As the Supreme Court rules on the TikTok ban, we explore the complex issues surrounding data privacy and freedom of expression. With expert insights and audience opinions, we delve into the potential impacts on users and the economy, all while keeping a keen eye on the latest updates from the legal world. This pivotal moment marks a crossroads for American technology and security policy, as the nation watches closely how these developments unfold.
SPEAKER 03 :
We got breaking news, major change in the Trump inauguration. 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 07 :
And now your host, Logan Secula. Welcome to Secula. We’re going to be taking your calls today because we’ve got a lot of breaking news at 1-800-684-3110. Will Haynes is joining me in studio. Harry Hutchinson is going to be joining us a little bit later. But there is some big breaking news. Obviously this morning you may have heard the update where the Supreme Court has said it is okay to go ahead with the ban on TikTok. I’d love to get your thoughts on that. Give us a call again, like I said, at 1-800-684-3110. 31 10 and as people are tuning in right now on radio on youtube on rumble on the salem news channel i know a lot of you saw that headline and that is that the trump inauguration had a major change and that was just it hasn’t even been officially announced that has been highly speculated speculated sources are saying the trump inauguration will be moving indoors now the primary reason for this you may have expected is because of very cold weather that is coming on Monday to Washington, D.C. However, you can also look into this and say this could be a very big sigh of relief for the Secret Service. Now, it is a bummer for a lot of people who are planning on making that trip. I know there are people in our own office doing that. There are people who are involved who really want to go see that moment, family members. But unfortunately… All reports are right now that the Trump-Vance swearing-in ceremony traditionally that takes place will be moving inside, likely inside the Capitol. That’s where we’re at.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right. So clearly there hasn’t been an official announcement, but every reporter in D.C. is getting the same information from sources, which means… They’re getting it out there now with an official announcement with what it will look like forthcoming. But we’re seeing that because of what they’re calling dangerously cold temperatures expected on Monday, that they are moving it inside. That means it’ll be in the rotunda there at the Capitol. And when you look at the weather… Typically, we’re not giving you a 10-day forecast here, but on Monday, it is a high of 24 degrees, a low of 9, expected to be around 22, 23 degrees around the time of the swearing-in. People are obviously there for hours upon hours beforehand as they try to get their position in on the lawn.
SPEAKER 07 :
One of my friends that has a ticketed version says that he had to arrive at 5 a.m. Right. So, I mean, you’re talking about a very cold pre even sun coming up. I’d love to hear your thoughts. I’m actually looking at the comments and a lot of you are are very happy about this and are really mainly because of safety. Obviously, everyone was concerned when you’ve had multiple assassination attempts. on a presidential candidate what this looks like. And sadly, this is the state of America. I think this is something we can hopefully get away from soon. But right now, the safety and security of everyone is dealing with this. Now, I encourage you to give me a call because I want to know your thoughts at 1-800-684-3110. This also comes on just hours ago, the Supreme Court ruling that the ban on TikTok, TikTok, could go in place, could continue to happen, and that could happen as early as Monday. However, it looks like President Biden is going to kick it down the road, put a hold on this, and let the Trump administration figure out what to do. Now, there’s a lot of thoughts. A lot of people are happy about this. A lot of people are sad. I’ll tell you, I have a lot of mixed feelings. Here in our own office, you cannot use TikTok on our servers. That is for security reasons. So clearly, we know there is an issue there because we do not allow that on our servers. However… You also have an economy built on that for a lot of people. So I’m very concerned when you ever start censoring speech. Yes, the reason that they are trying to censor TikTok isn’t really to do with the speech being homegrown in America or even the speech being controlled. It is where your data and your privacy is going. How they can be a part of that. Give us a call. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Because this one, I think there’s a conservative libertarian point of view here that is… a bit at odds i’d love to hear your thoughts and on your thoughts on the swearing and moving indoors we’re also going to discuss a new aclj case uh that’s really wild and it involves another big tech company so stay tuned to that give us a call as i said at 1-800-684-3110 we’re facing some big challenges this year we got a new administration taking office in just a few days and we know we have to be ready So the ACLJ, we’re planning to defend liberty. I can’t wait for you to hear this one. You’re going to be shocked by this one coming up in just a few segments of really what’s happening to the American people. 1-800-684-3110. But become an ACLJ champion right now at aclj.org. Welcome back to Secular. We are obviously covering kind of two big breaking news stories, the TikTok story, and President Trump just put out some sort of statement because of the cold, saying he doesn’t want to see injuries, moving the inauguration inside. It could be a disappointment to a lot of people, but I see a lot of great comments coming in. People are actually happy that he’s taking this step. But Rick Grinnell is joining us. Last second, Rick, I appreciate you calling in because you were pretty early. on telling us about the issues that were coming out of TikTok years ago, what the concerns were, not necessarily calling for a ban on TikTok, but said, hey, if you’re concerned about your privacy, don’t have it on your phone. We don’t allow it on our servers here at the ACLJ. Some of that was due to your advice. However, we’re at this point now where the Supreme Court has ruled that they can ban it, but you have President Trump coming out and saying, you know what, and I think he’s right in this, saying we need to figure out a way to move forward.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, look, this is a difficult issue. And I think President Trump is going about it the right way. Remember, we tried early in the days of TikTok to just ban it or get an American company to host it. That was kind of the compromise. That didn’t work. The court said, no, you can’t ban it. So the president, President Trump, followed the rule of law, followed what the court said and said, OK, well, let’s try to get a more aggressive ownership of an American. That’s where we are now. It hasn’t been able to be solved in the Biden administration. So once again, here’s another issue that has to come back to Donald Trump’s plate. And we’re going to have to make sure that we find an American firm to not only buy it, but to host it. so that you can really mitigate as much as possible the information flow back to communist China. Remember, they don’t allow the current version of TikTok that’s available in the United States. The Chinese don’t allow that version in China. Right. And so there’s a, there’s a lot of questions for how do you mitigate the problem? But I do think that president Trump is right that, uh, you know, we’ve got some of the same aggressive problems with Facebook, Instagram, some of the other social media platforms have not always been, uh, you know, pro friendly, uh, yeah, friendly or, or just, or just pro free speech. Right. And not manipulating the content in some way. So I think this is yet just another problem that TikTok has in the larger issue of social media.
SPEAKER 07 :
Right, because at least with Meta, with Facebook, or now with X, even before when it was Twitter, we could at least turn to it and go, Mark Zuckerberg. runs this. Now, Elon Musk or Jack Dorsey, there were American faces or very known people who are running it. I don’t think most people, if you said who was running TikTok, the transparency is not there. We know it’s not there. However, you do have a situation where a lot of Americans have built Most, you know, 90% plus for a lot of these creators and influencers, a lot of their revenue comes through TikTok directly or indirectly. And again, I know a lot of you will go, well, that’s just, you know, influencer culture and all that. But think about even the people who are, I use an example, created a candle company that went viral on TikTok. you do have to think about those people because they are Americans contributing to society. Now, you are right. The TikTok version in China, it’s very education-based. It is not this endless sea of mind reading, which is what it does feel like when you’re using it. But maybe this will be a moment where we’ll see some change because there are some big voices, some big names in tech and in media that have come and said, hey, we want to buy it. And now it’s, I guess, the question of, does China say… Great. We’ll happily sell it to you. Or does China say, well, then now we don’t even have the influence we want out of it. Oh, well.
SPEAKER 12 :
I think China will absolutely sell it. They realize what a huge deal it is. There’ll be some sort of a partnership. But let’s remember one thing. Mark Zuckerberg and Meta spent billions of dollars to hire people that were responsible for looking at the content of of users on Facebook, my mother’s content, when she would update her status, Facebook employed people to look at that to say, is this accurate information or is this misinformation? We’ve gone from opinions being illegal in this country. And Mark Zuckerberg was at the forefront of that. I’m sorry, but I’m not easily swayed with, you know, suddenly he’s now a fan of Donald Trump after Donald Trump won the popular vote. I think Mark Zuckerberg is a big fan of money.
SPEAKER 07 :
If you run into him at the inauguration, let us know. Let us know what he thinks.
SPEAKER 04 :
Go ahead, Will. And Rick, I mean, I think what we have here also is two issues that for the audience to think about as well as one, yes, we’ve had an issue with the way that especially these American social media companies have acted, have acquiesced to the censorship that the government wanted to impose and whether that is, as you mentioned, because They’re going to go with the winds of the administration if they want to make more money. But at the end of the day, it still was inappropriate, unconstitutional actions that were happening across social media platforms when it came to censorship. But then you also have to look at the TikTok issue, which… on its face, has a lot of the same issues with data privacy, the ability to look across your device at other things and garner information that way, which our American companies are doing too. But the difference here with TikTok is that it’s a… adversarial foreign government that is able to get this. And you think of the national security implications across the board. If our soldiers have this on their phone, if people within the administration or within the bureaucracies have this on their phone and the ability to easily lose track of things to a foreign adversary is really what the impetus for this was. But we still have a lot of other issues with the privacy issues as conservatives, especially that are going rampant with other apps in this country.
SPEAKER 12 :
You know, well, when I was in high school, I remember thinking I’m never going to be that old stuffy person that says, you know, get off my lawn or turn down that music. I always thought of myself as hip and cool and, you know, pop culture driven. And I now have to admit to you that I don’t allow TikTok into my home. After being the D&I and seeing how the Chinese operate, I’m not very popular with my friends, kids, or my nephews and nieces because I don’t want that product in my home. And so I ask people who come in, I’m that stick in the mud. When you come into my home, I ask you if you’ve got TikTok on your phone to leave the phone outside.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, I mean, that should say it all, Rick. I mean, that is a pretty… And look, you’ve told us that, and that’s one of the reasons that we do not have it here on our servers locally, here in the offices. We don’t tell our employees what to download or not download, but we make sure that we don’t have it at least connected to our servers. Rick, I appreciate you calling in. I know it was just at the last second here, but I wanted to get, because I knew you were on the forefront of all of this originally, so I just wanted to get your thoughts. Obviously, we’re looking at Washington, D.C. right now. A lot of people coming to town for the inauguration. There is your reports right now that that will be moved inside, so it’s going to be a little bit different, but it still will be a pretty wild week coming up.
SPEAKER 12 :
All the best. Thank you.
SPEAKER 07 :
Thanks, Rick. Thanks for joining us. Give us a call, by the way, right now. 1-800-684-3110. A lot of you called in and didn’t stay on hold because you got to let our screeners do their job. So just stay on hold. Even if you just hear it ringing, give it a little bit. We’ll try to get to you. And we’ll be back in just a minute with more calls and questions. Let’s go to Robin, who’s calling in Nevada on line one. Robin, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 11 :
Hey, thanks for having me. Is the inauguration… Hold on, let me get you off echo here. Is the inauguration taking place in the same Capitol where Trump was supposed to have incited the storming of the Capitol January 2nd? Is that not poetic justice?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, I mean, look, I don’t know if it’s poetic justice, but you can at least say that it is an interesting, maybe you say, into that story. Right, the final chapter of that saga. As George Lucas would say for Star Wars, it echoes. It has a moment where the theory goes around and it all comes full circle.
SPEAKER 04 :
Does that mean that there’s going to be 36 more Trump inaugurations because of the way the Star Wars franchise works out? I’m talking about the original Star Wars. Oh, okay, got it.
SPEAKER 07 :
The history repeats itself. to a way where, yes, you have these sort of big moments where you’ll have this conclusion. And yes, I think that will be part of the story in history. I think history books will look, books, you know, the internet, will look back and say, our brain chips from Elon, will say, isn’t that wild? That’s a crazy end to this story, if you will, that because of the weather. Now, this is not the first time the inauguration has had to be moved inside. It happened to Ronald Reagan. It’s happened multiple times throughout history. this entire run. But hey, you know what? President Trump is a Floridian now. He knows. Too cold. Too cold.
SPEAKER 04 :
Too cold. To her point, our caller’s point, you can guarantee that on MSNBC and CNN, they are going to have side-by-sides of the swearing-in ceremony and the protesters walking through the rotunda. Van Jones is going to be crying. They have already, as soon as this information went out, they ordered the graphics department to start mocking up the side-by-side, try to find the right angle so it looks identical because they’re going to try to repeat that forever.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, it’s like my wife took a great picture of my kids walking across Abbey Road and nailed it perfectly. That’s what they’re going to do. They’re just going to be like exactly the same. Again, phone lines are open for your calls. I’d love to hear from you. Ronald’s Downhold will get to you when we come back. And we’re also going to talk about a new ACLJ client This is a pretty wild story. Again, it does involve big tech and really a big push against supporters of Israel. But in this one, not even just supporters of Israel, people that survived the Holocaust. You’re not going to want to miss this. Stay tuned. 1-800-684-3110. And again, I encourage you, if you like this broadcast, hit that subscribe button or become an ACLJ champion right now. Welcome back to Secular. Again, we’re going to take your calls. Stay on hold if you’re listening right now. Just give us a minute to get screened through these. We did want to, again, bring up the breaking news that President Trump’s second inauguration will be now inside the United States Capitol Rotunda. He put out a statement. It was used, obviously, by Ronald Reagan in 1985, who had his ceremonial inauguration, fun fact, at Walt Disney World at Epcot. You should watch those. Look at those pictures. See those videos. If you ever wanted to see something crazy, see the president speaking out in front of Spaceship Earth. But this is what he said. I have ordered the inauguration address in addition to the prayers and other speakers to be delivered inside the United States Capitol Rotunda, as was used by Ronald Reagan in 1985, also because of very cold weather. The various dignitaries and guests will be brought into the Capitol. This will be a very beautiful experience for all, and especially for the large TV audience. We will open Capitol One Arena on Monday for live viewing of this historic event. and to host the presidential parade. I will join the crowd at Capital One after my swearing in. So again, Capital One Arena, though, it holds, formerly the MCI Center, for those who remember that, it probably holds a normal size of an arena, somewhere between 19,000 and 20,000. Not exactly fitting everybody in there, probably, but you will at least have something that people who have gotten tickets, probably those guaranteed tickets, will be able to attend. And again, this is what the big breaking news is. A lot of people are speculating, of course, the security concerns that were going to be happening of an outside event, a big event which you can’t necessarily control everything. And obviously, I’m sure the Secret Service is somewhat breathing a sigh of relief trying to figure out what to do after you’ve had such a chaotic six months or seven months for President Trump in his run up to the election. So again this is what’s happening. That’s the big breaking news item as well as the TikTok ban that is still set to go in place. It’s up to President Trump on how that will be taken care of. And again, I wanted to cover that, make sure you guys all know what’s happening here in Capital One Arena, Will. Happens to be where I saw my first ever WCW Monday Nitro. So for those, that was the night that Sting joined the Wolfpack. So you know what? I should text Sting and get his advice.
SPEAKER 04 :
True patriot. He should have been on air today after this breaking news.
SPEAKER 07 :
He’s a true patriot, that Steve Borden. He is. All right, let’s move a little bit to the work of the ACLJ. We have a very interesting client right now. I think you’re going to get shocked by this. You know, for Amazon, yep, that’s right. I said it. With Amazon, which we’ve all used, let’s just be honest. Everyone uses Amazon. You can put up your own book and release your own book, self-publish these books, and you can order copies. This is what our client did. They ordered copies of their book, which is about a Holocaust survivor. Her father, actually. Her father. You know, they probably have thousands of these churning a day, I would assume, of these self-published books or even published books. You know, they are the ones providing the printing. When those books arrived directly from the Amazon warehouses and printers that create these books, if you’re watching right now, either on YouTube Rumble or the Salem News Channel or on X or on Facebook, this is what it looked like. When you opened up the pages, there were pages that said Zionism kills Jews. Open up another copy of it. What do we got there? What about the blood of Palestine? Let’s keep going. I think there’s some more. This one is from the river to the sea. Palestine will be free. And if you’re not watching, if you’re just listening to Liberate Palestine, if you’re just listening, this isn’t like little marks written on the cover or written in the small print somewhere. These are giant marker pages.
SPEAKER 04 :
essentially graffitied over the entire pages and what we are demanding is that amazon give some answers to this well that’s right so these copies every copy she received word was defaced yeah by someone within the supply chain at some point uh before before packaging i would assume because i don’t believe it was opened and then defaced then repackaged But she had reached out to Amazon and she’s an Israeli American. This book is called Daughter of the Holocaust. It is about her father, who is a Holocaust survivor. And she received inadequate responses from Amazon originally. And she was actually in Israel and had these books delivered to her son’s house. So by the time when she got home It was outside of the return window because she didn’t have adequate time to check because she had them delivered to her son’s home and came. So then she shows them like, sorry, we can’t we can’t really do anything. It’s outside of our terms of service. But now she is a client of the ACLJ. This is a breach of contract from Amazon is what we are letting them know. And we’re demanding from Amazon that they replace the destroyed books that were defaced with anti-Semitic hate. Conduct a thorough investigation of this conduct and provide our client with confirmation that the responsible party has been terminated and also provide her with a report of the investigation. Now, that obviously will take time, but we are demanding a response from Amazon that they get back to us, letting us know that this will occur tomorrow. By January 23rd. So just early into next week, they need to provide a lot more answers and a lot more things of confirmations that they are going to move forward and start making this right.
SPEAKER 07 :
You know they can track this back. They know the printer that was used. I mean, I’m talking about not necessarily the printer. I’m talking about the physical printer. They know where it came from. They then know where it went from there to binding, then from binding to packaging. There are cameras, I assume, and I would hope, honestly, at Amazon’s warehouses for quality control. checking all of these things they can find it and we were going to do our best here at the aclj to make sure that they do this is taken care of and our client is taking care of them by the way they’re taken care of as i’ve said on this show numerous times at no cost to them i highly doubt that this person could go get a lawyer spend the money that would take to go after and to try to be vindicated by a company like amazon you know that is a true david goliath story uh in this moment but because of the aclj and because of aclj champions people that give on a monthly basis or people that give individually just your donors because all of these clients all of these clients get this legal services at no cost to them zero dollars out of pocket now obviously we want to be able to pay the best of the best our best attorneys that we can get we can’t do that without your support because one day it could be you one day it could be me The ACLJ is here. And by the way, if you need legal help, easy, aclj.org slash help. If it’s within our scope of what we do here, you’re going to get immediately attached to an attorney and get the ball rolling. So let’s do it again. If you listen to moments like this, you see stories like this, you see the hate that’s happening in this country. you know that we can’t just stand by and do nothing. So I encourage you again to go to aclj.org. We are going to take some more phone calls coming up. A lot of you are joining us right now, by the way, on YouTube. I can see the numbers. If you are brand new to this show, which a lot of you are, as I know, I look at the analytics, about 50% of the people who watch this show every day have never seen us before. And well over 50% don’t subscribe. We do this show every day, noon to 1 p.m. Eastern Live. And we put up a lot of other great content. So I’m encouraging you right now, if you can’t give or you’re brand new and you’re not sure if you’re ready to give to the ACLJ, which supports this show, good free way to do it, hit that subscribe button. We are at 452,000 subscribers. I would love to get that well over a million. Let’s do that right now. I mean, we’re not gonna be able to do that right now. That’d be nice. It’d be nice. But let’s even get another thousand subs, 2,000 subs. It means more than you know. I know that sounds ridiculous because it sounds like I’m just like a YouTuber saying, please subscribe. But what this does, it gets this kind of voice. When you see what we’re doing in Washington, D.C., you see what we’re doing for clients like this Holocaust survivor’s daughter who wrote a book about her father’s experience and then had her books all defaced by Amazon, the behemoth of Amazon. And we’re going to take them on. We’re going to take them to court if necessary. We can’t do that without your support. I encourage you to go to ACLJ.org. Do that now. Stay on hold. If you are on hold, we’re going to get to you. We’re going to take some calls in the next segment and a little bit later in the broadcast. So stay tuned right now. If you don’t get us for the full hour, some of your local radio stations don’t carry us, find us live or later on on ACLJ.org, YouTube, Rumble, X, and the Salem News Channel. We’ll be right back on Sekulow.
SPEAKER 03 :
keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Seculo. And now your host, Logan Seculo.
SPEAKER 07 :
Welcome back to Seculo. We’re going to be taking your calls in this segment and later on in the broadcast. Again, we’re in the breaking news. It’s out of Washington, D.C. as President Trump’s inauguration has been announced to be moved indoors. There will be a viewing party at the Capital One Arena where the Washington Wizards play, the Washington Capitals. So there’ll be a place for, if you want to say, the regular people, the fans, if you will, the supporters, people that are coming in from all over the country to watch this in a air conditioned, heated environment because it is just so cold. And obviously there’s a sigh of relief in terms of the security nature that could, um, You know, scary risks that could happen from such a big outdoor event, especially just a few months after multiple assassination attempts. Let’s just be a little bit grateful. I see some of the comments coming in saying that. So I really do appreciate that. Give us a call. 1-800-684-3110. We’re going to take some calls and I’ll open up some lines. Let’s go ahead. First, let’s go to Joseph, who’s calling in Rhode Island on line three, who is watching. On one of our new homes, the Salem News Channel, which is available as a 24-hour news network, a lot of other great hosts, and we’re on it live now from noon to 1 p.m. Eastern. Joseph, go ahead.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yes, Logan. I am relieved. that is being moved inside. Not just for his safety, but he is elderly. And if he caught pneumonia, I know because my grandmother died from pneumonia, you know. But I’m surprised that they didn’t think of having
SPEAKER 07 :
having it at mar-a-lago you know that you know with the big gulf course you know you could have said everybody like that’s what i wanted to say joseph i think there’s a lot of people that feel similarly not necessarily because of age but because of health and even said i don’t want anyone to get injured is that you know obviously it’s an icy area a lot of places to slip and fall uh and then you have the obvious health risks of being out in below freezing temperatures Interesting, you brought up, should they have it in Mar-a-Lago or somewhere like that? The ceremony will definitely be taking place inside the Capitol Rotunda, as it should be. But if you look back to 1985, as I mentioned earlier, President Reagan had his second inauguration celebration, because they had to move it inside, at Epcot at Walt Disney World. So, you know, I don’t know if Walt Disney World’s still up for hosting an inauguration. A little bit different times with the Walt Disney Corporation. Ronald Reagan helped open Disneyland and was friends with Walt Disney, a true patriot, Walt Disney. But there are things like that that can happen. I wouldn’t be surprised if you saw some form of celebration tour that happens for President Trump that feels to be kind of on track for him. But of course, we want him to get in there first and just get this country safe and sound again. And that’s what we’re hoping for.
SPEAKER 04 :
And you have to think that those in the Secret Service as well are thrilled with this move. Obviously, the pomp and circumstance and President Trump’s own style is to have the big outdoor celebration with a large crowd extending out down the National Mall. So I feel like he didn’t make this decision lightly. It was from advice of, you know, people are going to be out there since 5 a.m. The exposure to that kind of cold for that long is not good and not wanting people to get hurt. But you have to think that with all of the negative and failures of the Secret Service over the past year, that they were probably weighing in on this as well and saying, you You know, if you are moving it in, it’s a good move because it is clearly being indoors contained in an already very secure building. Then you have to think that that’s a much better thing when the entire world will be watching on Monday as President Trump is sworn in for his second term in office.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, I do think there’s also not only the concern from the security point of view, because look at what happened during these confirmation hearings that are happening right now. You’ve had not violent protesters, but you’ve had very loud, obnoxious, being carried out protesters. Obviously, you know there will be protesters at the inauguration. I don’t think there will be as many as there were before, somewhat because of this unprecedented cold here in January in Washington, D.C. But This is a moment again that we’ll see what the progress happens. We’ll see where it goes. The reaction, though, I’m seeing on our comments, people are, I don’t want to say excited, but maybe relieved. Because you’re not going to be watching an event with that just concern maybe the whole time if security is really in place or not. Phone lines are open for your calls. 1-800-684-3110. Also, Kristi Noem is up right now doing her confirmation hearing. We’ll discuss that as well as continue the updates on TikTok, the updates on President Trump’s inauguration and take your calls. All right. Welcome back to Seculo. I did want to address, because there’s so many new people joining us right now, I can tell the numbers on YouTube and on Rumble and all of that. You may have saw that headline, Breaking Trump Inauguration Pushed Indoors. That has been officially announced now, even by President Trump. There will be a viewing party that will be happening at the Capital One Arena. That’s where the Wizards and the Capitals play. So it holds about 20,000-ish. That’s going to be happening during the live event, and then President Trump is going to travel from the Capitol Rotunda, where they’ll be doing the indoor event, They’ll be traveling to this arena. Again, twofold. One is the weather. It is going to be well below freezing. So a lot of people out there at 5 a.m. or earlier to get their spot, not good for people’s health. And then you have the security concerns. Now, they’re not addressing the security concerns, but I can tell you by just looking at the comments, I know a lot of you are thinking that way. And there’s a lot of people going, I’m relieved. So I’m sure that’s true for people within the Secret Service as well. We are going to take some more phone calls, 1-800-684-3110, and we have been discussing the ban on TikTok. Brief update on that, Supreme Court said it can happen. Biden administration looks to be punting it to President Trump, and it is in his hands. He hopes to have a new seller that can get that done, a new American buyer who will buy TikTok and have more transparency and less information going to the Chinese government. Right now, though, we want to shift gears a little bit, Will, and talk about what’s going on in Washington as this transition period of time is happening.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right. As we see the incoming cabinet members go through their confirmation hearings, and we have Professor Harry Hutchison joining us, we are also seeing, maybe not getting as much play… But a lot of interviews, farewell speeches from current cabinet members. We’re seeing Attorney General Merrick Garland had a ceremony yesterday at the FBI to thank them for their hard work over the past four years. He was presented with a Tommy gun from Director Wray.
SPEAKER 07 :
If you’re watching on any of our platforms, our visual platforms, which you should be, by the way, there it is. I mean, a mob boss style video game looking Tommy gun.
SPEAKER 04 :
and and now Christopher Wray said you know this is from you know the beginning of the federal bureau of investigation this was kind of the the arms that they used at the time and so that’s what the symbolism is I think that they completely lost the symbolism that everyone associates that with the mob and you are now saying Merrick Garland, here’s a symbol of the mob, which I don’t know, maybe people have been criticizing the tactics of the FBI of being a little mob-like over the last four years.
SPEAKER 07 :
I mean, it’s got the orange tip at the end, so you know this is a replica. This isn’t real. It’s not something to work. But still, even the imagery of giving a gun.
SPEAKER 04 :
Merrick Garland did say, I hope this is legal. And he goes, and the ATF guy I think is here, so maybe he can clear it. It’s like when Elvis snuck a gun in to give to Nixon. Even the attorney general is questioning, well, maybe I shouldn’t be getting this. But, you know, he’s not really a gun guy himself. But then you’re also seeing he made a statement During this speech where he said, the story has been told by some outside this building about what has happened inside of it is wrong. You have worked to pursue justice, not politics. That is the truth and nothing can change it. Professor Hutchison, what are your thoughts on this revisionist history that Merrick Garland is trying to put out into the world before his time is up?
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, Will, it’s increasingly clear that delusional Democrats continue to live in the exciting world of make-believe. So this past Thursday, we have Attorney General Merritt Garland who urged Department of Justice staffers to resist any efforts by the incoming Trump administration to weaponize the DOJ. It’s clear beyond question that Merrick Garland’s analysis is exactly backward. What the American people have witnessed over the past seven to eight years under both the Obama administration and the Biden administration is the political weaponization of the DOJ against Donald Trump. I mean, who could forget the effort to prevent Donald Trump from actually appearing on the ballot? within the meaning of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. Who could forget Jack Smith’s multiple efforts to incarcerate Donald Trump based on an alleged election interference claim in Washington DC and based on a classified documents case in Florida. Who could forget published reports of alleged cooperation between the DOJ and Alvin Bragg and the reported cooperation between Fannie Willis in Georgia and the DOJ. And who could forget the January 6th House Committee and Liz Cheney preening before the cameras, the Russia collusion investigation, crossfire hurricane, you name it. There have been multiple efforts by Democrats to essentially prevent Donald Trump from becoming president. And then once he became president in 2016, multiple efforts to prevent him from acting effectively, including two impeachment cases. So I think at the end of the day, the Democrats have got it exactly backward. And it is very good to see the back of Merritt Garland because he’s been one of the most incompetent attorney generals in American history.
SPEAKER 04 :
And Professor Hutchison, I also want to bring up because Kristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota, is currently today having hearings on her nomination to lead the Department of Homeland Security. And we’re seeing Alejandro Mayorkas, the impeached director of Homeland Security. As Nancy Pelosi liked to say, you know, once you’re impeached, you’re impeached forever. He was impeached by the House of Representatives. They did not have a trial in the Senate over his impeachment. But he went on CNBC and was having a discussion. And the host actually asked him pretty straightforward, you know, a lot of your work on the border. Many point to that as being one of the decisive factors to the loss by Kamala Harris in November. And he was asking his take on that. So this is him responding. This is bite four from the outgoing impeached Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas.
SPEAKER 02 :
I’m not sure I’m in a position to agree or disagree with your political conclusion as to what determined the election in November. There are different views having been expressed. I wish that we had more time. And that would enable us to do more, not only in furtherance of our mission, but in the service of the American people. And I don’t tend to look back like that. I look forward and see what is ahead and what can be ahead for the benefit of the American people.
SPEAKER 04 :
Professor Hutchison, there was only one Secretary of Homeland Security during the tenure of Joe Biden in the White House. And normally, I mean, sometimes there is turnover within these agencies over the course of a first term, but there was only one. There was Alejandro Mayorkas. He had four years. uh to not create the disaster that they created and yet he’s asking and saying that he wishes they had more time to further their mission i don’t know if he’s talking about more time to completely eviscerate any semblance of a border uh for the united states or what but there was another bite where he also almost threw the people above him uh the president vice president under the bus by saying you know a lot of different views are expressed And then once it’s decided what we’re going to do, everyone has to unify. So maybe he’s trying to rewrite history a little bit, say it’s not all my fault. But that statement there alone of saying, I wish I had more time is the most perfect descriptor of this Biden administration where everything they did for four years seemed to be just chaotic. And yet they wish they had more time.
SPEAKER 05 :
Absolutely. So I think if you look at Mr. Mayorkas, it’s imperative to note that the translation of what he said about having more time simply means more time to demonstrate beyond cavil and beyond question his incompetence. There have been few DHS secretaries who have been more incompetent than Mr. Mayorkas. He told the American people that the border is closed. He told the American people that the border is secure. That is one of the greatest lies in American history. So, I think, again, the American people will be happy to see him go. I hope at the end of the day he can find work, perhaps as a janitor or someone else. Or at MSNBC. It’s the same thing.
SPEAKER 04 :
He may get a tenured professorship at Harvard. You know, there’s a lot of academic jobs that he could get professored.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, I don’t want to talk bad about anyone in that services because they’re doing the hard work out there. But hopefully, like I said, he’ll end up on MSNBC. No one will be able to see him. It’s fine. They don’t have a boss. It’s what’s happening right now. We only have 50 seconds left. I’m going to take your calls coming up in the next segment. 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110. We urgently need your support here at the ACLJ. I encourage you to do that right now. We’ve got a great lineup of calls coming up as well. So stay on hold. If you’re in Oklahoma, South Carolina, Maryland, Arizona, all our calls. And if you’re brand new and you’re wondering what happened with President Trump, why I’m moving to indoors, we’ll state that coming up in the next segment. We’ll also talk about the TikTok ban as well. And if you are watching right now and you haven’t subscribed, I encourage you to do that on YouTube, on Rumble, however you’re watching this, Facebook, like the page. Do whatever you need to do to stay engaged with what we’re doing here at the ACLJ. We do a show each and every day, so be a part of that as well. And I encourage you, make a comment. If you don’t know what to comment, I like reading in the breaks, where are you watching from? Be right back. Welcome back to Secular. I love hearing from the most important voice in the room. Of course, that’s you, our callers. Phone lines are open at 1-800-684-3110. As we clear through these, there’ll be more availability. So do that now or start getting on hold. We’ve got a lot to go through. Let’s go to Lori who’s calling. You’ve been on hold for a long time, Lori. A lot of you have, so stay on hold. Lori in Arizona watching on YouTube. Welcome.
SPEAKER 10 :
Hello. Um, thanks for talking to me. Um, I just have a comment and as, as far as the inauguration of ceremony location is at, it doesn’t matter to me. I just want him sworn in as president of the United States. And then the closer that he’s to that.
SPEAKER 04 :
um desk where he signs those executive orders the sooner our country can get back on track i think that’s a lot of us a lot of us just want the safety and security to return once again uh well well and even remember though as you think about these things uh the first inauguration he did the very unprecedented move of getting out of the limousine and walking down pennsylvania avenue uh with Barron and Melania. A lot of people were like, is he going to try to do that again? And I think the answer on that was going to be no. I don’t think that the Secret Service would have allowed that at this point. The inauguration, while secure and they put as many Secret Service individuals on it as possible and as many resources throughout the federal government as they can on it, when you’re exposed in a city There’s only so much threat mitigation you can do, especially if it’s a moving pathway. And I think that the Secret Service would not have allowed that to risk any sort of disruption or failure, again, based off the year they’ve had. But… Moving it indoors, I think, is a sigh of relief for those at the Secret Service that they can contain that ceremony 100% indoors. But I think we should go on to another call.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yep, continuing on. Let’s go to Susan who’s calling in Maryland, watching on YouTube. Susan, go ahead.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, I just called to thank ACLJ for taking the Amazon case for defaying Holocaust books. I am not Jewish. But I am more than honored to support your decision to represent this case. Thank you very much.
SPEAKER 07 :
Susan, I’m glad you called in. And if you didn’t see that, if you’re your brand new watch the ACLJ, by the way, if you’re brand new, I know half of you are. We also are not just a television show and not just a YouTube show or podcast. We are also a law firm, public interest law firm. where if you need us and at no cost, we will represent you. And what she was referring to is a case that we now have, or a client that we now have, it could turn into a case, where the person had created a book, which you can do, and uploaded it to Amazon and ordered it from Amazon to be delivered. And this book happened to be about her father, who was a Holocaust survivor. And when the books arrived… When you open them up, as you can see right now, they were all defaced. Every single copy of them defaced with anti-Semitic rhetoric. What about the blood of Palestine? Zionism kills Jews. From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. All of those tropes written in all the books. What about this? What about that? And Amazon kind of said, well, there’s nothing we can do. It’s outside of our return policy. We’re going to make sure that Amazon does respond to this. Everyone uses Amazon. OK, let’s not live in a world where we don’t. I know a lot of you are saying you wish you couldn’t. Well, that’s fine. But most people do have to use or do use Amazon’s great service. Great what they do. However. They should not just roll over to anti-Semitism coming from inside of their own company. So we are going to respond to that aggressively, Will. We’ve told them there’s a deadline. Now we’ve got two calls still on the hit. There’s a deadline for them to respond because we know they have cameras. We know they have ways to find out who this individual is and to take care of the problem.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. I don’t think that they have the cover of saying, ah, we didn’t have enough data to be able to figure this out. They can figure out what you’re thinking three weeks from now, what you may want to purchase. But I think it is also important to reiterate this case. I don’t know that if the Biden administration had allowed the rampant anti-Semitism to just fester in this country over the past almost year and a half now, that it would have even been someone as brazen enough to think that they could deface every product that someone ordered with anti-semitic tropes which was a daughter writing a memoir about her father who was a holocaust survivor and they thought they could get away with it why do they think they could get away with it because they saw thousands of anti-semites across this country protesting the streets defacing public property not just someone’s individual book but public landmarks and schools and buildings and not getting even a slap on the wrist that’s on the hands of the biden administration to make someone think they could get away with this and to really instill fear and hatred against a individual
SPEAKER 07 :
Yep. Let’s go ahead and try to get as many calls as we can. Again, that’s the work of the ACLJ, which you should support at ACLJ.org. Or if you’re brand new, hit that subscribe button. You don’t have to donate the first time here, but we encourage you if you are a frequent viewer of this or you like what we do and you want to make sure you’re protected as well, ACLJ.org. Let’s go ahead and take Ronald, who’s calling from South Carolina, watching on Rumble, one of our favorite free speech platforms. Ronald, go ahead.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, thanks for taking my call. Yeah, and you were correct when I had that thought as to you know, this was not the first time that has happened. And I actually remembered watching the Reagan inauguration when it was moved into a secure inside place because of the frigid temperatures. And I think it was more health than protection of the president. I think maybe you can probably use that as the underlying base for that. But I think it’s just had to do to the fact of literally having citizens come all the way out there being exposed to frigid temperatures for a prolonged period of time. You know, that’s what I think.
SPEAKER 07 :
I think absolutely. But of course, you had Ronald Reagan also had an attempted assassination just a few years before that was shot. That all happened. So we can’t forget that there are some similarities here, if you will, in terms of the weather, the security and all of that. But Ronald, yeah, you’re right. This isn’t the first time this has happened. And there are other ways you can celebrate, and it seems like they are creating that option for the people that are going there live. They can attend. If you have a ticket, it looks like, I don’t know all the details. I’m sure you’ll get it. If you are attending, you can go to the Capital One Arena to watch, and President Trump will appear towards the end of that, I’m sure, after his inauguration. Quickly, Paul in Oklahoma, you are on the air as well. I know this is a little bit of a different topic, but we’re running out of time. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, I’ve always been a strong supporter of IDF and Israel’s right to exist as people. And I was concerned with the hostage negotiation deal, but realizing that they’ve always played chess to our tic-tac-toe, I think they’re going to do all right. And if they fail, well, God’s going to have platform to demonstrate his love. the saving hand to all the nations.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, Paul, I think that’s true for a lot of people.
SPEAKER 04 :
We have to see what comes out of this. And there was a slight delay in the moving forward of that deal. The war cabinet did sign off on it today, and then it went to a vote for the full cabinet for them to move forward with this hostage deal. And as you can go back and watch yesterday’s show or the day before, we even say this may not be the best deal on paper, but it’s the deal that can be made now. It’s the deal that can save lives. It’s the deal that can be saved lives. And we know that also there is a president in the White House that will support Israel going forward if they want to wipe out Hamas, as we believe they should.
SPEAKER 07 :
We are seeing echoes of Ronald Reagan multiple times throughout this week, and whether that’s the inauguration or whether that is the situation at hand in the Middle East. I want to encourage you and tell you to really consider supporting the work of the ACLJ and consider becoming an ACLJ champion. That’s something that gives on a monthly recurring basis. Set it and forget it. Of course, you can cancel it anytime. Donations are tax deductible. So do that right now. Give monthly. Scan the QR code on your screen right now or just go to aclj.org and you can opt in. Of course, one-time gifts are very appreciated as well. And I want to thank everyone who’s watching online. If you’re brand new, hit that subscribe button. Or if you’re watching on all the other platforms, just make sure that you are following us each and every day. We’ll be back next week with full coverage of the inauguration and so much more. It’s going to be a busy week next week. Go to aclj.org to help us be ready.
