Join us on this episode of Sekulow as we delve into the recent developments from the Department of Justice, which has unveiled a new position specifically targeting fraud across the nation. We discuss the implications of this role with insights from J.D. Vance and what it means for accountability in both red and blue states. Tune in for a comprehensive look at how this development may alter the landscape of government oversight. In our international segment, we gather insights from prominent figures on the rapidly escalating protests in Iran. With a historical perspective on previous uprisings and the courageous
SPEAKER 10 :
We’ve got breaking news. The Department of Justice creates a new Assistant Attorney General to tackle fraud.
SPEAKER 06 :
Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Seculo. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 10 :
Welcome to Sekulow. I’ll be honest, we just sat down. We have been working hard this morning so much that I left my jacket in the other room. So right now I look very casual on air.
SPEAKER 05 :
You forgot what day it was, what time it was.
SPEAKER 10 :
I thought we had about another minute and we did not. So we are here. Take your phone calls. It’s a Friday. 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110. Of course, covering all the news that has happened over the last week. So if you have a question or comment related to really any of the topics… We’ll be happy to talk to you later on in the show. We’re going to be joined by Rick Grinnell and Mike Pompeo. It’s going to be a packed second half of the show. So unlike usual, where I take calls at the very end of the show, I’m actually going to be taking them through the first few segments. So now is the time to get on hold. If you want to get on hold, 1-800-684-3110. One of the big breaking news items is that J.D. Vance and the Department of Justice has now announced that they are creating a new position, and it is the new Assistant Attorney General, specifically Vance.
SPEAKER 05 :
to target and to tackle fraud. That’s right. So this is really in response to what people have been calling for, saying, is there ever going to be accountability? Are they going to go after anyone? Now, I think there’s one. It should be welcome news to a lot of people, but also in some ways may delay some things. Investigations can continue on that may have already started. But this assistant attorney general that will be specifically for fraud, will have national jurisdiction, so not just in Minnesota, not just in California, but can really go after and prosecute fraud wherever it is found. But they said that this position will be announced. They know who they want it to be, But because it’s an assistant attorney general process, they have to nominate and then has to be confirmed to this position. So the person will have a lot more authority than just having someone already within the Department of Justice saying, hey, this is your new beat. This is what you’re going after. But that comes with it. It’ll take some time. It’ll have to go through a Senate nomination and confirmation process.
SPEAKER 10 :
That’s right. Again, phone lines are open for you. What do you think about this new position being added? Do you like new jobs being created in some ways to tackle fraud? I think this is probably a good thing to have someone who’s specifically looking at this and told, well, I have a kind of a visceral reaction at first because of all of the positions that were created under the Biden administration, whether that was the committee, remember the… Misinformation board. Misinformation committee, the misinformation board. I almost have that when I start hearing words like fraud, misinformation… they are they’re like triggers for me right now so when you really though break it down and look at it i think this is good if you have someone who’s an expert and what’s going on in the whole fraud scandal um it’s probably good we have someone to turn to also someone that can speak on the matter uh jd vance did discuss this i believe is that right let’s hear from him bite six
SPEAKER 04 :
We know that the fraud isn’t just happening in Minneapolis. It’s also happening in states like Ohio. It’s happening in states like California. And so what we’re doing in order to help coordinate this remarkable interagency effort from the Trump administration, but also to make sure that we prosecute the bad guys and do it as swiftly and efficiently as possible, is we are creating a new assistant attorney general position who will have nationwide jurisdiction over the issue of fraud now of course that person’s efforts will start and focus primarily in minnesota but it is going to be a nationwide effort because unfortunately the american people have been defrauded in a very nationwide way so not a temporary gig this is something that will start obviously focused like he said as vice president vance said in minnesota but then will be taken across the country i think this is good will who do you think should be
SPEAKER 10 :
Who’s some, like, top fraudsters? Frank Abagnale?
SPEAKER 05 :
Oh, who it should be. They’re not fraudsters. Yeah, but remember he flipped at the end. I’ve seen that movie. Yeah, well, I’m glad that you stopped me because I was going to be like, we should get Jordan to go fight the fraud. It’d be great. But then you said, who’s some top-notch fraudsters? And I’m like, whoa!
SPEAKER 10 :
I meant, like, yeah, but they could do both. Yeah. Because if you fraud it…
SPEAKER 05 :
Then you know where to look. Yeah, exactly. That’s what they say.
SPEAKER 10 :
We’ve seen Catch Me If You Can. Yeah, exactly. 1-800-684-3110. We already got some calls coming in, and we will take more. And look, I’m going to go grab my jacket so I don’t look. It’s Ace Casual Friday. Is it? I mean, it always is. But then you’re about to class it up a little bit. Yeah, with just a nice little jacket. Go to ACLJ.org. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Secular. We’re going to take some of your calls in this segment at 1-800-684-3110. And in the next, we did lose some of those calls, so there’s some lines open at 1-800-684-3110. But let’s restate because so many of you are just joining us right now. If you are joining us on Rumble or on YouTube, anywhere you can put a chat in, let me know where you’re watching from. I always like to see specifically on Fridays because it’s a little more casual around here. Let me know where you’re watching from. I like to see worldwide. the impact of this show. It’s always fun to read during the show and during the breaks and give some shout outs. But Will, let’s restate what’s going on. J.D. Vance announced along with the Department of Justice that there will be a brand new position within the Department of Justice, a new Assistant Attorney General that will be specifically targeting fraud.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right. So the entire purpose of this, Assistant Attorney General, is to root out and prosecute, at the end of the day, fraud wherever it is happening in the United States. This will have national jurisdiction. It’s not just specific to the fraud in Minnesota, although they said that that is kind of the beginning of it. That’s where it will start and has really come out of what we’ve seen over the past few weeks and months with that fraud happening in Minnesota. But… It’s interesting because the vice president also says, you know, here’s why this is better than doing even like a special counsel. One, a special counsel kind of is a temporary position specifically for one thing. With this, it’s going to have White House supervision. So the vice president, the president will be able to speak into it, like making sure that they will be. uh continuing that mission and meeting standards of finding fraud in the united states and getting it prosecuted and getting convictions but also that he even brings up something that we’ve talked about many times on air about he’s saying this is constitutionally legitimate this is going to be a person nominated and then confirmed by the Senate to this position. It’s not a situation with a special counsel that just gets appointed and no real oversight and has all those questions that come with it. That even people like Justice Clarence Thomas has even raised recently in cases whether or not even the special counsel process is legitimate. It’s something we are… Happy probably to not see another special counsel, but trying to do this the right way, having it be confirmed by the Senate and having a real tangible goal of seeking out fraud and being able to use the resources of the DOJ to bring about these cases instead of maybe just one U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, say, that goes after fraud nationwide. But it’s really limited to that office. This is someone that is high up in the DOJ and will be able to go after it and use the full resources of the DOJ to prosecute these cases. I like to see it. I know that our people have been saying, where’s the accountability? Where are the arrests? But I think this is what you want, but you also need to remember, Because they’re doing it the proper way, because it’s not just a special counsel, a quick appointment that can be challenged in court by the left if they say, oh, this is a waste of taxpayer money, etc. Because all of a sudden they’ll decide they don’t like special counsels, even though they’ve been using them as a bludgeon for the last 10 years. This will be done the appropriate way, but that’s going to mean… going to take a little bit more time they said in the next few days they’ll announce who this person is with like a formal nomination and then it’ll have to go through the committee we’ll have to get the vote and have to be actually confirmed by the senate to take this position as that is a pain it’s also good because this will be a more permanent position right they can go ahead and say okay lock this person in
SPEAKER 10 :
at least for a time being and potentially is a new position permanently that’s needed in this country not just i mean this person but this job so even in future administration has this as one of their appointed positions they point obviously it goes through the whole process of confirmation i think that’s a good thing we’ll also note and we’ll hear from this person see if they’re up to the job and if they’re not we know that the republicans and the democrats but the republicans even will make sure of it and we’ll really take their time making sure this is someone who is qualified
SPEAKER 05 :
And, you know, we’ve heard in the past the term czar that’s used a lot by different administrations. I mean, obviously. Russians. Right. But they became very popular, especially during the Obama administration. He would have all the czars that would come out. And it was people that were tasked with doing things, but it didn’t really have the full weight of the government. They could make recommendations. They could meddle in a lot of things. The name always weirded me. Right it me as well because it’s very Soviet but then even Kamala Harris was famously the border czar you know that you are tasked with getting to the bottom of this here’s why I like this move of making it an assistant attorney general it’s the concept of like oh I’m gonna make a fraud czar that all these presidents have done and what happens with those positions at the end of the day nothing right nothing really they they they talk a lot and and not a lot happens however with this making it a confirmed position makes it have that scrutiny and their power exactly they have real power they are an actual assistant attorney general they will have the ability to bring cases not just write a a prosecution recommendation to the DOJ They have an office within it where they can actually go after fraudsters. And once again, when you’re talking about what we’ve just seen in Minnesota and hearing that they want to turn to look at California, New York and other states as well. And J.D. Vance even brought up his own state, which is led by Republicans of Ohio, that there are these fraudulent situations going on online. I think that this is long overdue and will take time, but I also hope it’s something that whomever the next president is doesn’t just shut down.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, it doesn’t get rid of. I think that it’s good, and you said it called out Ohio. I’m pretty sure everyone in the chat, and let me know, if you’re in a state, whether it’s a Republican or a Democrat, Do you not want someone checking in on whether your taxpayer dollars are being spent correctly? Right. I mean, who wouldn’t want that? Who does not want protections against fraud? I think that would be bizarre. I mean, I’m looking at people coming in from Texas, Missouri, Auburn, Alabama. Well, we got a viewer from Auburn, Alabama, Southern California. We got people from Quebec. I don’t know if they’ll get the coverage that they need here in Quebec, but we’re excited that you’re watching. And from all over the country, people are watching. Do you have a problem? With somebody taking a look at what’s going on in your state and how the funds are being spent, my answer would, I mean, hopefully the answer is of course not. You would love that. You would love someone to make sure that they go in and audit the books, make sure that things are taken care of and that if your tax dollars are being spent on social programs or whatever it may be, that it’s spent on the ones that you want it to be and isn’t going to what we know happened in Minnesota or what was alleged in Minnesota. mass chaos I mean we said Georgia’s checking in we know Texas Tennessee all of them are saying yes of course bring it bring it to Maryland one person just said this is what’s happening Ohio California everyone else is saying they have no problem at all of course it should be checked it will become a I’m sure it’ll become a political tool though where they go always oh it’s a voter ID of 2026 it’s how dare they want this how dare they want some sort of check to make sure
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and once again, it’s where you see when states sue the government because of defunding of Planned Parenthood and things like that, that their whole argument in many cases is, no, you’ve been giving us this money. You can never take it away.
SPEAKER 10 :
Right.
SPEAKER 05 :
And that’s kind of was the argument with a lot of the cuts to like USAID. You’ve been giving us this money. You can never look at it and take it away. We are now entitled to these dollars in perpetuity forever. You can never stop giving money. I think that’s what the argument is going to be here from from many on the left and many blue states is like, no, no, no, no. You give us money. You don’t get to have oversight and to see whether or not we have mechanisms in place to to to ensure that this isn’t just getting stolen that’s what you saw in this hearing this week where these people from minnesota like we knew that this was happening there was also that hearing as well where it said the people in the state government because they weren’t doing the things right they were backdating and making up invoices to cover the tracks of the fraud you got to make sure that you are being protective and safe we got a question coming in bill in wyoming which i understand the concern bill go ahead
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, thanks for taking my call. I’m really concerned because I’m going to throw out a name. What if we get somebody like Gavin Newsom? And as president, who’s he going to hire? Is this going to be something like cronyism or anything like that? If I’m making my point.
SPEAKER 05 :
It’s a valid question. Always. It always is. And I think one, Bill, I think that’s kind of the discussion we even had with Rick Grinnell about when they look at a state like California, what the American people would be like, man, it just looks like a lot of fraud. It looks like taxpayer dollars collected in mass and they get nothing for it. What this person I think is looking at here specifically like what was happening in Minnesota where there are people that are creating fake shell corporations and fake shell organizations to receive grants and taxpayer money and they’re not actually doing or they are making up things to make it look like they are doing work that they’re not doing. Like textbook definition, breaking the law, fraud, not just fraud in like the you’re a fraud politically sense. I think that’s the key distinction. And your point is well taken. That’s why a lot of the things in many of these blue states may not count as fraud by statute because it’s just wasteful.
SPEAKER 10 :
We will have time to take a couple more calls over the next segment or two. And then we’re going to be joined by guests. 1-800-684-3110. If you want to get a hold, I’ll do my best to get to you. Look, our ACLJ attorneys were in court moments ago. You may remember earlier this week, we discussed that. The teacher who wanted to just pray in the… School said no. Nowhere that it could possibly be seen in any way by a student. Well, our team was in court this morning. And guess who’s going to be joining us in the next segment? Our ACLJ legal team. So stay tuned for that. It’s going to be a packed show from here on out. We’ve got our ACLJ team. We’ve got Rick Grinnell. We’ve got Mike Pompeo. And of course, we’re going to hear from you as well. You can give me a call at 1-800-684-3110. None of this happens without your support. Over on ACLJ.org. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Secular. We’re going to continue taking your calls at 1-800-684-3110. Of course, talking about what’s going on in Minnesota and the new update that J.D. Vance and the Department of Justice is saying we’re creating a new position. That new position is specifically an Assistant Attorney General targeting fraud. But I also want to always make sure we give you an update. on what’s going on in the world of the ACLJ. CeCe Howell joined us earlier this week, gave us sort of the brief update of what was going on with this case. And today, Nathan and our team at the ACLJ were in court, and he’s joining us live right now. Nathan, I’d just love to give our audience first just kind of a brief recap of what was going on today.
SPEAKER 03 :
So we just got out of court here in New Orleans where we defended Stacey Barber, a teacher who prayed at the school flagpole. We just argued at the Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals where we showed the court that this teacher was banned from praying anywhere where a student might see her. So we just argued before a three-judge panel. We’re now waiting for their decision in this case. It’ll probably take probably a couple months, but we’re waiting to see what they do here. And we’ve standed here in defense of religious freedom and the right of this teacher to pray.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, it’s great that you and your team are taking this seriously. Of course, this is working. The fact that we are only in a few days into the year, and Will, this is already in court, just shows you how extreme the measures are to make sure we’re protecting these teachers that are out there. Simply, again, as Nathan said, just trying to pray.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and also, as Nathan said, that we are now at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. This is a case out of Texas. This is typically one of those cases when if we were talking about it in a meeting or in a segment normally, it’d be like, yeah, we send a demand letter to a school and said, here’s the established law that everyone should know by now. and it’s resolved but no we had it at the district court level and now the the principal at the school and the school is deciding we need to continue this battle even though we were having a lower court side with us that they are even appealing our victory on a motion to dismiss where they were trying to have it thrown out of court and that’s the entire reason we’re there today how did the judges of that three judge panel seem during your oral argument today
SPEAKER 03 :
So we have a wonderful panel of judges. Our judges were appointed by President Reagan, President Bush, and President Trump. And all three of them really listened carefully to our arguments, asked excellent questions, both of us and the other side. I think all three of them really showed they were taking the religious liberty rights of our client very seriously. So I think we came out of that hearing very, very hopeful for what they might do and looking forward to seeing the decision that they issue. And the really exciting thing now, too, is because this case has been appealed, any decision that they issue will no longer just be for our client, but will really have an effect throughout the Fifth Circuit, throughout this part of the southern United States. And it really shows that the actions of one school district can have these repercussions far beyond to many states and many other people just trying to exercise their constitutional rights. Yeah.
SPEAKER 10 :
You got to remember, you’re obviously where you are doing the case, but this is out of Texas. This is out of areas of the country you do not expect it.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right. And once again, that is why the ACLJ is always ready to fight wherever and whenever we have to. Because one, if you let it slide, then it doesn’t just trample on the rights of one teacher or one school, but it creates that lasting impression that this is okay. And it sometimes happens in these places you don’t expect in the southeast of the United States where you would think, oh, these are more red states, more traditionally Christian areas. It’s not going to be happening there. But we see this all the time out of Georgia, out of states in the deep south, out of Texas. As we’re talking about now, you’re having to argue this at the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans and Louisiana. But Nathan, once again, you talked about the implications of this. You said that the judges seem receptive on that panel. What are kind of the next steps the ACLJ audience should be looking for as now that the oral argument segment is over? What kind of comes next in this case?
SPEAKER 03 :
Sure. One of the things that I think this case is a great reminder of is how long lawsuits can really take. Our first demand letter in this case was sent after CU at the poll in 2023. It’s been almost two and a half years. It really highlights the importance of the support of everyone that contributes to the work of the ACLJ, because our client, just a public school teacher, could not in a million years have found a lawyer to represent her for years and years and years without having the support of the people who are supporting us. And here, the case now will be waiting on the court to enter a decision. And actually, once it does, then one way or the other, we’ll actually be going back to the district court And depending on their decision, I think most likely continuing to pursue accountability against this principal, but also the school district. So while the principal’s appeal has been pending, the school district’s case has been kind of temporarily stayed, which means it’s been kind of suspended while this appeal was going on. So once this appeal is over, we’ll be back to hold that school district accountable for how it also violated our client’s rights and prohibited her from prayer.
SPEAKER 10 :
Nathan, I just want to say thank you. And I know I’m seeing all these thumbs ups that are coming in on our chat because they asked to give a thumbs up to our team. We’re seeing them come in because of how amazing your crew is at doing this. The reason why we have the ACLJ, of course, there’s kind of two sides to this, the media side, the legal side. They both work hand in hand. But there are moments like this, as Nathan said, where none of this happens. unless you guys financially support. We had a really record-breaking December, and now we are heading into the new year. We are now in January, almost midway through January, it feels like now, into the end of the second week here. And you have people like Nathan, you have our incredible ACLJ attorney, you have CeCe, who you hear on this show, my brother, obviously, the whole ACLJ legal team, that is hard at work. Even sometimes when you don’t see them, and they’re not necessarily on air every week, you got to know that they are out there working hard for you because you never know when you’re going to need it yourself but you have someone like this a woman who was a public school teacher and again as you said a couple years have now gone by two and a half years and really nathan the end may not be in sight this could be something that lasts quite a while longer i know our audience gets frustrated at that but it is certainly just though it’s the way the system is
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, for better or worse, that’s the system we’re in. And that’s why us staying in the fight is so crucial, why continuing these battles, however long they may take, is so valuable. And to the point about this being Texas, I think it’s a good reminder that as bad as certain states get, we’re fighting these legal battles across the country, right? From Massachusetts to California to Texas to Illinois and everywhere in between, right? The ACLJ attorney is going to be in court a number of times throughout this month. all over the country because these cases are happening everywhere and these rights matter everywhere.
SPEAKER 10 :
Awesome. Thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it. Good work today. Maybe get a little rest and then get back to it. We appreciate it. Everyone here at the media team really appreciates all the work that you guys are doing in the media or in the legal side. We’re seeing so many of you throwing up those thumbs up. So we appreciate it. With that, we have a packed conference. second half hour and I usually say we’ve got a great show we got a great I mean it we got a pack we had Nathan now we have a short little segment coming up a couple minutes and then we’re going to be joined by Rick Grinnell and then we’re going to be joined by Mike Pompeo and then we’re wrapping up the show if you want to be on the air we do have time for maybe a call or two in the next segment so I’ll hear from you at 1-800-684-3110 be a heard from Nathan we’re in court this morning that only happens because you support the work and know how much we appreciate it because when you go to aclj.org Look at all the great free content we provide. None of it behind a paywall. All of it is because people like you support us financially and give it any way you can at any level. It really, we appreciate it. Of course, you can become an ACLJ champion. That’s someone that gives monthly, but you can check out all those options at ACLJ.org. We have a second half hour of this show coming up. If you’re brand new to the show, maybe you’re watching on YouTube. Maybe you’re seeing us for the first time ever. Click that subscribe button. That’s a great way to help. It’s also a great way to get notified. We go live each and every day, 12 to 1 p.m. Eastern time. And, of course, we have additional content that rolls out throughout the day. But we have a second half hour of this show. Some of you who listen on Terrestrial Radio, and I see some of you are calling in right now, you may not get the full hour on your local station. But you can find us broadcasting live the full hour always at ACLJ.org, the ACLJ app, and, of course, on YouTube, Rumble, or however you get your podcasts. We are there. So just look up Sekulow or ACLJ. Pop right up. We’ll be right back. Second half hour coming up.
SPEAKER 06 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 10 :
Welcome to Sekulow’s second half hour. We’re live. We have a packed second half hour coming up, so don’t go anywhere. Rick Grinnell’s joining us. Mike Pompeo’s joining us. And we want to take some calls here in the first segment. Of course, if you’re just joining us right now, one of the big stories we’re covering is that J.D. Vance, Department of Justice, has also said they are launching a brand new assistant attorney general position. And this will be… targeted specifically at, or will be focused on targeting fraud across the country. Focusing first on Minnesota, it’s obviously where everyone’s looking at right now, and then moving across the country. Overwhelmingly, it seems like everyone in the comments has said, yes, we want this even in our red states. Bring it. We need accountability. And that’s good to hear. There’s also obviously the unrest happening in Minnesota right now. It feels like Minnesota is just this dark cloud. There is an eye of the storm that is rolling over Minnesota right now, whether that is what happened with the ice involved shooting or what’s happening, of course, with the fraud situation. Just feels like this is where things continue to build. We’re going to focus on that as well. We have some calls related to a few different things as well as an ACLJ case that we just talked about with our attorney, Nathan, who just stepped out of court. So let’s go ahead and take a couple quick calls. And then we’re getting… Packed back half. This one is about, um, this is about the case. Let’s go to Warren calling on line three, listening on the radio. Warren, go ahead.
SPEAKER 09 :
Thanks for taking my call. Yeah. Listening to it. And the decision was already made against that principle, you know, for the teacher. And I just tie it in as a, as a partial fraud against the taxpayers for him to appeal it because it’s costing a lot of money to appeal that. And the taxpayers are eating it, not that principle.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, Warren, I understand your thought process here. Well, and I think, Warren, that’s partially also what our bill, our other caller was kind of alluding to, that it is… When you look at it and be like, that seems like a waste of money, when that’s not something that someone like this assistant attorney general would be going after, because that isn’t fraud in the statutorily mandated criminal sanctions type of fraud. We say… Man, you’re pulling a fraud over on the people of your school district by wasting all their money on something that is clearly unconstitutional and you’re trying to fight it out. Yes, I agree with you, but they are trying to cover for themselves as well. You know, that principal doesn’t want a constitutional violation on their hands. They don’t want in their review by the school board to be looked at as, hey, you’re violating people’s rights that are your teacher. So, of course, they’re going to try to cover for themselves and try to litigate that out.
SPEAKER 10 :
Let’s try to take one more call. This kind of totally swerve, but we’ll take it. Let’s go to Eric who’s watching on Pluto. I assume on the Salem news channel. Eric, go ahead.
SPEAKER 07 :
Hey, good morning. Look, I don’t think that hundreds of people taking to the streets to directly engage law enforcement with verbal abuse is in keeping with the spirit of protected speech and it shouldn’t be tolerated. We shouldn’t see protesters have the right to stand in the face of law enforcement, point their fingers and say, F-U, F-U, F-U.
SPEAKER 10 :
Eric, you know, I’m only cutting you off because we are running a little low on time. I’m not so sure where the line is. I think there is certainly where violence gets involved. Certainly that is it. But we do have the right to protest. We do have the right to be there. And look, a lot of people are protesting ICE and a lot of people did not get killed. So you have to look at it that way too. There are a lot of people who have an issue with it and you may not agree with it, But there are people who have an issue with it, and they can lawfully, peacefully go and protest. You said that may be incitement. That line gets a little blurry.
SPEAKER 05 :
Here’s the one problem with this is, yes, if people are… like obstructing and causing actual stoppage of the enforcement of the law, that there can be crimes that come out of that, but that’s not a free speech violation. That would be an obstruction of justice type of charge. But Eric, I mean, I think here’s the problem with free speech, which is why we have to so robustly defend it, is that free speech, the freedom of speech protects speech that is offensive. It protects speech you don’t like. It protects speech that’s ugly a lot of times. And so that’s where it does become iffy. I don’t like what protesters are saying or yelling at members of ICE, but if they are just standing there and yelling at a person standing there, You have to be careful if you start saying, I want to ban that, because then that’s exactly how they take away your rights everywhere.
SPEAKER 10 :
You don’t want that, but I understand Eric’s frustration of people being just rude in general. We’ll be right back with Rick Grinnell. Welcome back to Secular. Rick Grinnell is joining us right now. Look, there’s a lot of unrest that’s going on in society, but of course worldwide there’s a lot going on as well that our eyes need to be paying attention to, including what’s been going on in Iran. That has been a topic of discussion we have had here at the ACLJ because, I mean, there are many different ways people have gotten involved, including even Elon Musk getting involved yesterday with some of the internet issues that they’ve been having. Will, but I know you wanted to lead this off.
SPEAKER 05 :
Rick, we’ve seen protests in Iran for a long time. We’ve seen protests Our whole lives off and on. Right. We’ve seen people take to the streets. We talk about the Green Revolution in 2009 that felt like a hopeful moment. And since then, even, we’ve seen dozens of times when people have taken to the streets and we’ve always been hopeful. that this could be the moment. And as last night, as I was looking on X and seeing videos that we’re still able to get out because of some Starlink situations and seeing that the people, the boldness, they burned statues of Soleimani. They burned the Ministry of Defense. They are not afraid. They are in the streets knowing very well that it can mean their death. This time it feels a little different than I’ve seen in the past 10, 15 years. Not like since that Green Revolution. I just wanted to get your take on what we’re seeing and some of the hopefulness that is surrounding these protests in Iran.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, obviously this is a very difficult issue because it’s very dangerous for our Iranian friends, the people of Iran. And I think the government, the US government needs to do an even better job of constantly reminding people that our criticism, our problem is with the government of Iran, not the people of Iran. I think that it’s important for us to help in any way possible, barring any US military action. I just don’t believe that we should take military action. I believe we have to help the people. This is incredibly difficult. Every country has to fight for their own freedom. People have to take to the streets. People have to risk their lives. It will be messy and bloody, and that’s terrible. I don’t wanna sound callous to that, but this is the process. This is what countries have to go through. And we here in America have a ton of our own problems. We are fighting up against every single day here. We’ve got plenty on our plate. We also have a $37 trillion and growing national debt. But I also don’t want to turn a blind eye to this incredible moment that the Iranian people are having. And so there are things that we can do. We can talk about the issues that we’re talking about right now. We can highlight them on social media. I’ve been trying to reach out and let them know, we see you, we hear you, we support you. Democracy building is important, but this is one of those processes where the Iranian people have to take to the street. I’ve also been a big advocate for using our technology here in America to make sure that the firewalls of the government of Iran are not able to silence the voices. The more Twitter and and social media like Instagram accounts, the more those can be open and useful, the better it is for the people of Iran to coordinate what they try to do. I think when you take to the streets, whether you’re in Venezuela or Iran or America, you want to know that others stand with you when you’re making your voice be heard. And I think your voice is heard, I would say that to the people of Iran right now.
SPEAKER 05 :
Rick, I’m going to change subjects here a little bit because we’re seeing this report out of California that there seems to be an exodus of billionaires from the state. I wonder why. There’s a new wealth tax in place, but at least six billionaires have cut ties with the state and as many as 20 more are mulling an exit. As someone like the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, loves to brag about the wealthy people that live in his state and how much wealth creation they can do there. The policies seem to be driving those very people away. What’s he going to have left to run on if this all comes crashing down?
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, I’m one of the few voices in California that keeps telling my friends, stay and fight. We need you. Don’t abandon. I’m still there. I still am fighting. I’m always gonna be in California. It’s an amazing state. It just is very poorly run. But the frustration is real. And I get it. I get the business decisions, the financial decisions that people make, especially when it rains in Southern California. You think, wait a minute, we have a sunshine tax that’s incredibly high. I’ll pay that as long as the weather’s good. As soon as the weather turns bad, everybody says, why do we stay? That roast was a little messy. Yeah, I watched that parade. It was not the best. Exactly. But look, I understand billionaires are giving up. Gavin Newsom has made it a terrible place to do business. And yet he doesn’t get it. That’s the other thing that’s frustrating is Gavin just did his state of the state address yesterday. A total disaster. The budget is going to be now the budget director is going to have to brief on where we are. We used to have surpluses. Now we’re deficits. The guy can’t manage anything. The idea that the Democrats want to make him their nominee, I say bring it on, make him the nominee. He is never going to be able to sell what he did in Los Angeles and Sacramento to places like Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Grand Rapids, Michigan. Those places are gonna reject him, they’re gonna see his ways as terrible, We don’t need Gavin Newsom to do to the United States what he did to California. But make no mistake, the Democrats don’t see that because all of the media they read keep celebrating this guy. He’s going to get roughed up when he enters the national stage in a swing state with real media.
SPEAKER 10 :
Right. I mean, right now you’d say he’s the presumptive front runner this many years out. Probably if you look at some of the betting apps and things, you probably see that he’s probably leading to be the nominee. You see it all the time and you do kind of look at California and go, how is this possible? How does this happen? Now, look, he’s won many times in your state, even when there was votes to get him out early. That didn’t happen. And then in Los Angeles, I just saw you post you have a new potential leader running for mayor. And that is Spencer Pratt, who, of course, if you’re from my generation, you know, always. spencer and heidi and everything they’ve gone through but you know you have voices like that that are stepping up because though it may sound uh you know like a tmz article headline i realize this is another person who lost everything in the fires who has seen what’s actually happened and when you have those kind of moments people are going to start at least reconsidering how they’ve been voting for so long
SPEAKER 01 :
Yes, look, I think this is a great moment. We should get Spencer on ACLJ here and talk to him about it. But one thing you know from Spencer is he is frustrated. And this is the entire Jeffersonian principle of politics. People leave their comfortable life because they’re frustrated. They want to make a difference. They go and they serve in these positions temporarily. And this is what Spencer would do. He’s not a professional politician. He’s not somebody who has to give favors to lobbyists for 15, 20 years. We the public, we the electorate, need to stop thinking that you need a politician that is completely polished and has every answer, who only goes into the job and fails. We need frustrated people who rise up and say, I’m gonna fix something. Is Spencer the most experienced person in the Los Angeles budget system with the unions and negotiations? Probably not. But what I love about Spencer Pratt is that he lost his home, He’s incredibly frustrated. He’s a normal Los Angeles resident who has watched our city deteriorate. And he is stepping up because he’s mad and frustrated. I think he’d make a great mayor.
SPEAKER 10 :
I think a lot of people are like him and like you who have spent the majority of their lives there, especially someone like him who spent legitimately his whole life there. Any of us who spent time in L.A. often 20 years ago, 25 years ago, 15 years ago, 10 years, we have seen it. We have seen it change so rapidly. It was the place where everyone wanted to be. It was a place where we were spending half our time. And now it feels like, like you said, unfortunately, most of my friends in LA other than you have ended up here. uh and that’s sad in many ways because it was honestly it was that sort of wonderland for many years so hopefully you can see some sort of turnaround with both of these whether it’s uh someone like spencer or whoever it may be who can actually wake some people up and i hope that does happen for the state of california uh but rick we appreciate it because always i think we always have to look at what’s going on in new york what’s going on in la these are as much as people want to maybe demonize those areas uh so much of the country ends up being dictated or at least influenced by what’s happening in those areas. Like you said, Gavin Newsom right now, the leading candidate to be the Democratic nominee. That is an absurd nature or absurd thing to a lot of people in the middle of the country, but it’s certainly not for New York and L.A.
SPEAKER 01 :
I really hope the Democrats nominate Gavin Newsom. It is such a bad idea, but we shouldn’t say that. Let’s just tell him, do it. Keep going. He’s your guy.
SPEAKER 10 :
All right. Well, thank you, Rick, for joining us. Look, we’ve got a packed show, as I said, so we’re probably not going to have time to take many more calls. If you want to call in, we’ll do our best to get to maybe one at 1-800-684-3110, but I don’t want you to also spend your time wasting. Look, the work of the ACLJ continues. You heard from Nathan. Make sure we clip that and post that. because you heard from the work the ACLJ is doing in court today for the individual, for the person. This is a teacher in Texas who simply wanted to see you at the poll. They said, no, no, no, you can’t do that. Okay, what can I pray in my car? No, you can’t pray in your car. No, you can’t pray inside here. Why? A student may see you praying and how dare they? And of course, we’re not going to stand up for that or we’re going to stand up for that. We’re going to fight it. We are in court today. ACLJ.org. We’ll be right back with Mike Pompeo. Welcome back to Secula. Like I said, it’s going to be a packed show and it’s going to be a packed last eight minutes here with the broadcast. Mike Pompeo is joining us, Secretary Pompeo. A lot’s been going on and specifically looking at what’s happening in Iran. And there’s so much unrest happening as it actually seems like there’s a moment of escalation which may lead to something real. Now, there have been those false hopes before where we have had this moment, but especially with a lot of the uprisings in Iran happening. As Will and I said in the last segment, it feels like our entire lives, sadly, we’ve heard this, where it’s kind of on repeat. But this seems like there’s finally some momentum potentially to have regime change. You even saw people like Elon Musk and those involving Starlink and getting internet access back into areas and to try to get people the potential to spread this message compared to what you’ve experienced, compared to what you’ve experienced your whole life and, of course, your time in politics. How does this feel? How does this compare to, I guess, the other hopes that have happened in Iran?
SPEAKER 02 :
No, your point’s exactly right. But this is fundamentally different. There’s no doubt about that. The scale of this is different. The backdrop for this is different and the breadth of this is different. And what I mean by that is as follows. So you’ve got people who are protesting that never protested before. Businessmen, Azeris, there’s many ethnicities in the population of 80 million or so folks. You’ve got Balochistan on fire. You’ve got pockets all across the country, students, seniors taken to the streets because there’s economic deprivation that’s never been equaled before. And that really gets me to the second point. The context is also different. Think about this. All the Iranian friends just, they’ve blown up, right? Assad’s in Moscow, Hezbollah, I’ve had multiple leaders devastated Hamas on its knees, even in Iraq, losing the capacity to foment terror. And so the Iranian regime itself has been shown to be a paper tiger spending billions of dollars for nothing that came good to the Iranian people. And ain’t no one coming to support them. Neither the Chinese or the Russians are going to lift a single finger to help them. And then finally, the context is also different because you have an american president for the first time is talking openly about the fact that we are supporting the iranian people and then doing all the things we can do to give them the chance that you described they’ve shut the internet down they’ve tried to take the country dark but every american company that has the capacity to do this i know is working diligently to try and make sure that the iranian people get this shot at this moment
SPEAKER 05 :
Mr. Secretary, one of the things that’s kind of shocking to me about this entire thing, and it’s been going on now for almost 12 or 13 days, for almost two weeks these have built, and they’re getting bigger. And you’re seeing the Ministry of Defense set on fire in Iran. You’re seeing cities set on fire. The boldness of the people, as you mentioned, from all different demographics within Iran, It’s like something we haven’t seen in recent times when it comes to an uprising or a potential uprising. But and I know we’ve got a lot going on here at home and I know we’ve got a lot going on in Central America. But it feels like the legacy media that have been covering this story, this potential of a new Iran for decades now, is just quiet, just non-existent on this story. And you would think that this would be one of those that is potential Pulitzer Prize winning journalism coming out of it in the years and months ahead if they were paying attention to it.
SPEAKER 02 :
So I’ve been surprised by that, too. I think part of this is where we began, which is it’s as if they feel like they’ve seen this bad movie before. And it always ends the same way with the Iranian regime in charge. And they don’t want to, you know, spend any time or resources because they figure it’s not going to happen. They’re missing the mark. They’re missing the mark. We have massive sanctions on them. You know this, too. It’s not disconnected what’s happening in Venezuela. Iran has been a huge patron for the Venezuelan regime. So those are interconnected as well. So the entire power base of this. This ideological Marxist anti-American group is beginning to unravel. I can’t believe that the American media hasn’t covered this, but they will be forced to. If the Iranian people get this shot, the American media will be forced to cover this. And it is a really good thing for America. If we get this right, we will have lower energy prices. We will have a Middle East that looks more secure and more stable and certainly more prosperous. And the risk we have to send our kids to fight and risk their lives in that place will be greatly reduced. I hope we’re turning the corner. Last thing I want to say is I would urge everybody to just kind of watch If the regular army folks, not the IRGC, but what’s called the artash, the regular army in Iran refuses to shoot its own people, this is game over. And I’ve seen reporting that suggests that in some of the cities, the regular army has refused to shoot at or repress the Iranian people. If that continues and spreads, there’s no way the Ayatollah’s regime of repression can survive.
SPEAKER 10 :
You are right that we have heard about this for so long and actually having hope on the horizon. And you say the same, like you said, in Venezuela. But the American media, as you brought up, we seem to only be able to. And look, I’m not going to say sometimes we’re not at fault at this as well. focus on one topic at a time one big issue that everyone rallies around on social media then we move on and we forget what’s happened I mean Venezuela feels like that was months ago at this point because you know I know what’s talked about it in the last week so what’s happened is obviously the everyone’s focused on what’s happening in Minnesota that was last Saturday
SPEAKER 05 :
Exactly.
SPEAKER 10 :
But it feels like it was a month ago because I feel like, oh, what happened to all of the Maduro memes? They’re all gone now. You could say the same with what happened in Ukraine and then with Israel and then moving on to this situation, Venezuela. But then it’s the media cycle seems so close minded. And that’s why I love having you on. I love having our offices in Europe and having our offices overseas because, you know, we don’t. The actual real world doesn’t exist in just one topic that we can all focus on, rant about, pretend we’re experts on, and move on, which it seems to be that’s the way the American media wants us to be, but we have to look a little bit broader.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, your point is so well taken, right? It’s Venezuela, Venezuela, Venezuela, Minneapolis, Minneapolis, Minneapolis. The truth is, those are both things that are taking place, and we need to make sure we can talk about each of them in an appropriate way. And it is important to think about the context for all of this, right? No one’s even going back to the fact that the Israelis are still taking strikes into Lebanon almost every day. Right. because they can’t return their people to the north yet. And the ACLJ, right, has always been a great defender of Israel and the Jewish homeland. That is a struggle that continues. And I’ll bet the mainstream media hasn’t spent, I don’t know, 15 minutes on that in the last 30 days. They just move away from it. We should not forget that these challenges remain and the responsibility to try and get it right for all of us, including the American media, is really important.
SPEAKER 10 :
Thank you so much, Secretary Pompeo. And look, that is why I come on here each and every day. And I tell you, you know, if you hear us on your local radio station or wherever it may be, or Salem News Channel, we love being on those places. It’s great. But they do not control the content that we produce. We are an independent broadcast, completely independent. We are solely owned. We’re by the ACLJ and the organization. Obviously, when you support the ACLJ, you support this broadcast. And when you’re able to do that, we’re able to bring you a bit of a broader scope of what’s happening around the world. You heard from Rick Grinnell. We talked about California. You’re hearing from Mike Pompeo. We’re hopping over to Iran. We’re starting this show. What’s going on in Minnesota? Because we know a lot of you are interested in that. But then we obviously couldn’t take you to the court. What’s going on with our case out of Texas that’s in New Orleans? We’ve really gone around the world today. The entire time we’ve been on air, we have in the studio, everyone running, all the other networks running in the studio. They’ve all been on Minnesota for an hour. You have been able to go around the world with us and find out what’s happening, how you can get involved. That is what makes this different. That is why we’re an independent show. That’s why we’re an independent organization. That’s why when you support the work of the ACLJ, you’re supporting this, the media side, the legal side, all of it. None of it happens without you. So I encourage you as we wrap up this show, go to aclj.org. What an important time to get involved in what we’re doing here around the world. That is ACLJ, the American Center for Law and Justice, the ECLJ, European Center for Law and Justice, ACLJ Jerusalem, and offices around the country and around the world, places we don’t even talk about and won’t talk about. We are there supporting your rights, your values, and your freedom of speech. That’s at ACLJ.org. Again, support the work if you can. We’ll be back next week with new broadcasts, but always subscribe to our channels because we don’t go anywhere. We post a lot of great content all through the weekend, and we will talk to you on Monday with a new show on Zycula.
