Dive into the latest episode of Sekulow, where hosts discuss President Trump’s unwavering endorsement of Mike Johnson for Speaker, highlighting the political and legal implications. We delve into the push for legislative unity and the importance of cooperation among Republicans to ensure a smooth transition of policies that are crucial to the MAGA agenda. Through the conversation, insights are provided into the strategic roles that both President Trump and Speaker Johnson play in shaping the forthcoming political landscape.
SPEAKER 07 :
Breaking news today on Sekulow as President Trump destroys the rhino narrative.
SPEAKER 05 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 07 :
Hey folks, welcome to Sekulow. We are taking your calls to 1-800-684-3110. We are, again, you can see I’m traveling. I’ll be traveling with a different backdrop tomorrow, but we want to be with you this important time of the year. As we are finishing out the year, you know how critical it is for the american center for law and justice and listen this is critical time for you too because congress is coming back into session when congress comes back into session at the end of this week what do they do first they elect their leadership and what is the first vote that we take the first vote that we take is going to be who will be the speaker of the house in the republic controlled house of representatives and it now uh looks pretty clear Because there was a lot of talk about, well, could Mike Johnson, who is a great friend of ours, did the same kind of legal work we do at the ACLJ. I mean, really committed to the issues that we care about, that you care about. You’ve been on this broadcast a lot before you were Speaker and after becoming Speaker. So it’s been great for the ACLJ Government Affairs team to have his team in place in the Speaker’s office. As you can imagine, to have that long of a relationship with someone who is third in line to be President of the United States and the most powerful, powerful person in the Congress. But there was some people saying, well, maybe he’s gotten too soft. Well, President Trump has made it clear today, Will, he has endorsed Speaker Johnson 100%. And I think with that Trump endorsement, especially in the House of Representatives that is more MAGA than the US Senate, that that Trump endorsement really does matter. And I think probably takes Mike Johnson over the line. It doesn’t mean we won’t have some who try to start an insurgent campaign but it makes it a lot more difficult when president Trump has put his weight behind the full weight of his team behind Mike Johnson.
SPEAKER 06 :
That’s right, Jordan. And in a lengthy truth, social posts this morning from president Trump, he started out by talking about the campaign and how we’re the party of common sense. And then it ended with this says we ran a flawless campaign having spent far less with lots of money left over. They ran a very expensive sinking ship and, Embracing the DOJ and FBI weaponization against their political opponent, me. But it didn’t work. It was a disaster. Let’s not blow this great opportunity which we have been given. The American people need immediate relief from all of the destructive policies of the last administration. Speaker Mike Johnson is a good, hardworking, religious man. He will do the right thing and we will continue to win. Mike has my complete and total endorsement MAGA. So right there, he’s leaving no room for interpretation that it’s a soft endorsement or something of that nature. And if we believe that President Trump deserves the benefit of the doubt in who he picks for his cabinet and that he needs this team in place to get the agenda forward, I think that People that may have been on the fence about Speaker Mike Johnson should think that way as well, that President Trump knows what he’s doing. This is the person he believes is best suited to get the Trump agenda forward in the House of Representatives with a very narrow margin, mind you. And I think that complete and total endorsement speaks volumes there, Jordan.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yep, and you know what, folks? This is the most important time of the year for us. I want you to know, if you’re new to our broadcasts, and we were talking about this earlier in our meeting, we don’t usually fundraise like this so regularly. This is just because December is the most important month of the year for the ACLJ financially, not just for 2024. It’s really for 2025 and the work that we know we’re going to be doing on January 1st. So right now we’ve got, again, our matching campaign. We want you to be a part of that right now. There’s a midnight deadline on the 31st on New Year’s Eve. And right now when you donate, it’s tripled. Triple the impact. Think about that, folks. Usually it’s double. So for the ACLJ, you know, we don’t do those crazy matches where it’s 100 times match. This is triple the match. So if you donated $20 right now at ACLJ.org, that is equivalent to $60 to the ACLJ. $100 becomes $300. $500 becomes $1,500. Think about these numbers, $200 to $600. This is the time to make sure we never have to say no to a case and our team is ready to keep fighting in the new year. I want to know folks from you, what do you think about President Trump’s endorsement of Mike Johnson to continue to be Speaker of the House? Let me tell you something, folks, it is a very difficult job to be Speaker of the House. A lot of people say they would like to be Speaker of the House. Let me tell you, there’s only a handful of people that will usually ever put their names forward. And why is that? it can become a very thankless job. You’ve got to weigh a lot of different decisions, especially when you’re talking about the government shutting down and how that can affect an incoming Republican president. You want to make sure that we are doing everything we can in these first 100 days to get as much of the Trump new agenda done legislatively, get that moving as fast as possible. We have two years left where we have slim majorities in the House and the Senate that are Republican and a Republican president. They are pretty in line in the U.S. House, I have to say, though they sometimes differ on a few smaller items, on the big items. But we’ve got to really work in the Senate to make sure we get across with the 51 votes, and J.D. Vance can assist with that matter. But we’ve got to have a Speaker of the House who will fight with the Senate leaders to make sure we get the most conservative votes legislation possible that we can support, that President Trump is asking for. And that is why I believe President Trump has said, you know what, we’re not doing these crazy, we shouldn’t do these crazy fights to undermine the strength of the speaker. We need a speaker who is Willing to take the hits. Mike Johnson is willing to do that for the American people, for his fellow members of Congress. And remember, he’s one of us. I think a lot of times you forget that when they become speaker after a while. You forget where they came from. He is not this lifelong politician who he thought, you know, all I want is I want to make my way to speaker and I want to become this national speaker. major leader where i’ve got to you know negotiate budgets with the president of the united states he’s a religious liberty guy a free speech guy he was an attorney just like so many of us at the aclj that’s what he spent his life doing until he ran for congress and again he’s i think stepped into the shoes of a major position where a lot of people thought he would not last very long i remember in a meeting with a senator you know he went around the room and said what’s the the biggest prediction you can make that right now seems like it would be unlikely, and it was that Speaker Johnson would last a year. Well, now we’re talking about a lot more than a year, and he’s got President Trump’s endorsement. What I want to know from you at 1-800-684-3110 is how important is that endorsement? I’ll tell you, Will, why I think it’s important. If you voted for President Trump, you want the Speaker to be the person he wants to deal with. You don’t want to put a Speaker in that the president doesn’t like to work with, or that is an attack dog against the president. He’s not doing enough. He’s not conservative enough on every single issue. We know President Trump is unique. That’s why he’s brought more people to the party. That’s why he won the way he did. against uh against harris and uh and look at the fear he put into the the democrats by taking out joe biden from the race and now we’re hearing those articles about joe biden wishing he was still in the race but will i think that that has to be known and yes he’s a friend of ours i’ll say that right off the bat but if you’re an aclj supporter how great is that that The few of us at the top of the ACLJ can go right to Speaker Johnson if we ever need to. Our government affairs team works with his team very closely on all of the issues that you care about. And we’ve been able to expand the issues we work on, Will. So I think, again, this endorsement should matter a lot if you voted for President Trump because you want his guy in as Speaker of the House. The Senate is tougher. So we’ve got to have a united House that will then go into the Senate and make sure we get the best legislation done in this period of time that you only usually get for a couple of years in your presidency, if you ever get it, which is a united Republican party front in Washington, D.C., with every branch of government, whether it’s the legislative branch, the executive branch, and of course, the judicial nominees, all of that will be so important as well. And so I think, Will, it should carry a lot of weight, even if you were someone on the line maybe yesterday thinking about maybe someone else should take that role on. President Trump has said, this is the guy I want to work with. And I think by that statement alone, if you’re someone who got elected because you told people you were gonna support President Trump, how on earth do you get in there and then say, you know what, I support President Trump, but I wanna pick someone that he doesn’t want for Speaker of the House?
SPEAKER 06 :
That’s right, Jordan. And I know that a lot of people were concerned when the spending fight here at the end of the year started to bubble up in Congress. And the original package that was kind of brokered to go forward was shot down pretty quickly by President Trump and Elon Musk and those like saying, hey, this isn’t really the agenda we’re putting forward. And so that’s when a lot of people start to say, Mike Johnson is a rhino. Mike Johnson, he’s not actually on our team because of this omnibus spending package that was only for three months to avert a crisis at the beginning of a Trump presidency. And my take on this, and I want to get yours as well, is that one, I think it also showed that as soon as President Trump, who is not president yet, so would not have signed that bill, said this isn’t the fight or the way that we want to start off. What did they do? They pulled the bill and didn’t vote on it and they ended up coming up with a different plan. I think that one shows you that Mike Johnson is willing to listen to the president to put forward what the fight will be. The other side of that is that the Republican caucus right now is still almost a European style parliamentary coalition. Because there’s still some hardline, old school Republicans that don’t really represent what make up the party today. You have the Freedom Caucus. You have the Warhawks. You have a bunch of different Republicans that come together and that Speaker Johnson has to corral into some sort of coalition that can move forward in the agenda. I think Mike Johnson was trying to get ahead of a fight early by putting something that would be a three month spending package that didn’t end up getting signed. But knowing that one, it had to get through the Senate, which is still controlled by Democrats today. and a president that is also a Democrat. So therefore, he had to play the Washington political game to get something to go forward so that he didn’t trigger a crisis before President Trump even got into office and then stalled the agenda forward. Now something better came out of that, but I honestly think that Mike Johnson is savvy enough to know that he’s trying to not place landmines in the path of president Trump’s agenda before he even takes office. And so what many people think was a rhino move, I think was actually him trying to shield president Trump from a big disaster before he even gets there. I’d like to get your thoughts on that too, Jordan.
SPEAKER 07 :
No, absolutely. I think that, listen, The speaker’s job and the job of the Republican Party, if you are not the president, from the vice president down, if you support what the president is doing, if you believe he is the leader that you supported and you want to get his agenda through, what do you need to do? You need to make it as easy as possible. And that means take as many of the hits for him as possible so that by the time the legislation gets to him, he can sign it with widespread support. Republican support and widespread support, not just from Republicans in the country, but the American people. Because remember, these big legislative issues, we have to not only pass, but then we have to actually go out into the congressional districts. President Trump has to address the nation, go out into the country, and tell them why this is the best way forward, why we need this legislation, why it was worth a major reform. All of this work, by the way, the ACLJ is uniquely situated now to do a lot more work on. And let me tell you about ACLJ Action for a little bit too. ACLJ Action is a C4, so we do issue advocacy campaigns. And It is a sister part of our organization. It’s not uncommon in Washington, D.C. So we have doubled the impact of our government affairs team when we are now operating in Washington, D.C. I like to say that our team in D.C. now has another major tool in their toolbox, if you will, and that is this other entity that can go further into the battles on issue advocacy, on really educating people about legislation. So I think Again, this is the time where we need your financial support. We’ve got a couple calls in. We’re going to get to your calls. We come back from this break. I want to hear from you. If you had a member of Congress and you voted for them and they were a Trump-supporting member of Congress, Would you expect them, would you want them to say, you know what, if President Trump wants Mike Johnson, well, I trust President Trump’s judgment because I voted for him to be President of the United States, the most powerful person in the world. So I think I should trust him when it comes to who should be the leader of the House. And it’s obviously someone he likes to work with. And I will tell you, his team, while they were new, and it was a while back, they have become a really effective team that has been great to work with. for true conservatives. And I’ll tell you, I mean, I don’t want to get into too much, but he really does great work in bringing organizations like ours into the fold as much as possible on all of the issues and asks then what issues we want front and center. I can’t guarantee that with other members of Congress who might want to be Speaker of the House. I can tell you that’s the case with Mike Johnson as well. And that’s why we want your support. Because we can really take our efforts in Washington, D.C. to the next level. Our legal efforts are certainly going to go there because we are going to help drain this swamp. And that is going to be a fight just like it was before. But we also want to take our government affairs work and get the legislative work done. And it’s going to help you help the American people so much. Donate today. ACLJ.org. Triple match. Secco. This is Jordan Secco. Folks, these are the most important two days of the year for us at the American Center for Law and Justice. As you can see, we’re on the road. I’ll be on the road again tomorrow before, even on New Year’s Eve, speaking with you live because of the importance of this month to our year fiscally. And what I mean our year, I mean 2025. I want to go to the phone calls, but Will, right before I do, we’ve got a few lines open and I want to hear from you folks about, again, what you want to see the ACLJ focused on in 2025. I think one focus that a lot of you would agree with is making sure we can get as much done positive with this new Congress and President as we can when it comes to policies. Get as much as we can done in the first 100 days, in these first two years, And also make sure we’re ready for potential judicial nominees. And again, making sure President Trump gets the cabinet he wants confirmed and gets those leaders confirmed to the cabinet. That’s also something we do as we, again, have that kind of unique role where we’ve got a very good relationship with U.S. senators and the Republican Party. across the board from kind of the more moderates to the most conservative. But also, just knowing that if you really do believe in what President Trump is trying to do, I think when he says, this is my guy, you have to say, you know what? This is the person he wants to work with. Let him work with that person. And if down the road that doesn’t work out, President Trump is not the kind of person who’s just going to stick with him if he’s not able to deliver. So I think you could have faith kind of two ways. One, trust President Trump. He likes working with Mike Johnson. Two, if Mike Johnson isn’t able to get the job done, and I think he’d be the first to say it as well, then he would step aside and let someone else in his place if They thought they could, President Trump thought there was someone who needed to be fresh in there. So again, I think it is very important that Mike Johnson got this endorsement. But I also want to hear from you about the issues you want kind of done right off the bat. Where do you want the focus to be in 2025? And Will, before we go to the phones, just a few things, let people know a few of the things we’ve already got that we’re working on in 2025.
SPEAKER 06 :
That’s right. Just as soon as we’re into the new year, and I know our attorneys are working on it right now, that case in Massachusetts where we filed a lawsuit because of the funding the state was using to target pro-life pregnancy resource centers, the state filed a motion to dismiss. In our response to that, is due January 10th. So our attorneys are working, even working through the holiday as they already and typically do, but they will be having that brief ready for January 10th to file our response to the motion to dismiss from the state of Massachusetts and that pro-abortion organization that was running an ad campaign targeting pro-life pregnancy resource centers. We also have a filing at the Supreme Court coming up in a case which would allow states to defund Planned Parenthood. So using their choice of how they use Medicaid dollars and not being forced to fund groups like Planned Parenthood. We have a sidewalk counselor case, a lot of pro-life work coming up in 2025 that’s pending at the Supreme Court. That’s the Turco case you’ve heard us talk about. working on a second major amicus brief right now that will go to the International Criminal Court to defend Israel after the arrest warrants were issued against Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu and former defense minister there. And then we are defending three Christians right now that are on death row in Pakistan. for their faith so this is religious persecution at its worst these individuals are on death row facing death for being christians and we also as i mentioned earlier in that lawsuit with massachusetts we’re also preparing to launch that half million dollar ad campaign to stop the mass deception out of massachusetts and give expecting mothers’ resources and babies’ resources in the state of Massachusetts, where the state wants them to only have one choice, which is abortion. So Georgia, get ahead in this very early days of 2025 that we look forward to.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, just to run that campaign in Massachusetts and really to test to see if we want to take that to other states around the country. We know it’s going to cost about $500,000 to run it the way we want to fully respond to what Massachusetts has done with this pro-abortion organization. So the state, the Commonwealth, took about a million dollars of taxpayer money and combined it with a pro-abortion group. And they’re spending close to eight. We think we can be a lot more effective in our reach. We’ve got the ads ready to go. We’ve played them for you here before. We’ve got billboards ready. We’ve got social media ready. We’ve got lawsuits ready, potentially, because of the way that really they are. They are just the way that they are. Talking about these pregnancy resource centers is just disgusting. But to do it right, we’re going to have to have $500,000, and then we’re going to know if it works in Massachusetts. It gets the attention, and people realize, wait, there are other options. And we fight back against how these pregnancy resource centers really have been defamed by the commonwealth. who is working hand in hand with abortion organizations that, again, make their money off doing abortion. So it’s like fighting a big business, as I always say, with almost endless resources. And we want to take it to more states. We don’t want to just do this. And it’s not just for people in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. This is where the battle started. If we can be successful in this effort and see that it does change the discussion, we want to bring it to your state too. So we’ve got to get there. We’ve got to fundraise. And that’s why we’ve got the triple match right now at ACLJ.org. I haven’t done a triple match in a very long time by donating to ACLJ, even during these deadlines. And this, again, the most important two days of the year for us financially. You can talk to anyone on our team. They know it. It’s the 30th and 31st this year, the last two days of December, the most important days. And you have until midnight on New Year’s Eve to be part of that triple match. Will, let’s get to a phone call now. Let’s go to Robert in Maryland on line one. Hey, Robert.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, I wanted to ask the both of you, now that President Trump has said he’s given his full support of Mike Johnson being the Speaker of the House, are they going to be able to get through, meaning the House of Representatives and the Senate, the Trump agenda on foreign policy, on taxes, on regulatory policy, and also inflation? And I wanted to add another one, the pro-life issues.
SPEAKER 07 :
You know, I think so. Let me start with foreign policy. Foreign policy, the president has the most power to act on his own. So you see this rush at the end of the year where President Biden is getting the last remaining money he can, I think, to Ukraine. It’s like $1.7 billion. Because he knows that when President Trump comes in, even if that money was allocated by Congress in legislation, the president doesn’t have to exactly use it immediately or could decide to use it a different way or not use it all at one time. So I think, again, when it comes to those issues of foreign policy, the president is at his highest point of power. that’s where he has the most power to act unilaterally. And there’s a lot of constitutional scholars work, Supreme Court cases on that. When it comes to the taxes issue, that’s legislative battles, Will. That’s where we’ve got to make sure, yes, we know we can probably get the votes in the House of Representatives. We got to make sure we can get the votes in the US Senate. And it’s why it’s critical the ACLJ team, our government affairs team, the ACLJ action team, has all the resources we need, kind of like the cases where we never have to say no to a battle, a legislative battle either, and cutting taxes and making sure we get that through. It sounds like it should be easy when you’ve got a Republican House and Senate, but the Republican House is a lot more conservative than the Senate. So we’ve got to be ready to fight, Will, and that’s what we’re doing through this match is making sure we’ve got the resources necessary to go to battle on all of those issues that Robert just brought up. Some are more difficult than others. Some the president can do on his own. Some we need legislation. And when you need legislation, that means you got to bring the Republican votes together. And we can do that with your support. Donate.
SPEAKER 05 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 07 :
the secular folk, you know, there are going to be a lot of battles. I mean, Lord, just the last eight hours, we saw the battles, Will, with just the H1B1 visas and kind of where the reform should go there. And, you know, I think where people kind of landed is that there was some confusion on H1B1s taking jobs from Americans, which should never be the case, but that they should be utilized when there are not enough Americans that have the highly skilled Usually it’s in the tech world to be able to assist these companies that are trying to do wonderful and great things for the country. But because we have not had the best math and science programs, it doesn’t mean that those companies aren’t being run and the majority of the staff are American. But what it does mean is that if they could find someone in a different country around the world who’s one of the best at the job that they’re looking for, that as America, we do want to be able to bring that person in. Because I think Elon Musk is right to the point, I’m not endorsing everything he said, but he’s right to that point where he says, listen, if there’s somebody out there and everybody knows how great they are, this team that’s out there, from a smaller company overseas that everyone knows this team is really smart, really good. They are gonna go to whoever comes to them first with a better offer. And America can always make the best offer. That’s where people wanna be. But if they don’t get that offer, guess where they go? They end up with China, or they end up with Russia, or even worse, they could end up with Iran. We don’t wanna see that happening, Will. I mean, so we wanna make sure as a strong country, know that the system isn’t abused and we’re not taking jobs from the American people. But if we’ve got a group of highly trained scientists and mathematicians who think they can provide something that can be really created in America, made in America, let’s make sure we do make it in America. And I think tied to that is bringing more of those jobs and also teaching people who want to work with their hands to encourage those jobs as well. And I think that President Trump is the right president because he knows the importance of having great contractors and having great people on job sites who can uh get buildings done on time and get get the construction done rebuilding our infrastructure rebuilding our roads uh getting the wall done in mexico where so we can secure our border you’ve got to have a lot of people with a lot of special uh sometimes special knowledge and they don’t all come here. They’re not all Americans, but we’re a country that can really pick from the best. Why give that away? Not on a large scale where we’re trying to mass fire Americans from jobs, but on a micro scale where we need someone or their group, their team, so that we can bring them onto the American team. And we’ve been successful throughout history by doing that. I mean, my Lord, this is why Elon Musk is in America, Will. I mean, he wanted to come here because he knew this was the only country he could realize this pretty wild vision he had as a young person, young entrepreneur, to send rockets to space, ultimately build a base on the moon that could then eventually take to take humans to Mars. I mean, think about that. And he’s getting about halfway there right now. Only in America does that happen. While at the same time, starting the first electric car company without subsidy, without lots of subsidies from the government. In fact, he likes to point out, he didn’t ask for that tax credit. It was American car companies, like the big ones, like GM and others who needed the tax credit because they needed to create those electric cars, which could not at the time keep up with what Tesla was doing. And now we’re seeing some of the prices come down, some of them being more reasonable. But we’ve also gotten a reality check from people like Elon Musk. And it’s why the left doesn’t like it, which is that even though he benefits from electric cars being sold, you don’t have a grid ready for everybody to be driving electric cars. So what do you have to do? You have to invest in the right kind of infrastructure in America. That’s both oil and gas. You can look down the future to the electric cars thing as well. Make sure that they’re going to work in wintertime in other places. They’re not just kind of a novelty. We want to do all of that in the United States. We keep America number one at every – the first job of the president is to keep us safe. Making sure our military is ready to go, border is secure. And you know this president’s going to do that. He’s going to have a lot of pushback through lawsuits. We’re going to fight back in all of those lawsuits. You know what that takes? Money. takes resources that is not free so donate today so that we can say yes we can file we can fight for that wall we can fight for that issue donate your donations tripled aclj.org today Thank you. We’re going to be with you live wherever we are in the country, as you can see, moving around the country today. I want to go first to Jeff Balaban is about to join us from our office in Israel that he oversees. But I want to take a caller first who’s been holding on the line. Whitney out of Texas online, too. Hey, Whitney.
SPEAKER 01 :
Hey there. Thanks so much. Yeah. You know, Speaker Johnson’s really good for us. And Ted Cruz made some comments that gave me some clarity. He said the number 218, our speaker can’t do anything unless the Republicans don’t coalesce. And to that, you know, I said right after the election, that’s great. We’ve got the House. We’ve got the Senate. We’ve got the White House. But our congressmen especially have to get very comfortable with one word, and that word is lockstep. I love that there are certain congressmen I really like, but they make declarative statements like I am always a no on a CR or I am always a no on the debt ceiling. And we don’t have the luxury of having those kind of principles. We need to. We need to cooperate. We need to get behind our speaker. We need to get behind something that might be 75 percent instead of 100 percent and get over that finish line that gets things through. And that’s the number 218. We need 218 votes. And that’s where we can sort of step in and tell our congressmen how we want them to vote on our behalf.
SPEAKER 07 :
And I think it’s key when you have someone like Ted Cruz, who I see as kind of the the leader of the conservative movement in the Senate. He was there before a lot of those other now well-known names were there as kind of an outlier at first. And now it’s become much more mainstream. You’ve got the Josh Hawleys. You’ve got the, again, you’ve got the Tom Cotton’s. You’ve got others, many others, Mike Lee’s, who kind of came up with Ted Cruz as well, who are eloquent, but also very tough. But they understand that That to get things done in Washington, you want to get 100% of what you want. But even when you’ve got Republican control in the House and the Senate and the White House, you know that it’s, again, it’s slim, as you said, Whitney. And we just need more people to keep that in mind. That if we get 75% or 80% of what we want in this legislation, that is a whole lot better than what we would be getting if we didn’t have a Republican-controlled Senate. by, you know, with Athun as leader or a house by, you know, controlled by Mike Johnson and we’d be getting nothing or maybe 10% of what we want. So again, 80%, 75%, those are victories. Let’s stop acting like those are losses. That’s self-inflicting wounds. And you can get to the 100% victories by building on the 75% victories and showing the American people why your ideas work. And that’s at all levels of government. Now, Will, I want to get right to Jeff Balaban, too, because Israel and the world, because you got new kind of Again, conflicts erupting all over the world right now. That is what Joe Biden is leaving to the incoming president, President Trump, and not just in Ukraine and Russia, but still a very kind of convoluted message in Israel and also with what Israel is dealing with now with not just Iran, but Syria being run by supposedly a reformed, the former militant wing or army wing of al-Qaeda.
SPEAKER 06 :
That’s right. And Jeff, I wanted to bring you into this discussion because we started the show talking about President Trump endorsing Speaker Mike Johnson to be speaker again. And I sent you an article this morning where Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu said there’s no hostage deal because Hamas doesn’t want one. As we look forward into 2025 under a Trump presidency, we know that the hostages, especially the fact there are still American hostages being held by Hamas, is of utmost importance to President Trump. But it can’t be lost on everyone that one of the first actions as Speaker of the House by Speaker Mike Johnson was hosting ACLJ and our clients who are families of people taken hostage by Hamas on October 7th. And giving them a room, giving them an audience to the media and showing support from the American Congress for those families and those hostage families as well as the hostages that were being held by Hamas. So as we look forward, it’s important. That we have someone who is, as the caller said, in lockstep with President Trump, wanting to get the agenda done, but also understands those issues and can be a light in areas that we need him to as we look at things like trying to finally end this hostage crisis with Hamas.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s absolutely correct. I’m going back, as far as I can remember, I don’t recall there ever being an alignment as favorable, as hopeful, for resolution of these very difficult issues. And not just this terrible war that’s been raging since the attack on October 7th, not just the horrible hostage situation that, as obviously, we’re very involved in trying to help fight. certain hostage families the ones that have come to us for for assistance uh but i’ve never seen an alignment here you know donald trump was fantastic as a president for israel the first time he was in the white house and now we have speaker johnson who obviously is very close with us we see eye to eye with on these issues and so god willing look it’s a very difficult situation the announcement by prime minister nathaniel today It’s not really a shock that what Hamas has been doing has been playing a brutal game to try and keep its own survival on the one hand, but also really to torture Jews around the world, on the other hand, by holding these hostages. And until now, they’ve dealt with a feckless administration in America that has really been unhelpful, to say the least. And I think they’re confronting an entirely new reality now. What unfortunately that may mean for the individual hostages remains to be seen, and it might not be good. They’ve been held hostage not for their benefit, but for Hamas’s benefit. And the fact that Hamas understands that its days are probably numbered with the incoming administration is, you know, we have to really hope and pray that these hostages are able to survive it.
SPEAKER 07 :
I think this would be helpful to our audience right now who are really asking to financially support the ACLJ at the end of the year. So we’re ready to go for the new year in 2025 with all these battles. And just to kind of talk about what the work of the ACLJ Jerusalem is going to look like in 2025. Obviously, some of this work that you just described will continue, but we also have to be able to kind of double down now, as you said, on these issues like the hostages, because it takes that much more work to bring attention to it, to make sure people don’t forget. about these conflicts to make sure people realize what Israel is dealing with on so many different fronts right now. And we know our supporters care about it. It’s just a lot of information that they’re trying to take in every day. So when they’re supporting the ACLJ, they’re supporting ACLJ Jerusalem. What are the priorities for ACLJ Jerusalem going into 2025?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, thanks. As you know, Jordan, internally we’ve been discussing even expanding some of the operations that we have until now programmatically. Until now, people in Jerusalem recognize that ACLJ is uniquely informative and understands and connected and powerful in Washington. And obviously what happens in Washington is incredibly important to Israel. We’ve seen it this past year again, more than in decades, how important it is to have a favorable climate in Washington and a good relationship between the White House and Congress and Israel’s Prime Minister and Knesset. For us, it’s being really probably one of the most trusted, I don’t want to say the most trusted, but we might be, source of information between Washington and Jerusalem Because we are so, thank God, so well connected, because we are so trusted on both sides, both in Jerusalem and in Washington, and each trying to understand the other side without the white noise of people with their own agendas. And that’s the role we play. I think that we’re going to be expanding that role. Well, naturally, we already are, because we’re being constantly asked to prognosticate the future and also to try to have influence on both sides. And so I think the role here is just going to expand and grow as it’s perceived and understood that we understand and are so well connected with the powers that be, both in Washington and in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, and I mean, I think, Jeff, too, the issues that the people of Israel are facing, I always tie this to American security, because I think it’s important, is that, you know, when the U.S. provides aid to Israel, oftentimes it is working hand in hand with Israel on developing defensive or sometimes offensive weapons that will be utilized by the United States military. And then it’s tested in Israel. So that Israel is the test case because they are in a constant state right now of conflict, of these rockets coming in. So I think that really started publicly with the Iron Dome and then the mobile Iron Dome units that can be utilized, and now drone warfare that we have to be prepared for as well. That this is not just money that goes into the IDF to decide they can do whatever they want with it. It’s really a partnership with Israel to make sure that our men and women in the United States benefit from the best technology that has been tested on the battlefield.
SPEAKER 04 :
So historically, we see that America’s benefits tremendously from Israel’s intelligence and weaponry development. And of course, the future holds even greater promise for that. And this is that great moment where people think foreign aid is just helping Israel. It’s not. It’s America’s interest. And that’s why America should continue to do it. And God willing, we’ll continue to work closely with Israel on these matters.
SPEAKER 07 :
Jeff, thank you for joining us from ACLJ Jerusalem, folks. Again, that may be the issue for you that you care deeply about. Know that your donation matters there so much. Donate right now at ACLJ.org, and until midnight on New Year’s Eve, your donation will be tripled. You can use the QR code if you’re watching the broadcast right now. Go to ACLJ.org if you’re listening. And as long as that donation is in, by midnight where you are on the 31st, on New Year’s Eve, that donation will be tripled, triple the impact. We’ve got to have your financial support. We can’t run all these offices in Israel, in Pakistan, all over the world without you, from France, at ACLJ.org. All right, welcome back to Seculo. Again, you’re going to be seeing me in a couple different locations today and tomorrow, but we’re going to be with you live, breaking down all the news and, of course, trying to raise as much as we can these final two days of the year through this triple matching challenge. Again, you’ve got time to talk to us on air. I’d love to hear from you. If you support Mike Johnson, 1-800-684-3110. As speaker, if you agree with President Trump, if you’re going to Call your member of the House of Representatives. If they’re a Republican, tell them to vote for Speaker Johnson. You can take that kind of action. But also, you know, what issues you kind of want the House to jump on and President Trump to jump on on those first 100 days. I think a lot of us know it’s the economy, the border, and kind of just making America just with, you know, It’s giving us kind of an insight into an endgame there. But what’s why I just want to do one more time and then I will to take it from here. But I just have to underscore to you because I got to hop on a plane is how important your financial support is to the American Center for Law and Justice. This end of the year, why we’re here with a lot of people still on holiday is because of your financial support. And it has been great. And, you know, my number one goal is this. I never want to get a call from a potential client, from the White House, from a member of Congress or the Speaker or someone in leadership in the Senate on something they need help on. And we have to say, you know what, I’d love to do that. Let me check and see if I’ve got the resources to do it. I don’t ever want to have to do that. Now, if we’re going to do something new, like in Massachusetts and run a brand new advertising pro-life campaign, that we want to grow a new budget for because that’s something new. But if it’s work that we’ve already got the whole team in our wheelhouse for, just like in the legal work, I always want to be able to say yes. I always want to be able to say yes to our international teams in Israel and France and Pakistan and other countries. And I always want to be able to say yes to our government affairs team in Washington, D.C. I can say yes and know I can say yes when I know that we’ve got the financial support from you. And right now, if you donate to the ACLJ until tomorrow night at midnight, wherever you are around the world, your donation will be tripled. We’re not crazy. We don’t do these 10 times match things. We don’t even usually do a triple donation. But this time we can. So if you donate 50 bucks right now at ACLJ.org, that’s like $150. And Will, we need that support so that we can always say yes to the best cases, the best issues, and whatever help is necessary around the world to do what our members would want us to do, which is to fight.
SPEAKER 06 :
That’s right, Jordan. And this actually brings me to another point. We talk a lot about how President Trump kind of reshaped the federal judiciary with all his appointments. But this is a story that’s not talked about enough. And I’ve brought in Professor Harry Hutchison to kind of break this down. But he, President Biden, has now surpassed President Trump in judicial nominees. So we think of all the good that happened with having strong constitutional conservative judges on federal benches. And now we hear that President Biden has surpassed President Trump in the number of appointments to the federal judiciary. 235 nominees in his four years. That’s one on the Supreme Court. So not as many as President Trump got, but… One on the Supreme Court, 45 appeals courts, and 187 district courts. Two on the Court of International Trade. Professor Hutchison, when you look at that and 187 district court judges, and I know that Chuck Schumer said the judiciary is going to be the first line and strongest line of defense against President Trump. It means the work here at the ACLJ as we fight in federal court. is going to get that much more difficult and take that much more resources as we now look at a federal judiciary that in some ways, especially at the district court level, which then ties things up in litigation and appeals for years, when you have that many district court judges appointed by Joe Biden, it can make the legal work that much more difficult looking ahead.
SPEAKER 03 :
Absolutely. And so the ACLJ is prepared to file briefs in district courts, appellate courts, and before the United States Supreme Court because essentially Chuck Schumer has announced publicly that the judiciary is the leading source of defending the Biden-Obama bureaucratic agenda that has been operational really for the last 10 to 15 years. Now, it’s important to note that although the Democrats see a judicial insurrection as perhaps their best plan to preserve an elite bureaucratic revolution, the United States Supreme Court on June the 28th, 2024, issued a landmark decision in Loper Bright Enterprises versus Raimondo, Why is that decision important? Because it overturned 40 years of judicial jurisprudence that basically elevated or reified the so-called Chevron decision. What did Chevron do? Chevron empowered the bureaucrats to rule instead of the legislature. And so the Supreme Court has now said that the bureaucrats no longer rule. So this is very, very important. If we want to move forward with Dodge, basically the new department, which improves federal efficiency. It’s going to be important in basically stopping what the Democrats have already started with respect to open borders in the South and in the North. So it’s very, very important to keep in mind what the United States Supreme Court has done, but we also need to be prepared to fight back and we need to confirm conservative judges going forward.
SPEAKER 06 :
Folks, when you hear Chuck Schumer say that the judiciary is the Democrats’ strongest defense against Trump, what he’s really saying is that the judiciary is the Democrats’ strongest defense against what you believe in. the things that we fight for at the ACLJ every day. When we talk about the agenda of the ACLJ at the beginning of 2025, we have a filing at the Supreme Court that would allow states to defund Planned Parenthood. A sidewalk counselor case where a pro-life individual is able to freely counsel those that are seeking just hope or a choice in the matter. And when they’re told by the leftists that the only choice they have is abortion, that is pending at the Supreme Court. ACLJ case, Turco. Working on our second major amicus brief to the ICC to defend Israel after the arrest warrants were issued. Defending three Christians on death row in Pakistan for their faith. We’re fighting in Massachusetts against a state campaign targeting pro-life pregnancy resource centers. In all of the constitutional, free speech, religious liberty cases that we have here at the ACLJ, that’s what Chuck Schumer’s talking about when he says that the judiciary is the Democrats’ strongest defense against Trump. It’s against your values. And if you donate today, your gift will be tripled. As we look ahead to a fight where Joe Biden has now confirmed more judges than Donald Trump did in his first four years. The fight ahead is going to be tough, but it’s nothing we haven’t handled before at the ACLJ. And you can join us in this fight. Our deadline’s tomorrow night to have your donation tripled. ACLJ.org.
