In today’s episode of Sekulow, we unravel the surprising developments surrounding the Benghazi incident. Thirteen years after the tragic attack on the U.S. consulate and CIA outpost in Benghazi, where four Americans lost their lives, a major arrest of a Libyan militant has shed new light on long-dormant investigations. Our hosts delve into the intricate details of the press conference led by Attorney General and other significant figures, discussing the eight-count indictment that charges have been brought against the captured individual and the implications it bears on justice and memory.
SPEAKER 09 :
To quote the late, great Charlie Daniels, Benghazi ain’t going away as a terrorist suspect has been extradited to the U.S.
SPEAKER 08 :
Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Seculo. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Logan Secular.
SPEAKER 09 :
I woke up this morning on a Friday and I said, Logan, what do you think you’re going to be talking about on the broadcast today? Are we talking about Minnesota? No, not today. Are we talking about Iran? Well, not really. But what we’re going to be doing is flashing back to 2012. Before I, my son was born, who is now a 13-year-old, so think about that. Because an arrest has been made, and it also shows you what are we doing here, folks. An arrest has been made 13 years later, a top terrorist suspect who was involved in and part of the Benghazi coup, Benghazi attack, whatever you want to call it. And this happened, again, just overnight.
SPEAKER 07 :
That’s right. So there was a press conference this morning held by the Attorney General as well as Kash Patel and U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro discussing this. And this is what happened. We’ve got someone who was a part of the attack. He’s been charged with an eight count indictment. It includes the crime of murder against Ambassador Chris Stevens and State Department employee Sean Smith. It also has arson charges. It has a lot of other things that are related to the planning and the execution of that attack on both the U.S. consulate as well as, remember, a CIA outpost was also a part of that attack where we lost American lives. This is something that… Like you said, you weren’t expecting to be waking up to today, but as of 3 a.m. this morning, they had landed at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland with Zubair al-Bakoush, who is this alleged terrorist that was in this.
SPEAKER 09 :
Libyan militant, I’ll quote it, suspected of being a mastermind of the attack was captured by U.S. Special Forces. Oh, no, this is a different one, 2014. 2014. It was brought to Washington. So I think I read the wrong quote there. Yeah, that’s all right. It was highlighted in front of me. Y’all could have highlighted the right thing. No, I’m kidding. That’s just me being mean.
SPEAKER 07 :
So there were four Americans, remember, that were killed in this. It was the CIA, as well as members of the State Department, a U.S. ambassador. And this individual is a part of that. There have been other arrests, you remember, that have gone throughout this time. And this, you know, we’re now talking… 14 years plus. And that’s where, back in 2014, a lot of those happened very close to the actual event itself when we were still more engaged in the area. But seeing this now, it is fascinating. We’ll get into some of the sound from the Attorney General as well in the next segment. But just really remarkable, even the commitment of the Justice Department this far away from the event to still bring these individuals to justice. And for the families of those that lost lives, I think it’s important as well.
SPEAKER 09 :
It was quoted saying we’ve never stopped seeking justice for that crime against our nation. I think that is pretty interesting, the fact that they even are going back that far. I mean, you start thinking about 2012. That was not recent history, if you will. Will, you know what? Because we’re in the awards season. What do you think the best picture was in 2012?
SPEAKER 07 :
Man, it wasn’t, was it the bomb defusing one? What was that called? Hurt Locker.
SPEAKER 09 :
No, it was the artist, the silent picture, which all of us remember. I clearly didn’t. Exactly. That’s what I’m trying to say. It’s been that long ago. Phone lines are open for you. Do you think we need to be spending time on things like Benghazi? We also got a lot more info coming up a little bit later. Will and I will be rambling. We’ll also be taking all your calls today. Will wanted to say it’s open calls Friday. That’s right. If we’ve talked about anything this week. There are certain things we’re not going to talk about. Don’t air all of your public personal lives. But if you do have a question or comment related to anything ACLJ related or any of the topics we brought up this week, whether that is Iran, whether that is Minnesota, whatever it may be, we’ll cover it here today. Give me a call at 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110. Look, a lot’s heating up also in the state of California. We’re going to get to that a little bit later, what the ACLJ is working on and why you need to keep supporting us. If you can, become a champion today. That is at ACLJ.org and donate now. Welcome back to Seculo. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. No, this is not. A repeat from 2012. You can tell our voices are scragglier now, well, than they were in 2012. Right. I’m not sure I had a beard in 2012. This is probably true. It was the last time I didn’t have a beard. Yeah. There’s a lot of things that have happened. They went through, when we were watching the breaks, Trey Gowdy going through, look at all the different FBI leaders we’ve had since 2012. I like that voice. It was a good rendition. I could have gone… More?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah. And I backed myself off. No, that was good. Sometimes you have to have a little bit of moderation.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, especially when you’re doing gouty. You’ve got to be careful.
SPEAKER 1 :
100%.
SPEAKER 09 :
That’s why I try to wake up in the morning, like, did you do gouty hair today? And I go, not today. Not today. Not yet. One day. One day. When I go full gray, that will happen. As you should. Full Greg Gowdy. When that happens, I’ll do it. But this, we’re talking about Benghazi. I mean, I can’t even believe it. I told, I used it as the tease. You know, every day in his life, Charlie Daniels, one of the greatest artists, musicians of all time, and a friend of this show and a friend of the family, he would post, Benghazi ain’t going away. And even since he passed away back in 2020, or 2021, I’m not sure, I believe 2020, his son has continued that tradition. And this morning, I was happy to text Charlie Daniels Jr. and say, you know what? Benghazi ain’t going away. But that is because you have people that are in place right now, like Kash Patel, who have been around this for a long time. They remember the trauma that came from this, and they aren’t going to let it go away.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, I think it’s also kind of an interesting juxtaposition. When you think about what we were talking about with the mayoral race in New York, right, where we’re like, we talked about 9-11, never forget, and then you see already how quickly what they’ve elected in New York is a radical Marxist-leaning mayor who is friends with radical imams. Who has used that as a part of his campaigning is going to the very ideology that was a part of what we saw happen on 9-11 in 2001. But also some of those imams were unindicted co-conspirators and were looked at with the first World Trade Center bombing. And I think that as an American people, we sit around and we think, we say things like never forget, but many of us do forget. And you think about Benghazi and the outrage at Hillary Clinton for this soundbite when she was before Trey Gowdy, remember? when he was in Congress and they were holding hearings on the response and the failure of the State Department during this attack and how the American government tried to spin so quickly it was a response to a video to try to cover up for their security failures in Benghazi. But this is what Hillary Clinton said at the time before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. This was in 2013, not long after those attacks, bite one.
SPEAKER 03 :
The fact is we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided they’d go kill some Americans? What difference at this point does it make?
SPEAKER 07 :
And once again, why that resonated with so many people at the time was because even her spin there, the was it because of a protest to a video or was it because of some guys out for a walk decided to go kill some americans everyone knew that her two choices there that she was presenting in that outrageous statement of what difference does it make she was leaving out the real cause the planned terrorist attack against american citizens against the american government that had nothing to do with the video i mean look and that’s what caused so much outrage then this is crazy we need to think about it we may need to back this up a little bit
SPEAKER 09 :
Because I was thinking about that. This happened before my son was born. He’s 13. There are plenty of our listeners who are between the ages of 20 and 30 who at the time were children when this was happening. I mean, that’s how long ago it’s been. You know, even though Charlie Daniels did post every day Benghazi ain’t going away, it hasn’t exactly been the story in the news in the last decade. So maybe we do need to give people a bit of a refresher, Will. I mean, even like in a minute of just what that moment was.
SPEAKER 07 :
Right, that’s right. And remember, it happened on September 11th. It was a chosen time by the terrorist to attack a U.S. embassy, or sorry, a consulate, it wasn’t a full embassy, in Libya. This is, you know, the Arab Spring had spread across North Africa and the Middle East. You were seeing these revolutions. You saw the fall of Gaddafi. You saw the United States have a consulate there in Libya trying to help remake Russia. what had fallen there. But we knew that terrorist actors had a large amount of control. And obviously, American diplomats, as well as a CIA station, were going to be targets of this attack and targets anywhere in the world. And the security was lacking. I remember when this happened, the imagery that came out and the headlines, it was shocking because a U.S. ambassador was killed. And that is not something that had really happened in my lifetime. I mean, I remember producing this show, getting ready for it, and the solemnity that went along with this because it was such a a shocking event that you never hear of that. You know that ambassadors have security teams and that there’s protection and everything, and even in the dangerous places in the world, but it was not something that was in kind of the The realm of possibility to wake up to was that a terrorist attack had taken out a U.S. ambassador as well as other members of the State Department. But we knew that two members of the CIA, they were contractors, were killed as well. They were there were these stand down orders. There were the the ways that they allowed this attack to go on. There was that film 13 Hours because it wasn’t a one off movie. Let’s do a quick strike and attack and console it because it’s an easy target. It continued on so much so that there were these alleged stand down orders. They were trying to mobilize planes from Italy to get there. And the bravery. of some CIA contractors to go and try and save people also turned the attack which was a mile away where the terrorists started attacking the CIA outpost which isn’t something that has signage on it not something that is is sitting here and saying oh we know that’s the consulate there’s the CIA we’ll go there so it was coordinated it was planned and you heard those words from Hillary Clinton but I like to play this contrast Because while many of us, including you and I, this isn’t something, we know Charlie Daniels was still talking about it, but it isn’t something that had been at the forefront of our minds in the way that something like 9-11 had been. This is how Pam Bondi, the Attorney General of the United States, very early into her remarks this morning, framed this entire thing. And let’s play bite three for everyone.
SPEAKER 01 :
Hillary Clinton famously once said about Benghazi, what difference at this point does it make? Well, it makes a difference to Donald Trump. It makes a difference to those families. And 14 years later, it makes a difference to law enforcement who made the difference in this case.
SPEAKER 07 :
And Logan, I think that is kind of what is different about this administration is that when they say never forget, And some of the things that have gone away, they are going to keep their word and do things that, if this hadn’t have happened, I don’t think it would have really been something that anyone ever thought back to. Man, they never really got one of those guys from Benghazi.
SPEAKER 09 :
I feel that way about the January 6th bomber. Remember, that just happened. And that was only a couple of years ago. That was four years ago, five years ago at this point. We’re talking about jumping back 12. We’ve got two minutes. I want to take Jerry real quick in Rhode Island. Hopefully that can spur you on to call in as well. Jerry, go ahead.
SPEAKER 05 :
I’ve been listening to the comments as a member of the uniform and a member of law enforcement. I agree with what Bondi said. There’s an old saying, if you don’t learn the lessons of history, you’re doomed to repeat it. I would love to hear some of the people who are in uniform, especially survivors of their call in and give their opinion. But we don’t learn the lessons of history. It’s going to be repeated.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, I mean, I think that that is very true, Jerry. It’s why I just made Will teach a little bit, because I think that that is necessary because there’s generational gaps here when you’re talking about over 10 years. I’m not just talking about kids who were born after it and are now 13 years old. I’m talking about people that are now in their mid-20s, late-20s. A lot of times, you’re not being exposed to what’s going on in the news. Do you remember what you were doing when you were 15 years old and now you’re 30? Were you paying attention to what was going on in the global news? Likely not. So we do have to go back and remind people. For a lot of us, it feels like it was just yesterday, but it wasn’t. And the fact that you have an administration that’s willing to still do this, I think it’s pretty impressive. Again, it wasn’t the news I expected to wake up to. If I had a bingo card for this year, Benghazi probably wouldn’t have been a topic that I thought we’d even be bringing up in 2026. But here we are. I think that’s good. I think it’s good that you keep, you know, it also keeps people on their toes who are out there still who were involved in things like this. So they know they haven’t gotten away with these egregious crimes against America. With that, I want to take more calls. 1-800-684-3110. Also in the next segment, got an update from the state of California. as we’ve been taking them on here at the ACLJ for a myriad of reasons, it feels like at this point. But we got a specific one in terms of our Supreme Court petition. So stay on hold. We’ll get to you if you call in 1-800-684-3110. We’ll get a special presentation a little bit later on the show that I look forward to sharing with you. We’ll be right back on Secular. Welcome back to Seculo. We got some open lines for you at 1-800-684-3110. I did want to give you an update on the ACLJ and what we’re doing. Put a little script in front of me. I’m going to read some of it to you.
SPEAKER 07 :
It says for, uh, what, what, Will? I just like, I like your transparency. I want to be honest.
SPEAKER 09 :
If my eyes aren’t on the camera, my eyes aren’t on you. They’re like, what is he looking at? I’m looking at a little script in front of me because it’s giving you an update of what’s going on in California. And Will can chime in with sort of the more nuts and bolts of this. But for over half a decade, Governor Gavin Newsom has been going after church tithes, we know this, and offerings to the tune of 1.2 million big ones. And that, of course, was over how people worshipped during the pandemic. And what happened was they’ve still been trying to collect these fines. We have all said, look, we know some of the hypocrisy that came upon California. We know Gavin Newsom is one of those people violating his own rules. We said, you know, it’s been long enough. You’re trying to collect a million dollars, nothing to the state of California, but everything to this church. We know why you’re trying to do this. Now, once again, Gavin Newsom, instead of taking their time in court, well, they decided they’d like to ask again for more time at the Supreme Court. The state of California just requested and was granted… A second extension of time to respond to our Supreme Court petition. Newsom again trying to what feels like bankrupt this Calvary Chapel in San Jose.
SPEAKER 07 :
That’s right. So if you remember, we talked about this. We’ve been talking about it for a couple months now that we filed our cert petition at the Supreme Court December 12th of last year. So we’re coming up on two months since we filed this. Normally there’s a 30 day window for the other respondents to file a reply brief. So basically they would be there filing their brief, which opposes the cert petition. The cert petition is where we are asking the court to review this case, to take up the case. And what we saw very quickly, just about seven days, one week after we filed on December 12th, the state of California requested an extension to file until February 17th, which they would be coming up on in just 11 days from now, having to file their opposition to our cert petition. And they requested this just, like I said, a week after we filed. That’s not abnormal. When something, one, especially if it’s something that maybe a party wasn’t expecting to come or if there was a lot of other things going on, they could ask for more time once they get your brief to prepare their argument against you. And so the Supreme Court granted that. They gave them until February 17th to file their brief in opposition to our cert petition. But then this week, after getting an extra month of time to respond to the ACLJ and our client, Calvary Chapel, San Jose, which we are defending here at the Supreme Court, they filed a motion for another extension for their response till March 19th. This is an extremely rare request. It’s not something typically the Supreme Court is even, you’re even seeing, seeing two extensions requested. The Supreme Court did grant that. They do give a lot of leeway to states. They know that obviously states have a lot going on. So it’s not as abnormal to me that the Supreme Court granted it per se because it’s the state of California. It is more abnormal that the state of California requested a second extension. Now, we don’t know what their reasoning is, but I like to believe personally that they don’t know what their argument is going to be to respond to us, to tell the Supreme Court, don’t take this up. Because they know deep in their hearts how egregious this is and that they’re probably going to lose. And they’re really trying hard to craft this argument. Now, once again, this is what I hope to be the case. We don’t know for sure, but that is what I want to believe is happening.
SPEAKER 09 :
Look, I’m not in for that much longer. I can delay this thing, and then it’s someone else’s problem. It’s not me. I mean, yeah, technically it still is, but you know what I mean. I’m no longer the governor. You know, it’s old news. The ACLJs, though, continue to fight back, and we want you to be part of the team today. As we continue, I get it. I never want to paint with a broad brush. We’re not in a fight with California. We’re in a fight with the political side of California. There’s a lot of great people there. We have members of our team there. We got offices and people who are Californians, proud Californians. We love the state of California. It’s actually between California and Texas. Those are our two biggest support hubs for the ACLJ. Understand that. Old school California. You know, televangelism, all the things that used to, a lot of that was Christian music. All of it was coming out of Southern California. We know that there is a big group of you that listen and watch in California. So when we say we’re taking on California, understand we mean the government, the state of California. You need to be a part of that as well. Today we have, again, so much going on. Not even just with that. I mean, we filed a amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court again to stop another California attack, this one on Christian schools, trying to make, if you’re a Christian school, you have to now make the Christian part of your school optional. So you can send your kids to this private Christian school, and California says, yeah, but we can tell the Christians they can’t teach about Christ.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, I think, once again, this goes back to what we’re talking about here. They want to make it so easy for people to water down faith in Christianity and their First Amendment right, which protects their freedom of religion. But when it goes back to what the entire case that they’re asking for this second extension for… Was that they were handing out exemptions, people able to opt out, if you will, of their COVID policies left and right. It was the churches that they were saying, nope, you’re going to have to. It doesn’t matter if you have an auditorium of 5000 people or 50 people. It’s this very narrowly tailored rule and all this things that were found to be unconstitutional and arbitrary later. They’re still trying to collect that money. But at the same time, they want to be like, hey, you can opt out of your Christian teaching at your Christian school. So it is always the option to opt out if you’re secular in California. But they are making these absurd rules, both when it comes to Christian schools, the way they applied COVID rules to the churches. It’s always much harder and much more strict when it comes to how they are treating people of faith, trying to exercise their First Amendment rights.
SPEAKER 09 :
As we mobilize in court to defend Christians right now, I need you to join with us at the ACLJ. Because as you remember, like this Calvary Chapel. We’re not charging them. Clients don’t get charged here at the ACLJ. We are funded by you, the supporter, the ACLJ donor, the ACLJ champion. So we can go to court for these clients at absolutely no cost. So we can provide all the invaluable resources on our website and through this podcast and through this podcast and through every way you get our media at absolutely no cost. If you’re hearing an ad in your market right now, that’s not going to us. What helps us is donations and support. So I encourage you, you can go to ACLJ.org. You can sign a petition right now as we mobilize in court to help defeat these attacks on our faith. And look, they’re real and they have impact around the country. And if you’re able, I’m going to ask you to become an ACLJ champion today. That is someone that gives on a monthly basis. That’s someone that gives monthly. essentially a membership type scenario, but it’s a donation every month that automatically rolls out. People come up to me in the streets and they go, Logan, I’m an ACLJ champion. And it warms my heart. I love hearing it. So become an ACLJ champion today. label yourself for that stand up for what’s right i encourage you to do that today again at aclj.org we are going to take your calls and comments coming up and another special presentation also you’re not going to want to miss we’re going to kind of swerve you something very special give me a call though 1-800-684-3110 and also support the work of the aclj as we have an extra 30 minutes of this show coming up if you don’t get us in your local market find us however you get your podcasts
SPEAKER 08 :
keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 09 :
Welcome back to Sekulow. Again, we have some calls coming in now at 1-800-684-3110. Will, do you want to give just a brief recap of what’s going on in this topic today?
SPEAKER 07 :
That’s right. So this morning at a press conference, which felt like at the time, because of everything going on in the news, we thought it was going to be something related to the abduction of Nancy Guthrie or something of that effect, because it was the U.S. Attorney General. Yeah. The FBI director, the U.S. attorney, Jeanine Pirro. But it was felt almost out of nowhere that they announced that they had arrested this individual, a suspect in the 2012 Benghazi consulate attack. His name is Zubair al-Bakoush. He has been charged with eight counts of various crimes, including arson, murder, terrorism, things of that nature. And he is in custody and has been brought to the United States, landed at Joint Base Andrews at 3 a.m. The attorney general also walked through how, because of the nature of this, you have to imagine it’s a multi-agency process. The operation, including the CIA, the office, the director of national intelligence to be able to bring someone from abroad. They wouldn’t even say where they captured him. If that tells you the secrecy of this, that they requested the judge where the sealed indictment was. to unseal portions so that the DOJ could even tell the families of Ambassador Stevens and Tyrone Wood and those that survived, those that have had loved ones die in this attack, let them know. By the way, we have not forgotten about you. And we are bringing another one of these perpetrators to justice here in the United States for what they did to you and your family and to the country as a whole. And so that is what we woke up to on this Friday. Not something we’d be expecting. But I think it also goes back to we had Jerry call and talk about the importance of knowing history and not being doomed to repeat it. I think it is important. You brought the pipe bomber that they went down after, you know, we’re talking almost five years that they brought this individual and they made an arrest there. That when when things that are big stories that are national outrage over and really that are tragedies in our country. If they are just forgotten, if they aren’t still showing that the the American justice system will hunt you down and bring you to justice, then then you will lose face in your justice system. And I think, well, this may not be a story that many even gets a lot of. long-term play out of. You’re not going to see it in the news for more than probably just today. I think it is important because as we see all the attacks on our judiciary, the history that we’ve seen over the past few years of the mistrust in the FBI and the Department of Justice and how it was politicized and weaponized, stories like this show that the people in charge now are trying to do the original mission, the goal of these institutions, and are showing that it doesn’t matter how long, even if people forgot about it, there are people within these institutions that are doing the hard work and will continue to do it.
SPEAKER 09 :
I’ve only got a minute and a half. I want to take Mary Ellen, Illinois. She’s been on hold for a little while. And give me a call, by the way, 1-800-684-3110. Last segment of the show, we’re going to take as many as we can. Mary Ellen, go ahead.
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, hello, guys. I just, as soon as I heard that on the news, I thought, wait a second. I clearly remember and following this so closely in those days. It’s like, where are the enablers like Hillary and Obama who were in the Situation Room and who gave the stand down orders? It’s like they enabled this whole thing to go down. And I’m thinking, why? I remember the gun running deal. Yeah. You know, that was all kept under wraps. Fast and Furious.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah. Like Mary Ellen, we know you remember you would call in. Right. I almost said that. Yeah. You’ve been with us for a long time, so we appreciate it. I know a lot of people do, but I just want to make sure we educate everybody. 1-800-684-3110 to call in right now. In the next segment, you may not know, another thing I do is my wife and I, we run CCM Magazine, Contemporary Christian Music Magazine. Been around since 1978. My wife and I run it. I had a great interview yesterday with Jonathan Rumi. You may know him as Jesus from The Chosen. He’s got a great new movie coming out. You know, we’re going to give you a little break on Friday. And I think you want to hear this really interesting interview with him promoting his new movie, Solo Mio, and a great conversation. But give me a call. We’ll take calls at the end of the show at 1-800-684-3110. We’re excited CCM Magazine to be joined by our friend Jonathan Rumi. You may know him as Michael W. Smith’s drummer, but today it’s a little different. Today is a little different. You’re here to chat about this new movie. I just saw the movie a couple weeks ago. I had the privilege of seeing a screening of this film of Solo Mio. it is such a blast. And you know, the, the people at angel studios, they want to make sure me tell, you know, it’s in theaters now. It’s a great date night. It’s a great Valentine’s date. But John, that even like for me growing up in the nineties, these kinds of movies, even as a teenager and as a kid, uh, we would all go to all these great romantic comedies even with our families and this movie it kind of has that feeling it’s it’s a movie we haven’t seen in a while which is a you know it’s it’s certainly not not geared specifically towards any sort of like you know adult audience it is really aimed at anyone can go see this movie and enjoy it um man what brought you to solo mio
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, thanks for having me, man. Yeah. So and to echo that point, like my nieces, I took my nieces to a screening in New York for the film and they’re teenagers and they loved it. They thought it was the funniest thing. And I was like, that’s a really good sign when teenagers, especially today’s generation, can actually find anything funny that that doesn’t have. you know, some recognizable Gen Alpha or Gen Z celebrity in it. So I’m like, this is good. That just means it’s, it’s a great story and it’s got all of the right beats and all of the right emotional arcs and comedy and a nice little twist, you know, that most people don’t see coming in the film. Um, a couple of cameos but uh other than that it’s uh it’s it’s just a really good story well told and uh and it’s wholesome and you feel good about it and and it’s it is one of those rare events where you know a film like this like with a you know a modest budget and a relatively small story you know there’s not explosions they’re not we’re not running around seven different countries it takes place in rome which is it’s which is stunning and beautiful beautiful Yeah, but but it’s a small story inherently. And it just it’s been really hitting with audiences. And they just love seeing something that reminds them of the simpler time at the movies where entire families could go and see this film. It is PG. So you could go and take your family to the movies and everybody like everybody in the family and the parents and the kids can both just enjoy themselves.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, and it’s just a really fun, sweet movie. And like you said, some really unexpected things. But I want to go for you. You’re working with Kevin James, who is a comedy icon, a legend at this point. His role is certainly the center of the storm that’s happening here. All of you guys, you and Kim Coates, all these incredible characters show up in his life. And I have to tell you this, man, and this isn’t me just like kissing up or whatever. I’ve already written the review that goes up tomorrow for the movie. I really think you stole this movie in terms of just the comedic moments. It is so you are so refreshing. It’s so good in this. So, again, I don’t want to like that. That was already the headline was was that Jonathan Rumi comes in here because he’s As an actor, it’s really nice to see, you know, all of your roles before Lonnie Frisbee, all these characters. But you’re able to showcase and is important to you to showcase. Look, I can do all of these these kind of roles and really break out of what maybe people think.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, you know, first of all, I appreciate that. Thank you so much. That really means a lot to me. Before I ever played Jesus in The Chosen, I mean, a lot of the small guest roles on television that I did, many of them were comedic. Many of them were, some were broad, some were very nuanced. But I did a lot of comedy in television. And so it was nice to kind of get back to that and to be able to play a character that, you know, I’m not having to carry the project and I’m sort of supporting Kevin and he’s brilliant in this. And it’s a career turn for him as well. And he’s so good dramatically in this. But for me, it’s nice to just be able to wear, you know, modern shoes and clothes and just kind of change it up a little bit, you know, and to not feel it.
SPEAKER 09 :
You’re in a playful kind of film. It’s fun.
SPEAKER 04 :
I’m not trying to carry the weight of the world. Right. You know what I mean? Yeah. So, yeah. More of that, please. I think hopefully this maybe will open more studios’ minds as to the range and diversity of the characters that I can play. And I think also… just even my fan base, then the people that love the chosen, I think this is an easy transition for them too, because it’s, it’s still, it’s still based in values. It’s grounded in values and morals. And, and, and even the depiction of the relationships are, are grounded in morality. And, and, and for me, like, you know, God’s design for relationship relationships and, and even the male relationships. I mean, this is about also the, like what does it mean to be you know a man and and masculine but tender and what is uh like a brotherhood of friends look like we don’t see masculinity um in in like traditionally um traditional masculinity portrayed in this way very often in movies anymore it just it it doesn’t happen it was so you know it’s been stripped out of the culture and so hopefully this is this is why we say that uh we’re saving the rom-com because there there is so much here for for people to love about it that they just haven’t seen and to see it on the big screen now and you know 2,900 theaters around the country uh in Canada I think um it’s just it’s a huge win for us
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, you bring that up, and I didn’t even think about that, but I’ve gone back a few times. The screener I had, I was able to replay it a half dozen times, and there were moments that I went back and watched again because I just thought they were either hilarious moments, but they are the moments that are driven by the relationship between you Kevin James, Kim Coates and sort of those that trio of characters having this relationship because maybe right. It isn’t something necessarily that we see. And I don’t again, we’re not spoiling anything. I want to make sure. And that’s even crazy to me because I had to put that even in my review, which is I wouldn’t have thought going into solo Mio that I could even tell you that there would be. something because you know it’s obviously market it’s a rom-com there are beats that we we kind of feel like are coming i wouldn’t have thought oh there are spoilers in this movie marvel kind of spoilers that happen uh and without going into it i mean when we’re watching this movie i’m turning my wife and going what is this movie did it feel that way making it i mean it had to have those those again without going into it it’s crazy
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. There, there’s a number of those. I mean, I, I say that I’ve been telling people that we sort of, I’ve been subverting the genre by, by subtle little plot twists that people are like, no, you know, and, and, uh, and you just, you don’t even expect it from the rom-com genre. It’s just like, let’s make a good film. And that was Kevin’s, Kevin’s intent the whole time. Like he, he wrote the film with, with, um, two of the Canaan brothers, John and Pat, and then, uh, Chuck and Dan also, there’s eight brothers in the Kinane family. They’re basically like a filmmaking collective and they’re brilliant and super talented and just such beautiful hearts and believers. And they just wanted to make a great film and they’d worked with Kevin before. And they said, what do you want to do for your next movie? And Kevin’s like, I want to do a movie in Rome. All I know is I want to do a movie in Rome. It’s so beautiful. And they’re like, OK, they got to work on it. And then when Kevin called me a couple of years ago and said, hey, I think I got a movie for us. And I said, whatever it is, I’m in. Months later, I finally met the guys and saw what the story was. I’m like, this is fantastic. I couldn’t, I mean, there was no way I could say no to this, so. end up in that relationship with kevin with kevin james funny enough we met at a spiritual retreat um like four years ago um right before lent right you know leading into the the 40 days of lent and uh it was actually when jesus revolution came out i went on retreat the weekend the movie was opening i went on a retreat for a few days just to kind of shut off because it was such an intense Kind of like this. I don’t have a retreat scheduled just yet, but the two weeks leading up to a movie’s release is pretty intense with press and appearances and traveling all over the country. And so this was something I had committed to ahead of time and was really looking forward to and just disconnecting. And he was part of this retreat that we did. Actually, he set it up. Um, and, uh, and I got to meet him and, and in this atmosphere of faith and prayer and, uh, and community and with other guys and, and it was like, I made a whole bunch of new brothers and friends. Yeah. And it was, and so from that point we became fast friends. We’re both, you know, from Long Island. So we had that in common. And so that was one of the things I drew from for my character of Neil and soul me was a guy that was like a local Long Island guy that I could just, you know, turn up dial the
SPEAKER 09 :
accent 211 on that one and really have fun with the uh the new york thing well maybe that’s why i connect with my family uh my family’s from long island so it makes sense okay my my dad and all of his family so that checks out that maybe that’s why i connected so much with your role they’re like what accent like he sounds normal to me it just sounds like my family it’s fine Well, Jonathan, I don’t want to steal too much of your day here. And we’d love to have you in studio. We’d love to do more with you next time you’re in town because obviously our audience loves what you’re doing. And I am so excited for people to see this sort of next iteration of your career because it is fantastic. Thanks, Logan. And I really do mean it. I really thoroughly enjoyed this movie, and I want people to go see it. Again, it’s a great date night, as they say. Great Valentine’s. Again, take your family. This is a great movie. If you enjoy Jonathan’s work, you’re going to enjoy this, and you’re going to see a different side of him. And look, again, not to spoil anything, but also as a hardcore Orlando Magic fan, I have to say thank you and go Magic.
SPEAKER 04 :
So, you know, that is something. It’s an NBA team, my friend. Look, that’s the NBA, my friend.
SPEAKER 09 :
I will be saying that. The rest of my life. It is a quotable moment. So thank you. The movie’s out. And man, I love chatting with you and we’ll do it again soon.
SPEAKER 04 :
Thanks, Logan. Look forward to it. Appreciate it.
SPEAKER 09 :
Welcome back to Sekulow, last segment of the day. Thanks for watching that interview with Jonathan Rumi again. Go check out Solo Mio. I watched it, really enjoyable movie, and I hope you guys like it too. Of course, his amazing work in The Chosen. Maybe he shows up on your phone saying prayers with you. He does a lot of those things. You’ll see him all over the place. Really nice guy. It was great to chat with him. I want to go to some calls, and I want to also hear from you at 1-800-684-3110. Let’s go to Parker in Maryland on line one. Parker, go ahead.
SPEAKER 06 :
All right. Thank you for all that you’re doing. And two things before I get to my point. I want to say that I contribute to you guys for more than one reason. But the primary reason is you guys take action. It’s not just talk. You take action. You take action that has consequences. That means you go to court and you get in the mud with these people. So thank you for that. All right. Second thing, I grew up over my first 11 years were overseas, Central America, Philippines, Asia. So the question about who should care about Benghazi, I say every American that is overseas, tourists, State Department, contractors, everybody. Because let me tell you what. What Benghazi did, and prior to that, is he eroded all the security, all the confidence that you have over there as an American. When I was young and I was growing up over there, my father was out helping, you know, these third world countries. He felt absolutely secure. Nowadays, because of Benghazi, just as a tangential, the whole… whatever is you feel you do not feel secure you’re vulnerable so can you imagine a tourist and you you can’t even count on your embassy or your country or your government and the people no longer have respect they just treat you you know you treat me poorly you know so that’s who should care
SPEAKER 07 :
Parker, I 100% agree. And really, we saw that we saw the even in the aftermath when they were doing the investigations that there were calls from that consulate and things saying we need more security in those requests were turned down or ignored. And that was kind of the aftermath is that as an American and why it was so shocking to see an ambassador that was killed. And yes, it was in Libya. It was not as if this were in France or in Europe somewhere. Right. But it’s still that that that symbol, that status that U.S. ambassadors could go to those countries and were safe. Yes, they had security. They had protection there. But there was something behind that. There was a trust in the American government that we take care of our own, even when they are around the world. And that is what eroded there. It also made other groups feel more opportunistic, like, oh. This is something we could be doing. There was a lot of damage that happened with Benghazi, and it has taken a long time to build that back. And I’m not sure that anyone’s ever really recovered from that, even if it’s not on the front of everyone’s mind as you travel the world, if you’re just even a tourist. But it was a real effect that happened. And I think, once again, why it’s so important. On a Friday, random Friday in February that we woke up to this news is because it does remind you that things are being done differently. This isn’t an FBI that is solely focused on going after parents at school board meetings or infiltrating Catholic churches here with spies. This is now a real serious law enforcement arm that is protecting the American people. And the Department of Justice is prosecuting cases like this. It should be a step back towards some sort of faith in those institutions. It’s going to take a long time to fully rebuild that trust. But I think it should be something that wakes a lot of people up.
SPEAKER 09 :
Parker, thank you so much for calling. We do have some open lines for you at 1-800-684-3110. And about five minutes left in the show. So if you do want to call in, this is a good time to do it. Let me know also in the chat where you’re watching from. The chat today, a lot of people chatting, a lot of talks going on. I want to know where you’re watching from all over the country and all over the world. It’s one of the cool things that we’re able to do now. You know, back when this show started, close to 30 years ago now, you know, it was my dad and my mom. And then later on my dad and co-host Gene Kapp. And then later on my brother and then me and now me and Will. And, you know, there’s been through many different iterations of this show. But one thing that we’ve always been able to do is to kind of strike when technology moves. And that’s been really great. We are still on terrestrial radio. You can still find us on a lot of your local AM FM stations. That’s great. As long as there’s an audience there, we’ll be there. We’re now on the Salem News Channel, which is almost an over-the-top traditional television network on free TV. If you have Pluto devices, Samsung TV, whatever it may be, we’re available there. But we’re also available on free options, YouTube, Rumble, at absolutely no cost to you and very little cost to us, to be honest. The whole show takes a lot of cost. But we’re able to then reach the world, right? That is something that was very difficult. We could only do that with partners like our television partners, like a TBN or something like that. We weren’t able to reach the entire planet. Now directly, we are able to reach the entire planet. Every day we know there’s people internationally that watch. And that is so refreshing to know that we’re able to reach so many people. But that’s only because people like you support the work of the ACLJ. And the part of that, I always say, the media and the law go hand in hand. So both of them, you got to get the message out there and then you got to take them to court. We’re not just a television show, not just a podcast. We also obviously have our legal arm. Both of those have to support each other, but none of them are supported without you. So as we start to wrap up this week, I want to encourage you to become an ACLJ champion if you can. Look, an ACLJ champion is someone who gives in a recurring way, gives every month like a membership. But what that does, and look, that is a very small amount. of people who are part of the ACLJ team. Let’s cut back to me. There’s a very small amount of people that are actually the donors. Most donors give a one-time donation a year or maybe they give sporadically throughout the year. You get motivated by something I say here or you get an email and you throw in 50 bucks or 75 bucks. There’s about 20,000 of you that decided I want to give on a recurring basis. Now that goes up and down, that number every day. because you can cancel any time. People’s credit cards get, you know, stuff happens and changes. But what I encourage you to do if you can, because what that does, When we’re looking at bringing on new members to the team, whether that’s the media side, we’ve got some great new members in our media team, whether that’s our legal side, we always have to be bringing in new lawyers to supplement our older lawyers who also some of them, you know, like I said, we’ve been at this show for 30 years. ACLJ has been around for 35 plus years. Some of the original ACLJ attorneys are getting to retirement age. That’s just what’s happening. So of course we need to bring in continually new blood into the organization. We have to recruit. We want to recruit from the best of the best. I want the best media team. We want to be here with excellence. I want the best legal team. We want excellence. So when someone calls and their kid is told, not only can they not declare who they want to be their own hero because it doesn’t fit a political or social narrative or religious narrative, can’t be Jesus. But not only that, they’re told, by the way, next time this happens, don’t go tell your parents. Essentially, we’re your parents here in the public school system that we can fight back for those parents at no cost to them. So right now, as we have one minute left in this show, I’m going to encourage you to go to ACLJ.org. Become a champion today if you can. If you’re already a one-time donor, great. Maybe you can up it to being a champion. If you can’t be a champion today, make a one-time donation. Do whatever you can. Help keep us not only on the air broadcasting, doing this show worldwide, but in court as needed. I want to thank you all for listening this week. It has been packed. Seen a lot of great comments coming in. Thank you from all of the team here at the ACLJ. We’ll be back on Monday with more. Make sure you are subscribing, following all the content we’re doing here. We appreciate that. Be a part of that ACLJ universe. Again, over half a million, 560,000 alone join us, our subscribers on YouTube, and that’s only about half of, not even half, who watch us every week. We have millions of people that watch on YouTube every week. That is just one facet of our program. And with that, that’s going to do it for this week, Will. That’s right. Sorry, I monologued that. That’s all right.
SPEAKER 07 :
I had an Iran update. We’ll get to it next week. Give me a 10-second Iran update. They are going to have more talks. All right. Talks tonight.
