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The political freeze that has paralyzed lawmakers and shut down the federal government for 37 days might be thawing. Regardless, lawmakers remain at a stalemate while essential services face increasing strain. The Sekulow team discusses the ongoing challenges of reopening the federal government, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Speaker Mike Johnson leading their sides during the shutdown, the Trump Administration’s response, the ACLJ’s new case defending a student who had her “Jesus Club” banned, Kazakhstan joining the Abraham Accords – and much more.
SPEAKER 06 :
it’s friday we got breaking news critical vote today on the shutdown keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever this is seculo we want to hear from you share and post your comments for call 1-800-684-3110
SPEAKER 05 :
And now your host, Logan Sekula. Welcome to Sekula. We made it to another Friday, Will. That’s right. Congratulations. Here it is. We’re here. We’ve been counting down the days. People have been counting up the days of the government shutdown. And we’ve been counting down the days to the weekend. Are you with me, Will? Yes. I am right here. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. Last night, Will was like, I see a glimmer on the horizon. There was one. I see the end of the shutdown coming. I feel it. He started to send us texts that said, in the air, the air speaks of the end of the shutdown, a bipartisan effort. And then we wake up to the Democrats going, not so fast. Was that a pitch to me? Very sneaky, sis.
SPEAKER 07 :
Was that a pitch to me?
SPEAKER 05 :
It was, where you were going to go, yeah, they said, we feel like we got a mandate.
SPEAKER 07 :
That’s right. So what was going on and had been started earlier in the week, there were negotiations finally between the Republicans and Democrats as there had been really no conversation for the entire first month of this shutdown between the two parties. However, it looked like they were getting close to a situation where where they would be able to get the government reopened. It was going to be a very Washington-style technical thing where governments reopen only until end of December or January. But then they had also three appropriations bills. They were minibus bills, which would fund certain parts of the government for much longer. What was the word there? Minibus. There’s the omnibus bill, which is like all encumbering and inclusive. This is like a Volkswagen. Right. But then you have the minibus, which is like certain sectors that get longer funding. But then the continuing resolution would basically put them in a similar spot at the end of January or end of December. But it wouldn’t be all of government, like things like the military, the FAA, things of those nature would still run. Because right now, starting today, they’re reducing the air traffic by 4%. and then increasing that by 1% each day until they top out at 10% next week. That’s over 800 flights canceled today. Now imagine more than double that by six days from now when it reaches 10% if they haven’t reopened the government.
SPEAKER 05 :
Everybody’s got to settle back, wait for the end times. It feels like that’s what’s happening. Crack a cold Diet Coke and just let it ride because who knows what’s going to happen here.
SPEAKER 07 :
So the Democrats and Republicans were getting close to this.
SPEAKER 05 :
It’s got Santa on it.
SPEAKER 07 :
To be able to move this forward. And they thought maybe they could have the government reopen by this weekend. But there’s a couple senators who got involved. We had Senator Chris Murphy from Connecticut and Senator Bernie Sanders, who during a two-hour meeting, caucus meeting between the Democrats yesterday. They said it turned into somewhat of a pep rally where they started encouraging each other to hold strong. We have some sound on this. And they believe that they now have the upper hand and they believe these victories in blue states that they saw this week were a mandate and a pushback and i called it i said they were going to see this as a mandate that they can hold strong and try to get more now instead of saying we want to get what we want they’re saying hey sky’s the limit we should hold out for more we won the democrat won the mayor in new york the democrat won the governor of new jersey that’s a mandate
SPEAKER 05 :
I’m sorry. I know that y’all are like the percentiles. In what world did you think they weren’t going to win? Okay, this is where it gets so Washingtonian and ridiculous and Bernie Sanders-y. And we’re going to play that sound when we get back because they already started the music well, so we’re going to have to wait. I expected to. That’s called a tease for the next segment. Oh, pretty sneaky, sis. That’s the second time you said that.
SPEAKER 07 :
I know.
SPEAKER 05 :
It landed better that time. I know. I said it right that time. Did you get that reference? Throw it in the chat. When we get back, we’re going to take some phone calls. You’re going to hear from us again. 1-800-684-3110. We’re going to have some fun here. It’s a Friday. Airlines are shutting down. The government shut down. The ACLJ, we’re still hard at work here. I promise it may not sound like it today, but we are. And that is at ACLJ.org. We’re actually going to talk about a really, you’re going to see an amazing clip too, of one of our cases that’s happening right now about that Jesus Club. You’re not going to want to miss that. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Seculo. I’ve been told to reign it in, Will. Who told you to reign it in? I don’t know. The Republicans in the Senate House. They said, Logan, you got to reign it in. They’re not going to take us seriously about this government shutdown because you’re on here making Connect Four references and throwing Will into a spiral. No one got the Connect Four reference. I got it. Well, yeah, you made it. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson got it. He texted me. Got it. He said, very sneaky sense. He didn’t really. I’m just going to make sure people know that. It’s not true. Okay. But those Democrats will. Those Bernie Sanders, they’re like, we’re not shutting down. We’re going to end here. Just sit here. Eat our Viennetta. You know, it’s fancy. That’s what the fancy people eat.
SPEAKER 07 :
So the Democrats in this caucus meeting yesterday lasted more than two hours. They decided to not move forward with this deal that would have gotten to a reopened government. Now, as we mentioned, it’s about to start manifesting in different ways for people that may not have a government job or a job that has government contracts or that see this manifesting as we’re very close to Thanksgiving. one of the busiest travel times in the country. And the TSA and FAA are now having to cut back on the amount of flights that can be handled. So that is going to be a real pain point for every American.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes, or a great excuse if you don’t like spending time with your family. You can just look at it and go… There’s 800 flights canceled today. Mine happened to be one of them. I’m sorry I can’t make it this year. And then you enjoy a nice, peaceful, fight-free Thanksgiving, especially those that are politically divided or whatever it may be. I’m looking at the bright side here. What’s the bright side of an FAA shutdown? What it is is you can avoid Thanksgiving fights. There you go. You know what we got to look at? It’s Friday.
SPEAKER 07 :
You got to look at things from a good perspective. So much for reining it in. We’re going to go now to Senator Blumenthal from Connecticut. This is what he had to say, and this kind of embodies what the Democrats in the Senate have kind of taken up as Bernie Sanders and the other senator, Chris Murphy from Connecticut, kind of rallied the Democrats together and said, no, now is not the time to cave or to change. Let’s go ahead and play what Dick Blumenthal from Connecticut had to say, bite five.
SPEAKER 02 :
I think that there is no reason to surrender now. Every reason to stand firm.
SPEAKER 07 :
I think there is no reason to surrender now. Every reason to stand firm. But there is another interesting caveat today. One, the Senate’s going to vote for the 15th time today on the clean CR just to reopen it and go back to status quo. That’s expected to fail.
SPEAKER 05 :
Status quo, by the way, as we’ve all been saying, which has been the same since the Biden administration.
SPEAKER 07 :
Right. Exactly. So it’s just there is no Republican priorities or no Democrat priorities. There are at the same time both Republican and Democrat priorities because it’s just maintaining the same level of funding that it was for another year. So when you look at this, though. this is another interesting caveat because the democrats are trying to push their caucus into saying hey look we won these elections we’ve got the mandate let’s fight let’s get more out of this but the centers for medicare and medicaid services actually put out their pricing expectations uh just a few days ago and what that would look like because one of the big things that they’ve been pushing is that you know this is going to be a huge spike in the premiums of uh of people that are on obamacare plans they are in obamacare open enrollment that goes for a couple months to be able to renew your health insurance and As some of these subsidies expired, which is what the Democrats have been pushing for to get a renewal of that as a part of this, they were saying it is going to astronomically increase the pricing of individual plans under Obamacare. When the numbers came out about actually what they’re going to be, it wasn’t as drastic an increase as the Democrats had been selling. So it wasn’t this catastrophic quadrupling of prices that people are all of a sudden not going to be able to afford this. As a matter of fact, the average plan per month for the people that were needing it the most was about $50 a month, which is only between $10 and $13 more than it was last year. So the expiration of these subsidies didn’t have as dramatic an effect on the pricing as the Democrats had been selling. However, they were selling it as it was going to be- Catastrophic. catastrophic quadruple it was going to be so much that no one be able to afford it yes i understand that for people that are on a fixed income or need that in a certain way that 13 extra can be something that could be a difficulty and and yes it is a subsidy expiring However, for the Democrats, that being a point where they had people rallied around them and saying they are fighting for something that’s good, many people look at that and see that not as a big enough reason to be holding the government hostage in the way that they are. They’ve had it shut down for the longest amount of time in history. Think about now all of the people that are federal employees that are now in need of assistance. that weren’t before this. They are creating an economic catastrophe for so many people, for so many families, for so many stresses added to the lives of federal employees. And that is starting to seep into the realms of society that didn’t even really have these touch points with government services or things on the daily basis. Now we’re starting to see that, but yet you’re still hearing them say, now is not the time for us to back down. In fact, we have to keep fighting. We have to try to get more. And as that comes out, I don’t know that that’s the best winning strategy. They may think that it is, but if you now look at this and say, no, we can get more. We can fight harder. We don’t have to negotiate.
SPEAKER 05 :
when you turn into that page and what’s been shut down as it gets more into society with travel and things of that nature i think that could backfire much worse than just the shutdown in general yeah i think when it starts to really become a pain pressure point which is now becoming for a lot of people beyond government workers uh you start to see this push to end but when i look at this and you know i’m laughing a lot today because it just feels like whenever there is a push to move forward in a bipartisan way. I’m not laughing because I want to. Laugh so you don’t cry if you want to say it that way because it doesn’t feel like an end is in sight when you have members saying, hey, we think at least 10 days, maybe 20 days, maybe more than that. Well, that means we’re into December almost. That means we are probably headed towards Christmas. It’s a lot of pressure for a lot of people. I understand. I’m not trying to laugh it off at this point. It’s certainly not funny. What drives me insane is this lack of bipartisan support that they can’t get things done because you’ve decided Trump bad and the other side says all Democrats are bad too. We can’t find any middle ground. We couldn’t just pass that one thing that said SNAP could be funded. We couldn’t pass that one thing that said the FAA could be funded. The two-page bills that had nothing else on it. We couldn’t get that done. How is that possible? How are we that… um, one side minded that we cannot get very simplistic things that are agreed upon by everyone to get done. It’s really frustrating. And it’s, it really just makes you lose hope in that system. A lot makes you just go, okay, what’s the point? What are we doing here? And, you know, as I come out today being a little more funny, like it’s Friday, we try to lighten things up always on Friday. I understand that pressure point is real. And look, I think Charles has got a good question. You know, it’s a question that probably in another universe, you know, maybe a few years ago would be a question that we could also just kind of be like, yeah, that won’t happen. But Charles, go ahead. Watch it on YouTube in Georgia.
SPEAKER 03 :
Hey, guys. Yeah, I’m just wondering, you know, all the crazy, crazy stuff rulings that these judges have been giving out over the past eight months Why can’t we just, you know, get a conservative judge to order it open under the clean CR? I mean, because the Dems and the Republicans.
SPEAKER 05 :
It feels like you can use a judge for anything else, Charles. It feels like a judge just seems like they can come in and unilaterally decide. One judge in some district somewhere can decide to overrule the House, the Senate, the presidency. It seems like there are no rules. If you’re a judge, you are all powerful, Will. So why don’t you speak to this? Why can we not just find a conservative judge to go and break the law?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, I think there in and of itself is the answer, Logan. Conservative judge is one that would be following the Constitution, following the separation of powers, the rule of law. And unfortunately, if that is your judicial philosophy, you’re not going to create out of whole cloth a way to… to open up the government because this is the job of Congress. Despite hearing Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer and all the other people in the Senate and the House that are Democrats saying, well, President Trump’s shutdown. This is his shutdown. He’s delaying this. He’s not getting involved. These are the same people that say they don’t want a king. And in the United States Constitution, the power of the purse lies with the Congress. And so if the Congress won’t do their job, they are the ones that have to own the shutdown you can’t put that on the president you can put it on both parties in the house in the senate but you can’t just put it on the executive branch when they are not the ones who control spending they are not the ones who write the checks and say where the money is appropriated that is within the power of the congress to decide where the money gets spent and if they don’t want to spend the money which Whoever thought you’d hear of Congress not wanting to spend money because they tend to do it so well. But in this case, the Senate Democrats have decided keeping the government shut down and inflicting pain on all Americans over one issue that they can negotiate later is better than the alternative.
SPEAKER 05 :
In the next segment, there’s ACLJ cases that you think are settled law. Cases that we have done decades ago with 35 years. of being with the ACLJ and even more so before that. We have had very much Supreme Court cases that ended a lot of the problems you had with Bible clubs or Christian clubs in school, you would think. But it’s still happening. We’re still having these issues. You’ve heard about it. Now you’re going to actually be able to hear directly from the client. So when we get back, you’re going to see that. So stay tuned. You’re not going to want to miss it. We’re going to take calls as well. Welcome back to Secular. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. I did want to move some ACLJ work as we are now. How many days? Well, seven days into our Freedom Drive. And look, next week… Very special week. And it’s an idea I had, and I’m excited to share it with you. We’re gonna have a lot of fun. Not as fun as we are today. Don’t worry, not this kind of fun. We’re gonna celebrate. We’re also gonna showcase some cases. This is one of them that we really will focus on as well next week. As you know, the ACLJ has been fighting for the right to have your Bible club or a Christian club in the public schools for, I mean, at this point, since our inception, really. So you’re talking about 35 plus years The ACLJ has been fighting for this. And by the way, we won this case decades ago at the Supreme Court of the United States. But it doesn’t seem to stop school boards. It doesn’t seem to stop administrations, faculty from not understanding what the Supreme Court has ruled, which is, of course, that you can have a Christian club. And by the way, not only can you have a Christian club or a Bible club, it can’t be any different. No other rules, no other special treatment, no other put them in a corner somewhere, they can’t meet during times. None of that can happen. There’s equal protection for a Christian club as well as there could be for a math club or whatever it may be. However, Will, once again, that is not what’s happening.
SPEAKER 07 :
That’s right. And this is out of New York. It’s at a public high school where our client just wanted to have a Christian club, a Bible club called the Jesus Club. And went through all the right processes, was… made to jump through so many hoops to get to even apply she did all the right things had the faculty advisor and then they said ah the person who you were uh supposed to present this to has now left so you got to start from scratch redo everything made her jump through all these hoops she presented it and then she was told that being the jesus club wasn’t inclusive enough to other faiths so therefore maybe you should just call it the faith club a world religion club you couldn’t have a specifically a christian club then also she was told that the club could not meet at the same time as other clubs which violates the equal access uh portions of the uh constitution in the law of the united states as well as the first amendment and all these things but i wanted to play this too because yeah Our clients, you have to remember how courageous they are and how brave they are, especially if you’re a high school student that just wants to share your faith.
SPEAKER 05 :
And I’ll pass it over to you. Yeah, I would like to just take a minute here because I know that this is sensitive. When you start putting students on camera and all that, usually you don’t see that on this show. We are very protective people. of our clients but this client specifically wanted to tell their story and when that happens and we are able to share it the parents are on board and the kids are on board the students are on board we go okay we’ll be we’ll share your story and i think that that’s important when it happens know that if you support the work of the aclj and you want to be one of these clients you don’t always have to be one of the ones that show up on air very rarely actually do you see the students show up on air because we are very protective of them so if you come in and say hey my kid is being this we know they don’t want to get bullied there’s a lot of problems that could go on in public schools in private schools they don’t want a lot of that attention they a lot of times just want it handled they want to be having their bible club but you know what well as will said there are some students and parents that are very courageous and are willing to tell their story and want to tell their story on camera they want to be a face for what’s going on in terms of the way christians are being treated the public school system so i do want to present to you this video of our client take a look
SPEAKER 01 :
Hello, my name is Kennedy Canales and I’m going to be talking about a situation that happened at Plattsburgh Senior High School on September 30th. I’d been trying to start a Jesus Club. I did all the things you needed to do to start a club, like I had, we have officers, we have a student administrator, and times set in place like we follow the rules basically. I went to try and see how it’s going and I was told all I needed to do was make a new PowerPoint to present to the school board because the administrator who was there before ended up moving so I found a new administrator and a new officer because one of the officers had moved as well and I just had to make a new PowerPoint, send it to my principal and then he would present it to the school board. I’m told that we are not able to operate a club under the name Jesus Club because it isn’t inclusive. It has to be inclusive of all religions. So they suggested maybe Faith Club or something along the lines of that. If you’re a Christian, that goes out the window. That equality that is claimed to be there goes out the window, which is not supposed to be.
SPEAKER 07 :
Logan, once again, that was actually a condensed version of about a five-minute video that she had posted on social media and was calling people to action. Actually, this is before even the ACLJ was able to get involved with this, that she had the courage to call people in her community to action to say, listen, we need to speak out about this. This isn’t okay. I do have rights. I can have a Jesus Club if people can have other clubs. How we know we know even that there was discrimination against this individual based off of the content of the club was that another club that was a secular club presented on the same day. and just a few days later was granted permission to operate the club at the school. So it is clear viewpoint discrimination, First Amendment violations, violations of the Equal Access Act, all of the Supreme Court precedent that the ACLJ has fought and won for. It’s right here, but it’s once again, we saw that victory in Hawaii that we talked about yesterday.
SPEAKER 05 :
It’s another instance where we can’t stop fighting. You have to fight. The ACLJ team, remember, She comes to the ACLJ. We’re not charging them. That’s only because you are able to donate and support. The ACLJ does this at no cost to our clients. That is incredible. And that’s only because people like you support. And when you support during these special months like our Freedom Drive, that’s when your donation is doubled. It is really important to give during these special months of the year when we can double our impact. Right now, you heard about that. That was from the person themselves, the client themselves telling you what they were doing. And now the ACLJ not only has to remind, and sometimes… That’s it. Sometimes we get to scare them off and say, look, you know what? You don’t know the Supreme Court law. Here it is. And sometimes they come back and they apologize and they try to make good and make it better and say, you know, this is a faculty that overstepped their bounds. Sometimes they don’t, though. Sometimes they push it forward. And just because settled law, just because Supreme Court doesn’t mean there won’t be a time where it could quickly turn around and you have another one of these situations at hand. Where you go take another case in the Supreme Court, you have a court that is not as much in your favor. And I’m going to talk about right now, but at some point in the future. And this all gets reversed. So we have to continue fighting. We got to continue fighting for the free speech and the freedom of religion for our students. And that is only because people like you help. The legal fees alone would be out of this world. But of course, we don’t have to charge that. We still can have the best and the brightest minds. The best legal minds, young minds, some of our senior attorneys, people that have been at this for a long time. And that is because people like you support the work of the ACLJ, whether that is a one-time donation here as we get close to the end of the year, or maybe you give on a monthly basis, or maybe you give quarterly. Some of you are ACLJ champions. Those are people that give on a monthly basis and know that if you become a champion today, your first gift is effectively doubled. Another champion is ready to match it on the other side. They’re ready to unlock their match. So all you have to do right now is go to aclj.org. That is aclj.org. Or scan the QR code you see on the screen right now. As we head into the second half hour of the broadcast, I want you to get involved. We only have about a minute break. But between now and when we’re back is a perfect time to go to our website, make your donation. Again, it’s during the Freedom Drive, so you can have it doubled. right now. That being said, we’ve got another half hour coming up. I want to hear from you. Rick Grinnell is going to be joining us as well. 1-800-684-3110. We’ve got a couple people on hold. We’ve got three or four lines open right now. 1-800-684-3110. If you don’t get the second half an hour on your local radio station, find us broadcasting live or later on podcast at aclj.org.
SPEAKER 06 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 05 :
Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. I want to hear from you right now. Give me a call. 1-800-684-3110. We need to reset a bit of what’s going on as again. It seems like we are no closer to a shutdown end, but there is a vote coming up today, Will.
SPEAKER 07 :
That’s right. They will be voting for the 15th time on the Clean CR to reopen the government with the same funding levels as they were before the shutdown. But instead, we know that that will fail. And the Democrats were close to negotiating and had been negotiating with Republicans over this week about maybe some other options, such as a shorter continuing resolution to open the government into January or December, but with three minibus bills that would keep certain sectors open for a lot longer while they negotiated other things. The problem with that is that now People within the Democrat Party, including Senator Bernie Sanders, you’ve heard sound from Senator Richard Blumenthal, as well as Senator Chris Murphy, have said now is not the time to stop fighting. Now is not the time to surrender. They have already been talking about leverage in this party throughout the entirety of this shutdown that they have leverage. And I just want everyone to remember, what is the leverage? The leverage is Americans with jobs that are not getting paid. Federal workers, people that have contracts with the government, people who work for businesses that do things with the government, such as farmers. that have to go through FDA approvals and things of that nature and Department of Agriculture. There are so many businesses outside of just people that are federal employees that are now suffering as a result of the games being played by the Senate Democrats. And now because of a mayoral election in New York, A governor election in Virginia and New Jersey and a proposition, a ballot proposition in California. They think they have this mandate to move forward and continue to play games with people’s lives. in order to get something they want. And it’s a subsidy that turns out isn’t as big of a price jump as they even expected it to be. And the Republicans are saying, we will have a debate on that. We can do that. The Senate is the world’s greatest deliberative body, or at least it was. I’m not so sure anymore. But they’re saying we can have a debate about that. We can move it forward. We can see what we can get passed in the House. If your proposal’s good and we’re dealing with the cost of Americans, then maybe we’ll move on it. But we’re not going to let you just strong arm us here and hold the entire United States government hostage over one expired subsidy. And that’s exactly what’s happening.
SPEAKER 05 :
I think we should answer a question also is coming in from Dave in Indiana online. One who’s listening on the radio, Dave, go ahead.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah. I was just wondering, instead of, uh, uh, doing the clean CR, uh, again and again, um, if they could, if they could just, um, uh, do, uh, like, like they call it the nuclear option. Um, and, and, um, Just fund the military and public safety, air traffic controllers.
SPEAKER 07 :
Look, the finger seems like it should be getting closer to that button. Here’s the problem with it, Dave, in all reality. And President Trump has called on them to use the nuclear option. It’s one of those lines that once you cross it, it never is put back in the box. And you can never say, no, let’s go back to how it was before. And the rules of the Senate… have certain checks and things of their own. It’s not in the Constitution, but that is the rules of the Senate, which they get to make. As soon as you throw that out the window, then when you are in the minority party, this is why many Republicans don’t want to do away with it in the Senate. When you are in the minority party, the Democrats will do that for every single awful thing you can imagine that you don’t want passed. They will do away with the norms.
SPEAKER 05 :
I just kind of feel like they would do it.
SPEAKER 07 :
It happened with impeachment. But they didn’t last year when they had the opportunity and they knew Biden and things were afoot. They still maintain the nuclear option.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, if I’m President Trump, I’m going, tell the gods to open up the gates. Frozen. Why have a ballroom with no balls? Rick Grinnell’s joining us. That’s good. It was good.
SPEAKER 07 :
That was a very good one.
SPEAKER 05 :
Phone lines are open for you. Rick Grinnell’s going to be joining us in the next segment. Be a part of the show today. Of course, be part of our ACLJ Freedom Drive. That’s at ACLJ.org. Be right back. Welcome back. Secula 1-800-684-3110 to get on the air. We have three lines open right now. Now we are going to bring in our friend Rick Grinnell, who I know has been spending some time with Jordan. He saw him last couple days, so that’s good. Rick, welcome back to the show today.
SPEAKER 04 :
Thank you. Thanks for having me. Yeah.
SPEAKER 05 :
Will, I know. There you go. Will’s got something he wanted to bring up. I told Will, you can lead this because you have some important things you want to talk about.
SPEAKER 07 :
Friday Logan doesn’t want to talk to Rick Grinnell today.
SPEAKER 05 :
No, that’s not true. That’s what I just heard. I would just want to talk to Rick Grinnell about things that shouldn’t be on this show.
SPEAKER 07 :
That aren’t as interesting to the mass audience.
SPEAKER 05 :
It would be about UFC next week. It would be a lot of different things. Kiss in the Kennedy Center Honors. Those are the kind of things I’d rather talk. Friday Logan is going to defer to you for the serious.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s fair. Can I just interrupt one time and just tell my friends that I do have a friend who, who’s fighting in the UFC tomorrow night. Euros medic is his name and he’s a great guy and I hope he wins. All right.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, we will be watching cause me and my son watched just about everything. The UFC has to offer now late nights, but a lot of fun. Well,
SPEAKER 07 :
Rick we we have news that a new nation is joining the Abraham Accords this is Kazakhstan which I mean many people maybe only know Kazakhstan because of Borat and because of the of where that you know that is what the cultural thought is where that is but this is an important move this is a nation that did not have formal relation with Israel And once again, this is a large move and a very strategic move. And I wanted you to explain to the audience why when you see the headline that Kazakhstan is formalizing their relationship with Israel and joining the Abraham Accords, how this affects not just the Israeli security, but also U.S. interests abroad.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I just texted Logan a picture of last night, so maybe he could find a way to throw it up on Facebook. But last night we had a dinner at the White House, a small dinner, with all of the caucus heads of state, including Kazakhstan. Now, Kazakhstan has been really jumping to have a special relationship with President Trump and the United States. They are a country with lots of minerals, They donated $25 million to the Kennedy Center and are going to be one of our premier sponsors and one of our lounge sponsors. And then we got word yesterday that they were joining the Abraham Accords. This is a country that has diplomatic relations with Israel already, but I think the significance is exactly what JD Vance was talking about to the press last night, which was that this is now a move to have the Abraham Accords in the second term of President Trump. This is a big deal. This means momentum. This means we’re back to putting the Abraham Accords center stage. There are other countries that are looking at this. I think it’s been widely reported that the Saudis have been looking at this. They’re coming in two weeks to the U.S. to the White House. So we’re hopeful that we can work through. These are very difficult issues. They’re not easy to do. And we may not be able to get the Saudis in the next two weeks. But I can tell you that the president and his team are working very hard on making sure that Arabs and Israelis move forward with peace agreements, friendship agreements, and really solving some of these issues that have lingered for way too many years.
SPEAKER 07 :
That’s right. And I’m going to put that photo up on the screen that you sent to Logan now, just so that people can see what Rick is doing and the work. You are all over the place at all times. Now you’re back in D.C., you’ve been in Florida, you’ve been in California, and you’re abroad many times as well. So it is a wonderful opportunity for our audience to get to hear from you weekly because you are so busy. And we are grateful that we do get to have these issues unpacked by you. But I also, I want to go back to the Abraham Accords issue because that’s something that we celebrated. And honestly, Logan was even saying during the election of 2020 was not something that was touted enough almost of what an achievement that was. But the fact that we are now in the second term and you see that that is still a priority of the president. that these peace deals, these normalizing of diplomatic relations between countries, some that have never had relationship with the Israelis, when you go back to the first term of the ones that signed on, but he’s still determined to move forward with this. This isn’t something that was a priority then and just forgotten as the world has changed. I think that is such a testament to the vision for, for a more peaceful world that the president puts forward and that you fight for every day, Rick?
SPEAKER 04 :
Look, we were fighting for this during the campaign, right? The president put me and a few other people in charge of Arab and Muslim outreach in some of the swing states, Arizona and Michigan in particular, Detroit very specifically. And that was our message to Arabs and Muslims in Detroit. Pick the president. Go with President Trump because you are going to get peace, more Abraham Accords, more peace between Arabs and Israelis, and peace in the Middle East. But let’s also be a little bit blunt about the political times that we’re having right now. We see a big… huge discussion within the Republican Party and the conservative base, talking about Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, Mark Levin. People are taking sides as to are you pro-Israel, are you not pro-Israel enough, are you too pro-Arab? What I love about this announcement yesterday is to have the president say in a second term, peace between the Arabs and the Israelis is still a priority and we are going to announce a new Abraham Accord. We’re doing that in the first nine months of the presidency. This is absolutely going to be the priority. We’re looking for other Arab majority countries or others to step and say we’re gonna have a brand new relationship and it’s about peace. It’s not about taking sides, it’s about both sides working towards peace and people living side by side peacefully and working together on their economies for their families and for greater hope for society.
SPEAKER 05 :
And legitimately side by side. I mean, we saw that during the first Trump presidency. I said, when you saw Dubai, the UAE having Hanukkah celebrations where they were promoting Israeli travel, come take your vacation, your Hanukkah vacation, come to one of our countries, experience what it’s like here. Again, it got me emotional in those moments when you saw giant light up menorahs in these, like I said, predominantly Muslim countries that all seems to be, have been erased over the last four years. But now I’m very thankful that, that we are seeing that return to form here is one of the biggest, like I told Will, I said then one of the biggest accomplishments we had during the first Trump presidency was that so much so that we weren’t even talking about the Middle East. It becomes so calm, but almost to the point where it had become forgotten. And then, of course, within a few years, you had the Afghanistan withdrawal. You had all the issues that came out after that. It was a disaster. But thankfully, we now have leadership that’s getting involved back in that. I’m very thankful for that. I did want to quickly, before we wrap up, since we last spoke to you, obviously the elections happened in New York, Virginia, New Jersey, but of course also in California, your home state, another Gavin Newsom program that went in and it won with a pretty sizable vote. I mean, obviously when some Democrat comes into California, it’s not that shocking that it wins. But of course, this was a very controversial one with the redistricting. And I want to get your thoughts.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, look, I think special elections, no matter what state that they’re in, they tend to be just the majority base voters. And that’s exactly what happened in California. The majority of people voting are Democrats. I think the headline was blue states voted for blue candidates. To me, it was a big yawner. But at the end of the day in California, We are still making a big difference on voter registration. We’ll continue to do that. We got to change the math and we are making progress. Don’t give up on California.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, Rick, I’m glad you said that. I mean, it was one of those things with the election that we’ve been talking about it. And of course, now with the government shutdown, you have Bernie Sanders, a few others saying, well, clearly we had a mandate and i said the same thing we started the show which is yes the percentiles may be a bit stronger but the fact that you said oh we’re so shocked that new york voted for the democratic candidate to be mayor and we are so shocked that new jersey voted a uh a democratic governor i mean sure we were hopeful that things would maybe go a different way but none of this if you follow politics really should have been a shock for the last few months
SPEAKER 04 :
The shock could have been that Republicans did better than what they normally do, but I think it was right in line. Blue states like Virginia and New Jersey voted for blue candidates. If we had in off years elections in South Carolina and Idaho, I think we would be seeing the same results on the Republican side.
SPEAKER 05 :
All right, Rick. Well, thank you so much for popping on today. Really appreciate it. Phone lines are open. If you feel moved by what Rick had to say, maybe you got a comment based on any of that. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. Of course, we are now at the end of the first week of our Freedom Drive, which has been a really fun week. We have got a lot of you galvanized, a lot of you supporting us, kicking off this first week really strong. And next week, it’s not just more of the same. The Freedom Drive, still happening. But a bit of a caveat, you’re going to look at all the great stuff that’s going to be coming up next week. I’m excited about it. You want to make sure you tune in on Monday when we have some time to talk about it. But it doesn’t change the fact that your donation has doubled. So you can do it today. It’s the same donation. Go to ACLJ.org. When we get back, we’re going to hear from you. Phone lines are open, as I said. But right now is the perfect time, before it gets too late in the show, too late in the day, to support the work. That’s at ACLJ.org. And I don’t even support the work. I say that broadly. Support the media. Support this show. Support our media team, all the incredible people that work on this staff. All of it happens because of you. We’ll be right back with your calls and comments coming right up. Welcome back to Secula. I want to make sure we get to as many calls as we can, so let’s kick this off. Let’s do it in order they came in. Bobby’s calling from New York. Listen on the radio. Bobby, go ahead. Hi, this is your fellow rascal, Logan, and hi, Will.
SPEAKER 08 :
I would like to see your dad tell President Trump that maybe he should go on primetime television and spell it out for everybody and put the pressure on the Democrats in public and primetime television. and let him know just what’s going on, because a lot of people are blaming him. Some friends of mine are blaming Donald Trump. I’d just like to see him go on primetime television. Other presidents have done it with things, but I also need the phone number. If you can switch me back to your screener, because I donate by phone. I need the phone number for a donation, the toll-free number, and thanks very much.
SPEAKER 05 :
All right, yeah, we can maybe put you on hold and see if we can get that back to you. Look, Bobby, I think that in a regular world, that’d be very nice. The president comes on from the Oval Office and says, let me explain to you why this is not my fault. And American people listen and they go, okay, yes, that’s a good thought. You know what’s going to happen? People just say, he’s lying. Right. We live in this world where, again, anything Donald Trump does is wrong, is evil, is a lie in terms of if you are a Democrat, a commentator. Maybe you’re not a voter, but maybe you’re a Democratic commentator or you’re an elected official. So much so, as I said, or Republican, I’ll even put that on there. So much so. That that happened where you couldn’t get a two-page bill passed that says, let’s keep SNAP funded. Let’s get the FAA back open. That was all it said. There was no pork in it. There was nothing crazy in it. That was all it said. But that couldn’t get through. Why? Republican bad. And I would tell you, as much as President Trump going out there making that statement, all that is is talking to his base. Because everyone who’s watching that on the other side is just going to say, you’re lying.
SPEAKER 07 :
100% agree with you. And honestly, I hate that. I think that historically, Republicans in both the House and the Senate, as well as even some presidents are really bad at selling their ideas. i i genuinely believe that i think that’s why you see that democrats are able to maybe reach younger audiences because they they know how to spin for different platforms and they know how to do this now president trump has been kind of the outlier because he’s embraced social media he’s gone in different ways but he is so polarizing that a national address of that I think would would make people double down in their stance, thinking it’s his fault if he were the one telling them that. So I think honestly, it has to be when you look at the facts and people have to actually do research for themselves and see what is being fought over, what the Democrats are actually saying. And then you quite quickly realize that this could all be over. And there wouldn’t be a SNAP benefits crisis. And there wouldn’t be an air traffic crisis. And there wouldn’t be a federal employee pay crisis at all. These are not real crises. They are created crises, and they are very real for the people they affect. But this isn’t some natural disaster that came out of nowhere that no one could predict. The natural disaster here was the Democrat Party deciding that they were going to cause this and push this on the American people.
SPEAKER 05 :
All right. Good call, Will. Good comment. I liked it. What’s your favorite natural disaster? Put it in the comments. Let’s go to Melissa, who’s calling in South Carolina, who is an ACLJ champion, which is something that gives on a monthly basis. I’d love to hear from you if you’re a champion. Give me a call. But Melissa, you’re on the air. Thanks for holding.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay. Yeah. Hey, my favorite national disaster is an earthquake. There you go. My question is… Everyone’s got an answer.
SPEAKER 07 :
That’s from a former Southern California resident. Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER 10 :
That’s right. Go ahead. So when the travel crisis starts affecting the senators, I think that’s when maybe the shutdown will become…
SPEAKER 07 :
undone because they have to travel back to their constituents closer to thanksgiving i don’t know what your thoughts is on that but that’s my question do you think that’s when the end will come well honestly a lot of the senators uh you know there’s a good chance they’re adjourning for the weekend they’re not staying over now to uh to have any more votes so it’s I think they are able to leave when they want and they maybe can find different flights or maybe they can charter a jet together. Take a train like Joe Biden. Well, many of them. I mean, the senators from Connecticut, I feel like they don’t even have to worry about the air travel. They can just take the train. But yeah, I see where you’re going with that. And I know that the senators don’t like to be inconvenienced, but I feel like a lot of them will just be like, well, we’ll just leave town early and we’ll make sure we get home. That’s my thoughts on it.
SPEAKER 05 :
I think they’re taking the Dick Durbin double-decker bus.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, he’s retiring, and that’s his next venture after the Senate.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s his nickname. It’s double-decker Dick Durbin. This is fun to say. All right. I’m going to end this show strong, guys. Go for it. Ruth’s calling also an ACLJ champion. Hopefully not regretting that right now. Go ahead, Ruth, in Texas. I appreciate you tolerating me today. Give me your comment.
SPEAKER 11 :
Okay. I’ve already talked to somebody. I’m a doubles champion. My concern is about the nuclear, whatever they call that.
SPEAKER 07 :
Nuclear option, yeah.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yes. Options. Um, years ago, before they switched it to 61, I understand it was 60 bigger than that. But in those days, both the Democrats and the Republicans have cared about the country. We’re now in a position where the Democrats don’t care about the country. They’re trying to actually destroy it. So now would be the time to bust it. And so we can get done what we can because, They’re not working on the part of them. They don’t work for us.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, Ruth, I hear what you’re saying. And yeah, it is kind of the issue. One, even though they may not be what seems like working in the interest of the entire country, the reality is it’s not like they’re going away. And there’s a good chance that sometime in the near future, they will have the majority in the Senate again. And then they can just use the excuse to push through every piece of legislation that is harmful for the country because Republicans did it first. So I think that’s the concern. As long as there is this agreement in kind and these are the rules of the Senate and we’re not going to break them, then that is kind of the hope you put there. And then you hope some clear minded senators on the left will come to the middle and say, Yeah, we got to end this.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, absolutely. Hey, I don’t think we’re able to get to the rest of the call today. I’m sorry, Sarah and David. Call back next week early on. We’ll do our best to get to you because I wanted to take this next minute and a half or so as we are wrapping up our first week of our Freedom Drive. I mean, I have some notes in front of me that I just kind of wanted to read to you. It says there are a lot of cases that are happening. Monday, we’re filing an amicus brief at the United States Supreme Court to fight the left’s attempt to deny the president’s use of the National Guard in Chicago. In the coming days, we’ll file another in the Second Circuit supporting Doge’s ability to investigate fraud and abuse at the Treasury in New York v. Trump. And in the D.C., Circuit Court of Appeals were filing to beat back the attempt to funnel your tax dollars into radical left pet prod including direct funding for abortion by blocking the Hyde Amendment from being implemented. Of course, that is in the National Council of Nonprofits versus OMB. We cannot allow this to happen, and the ACLJ team is really hard at work. You’ve heard from many of our legal staff today, our legal staff throughout the week. You heard from one of our clients today, a student who just wants to start a Christian club. And they said, no, you can’t do this in your public school. If you want to have a Christian club, you have to be able to support and be inclusive of all religions. And of course, someone who is essentially starting a Bible study with the Bible study, they said, you know what? You can’t just talk about the Bible. You got to bring in all faiths in here. Of course, this is not a college world religion class. We are talking about a student led Bible study, a Jesus club, if you will. But the ACLJ team is there because this is settled law, folks. But sometimes you’ve got to remind them very strongly with some strongly written legal letters. And then if that doesn’t do enough, you’ve got to take it all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States if necessary. But the ACLJ team is hard at work, like I said, whether it’s our media team, our legal team, whether that is in the states or whether that is around the world at our ECLJ or ACLJ Jerusalem. Scan the QR code. Talk to you tomorrow.
