In this riveting episode of Sekulow, we delve into the latest breaking news as Chairman Jim Jordan refers former CIA Director John Brennan to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution. The discussion kicks off with insight into Brennan’s alleged false statements during his testimony before the judiciary committee and the substantial evidence that has come to light. As we go in-depth into the details of Brennan’s transgressions, we explore how the Steele dossier played a pivotal role and what this could mean for the former director’s future. Joining us are key members of our team to provide expert
SPEAKER 09 :
We’ve got breaking news. Chairman Jim Jordan refers John Brennan to the DOJ for criminal prosecution.
SPEAKER 06 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 09 :
Welcome to Sekulow. We’ve got a packed show today. Jordan Sekulow in studio, as well as Will Haynes, who is here with me as well, executive producer here at Sekulow. And later on, we’re joined by Jeff Balaban from ACLJ Jerusalem. We haven’t had a check-in with Jeff for… Quite a little bit of time. He’s in Israel, back in Israel, first time since the ceasefire took place. So we’re going to discuss a lot of that coming up as well as our work in Jerusalem, what it’s looking like in Israel right now. And I’m looking right now as the construction continues on the White House. People are freaking out, Will.
SPEAKER 07 :
Not happy.
SPEAKER 09 :
They’re freaking out over a facade being taken down of a part of the building that needed some love to begin with.
SPEAKER 08 :
Not original either.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, and that’s why… Look, I feel like the most pretentious person ever, because I started commenting on some of my friends, like, look at the destruction. I was like, you haven’t spent a lot of time at the White House. The White House needs some love. We’ve spent some time there. And, you know, there are certain nooks and crannies that need a little dusting. And there’s some areas, and by the way, the idea of having a ballroom, if anyone’s ever attended one of the Christmas parties or anything there, they’re tight, they’re uncomfortable. They’re awkward. They’re honestly, I would put verging on unsafe for the president because of the way you have to sometimes do the photo lines and things like that. Weird turns and corners. It is a odd situation. So they need it. Now, again, I’m not here like defending a ballroom. I don’t really care one way or the other.
SPEAKER 08 :
He’s not going to pay dollars for it either.
SPEAKER 09 :
i didn’t know they were able to raise private funds that’s right yeah big companies have decided this was not the topic of the day it just showed up on tv in a couple segments it just showed up on the tv and i can’t help but notice it but okay well break down what we’re talking about here because i said a lot of words in the tease you know the tease was chairman jim jordan refers john brandon to the doj for criminal prosecution
SPEAKER 07 :
That’s right. So a letter went out from the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Jim Jordan, referring the former CIA director under President Obama, John Brennan, for criminal prosecution. It’s addressed to Attorney General Pam Bondi, and it starts off with about referring significant evidence that former director of central intelligence john brennan knowingly made false statements during his transcribed interview before the committee on the judiciary on may 11th 2023 goes on to say that under 18 usc 1001 a witness commits a crime if he knowingly and willfully makes any materially false statement or representation with respect to any investigation or review conducted pursuant to the authority of any committee of the congress And then goes on to lay out in six pages, very explicitly, the statements in the transcribed interviews. Now, these weren’t before a camera in a committee room. These were transcribed interviews, much more serious type setting. It’s not a time when you see members of Congress grandstanding, trying to use their five minutes to get a sound bite for their campaign. These are when they’re doing real investigative work. And when they are alleging he lied, and it’s not just we think he lied because we disagree. It actually goes on to show, and we’ll lay this all out in the next segment, that there were things even he memorialized within the CIA that has now been declassified and released by people like Tulsi Gabbard and John Ratcliffe that show that he did the opposite and told Congress the other.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, I mean, they were using their intelligence community assessments, and they were using information from the Steele dossier. And while they were testifying about the intelligence community assessment that they signed their name to, they said they had never seen the Steele dossier, even though it is being utilized in the actual document they submitted. who has it said right Russia was as Trump was Russia’s preferred candidate all the stuff out of the dossier so even unlike Comey this is multiple times before Congress in different ways that John Brennan I’m he’d say mislead the best way to say is misleading I think it’s absolute lying because he’s the CIA director he knows everything
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, at least worth looking into. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. We’d love to hear from you about that. Maybe about the remodel. Maybe about the election going on currently in New York. Obviously the mayoral election. It feels like every poll swings a completely different way. But right now it has Mondani still in the lead. Though there’s lots of options if the Republican would drop out. People are calling for it. We’ll talk about that coming up as well. So stay tuned here on Sekulow and support the work of the ACLJ by going to ACLJ.org right now. Welcome back to Secular. We do have some phone lines open for you at 1-800-684-3111. We’ll continue this discussion. Again, Will Haines, Jordan Secular in studio as well. Jeff Balaban from ACLJ Jerusalem joining us later. But Will, I think we need to reset what we’re talking about here because again, the big headline, a lot of people are just tuning in on YouTube. And a lot of you do, by the way, watch on YouTube. There’s over 1,100, 1,200 that watch in the first few seconds that join us. And then it always adds and grows and grows. And then By the end of the day, hundreds of thousands of people have watched the show across all the different platforms. And then, of course, everyone who’s on Terrestrial Radio. But I do have to say a special thank you to our YouTube audience. It’s growing and growing. There’s over 531,000 subscribers on our YouTube channel alone. That’s great. It’s great for alternative media, for independent media. We have no corporate overlords, no one telling us what we can or can’t say. That is always great. And it’s great to have audiences that are building, that are getting to be the size or bigger than even some of the mainstream media platforms. So I want to thank all of you who’ve done it. If you haven’t subscribed, please do it today. It really helps out a lot and costs you nothing. That being said, let’s move on to our topic. Well, of course, we were talking about that the… The best way to describe it, I think we need to sort of break it down, because the headline, again, says a lot, which is Jim Jordan. Jim Jordan is currently, we say Chairman Jim Jordan.
SPEAKER 07 :
We’re referring to him as Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Let’s just break it down. So effectively, any time Congress, in the course of their investigations into various oversight matters, if they come across something that appears criminal, the Congress can’t prosecute someone. They’re the legislative branch. But they can refer the evidence of crimes that they may discover in the process of their constitutionally mandated oversight to the Department of Justice and say, here’s the evidence we found. You can do with it what you will. It’s fairly common.
SPEAKER 09 :
We’ve seen this before, sometimes with good results, sometimes with no results.
SPEAKER 07 :
You even see that Letitia James, who recently was indicted for mortgage fraud, alleged mortgage fraud, that came as a review within… Some of the agencies that handle mortgages, they looked at it and saw this and it raised eyebrows and they referred it to the Department of Justice, which then decided to act on it. So there’s precedent for it. Even in recent history, this is something that happens, that when Congress discovers evidence of a crime, they tell the DOJ about it. And what we found here is that John Brennan, who repeatedly over the course of years told Congress that the CIA was opposed to including the Steele dossier. They didn’t use the Steele dossier. They didn’t like the Steele dossier. That, according to the internal documentation at the CIA, was demonstrably false. So what the director was telling the Judiciary Committee as they’re conducting oversight, is opposite of the truth. That’s lying before Congress. It is misrepresenting the facts, and that is a crime under 18 U.S.C. Section 1001. And Jordan, when you look at this, there’s things like this where John Brennan told Chairman Jordan himself in this interview in 2023, when Chairman Jordan asked, who’d you learn about the Steele dossier from? He says, I learned about it from the FBI, but then he was the one In this answer, not just saying I learned about it from the FBI, let’s move on, said the CIA was very much opposed to having any reference or inclusion of the Steele dossier in the intelligence community assessment. That is that 2017 document. That President Obama ordered at the end of his term. Right before Donald Trump came into office. Right after President Trump was elected. Right. This is what kickstarted all the investigations and eventually the special counsel that ended up turning up nothing but tried to undermine the presidency of President Trump.
SPEAKER 08 :
They have the memorandums too. And for instance, so Brennan says this to Jordan, but then according to a CIA memo declassified by the Trump administration, when two CIA mission center leaders confronted Brennan with quote specific flaws in the dossier, trying to do the right thing, as we said, so many of them were. Britain disregarded their concerns, quote, appearing more swayed by the dossier’s general conformity with existing theories than by legitimate tradecraft concerns. And he formalized his position in writing, stating that my bottom line is that I believe that the information warrants inclusion in the report. So he went to Jim Jordan and said the CIA does not believe it should be in the report. Then he tells his CIA colleagues who had questions about whether or not it should be because they found flaws, no information. It absolutely should be there.
SPEAKER 07 :
That’s lie number two. Well, and Jordan, even to bring that up, normally you don’t get something when there’s this back and forth of whistleblowers raising allegations or telling Congress of things as a course of the investigation. You don’t have the principle that memorialized his position. He actually put it in writing. that he was the one that believed it should be included and we know that even when he was questioned about you know this has a lot of flaws this doesn’t meet our standards this is where that famous line of yes but doesn’t it ring true yeah it sounds so he was going on vibes here because at the end of the day president obama had tasked them with rewriting the narrative you like the cia vibes And the CIA went on vibes, the director here, maybe not the agents, a lot of them were pushing back, but he overruled their concerns and then memorialized it, but yet lied to Congress because he didn’t want to be the one that started the entire thing.
SPEAKER 09 :
I like this call coming in. I want to go ahead and take it. Let’s go to Bill in Wyoming, who is watching on ACLJ.org. Great place to watch, by the way, live or later on. Bill, go ahead.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, thanks a lot for taking my call. First of all, I’d like to comment on the fact that I enjoy how the mainstream media is covering the ballroom work. Then to my question, this evidence about Brennan, where he’s writing, it also mentions Comey in that. Do you think that could also be used against Comey in this business with him?
SPEAKER 08 :
When you have other individuals who are very closely working together and you’ve already issued an indictment, there can always be superseding indictments. That is that over the course of our investigation, we found this initial criminal, what we believe is the Department of Justice’s initial criminal conduct, which we have went before the grand jury, got the indictments and over the course of that investigation have found more illegal activity so that there is that ability at a certain point as These are kind of like the two most high profile names that were very connected within that intelligence law enforcement world, kind of acting as if they were above the law or in their case, they were the law.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, and Jordan, I think we should play this for people as well, because back in 2017, now this statement would be outside the statute of limitations, but this was Trey Gowdy questioning Brennan. about the Steele dossier’s inclusion back during the entire scenario of the Steele dossier and the special counsel’s investigation. But he kept the same line. So he was even lying to Congress about this back in 2017. We have audio of that because this one was a public hearing, unlike the ones that are more serious that are within the statute of limitations. But we should go ahead and play this because it’s the same line. He was consistent with his lies that is being alleged here by the Judiciary Committee. Let’s go ahead and roll bite one.
SPEAKER 03 :
Did the CIA rely on it? No. Why not? Because we didn’t. It wasn’t part of the corpus of intelligence information that we had. It was not in any way used as a basis for the intelligence community assessment that was done. It was not.
SPEAKER 07 :
We know that that’s not true, just even that it was not in any way used as a basis for the ICA because it was the annex. All the information in the classified annex that we just recently got was Steele dossier information. So even that statement right there, while outside the statute of limitations, but just completely lying.
SPEAKER 08 :
They relied on it because they used it as their source. So you read the Intelligence Community Assessment, and one of their main sources are pieces of the Steele dossier. So, of course, you relied on it. And so there’s no way, because there’s so much information about Brennan out here, there’s no way he could say, I was just the director and I was kind of misinformed. His hands were all over this, like you said, memos. For CIA directors, he liked to formalize all these memos for history’s sake. There’s a lot of data.
SPEAKER 07 :
a lot of information you could just be searchable directly conflict with testimony he gave under oath which means when they conflict like that and you don’t go and correct it as immediately like you misspoke it is a crime to testify and lie to congress and jordan to that point as well he doesn’t have the cover of saying i didn’t really know about this one the directive on a new ica came from the white house to the members of the intelligence community the principles they wanted to rewrite because one
SPEAKER 08 :
what’s the benefit on the way out of out of office what’s the benefit of doing this for him donald trump the only reason he won is because of russia it was that insurance policy that peter struck talked about it was then too and then open up all the investigations did donald trump win because of russia propaganda even though it was over so they could try and smear him which they tried to do for all four years can’t just be a job for any of these people it’s
SPEAKER 09 :
It’s got to be some vindictive business operation that’s beyond like, all right, we’re done now.
SPEAKER 07 :
You remember what Chuck Schumer said. If Trump were to go after the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday to get back at you. That was a warning from Chuck Schumer to Donald Trump. And what happened? The man ended up cooking burgers. I think we’re now seeing all six ways laid out right in black and white.
SPEAKER 09 :
Raw burgers with cheese on them.
SPEAKER 07 :
Disgusting. Yeah.
SPEAKER 09 :
All right. Hey, we’re going to take some phone calls coming up in the next segment because later on in the show, you can explain that one. 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110. We’re talking about this. We’re going to talk more about the shutdown, see people discussing that. We want to talk about, we’re going to talk a little more about Israel. We got ballroom construction. There’s so much going on. And of course, we’re going to give you an update on the work of the ACLJ, which is always great. They’re always doing great work. Our team here, whether it’s here in Nashville, whether it’s our team throughout the world. And again, remember the ACLJ is a worldwide operation. We are influencing Europe. We are there in Jerusalem. We are all over the world. Some places we can’t talk about it, but you know what? We get to do it because people like you support our work. So I encourage you right now, go to ACLJ.org. Do it today. Support however you can. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Secular. We do have a couple of lines still open. Looks like three lines open for you at 1-800-684-3110. I want to hear from you. I always do. We try to get a lot of calls.
SPEAKER 08 :
Can we do a little shutdown talk first? I mean, we’ve got some questions on it.
SPEAKER 09 :
The lines are open, but let’s go ahead and take a call. We can do that because there are some calls coming in. Dylan in New York. We also have some New York talk. Dylan, go ahead. Dylan, you there? Let’s put Dylan back on hold, see if we can get to him here in a minute. Dylan was calling. He’s a federal worker on furlough, so we’ll try to get to him.
SPEAKER 08 :
They shut off his phone.
SPEAKER 09 :
They shut off his phone. It’s not working. Sorry, Dylan, not to make light of your situation, but phone lines are open for you. While you go ahead and screen, let’s go to Henry, who is calling in Texas. Henry, go ahead.
SPEAKER 05 :
Henry, you there? Hi, guys. How you doing? Good, good. I’m here. Go ahead. Yeah. If Russia, Russia, Russia was a hoax, Why did Marco Rubio sign off on a Senate report saying Russia tried to influence our election?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, I mean, Henry, that’s actually a pretty easy statement. There’s a difference between the Russia collusion hoax, which you’re bringing up. That’s what Russia, Russia, Russia is. And what Russia having bought farms, troll farms, trying to have an influence. Also, the influence isn’t as it seems that they tried to put forward that they wanted Donald Trump to win chaos.
SPEAKER 08 :
They try to actually put bad information out there about when you need to register to vote. I mean, it gets pretty technical. So that people are confused about when they’re supposed to be voting. They confuse people on what candidates, where they stand on the issues, where events are going to be held. So it’s about sowing confusion in the United States to make our election system, which is the greatest in the world, look bad. It’s not about, hey, we just want to get this one elected. They want to hurt both of them. And if you see what they were doing with Hillary Clinton and with Trump and all the classified dot server, all of her stuff, they were doing it to both. This is a country that looks at the election process in the U.S. adversarially and tries to flex its muscles. And I think we gave them way too much credit this time by including them in so many reports based off the fact is the Steele dossier was a complete work of fiction. And those bots are just putting out fake info. So it’s all fake. But that doesn’t mean they weren’t trying to do something. It just wasn’t being directed by their agent, Donald Trump, which is what Democrats were trying to tell us.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, and Jordan, I think I’m actually glad.
SPEAKER 08 :
You can’t even say that because that’s what the Democrats were telling people. And enough Americans were actually buying into. He was literally an agent. Donald Trump, the casinos, hotels. He was just an agent of communist Russia. What a communist he is. Yeah.
SPEAKER 07 :
I actually am glad that Henry called in with his snarky phrasing of that question, because I think once you get further removed from what we all had to live through, what the country really had to live through, it does become this binary choice of either Russia was supporting Trump and influenced the election, and it was all fake, or nothing happened at all.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, hindsight’s usually 20-20, but in this situation, it’s discontent.
SPEAKER 07 :
Russia tries to influence every election. We, as the United States, try to influence elections. Iran in the last election. We have American propaganda that goes around the world that you can’t hear here. I mean, the Obama administration was paying Mahmoud Abbas’s son to try and unseat Bibi Netanyahu. Like, the fact that there is… Foreign influence in elections is not something that cannot be true if the Russia, Russia, Russia thing is a hoax. There is influence campaigns, but it doesn’t mean that the Steele dossier is true, that what Brennan did was based and predicated on real actionable intelligence. This isn’t something that you have to have one or the other. The fact that people try to hit Marco Rubio for saying that we looked at this, the Senate Intel community, and yes, Russia did try to influence the election, does not mean that everything else or that he agrees with John Brennan. It’s quite the opposite. You can be a rational human being in this world and say something like, we see that they tried to influence the election and not then be like, so the Steele dossier has to be true. By the way, you can also be wrong.
SPEAKER 09 :
it’s true as well you can also say something and then realize eight years later ten years later you’ve made a mistake okay that’s not necessarily uh impossible in politics i believe a lot of people have done that a lot of people run political campaigns against their political opponents and then guess what do they do they endorse the the person who they just pretty much you know called the devil for the last six months that is not uncommon ish do i think it’s a good thing No, not really. But of course, that’s American politics and how it’s been for a very long time. I don’t see that changing. It is a blood sport. You are ruthless against your opponent. And then you have to coalesce. You have to get together. Look at some of the horrible things that both you could put President Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, all that group of people said about each other. And I’m not letting any of them off the hook. It’s not like Marco didn’t say bad things about Trump and that Ted Cruz didn’t say bad things about Trump. But when it comes down to it, you look at things in hindsight. And hindsight changes everything. And of course things change as you’re currently in a Trump presidency and in a different role. world that being said we got a couple minutes left in this half hour i want to encourage you um to really keep listening and the way you can do that is there’s many different platforms that we’re available on some of your local stations don’t carry the full hour that being said we are broadcasting live always each and every day monday through friday on aclj.org on youtube on rumble facebook however you get kind of a streaming version of a podcast we are there live And then later on archived, however you get your podcasts, you can find us. Just search for Sekulow. But we have a second half hour coming up. If you’re listening in that 12 to 1 p.m. Eastern time slot, I want you to join me for the second half hour each and every day. Because in the next bit, we’re going to hear from Jeff Balabana, ACLJ Jerusalem. Give us an update of what’s going on there. What’s going on in the, obviously, the ceasefire, the war. Where are we? How do things feel on the ground? Is the mood shifted? We’re going to learn a lot of that. And that is because we have an office in Jerusalem. We couldn’t have that office in Jerusalem. We couldn’t have our offices in Europe. We couldn’t have this office here in Nashville or in the expanding Washington DC base. None of that happens without your support. If you hear advertiser on your local stations, that does not go to us. I want to make sure that’s always clear. That goes to the network or to the station themselves. That doesn’t go to us as a show. If you have a YouTube ad that is so minuscule, that doesn’t even pay for the salaries of the team that works on the YouTube broadcast. It’s great. It’s a little benefit. I’m not dogging it. But in the big scheme of things, it is nothing compared to the cost it takes to put on this show and to produce the incredible legal work that we’re able to do each and every day, 24 hours a day there as our team is active. all around the world. So I encourage you right now, if you can, take a moment and think about supporting the ACLJ, whether that’s giving $5, $500, whether that’s becoming a one-time donor, or what we call ACLJ champions, which is those that give on a monthly recurring, it’s like a membership base, where you just set it, forget it. Of course, you can cancel at any time and all the donations are tax deductible, but that’s a really great way to help us set a base. There’s tens of thousands of you that do that. That is still a small percentage of the people that give. Because the ACLJ is built on the backbone of individual donors giving individual times. Because we know times are tough. So some of you give, you know, once a year. But then there’s some of you who are blessed enough to give every month. And that every month may be $10. That every month may be $50. And that’s okay. You may be able to give more. We encourage you if you can to do that. But of course, we know times are tough. If you’re brand new to the show, because I know each and every day there is brand new people that watch online. What I always ask them to do is not give, is to get engaged. So however you’re watching, whatever that platform is, subscribe. like follow share whatever it may be do that right now of course if you’re on youtube that is a fun way to engage same with on rumble you can engage and you can talk in the conversation there’s a whole group of people that i think just join our live stream every day i don’t know if they care about what will and i have to say or what jordan has to say they like talking to their friends every day and we just happen to be providing them the back we’re the party band we’re just in the background here okay we’re just the we’re the bar band just playing for uh playing the hits playing the hits playing for tips But you know what? They’re having a whole conversation on the other hand, and it’s a lot of fun. That being said, I encourage you to do that and support the work of the ACLJ. Second half hour coming up. And with that, we have Jeff Balaban and Israel. We’re going to have so much more. And of course, I want to hear from you. We only have a minute break, but a minute is enough time to call me and get our phone screeners active. 1-800-684-3110. Make them do their job right now. They’re bored.
SPEAKER 06 :
Keeping you informed and engaged. Now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 09 :
Welcome back to Sekulow. Back half is going to be packed. Because I want to hear from you. 1-800-684-3110. That’s right. You’re our guest today. But also we’re going to have a guest, which is Jeff Balaban from ACLJ Jerusalem. He’s live in Jerusalem. We’re going to have an update from him. Jordan Sekulow, Will Haines joining me in studio right now. We are still talking a bit about… The Brennan, well, let me break it down again. Jim Jordan. Jim Jordan said, John Brennan, you did bad things. You know, I don’t want to hear the word steel dossier for the rest of my life. Well, you’re going to hear for it right about now. I don’t even want to hear the word dossier because I don’t feel like it’s English. well i think it has a french origin i know and it makes me it feels like i’m doing my daily duolingo here well um which my shriek is strong by the way i don’t know what i was just gonna say over a year almost 400 days of non-stop duolingo and you’re doing specifically french i want everyone to know that so that you can ostracize him in the chat Just because I don’t want to talk about dossiers. I still don’t know what that means.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, what this is, is a criminal referral from the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Jim Jordan, to the Attorney General, Pam Bondi, turning over evidence of what they are alleging were lies before Congress. A violation under 18 U.S.C. 1001, where they are alleging that… The former CIA director, John Brennan, knowingly and willfully made materially false statements or representations before Congress. And how do they know that he knowingly or willfully did it? Because the opposite of what he said to Congress, he memorialized in notes as he pushed for the inclusion of the Steele dossier into this intelligence community assessment that was ordered by President Obama. This is a serious violation, Jordan. This is trying to obstruct the actual job, the constitutionally mandated oversight of the Judiciary Committee by lying to them, by telling them the opposite of what was true, by trying to cover for him and all of the other intelligence community cronies that were there under the Obama administration. that knew what they were doing with the steel dossier even when their their agents and their analysts were telling them opposite their career cia officers were saying this doesn’t hold up and they’re saying yeah but doesn’t it feel right it just feels right that president trump would be an agent of russia and that’s exactly the lies that get you in trouble when you tell them to congress
SPEAKER 08 :
He says, you know, he didn’t want it to be part of the intelligence information they provided. It was not in any way a basis for the intelligence community assessment that was done. And then the ODNI, their staff report, said that Brennan refused to remove it. And when confronted with the dossier’s main flaws, Brennan responded, yes, but doesn’t it ring true? So even though these seem fake, it sounds true enough that we should put it out there, I guess, because we don’t like Donald Trump. So even though it sounds, it might be on brand, even though we know it’s not true, People would believe it’s true, so let’s put it out there. That is scary CIA stuff. So they turn you into this person so that people believe you’re the kind of person that would do the things they’re alleging you would do, even though they know that you didn’t do those things.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, I mean, that is… Wrap your head around that one. That is the… the origin of Trump derangement syndrome, right? It’s like that you have this image in your mind of what you think may be true. And therefore everything that you do after that is predicated on this vibe that you have in your head about the president of the United States. He started John Brennan because he’s the one that said, but doesn’t it ring true?
SPEAKER 09 :
Feels right.
SPEAKER 07 :
It just, I mean, it feels like something he would do. So therefore, let’s go ahead and just try and destroy everything and bring down the democratically elected president of the United States and tear down the institutions of the United States and the rule of law in the process.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, the next segment, we’re headed to Jerusalem. All of us. Pack your bags. Taking a trip. Our friend Jeff Balaban is going to be joining us from ACLJ Jerusalem. His first time back since the ceasefire. We’re going to get an update on what’s going on there. And, of course, an update in general and some of the word on the street in Jerusalem. What’s the top story right now? Of course, a lot of eyes are to New York City. And that would make sense of what’s going on in Israel because of the concerns of Mondami potentially becoming the mayor. What is that going to look like? We’ll talk about it coming up. And then we’re going to take your calls at 1-800-684-3110. Welcome back to Secular. Phone lines are open. We’re going to take your calls in the next segment at 1-800-684-3110. Before then, we’re going to head over to ACLJ Jerusalem. It’s been a little bit of time since we checked in with Jeff Balaban. Jeff, I want to get an update how things are going. Obviously, there has been a lot since the ceasefire in Gaza. And of course, that has come with some ups and downs, I’m sure, along the way. But what is the mood? What’s the feeling right now in Jerusalem?
SPEAKER 04 :
Great question. And it’s a big, complicated city with lots of different kinds of people living there. So I’ll give you a couple of shots of what greeted me when I returned. A lot of questions about New York and Mamdani. People here, and not just Americans who live here, but people who are native born here, are very concerned and can’t believe someone with the positions that Mamdani has taken is this close to potentially being a mayor of New York. That’s a great amount of concern about that here. just as people in America are concerned about Israel. And in Israel, look, the mood is there was ebullience, relief, a lot of tears. When the final living hostages returned, they’re still waiting for the dead hostages. And they’re not going to give up wanting to get those bodies back. I was watching a program last night on television here just about the extensive process of identifying bodies and how frequently they’d have to exhume bodies to find DNA of others because it’s so important in this culture. And when people objected to that, they said, we need to know that every family has a grave to go to. And so there’s a lot of pain mixed in with the relief and the joy. And there have been a lot of military call-ups again, because it is a very tense moment on all the borders, not just down south in Gaza, but also up north, also in Judea and Samaria. And so it’s a fraught moment now. There was, again, tremendous relief and gratitude. And you saw that if you watched any part of President Trump’s address, to the Knesset. And there’s tremendous respect and love for President Trump and for the role America has played. And yet it’s still a very complicated time right now. And it’s not as though the long war has ended, even though right now there is a ceasefire.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, and Jeff, as we see that the Vice President of the United States is there, Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff, really one for many reasons, but part of the reason is to try and shore up support and make sure that that phase two of this ceasefire deal and eventually peace deal, as President Trump calls it, is able to move forward. It seems for the Israeli people, it is a very tense, as you mentioned, time, but also potentially dangerous time. as if a ceasefire were to fall apart if there were hostilities to resume the the people have to be concerned about is there a surprise attack from hamas because they decide they’re done with this deal we know that they’ve lived up to some of phase one but not all of it they they did some skirmishes with israel we also know that they haven’t been able to return all of the hostages who have died so i was wondering about that as well is there that kind of unease that there is this almost facade of a cessation of hostilities for the time, but that at any moment that could start back up.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I think Israel already recognizes that all ceasefires are only good for as long as Israel’s enemies allow them to be good. As soon as Israel’s enemies see some advantage in breaking a ceasefire, they break ceasefires. That’s been history. This was done because getting the hostages back was such a priority for this country, for the people here, since day one, and that President Trump, with Steve Woodcock, intervened, and with Jared Kushner, and they made it possible for that to happen. And again, that was so desperately wanted and needed, and it happened during the holidays. So it was very moving to people here, but no one thinks that the war is over no one thinks that there is a solution yet found to what to do with an entire populace in gaza that has demonstrated over and over and over its hostility to living side by side with israel in peace
SPEAKER 09 :
I presented it here as it’s over. I’ll be honest, Jeff, I feel like there’s been a lot. I kind of feel like the press has moved on somewhat when it was the ongoing story every day. And of course, with Israel being painted as the bad guy, it feels like there was a lot of praise for President Trump for the ceasefire. And now the news has moved on. Of course, there’s some moments where things pop up. There’s topics that get brought up. But it feels like in general. I felt that I feel that even from a lot of the influencers on the side of Israel have even started to try to figure out what their next story is going to be because it feels like it’s over. So it’s interesting coming from your point of view that on the ground there, it doesn’t feel that way. Now, I do want to bring our attention over to New York because I think that is very interesting because, of course, you would expect if you’ve been to. Israel, of course, if you’ve been to New York City, it’s probably we know that New York City outside of Israel is the most Jewish populous place on the planet other than in Israel. But I would be curious to see even what the number is for Israelis. I assume that that is a lot in terms of Israeli tourism, we know, or let’s say just travel from New York City and back there. If anyone’s ever flown that flight, we know that that is a spot. It is one of the spots. So it makes sense why the eyes would be on New York City, even in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, look, there’s also because, aside from Israeli media and American media, there’s Jewish media, and that crosses the oceans. And so the Jewish media in both places have been alive with, not just in New York in America, across America. Mamdani stands for some… frankly, horrifying points of view when it comes to not just Jews in Israel, but things I think that almost everybody who would support ACLJ believes in. But but specifically because he seems to stand for some very horrible things. He couldn’t bring himself to condemn Hamas or even the atrocity on October 7th until recently, some kind of very limited sort of backhanded way of saying something. But the fact is, he has been a supporter of the people who slaughtered Jews en masse. And now he may be a mayor of the Jewish the city with the largest Jewish population outside of Israel. So there’s a great deal of concern. Others like to think that, well, he’ll be a politician and he’ll just it doesn’t matter what he personally believes. He’ll just do whatever deal he needs to with whatever Constituents as he needs. I think that’s now I think that’s naive. I think that he poses a threat not just for New York But again, we’re still further ratcheting up the kind of anti-semitism That’s now allowed in elected officials in major positions and it’s not just anti-semitism It’s also anti-americanism what he stands for really it would be shocking for anybody to have this kind of a position who stands for what he stands for he was a complete defund the police and Even though he denied it, there’s evidence, rampant evidence of him talking about defunding the police. The way he talks about the police is scandalous. And you know what? New York really needs its police.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, and Jeff, to that point as well, when you see, one, he’s made statements about he would, if he could, arrest Netanyahu if he’s in New York. We saw that he was with radical imams just last week at Friday prayers and was open about it, was not as if this was something that just got found out, but he was posting about it. Of all the mosques in all of New York that he went to, he chose one of the most radical imams and was proud of that fact. And then you also think back to what we saw at Columbia University. Under a mayor, Eric Adams, that is more for law and order, that is more kind to Israel, that was able to happen under that leadership. then you have to think about even if the mayor himself isn’t committing or speaking in these anti-Semitic ways publicly, if he does become more of a politician once he is in office, you have to think of just the signaling that it would give to those people that wish to do bad things Knowing what they were fine with doing under a mayor that wasn’t supportive, at least in his ideology of the way that they were moving. That has to get people, especially people that are Israeli that go to universities like Columbia or the business leaders that have business dealings in New York. All of that has to be going on in their heads as well.
SPEAKER 04 :
I had that exact conversation on an elevator today. I saw a young woman wearing a Columbia shirt, and I asked her what things are like on campus. She said, well, she’s in Israel for the year, but things have gotten somewhat better. I wouldn’t say they’re great, but they’re better than they had been. And I just remarked, it seems, because we work with so many students, that depending on what year you entered in the last few years, your baseline norm was so dramatically different. And she responded just what you said. She goes, and now we have to see what it’s going to be like with Mamdani.
SPEAKER 09 :
And that is an interesting point of view to see where things are headed. And, you know, there are a lot of changes coming to New York and we’ll see how things play out. You know, I do think that the election at this point, it honestly looks like it’s going to be very difficult for Mondami to not be the mayor of New York. It just feels like the numbers are looking that way. There is obviously some cases where there’s been calls for the Republican to step down and maybe you would have Cuomo rise up. And again, I think a lot of people are conflicted on Cuomo as well. So it’s not an easy fix. for new york so we’ll be keeping an eye on that very closely and of course jeff really got a minute left so maybe in just 20 30 seconds the work of the aclj in the work of the aclj jerusalem continues uh even if you know some of the western world is showing that the war is wrapping up
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, well, I landed and had a meeting with the mayor of Jerusalem, which, you know, he’s got a very serious job. It’s a large city with a very mixed population. He’s got, you know, hundreds of thousands of Arabs along with his hundreds of thousands of Jews. And he has to be the mayor for all of them. And we spoke about what the situation right now is, you know, and then I met with other officials to talk about the situation with Vice President Vance being here. So, yeah, the work that we do, they’re interested in our point of view and our explanation and our ability to bring this to our audience. That’s why we’re here.
SPEAKER 09 :
so much for joining us jeff in the next segment i want to hear from you and guess what we have five lines open i’m gonna lie to you 1-800-684-3110 call me right now and let’s get you on the air 1-800-684-3110 we’ll be right back and again we support the work of the aclj you support aclj jerusalem we’ll be right back All right, last segment of the day. And there are still some phone lines open. I would love to hear from you. Make our phone screeners earn their paycheck, Will. That’s what I say every day. That’s right. You do say that every single day. I do. I yell about it. Phone lines are open at 1-800-684-3110. Be kind to them, though. Okay, they got to listen to you guys all day. 1-800-684-3110. Will didn’t like that. It was a joke. Come on, people. It’s lighthearted. It’s a Friday.
SPEAKER 07 :
Hilarious. It’s a Wednesday.
SPEAKER 09 :
It’s not Friday. It feels like it should be. I know. All right, let’s go ahead and take a phone call. We’re also going to be talking about the destruction, construction going on at the White House, what people are saying about it, of course, using this opportunity while there’s remodeling to say, look, he’s tearing down the White House just like we told you he would. He would be tearing down a facade from the 40s that has been rotting. Okay, let’s go to Sean in Florida, listening and watching on Rumble. Go ahead, Sean.
SPEAKER 10 :
Hey guys, you’re doing a great job. So my question is this. So hypothetically, let’s say Mondami does win in New York, right? Is there anything in the constitution or in the law anywhere that would prevent an openly communist person to hold any kind of public office, especially as something that caliber? That’s my question. And to end it on a positive note, happy Friday, guys. Happy Friday here on Wednesday.
SPEAKER 09 :
I love that. We need to start doing this. We need to do happy Friday on a Wednesday every day. Sean, no, I don’t think so. Right. When it comes down to it. And he wouldn’t say he’s not a communist. He would say he is a democratic socialist, which is different. And of course, when you break it down, how much different? I don’t know. Would you like some state run grocery stores and state run everything? So not that different.
SPEAKER 08 :
It’s interesting because he wants to run the financial capital of the United States as a Democrat socialist. It’d be interesting to see if he does when, how long his radical policies survive when he is facing the pressures of the biggest corporate, um, um and the banking in the world uh but also you know it’s such a so important for the the city of new york and surrounding area so many jobs um that what does he want he wants to do away with those jobs do away with those people i mean he’s got a lot of if he does win this uh and i hope he doesn’t but if he does um that he’s gonna face a lot of New interest.
SPEAKER 09 :
I think that was an interesting discussion with Jeff when Jeff’s like, I don’t trust him to just be a politician and all this thing. I agree with him on that because some of his views have been so radical. However, when you get in that seat, it does change your perspective as the mayor of New York City. All eyes are on you. And guess what? The eyes that are currently on New York are not looking at it at the most positive time. So you have an opportunity, Mamdami, if you become the mayor here. To be known as one of those mayors who turned the city around because you were coming in at a time where it’s at one of its low points. And look, I love New York. I’ve talked about this so much. It’s one of my favorite places on the planet. I’m there quite often. I would love for it to feel safe. I would love for it to feel back to how it did. in the 90s and 2000s, the Giuliani years, as controversial as they were at the time, it worked. Disney came in. All of a sudden, New York became a place you could bring your family to. And there wasn’t concern about that for 20 plus years. I would even say there wasn’t concern about that other than like a security concern, post 9-11, it still was a place you could bring your family and you didn’t feel concerned walking down the street. That has changed in New York City. I would love to see it back. So of course, do I want Mamdami to win? Absolutely not. If he does win, I wish him well. Because I want to see, it is a big part of America. It is a big part of the world. The economy and the thriving of New York City.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, and that’s what’s also interesting is that a lot of the policies and things that he wants aren’t things that as mayor, if that’s what he wants to initiate, he can do. He could even do. Right. A lot of it, like the taxation and things of that nature, would really go through Albany, through the state government leadership. And he says that sometimes. He’s like, I’ll get Albany’s help. So he also has that ability that if he’s not able to deliver, can fall back on, well, I’m just the mayor of New York. But a lot of the policies that we have concerns about are the ones that he can directly affect like the nypd like the the safety of the city and so that’s where it is going to be a big test is he just going to complain about the state government not giving him his state-run grocery stores for the entirety of his term or is he going to try and find a way to actually govern there’s uh a lot of times you see uh there’s even if he were able to fix the little things in new york like traffic problems delays and things like that safety and safety Then people may even forget about that and he can have a successful mayorship. But at the end of the day, when you have someone that’s an ideologue like him, that’s not what their goal is. I think his goal is is furtherance in politics, not stopping at the mayor of New York. So we’ll have to see what happens.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, I’m not holding my breath that, again, he’ll do what I just said, which is to actually try his best to turn everything around and see where we end up. But you know what? Again, I wish him well if that ends up being the case. Let’s go to Rebecca on line three. Rebecca’s got a question, a comment also about Mom Dommy. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 01 :
Hello. I was wondering why I haven’t heard any reporters ask him where he thinks he’s going to get the money to pay for the house.
SPEAKER 09 :
Oh, when they do ask him about that, where are you going to get the money to pay for health care for all these things you’ve said, or maybe the free grocery stores and all that? Well, he often does say, well, I’ll be turning to the state for that. Because what he’s then able to say is, look, I made my campaign promise. I appealed to them, and the governor said no.
SPEAKER 07 :
That’s right. As well as, I mean, there are things that you could do within the city with the city council as well. Obviously, though, these aren’t things he can unilaterally do. He’s not a king. I don’t know if you heard this. We don’t have kings here. Maybe it’d be better if we did. I feel like the city council would probably be more likely to go along with him on some of his ideas than the statewide, but it only goes so far. There’s only so much they can do. And I think at the end of the day, that’s why when running for mayor, even of New York, When you run on such an audacious platform of democratic socialists, there’s only so much you can do. Really, your aspirations are misplaced if that’s what you really want to bring about and show what socialism can do for you.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, I mean, I think, listen, he’s going to try these moves. He’s going to get a lot of pushback in New York still. Everyone doesn’t agree with his positions just because they might agree with him as someone young to be mayor. I think, again, if he actually did become mayor… a lot of reality is going to come rushing him in the face. And it’s not going to be the issues he’s campaigned on. It’s going to be just the hard work of being a mayor of a huge city. And it’s not all about identity politics and faith groups coming together to meet together and foreign policy. Also, I mean, that’s really not in the mayor’s top issue, though New York a little bit different than that because the international city that it is, he’s got a, you know, Manage a huge city with crime problems and business issues and lots of legal issues and construction going on and just economically so diverse and different from anywhere else in the United States of America, even the world. That’s a lot to take on. Take out all the crazy issues. Take out all of the campaign rhetoric about religion and Israel and protesting and just realize what he’d have to deal with on day one as the mayor of New York normally.
SPEAKER 09 :
Absolutely. Look, we only got a minute left in the broadcast today. Will, we didn’t get to the one thing you wanted to talk about.
SPEAKER 07 :
We didn’t even. I wanted to talk about it. Do you want to do it in a minute? The absurdity of people on the left. I called it earlier this week when they started that construction. They’d be using it as an ad. They’d be saying he’s tearing down our institutions. And Gavin Newsom didn’t disappoint me. He already put up a tweet saying, Donald Trump doesn’t want you to see this picture. He’s literally destroying the White House. The absurdity of this, it’s so disingenuous and not serious, it’s frustrating and I could talk about it for an hour, but I won’t because we have 30 seconds left. Maybe we will tomorrow.
SPEAKER 09 :
Maybe. Okay, because it’s not a Friday. It’s a Wednesday. I was corrected. Unfortunately. Phone lines are closed. But you know what? It’s openaclj.org and we’d love for your support. So go to aclj.org if you can make a donation. Know that really helps out not only keeping this show going, keeping us on the air, but also our incredible legal work. And we’ll discuss that even more coming up. And of course, when you support the ACLJ, it’s worldwide and we appreciate it. Talk to you tomorrow.
