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In this episode of Sekulow, host Logan Sekulow discusses the recent developments surrounding Tulsi Gabbard’s confirmation hearings for the position of Director of National Intelligence. With insight from special guests and audience involvement, the episode delves into the critical moments of the hearing, the performance of Tulsi Gabbard during questioning, and the unexpected support from Republican Senator John Cornyn. Additionally, listeners are encouraged to engage with the process by signing petitions and contacting their local representatives. The episode also shifts focus to broader issues of whistleblower protections and the potential changes in leadership that could impact departmental transparency and
SPEAKER 08 :
We got breaking news. Tulsa Gabbard flips a massive vote for her confirmation.
SPEAKER 11 :
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 08 :
Welcome to Sekulow. This is Logan Sekulow. Will Haines joining me in studio. We’re going to have some special guests later in the broadcast. But right now, of course, yesterday we spent most of our time talking about the confirmation hearings of Tulsi Gabbard that just began. One of our friends, a colleague, someone who’s been on this show for many years now. And you know what? It was a pretty hostile situation. We watched the two and a half hours. She did great. I think who knows what happened in the closed door session, but in the public session, I think she did a fantastic job. I can’t imagine her doing any better answering some of these tried to gotcha questions that were a bit too ridiculous even to give an answer to. She still went out there and said, no, that’s absurd. I would never have done this. I didn’t do this was steadfast. And now we are seeing because, look, it can go either way. These confirmation hearings. And I was I’m nervous for Tulsi. And I’ve talked to told you about I’ve said to pray for her and pray for this situation because it’s tough. But, well, there’s been some positive moves. And I feel like that’s when you can start breathing a little bit because it can become a bit of a snowball effect when the ones who are sort of on the line start to go your way.
SPEAKER 10 :
That’s right. And what we even saw yesterday was some of the Republicans that are on the Intel Committee, that there were concerns about their vote to move the nomination of Tulsi Gabbard forward. And those four that really were sticking out were Senator Susan Collins from Maine, Todd Young from Indiana, Jerry Moran and Senator John Cornyn. Now, what we are seeing and kind of a surprise move this morning, Senator Cornyn, who’s been in the Senate a long time. He is an old guard Republican, very much an establishment Republican and kind of a moderate Republican in many aspects.
SPEAKER 08 :
He’s been on this show before.
SPEAKER 10 :
Right.
SPEAKER 08 :
He’s a friend.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yes. But, you know, like I said, old school Republican. But for this nomination, it was one of the ones that really we were concerned about may not be a vote there to move her forward. And even his questioning during the hearing kind of put us on edge. We talked about that yesterday on the broadcast. Last night, he tweeted… Late last night, Article 2, Section 2, Clause 2 provides that the president shall appoint officers with the advice and consent of the Senate. Having won the election decisively, I believe President Trump has earned the right to appoint his own cabinet absent extraordinary circumstances. Therefore, it is my intention to consent to the appointment of Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence. So that is one of the four concerning votes that were on that intel committee publicly saying he will support her nomination. That is a big deal. Even if he was planning on doing it, many times you don’t see them publicly state it. There’s been talks about the vote being held in a skiff so no one knows who voted how. And that would give cover for some of these Republicans to vote the way that was in line with President Trump. However, Senator Cornyn getting out ahead of that, saying he will vote for her. This is a big momentum shifter for… for Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, I think this is a big deal. You need to treat it that way. But you need to get involved as well. And there’s a way you can support. We are only a month in to 2025. You know, today is it. And we’re heading into February. And you’re ACLJ. We’ve been hard at work. Thanks to your support, we’ve been able to cover so many issues you care about. And one of them, of course, is fighting for our friend Tulsi Gabbard to be confirmed as the Director of National Intelligence. And that is pretty wild. When you think about the people we have on this broadcast over the years, many different secretaries of state, directors of national intelligence, people that have gone on to amazing things, and people who continue to be on this show, like a Rick Grinnell. But we’re able to fight to confirm Tulsi Gabbard. You should be a part of it right now. You can sign that petition if you go to aclj.org slash sign to help confirm Tulsi. But also, while you’re there, I’m going to encourage you, if you like this show, if you like what we do, if you like our legal work, Make a donation if you can at ACLJ.org. You can become an ACLJ champion as well. It’s someone that gives on a monthly recurring basis. It really helps us set a baseline for the work that we are going to do. So be a champion today. It’s tax deductible. And today is your last chance to do that right now. Last day of the week. 1-800-684-3110. Also, if you want to be on the air, let me say it again and say it slower. 1-800-684-3110. Lines are open for your calls right now. We’ll be right back with more. Welcome back to Secular. Continue our discussion. If you’re just joining us now, because I see a lot of you are, we are talking about one of the big flips that just happened recently where Tulsi Gabbard was able to make some way, get some momentum. And that’s very important in these votes. Very important to have people who are maybe on the fence start going your way. And we know that Tulsi has been a bit of a controversial figure for a lot of people. Obviously not for us. For us, she has been a friend and colleague over the years. But Will, we have seen this sort of push. I just wanted to restate for those just joining us, John Corwin,
SPEAKER 10 :
has decided and he posted on x a statement in the affirmative that he is going to proceed with tulsi gabbard that’s right john cornyn was one of the four that they are concerned about as far as republican votes on the intel committee and just as a reminder the intel committee will vote and then that will advance the nomination out of committee to the full senate They can theoretically still hold a vote on someone that fails to advance out of Senate, but it is very unlikely. That would be a very different scenario. Many times the only way that would happen is if for some reason The majority of the Senate were in the opposite party, and somehow you still try to use a parliamentary tactic to force this vote. But that’s not what is going to happen with this when you have the Republican majority. But John Cornyn, he posted last night on Twitter, as you mentioned, that… x i always say that it’s so long now i feel so old when i say that i cringe when you say i know i’m so sorry do you still say tweet no i do host i’m sorry when they post he posted on that post on x that uh because of the advice and consent role and the election he believes that president trump has earned the right to appoint his own cabinet absent extraordinary circumstances Therefore, it is my intention to consent to the appointment of Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence.
SPEAKER 08 :
In your defense, our graphic is still Twitter. So you know what? It has the bird. Well, something to look at.
SPEAKER 10 :
Maybe I made that graphic.
SPEAKER 08 :
Maybe I’m the one. I want to take a call. And then I also want you to hear from J.D. Vance. But I want to take a call because Anthony’s calling with a direct question that we can answer in Pennsylvania, listening on the radio. Anthony, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes, I frequently reply to politicians’ posts on X, but is it worth it for us to call their offices or send them emails? Absolutely. Okay.
SPEAKER 08 :
Absolutely. Anthony, this is the time to do it. Be cordial. Be kind. Call in and just say, hey, especially those that are on the line or who are one of the, you’d say, maybe votes. Look, I’d say right now, just anybody. Anybody that’s on that list, it’s not going to hurt to call or email your senator in their office and say, hey, I’m one of the people in your area. I’m one of your voters. And I believe you should support and confirm Tulsi Gabbard or whoever else that’s on that list.
SPEAKER 10 :
That’s right. And one of the other ways you can do that is by signing our petition at ACLJ.org slash sign that is pushing to confirm Tulsi Gabbard. You can call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to speak with the senators from your state. That’s 202-224-3121. Be cordial when you do that. But if you want to have double the effect as well, sign the petition. Because we don’t just send it blanketly. We do. We say, here’s how many people are on the petition. But then we break it down for senators from individual states and say, here’s how many of your constituents that are members of the ACLJ that support this petition want Tulsi Gabbard confirmed. So it’s an easy way to do it. It is free to sign it. You go to ACLJ.org slash sign and you can be a part of that as well. But I also want to point this out, Logan, because this is something that I think is effective. You see what’s on the surface. You see the hearings. You see the questioning, the back and forth between the nominee and the senators. But there’s a lot of things going on behind the scenes as well. And when the president wants someone to be confirmed and it’s his own party that holds the majority, you know that there is a lot of internal government lobbying going on to try and move these nominees forward. And J.D. Vance, he taped a interview with Sean Hannity. It was taped, I believe, in the morning while the hearings were going on.
SPEAKER 08 :
So yesterday.
SPEAKER 10 :
So yesterday, and it aired last night. And Sean Hannity asked directly about the three that are the more controversial picks.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, I want to say before we play this, how refreshing it is to hear from a president, a vice president. Look, even to say during the tragedy in Washington, D.C. over the weekend, the next morning, there was a press conference with President Trump, Vice President Vance, with the head of transportation, Sean Duffy. There was a whole list of people that appeared at this, spoke, and kind of every heavy hitter you needed to see. That is such a converse of what we’ve seen for the last four years that it’s almost shocking that it’s not just a press secretary up there. The press secretary did a great job, but you saw the president of the United States, the vice president, and the head of transportation up there answering questions and not being afraid to take those. And how refreshing it is also to have someone like Vice President Vance, even on the media trail. And like you said, this was an interview with Sean Hannity. So you could take a listen to this clip again, talking about those three. And I put quote unquote controversial picks.
SPEAKER 01 :
R.F.K. Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel. Sure. I think three excellent choices by the president. I agree. But I have every expectation that the Democrats are going to be vicious. Now, we have small majorities in the House, small majority in the Senate. Sure. How do you get these guys, do you believe they’ll get across the finish line? How do you help get them across the finish line?
SPEAKER 09 :
they’re going to get across the finish line, Sean, but we’re going to have to fight for each one, and we’re going to have to make sure that Republicans, I think we’re different from Democrats, and in some ways I admire that Senate Republicans are a little bit more free-thinking, a little bit more independent. On the other hand, the President has made his selections, and the advice and consent power of the United States Senate should not be used to block people because you have one policy disagreement on one issue. And he already has.
SPEAKER 08 :
It’s a pretty direct statement from J.D. Vance. A lot of you are calling in about this. I encourage you to call in. We’ve got three lines open at 1-800-684-3110. Also, if you’re watching online, which I can see the numbers climbing right now, and you’ve never seen us before, we do this show each and every day from noon to 1 p.m., and we post a lot of other great content as well, right here, wherever you’re watching, YouTube, Rumble. on Facebook, on X. You can find us always broadcasting easiest way. Just go to ACLJ.org and we are there. But if you are brand new and you’re on YouTube right now, because I know a lot of you are, hit that subscribe button. I know you’re going to hear me talk about supporting our work and giving donations. I encourage you to do that as always. But if you’re brand new, the easy thing to do. To help support us and help support this mission and to get great content into your feed, hit that subscribe button right now. Over 456,000 people have. Hit the thumbs up as well. You can ring the notification bell to be notified when we go live each and every day.
SPEAKER 10 :
That’s right. And I do want to tell people we are at 44,501 signatures on that petition right now. We have an initial goal of 50,000. We’ll keep that petition open also as it goes to a full vote as well. But it would be great on this Friday. with this momentum behind Tulsi Gabbard, seeing John Cornyn change his vote, if we added 5,500 signatures… Yeah, if we added just the people watching right now on YouTube, we would break that right now.
SPEAKER 08 :
So when we go to break in about three minutes… And again, at that point, we just take about a minute break. Go to ACLJ.org and do that and sign that petition. A lot of you are calling in. I want to go to Dale who’s calling online too. Dale in Wisconsin who’s watching on the brand new live home of Sekulow, the Salem News Channel. So you can find that on Pluto. You can find it on Samsung Plus and a few other places or just on their website. Dale, go ahead.
SPEAKER 15 :
Well, I just want to call and thank you guys for what you do. I don’t watch regular news at all. I get all my news from you guys, and I really appreciate what you’re doing.
SPEAKER 08 :
You know, Dale, I appreciate you calling in and letting us know that. We are in an interesting spot. As the ACLJ, we are the American Center for Law and Justice. We are there for you when you need legal help or you need anything, especially to do with religious freedom, freedom of speech, things that are within our scope. And you can find out if you have a legal need, ACLJ.org slash help. And by the way, it’s at absolutely no cost because of great supporters like Dale and other people. Now, Dale, what has been interesting is over the last few years, and I think a lot of this is that birth of new media, of non-traditional mainstream media. I know we have become a news source for a lot of people. So we are always kind of on that line of what do we talk about? Do we need to report the news? Do we need to give you our point of view? Or can we talk about sort of the work that we do? What’s crazy right now is all of those are converging. So you have Tulsi Gabbard, who’s been on the show for multiple years, who now is trying to be confirmed for the director of national intelligence. You have Rick Grinnell, who’s on this broadcast. He is now special envoy. There are so many things happening. Pro-life activists, people that we represent or people that we support are being pardoned by President Trump. The breaking news items of the day. are the ACLJ work that we’ve been doing for decades. So it’s very cool to see this sort of convergence, this moment happen in time where we don’t have to decide whether it’s a breaking news item or if it’s something related to what we do here as an organization because those two things have become more and more merged. And they will be because we can get more done thanks to people like you who support our work and also because we now have a friendly administration. It’s not always a fight. And when you hear these conversations, when you hear these questions happening and you hear them, the response being positive on the issues that we’ve been talking about, it is such a stark contrast. So, again, I want to thank you all for supporting our work. I’m going to encourage you right now, though. If you think Tulsi Gabbard needs to get confirmed, you’ve heard her on this show for years. Do it right now. Go to ACLJ.org. Sign that petition. We really appreciate it. There are quite a few phone lines open, and I’m looking at how many of you are watching right now. I know five of you would call in. Give me a call. 1-800-684-3110. Some of you got questions. Some of you got comments. Do it right now. We really would appreciate it. And of course, if you can, become an ACLJ champion. And if you’re brand new, which I know a lot of you are, never seen my face before, never seen Will’s beautiful face before, I’m going to ask you to hit that subscribe button. If you’ve already done that, hit that thumbs up. If you’ve already done that, comment. Just tell me where you’re watching from. I love to see that from around the world. We’ll be right back. A lot of you are just joining us now, so we will restate what’s happening. And if you are watching on YouTube, the massive vote flip that Tulsi Gabbard was able to accomplish in convincing people on her confirmation hearing. I think she did a wonderful job. A lot of you are calling in right now, so stay on hold. We’ll get to you. 1-800-684-3110. We’re going to kick it off with a phone call. Whitney’s calling from Texas, and she is an ACLJ champion. And the thing about ACLJ champions, you get bumped to the front of the line. So there’s another ACLJ champion coming up after Whitney, and that’s people that give on a monthly recurring basis, which is amazing. It really helps us create a baseline for everything we do here in the law or in media. But Whitney, go ahead.
SPEAKER 16 :
Thanks so much, Logan. I’m really encouraged to hear John Corden’s remark. I called his office on Wednesday while I was watching him interview JFK Jr. And I said, hey, I’m watching this in real time. I’m his constituent. I would love to see him put this nominee through. And for that matter, I want him to put through Kash Patel. I want him to put through Tulsi Gabbard. And then I said, you know, honestly, Trump should have whoever he wants for his cabinet. If he thinks he’s made a mistake, we can trust him to adjust down that, you know, down the line. So, you know, not that not that John Cornyn changed his mind because of me, but if enough of other people called, that’s something else we can do. We can pray. We can support the ACLJ. We can sign that petition, but we can also call our Senate members.
SPEAKER 08 :
absolutely windy all of those things are very important and i appreciate you doing that and look you may say i don’t know if it was me that did it you know what collectively it certainly was You’re a part of it for sure. So know that we really appreciate that. I’m sure Tulsi appreciates that. But even as an ACLJ champion, know how much that we appreciate your support. Will, because this moment in time is a bit different in terms of the confirmation hearings. Because what they’re doing is, yes, should President Trump be able to pick it? Yeah. And do they need to go through sort of the scrutiny to make sure they’re legitimate? Sure. Tulsi Garrett’s been serving in uniform for, at this point, decades. Has gone through five FBI clearances. I think that’s enough. We know who she is. She’s been around for a very long time. She is someone that I very much trust and I believe the American people do as well. When you see sort of the hostile moves, it doesn’t feel right for her because of her background and her history and what she’s doing and even stuff that I know that she’s done in recent months, including, by the way, sending her own charity to North Carolina, to Western North Carolina and East Tennessee to help with the hurricane relief. When guess who wasn’t often? FEMA and the Biden administration were spending a lot of time not getting there. They were sending the supplies. Tulsi’s group was sending the supplies.
SPEAKER 10 :
It’s pretty wild. That’s right. And I just want to contrast what J.D. Vance said in that Sean Hannity interview and what John Cornett post on X. I said it right this time, Logan. You happy about that? It’s very good. I will say Cornett wrong and you will say Twitter. So we’re even. But it’s very interesting because Whitney also who said, I wouldn’t say that I’m the one that changed this, but I would push back on that. Yes, I think voices speaking to these Senators is what is important and that yes you are a part of that change but jd vance in that interview said the president has made his selections the advice and consent power of the united states senate should not be used to block people because you have one policy disagreement on one issue you don’t get to make these decisions president trump gets to make these decisions and he already has john cornyn Article 2, Section 2, Clause 2 provides the president shall appoint officers with the advice and consent of the Senate. Having won the election decisively, I believe President Trump has earned the right to appoint his own cabinet, absent extraordinary circumstances. They track perfectly. So while that interview was taped during the hearings and then aired later that night, you know that J.D. Vance, former colleague of these members of Congress, these senators, because J.D. Vance, very recently, no longer a senator, now vice president. You know that he knows how to talk to them because they call the Senate the greatest deliberative body in the world, that this is where the debate goes on. Much of that debate is behind closed doors among the members of the Senate. And you know that when a statement from a on-the-fence senator tracks very closely to what the Vice President of the United States is saying, that this pressure campaign from constituents like Whitney, from members of the ACLJ, like those of you that have already signed the petition at ACLJ.org slash sign, and from the Vice President of the United States, is working it is working and that’s what we need to keep up because it’s not over this is a momentum moment getting a public statement from senator cornyn who is largely seen as a potential no vote on tulsi gabbard saying that he will vote for her confirmation out of the intel committee is a huge momentum shift but we can’t let up now is the time to continue
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, it really helps. It helps the others who are maybe on the fence to not feel alone in the situation. They’re allowed now to have a little more grace and can vote to confirm Tulsi. And look, like I said, if you watch those confirmation hearings, she did a great job. If you know her background, you’re sitting there going, why is this not the easiest yes I’ve ever seen? This is someone who has put America and American families first over and over again, has protected our country over and over again, has seen real battles and struggles and struggles. If you even see, I know a lot of people are commenting. A lot of people always talk about Tulsi’s looks, very cool. And she is cool. They talk about that silver streak in her hair. And that is something you should look into. Because where did that come from? That came from PTSD potentially, or some sort of stress moment. Not necessarily PTSD, but a moment of stress from wartime. And she decides to wear that proudly. Because it wasn’t something she had previously. 20 years ago. This is something that has developed. Again, I know that doesn’t say much, but that says a whole lot. It says a whole lot about the character of the person. We got a lot of phone lines, our phone calls coming in and they are jammed and a ton of you are watching right now. on YouTube. A lot of you are watching on Rumble, a lot on Facebook, and on X, and a lot on ACLJ.org and Salem News Channel. What I wanted to encourage you, if you’re brand new, hit that subscribe button, hit that thumbs up if you haven’t done it yet, because that’s helping it get in more people’s feeds. That’s why we’re seeing the numbers go up, because you’re interacting more, and that’s great, because we want to hear from you. You’re the most important voice on this. We’re also going to discuss some of the whistleblower situation that’s happening, and sort of give you an update on that as well, because we’ll not just Tulsi Gabbard, but there’s obviously Kash Patel, and these are the topics, like I said, that The ACLJ stories that have been something that we’ve been talking about for years are now not only newsworthy, they are the top stories.
SPEAKER 10 :
That’s right. And we referenced this shortly yesterday, but we did have a lot to cover yesterday. But we will have Tristan Levitt, who’s the president of Empower Oversight, a great organization that fights for and protects whistleblowers out of Washington, D.C. He will be joining us to talk about a new lawsuit that we just filed on their behalf. to protect whistleblowers, to expose the politicization of the FBI against their whistleblowers. One being Marcus Allen that you’ve heard us talk about on this broadcast. If you’re new, we will explain who that is and what Empower Oversight and the ACLJ did to protect this brave FBI whistleblower in the middle of the Biden administration’s war on common sense in law enforcement. And so we’ll talk a little bit about that, but we have a new lawsuit we filed just yesterday on behalf of Empower Oversight trying to get to the bottom of it. And we’re also going to find out what Tristan believes will be the outcome of some of these moves now that someone like Kash Patel is on the cusp of becoming the next FBI director.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yep. That’s coming up in the second half hour of the broadcast. If you are listening on radio, some of you don’t get the full hour, join us live online, aclj.org, Salem News Channel, of course, YouTube, Rumble, Facebook, and X. We’re broadcasting live there always from noon to 1 p.m. Eastern every weekday. And, of course, we put great content up as well. If you are watching right now, also stick around. Again, second half hour coming up. But you have heard about the ACLJ’s efforts. And right now, it is the top story. Because we are fighting on Capitol Hill to confirm our friend, our colleague, Tulsi Gabbard, is Director of National Intelligence. And we need your help right now. So go and sign that petition. And if you can, while you’re there, make a gift. Make a donation. Become an ACLJ champion. Gift monthly. Or make an individual one-time donation. That’s great, too. Do that at ACLJ.org. This break is very quick. We’re back in less than a minute. Don’t go anywhere.
SPEAKER 11 :
keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 08 :
Welcome to Sekulow. This is Logan Sekulow. Will Haynes joining me in studio as well. Second half hour of the broadcast. Thanks for joining us. A lot of you are joining us online right now. Welcome. If you’ve never seen me before, hit that subscribe button. We do this each and every day. If you’re watching on YouTube or on Rumble or follow us on social media platforms or if you’re on the Salem News Channel. However you’re getting us, welcome. We are talking about right now, Will, and we’re going to move to a little bit different, but it all kind of ties in. We are talking right now about Tulsi Gabbard. and how we are seeing some positive momentum happening right now. And we weren’t sure yesterday, you know, coming off the air, she was doing it live. We were watching some of it. We weren’t sure. And we’re still not sure. Look, it could go either way. But there was a positive move that happened. Restate it real quick, and then I want to take a call.
SPEAKER 10 :
That’s right. So as we were watching the hearing, while she was doing a fantastic job, we were seeing some Republicans on the committee that had more aggressive questioning than you would necessarily expect to see from a senator of the same party as the president. Some of those were Susan Collins, John Cornyn, Senator Young and Senator Moran. And what we ended up seeing after the hearing was late last night, Senator Cornyn out of Texas posted on Twitter I did it again, posted on X, that he will be a yes vote on consenting of the appointment of Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence. This was a big move. When you see a senator who is on the fence publicly state their position for the intent to nominate or to confirm the nominee, Tulsi Gabbard, that is a very big sign for the momentum in her favor. especially with all the talk that this committee may vote in a skiff so that it’s not public how they voted which many people will be upset about of course that is not transparency that we want to see out of the united states senate however it would give cover to some of these republicans if they didn’t want to go along with president trump and still try to avoid being primaried john cornyn has now drawn a line in the sand for those other three of saying look i’m brave enough I’m brave enough to vote for her. I’m brave enough to be public about it. Now the ball’s in your court for these three others, and now is the time to sign the petition that we have at the ACLJ that we will send to these senators and say, listen, your constituents and the American people and those of you that follow the ACLJ want Tulsi Gabbard confirmed. You can sign it today. There is still time, and it’s the most important time. Go to aclj.org slash sign. Add your name to that petition so we can tell these senators Go ahead and support this nominee.
SPEAKER 08 :
Let’s go ahead and take a phone call. Tim’s calling in Florida on line two. Tim, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 06 :
Hey, my question is, does the Senate have to confirm the appointees or can the president, no matter what the advice is from the Senate, just appoint them and just say, well, I’m not going to listen to what you say?
SPEAKER 10 :
No, unfortunately, the Constitution gets in the way of that one. So based off… You can put in temporary people to hold space. So that would be acting directors. And many times those are people that have already been confirmed in another position so that they are allowed to carry out these duties. And that is for a temporary basis. But because… of the constitution that says the president shall nominate and by and with the advice and consent of the senate shall appoint officers of the United States. So he gets to nominate the advice and consent this is a part of the founders separation of powers that they were trying to get in there and for the most part this is a very good and necessary thing But it also comes down to it. These senators don’t need to have their own agenda going in.
SPEAKER 08 :
The problem is when it gets political. It’s not about whether someone is qualified. It’s whether they agree with you or disagree with you. And sadly, we live in a time where that’s not always the truth. It’s not always, well, I believe this person’s qualified, even if I disagree with them. That doesn’t always come that way. And actually, you’re going to see the vote, I’m sure, not go that way. The vote will probably be very, very tight. very razor thin margins either way. Even if she was the best and everyone loved her, it would still probably be fairly party line, unfortunately. It’s just where we are right now. We’re going to have a great guest coming up. Tristan Levitt’s joining us in the next segment. But you’re going to want to stay tuned and hear that because it ties all in to Tulsi and to Kash Patel, to these confirmations, because we are also here to support and protect whistleblowers and make sure that they have no problems if they come out and say, I smell something. And they don’t say, okay, thanks for doing that. By the way, we’re going to take all your clothing, all your stuff. Get out of here. back to sec hello phone lines are jammed right now so stay on hold in the next segment i’m going to take as many calls as i can so if you are on hold right now stay on hold we will do our best to get to as many as possible we have president of empower oversight tristan levitt joining us here and tristan you’ve been on this broadcast many times but before we get to the new lawsuit that we have filed i kind of want you to to remind people where we are where we came from and who marcus allen is How did this all get going? Because we have a lot of new people watching right now, even since the last time you’ve been on. A lot of people excited because they’re hearing talk of these whistleblowers. It’s becoming, like we said, mainstream news, if you will. So let’s give a little bit of a history, a little bit of background first.
SPEAKER 02 :
Sure. So Marcus Allen was an FBI intelligence analyst who worked in Charlotte, North Carolina after in the year 2021, after January 6th, as he saw Secretary or Director Wray, you know, making giving representations to Congress about what the FBI knew and didn’t know about undercover sources that were present at the Capitol on January 6th. He he was, you know, vocal with his leadership about saying, hey, it seems like Wray is not What he’s sharing isn’t consistent with all the things that we know. And that really led to him being railroaded. He blew the whistle. He sent an email to his leadership. And again, by blew the whistle, I mean he just made that comment, his chain of command, over email. And thereafter, everything changed. They had gone from being employee of the year there to then being pushed out of the agency and having his security clearance suspended. So he was one of many people who the FBI’s security division, which handles security clearances, really mistreated by taking all these ways just because he’s politically conservative and using that against him in a security clearance context. So most of the world first saw him in May of 2023 when he I think. Yeah, May of 2023. I’m leaving my calendar here. It’s all right. Yeah, yeah. He testified along with Garrett O’Boyle, with Steve Friend and myself in front of the weaponization subcommittee. And then after ultimately we were able to get his clearance, his security clearance reinstated and to get back pay for all the time that he was, you know, just boxed, not able to work, not able to go elsewhere. He was still waiting on the FBI to consider how, you know, The whistleblower complaint he’d made could possibly make him a security threat, quote unquote. And after he had that reinstated last fall, he testified again for Congress because the inspector general for DOJ also found that he was retaliated against.
SPEAKER 10 :
And Tristan, we fought alongside Empower here at the ACLJ to ensure justice for Marcus Allen, to get that clearance reinstated, the back pay, those things that you mentioned. And really, it also was able to shine a light on the politicization under the Biden administration of the FBI. But we are not done seeking truth here. While we’ve gotten justice for him, part of Empower’s mission is to protect future whistleblowers and to ensure that the proper whistleblower disclosures and protections that are in law and even some that need to be added, I know you advocate for as well, ensure that those work properly. So we filed a lawsuit on Empower’s behalf related to some FOIA requests that empower oversight had placed to the government about Marcus Allen. But could you give us a little bit of an overview of what we’re targeting in this lawsuit and what we hope to discover through this lawsuit?
SPEAKER 02 :
Absolutely. So when we first came forward with Marcus Allen, for instance, when we testified at that first weaponization hearing, it was just all about the problems that he could see from the ground level. And what happened was that when his security clearance was finally reinstated, it kind of opened a floodgate and we started to have whistleblowers from within the security division. So the office that had been really unfairly targeting Marcus, there were people inside of that office, it turns out, that were saying, we don’t think this is right. And so one of them who we have come to represent identified that when she reviewed Marcus’s file, it was clear to her that he was not a threat, that he should have been protected for blowing the whistle. And so we know that there were communications within the security division about these things. And it’s significant now because as you see a change in leadership with the FBI, an incoming director is going to have to try and figure out, how can I set things right? Maybe it involves just changing the head of the security division, but what other processes are necessary to make sure you don’t have a fiasco like this again? So that lawsuit targets specifically the reinstatement recommendation that was submitted within the FBI, because we know that there was one. There had to be for him to have gotten his clearance back. But we think that that reinstatement recommendation was even more broad than what the FBI ultimately did. And we think that having that along with some of these other communications will help to illustrate where the key problems are in the security division process and what a new incoming leader would need to do to totally overhaul this to make sure that people don’t get railroaded like this in the future.
SPEAKER 08 :
I wanted to bring that up, Tristan. Obviously, you talked about new leadership. We’ve seen Kash Patel’s confirmation hearings happening. Whistleblowers came up very directly with Senator Grassley. The conversation’s kind of happening right now. What would the impact be in a change of leadership in this way? When you have this lawsuit happening right now, what would the impact be on the lawsuit? And then for those who are searching for whistleblower protection in the future?
SPEAKER 02 :
But for the lawsuit, an incoming director could say, hey, we need to comply with our FOIA obligations and produce this information. And I think across the administration, incoming political appointees ought to be as transparent as possible. And that came up, Senator Grassley, or maybe I think even Kash Patel was asked about all these past congressional requests. And he said, we are going to get this information out as much as we can. So, again, the incoming administration has has every reason, I think, to want to be transparent, to share this information with the public, because it highlights all these problems that have happened in the past. So Kash Patel can ensure that, you know, the FBI complied with its FOIA obligations and produces this information to us. It produces the type of information Congress has asked for in the past. And then, of course, you know, then then the decisions he makes at that point will help future whistleblowers to know how safe it is to blow the whistle. I helped to get the law changed in 2016 that said that, you know, you could blow the whistle to your chain of command in the FBI. And so hopefully with new leadership, FBI agents and others will feel comfortable saying, here’s where the problems are. We need to fix them. And if I were the incoming administration, I would want to take those people and help them tell their story. You’ve been you’ve been you know, you’ve been complaining about this for a long time. We’re going to help you fix it. But we’re also going to explain to Congress that, you know, this is this is a problem that others are trying to highlight in the past. So we would love to represent some of those kinds of whistleblowers because they can help an incoming administration make the case for the reforms that they want to make.
SPEAKER 10 :
Tristan, that brings me also to the fact with this new leadership, I know that you directly, and if people have heard you on this broadcast before, that your longstanding working relationship with both Kash Patel and with Senator Grassley, this is the roots of where Empower Oversight grew out of, was your work in the Senate fighting for whistleblower protections and oversight of the executive branch. And as we look forward, When having these confirmations and also this kind of culture shift against what the Biden administration and the executive branch and the bureaucratic state have put in place, especially over the last four years, how much more important is it for organizations like Empower and the ACLJ to continue the same work? knowing that a friendly group within these agencies now can help bring about that reform if we continue to shed light on it?
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, it’s critical. At the end of the day, the reality is that an incoming secretary, an incoming director, they’re getting information from so many places and they are not going to be able to communicate with every person in their agency or in their department. And the reality also is there will be mid-level managers that are going to try and stop good progress from happening or that will retaliate against whistleblowers. And so understanding, you know, when I was on Capitol Hill working for Senator Grassley, we would absolutely explain this to people. Hey, you’re coming in. don’t think of whistleblower as a bad word right these are people that know where the problems are in the agency these are the kind of people you want to seek out you want to find waste fraud and abuse you want to drain the swamp find these people and help them but that doesn’t mean that the mid-level managers are going to like that are going to support that and so groups like empower you know and aclj have a key role to play in helping welcome whistleblowers as they come forward helping then inform agency leadership that otherwise someone on the, you know, a line level employee in an agency might have a difficult time getting the attention of. We can help get that attention and we can also help engage Congress’s assistance in targeting these problems and addressing them so that we can stop the waste, fraud and abuse and do right by the taxpayers to make sure their money is spent wisely.
SPEAKER 08 :
Tristan, thank you so much for joining us again. Tristan Levitt, who is the president of Empower Oversight. Always good to hear from him. And again, you’ve heard about this now, what we’re doing. We’re defending whistleblowers with this new lawsuit. We just filed it yesterday with our friends over Empower. And we got to fight back and we got to do it, but we can’t do it without you. We can’t engage in any of these battles without your support. So I encourage you right now, if you can support the work of the ACLJ, there’s a lot of you who are watching. Maybe you’re brand new to us. I’m going to ask you if you’re brand new, if you’ve never seen me before, Hit the subscribe button if you’re watching on YouTube or Rumble or any of those outlets. If you have seen this before, if you like what we do, if you hear what we’re talking about, if you hear about all the legal work we’re doing, you hear it from Tristan, go to ACLJ.org, make a donation today, support our work. We’ll become an ACLJ champion. That’s a monthly donor. It’s a tax-deductible gift, supports our work, and helps us really set a great baseline. It’s the last day of the month, so this will set up for next month. And right now, phone lines are completely jammed. We are going to take as many calls as we can coming up with a lot of your questions and comments because you have the most important voice. And we always say that, and I really mean it. You decide where we head. The whole organization is based on individual small donors. Sure, that’s great. If you can give more, awesome. But we are not backed by big corporate sponsors. It’s not how it works here at the ACLJ. It’s individual donors like you who give either as an ACLJ champion. We’ve got a few champions on hold. We’re going to get to them or the give an individual basis. And that’s great either way. Thank you so much for your support. We’re able to be truly independent that way. But you’re also we’re able to check on what you care about, what we know you care about life, liberty, freedom and being a great American. We’re going to support our friend Tulsi Gabbard as well. Sign that petition. All your calls coming up. Welcome back to Secula. Let’s go ahead and start off with some calls and comments. First up, an ACLJ champion, James, you’re on the air in Virginia. Thanks for calling and thanks for being a champion. Hello? Yes, James, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 13 :
Thank you. I’m not sure if it’s as pertinent as it was. I just wanted to make a comment a couple of days ago after a discussion about Trump’s aggressive action at the border. We seem to be left with the impression that The only deficiency in the Biden administration at the border was inaction and ineptness. But I just wanted to point out that I thought that his inaction was sort of an action by intention and intent.
SPEAKER 08 :
also the act the positive activity they did in terms of facilitating and transporting illegal aliens yeah james i i think the main thing to look about that i believe that it was a lot of it was political why did kamala harris take so long to visit the border because conservatives were asking her and it looked like she was caving to conservatives if she went to go visit the border why were things opened up the way they were for political gain for votes and that just happened to backfire a bit so You’re right. These were not unintentional acts. They were intentional acts with consequences that harmed the American people, that kept us in a place of chaos. But it was done with the intention of winning votes from a far left base. Unfortunately for them, people did not see it that way. And we saw what the results are in the election.
SPEAKER 10 :
And we knew that it was intentional by how quickly ICE was able to round up the worst of the worst, the ones that had criminal records even here in the United States, and continue and begin to deport them out of the United States. It was a very quick action. So we know it was intentional. Absolutely.
SPEAKER 08 :
Thank you for calling and thanks for being a champion. Let’s continue on. Let’s go to David in Virginia who is watching on the Salem News Channel. David, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 12 :
I would just like to say that I’m praying for Tulsi Gabbard and all of Trump’s nominees. I love your show. I love the work that Donald Trump is doing, especially at the border. And I just want to say that I love your show and everything you’re doing.
SPEAKER 08 :
David, thank you. Thank you. And a lot of you have said you’ve been praying. I encourage you to pray. And we’ve been in touch and just do that. Pray for Tulsi. Pray for everyone who’s going through this. This is not fun on your families. This is not fun on your friends because they’re putting you through the wringer. And some of it is important. As Will said, this is something that we should be able to highly question anyone who’s going to have this kind of authority. But sometimes it just gets personal, rude, and flat out lies. or just flat out political. And that’s what we got to fight against. But we also have to remember how crazy it can get on people’s personal lives. We’ve seen so many of those happen over the years. Let’s continue on. But thank you, David, for calling. A lot of you still are on hold. We’re going to do our best. Greg, North Carolina, also on Salem News Channel.
SPEAKER 07 :
You’re on the air. You have to love Tulsi, perfect person for the job. I’m ex-military myself. Trump and his team have less than four years to solve an incredible number of premeditated problems. The knuckleheads in Congress are just going to get in his way again, and then in four years we start this game. How can we as American voters possibly keep putting up with this 24, 30, 36 year in public office from these senators? How is it statistically possible to get reelected six times? I mean, there’s something strange going on. These people end up with all this motivation to corrupt their job and their position because they have to keep it. And
SPEAKER 08 :
Greg, I understand. And I think a lot of that has been seen in these hearings the last few days. If you look at a lot of the commentary, because I think a lot of people are watching for the first time. They are watching confirmation hearings for the first time. They’re seeing their representatives. Look, it’s hard to unseat someone who’s been around for a very long time in your area, especially if they’ve done a good job. If you feel like they’ve done a good job, you’re going to keep getting reelected. They have the money. They have the resources. It’s going to keep happening. But there are no term limits in that sense. But I think people are seeing sort of, let’s say, the wear and tear on the Senate when they’re watching this. They’re seeing… you know not to be an ageist or anything like that because we know there are people that are 90 that are more with it than 80 and 70 that are more with it uh than 40 uh it just happens that way but will i feel like the age is showing when you’re watching these hearings well i think
SPEAKER 10 :
One, the entire Biden campaign for president in 2024 is going to wake a lot of people up. And some of that could start to shift when it comes to your senators as there’s a trickle down from what happened in 2024. But real quick, before you took another call, Greg said he’s a military man that supports Tulsi Gabbard. There was something interesting that was pointed out by a lot of people. There was a Medal of Honor recipient, Thomas Patrick Payne, who is a member of the Delta Force, which is… Very rarely even acknowledged existing by the government, even though we know it exists. But he was there in person to support Tulsi Gabbard. I think that speaks volumes to the respect she has within the military, even the most secretive branches of it. And I think it’s another good sign for her to be the leader of director of national intelligence.
SPEAKER 08 :
All right. Three minutes, three calls. Let’s see if we can do it. And in Pennsylvania, go ahead.
SPEAKER 04 :
Hey, guys, appreciate you taking my phone call. OK, so let me just finish my point real quick. Unless there’s some seriously egregious situation with the nominees, they should all be confirmed. Advise and put in quotations consent.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 04 :
Nothing more than a clown show, because with all the abusive questions, the Dems are going to vote for Trump to aren’t going to vote for Trump’s choices anyway. And one more thing.
SPEAKER 10 :
we voted republicans voted for their nominees and i believe it’s constitutional that they must consent unless i said before that there’s some egregious situation with the nominees and i think you’re exactly right and we even pointed that out yesterday how john kerry had a vote of 94 to 3 after meeting with assad himself for secretary of state qualified republicans
SPEAKER 08 :
to some degree unfortunately sometimes do follow that they consent unless there is some egregious issue they go qualification doesn’t mean agreement right just because someone is qualified for the job doesn’t mean you have to agree with everything that they say or they do those are different things sadly in the world of american politics right now that is not how it is all right sharon texas you’re on
SPEAKER 03 :
In confirmation committee hearings, I appreciate that nominees must swear to tell the truth, but I contend that the senators did have to swear to tell the truth. I have witnessed false narrative, flat lies told by Democrats. senators as they posture and gaslight the public.
SPEAKER 08 :
Sharon, thank you so much.
SPEAKER 10 :
I was just going to say, I mean, though, if they did have to take that oath before every hearing, we may not have a Congress anymore.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, exactly. It’d be a little rough for them. They just want it done. Judith in Ohio. Thank you, Sharon. Judith in Ohio, watching on YouTube. You’re going to be the last call for the day. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 14 :
Okay. My question is simple. What do we, the people, have to do to demand that these votes are transparent to us. I mean, these people work for us.
SPEAKER 08 :
Judith, put pressure on them. Call them. Get involved. Of course, what I’m going to tell you to do, sign that petition because we’re going to deliver it to them. ACLJ.org slash sign. You want this vote in public? You make sure you tell them that you want it in public, that they can’t be cowards and hide behind their secret meetings because, oh, we don’t want to make anyone mad. We don’t want to get Nicole Shanahan mad at us and she’s going to try to primary us. We need people like you, Judith, to reach out and support, not just the work of the ACLJ, but specifically sign that petition. Get involved. call your representatives let them know respectfully kindly do that and again if you can’t there’s thousands of you watching right now on just youtube there’s millions watching around the world Sign the petition at aclj.org slash sign. And if you’re able to make a gift while you’re there, I encourage you to do that. It’s tax deductible. You’ve heard us defending the whistleblowers against the deep state. You have heard what we’re doing on Capitol Hill to help confirm Tulsi Gabbard. Again, as someone who’s been a friend and a colleague for years, a member of the Seculo broadcast team, We’ve been friendly with her family for decades. So I encourage you right now, say a prayer for her and support the work by signing at ACLJ.org. See you Monday.
