In what is predicted to be the largest boycott of a State of the Union in American history, members of Congress are making bold decisions. With prominent figures like AOC and Adam Schiff opting to stay away, today’s episode explores what this means for the political landscape and why certain members choose not to attend such a significant event. We dive into the reasons behind these choices and how this reflects on the current state of political discourse in the US.
SPEAKER 08 :
On today’s show, we’re discussing President Trump facing the biggest State of the Union boycott in American history.
SPEAKER 15 :
Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Seculo. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110.
SPEAKER 08 :
And now your host, Logan Sekulow. Welcome to Sekulow. On the day of the State of the Union address, we are live. Give us a call at 1-800-684-3110. I’d love to hear from you. Will Haines in studio. Rick Grinnells will be joining us a little bit later. And we’d love to hear from you again as President Trump plans to address the nation tonight amidst the biggest boycott. You know, occasionally you’ll see. Someone sit out. But at this point, it is a big number. Dozens of people will be boycotting and holding either their own events or not attending at all. This includes some big names like AOC, Adam Schiff, among many others. Of course, those are probably the top dogs, if you want to say the names, the people, the casuals. Those are your favorites. The civilians now. Those are the ones you support in their decisions. The ones who don’t, the ones, people who don’t listen to this show. Right. They all, they know those two names. They’ve heard AOC. They’ve heard Adam Schiff. There’s a bunch of others. We’ll get into it. And of course, their reason is they just can’t sit there and bear to hear President Trump because how dare he? So it will be a fun night to watch. Of course, President Trump coming off of not a great weekend after the Supreme Court. had their ruling with the tariffs and he seemed to have a pretty big response. We’ll discuss that as well as what’s going on even in Mexico. We’re going to discuss that a little bit more with Rick Grinnell. But Will, let’s get into it.
SPEAKER 07 :
That’s right. So what we’re hearing is dozens of members of Congress will be boycotting and holding separate events tonight. The largest prior to this was in 2018 when 14 Democrats did not attend the State of the Union. So almost double if all the numbers we’re seeing pan out are not gonna be there. And we’re talking about people like not just members of the House of Representatives who are a little bit more wild, maybe sometimes more on the fringe. We’re talking about US senators as well, including Ed Markey from Massachusetts, Jeff Merkley from Oregon, Chris Murphy from Connecticut, Tina Smith from Minnesota, Adam Schiff from California, and Senator Chris Van Hollen from Maryland. And then you have a list of other representatives, including AOC, Parima Jayapal, and many others. We can talk about that as we go.
SPEAKER 08 :
I don’t know how many people actually care and how many of them are just like, I just want to stay home tonight. Look, it’ll win me some brownie points in my book.
SPEAKER 07 :
But they’re also holding side events. There’s a state of the swamp event that’s going to be happening, which is interesting. Who’s the swamp? That’s led by Representative Jason Crow of Colorado and Seth Moulton of Massachusetts. They’re calling themselves the swamp? They’re trying to flip it on them. They’re taking the swamp term and trying to now say that it’s Donald Trump that’s the swamp, even though he coined the term. Then you’ve also got the People’s State of the Union, which is a separate competing event. That’ll happen on the National Mall an hour before. the state of the union and is there official response tonight also democrats usually there is the official response sometimes even in these day and age when you have a fractured democrat party you have multiple responses like the the progressive response the regular response we’ll get into all of that in the next segment as well but i also i want to know what people are thinking are they going to watch this abigail spanberger is who will be you know having the And that is the newly elected governor of Virginia. So that is someone that obviously the Republicans fought hard against in a recent election, in that off-year election in Virginia. And the Democrats are probably hoping can be a rising star. A lot of times their response giver is kind of a blessing and a curse. You get a lot of time, but you don’t normally see those individuals rise to the level of next president.
SPEAKER 08 :
And a lot of times it’s people who you expected to be. And sometimes there’s backlash. We saw even Marco Rubio famously with the water. We have Katie Britz, one from the kitchen, which I loved, but a lot of people did not. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. One Democrat… Hopes that things will not be how they were before. Hopes they don’t put up those paddles or have any of the shenanigans. Can you guess who that top Democrat is? Come on, man. You’re so close. Just come on over to the good side. Who would that be? Who would that be? Put it in the comments if you think you know who that top Democrat is. We’ll discuss it coming up. Hint, we have similar fashion styles. Phone lines are open. 1-800-684-3110. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Seculo. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110. The comments lit up. Of course, you knew who it was, but there was going to be one Democrat who brought some logic to this whole conversation. It would be the one and only Senator from Pennsylvania, John Fetterman. So let’s take a listen to him on Fox News talking about the State of the Union tonight.
SPEAKER 11 :
No, I do. I do plan to attend. And I hope that this year they don’t put up those those silly paddles and all those kinds of weird protests that that’s like you don’t have to agree or agree with whatever you’re going to hear. But, you know, like last year, I mean, it just made us look like like children. And, you know, just exactly. Yeah. Thank you. I can see you’re referencing that. You know, it’s just like show up or not, but just do that kinds of thing. And like have some dignity and just, you know, we can agree or disagree and not call people names.
SPEAKER 08 :
You know, coming with logic, with actual, you know, emotional clarity. And that is John Fetterman again, who look, a lot of conservatives fought very hard against, but as time has progressed, he has shown to be one of the great leaders of the democratic party who actually has some, uh, you know, sound thoughts, even just based on common civility. So much so that, by the way, I teed it up for you. Hundreds of you put John Fetterman in the comments. Hundreds. It was a flood of Fetterman in the comments. because you know there’s only a handful that would ever make statements like this and he is one of them and of course we’re talking about the state of the union tonight if you’re just joining us right now we’re talking about it because there is a historic boycott that is about to go down and that means you’re going to have dozens including top leading democrats like aoc and adam schiff either not participating or participating in alternate events They won’t be there in the chambers. They will be somewhere else doing their own Super Bowl halftime show, if you will.
SPEAKER 07 :
That’s right. And something, obviously, that they mocked Turning Point for doing their alternative halftime show. Yet they kind of set the standard for that. They’ve been kind of coming up with this alternative programming for years when it comes to the State of the Union. But I also want to hear from the audience. Are you going to be watching tonight? What do you hope you hear? What do you expect to hear from the president? 1-800-684-3110. And also, what do you think about this boycott from Democrats that are just trying to get a name for themselves at the end of the day? They’re trying to be important. Does it really harm them so much to attend a speech that’s an American tradition? How many Republicans will be fighting for the handshake? Exactly. It’s the opposite of the handshake. Right. But I think we’re going to play a clip here from Adam Schiff in a moment. But once again, there was a clip in the break. If you watch on YouTube or Rumble or Facebook, any of our video platforms, you get special content in the break because we are on radio as well. So there are natural ad breaks. If you wondered why we did that, it’s also because we are on radio as well. But there was a clip on MSNBC or MSNOW that the person was, once again, they tried to blame the other side for the start of this. They said, you know, ever since Joe Wilson yelled, you lie in the State of the Union. And that, yes, that probably was the moment that decorum of the State of the Union. Yeah. went away. But it’s also when you start to be like one individual member of Congress decided to say something and was widely criticized for yelling out in the middle of the State of the Union. Now they’re like, let’s see how far we can go. Last year, Congressman Al Green from Texas had to be escorted out of the State of the Union because he interrupted it. The sergeant at arms had to come and get him and take him out. And that was a crisis of democracy from the left last year. So I don’t think that, one, that they can point the finger back and be like, man, if Joe Wilson hadn’t yelled you lie about Obamacare, we wouldn’t have to walk out. We wouldn’t have to. No, they’d be doing this anyways. But the fact also that The childish niche. And that’s what I think from Senator Fetterman’s comment where it was very rational of like the silly paddles that they held up or all these things. The fact that you are an elected member of Congress, you are a member of a co-equal branch of government as the president. You look inferior and as though you are not a co-equal branch if your protest is, I’m not showing up. I have to hold up a sign or a paddle. No, you do have a lot of power in Congress. I understand there are many other members, but these days, Congress is unable to do so much because they have decided. that they are not going to do things. Yeah, just play in politics. And therefore, yes, you have kind of taken a lot of the power out of being a member of the House of Representatives. But to me, it’s such a bad look, not because of how silly it is. It is silly. But also, it’s like not taking yourself seriously when you are elected in one of the greatest governments in the world, in history, as one of the co-equal branches of that government. And the best you can do is assign
SPEAKER 08 :
I want to hear from you. Phone lines are open at 1-800-684-3110. Let’s hop over to Bill in Wyoming. Bill, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 04 :
Hi, thanks for taking my call. First of all, I want to put my kudos to Senator Fetterman for making his comment. And I’m not arguing with him, but I’m going to have to link this with what happens in England. concerning the deposing of Prince Andrew and him being arrested. After all that’s been going on, I guess I’m going to have to start thanking them and calling these people congressional royalty, because they act like they’re above people and they shouldn’t have… Basically, I think they tend to look down their noses at us as far as that goes, people that they’re supposed to be representative.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, and Bill, that’s one of the reasons why so many people want things like term limits in Congress is because someone gets elected and then they’re the incumbent. And then a lot of times, especially in a lot of these districts, it’s really hard to get that person out of that office once they’ve won it. Because a lot of times they don’t do a ton. So there is no bad record to really point to of like, man, you really let us down. In reality, they’re letting you down because they’re not representing the people of their district. And when you also think of the concept of the State of the Union, this is the president giving a report to Congress. If you frame it the way they’re looking at it, it’s almost as if the king is coming to deliver the speech to the subjects. No, the State of the Union is giving a report on the State of the Union to Congress. It’s almost a presentation, like in school, like we’ve done this work and here is the fruit of this work over the last year. Yes, it’s a highly political speech. But by protesting, you are giving the president the elevated spot. And you could flip it completely. Like, I’m going to be there and hear him have to tell me to my face. And I don’t want to give the Democrats any ideas. But the better positioning is like, he’s going to have to tell me to my face because I am a co-equal branch of government. And he’s got to report to Congress on what’s happened. And instead, they feel like the best thing is I’m not giving him an audience role.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, I actually want to play a bite from Stephen A. Smith, who has, look, let’s just be honest, has been flirting with a presidential run. It has been something that he has discussed a lot. People are asking him quite a bit about him potentially running as a Democrat in 2028. Now, if he does run as a Democrat, we know he has been pretty aggressive when it comes to the issues that the Democrat Party have. He’s not unlike a Senator Fetterman in that sense. So I think it’s kind of important to hear. What Stephen A. Smith has to say as we start to listen to people like Gavin Newsom, maybe there are some more rational alternatives. Let’s listen. This is Stephen A. Smith.
SPEAKER 13 :
The president of the United States is going to give his State of the Union address and the Democrats got other plans. So some are talking about walking out in the middle of this speech. Others are talking about boycotting it altogether and essentially finding something else to do. I’m here to tell you that neither is acceptable. Neither should be acceptable. At some point in time, ladies and gentlemen, there’s got to be an adult in the room. If you’re going to act as juvenile, as petulant, as petty as you accuse the president of the United States to be, how are you ever going to hold a high moral ground, at least high enough to judge him accordingly?
SPEAKER 08 :
So there you go. Another statement, very similar, actually, to John Fetterman’s, maybe put in different words, but saying you can’t be boycotting. You can’t be doing these kind of things, because if you do, you’re essentially playing a game, a political game. And I think a lot of people have fought back against this political game. If they have sound people like Stephen A. Smith, like John Fetterman, who can make waves within their party. You may see a peeling back of people who voted for President Trump and are not just going to vote a Republican Party line. We know a lot of people flipped and voted for President Trump over the Democrat or didn’t vote at all. But we know people did not vote because there was an R next to President Trump’s name. So there’s actually an interesting opportunity for people like Stephen A. Smith to have a moment, especially if people like Gavin Newsom keep stepping in it. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. When we get back, I want to take your calls and comments. We lost a couple calls there. We do have one still on hold, but we do have a few lines open. 1-800-684-3110. Have your voice heard on the air today. And of course, as we give you all of the update, all the coverage, I do always want to take a minute and tell you about the work of the ACLJ in the next segment. There’s going to be a special airing tonight. We’re going to discuss that heading into the State of the Union. on the Trinity Broadcast Network, on TBN, that my brother will be on. So we’ll make sure to plug that as much as we can. If you always want a big idea of what the ACLJ work has done, all the scope of the legal work we handle, the media work we handle, I encourage you to go to ACLJ.org. It’s all available there, absolutely at no charge. Of course, you can find us on all your favorite social media platforms. That’s ACLJ across the board. Just search. You’ll find us there. All right, when we get back, I do want to hear from you. 1-800-684-3110. We’ll be right back. jammed at 1-800-684-3110, but they will open up. Of course, we are still talking about the upcoming State of the Union, the Democrat walkout, what that’s going to look like. Also, I want to let you know, tonight on TBN at 8 p.m. Eastern and 11 p.m. Eastern will be their flagship show, Praise, and my brother Jordan will be on leading into the State of the Union, giving you guys a big update on the ACLJ. Some of that may not be new to all of you who are watching in terms of the information he’s providing, but we’re reaching a big audience there, so we appreciate our friends at TBN over the years. I look forward to watching it myself. I haven’t seen it. They keep things closed doors there.
SPEAKER 07 :
That’s right, but we do have a clip. Oh, we have a clip? We have a clip from it. Obviously, it’s not happening currently or live tonight. It was pre-taped to air ahead of the State of the Union. It’s a special. It’s a special, but we do have a clip we can share of Jordan tonight that you can watch at 8 p.m. Eastern or 11 p.m. Eastern. So let’s go ahead and cue that up for everyone so they can see a little bit of what Jordan will be sharing tonight.
SPEAKER 02 :
We still in the United States have to stand up for our rights of free speech. And I always remind people that when we win, it’s not just a win for him, it’s a win for everybody’s free speech rights. And it doesn’t matter what viewpoint you’re coming from. Ultimately, we’re always confident if we’re going to the US Supreme Court that speech and the freedom of speech and the freedom of religion ultimately win out. in our country and we hope that kind of remains. That’s what keeps America, America is the freedom of speech and the freedom of religion.
SPEAKER 08 :
All right, so again, that is tonight on TBN. Jordan on praise. Again, that’ll be at 8 p.m. Eastern and re-airing at 11 p.m. Eastern as sort of a bookend to the State of the Union address and coverage. So again, thanks to our friends at TBN. I want to jump, take some of these phone calls. A lot have been calling in and we do have one line open. Give me a call. We got a bunch of champions on hold also, by the way, which are those are the people that support the work of the ACLJ as monthly members. We call them ACLJ champions. One of my favorite things when people walk up to me and say, Logan, I’m a champion. I know exactly what they mean. I always want to, you know, Greet him with a sturdy handshake, Will.
SPEAKER 07 :
I appreciate that you do that.
SPEAKER 08 :
Let’s go to Warren, who’s calling first line four. He’s ACLJ champ. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 17 :
Thank you, gentlemen, so much. And can’t tell you how much we appreciate ACLJ. You know, I’m listening to Fetterman, but seeing all of this rhetoric that’s going on and the walking out, we just have to remember and realize that it is not a battle of flesh and blood, but we’re against demonic powers and The evil that wants to separate and divide our country. And the only way that we’re going to win this is through prayer, through Jesus. And like you said, standing for our rights, standing for righteousness and justice and standing with people like the ACLJ.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, I appreciate that, Warren. You know, we try to be, you know, as straight shooters as we can. We’ll give you a really a nonpartisan look. We tell you what we believe and what we know to be true. And sometimes, look, I heard from one of our listeners in person the other day. They go, sometimes they wish we would go harder on certain things. But he understands we have legal analysis. We understand that we provide you content that a lot of people don’t care. We don’t just tell you what you want to hear. Oh, no, ear tickling here, Will. That’s right. We don’t do that here. We tell you what the truth is. And sometimes you don’t want to hear it. But people like Warren understand that’s the importance of this show existing. I know I could double our numbers if I just told you everything you wanted to hear. I know if I went on conspiracy theory-laden reports, if I decided to make all these crazy series and do all these different things, we see them in the news right now. Then my views would skyrocket. We don’t do that here. I’m very proud of that at the ACLJ, of our team, of our team. And even if things ever get out of whack, by the way, we’re very quick to tell our team no. I would rather things stay consistent. So when you see that brand, when you see the ACLJ brand, you see the secular name, you know, you’re getting a consistent product, a consistent content that is going to be honest and representative of the truth. And of course it comes from a Christian perspective, but there are oftentimes many people, many organizations that are just going to share whatever they think is going to get the most clicks, share what they think is going to get the most shares, even if they know it’s not to be true. And we’re not going to do that here. We don’t play by that game. And I appreciate him calling in. Let’s go hit up one more champion. Let’s go to Martin in North Carolina. Martin, go ahead.
SPEAKER 06 :
Hi, guys. I like your response to Warren. I love his response. It is a spiritual warfare that the Bible warned us about. But my comment is, when I look at this, and I did see, I don’t know if it was Senator or Congressman, talking about the second or the other program they were going to have, I look at it as potentially a deflection program. from the reality of what’s going on and their failures, because what he said was about healthcare, who caused the crisis? They did. Housing, who caused the crisis? They did. The economy, who caused the crisis? For the most part, they did. So they’re trying to deflect, and maybe they can win some people over on the aspect of
SPEAKER 07 :
lies and deflection i i do want to play this clip from senator schiff and it’s not exactly the one you’re speaking about martin but he’s also talking about the alternative programming that they’re going to be giving and i want to follow up with a comment but i think it’s important for you to hear from the people that aren’t going to be going and what their reasons are this is bite one
SPEAKER 12 :
Donald Trump is violating the law and Constitution. He is ignoring court orders. He has weaponized the Justice Department to go after his enemies. He is letting loose ICE troops in our streets that are getting people killed. I will not be attending the State of the Union. I’ve never missed one. I have always gone both to inaugurations and to States of the Union, but we cannot treat this as normal. This is not business as usual. I will not give him the audience he craves for the lies that he tells. I’ll be outside the Capitol with Midas Touch and move on for the People’s State of the Union, 8 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday.
SPEAKER 07 :
Now, I won’t be watching because I’ll be watching Jordan on praise at 8 p.m. Eastern Time. So I will miss that. Sorry, everyone. I can’t give you a detailed play by play. Maybe I’ll catch a replay of it. But here’s the part of the problem as well, is that one, all the spin, all the lies that he’s saying there, obviously, it’s the same political talking points. But one of the things he says is that Donald Trump is violating the law and the Constitution. Now, I know things are a little different these days with the way we can communicate a lot quicker and we can broadcast the State of the Union than when the Constitution was written. But the State of the Union is listed as something that the president shall do in the Constitution. It says he shall from time to time give the Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient. This is telling the president to report to Congress on things and then to ask basically for their cooperation on things. As the executive, here’s things I see we need to get done, so let’s work on a bill. And that’s why you always hear presidents say, let’s get it done. I’ll sign the bill if you get it to my desk. That’s a part of this. So I know that it’s not like Adam Schiff is not going to understand or hear what’s in it. But the very fact that he’s saying that the president doesn’t follow the law or the Constitution when the Constitution is giving Adam Schiff a place of authority in this situation where the president has to go and make a report to them. It’s all political spin and it’s really just gross. You don’t even have to like the State of the Union or anything, but if you’re a senator, a U.S. senator, just go.
SPEAKER 08 :
Be there. I like that Adam Schiff was like, I’m going to be on an hour before because I’m not brave enough to actually counter-program this. So watch me an hour before. I’m your lead-in. Of course, as we said, we’ll have a special running on TBN tonight, so we will not be watching that. That shows you their true face. Phone lines are open. Actually, only one line. 1-800-684-3110. Second half hour coming up. If you don’t get us on your local station, you’re listening on terrestrial radio. You can find us on ACLJ.org, YouTube, Rumble, Facebook, Salem News Channel. However you get your podcasts. We’re there, live, 12 to 1 p.m. Eastern time, archived on all those platforms, wherever you get your pods, as I said. Again, that’s at ACLJ.org. We can get involved, get engaged. And of course, you can support the work financially. No, we’d really appreciate it. That is at ACLJ.org. When we get back, we’ll continue this coverage. And Rick Grinnell is going to be joining us in the back half. This is our shortest break of the day. Less than a minute. Don’t go anywhere.
SPEAKER 15 :
Keeping you informed and engaged. Now more than ever. This is Seculo. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 08 :
Let’s kick off the second half hour of Sekulow. We got a full bank of calls. Don’t go anywhere, callers. We’ll try to get at least one of you in this segment. Then we’re going to have Rick Grinnell. Then the last segment, it’s all you. So don’t go anywhere. Stay on hold. With that, of course, we are talking about what could be the biggest problem What will be, I think, the biggest boycott of the State of the Union. Not unsurprising. President Trump likes to break records. And tonight will be one that will be remembered. Of course, he also loves to put on a little razzle-dazzle in these shows. Typically, the State of the Unions have been pretty dry. But we know President Trump always likes to wheel out a moment. That really sticks with you for a long time. We can go to the Tuskegee Airmen, many of the other moments that he has brought out Rush Limbaugh. And we do know tonight Erica Kirk will be in attendance. So there will be moments that will be leaning towards this sort of pump that comes with the State of the Union. President Trump, I think, does that. You can hate him. And I think you can’t lie that when it comes to putting on a memorable performance of a State of the Union, President Trump, I think, does it better and his team do it better than anyone.
SPEAKER 07 :
And interestingly, when he’s at a rally, he’s always off teleprompter. When he gives the State of the Union, because I feel like of his background in TV and knowing how to put on a show, it is the complete opposite of a normal Trump speech because it is so highly programmed. Normally, whenever there’s an initiative or something he wants to highlight, he is pointing to a guest each time. Remember the honorary police officer that was last year at the beginning of his joint address to Congress? It was such a moment. that everyone talked about for days. That is the kind of programming that this will be. And I think that is why a lot of the Democrats don’t want to be there in attendance because they feel like they can’t clap for anything. If they clap for anything, he has those gotcha moments where it’s impossible to not. You seem like a bad person, genuinely, if you’re sitting there stoically. Because you don’t want to support the president. And that is what happened. So I think it is easier for these individuals to say, I’m not even giving him the time of day and then therefore can’t get caught when the entire caucus is sitting down celebrating some medical issue. miracle that happened that they’re celebrating saying this is why we need funding for that or people that have been saved out of addiction and say we need to fund this those are the types of things he sometimes highlights and they just look terrible because they’re like I’m not standing up for that I’m not clapping that’s right phone lines are open for you as I said at 1-800-684-3110 we got two minutes let’s quickly take Cynthia in Texas Cynthia go ahead hello glad you took my call
SPEAKER 09 :
You know, I think it’s terrible that everyone is not going to be at the State of the Union. I think everybody should be there. I don’t think you can express your feelings if you’re not at the table. But I do hope that the president tells the full truth and not give a State of the Union as he wished it would be. I hope he gives it.
SPEAKER 07 :
exactly like it is you know Cynthia I think one I think whenever there’s a speech that is partisan in nature or inherently political it’s never going to be 100% as things are it’s always coming from someone’s perspective from someone’s side now the president’s side is that a lot of the problems that are happening are are because the people on the other side of the aisle are inciting a lot of those issues and they aren’t working together. Now, I understand that they would disagree with that. So I think it is hard in an inherently political speech for maybe it to be exactly what you’re hoping for. But I do think also you will hear him talk about negative things that are happening in this country. But I think you also say a lot of that stems from the fact that they are not helping me in making America great again.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, and that is kind of the nature of the beast, if you will, when it is the State of the Union. Cynthia’s right. A nice, honest conversation can go a long way. I expect more of a political kind of event, but you never know. You never know what President Trump will pull out. We’ll see what’s going on. Coming up in the next segment, Rick Grinnell’s going to join us. He’s going to give us his thought on, of course, the upcoming State of the Union, as well as a few other topics. So stay tuned. Stay on hold if you’re on hold. Welcome back to Seculo. Still waiting connection from Rick Grinnell. So we’re going to go ahead and take some of these phone calls. I’m glad you stayed on hold. We got one line open, 1-800-684-3110. Let’s go to Gene in North Carolina. Gene, Eugene, you’re on the air. Yes, sir. How are you?
SPEAKER 18 :
I’m great. I think what people need to remember is that these people are not volunteering. They’re getting paid. It’s analogous of a company. If you don’t want to show up to a company meeting, if you don’t want to show up to your job, You shouldn’t get paid. Maybe you should even get fired. If they don’t show up to vote, if they don’t want to show up for State of the Union, they don’t want to show up for these even traditional events, why are we paying them? They can make a decision, sure. They’re free to do that.
SPEAKER 07 :
But I don’t believe they should get paid to not be where they should be. Well, Gene, I think you have a point. And the difference with a traditional company, though, is that the proverbial shareholders here are the American people. that they do have an annual review coming up it’s actually a biannual review they get it every two years when you’re a member of the house of representatives and that is a midterm election there you go so many of these people have their annual review coming up and i think that is what a lot of the focus of this state of the union will be is the president uh trying trying to cast blame on some of the problems and and uh immovability of congress in many ways But at the same time, they’re going to try to show that they are different than the president. So it is all eyes on the midterm when it comes to this speech.
SPEAKER 08 :
Rick Grinnell’s joining us now. If you are on hold, stay on hold. I’m going to get to you in the next segment. And a couple lines are open, 1-800-684-3110 as we head into the State of the Union tonight. But, Will, I know we wanted to pivot a little bit, have a little bit of a different discussion with Rick, give you guys a little bit more info of what’s going on around the world.
SPEAKER 07 :
That’s right, Rick. We’ve got a couple topics I want to hit with you today. One is that we didn’t get to about the issues in Mexico going on. But this is something I saw you posting on X about. And this is Tom Nichols, the writer at The Atlantic, that posted an article that just came out last night. And it’s the Republican Party has a Nazi problem. You could have shown me this article and I could have thought this was written six years ago, three years ago, today. They keep using the same words, the same rhetoric. And… I think we’re at a point now, especially seeing another individual armed, breaking in to Mar-a-Lago over the weekend, that we can no longer give people that write these headlines the benefit of the doubt that they don’t want something bad to happen. They know that this rhetoric has led to assassination attempts, actual assassinations, violence, and they still keep writing it. And this is on a day before the State of the Union when you have members of Congress that are going to boycott the speech. Adam Schiff says that he’s violating the law and the Constitution. All the rhetoric is continuing to point to a boiling point that it seems like it’s not that they’re doing it in spite of, they’re doing because of now.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah. Look, this is not personal to me. As you all know, there’s an individual who’s in jail who was following me and said he was going to shoot me in the face. FBI and DOJ went and arrested this individual. He’s still in prison. Multiple far left judges have kept him in prison because he has demonstrated that he is unsafe now. This is an individual who did this right after there was a huge push by the left to boycott and stop going to the Trump Kennedy Center. You look at what’s happening to our ICE community, where people are being encouraged to do anything by any means. When people like Tom Nichols use language that say the GOP, its members, its leader Donald Trump, are all Nazis using open Nazi symbols, this is so wrong. But what it’s doing is it’s encouraging people who are unstable to take action. If you knew that someone next to you was a genocidal maniac who killed six and a half million Jews, Wouldn’t you do everything to stop this person? This is exactly what Tom Nichols is calling for. He needs to stop and Democratic leaders need to stop running out of the room and acting like they can’t talk to the other side. This is politics. This shouldn’t be violence. It shouldn’t be terror. We just had a individual go and pour toxic chemicals on our ice rink at the Trump Kennedy Center because they don’t want anything to go forward because they think, as Tom Nichols says, conservatives are Nazis. This language is out of control. People like Adam Schiff, who won’t sit in the State of the Union, his job as a senator is to talk and listen and to try to find solutions. He can’t even show up This is a real problem.
SPEAKER 08 :
How much of that, Rick, you know, though, is putting on a show? I mean, when it comes to the Democrats, when they say, hey, we’re going to be outside an hour before, we’re not actually going to counter program this. We’re going to be an hour before doing something. Of course, we’re going to be doing the response. That’s very typical of a response. But this idea of the no show, it just seems to be to win brownie points, not actually to make any sort of real political statement. You have… People like Senator Fetterman have come out and said that they’re kind of sick of this. They’re kind of done with this kind of moment. You got Stephen A. Smith out there being these sort of rational Democrats, if you will, borderline at this point, whether you even consider them Democrats, because the leaders of the party, that’s the thing is when you have people like Adam Schiff and AOC saying we’re sitting out, not able, like you said, not able to even sit in the room. Sure, for us that have been involved in this, we see this as a political game, but there are a lot of people out there who don’t understand how Washington works, takes it maybe too seriously, if you will, in terms of the way personal struggles are, and they can, like you said, they can take it to an extreme.
SPEAKER 01 :
The problem is, is have you seen how many Democrats aren’t showing up for the State of the Union? It’s huge. Remember, we we had like 80 something Democrats who refused to go to the inauguration of Donald Trump. These people are running out of the room because they have no ideas and they can’t stay in the room and have the argument. They can’t have a debate. Instead, they’re resorting to violence on property and personal property. individuals. They are running out of the room because they can’t speak. This is not your father’s Democratic Party. They’re radicals. They’re getting more radical. They cannot even sit in a room or watch a symphony or debate or watch a show with someone that they disagree with. It is literally out of hand and and adults in the Democratic Party need to stand up, speak up and say enough is enough. Let’s have a debate about issues and let’s be adults.
SPEAKER 07 :
Rick, I do want to pivot just briefly here. What we saw over the weekend where the Mexican government took out the leader of the New Generation Cartel, one of the most powerful cartels in Mexico, and now the violence that has unfolded between the government and the cartel in the aftermath of that. We know the State Department has told Americans to shelter in place. We know there are Americans that are stuck in that region. I did want to get your take. This is a very strong action by the Mexican government to pull this off. What do you think it means for the United States, for our border security, and really for the safety of Americans as we know how much of the cartel’s violence and drug profiting really affects American people?
SPEAKER 01 :
Look, I can’t help but talk about this and not say thank you to Donald Trump. He’s literally going in and trying to solve these intractable issues that have been going on for a long time, like the border. Now it’s about the drugs. Now remember, drug cartels have taken over Mexico in very serious ways. And for decades, we just kind of let it happen. They keep creeping up and taking more territory, creating more danger, creating more drugs in our country. And President Trump is just wanting to confront these big issues. Is it going to be messy? Yes, but it needs to be done. It’s like when your garage gets way too out of hand and you finally have to go in and clean it and you unfold it and it’s really messy and stinky. That is exactly what we have to do with some of these intractable issues. Go in and when other administrations, other politicians have spent decades ignoring the problem, Donald Trump is here to clean up.
SPEAKER 08 :
All right, Rick, thank you so much for joining us today. Really appreciate it. Always good to hear from you, especially heading into such a historic night tonight with the State of the Union. We’ll be watching. Of course, if you are also looking for some pre-coverage, Jordan’s going to be on TBN tonight, so find that at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. They’ll be re-airing that at 11 p.m. as well, so stay tuned for that. If you’re on hold, stay on hold. In the next segment, I’m going to you. So John, George, Paul, no, John, George. I’m adding this for real. You got me. John, George, Pete, Kathy, Bill, and Michael. Man, those are some one-syllable names. We’ll be back in just a moment. Stay on hold. We will do our best to get to you, to get to all the calls coming up. If you do want to support the work of the ACLJ, we haven’t talked a lot about the work of the ACLJ today, which kind of is giving you the news, what’s going on. There’s a lot of great work happening right now. Of course, you know our legal battles are strong. Yesterday we talked about a little bit of a setback that happened in Massachusetts, but guess what? When there’s a setback, the ACLJ doesn’t stop. We are now focused on the future and how we can keep that case going, filing for appeals. Get involved with it. There’s petitions. There’s ways to engage. Sign up for the email list. All this content, by the way, 100% of ACLJ content is available for free without a paywall. That only is continuing, by the way, because people like you support us financially. Whether you become an ACLJ champion and give a one-time donation, know we appreciate it. That is at ACLJ.org. You can do that. We want to make sure this content you can always send to your friends. You can always use it. Because we know times can get tough. Dinner table conversations can get confusing. And what do you hate the most? A little pop-up that says you gotta pay for this. Not on my watch, Will. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Sekulow. It is time to hear from you. A lot of you have been on hold for almost half an hour. We’re going to do our best to get to all the calls. Let’s kick it off. We’ll just go in order. Let’s go to Michael in New Hampshire. Michael, go ahead.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, hi. I’m calling about polls. Today I heard on another radio program a guest college professor saying that Trump is Is down in the approval polls the same as Barack Obama’s were in his second term. He also said that or the host of the show said that 53 percent of Americans approve of it. of illegal migrants who are committing crimes uh being uh thrown out of the country and i’m thinking 53 percent approve of that you mean 47 out of 100 people think that an illegal migrant who’s committed crimes should stay in the country My question to you is, are all of these polls completely stilted by basically, you know, liberal operatives? Are there any you think there are any polls that you could consider reliable that you could you could trust?
SPEAKER 08 :
We live in a tough time for polling. I’ll be honest with you, Michael. There are some that are more conservative leaning. There are some that are more liberal leaning. The unbiased is very difficult. There are a lot of people who are just going to essentially pull on party line. We know a lot of them are bots also. You have to kind of look at where the source is and how they’re sourcing it. Sometimes you’re talking about they’re calling a dozen people.
SPEAKER 07 :
In a certain area. Oh, in a certain area. I was about to say, I don’t think a national poll is only 12 people. No. Right? But sometimes it’s 100. Right. Well, here’s the thing. And this is where Logan and I disagree sometimes because I love statistics. It’s a nerdy trade of time.
SPEAKER 08 :
What have the polls shown us over the last decade?
SPEAKER 07 :
I’m also going to agree with you on is that in a perfect world or in a normal world, I would say you can get meaningful insight in polls. I feel like we are way beyond that in many ways because I feel like, one, people do not trust polling companies anymore. So therefore, you kind of have to question the validity of the respondents, what the information they’re giving. But you also have to think, Michael, yeah, it says 47% in some way disagree with removing criminal migrants from the country. We have gotten to such a post-rationality world when it comes to many people on both sides of political parties that even the statement alone, if it was presented in that way, which you have to go and look at all the data, but even that statement alone, you’re like, yeah, a rational person would be like, yeah, we don’t want criminal illegal aliens here. That seems like a universal thing. There are so many people that just do not like President Trump. that anything related to immigration, if it could be removal of someone here illegally, they are going to say, I do not agree with that at all. Even though President Barack Obama deported millions of people and every other president on both sides of the aisle deport people that are here illegally. not as aggressively in some cases as others, but that is a part of what administrations do. So I think if it were anyone other than this administration in this period of time, the polls would look completely different.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yep. Let’s go ahead and try to take as many calls as we can. Five minutes, five calls. We will do our best. Kathy, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 10 :
I think it’s time that we, the people, take a stand for this country. I am becoming sick and tired of the Democrats deciding that we, the people, aren’t important. And for them to miss the State of the Union because they’re not liking Donald Trump, then I’m sorry, they have no business being in Congress.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of people are complaining about that, Kathy, that it just feels like it’s not just only disrespectful to the office, disrespectful to why you’re there. as a serving member it’s just in general a political stunt and don’t think it’s anything more than that okay i really do want you when they say i just can’t bear to be in there that’s not true it is just political theater at its worst well and i think also on the polling question you know that their consultant their political assault consultant has shown them some data somewhere that they polled people you got to stay out and the constituents that elected them
SPEAKER 14 :
think this is a good move so yeah that exists as well and people listen to those types of polls too all right continuing on George in Georgia go ahead George yes uh I’d like to say I appreciate what y’all are doing and praying for y’all and uh I think our president is doing a great job, but I just wanted to know what you think about tonight, how it might go.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, I mean, usually we’ll learn more a few hours before. We do know there’s been reports that Erica Kirk and some other people will be there, I think, like President Trump has done before. You’ll probably leave with quite a show. that you’ll be encouraged by, engaged, and you’ll be excited by. President Trump, as much as you may not like some of his rhetoric, typically on nights of the State of the Union, he has knocked it out of the park many, many times. So what I hope for is another great night. Again, as someone who has been critical of president trump and president trump’s rhetoric a lot of the language he uses and those kind of things that i personally don’t like i do think on some of these nights he has done a particularly good job so i i look forward to watching it tonight and i wouldn’t say that about most state of the unions most of the time i watch it because i feel like we need to and we have to actually look forward to seeing what he comes up with let’s continue on though let’s try to get a couple calls in let’s go to john line one go ahead
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, I’d just like to say that I agree with the director of the Trump-Kennedy Center about the adult thing. But I think as a former Democrat, and as I referred to the Democratic Party as a demonic party now, it’s all about power with them. They don’t have the betterment of the American public in mind at all. It’s all about power for them and finances. And so I just…
SPEAKER 08 :
it reminds me of history when the Nazi party in Germany John I’m only cutting you off for time not because of your content here I’m only cutting you off for time we got another call I would like to try to get to one more Bill in Virginia go ahead Veronica we’ll have to probably get to you tomorrow but I appreciate your support of the ACLJ thank you so much call me tomorrow though and I’ll get you on Bill go ahead Bill in West Virginia would like to say may Jesus bless you all and continue to keep you on the air
SPEAKER 16 :
Thank you for your business. Thank you for your backing up the president because he’s a good man. We need him. And in fact, why is it that nobody talks about the fact that he had to clean up after Obama, clean up after Biden?
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah. Bill, only cutting you off for time. Only cutting you off for time here. I do think, by the way, President Trump will be quick to remind you of all the cleanup he’s had to do after Obama and Biden. Sometimes to the point where I go, okay, now it’s time to move on. But there was a lot of mess to deal with. President Trump, again, whether you like his content, you like what he has to say or doesn’t, There are moments where he shines. I think these kind of moments are them.
SPEAKER 07 :
Can I give one quick prediction about the State of the Union tonight? So normally with a rally or some sort of speech, the Democrats can find something that really outrages them because he goes off prompter and he likes to say things. Normally with the State of the Unions, he is so focused on the programming that there aren’t really outrageous moments. So here’s going to be the completely vetted line for every Democrat I couldn’t listen to all the lies. I couldn’t listen to all the lies. It was just all lies. So that’s my prediction of the reaction from all the Democrats.
SPEAKER 08 :
All right. Well, that is going to do it for today’s show. We really appreciate it. So I want you to join us, though, tomorrow and each and every day. So hit that subscribe button if you want to be a part of it. If you’re watching on YouTube or Rumble, maybe you follow us on Facebook or however you want to be a part of the team. I encourage you to do that. Again, appreciate it. Support the work financially if you can at ACLJ.org. We want to keep this content free and available to everyone, and that only happens if you support the work financially by giving a donation to the ACLJ. We’ll talk to you tomorrow with all the coverage of the State of the Union. Check out Jordan’s special tonight on TBN. Talk to you tomorrow.
