that didn’t like Mike Waltz in this position from the more war-averse right.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, he certainly was someone who was maybe a bit more on the path to military intervention. As a Green Beret, as someone that was serving, it felt like he was, again, he served actively in combat. But then you had the opposite. You had a Tulsi Gabbard who also served but took a very different approach. And that Tulsi Gabbard approach is a bit more in line with, you’d say, the current Republican group.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right. But to me, I think why having multiple voices in the room as President Trump has put together, you have Tulsi Gabbard, you have J.D. Vance, who’s more dovish, as they say, more war averse, find other options first. And even Pete Hegseth to a degree, he’s not wanting to jump right in to military action, but use it as the tool if needed. I think having a mix of voices actually is a positive thing to some degree for an administration. That’s why having Mike Waltz, who is very strong on China, pushing back against China, very strong on pushing back against Iran, but having people that can maybe moderate his voice and also him maybe moderate some voices that are like, we’re never going to fire a missile or rocket ever. is kind of an important thing for a president to hear a diverse set of ideas and then make the decision. President Trump likes having that around him. So I don’t know if it’ll be another national security advisor that’s more in line with Mike Waltz. or because of the cabinet members that he has around, if they’re like, hey, here are some other people you should look at. And going forward, if it will be someone that’s more kind of in line with that Tulsi Gabbard, J.D. Vance style foreign policy, that’s yet to be seen. But as if all these reports are true that he is out and his deputy are out, we are going to see some some big changes at the White House very shortly.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, we have a call about this. It’s going to take Ron from Florida. Ron on line one. Got a suggestion for us. Ron, go ahead.
SPEAKER 09 :
Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for all you guys do. I just saw about Mike Waltz resigning or whatever shortly. I just had a thought. Mike Pompeo, I think, would be a perfect candidate for that spot. Now, I don’t know whether he wants to get back involved with the Trump administration this time, but certainly I think he’s got all the credentials to do that job.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, I don’t know. Again, you’re right. I’m not sure how he feels or where he is right now in terms of that. Obviously, he’s someone who contributes to this show every week. And we like Mike a lot. So if there is a good pick out there, he certainly, as you said, has all the credentials in the world for this position. So that would be, I think, an excellent choice again. But we’ll see where it goes. And again, provides a very different point of view. from the current group uh so it is what is beginning he’s been a great voice on this show so i think that’s a good idea who do you think 1-800-684-3110 1-800-684-3110 i want to encourage you also it’s national day of prayer president trump’s speaking right now uh we’ll cut into some of that coming up in the next segment because i want you to hear from him but also it’s national day of prayer so say a prayer for us say a prayer for our team Say a prayer for our country. If you need help, if you need guidance in that, we also have an ACLJ free prayer guide that leads you through some topics and prayers and what you can specifically pray for, for our team and for the issues that matter to us the most. And that’s at aclj.org slash pray. Again, phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. And a lot of you are watching and I want to hear from you. Welcome back to Secular. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. We’ll take some of these calls coming up. President Trump speaking right now at the National Day of Prayer. We’ll go to that in just a moment as he just sort of began his remarks about specifically prayer. He was giving sort of an update on other things. And I want to make sure that we give him some time here. Give President Trump some time. Look. Last call, the last segment said, hey, who do you think you should replace? And the caller said Mike Pompeo, of course, someone who’s been contributing to this show for a number of years, at this point five or six years. A lot of comments came in. Some good, some not so thrilled. I want to know from you, if you’re watching, just commenting, you’re so against it and you use words that I don’t understand. Give me a good reason. Give me a good reason why. And make sure you’re not just parroting what you’ve heard on other broadcasts that just don’t care for him. Because he is someone who’s been pretty instrumental for a lot of the big things that happened in the last Trump administration, including the Abraham Accords, which to me is one of the most significant moments in the last Trump presidency. So I’m just curious your thoughts. I want to hear. I’m not pointing fingers at anyone. I want to know why you say no. That’s what I want to know. All right. Should we go? Should we take some phone calls? What should we do, Will?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, I think we should. But before we do that, I think we should go to President Trump, who’s speaking now, because you wanted to get to this. Let’s cut to that now.
SPEAKER 10 :
American people turn to God in prayer. We continue a tradition older than our independence itself. Nearly 250 years ago, on June 12th, 1775, the Continental Congress appointed a day of fasting and prayer so that Americans fighting for their liberty could seek the help of the Almighty. And when you look at that, June 12th, 1775. So we have a very, very special day coming up. You know, we have a lot of them during this term. And interestingly, I had none of them had I not had a rigged election. Had the election not been rigged, I would have been out of here. I would have been gone. The radical left would have said nothing. We got rid of him finally. But no, now they have me for another four years. We talk about that.
SPEAKER 03 :
Can you all come back to me, please? All right, there you go. Because again, I was hoping he was speaking a little bit more about prayer and God and the National Day of Prayer. Of course, we hit some of the normal sort of Trump speech moments, which is fine. There’s nothing wrong with that. You know, I am looking through these comments as I set that up and said, hey, why do you feel that way towards Secretary Pompeo, somebody who’s been a friend of the show for many years? You know what’s clear? No one has the answer. All of the comments, I’m looking at thousands of comments, thousands of people that are watching, and you’re all just saying, no, because. And you can’t give that answer. And I do want to know. And I’m not saying that in a rude way. I’m not saying that as a way for you to not engage with this broadcast. I’m genuinely asking you why. And if you don’t know why, I encourage you to actually do some digging. Do your own research. Find out who some of these people are. I feel the same way about, look at the group that’s surrounding President Trump right now. I think there’s a very interesting group, all with very different points of view. Elon Musk, Tulsi Gabbard. We had Mike Waltz. You got a big group of RFK Jr. who is under fire as well because he’s coming out and saying things that are largely controversial to a lot of the American people, mainly to the media. And if the pressure stays on to all these guys, you’re going to end up with administration, especially if the administration starts caving a little. You’re going to have an administration full of your second-tier, third-tier players because you went bold and And now some of the consequences are coming in, whether it’s Pete Hegseth, whether it is now Mike Waltz.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right. And as you even brought up, I mean, the looking at the comments and to or seeing like he turned on him or he he stabbed Trump in the back. That isn’t what Logan asked for when he said, hey, tell us why. That’s that’s what the line is. But what did he do? Yeah. And that’s what we’re talking about is give us the reason why he endorsed President Trump for president the second time. And that’s.
SPEAKER 03 :
very recently so and has been on the show talking about the positive things that happen under president trump’s uh presidency so it is just it is an interesting it’s an interesting question we like and we like to hear from you asking the question because that person called in unprompted i didn’t tell them to call in they had that suggestion i saw the chat run wild with the same comments parroted over and over again and make sure you’re not just parroting the people that you’re seeing And so far, now I’ve got to look at Rumble as well. So far, there has not been one comment other than the fact they said, well, Trump didn’t pick him, so I trust President Trump. That’s good enough for you? You don’t want to actually do your own research? You’re going to be this against somebody? Because of why? And again, I’m not here as some big defender of anyone. I’m just asking you that question. And that is, if you’re going to watch this kind of show, where we provide this kind of coverage, I want you to be as informed as possible. I want you to be making decisions based on your thoughts and opinions and breaking down what actually happened or has not happened. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. I want to take Francis, who’s calling in Virginia, listening on the radio. Francis, you’re on the air. This is about Mike Waltz and Pete Hegseth and the whole signal gate. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 07 :
Thanks for taking the call. Basically, my question is to get your take. Is it of the opinion that no consequences should have happened to Mike Walsh, the fact that he was let go? I mean, is that your opinion for what he did?
SPEAKER 03 :
I don’t think that’s my opinion. That was the opinion of the administration for the last six weeks, and they were pretty vocal about that. So to me, I like Mike Walsh. I do think it was a egregious error. I think it was a unenforced security glaring error, and I’m still not really sure how it happened. And maybe that was why I was relying on some of that information going, I don’t know how this happens. Do I think that it should have been six weeks later? Maybe just because sort of the news cycle has moved on and it doesn’t show weakness in that moment.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and Francis, I actually expected it to happen that next day. When that story came out, it was the normal procedure in Washington would have been… that someone takes the fall and there would have been reason to because it was mike waltz’s account that added uh jeffrey goldberg to the chat so whether he did it or a staffer it doesn’t matter you’re you’re responsible and you have accountability but it’s also the prerogative of the president they serve at the pleasure of the president if he decides you know I still need you here and want to do this, then that’s kind of up to the president, especially with the National Security Advisor. It’s not a confirmed role, not a cabinet. It may be cabinet level in the way that they interact, but it is not a cabinet official that is confirmed by the Senate. So that is kind of up to the president. I expected it to happen, even though I like Mike Waltz and we’ve had a great relationship with him. It would not have surprised me, and I would have probably said, that is the right call. That follows standard procedure and makes sense. But also, if the president wants you still around, he can. I am… curious as to why now the six weeks later and I do suspect it is because President Trump sees Pete Hegseth is more valuable at the Department of Defense as Secretary of Defense than Mike Waltz is at NSA at this point and the National Security Advisor and therefore is trying to just get rid of this story make it move on and say we took action held people accountable stop going after my Secretary of Defense get over it we’re done here.
SPEAKER 03 :
In some ways, though, I feel like it opens more doors. By asking this question, or by doing this right now, it opens up for questioning by doing it now, six weeks later. Like, why? Why now? What is it? If it happened immediately, at least you would have been like, okay, they’re taking direct action. Now you go, well, what’s going on behind the scenes where this took six weeks to get to this point? phone lines again are open for you we do have a second half hour coming up lots of great comments coming in on our YouTube and Rumble chats so be a part of that if you lose this because your local radio station doesn’t carry the hour number one they should carry the full hour and if they don’t I encourage you to go to ACLJ.org or watch us on YouTube or Rumble or Facebook. We are still broadcasting on all those platforms for the next 30 minutes. We do that every day from 12 to 1 p.m. Eastern time. Work your way back from there. Of course, you can get us archived later on on the ACLJ app and wherever you get your podcasts. We’ll be right back in less than a minute.
SPEAKER 06 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow.
SPEAKER 03 :
And now your host, Logan Secular. Phone lines are jamming up for those just joining us right now. It’s National Day of Prayer. So I wanted to say thank you and thank you for all your prayers and your support during our Life and Liberty Drive. It has now come to a close. Again, we appreciate everyone who supported during that time. And now I encourage you just to say a prayer for our team as they are working so hard here at the ACLJ, whether it’s in our media team, whether it’s in our legal team, they work hand in hand. to make sure all of the information is known by you. We tell you the truth. If it’s tough, if it’s what you want to hear, if it’s not what you want to hear, we are still there for you. And of course, we’re there in the courtroom for you if you ever need us. All you have to do is go to aclj.org slash help. You fill out a very small form. You get assigned to an attorney at no cost. At no cost because of people like you who support Attorney of Our Life and Liberty Drive. So I wanted to start off again this half hour by just saying thank you. And now we move to the breaking news of the day. And of course, that is that Mike Waltz, is out. We don’t know exactly the specific terms of why he is out or how he’s out, if he’s resigned, if he’s been fired, or whatever it may be. But as his position as National Security Advisor, he and his deputy are both out looks like later today and again we saw Mike Waltz interacting this week in one of those cabinet meetings we know that he was still actively involved even after Signalgate kind of the time had moved on the news cycle is short but now it kind of restarts that That’s right.
SPEAKER 05 :
And it will be interesting to see who President Trump picks for this because, once again, this is someone that’s very close to the president that is advising him on national security and all of these issues, intelligence and things of that nature, that is kind of there all the time with the president. And so it isn’t someone that has to be confirmed. And Mike Waltz, for this position, was more of the— militaristic interventionalist style Republican, which has a long history in the Republican Party. It’s not necessarily anything new, but he was very supportive of President Trump. And that’s what was interesting. It was President Trump picked someone for that position That would almost be antagonistic on some ideas to the DNI, Tulsi Gabbard or to Pete Hegseth or even to his vice president. Because what President Trump tends to do is sometimes pick people that aren’t going to agree so they can argue and then he can figure out what he wants to do. And that’s a very common tactic for leadership of having diverse opinions, expressing their opinions and them working through it, getting to a final decision that maybe is the best one out of the group. And you also, you brought up that we had the caller and people going on about Mike Pompeo. And that’s been very interesting. Here is a question I would have for the people that would not like him in that position. If president Trump were to pick him, Would that change your mind? If President Trump, who knows everything that you’re not liking him for, if he were to pick him for that position, would that change your mind? And would you trust the president to pick who he thinks are the right people for those positions? Or would you still think that that is a mistake? That’s just a curious question.
SPEAKER 03 :
Let’s go to a question that’s kind of similar to that. Let’s go to line number two. Let’s go to Guy in Florida. And this is about Mike Waltz. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, hi there. Good afternoon and prayers for America, Israel and all the world. Yeah, my opinion of Mike Walsh, I really don’t know enough about it. I see his assistant as well was booted out. And that’s probably what caused the problem, because he was responsible for the Goldberg incident. As far as Mike Pompeo, I don’t have any real negative comments. ideas about him. I always liked his calling Biden, Beijing Biden, which is very apropos. But, you know, I myself, I’m Jewish, but, you know, Christians, real Christians, they all speak Hebrew. When you say hallelujah and amen, you’re speaking Hebrew. So, you know, my prayers are for all the world right now. We are in some very serious times.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, Guy, we appreciate your call. Thank you for your support and for your prayers. We are headed to a break, but we’ll be back in just a minute. Again, phone lines are pretty jammed. There’s one open. Well, I guess Guy will be gone, so there’ll be two lines open for you. So this is a great time to still call. The National Day of Prayer is happening right now. Dr. Phil just spoke at the White House. President Trump brought out Dr. Phil. All right, that’s where we’re at right now. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. We’ll be right back with more on Sekulow. Stay tuned. Welcome back to Seculo. Harry Hutchinson’s joining us, senior attorney here at the ACLJ. There’s also been a bit of news that came out last night in terms of Russia, Ukraine, the war, what’s going on right now as the U.S. has finally secured and signed that critical mineral deal. And maybe we’ll give a little refresher for those who want to know why this mineral deal is important and what it could mean for the future. That’s right.
SPEAKER 05 :
So this deal would give the United States rights to mine and to get minerals from the soil, the ground in Ukraine, things anywhere from aluminum to even if there’s some of these rare earth minerals that are needed for batteries or even oil, things of that nature that can be mined in Ukraine. And this is something that It seemed like was going to happen months ago. And then there was that wonderful meeting in the Oval Office where Zielinski was there and J.D. Vance was a little bit, you’re not being respectful and thankful enough in here. And also, why are you wearing a T-shirt kind of moment?
SPEAKER 03 :
I thought you were talking to me.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, you know, today you put on a jacket, so more respectful. But that was that meeting where they were supposed to sign this deal. That was the entire reason he flew to Washington. And then it kind of all imploded. But Professor Hutchison, now we learned that it has officially been signed. And there’s kind of two angles to this to be curious about. One, what could this deal potentially do for the United States economically, having this deal where we have rights to go and to actually mine and get – things that are worth money out of the ground in Ukraine, but also the angle of what does it mean now that the U.S. has stake in Ukraine to some degree when it comes to this war with Russia?
SPEAKER 04 :
Very good question. So importantly, we should note that the minerals that are included in the deal include graphite, lithium, uranium, and 17 minerals called rare earth minerals. So that’s important for the U.S. future, particularly in high tech. Number two, the deal gives America a stake in a Russian-Ukrainian peace deal which may still be on the table. So going forward, the United States will have some interest in ensuring that Russia keeps its end of the bargain, assuming a peace deal can be reached. Why? Because we would have an economic stake in the future of Ukraine. Now, it’s also important to keep in mind what is not in the deal. So what’s not in the deal are U.S. security guarantees. Now, this doesn’t prevent the Europeans from providing security guarantees down the road. but it does ensure hopefully that the United States will not be drawn into a future conflict with Russia. Why is that important? Because even the Biden administration admitted that there was a 50% chance of a nuclear exchange with Russia given the conflict in Ukraine. So I think virtually everyone in the world should be pleased with the possibilities associated with this deal. And I think that means that peace through strength may actually produce some results.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and Professor Hutchison, to that point as well. One, yes, that was that famous report that during the Biden administration, when they were even discussing this issue with Russia and Ukraine, that there was as high as a 50% chance that some sort of nuclear exchange would take place. And they still went all in, continuing to make moves that were antagonistic towards Russia. That was… Something that they were worth risking. But when you look at this here, I think people that are very pro-Ukraine should be happy about this, even if it’s not what they want. You know, Ukraine and NATO and maybe U.S. boots on the ground, which we do not want that situation to play out. But they should be pleased because the United States having some sort of skin in the game, some sort of stake here, makes them have more reason to reach a deal, a peace deal with Russia. And I think that what’s the point in having an economic development deal with Ukraine if you are assuming or going to let Russia just take over the country in the next six months to a year in the first place? It would be a continual war. Or just be at a war perpetually forever. This would start becoming worthless. Right. So there should be one for people on the right, to some degree, that are against any sort of more entanglement with Ukraine. There is a positive that for the United States, there could be economic benefit. But on the same side, for those that are wanting more action on Ukraine, there could be light at the end of the tunnel where… All these negotiations with Russia could bring an end to this war, especially now that the United States has a reason to.
SPEAKER 04 :
I think that’s very, very important. But it’s also equally important that I believe Ukraine is now much more realistic about the prospects of literally defeating Russia. So… Concurrent with this particular deal, evidence is emerging that Ukraine is willing to engage in de facto concessions with respect to the land that Russia already controls in Ukraine. So that sets a foundation for long-term peace, even though Ukraine will not necessarily admit de jure, that Russia will continue to control the land in the Donetsk and other areas of Ukraine that it currently retains. Keep in mind that Russia took over Crimea in 2014. That’s been part of Russia, whether you… claim it’s legal or illegal for at least a decade, it’s not likely to return to Ukraine. Russia has also pushed the Ukrainians out of the Kursk region in Russia. So there does seem to be some recognition by the Ukrainians that they are not likely to prevail on the battlefield. So I think realism is a good thing for America. It’s a good thing for the future. And it reduces the likelihood of some larger war in Europe.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, there’s obviously been the continual concern that this war was going to escalate and escalate to where America had boots on the ground or even were getting directly involved. And of course, other nations getting involved as well. And this being just sort of the spark that lights the big fire. Hopefully, as President Trump wanted and talked about many times, this does bring a conclusion to that war or at least some form of conclusion. You know, I feel like no wars ever really end anymore. There’s not a specific ending. And if they are, they end like the way Afghanistan ended, which was some disastrous pullout that never works out. So the war may not end in the traditional sense of going, okay, war over, but at least the scale can be brought down to a point where people can travel again. They can, like you said, can work with even with Russia and with Ukraine to get businesses back going, to get the dollars back flowing and to help people who have been hurt by all of this.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and I don’t think to that point that it’s ever going to be a great relationship between Ukraine and Russia, maybe in our lifetime with the current leadership of either of them. So the war in that sense, there will always be the tensions between them. But I think it also shows that for many people, this is what… They voted for with a president like President Trump when it is a very different angle to it’s either hands off, no interventionalism or full on boots on the ground. That’s kind of seems to be the two tracks in the minds of many Washington types. Then you find something unique, a little bit novel. a mineral economic deal with the country that is being attacked and then putting pressure on the attacker, there could be a different way forward with this type of war when you have a non-traditional president doing things a little non-traditionally.
SPEAKER 03 :
Absolutely. We have just a couple minutes left in this segment. In the next segment, Will’s going to take as many calls as we possibly can. So you want to stay tuned for that. If you have a question or comment related to Ukraine and Russia and the minerals deal, You can give us a call as well. We’ll try to get that answered at 1-800-684-3110. Tension will always be, as Will said, in those nations. We’ve got to pray for those nations as well. It’s a small world. We need to make sure that we are praying for our brothers and sisters all over the planet. And, of course, the ACLJ is involved in a lot of those ways through our European Center, through our office in Jerusalem, and so many more. You know, I came on here. six seven years ago during the abraham accords when they were getting signed and i remember uh being very emotional and talking about this because will brings up the tension that was between these countries now uh there are pathways with the right leadership there are pathways with the right leadership to bringing peace even temporarily So pray for them as it is the National Day of Prayer. It is also a day of thanks for me, because I want to tell you, thank you so much for all your support during our life in Liberty Drive. Know how important it is to us that you support the work of the ACLJ during those critical months where my donations were doubled. It really meant the world to us. And now we are able to set our budgets and soldier on, able to continue all the incredible work we’re doing here. And whether that’s for us, whether that’s for your clients, whether that’s when you need us, we want to be there for you. So I encourage you, easy way to help, hit that subscribe button if you’re watching. If you’re brand new to this broadcast, great way to support the work and to stay updated with the truth. Just hit that subscribe. We’ll be right back with your calls and comments coming up.
SPEAKER 05 :
Welcome back to Sekulow. Final segment today, and I’ll be taking your phone calls. But I did want to give you a quick update on a story that we talked about earlier in the week. And that was about that Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan, who has been charged by the Department of Justice with two crimes that could lead to significant jail time for… helping an illegal migrant that was scheduled to appear before her on criminal charges, evade arrest by ice. They were able to catch him, but she led agents on a wild goose chase by sending them down the hall to speak to the chief judge and then scurried back and made sure that there were no other agents. She missed one who was in plain clothes and then escorted this man who had been deported back in 2013 to, and then re-entered the country illegally, and then was before her court for violent crimes, escorted him through the chambers, through the jury chamber to try and evade arrest from a warrant that immigration and customs enforcement, as well as other members of federal law enforcement were there to make his arrest. and she’s now facing criminal action federal charges well the wisconsin supreme court has now indefinitely suspended judge dugan who is accused of helping this man evade authorities federal authorities and they say that is in the public interest So that the integrity of the court is maintained in this order. It’s very brief order. And I’ll read some of it to you. It says this court is charged in the Wisconsin Constitution with exercising superintending and administrative authority over the courts of this state. In the exercise of that constitutional authority and in order to uphold the public’s confidence in the courts of this state during the pendency of the criminal proceedings against Judge Dugan, we conclude on our own motion that it is in the public interest that she be temporarily relieved of her official duties. It is ordered and that she is temporarily prohibited from exercising the powers of a circuit judge. Court judge in the state of Wisconsin effective the date of this order and until further order of this court. So I think that’s very important from the Supreme Court of Wisconsin to give that public confidence a boost. When you have a judge that’s acting on her own volition to try and subvert the laws of this nation and subvert law enforcement of the federal government, taking it on her own to be the judge and jury in a court that isn’t before her in the matter of immigration law of the United States of America. I think it’s very important that courts act like that. It’s very similar to the New Mexico court. that banned for life the judge in New Mexico who had a member of Tren de Aragua living in his guest house. So I think it is very important, much like the case that we are fighting at the Supreme Court where we are filing a brief. We filed it this week representing West Virginia, trying to really get a handle on these nationwide injunctions by the district court judges, all of this plays into the United States being a country of law and order, and that we can trust these institutions. Whether it be we trust the district courts not to be making policy on behalf of whatever they want, nationwide policy that’s not their job, or whether it be these state court judges that are taking the law in their own hands instead of doing their elected job in those cases. So we’re going to bring you more on that as it unfolds. I believe that she has a court date in May. In just two weeks, her initial hearing will be May 15th. where she will appear for arraignment, this judge in Wisconsin. I’m sure we’ll get to it then. But I want to give you that update. But now we’re going to go to the phones. And first, let’s go to Susan calling from Kentucky on Line 6. Susan, you’re on Seculo.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you. I’m calling you regarding Mike Waltz. And I’m thinking that maybe the action that was done today towards him, I’m wondering if maybe that had something to do with the second occurrence with the signal chat. I heard that there was another event. Problem with it that information got out again to those that shouldn’t have received it.
SPEAKER 05 :
What what what you’re referencing there is that the media then tried to jump on that. There was other chats that the secretary of defense had that were on signal. And that they were trying to say were improper uses of information. It wasn’t the same as the original where it was a bunch of people within the cabinet that were discussing this and someone was inadvertently added. Someone clearly leaked this to the media. That’s why people were… let go from the Department of Defense but it wasn’t really a second signal gate where there were people that were added that got information outside the government but signal is used within the government now that may be changing now but many of these devices they were given were pre-loaded with it they were instructed how to use it when they took these jobs so that was more the pile on that you saw following it and that’s where the media was trying to go after Pete Hegseth he became the target instead of mike waltz and i do believe that that could be part of the reason why mike waltz is leaving now is just trying to make this go away now logan also brought up it may inflame it more because then the left in the media you know they took someone down now their next target they’ll double down on pete hegseth but hopefully this kind of puts all that to rest Let’s go ahead and take another call. Let’s go to Rowena on line four from Florida. Rowena, you’re on Seculo.
SPEAKER 01 :
Hi. Can you hear me?
SPEAKER 05 :
I hear you loud and clear. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 01 :
Hi. Before anyone else gets booted out, I just wanted everyone to just take a pause and review the contact list because if it was preloaded, I’m wondering if there are other people who are on the list that may be inadvertently added in the future. Where I worked, we had three Amy’s and I inadvertently added the wrong Amy. And so I wanted everyone to just take a pause in the White House administration and review who’s not supposed to be there.
SPEAKER 05 :
Rowena, I think that’s great advice for anyone. I mean, how many times has anyone put the wrong mat on? or the wrong Tim on an email. But normally we’re not discussing national security issues when that happens. Now, it is a little different because the timeline of when Jeffrey Goldberg was added, connected to on signal. Now, The contact list may not be preloaded, just the app itself. So we don’t have necessarily all those details. But what we do know is that when you’re dealing with things like national security, make sure you don’t add a journalist from The Atlantic to that chat. I think that is advice we can all live by. We now know, based off reports, that Mike Waltz is out as National Security Advisor. We will see who President Trump picks. I’m sorry, Scott, I didn’t get you today, but he said he would like to see Mike Flynn take the place of Mike Waltz. And so I’ve seen that echoed in YouTube and Rumble Chat as well. But sorry, I didn’t get you today. But that’ll do it for the broadcast today. Thank you so much for watching this analysis. We will see how quickly… After it is officially announced that he has resigned or has left his post and his deputy, that President Trump replaces him. And we will be here on Sekulow to tell you all about that as well and many other things. All the work we do here at the ACLJ and fighting for your constitutional freedoms. But once again, I also want to thank you for those of you that participated in our Life and Liberty Drive for March and April. We couldn’t do all the great legal work and bring you this broadcast without your support. Thank you.
