In this episode of Sekulow, we dive into the unfolding situation in Minnesota as President Trump threatens to invoke the Insurrection Act. With riots escalating and a political standoff brewing, we explore the legal implications and historical context of using military force under these circumstances. Join us as our experts, including Rick Grinnell and Mike Pompeo, provide insights into how similar situations have been handled in the past and what this means for the present.
SPEAKER 01 :
We got breaking news. President Trump threatens the Insurrection Act in Minnesota.
SPEAKER 06 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 01 :
Welcome to Sekulow. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. And once again, we got breaking news and a packed show. So we’ve got Rick Grinnell joining us a little bit later. Mike Pompeo will be joining us at the end of the broadcast. And that means we’re going to be taking your calls a lot earlier than usual. So if you want to get in line, now is the time to do it. That’s at 1-800-684-3110. The breaking news comes out directly from President Trump on Truth Social. This is specifically targeted at everything that is going on in Minnesota, specifically related to ice. Now, there have been an endless amount of debates about what went down last week in that, regardless of what it is, loss of human life, which is always unfortunate. A lot of debate, both sides, who was right, who was wrong. There have been now a lot of riots that have been happening in the area. It’s starting to get a little out of control. President Trump put out a statement and said, if the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the patriots of ICE who are only trying to do their job, I will institute… the insurrection act which many presidents have done before me and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in a once great state thank you for the attention to this matter president djt that again came out on i believe on true social and on social media platforms um This is an official statement from President Trump. Now, what does the Insurrection Act mean? I think we can break that down. Will knows a little bit more than all of us do, and we’ll do that. Now, he said it’s been used by a lot of presidents. It was last used in 1992 during the Los Angeles riots. So within most of our lifetime, if you’re probably listening to this, if this show is interesting to you, there’s a good chance you were maybe around in 1992. Maybe you’re a young person like Will and I then, back then in the… The good old days of the 90s where everything was peaceful and calm. Except for when they used the Insurrection Act. Exactly. We nostalgitize these days. You realize it’s not all that different. There was impeachments going on. There were riots in the streets. So let’s talk about what this Insurrection Act may look like. And then let us know what you think. And let us know what you think about the whole ICE situation. I’d be very interested in that at 1-800-684-3110. Because I have seen conversations bubble up from people on the right who go, you know, this is maybe not what we signed up for. I think they have to start taking the political wins and checking on where people are feeling with all of this.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s right. So the Insurrection Act of 1807 is actually kind of an amalgamation of laws at the beginning of the Republic, some even enacted in the 1700s. They’ve been used over 30 times throughout our history by even some presidents like George Washington used that to put down some rebellions. What it now looks like is Title 10 of the U.S. Code, Sections 251 through 255, kind of are the codified versions of what these insurrection laws were. And 252, Section 252, really is what is applicable here because it says, Whenever the president considers that unlawful obstructions, combinations or assemblages or rebellion against the authority of the United States make it impractical to enforce the laws of the United States in any state by ordinary course of judicial proceedings, he may call into federal service such of the militia of any state. the National Guard here, and use such of the armed forces as he considers necessary to enforce those laws or to suppress the rebellion. Now, what’s key here is that this has generally been seen as a very broad law that the term rebellion is not defined. So that kind of infers that it is up to the president. Yeah. This is one of the few instances that the Posse Comitatus Act, which bans the use of the military for civil enforcement of law, is accepted. So we can get more into that in the next segment. But if he uses this, it really does give the president broad authority to use the military within the United States.
SPEAKER 01 :
what do you think about that 1-800-684-3110 of course we obviously have to look at the ramifications of using these kind of acts what it could look like if it’s something that you’re not in favor of if the next president was to utilize it so you know we gotta be safe we gotta be thinking about it give me your call or give me a call let me know what you think at 1-800-684-3110 while you’re at it during this break go to aclj.org and support the work make a donation really it’ll help us out at aclj.org we’ll be right back Welcome back to Secular. Phone lines have lit up. We have not been able to screen any of them yet, but a lot of them are on hold right now, so stay on hold. 1-800-684-3110. We’re going to take calls in this segment and the next segment later on when we join by Mike Pompeo and Rick Rennell in the back half of the show. It’s going to be a packed back half. We’ll do our best to get to as many of your calls up front as we can. For those just joining us, yes, you’ve seen the news. You saw the headline. What does it mean? President Trump threatens using the Insurrection Act. It says a lot of presidents have used it before. It’s time to make sure Minnesota is safe. and that the ICE agents are taken care of. Now, this obviously comes at a very, very intense time in terms of Minnesota in general, President Trump in general. Same time, Governor Walz is saying, telling Trump to turn down the temperature. It feels like that’s the ongoing thing that we’ve heard, is turn down the temperature on a situation. I think, sure, that’s good advice. I would love that to happen, but the streets say otherwise.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s right. And what we are seeing now, first, what is the Insurrection Act? So this is a set of laws. It’s referred to as the Insurrection Act of 1807, but it’s codified in Title 10 of the U.S. Code, Sections 251 through 255. It’s different instances where the president or the federal government can use military forces to to enforce the law or in order to keep order or put down a rebellion. Rebellion is not defined, so it’s been generally interpreted that that is up to the president to decide what is a rebellion. But I want to read this because this is Section 252. This is… really what gets to the heart of what we’re looking at here there’s some other ones that kind of tangentially get there but this is where whenever the president considers that unlawful obstructions combinations or assemblages or rebellion against the authority of the united states make it impractical to enforce the laws of the United States in any state by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings. He may call into federal service such of the militia of any state and use such of the armed forces as he considers necessary to enforce those laws or to suppress the rebellion. Now, there was talk of this when he was sending National Guard to California. Yeah, I remember this bubbling up. But it was never actually invoked. And I think that’s actually why a lot of the courts ended up saying, you have to send the National Guard home. You can’t just deputize them. You can’t call them into federal service without this extra authority because of the Posse Comitatus Act. generally let me explain what that is yeah generally the president and the federal government is barred from using the military for law enforcement purposes within the country that’s right and that’s a good thing we generally don’t want that i mean how many times have uh people on the right been concerned about martial law from other concerns with this in general and that’s why i say you got to think long term on this in terms of the way ice is being used the way the way that they are
SPEAKER 01 :
deputized and and we’ve had this discussion which is well whose authority do they do they have well who are they over are they over american citizens also is this just uh enforcement of uh people here illegally it’s a little blurry and i think maybe that’s the big concern and it’s sort of the problems we’re running into already which is again are they law enforcement Yes. Are they your local law enforcement? No. So then what does that mean if you’re a citizen of one of these states? If you’re a citizen of one of these areas and you encounter ICE, what kind of laws are they, what kind of rules are they under?
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, and I think this is where it gets more dangerous. One, you saw the governor, and this is also what differentiates it between what happened in California and what is happening in Minnesota. In California, Governor Newsom was criticizing the policies of the president, and he was saying, no, we don’t need the National Guard because we’ve got it and we’re taking care of it. So that was the argument there, that we are taking care of it, but also we don’t think that you should be sending ICE here. When you look at what governor walls is doing, he is calling on the citizens to resist, to resist the federal government, the ice agents that are enforcing legally deportation orders, going after people that are here illegally, that is their job. And they are allowed to do that. When you have a state that is actively, not just within their own policies, but also within directing their citizenry and their constituents to resist, you do get into an area where it seems like an insurrection act to put down a rebellion could be a logical use here. And so I want to hear, this is from last night. Governor Walz played a prerecorded message on social media, supposed to look live. They had some tech issues. It happens. We’ve all been there, but not necessarily the finest moment at that point. But here’s some of the rhetoric that he was saying last night. This wasn’t a… moment where he and he said you know president trump needs to bring down the temperature but he is still instructing his citizens to push back that isn’t going to help anyone that’s only going to give more credibility to the use of something like an insurrection act let’s play bite five when you hear from the governor of minnesota who is uh has recently had articles of impeachment filed against him
SPEAKER 07 :
You’re angry, I’m angry. Angry is not a strong enough word, but we must remain peaceful. Second, you are not powerless, you are not helpless, and you are certainly not alone. All across Minnesota, people are learning about opportunities, not just to resist, but to help people who are in danger. Thousands upon thousands of our fellow Minnesotans are going to be relying on mutual aid in the days and weeks to come, and they need our support.
SPEAKER 02 :
So the governor there is talking about how the people of Minnesota are going to be fighting back. on the ground, not his government saying we’re going to go to court and we’re going to try to get an injunction against this. No, he is saying that you can not just resist. So inferring continue to resist, but also how to help people who are in danger. Many of those people, I assume, are illegal migrants that are there that have deportation orders against them. So when he says this is of the president’s doing he in this address, he also said he wants more of this chaos. He wants more of this. What is chaotic is that the government of Minnesota is resisting. He’s a very powerful individual. He is the governor of a state where this is taking place. He can get on the phone with the administration. We even heard from Kristi Noem on Fox this morning. She has called him and tried to call him to talk about this, and he will not have these conversations.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, he’s getting more airtime than ever. Exactly. I mean, he’s being able to all of a sudden, Tim Walz is back to being a household name. And he hasn’t been for a number of, about a year. OK, because how many people even if I bet if you poll the American people, if you remember who the losing vice president, potential candidate is, most people would at least have to think for a few minutes about each one. I mean, we could go back and go, OK, well, who was Mitt Romney? So Paul Ryan. Yeah, that’s OK. Now let’s go back. Who was Al Gore’s Joe Lieberman? Who was? SNL even did that whole skit about Tim Kaine. Tim Kaine, that’s right.
SPEAKER 02 :
One election cycle prior, and the whole joke was no one knew who he was.
SPEAKER 01 :
Right, and now you have Tim Walz who had to have some egg on his face for a moment saying, I’m going to not run for a third term. Now able to turn that around. I don’t know what the rules are on turning that back around, but I have a feeling he could use this as a political stunt to re-bolster. that potential third term campaign saying, look, I am the one who’s going to be fighting back against President Trump. And then that becomes your entire campaign strategy. And look at certain states that will fly really well.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, and once again, what could the governor actually do here? Instead of saying we need all of our people to help people that are going to be in danger, in danger of what being deported for not being in the country legally. Instead of doing that, what he could say is, you know, I am the governor. I want you. I understand you’re angry, but this is my job. thank you everyone for raising your voice but this is going to be my job i’m going to use the minnesota department investigations i’m going to use our attorneys here and my attorney general and we’re going to meet with the white house and with the administration we’re going to get it sorted out because they are yes they are going to want to get people that are here illegally out but we’re going to do this safely And we’re not going to have this, we’re even saying we’re not going to have them go door to door. We’re going to work with them to get the people that are in our jails out. But instead, he’s enlisting his people to resist and to almost, he’s invoking this kind of World War II era, like you’re going to have to take people into your homes as if this is a Holocaust situation. He has said that ICE is the Gestapo before. He’s continuing this narrative, and that is very dangerous for his people. He’s not taking care of Minnesotans.
SPEAKER 01 :
We only got a minute and a half left in this segment. In the next segment, I’m going to hear from you. We’re going to take a bunch of calls, so stay on hold if you’re on hold or give us a call. I do see in the chat, some people are asking about updates from Iran and updates about the Greenland situation. A lot of that’s been in the news quite a bit. As I was flipping through the channels today, even on BBC, they were talking a lot about Greenland and President Trump’s I guess you’d say, quote unquote, threats there to take it by force if necessary. We’ll talk about that a little bit more, even with Mike Pompeo, who will be joining us later. He’s always a good voice on the international front. So you’ll have an understanding of that. That will wrap up the show towards the end. But we will take some calls and comments related to that as well, if you have it, at 1-800-684-3110. I think these talking points become sometimes lost in the news cycle. Why was Greenland even an important conversation to begin with? We can go back and discuss that a little bit further. We also have news coming out of the ACLJ, a very interesting case that we’re going to be taking on as, again, the left’s war against the freedom of speech and specifically towards kids in schools. is heating up once again. And you’re not going to believe this story. We’re going to discuss that coming up in the next segment, as well as take your phone calls. So don’t go anywhere. I am going to encourage you, if you want a little spoiler of what we’re talking about, go to aclj.org slash sign to sign your petition to make sure you don’t have to surrender your religious liberties and your kids don’t have to just in their school. We’ll be right back with more on Sekulow. Welcome back to Secular. We have a completely full bank of calls. Some of these calls are going to be similar, I’ll be honest. There’s people with a lot of different point of view, but I want to hear from all of you. Let’s go ahead and take a couple of these calls, and we’ll talk about some of the work of the ACLJ coming right after this. A lot of you will be on the hold for the whole show. Let’s start it off with an old standard. Let’s go to Bill in Wyoming on Line 3. Bill, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 05 :
Hi, thanks for taking my call. Look, first of all, I want to apologize. What I was trying to talk about last week You covered in the fact that I wanted to say, let us remind everybody what happened with the last administration. And you covered it, but I left my thoughts on the other side of the coin and the fact that why don’t we just sit down, address this properly and calmly, get rid of the agitators, take care of those who are here illegally, and maybe even My opinion may be that what happened January 14th would not never have happened.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, that’s right. I mean, once again, the I feel like cooler heads could prevail on many sides of this. But what you are seeing is, yes, aggressive action by the administration of which they ran on. And then you are seeing aggressive response by these governors of blue states or mayors that are trying to make a name for themselves out of this and actually putting their people in harm’s way as a result of this. I mean, Governor Walz even gave another way the people could help by wanting them to, and he keeps saying peacefully as if to cover that, as if it’s not going to get out of hand, but he’s encouraging people to go out and film ICE. so that they can establish a database of atrocities, is what he calls it, against Minnesotans to establish not just a record for posterity, but to bank evidence for future prosecutions. Once again, the entire premise the governor is putting out there is that everything ICE is doing is an atrocity and illegal because they’re gonna prosecute these people. This is not a situation where he’s, when he’s telling people to be peaceful, he’s ratcheting up the rhetoric even more, saying that we need a database of atrocities against Minnesotans. The tragic death of a human that occurred last week. I don’t think rises to the level of atrocity in the sense of the way he’s using it. He is trying to make it, as we’ve said, he is using that Nazi rhetoric constantly. This is not me overstepping saying he’s trying to make these ties. That is his goal, and that is where it is going to make people more agitated, it’s going to make law enforcement more nervous about the people around them and is going to lead to more harm being done to individuals. Even the media is complicit in this. They put out headlines, another ICE involved shooting last night in Minnesota. What happened in that situation was a member of ICE was going after someone who they were pursuing because they are here illegally. That person is fleeing. People run out of a house to assist the getaway of the person that is here illegally and start hitting the ICE agent with shovels and brooms. And someone is shot in the leg out of self-defense from the ICE agent. Once again. That type of behavior is a direct response to what the governor is calling for here, to get involved. Hitting someone with a shovel, yeah, law enforcement, if they are being beaten, are probably going to shoot you in the leg. And that is self-defense. You have no right to run out and start beating a law enforcement officer with a shovel. But yet this is the same night that the governor is out there saying there is more you can do. Get out there and create a database. It’s shocking that more incidents have not happened, but I’m afraid they will.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, I think there may be more that we’re just not seeing. Also, they’re happening on the ground there again. That’s why I’m always interested if you’re in Minnesota to give me a call, because what’s it like actually to be on the ground there? I’d love to hear from you. But we have a lot of calls from around the country. Let’s continue on. Let’s go kind of bounce around. Let’s go to Kathleen in California on line two. Kathleen got an idea. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, I have an idea because I can see that the education system is going to keep going and I’m a retired teacher. I know that as a retired teacher, kids can drive you nuts. So I’m sure these people are, and they’re all paid because they were paid in California. I know that. My suggestion is that president Trump pull all those people for a time period that he tells Walt that either he cooperates, or he’s arrested.
SPEAKER 01 :
All right. Well, you know, that is an option that’s on the table, I guess. I don’t know if the president has necessarily the right to just start threatening to arrest people like Walls and governors of states. But you know what? I could see how the frustration would be building to that. I do think there is a tipping point we do have to be aware of. And I think whether you are a supporter of how ICE has been handling things, or maybe you think, hey, in general, we like the idea of being heavier or better on immigration. But maybe ISIS is taking it too far. Maybe they need better training. Maybe we don’t have the right people in these roles. Because there have been instances, and we know this, and I think, look, let’s not pretend that it’s been a 100% flawless record here now. We have had issues where the wrong people have been sent places. Wrong people have been arrested. Doors have been busted down at homes. People who should not have had their doors busted down. So let’s not pretend that we’re living in some perfect society here where that’s just working flawlessly. The American people, you do have to gauge their temperature. I do that on these calls. Look, I have to say most of the calls, most of the people here are obviously very supportive of President Trump. That’s not any shocker based on what this show is and the audience that calls in on conservative talk and Christian radio. However, I always want to make sure that you do feel that way because it does feel like you can wake up in a different America each and every day. Let’s go ahead. We got two minutes. Let’s take one more call, at least in this segment. Stay on hold, though. We’ll get to you. Let’s go to Joel, who’s calling in California. Also, Joel, go ahead.
SPEAKER 09 :
God bless you guys. I don’t understand how turning down the temperature by cranking up the thermostat is going to work. Somebody must ask Tim Walz that question. I also thought it was illegal to incite a riot, and I think that’s what he’s doing.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, it’s a catch-all, Joel. It feels like there’s been two of those statements, like you said, don’t really coexist with each other when you say, turn down the temperature, and then at the same time, you start to tell your own citizens of your state that you are the governor of. to be concerned and be ready.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, and to Joel’s point as well, they had a special counsel in an entire indictment trying to go after President Trump saying he incited an insurrection at the Capitol, right? So if we are just taking what they have put out there, then is the non-president of the United States, the governor of a state, trying to interfere with laws that are on the books that are lawful and action that is lawful of deportation of people that are here criminally. Is that not an insurrection? And that’s why you have the questions of the Insurrection Act. So do I think that we need to get there as a country again? Because I’m so glad we are behind the hits at this point. But once again, it’s like they’re daring the federal government to do it. That’s what the end. You know what? It worked for President Trump to get reelected because people saw how ridiculous it was. So maybe that is his plan is arrest me for insurrection so I can run for president.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, we got a second half hour coming up. I want you to join us. Phone lines are still jammed. They may continue to be jammed. We’re going to get to as many as we can, but we do have a packed back half including Rick Grinnell, Mike Pompeo. I do want to talk about a new ACLJ case. We haven’t been able to get to it yet because this is obviously what everyone wants to talk about, and I understand that, but there is important work that the ACLJ is doing. We’re going to get to that in the second half hour. If you don’t get us on your local station, we’re broadcasting live right now for another half hour at ACLJ.org on YouTube, on Rumble. Find us there. Subscribe if you haven’t, and make a donation if you can at ACLJ.org if you want to support this show and our legal work. We’ll be right back.
SPEAKER 06 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 01 :
The ACLJ work doesn’t stop, and I want to make sure, beyond covering whatever the news item is today, you know what you’re supporting when you financially give to the ACLJ, whether as a one-time donor or an ACLJ champion, someone that gives monthly. And Will, this is another one of those sort of cookie-cutter cases that comes out of the ACLJ that you can’t believe we have to fight, but here we are.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, and once again, it comes out of a state that you wouldn’t expect that this would be the kind of thing happening. And this is out of Kansas, where there was an entire lesson program in sixth grade. And it was actually called Finding Your Voice, which is… amazing the irony here right one of the parts of this uh this program there was the leader in me and they’re doing instruction on this and so the the students were told by the teacher to go up to the whiteboard and write on the whiteboard your hero and a student was going to put charlie kirk and president trump and then they were told by the teacher specifically They are not heroes. So now in finding your voice, you are being silenced by your teacher. You can’t even describe your own hero, but also the president of the United States can’t be your hero and someone who espoused conservative ideals can’t be your hero. Then they were said, you know what? No religious or political figures. After the fact. After the fact. So then they make this restriction. And what happens? There are some potentially controversial figures that are put on the board that are secular figures. No problem there. And then the best part.
SPEAKER 01 :
Look, I think this is where you go, OK, you know what? Maybe they didn’t think ahead of time. They’re not trying to cause a ruckus here at this school. They are trying to make sure that they’re not causing any controversy. So, yes, we understand Charlie Kirk, President Trump. regardless if you agree with it, are controversial figures to a large portion of the United States. So maybe they were just trying to backtrack to make sure stuff didn’t go wrong. But once again, they have to step in it. They have to step in it in terms of the way parents can get involved in their kids’ lives and their kids’ schooling. They say, hey, and while you’re at it, don’t tell your parents. And this is where it is so egregious, Logan, because- Don’t tell your parents that we’re censoring you or silencing you or telling you who can be or who cannot be your hero. Make sure when you go home, if they bring it up, do not tell them.
SPEAKER 02 :
this is the fight the fight sure it has to do with with the topic at hand but of course it really has to do with where do your parental rights land when it comes to the way the public school system even a private school system can treat you that’s right and that was from the principal not the teacher because parents did complain they heard from multiple sources that this censorship was going on and so there was supposed to be an apology by the principal and in that alleged apology the principal told these sixth graders in the future you bring your concerns to school officials and not your parents and the principal stated the school should also be considered their family. This is ridiculous. And so what are we doing at the ACLJ? We’re filing a federal discrimination complaint with the DOJ and the Department of Education fighting back to make sure that this doesn’t continue to happen in Kansas of all places.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, and of course that means it’s happening rapidly all across the country. And we’ve got to take it to federal court. We’ve got to make sure the feds know about this. Make sure that we get it handled so this is not just a localized issue that gets handled in one city or one district in Kansas. that it can reflect everyone across the country. And again, I think this is a multi-pronged moment here. Sure, it has to do with the fact that they’ve said Jesus and Charlie Kirk or President Trump, whoever it may be. No religious, no political figures. But really, at its core, it’s where do you lose your rights to being a parent? Where does your kid lose the rights of being a child of yours? Does that happen at the school system? Can they tell them to not tell your parents something? I think this is a fundamentally broken part of the American experience that’s happening right now. And you can be a part of it. I’m encouraging you to go to ACLJ.org right now or ACLJ.org slash sign to sign the petition and support financially if you can. We’ll be right back with Rick Grinnell. Welcome back to Sekulow. We are about to be joined by Rick Grinnell. Make sure we have Rick. Okay, cool. We have Rick online right now. Rick, thanks for joining us. Again, it has been a packed show today as President Trump issued a statement to Tim Walz and to Minnesota saying that he may put in the Insurrection Act.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s right. And Rick, honestly, to some degree, I feel bad for some of these people that are seeing the governor of their state go out there and tell them to continue documenting so they can prosecute ICE and to continue to resist and things of that nature. Because one, it’s going to potentially get a lot of people in more trouble and hurt. But that is what the governor is doing now. As the president of the United States says, we may have to invoke the Insurrection Act here. I just want to get your take on that.
SPEAKER 13 :
Look, I think we have a lot of listeners in Minnesota. And if you are someone who is living in Minnesota, it is now your turn to speak up very loudly. We cannot have a Democratic Party that goes down the road of defunding the police. And what they’re trying to do right now is defund the immigration police. And too, too many what we would call moderate Democrats, common sense Democrats were silent and the radical left has taken over. No other place is a better example than in Minnesota. Minnesota is a Midwestern state. It’s filled with common sense Midwesterners. I don’t understand why we can’t hear louder voices from Minnesota saying we will not be overtaken by this radical group that wants to defund the police. This is an outrageous situation. We have to have people that follow the law. If you don’t like the law, go try to change the law. But you don’t get to pick and choose which laws you follow. The idea that you’re going to undermine ICE… is outrageous. These people are American patriots who are working hard to keep the immigration laws enforced. Again, if there is a problem with a specific person, we can highlight that. There’s always bureaucracies and agencies that have people that don’t follow the rules. But to jump to the conclusion of defunding all of ICE, attacking ICE, and having people have a sanctuary block or a sanctuary policy is just outrageous.
SPEAKER 01 :
Rick, I actually think there are a lot of common sense Minnesotans who actually have all called in. We have three calls right now from Minnesota. I want to take at least some of those. Let’s go to Rita. She can kind of weigh in on this, too. Rita’s watching on YouTube. Rita on Line 6. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 11 :
Hi, this is Rita. Thanks for taking my call. And as the guy said, yes, greater Minnesota is totally appalled of the way things are being handled in the Twin Cities area. We have generally always been appalled at the way they’ve done things in the Twin Cities. But our voice gets silent. They don’t pay attention to it whatsoever.
SPEAKER 01 :
This is a big concern. And Rick, you can talk about this. And it’s a big concern for a lot of people who live in states where, you know, there’s a lot of blue dots, if you will, in what would be probably predominantly at least purple, but maybe red areas that they don’t get the representation that they deserve when a lot of times they are the mass of the state.
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, what they’re getting right now is the attention of the world. And so what I would say to Rita and to others is do not get frustrated, get focused, get louder. Realize that you are now ground zero for what’s happening and speaking out and challenging these politicians is crucial. Talking to your neighbors is important. And what we are watching is this fight about defunding the police happen. In Minnesota, it’s truly unbelievable. I don’t know what’s happened to the politicians there, but they’ve become very radical. And the common sense Democrats are completely not fighting. And so we need to call them out.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, and Rick, you can even see just based off the political map in Minnesota, when it looks at the state house and the Senate, it is a 50-50 state. The Republicans actually have the state house, the House of Representatives by two seats because there are two vacancies. But in the Senate, they are the minority by one seat. So it is once again, when you look at the national elections, the way that the DNC and the Democratic Farm Labor Party in Minnesota have been able to capture the statewide elections and really put the people of Minnesota in a stranglehold with these liberal policies is what is to the detriment of what is a great state with great people. And you see things like the fraud that’s rampant there. The humongous surplus that the state had now turning into a billions of dollar deficit and pushing these radical ideas like getting out there and protesting, not just using your First Amendment, but trying to resist. That is a very dangerous situation for elected officials to put people. But the National Party is carrying water for them as well. They’re now trying to impeach Kristi Noem. They want her to be the first Trump cabinet member gone because of what? Trying to enforce immigration laws. And I think that’s a real danger.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, I took to X today to defend Kristi Noem because I feel like we have somebody who is really smart, compassionate, thoughtful, but tough. And that’s exactly what we want in a Homeland Security Secretary. I think Kristi Noem is doing a great job. I think we have a responsibility to speak up for her and to push back because all she is doing is enforcing the Trump policy of closing the border and making sure that anyone who is here illegally faces the consequences. That’s what we voted for. That’s what we expect. And we need to have her back right now because she’s under assault.
SPEAKER 01 :
I want to take one more call from Minnesota. At least let’s go to Keith in Minnesota online five. Keith, go ahead.
SPEAKER 12 :
Hi, I’m Keith. Um, I, this is a two part thing. Um, I’m, I’m trying to make people aware that they are now, there are certain groups that are now using the veterans. I’m a Vietnam veteran from Minnesota. And, uh, the, I know, uh, have a blind issue due to, uh, in one eye because of the bad community care, which called CCP. And that was, uh, an act passed called the mission act in 2018. They created a community care, um, program. And, um, so anyway, they were, I went to a veterans event, uh, that’s about a yearly event, uh, about a year ago. And maybe a little less. It was in St. Paul. And there was these Save Our VA pamphlets that were handed out. So I gave them my number, especially after my email address, to send me the emails because I wanted to pass out these Save Our VA because VA care is being undermined by the Mission Act, the funding being given to community projects. And now I don’t see how to want to do the bad community care. And they wanted to send me to a… a home for the blind. Well, I had to pay out of pocket out of my retirement to get my other cataract in my other eye done because I couldn’t go through the system that blinded me in my other eye. So anyway, that’s that aspect of it. The other aspect now, they also call them the veterans for peace, which I didn’t realize until later emails that they were stating how they’re being rushed now. And that it’s time to do something about these ICE agents. And they’re saying now they’re calling it Veterans for Peace Action Alert, be part of veterans formation for community support and ICE resistance.
SPEAKER 02 :
So, Keith, even there, what you’re seeing is that, once again, the infrastructure within Minnesota failed the people it’s supposed to help, the veterans. And they’re weaponizing groups not to help you and help the people that it should, but to further the Democrat Party’s leftist agenda. Rick, I mean, I think we’re seeing that all over the country as well.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, people are feeling used by the Democratic Party. They don’t want defunding of the immigration police. They don’t want harassing people who are enforcing federal law. Again, common sense Minnesotans. enforced. If you don’t like the law in Minnesota or in Washington, D.C., then work within the system to change the law, but don’t ignore the law.
SPEAKER 01 :
Rick, thank you so much for joining us. In the next segment, we’ll try to take some more calls. We’ll do our best. We’ll kind of go through them. We also have another guest coming on. We’ve got Mike coming on, so make sure you stay tuned to this show. But Rick, thank you so much for joining us. I will say we probably have reached the limit of calls we’ll be able to take today. So you’re on hold. You can stay on hold. We’ll do our best to get to you. but probably not going to be able to take any more than what we see right here. So again, stay on hold if you are on hold. You heard what Will and I talked about, though, in the previous segment about the case that we are having to file federally right now for that student and really for those parents. The student was told, pick a hero. He picked President Trump. He picked Charlie Kirk. After that thing away, we need to correct this. No political or religious figures. And by the way, If this comes up, please don’t tell your parents. Maybe no, please don’t tell your parents. Don’t tell your parents. And that is where the ACLJ is getting involved. You don’t want to lose your rights to your kids and your kids’ education where the school is actually saying, we’re your family now. You got to stand up against that. Go to ACLJ.org slash sign right now and sign that petition. If you can financially, we need you to support the work of the ACLJ for the legal and the media side at ACLJ.org. Become a champion if you can. We’ll be right back. Mike Pompeo. Welcome back to Sekulow. Mike Pompeo is joining us right now. And of course, a lot of you have called in. We’re commenting on what’s going on in Minnesota. And we’ll try to get back to do a couple of those calls here towards the end of the show. But Secretary Pompeo and obviously Iran is still a topic that we want to bring up here. It seems like last night Iranian airspace was cleared. When you watch the news. How do you interpret what we’re seeing right now? Sort of the conversation that seems to be happening. President Trump says, hey, things have quieted down maybe, but it feels like the tension is still there. And you are seeing a bit more of a response from the American people. Maybe not on the news, maybe not on the media, but it’s becoming a little more popular, I would say, to start talking about freedom in Iran.
SPEAKER 08 :
Look, I think that’s true. I think I think every American can agree that what has happened to the Iranian people over the last decades has been indecent, massive human rights violations. And the result of that isn’t just in Iran. We sometimes think we can hide from it, but it impacts us here in the United States as well. It puts our soldiers, our sailors, our airmen at risk. It puts our commerce at risk. And so this regime is irredeemable. And while I know they’re saying they’re quieting things down, that the protests are going to be diminished and that they’re going to stop executing people, that seems incredibly unlikely to me. I think the regime is literally on its last legs, knows that it has to fight back, and that means punish the protesters. And so I suspect you will continue to see this
SPEAKER 02 :
continue to move throughout iran at every economic strata in every city in every ethnicity in a way that recognizes what’s been done to the iranian people for all of these years and mr secretary i i am glad that we are continuing to talk about this topic with you because it means it is still uh continuing that hope is still there that we’ve been talking about for a couple weeks now uh but yesterday It was interesting because a lot of the reports we see are people that are capturing things that are on Iranian state television and rebroadcasting that to the world. We were seeing that they chose to highlight some probably placed protesters. They always seem to have quickly pro-regime protesters in a very small area that they can capture and use as propaganda. They were highlighting signs that had President Trump with his photo from Butler, Pennsylvania, the assassination attempt, and said this time the target will not be missed. We know that the regime has had assassination threats against many officials, including yourself, the president of the United States currently. Does this seem like they are trying to, with their last grasp at power, trying to still project that we have influence around the world in a way and speaking to those nations that are standing with the people on the ground?
SPEAKER 08 :
I think they are undoubtedly using tools just like you described, selective media releases. They shut down their Internet so that the government could be the only one broadcasting or propagating information from inside of Iran. That’s almost impossible for them to control. And we see that. Your point about these threats against President Trump and others, they’ve always used that as a way to try to convince political leaders not to mess with them. But I think what we saw take place with Operation Midnight Hammer and the success of the Israeli strikes, that band-aid’s done been ripped off. We can all see that their military is not very capable. They can’t stop US aircraft from flying over their country and their capacity to reach around the world is relatively limited. It doesn’t mean they couldn’t do something someday, but these threats are boastful and well beyond the Iranian regime’s capacity to conduct at scale. It’s one more reason that the regime itself is unlikely to ever go back to where it was just six months or a year ago. The Iranian people have made clear this is unacceptable and what you see taking place inside the country today with support from President Trump has delivered the Iranian people to a better place. It may take weeks, it may take months to get to final resolution, but I think that’s the path that everything is headed on and I don’t see how it goes back in the box.
SPEAKER 02 :
And one other kind of angle on this and something you’re very familiar with as former Secretary of State is many of our allies don’t have as strong of positions per se against groups within Iran. You know, right now there is reports that the U.S. is pressuring the U.K., to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization, something the United States has long taken a stance against the IRGC. But for some of our audience, it may be shocking that groups and allies like the UK aren’t as strong, maybe a little bit softer policy on some of these groups within Iran. Why is this the right angle for the US to use our diplomacy with our allies? And how will that affect the regime within Iran?
SPEAKER 08 :
Look, the place these European countries are today is a direct result of President Obama’s efforts, right? They were working, President was working alongside with Chancellor Merkel in Germany and the British leadership and the German leadership on the nuclear deal, right? This thing where we gave billions of dollars to the Iranian regime in exchange for a pretend agreement not to build out their nuclear weapons programs. And so you see in Europe, where they haven’t made the same transition we have here in America to a robust policy to put pressure on Iran. You see the legacy of President Obama in those places. That’s a mistake. I think they do it a little bit out of commercial interest too. There are deep German and British commercial interests inside of Iran. but it is a mistake. They think that the regime can be reformed, that you can deal with them, that you can negotiate with them. And that has manifestly not been my experience. And I think what you see taking place today inside of Iran tells you that the Iranian people know that as well.
SPEAKER 01 :
Secretary Pompeo, thank you so much for joining us. I’m going to let you go a little bit early today because we have a couple of calls I want to make sure we get to them on hold for quite some time. But thank you so much. Always great to hear your insights. But I do want to go to two calls. We’re going to try to get to them quickly in two minutes. So keep it quick. I know you’re going to hold for a while, though. Kevin first, who’s an ACLJ champion. Go ahead, Kevin.
SPEAKER 03 :
Hey, guys. Next door neighbor to Rita and I can’t remember the other gentleman’s name. in Minnesota up here in Michigan. And the point is this, the federal government is sowing the toxic seeds that were planted by the previous administration and the government of Minnesota. And as Will said, the correct thing to do is for the governor to tell these people to stand down so that ICE can do its job, federally mandated job, protect the voting interests of the United States, and their jobs should be augmented by local law enforcement. It’s the right thing to do. It’s a safe thing to do for the people of Minnesota.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thank you, Kevin. Appreciate your call. Quickly, I’m going to jump over to David, who’s calling in Minnesota. David, go ahead.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, thank you very much, and God bless you. I’ll keep this quick. You know, the earliest public officials here in Minnesota, you know, they take an oath of office to uphold and defend the Constitution. And what we’re not hearing much of is the supremacy clause. And so my point was, you know, the government has a right, the federal government, to be here. And Trump’s the state law, and they have to abide by that. And I wish that people that would recognize that
SPEAKER 02 :
uh and understand that that the government trumps the state law here right david and uh as many people have pointed out as well is that uh the supremacy clause obviously that you reference in in article uh sorry it’s in article six clause two of the constitution uh talks about that it’s that you know the supreme law of the lands the constitution And then it trickles down. You’ve got the laws created by the Congress. And then the states can make their own laws that aren’t in contrast or in conflict with it. And yet they’re trying to act like they are this great states’ rights movement happening in the Midwest right now. There’s been a civil war in America over that issue. And they are trying to act like they have the supremacy clause, which they don’t.
SPEAKER 01 :
All right, David, hopefully that answers your question or you get your comment. And with that being said, I’m going to encourage you as we wrap up this show, go to ACLJ.org, sign that petition supporting the parents and students that are really, you can’t even believe that story. And I hope you understand how deeply it impacts us nationwide and why we have to take this at a federal level. None of that happens for free. None of it happens cheaply. I need you to not only sign the petition, I need you to make a donation today at ACLJ.org. Do it if you can. Become a monthly donor if you can. We call those ACLJ champions. But you know we appreciate each and every one of you, whether you’re a champion, whether you’re an individual donor, even if you’re just a subscriber on YouTube for free. Helps us out. Talk to you tomorrow.
