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This episode of Seculo tackles the repercussions of political violence in America, focusing on the tragic assassination of Charlie Kirk. We shed light on the ongoing investigation, the DNA evidence linking the suspect to the crime, and the powerful response from his widow, Erica Kirk. We also analyze how this incident affects the freedom of speech debate, especially in light of increasing attempts to stifle voices on public platforms. Together, we examine how these events are galvanizing a new wave of support for the principles Charlie Kirk stood for.
SPEAKER 06 :
We’ve got an update. The FBI reveals a DNA confirmation on the Charlie Kirk assassination.
SPEAKER 04 :
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 06 :
and now your host logan seculo welcome to seculo uh give us a call at 1-800-684-3110 it’s monday we are back to work obviously we’re going to keep you updated on any new developments still coming out of the uh charlie kirk assassination but we’re also going to tell you some updates on some aclj cases and move on as well of course this weekend we also saw tributes pouring in from everyone from from coldplay and metallica to uh mostly nfl games i was at an nfl game they did a A tribute to Charlie Kirk. The level of what we saw at the Tennessee Titans, which was an image, a moment of silence. Everyone took it very seriously.
SPEAKER 05 :
Huge eruption.
SPEAKER 06 :
The Jets put together an entire video montage. The Yankees kind of kicked this off, really. The Yankees kind of gave permission, is how it felt, to do this. And I’m very proud of America in many ways for doing that. And then we had a lot of prayer vigils that happened. including Christian celebrities and Christian artists, a lot of other people coming out to do this. That all happened over the weekend, including that incredibly powerful speech which I think set the tone from Eric Kirk, Charlie Kirk’s widow. And that was really one of those kind of, again, you want to say turning point, turning point moments where you kind of accepted the reality of what was happening around you and you felt there was someone strong on the other side.
SPEAKER 05 :
I watched the speech twice, live and then when Sean played it again in his show. And I will tell you, I watched it with my wife and… To see her poise, her strength, that was encouraging for me. I will tell you of this weekend, that was my worst night of sleep is because I kept thinking about her reality after stepping aside in that empty chair. And then I kind of said, you know what? She’s got this team around her. She’s posted the photos. She’s got her head on her shoulders. Of course, we’ll need a time to grieve. Right now, she’s kind of going 24-7. But what I think has been awesome is that there’s been this just outpouring of support from regular people. I think what we call them is always, it’s not like us. who would obviously do that anyways because we’re already involved, but just people who might look like X but don’t comment a lot, showing up at vigils, going to church, and then people totally outside Charlie Kirk’s political spectrum or ours, like a Metallica, pledging financial support, like a Chris Martin,
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, that one was, again, Chris Martin, who’s come under heat with some of his Israel statements over the last, I think he knows that too. And he came out and he made a wonderful statement from London, which had, by the way, a giant, you know, what you would call, I guess, a protest to help save their country, sort of their version of a MAGA event, kind of what would happen throughout the streets. And then later that evening, as Jordan said, Coldplay performed to Wembley and they did a whole moment where he said, hey, we’re going to send out love to everyone. Yeah, that was just like something on a screen for two seconds. And he said, let’s send out love to anyone who needs it, whether you agree with them or disagree with them. And he immediately went to Charlie Kirk’s family and then moved on to Ukraine Russians, Middle Easterners that are wanting peace. So kind of went through everyone who you would consider, some people would consider a good and bad guy, I guess you would.
SPEAKER 05 :
You can say send love to who you want to send love to, but he made sure to mention Charlie Kirk’s family.
SPEAKER 06 :
So you got to give him credit where credit deserves. And I think that those are some- Paul McCartney also did it. Yeah, a bunch of people put out statements and then- At their concerts. There’s a lot of- I think a lot of people grew up with political violence and they see what it’s like. And if you grew up maybe even a little bit earlier than us, specifically in the UK and in Ireland and everything that was happening in Northern Ireland as well, they went through it a little bit differently than we did. So I think there is that as well. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684. They made a statement before. I’ll address that. 1-800-684-3110. I do want you to call in because there is the update. You may be tuning in because you saw the headline. And that is that there is DNA evidence now that is connected. I mean, everyone assumes the shooter who has admitted to it with things found on the scene, including the towel and weapons. We’re going to talk about that coming up. All the details from those updates. And again, phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. And we’re also going to continue to update you on the ACLJ and our movements here. Look, some of this we’ve got to start. Start the process of moving on, moving to the next step here. And what does that look like for a future here in this movement? We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Seculo. We are going to take your phone calls. We have five lines open. And look, I know a lot of you had a lot to think about this weekend. And I saw a lot of people putting in comments of what you were up to. Some people tried to get back to their normal lives. Some people had plans. And what does that look like in this world? And we’ve all kind of had to process this differently. And I think, like Jordan said, having statements like what came out from Erica Kirk, it helped that. It helped you process. You see the imagery. Helped you process the reality of it. Oddly enough, I went to see Hamilton and there was sort of this weird moment of watching that and going, we’re only 250 years removed from that and really nothing has changed. Every 25 years or so, we’re kind of reminded of this. yeah i feel like there’s a a and now modern day things have changed but a lot of things have not changed there’s still people being shot and killed for their beliefs and their for freedom and for freedom of speech this is what’s happening in this country and it’s historically what’s happened in this country we have just lived in a little bit of a bubble because we have moved on to this more civilized world you go back to our founding fathers they’ve always had this balance of of uh
SPEAKER 05 :
freedom and liberty versus security and you have to balance that and to to have as much the more freedom and liberty you have the less security uh you have and what what i mean by security is that is uh you know the state and most americans embrace that and say i’d rather live with more freedom and liberty than more you know government censorship and state And that’s very American to think that way.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, because that’s what’s happening in the UK. I think that is actually the opposite of that, which they’ve said, hey, we’re going to provide you with ultimate security. No weapons, you know, on the streets, nothing like that. However, we’re also going to police everything you say.
SPEAKER 05 :
Everything. Words become the weapons. Right. And then you see the protests on the street. Yeah, you have to, of course, correct again. And listen, we were both there recently. These protests needed to happen because the UK was going in a direction, not like in a US way, but it was going in a direction that might not be one you could turn around very quickly if just ordinary folks didn’t get involved.
SPEAKER 06 :
I think we’re seeing a massive course correction in the UK. Including, by the way, from people, they’ve gone after them a little bit and said, I’ve seen people who were there. I met with those people. I hung out with them who were immigrants or second generation immigrants who came. And they are very proud Brits. They are very proud English.
SPEAKER 05 :
It’s like new immigrants. of the U.S.
SPEAKER 06 :
So it’s not what they feel. They are actually on this other side. They were asking about, you know, do you want, how do you guys work with Rumble?
SPEAKER 05 :
Get away from those countries.
SPEAKER 06 :
Right. So there is still that big group and I think there is a, honestly, like a lot of the stuff with Charlie Kirk, there is a painted with a broad brush this, you know, whether it feels white supremacist or racist in general and you start meeting these people. I mean, the people I met with the most about these kind of situations they end up with were guys who were, you know, East West Indian uh families that had that moved there their parents had moved there there’s some white guys from eaglet no and uh but they could not be more um brits they could not be more in that but they all watch it to be like embracing it 100 and i think that you’re going to see that a lot going on there and i think that is very important
SPEAKER 05 :
And that’s why here in America we want to embrace free speech. What we’re seeing at the ACLJ a lot right now, just for the work update, a lot of freedom of speech cases coming through. And that’s because people are now kind of worried about speech becoming something that leads to violence. So we’re seeing it at workplaces, government offices, schools, universities, kind of all the different aspects of places you can imagine, public sidewalks. And again, I think that we are going to see at the ACLJ, and this is very important why we exist, is this new war potentially on freedom of speech. Because how many campuses are going to be willing to bring back speakers like this? Now, I think it’s awesome that Turning Point has got these huge numbers coming in of people that want to create speakers.
SPEAKER 06 :
campus event I was talking to someone who this is what they do they do I guess you say smaller but not even that much smaller version of what Charlie did on campuses there’s more Christian more faith-based right like exclusively I’d say and they are curious about whether the schools are going to proceed with the programming yes I know that there are also politicians understandably again are rethinking
SPEAKER 05 :
events they’re attending not being in the public they’re always going to be in the public but you know I mean like the ones that aren’t necessarily under their control so here’s what I think is so important for ACLJ for those who care about freedom of speech we have to defend it at every moment even in those toughest moments and you know Erica Kirk was speaking to that we’ll play some of that later is that we can’t recoil when we when when this is kind of the moment they would say in season say see this is why we need the censorship this is why we we need social media censorship and I get some of the comments from the governor there say get off social media for a couple days for you know for a couple days but we need robust freedom of speech in the United States of America because that is what inspires these movements around the world who say you know what you can have a great country doesn’t mean it’s perfect doesn’t mean there will not be violence doesn’t mean we can protect everyone and everything because we have such greater liberty and And so I think, again, at the ACLJ, what you’re going to see, and I’m already seeing it, this is just in days, an influx of freedom of speech cases.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yep, absolutely. Will, I wanted to give an update as well, though, because obviously the headline a lot of people are reading if you’re watching on YouTube or whatever it may be. It was about the DNA evidence. And you brought up the fact that, yes, though this person did turn themselves in, they now are no longer cooperative, have no longer or have not admitted anything.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right. So the suspect, the assassin, has not given a confession to the authorities, is not cooperating with authorities while at the jail in Utah, as well as we are getting transparent updates from the director of the FBI and the deputy director of the FBI. And I think this is very important. Because also what you’ve seen over the weekend is just a massive amounts of what would be called disinformation or conspiracy theories that are going on around there. And unfortunately, I think our country is predisposed to that because of political assassinations in the past. But now what you’re seeing is already groups trying to say that this narrative isn’t what it is. This isn’t the person. But Kash Patel this morning, said that they have already confirmed DNA evidence on the towel the firearm was wrapped in with the perpetrator. So there is a link there. They also found a screwdriver that was left behind on top of the building that also contained his DNA evidence. And then we’re also seeing that their investigation from the federal government side is obviously not over when it comes to the alleged assassin himself, but also… whether or not there are any other ties, people that had foreknowledge or helped plan something because of, we’ve heard about that Discord server where there was about 20 people that they were in chats together and that there was some statements in that directly that made it seem like these other people were aware that he had at least threatened to do this now they are looking into whether they uh he actually was had co-conspirators or something as well as others online that had posted things in advance and then uh had follow-ups to their posts that said like that’s what i was talking about i wanted to get your point of view on this because i think it’s gonna like you’re gonna
SPEAKER 06 :
Sorry about the internet. You’re going to open up a big, big question of whether you can be a co-conspirator by someone who’s just on a Discord message board, essentially, for those who don’t know what that is, a kind of privatized message board.
SPEAKER 05 :
Do you have a duty to call the police?
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, because that is… Honestly, it will be…
SPEAKER 05 :
This is horrible to say. So on Discord, here’s one issue. Do you know who the person is at all? It depends. You can or you may not. That I’d say is one. If you have no personal relationship with them, people post so many crazy things. There’s so many threats going around. Now, if you’re active on that and in communication with them, I think that could change things. So what we know is that there are seven different accounts that appeared to indicate foreknowledge of the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Now, those all could be from the same person. I mean, that’s the thing. We don’t know any, you know, you can create seven accounts. That could be, you know, some that kind of reference it, but aren’t as direct. But what we’re hearing is that there’s seven accounts. One actually referenced the date. And that happened more than a month before it took place. Now, a lot of these have been deleted, but the FBI’s got them. Nothing ever really gets deleted from the internet. There’s always the time back. What is it called? The time back machine? The way back machine. Things like that.
SPEAKER 06 :
Everything’s archived.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes. So what I think, I mean, there were people who wrote things like, it would be funny if someone, I don’t even want to read it, something like that happened to him on September 10th. So- There was a lot of talk about this event in one of these chats. the FBI is going to go through every one of those individuals and they’re going to figure out which ones were just bloviating, which ones may have had communications with the individual shooter and any kind of personal relationship. Because as you said, Logan, I think as, and I think this is for free speech advocates also, and for many of you who use platforms, is it every time you see something that you think is a little bit over the top, do you have a legal duty to report it? As of now, no. If you have a personal relationship with someone that you know is about to potentially engage in active crime, your level of duty goes up.
SPEAKER 06 :
And it becomes very hard because how many of your social media friends were celebrating this? How many people have you unfriended the last week? I would go on the record and say dozens at this point. People who have said something that I at least felt was enough to go, I don’t need to know you.
SPEAKER 05 :
I just haven’t befriended them because I kind of want to see the evolution of the comments.
SPEAKER 06 :
And there’s some people that have gone far enough to where I said, I think this is the end part for us. But there are people that are saying stuff that goes, well, you’re one step away. You’re one step away. You’re accepting this as a… as a positive so then are you not then also kind of becoming complicit in these acts more of these we won’t have guns and then that door opens up so all right we’ll be right back we’re gonna take your calls give us a call 1-800-684-3110 Welcome back to Secular. As we said, we will be taking your calls. We did want to talk some about ACLJ work as, of course, we are still in remembrance of Charlie Kirk, who today’s broadcast was hosted by J.D. Vance, Vice President of the United States. Again, a very unprecedented moment to have the Vice President of the United States take over and sit in for, obviously, the fallen. uh charlie kirk a pretty outstanding moment if you will uh and he has really stepped up jordan that’s something we’ve talked about is that if you were curious if jd vance was going to be uh the next person in line of course that was obviously all talked about as vice president you never know what could happen but we are only a year and a half from that really becoming a real conversation uh he has stepped up in a
SPEAKER 05 :
Oh, I thought, first of all, his wife with Erica Kirk using Air Force Two to transport the body. The fact that the vice president was holding the casket, I expect he will play a role in the funeral. Probably, I’m guessing there’s probably two funerals here. One, this large celebration of life on the 21st and one that will be more Personal, but I think personal with people like the Vice President of the United States if their calendars allow it. But you know what was awesome about what J.D. Vance did is that I don’t know what his calendar was like that day, and he just said, clear it. I need my wife out here. I need my family out here. I need to comfort. This is someone who really actually was a big part of J.D. Vance won in Ohio. Mm-hmm. but also a big part of J.D. Vance being on the Vice President of the United States.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, they said also, you know, RFK spoke at the Kennedy Center last night and said the only person, the person that brokered my, you’d say, relationship with Donald Trump was Charlie Kirk.
SPEAKER 05 :
I will tell you from friends I know in the corporate world, Charlie was a player more so than just in politics because of his unbelievable reach to young people who, as we all know, are the key demographic to every single corporate interest in America. The key demo. They would a lot of times put aside his politics to use his genius at marketing towards… that, that demo, which he was just now aging out of. Uh, but, but really he grew up. And I mean, when you look at, when I remember that Charlie Kirk as the teenager with the other shaggy hair and coming through and you look at the, the Charlie Kirk that came about really during, I’d say when, uh, president Trump ran for the third time, the professionalism of turning point, turning that into, you know, a student group to basically the second most effective, um, political republican they might want legal reasons conservative group in the country they they were you know they had the faith aspect we had worked with them before on some of these Facebook issues before and Twitter issues before social media issues before Musk and really before also we saw with Facebook a big change on on speech I think that I think more so than you know is because of people like Charlie Kirk who had these massive followings of social media and social media companies wanted to figure out how to work with them. And I think this weekend people went back, they tried to find all this horrible rhetoric and it wasn’t there.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, I think that for a lot of people, things were taken out of context. A lot of it was very early on. And like I said, I was very much, as someone who agreed with him on a lot, disagreed with him on some. I said, you know, I really looked forward to 10 years from now. I looked forward to when he was a parent of a teenager, what that looked like, because I think you’d see a different tone, just like you saw a different tone the last 24 months. Now, social media-wise, I am curious this. This kind of puts a lot of people’s perspective in place, as it should. Do you think this could change your Elon Musk and your Donald Trump relationship, those kind of things. I did kind of look at that and think, you know, this could be a moment where they go, you know what? We got to stop this, you know, infighting because look what’s happening. I would hope, I would hope as a human being that this could lead to something more like that because that missing piece of this, I don’t think we know how big that Elon piece really was.
SPEAKER 05 :
I think there’s three big things that are going to happen. One, I think almost a revival of faith. For sure. And I think that was newer to Charlie. And when I say newer, I don’t mean like just the last three months, but he’s had a long career for a young guy.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, Mark Driscoll posted that he had been in communication with him because he said, look, I didn’t plan on being in this position. Right, a faith. And I need someone to help me. Right. And so he had people around him giving him theological advice because he didn’t expect that to be… what people were asking them.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right. And then those issues all became kind of intertwined between faith, morality, good and wrong. And so I think that alone is huge. When you can bring more people to the faith of Christ, I mean, there’s nothing bigger than that. Second, I think Erica was right I think that there were a lot of people woken up who said you know what let the activists be the ones and now 32,000 people said you know what I want one of these on my campus I mean I think that went from the number was something like 920 active groups 32,000 people have called it about setting up a university or high school group I mean that that is again if you look back in history at political assassinations Those who were assassinated’s message did not damper. It actually grew beyond measures that you could have even imagined when they were alive. And you look at Martin Luther King, you look at these kind of major movements throughout. I look at, for instance, even JFK, who was trying to reel in the deep state. I mean, he would have been one of us. The original. Yes. He was reeling in the CIA, reeling in Vietnam, you know, reeling in the military. And his message has lived long. I mean, you know, through decades. Malcolm X, these kind of leaders, it actually accelerated everything. goals that they had that they thought were decades off. Yeah, it made them immortalized. Immortalized, but also the goals, the ideas that they had were almost immediately recognized. I mean, LBJ comes in and you get the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act. It doesn’t mean things are perfect. And I think when it comes to Charlie, he wanted dialogue, of honest dialogue with kids he knew were being indoctrinated at mostly… crazy liberal universities and since the beginning of time i will tell you when you go to those kind of universities which i did you always are going to have those professors that are teaching you stuff that you’re like what is this even about and you know to get the grade like many people say You agree, you go along with it. And, you know, thankfully I went to a school like GW, which was more kind of teaching you about getting involved in politics and less about policy. But I will tell you what even is happening in high schools across the country. These kids needed a place to go ask questions because they were confused. You had your teachers telling you this, you had your pastor telling you this, your parents, you probably were afraid to talk to your parents about some of this stuff. And it was inundating you to the point where if you felt like you disagreed, you were either by yourself or you were going to get a bad grade in the class or somehow be ostracized or canceled. And so I think, again, There’s major moments through this, but I think what we see is this interest in faith again is amazing. I think the interest in free speech and then the idea that this movement of speaking truth is not going anywhere. And we know that at the ACLJ because we’ve been fighting that for 35 years.
SPEAKER 06 :
We’re going to keep talking about that. We’re going to also give you an update on ACLJ. I know we’re getting a little backed up with this conversation, but how could we not? Phone lines are open, by the way. I really would love to hear from you. Thousands of you are watching right now. Give me a call. 1-800-684-3110. That’s 1-800-684-3110. As we head to the second half hour, look, if you’re looking for a place and you want to know how you can help, ACLJ.org is a great place to go. A lot of great content there, and obviously you can make a donation and support because we are not paid for by major sponsors, by corporate overlords, by anybody. We are fully independent media. We are fully independent legal work, all because of you at ACLJ.org. Do it today. We’ll be right back. Second half hour coming right up in less than a minute.
SPEAKER 04 :
keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 06 :
Welcome to Sekulow. Second half hour coming up. If you’re just tuning in, of course, we were talking about a few big topics today. Some ACLJ work, but also that there has been DNA evidence linking the presumed shooter to things found, evidence found in the area, DNA evidence. So, of course, I think, Will, you brought this up. This is like a towel that the gun was wrapped in, and it seems to match. Because, though we may have jumped to the assumption that
SPEAKER 03 :
the person turned himself in therefore is the shooter he is not cooperating and is not claiming any kind of admission of guilt that’s right according to the governor of utah he is not given a confession to the police as well as not cooperating now that he is in custody and so yes there was kind of that assumption maybe that if you’re turning yourself in that is some sort of admission yeah but he’s not necessarily gone on record with anything of that nature. So you can also deduce from that of turning yourself in, of I am the person in this video or something to that nature. But the FBI director did say that there was DNA evidence found on a towel that the firearm was wrapped in, as well as a screwdriver that was found on the roof, from the perch where the attack was said to take place. So they are still investigating that. They are building their case as the state will take this to trial against this individual. We should see Some sort of preliminary hearing, I believe tomorrow, it may be the latest where the individual appears before the judge to face the charges. The charging document will have been submitted at that point and will enter in a plea of some sort at that time. So that is progressing. We know that the federal government’s also looking at some potential charges as well as not only those social media posts that we saw of people that they’re looking at, but also any individuals that he may have been having private conversations with and whether or not those were things of the nature of I’m going to do something. Or if it was more of a coordinated, what if you did something kind of relationship when it comes to these conversations.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes, I think the federal… I saw a talk from the Department of Justice, too, and that they are going to be looking at… Again, they’re not trying to suppress speech and difficult speech and tough speech, but are there efforts online that are public, that are easy to access, fortunately, that are… encouraging violence against specific individuals uh on specific dates and that if they are that’s a new place that they need to be focusing on and not just taking that as you know people spouting off uh tough talk on social media most of the time it is that but the one percent of the time it isn’t you end up with an event like this. And so, yes, I think liability, all these kind of things, we do have to discuss. Social media is not what it was two years ago. It’s not what it was six months ago. And for me, I mean, this is just someone who’s been in this world for such a long time and seen so many of these young people rise up. And he was probably the one I was watching as closely because I could see him actually entering the political world, not just being in the activist world. And you see this and you say, We have to be willing and able to be able to go and talk to people. That’s what politics is about. Podcasts are great. Shows like this are great because we can do it. People can call in. But there is still something, if you’re really going to be in the political world, about shaking their hands, seeing the person in person. That’s very American. Anywhere there’s really an actual democratic republic or democracy at work. And we have to feel safe at those events to an extent. They all have security. We saw what happened with President Trump. President Trump continued to do large events. I just think that we got a little, I think, Logan, what people saw was they got a little bit of behind the scenes of what it’s like to be some of these individuals. And you realize I heard Ben Shapiro talking and saying, you know, he’s had 24-7 security for 10 years. That’s a, you know, that’s not, it impacts your privacy in your life when 24-7 security means. Expensive. It’s not only as expensive, it means that there’s a real threat on your life and your family’s life because of what you say.
SPEAKER 06 :
When we get back, we’ll continue this discussion. Speaking of what you say, we’re going to also dive in a bit on some of the work the ACLJ is doing right now because it’s a very important time. It’s never been more important to defend free speech and religious liberties. You can be a part of the team at ACLJ.org. We’ll tell you why when we get back. Welcome back to Sekulow. I did want to keep talking about free speech, obviously, in the wake of the Charlie Kirk assassination, but also talk about some of the work that we’re doing here at the ACLJ because that fight continues on. It’s going to continue on. Look, we saw what happened in the UK over the weekend. And as I’ve said before, you can really look. I mean, yes, we kind of… ping pong back and forth between the UK and who is influencing who but remember that Brexit actually happened before President Trump was elected six months or so before that happened and when that moment happened I remember turning to a friend and I said oh This is a this is a game changing moment here, because if the UK is saying this and they are making this big at the time, which you would consider a patriotic kind of moment, whether you agreed with Brexit or not. Of course, when that was when the UK separated itself from the European Union. uh it certainly felt like it led into what became a president trump in the maga movement now you have a big uprising happening in the uk about the same time obviously the charlie kirk situation happens that same week but even before then this was already planned this big giant event which then leads us into another free speech movement happening here in america what does that look like and how the aclj is involved and will we do have uh some updates on some current cases
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right. And as we talk about this as well, when you think about the response from Erica Kirk, who talked about things like my husband’s name and legacy will not die and we will continue moving forward. It is such an important reminder at this point that he was trying to practice the First Amendment. in the real world he was getting out there having civil discourse between people and having that open conversation and that is what we fight to protect every day here at the aclj and a lot of it isn’t things that you even would hear about making headlines but individuals expressing their first amendment rights uh you know whether it’s speaking out against abortion and the horrors there or trying to be a sidewalk counselor or whether be a church and where they’re allowed to meet. That is what we fight for, to protect that sacred First Amendment. And we have a new case. This one’s out of Maine, where the attorney general there in Maine is going after an individual, filed a civil lawsuit, where is trying to basically allege that his activism on a public sidewalk could be potentially heard within a clinic uh and a Planned Parenthood there potentially potentially and therefore violates the civil rights of those individuals within the clinic because of his activism on a public sidewalk and so this is a a statute under Maine Civil Rights Act that could have a civil violation of up to $5,000 penalty and could also expose him to a class E crime there if they decide to take it further but once again we’re seeing that across the country whether it be from state governments local governments like we just had that victory in Chicago where people preaching the gospel were charged and we had to go to court to defend them multiple times that The governments are trying to limit speech. They are trying to find ways to shield people from speech that they may disagree with. And that’s exactly what we’re seeing people react to across the country. is where people are trying to be shielded from opinions and voices they don’t agree with. And so there are people like Charlie Kirk that went out and were practitioners of the First Amendment, of spreading that speech and having robust conversation. At the ACLJ, our mission is to defend that speech, is to defend free speech across the country. And so Jordan, I thought it was a time to highlight this new client that-
SPEAKER 05 :
Again, when you look at all of the ifs here, it penalizes if you’re intentionally making noise that can be heard within a health care building. How do you prove that intentional note when you’re not inside the building? You don’t even know what kind of soundproofing they may have inside some of these quote-unquote abortion, I guess you call them, health care buildings. The second is interfering with the safety and services, not if you’re on the public sidewalk following the rules of that. Penalties of up to $5,000 per incident and criminal prosecution. This, again, these are major attacks on the basics of freedom of speech. We’re talking about on the sidewalk, places that are known to be free speech zones, which… thankfully most of America is when you get it into the public and again I’m not saying that that all kinds of speech is the same there is speech that is not protected and I want to make that clear you can’t say whatever you want and do whatever you want wherever you are and courts are pretty clear about that we’ve figured that out this is a politically targeted attack on a type of speech so for instance this is people you know who again if you’re inside a doctor’s office they don’t care about the 18-wheeler that goes by and that could cause distraction it’s because this speech you might know is someone who is saying what you’re doing is wrong so it’s not anything really about the noise it’s about what the words are, the viewpoint.
SPEAKER 06 :
And that’s the thing, the ACLJ, we’re always there for these clients.
SPEAKER 05 :
There’s no restrictions and then there’s speech restrictions and there’s a difference.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, and the ACLJ is always on top of it because a lot of times, like you said, they’ll use these nuances to go after basic freedom of speech claims, whether it’s for your faith.
SPEAKER 05 :
Think about it. Think about the road noise. Think about things you hear when you’re in an office.
SPEAKER 03 :
You can’t conflate those two or else speech goes away. Well, and even that point there as well, the sidewalk preachers in Chicago. They were no louder than the traffic. As a matter of fact, it would have been almost even harder to hear them unless you were up close to them as you’re walking. And that was what was so they’re like, it’s too loud. It’s a public nuisance when the traffic itself, the noise of a city was louder than the individuals. And yet these are we’re seeing it across the country. We’re seeing it within private companies as well. We’re seeing it. Everywhere. On this phone call this morning, we have a legal update at the beginning of every week that Jordan and I are on, as well as all the attorneys at the ACLJ, to hear about the cases and the work that we’re taking. And we only are able to highlight a fraction of them, really, but what you’re starting to see… Within the context of the debate that’s really going on right now is that these are so many instances of speech trying to be shut down because it’s disfavorable to the viewpoint that the government or the official deems appropriate.
SPEAKER 05 :
also seeing and we’re not ready to talk about this one yet but I think maybe later in the week is that speech it’s going to be well we disagree with your speech so you’ll also not only will lose the speech right but some other fundamental right I mean they’re looking at that too so not only are you going to lose your right to free speech but because the speech you were engaged in you’re also going to lose the right to this or this or that. And I mean, this is not, I am not just like making this up as a possibility or hypothetical. This is what we are actively looking into. As of this morning, when we were on that 10 o’clock call, uh, this morning talking about, and it, it, It shook me for a second. I stopped the call and I said, did you just say that if they’re thinking about saying, well, if it’s speech rights, they’d also take away this other fundamental constitutional right at the same time? And the answer was yes. And that is, again, Logan, that is what we are fighting here. People need to be able to speak to each other. I don’t like the screaming. Sometimes speech is going to get intense. And that’s very American. It doesn’t mean that it ever has to turn violent. But we have to be able to talk to each other. And sometimes that means we’re going to disagree.
SPEAKER 03 :
And what your point to that as well, what the government in that situation. is effectively saying is that the speech in and of itself was violence. And that is what one that many members on the left have been pushing that narrative for a long time, that conservative speech is in and of itself violence. And that was the rationale in courts that they used in this particular jurisdiction that we will discuss later in the week. So just be on the lookout for that, folks, because it is something that was,
SPEAKER 06 :
you could tell i could tell in your voice jordan that it was shocking to hear what this case was and we’ll be getting into that as we head into the last segment i want you to give us a call at 1-800-684-3110 can we play this clip we got two minutes here i think we can right let’s play a clip uh this is from erica kirk i think it’s a good way to take us to break if you feel inspired give us a call at 1-800-684-3110 the evildoers responsible for my husband’s assassination
SPEAKER 02 :
have no idea what they have done. They killed Charlie because he preached a message of patriotism, faith, and of God’s merciful love. But they should all know this. If you thought that my husband’s mission was powerful before, you have no idea You have no idea what you just have unleashed across this entire country and this world. You have no idea. You have no idea the fire that you have ignited within this wife. The cries of this widow will echo around the world like a battle cry.
SPEAKER 06 :
Phone lines, again, are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. This is the time to get on the air. We take all the calls we can over the next segment. And, of course, we are discussing still the updates here going on in the Charlie Kirk investigation as well as the work of the ACLJ, which continues on. At this point, we have to also look at the cases that we’re working on and how free speech and how this will hopefully motivate the next group of people who are willing to stand up for their faith and stand up for the freedoms they believe in. And with that, I encourage you to call in Go 1-800-684-3110 or go to aclj.org. Get your comments in as well. Be right back. Welcome back to Seculo. This will be our last segment of the day. So if you want to call in, great time to do it. We do have a bunch of lines open. I know in these situations, you’re not sure what you can say or what you can add to the conversation, but know that just calling into your thoughts and your comments really does help spread the word. It helps tell people they’re not alone here and feeling a lot of these feelings. There’s thousands of you that are watching right now, and we know that a lot of you are going to be tuning in later on as well. So I want to encourage you to stay up to date with what we’re doing here at the ACLJ. You know, when over… Half a million people are just subscribed to our YouTube channel alone. It really is a big moment, so we encourage you to get involved as well.
SPEAKER 05 :
I’d like to ask people, too, and they can put it in the chat, or they can give us a call. You’ve still got time, 1-800-684-3110. Have you heard from younger people, like maybe it’s your kids or your grandkids, about, say, this new interest and maybe I want to join this group or maybe I want to start one of these on my campus. If you have, give us a call or put it in the chat, 1-800-684-3110 because the number was around 920, which was a lot when you look at the amount of colleges in the U.S., But 32,000 people with inquiries, I would imagine some of those are listeners and people who are watching the broadcast right now.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, that’s right, Jordan. As a matter of fact, there were 900 official college chapters and only 1,200 high school chapters. So you’re looking at just over 3,000 chapters at that point. They said they had a presence of 3,500 total. So there may have been some independent things that weren’t official chapters, but they’ve received over 32,000 inquiries in the 48 hours post the assassination. So I assume that number is one larger now. And two, it just shows the impact of, and even I think we should play this bite from Erica Kirk in her speech that shows that it did seem to wake people up. The people that would not have normally been like, I’m not the person to go speak. I’m not the person to speak out, but I really enjoy seeing people like Charlie Kirk. This is what she had to say. Let’s play bite three.
SPEAKER 02 :
To everyone listening tonight across America, the movement my husband built will not die. It won’t. I refuse to let that happen. It will not die. All of us will refuse to let that happen. No one will ever forget my husband’s name and I will make sure of it. It will become stronger. bolder, louder, and greater than ever. My husband’s mission will not end, not even for a moment.
SPEAKER 06 :
Again, that was from Erica Kirk from a statement that was made. It was on Friday, I believe, or Friday night. And no one was really expecting it. It went live, by the way, a live video. It wasn’t something that was prerecorded, live and unedited. And look, I think a lot of us could not have done that, could not have gotten through that incredibly powerful moment. I said it to so many people. My wife, who was not in town this weekend, so I said it to her. So many of us watched it in both tears and in awe that you’re able to be so strong in this moment. It was wild. I’ve never really quite seen anything like it. And you haven’t watched it. I encourage you to go check it out because it is just it’s really hard again to wrap your head around being able to do that and do it successfully.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, and part of Charlie’s mission also was the boldness about not only his ideology, his politics, but as well, his faith. And we had seen that even in years past, but I thought it was so powerful at the very beginning when they went live, she whispered a quiet prayer to start for strength. and for Jesus to be in that room and knowing how impactful, one, the strength she showed to do it live, to put that statement out. I could not fathom personally having that strength to be able to do that, but be willing to whisper that prayer, to put that forward and to show, pointing all the focus still, which we’ve seen, which has been remarkable, is that the faith message that has gotten to so many the gospel that has been shared in light of this is a remarkable thing to see as well. And I think that that can be said that she did so much for the kingdom of God, as well as for the legacy of her husband in how she handled that.
SPEAKER 06 :
Let’s go ahead and take some phone calls. Let’s go to Paul in Virginia, who’s an ACLJ champion. That’s someone that gives on a monthly recurring basis. So Paul, thank you so much for calling in today. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 01 :
Hi, my comment is that in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, he teaches that anger towards someone is akin to murder. He says, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder. But I say to you that everyone who’s angry with his brother will be liable to the judgment. That’s Matthew 5, 21 through 22. So I’m just saying, you know, anyone who celebrates, that’s hate. And Jesus says that’s akin to murder.
SPEAKER 06 :
Here’s what we hope, Paul, is that people who had this sort of knee-jerk reaction to this moment hopefully look back on it with some form of shame and with apology and realize that they had been brainwashed, if you will, to believe that this was some sort of acceptable behavior. And they find Jesus themselves. I think that this is a big moment for that. I saw that in comments as well. But when there are people who said, well, I don’t celebrate that he was murdered, but I also don’t feel any sadness for it. It’s like, well. then you need to check your own humanity. You need to check your own. I mean, who isn’t sad about anyone losing their life? It’s definitely those who had small children. Um, it doesn’t matter who you are or what you’ve done or what you, especially if you just, or someone you disagreed with what they had to say. I mean, look at the end of the day, you could disagree with everything Charlie Kirk had to say. He wasn’t a monster. He wasn’t someone committing some sort of heinous crimes that you look at and go, well, uh, you know, they deserved it cause they did this, this, this, and this, uh, no one’s claiming that, uh, this was a guy who was just known for his words. And if you disagree with his words, that is totally fine. But if you, if you agree that somehow it is justified based on those words, uh, to be shot in cold blood, then you are, um, you’re part of the problem as well. And hopefully, uh, you seek some sort of redemption in your life. And my hope is that they do. My hope is that the shooter does. My hope is that everyone who is involved in this situation, everyone who has been celebrating, uh, we’ll do it as well. I know Jordan mentioned, they said the Emmys didn’t really have any reference to it. I did want to say that. I saw a pre-show clip where they asked one of the hosts, Nate Bargetzi, who’s the host, are you going to mention? He actually said, this is one of the darkest weeks in America, and I think people are going to tune into the show, much like to do to my comedy, to have a break. So we’re going to give people a break. And I don’t know if a lot of people saw that or missed that, but clearly they wanted to answer that question ahead of time. Because I think there would have been a moment of Concern of how the audience would take it in that room when you have Javier Bardem with a red and green keffiyeh and you have, you know, all of these moments and at the end of the day, you did have a show that was largely nonpolitical. I think there was a couple references to the Palestinians. But other than that, there was not much going on. I think people read the room a little bit and said, you know what, we need to go out and just put on a show. And look, there’s some point, as we’ve been talking about, that will have to happen here as well, where we’re going to have to move on. We’re going to have to tell you about what’s going on, not only with the ACLJ, but continue on with other news and other work, because that is the way the world moves forward. And I’m not saying that day is today or that day will be tomorrow. But as we start to come out of this, this horrible moment, we have to find that way to move forward. And that’s probably true for the Kirk family. It’s probably true for Turning Point. It’s going to be true for us here at the ACLJ. We’re all in mourning. We’re all still in shock. But what does that next step look like? Because the work doesn’t stop. Free speech doesn’t go on pause. None of that happens. And of course, none of that happens without you supporting the work of the ACLJ. So I encourage you, go to ACLJ.org. Be a part of the team, not just in donations, but look at the incredible content we provide you. No paywalls. All of it’s shareable. This is the time to share that kind of content with your friends and family. Get them involved. Get them motivated. But also know there are other like-minded people who are there supporting the feelings and emotions and facts that we do as well. Let’s go do it for today’s show. We again appreciate it so much. We’ll be back tomorrow with more. And thank you all for commenting, for calling in, and being a part of the team.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, support the work of the ACLJ. I mean, freedom of speech is front and center right now, and the defense of freedom of speech is going to be front and center. So go to ACLJ.org, check out what we do, learn about what we do, and support us if you can.
