The episode also provides an update on the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) with insights from senior attorneys collaborating on key legal battles domestically and internationally. Highlighting significant court cases and legislative efforts, including those in Oklahoma and global human rights reviews, this episode is packed with informative discussions on maintaining election integrity, the current political climate, and the role of diplomacy in international relations, with a special segment featuring Rick Grinnell.
SPEAKER 03 :
We’ve got breaking news. Tulsi Gabbard threatens lawsuit with CNN. 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 04 :
Welcome to Sekulow. This is Logan Sekulow, Will Haines in studio as well. We’re also going to be joined later on by ACLJ Senior Attorneys CeCe Heil, as well as a member of the ACLJ team and Sekulow broadcast team. Of course, special envoy for the Trump administration as well as a former director of national intelligence. That is Rick Grinnell. And speaking of directors of national intelligence, the current director of national intelligence, some news broke that they’ll be threatening, she’ll be threatening CNN with a lawsuit. As you may have heard, obviously we’re talking about our friend and former colleague, Tulsi Gabbard. who was on the show for a number of years until she was confirmed to her position as director of national intelligence. Because now, Will, it seems like CNN, they really care about voter integrity and making sure people have proper ID when voting. Because this is another kind of unfounded claim that they’re going to throw at someone like Tulsi to try to just take him down another peg.
SPEAKER 12 :
That’s right. So as you mentioned, they tried to take Tulsi Gabbard down by saying she was a puppet of Putin, a puppet of Assad, friendly with terrorists. You know, they’ve been spewing what we would consider defamatory things, trying to defame her. But when you’re a public figure, that bar is very high. So it’s not unusual or shocking that these news agencies would come after Tulsi Gabbard and say things to try and discredit her or make her look bad. But it appears that the attorneys that sent this letter to CNN and the cease and desist letter. that it’s become aware to them that CNN is going to publish a story that is inferring she’s no longer a resident of Hawaii, does not have residency there, and is in fact a resident of another state. And therefore, when she voted in Hawaii… committed something which I thought was a myth, according to CNN and the left, or something that sparks an insurrection, that she may have committed voter fraud if she voted there. Now, the letter details why these allegations that they are reportedly going to report are false, why they are wrong on the law, and why she is, in fact, a resident of Hawaii and did not violate any laws by voting there.
SPEAKER 04 :
I think in the report it said, You know, if you had to choose between being a resident of Texas or Hawaii, you’d probably go with Texas just due to, I don’t know, the taxes being a lot lower, it actually being a little bit more of a swing state, if you will, as Hawaii is pretty much blue and has been blue forever. Right. So, again, what are the benefits of being a Hawaiian over being a Texan? Now, of course, a lot of this was for her own security, her own safety. And that’s even what is stated in some of these comments and quotes that she wanted to make sure that. It’s protected, obviously, as someone who’s threatened a lot, quite a bit. And we don’t do a great job in this country of protecting people’s personal and private information. It seems like that is easily found and shared. We know it’s been shared for nefarious reasons.
SPEAKER 12 :
That’s right. And we’ll get into some of these reasonings, some of the facts that the attorneys present to CNN, why they should not publish this when we get back from this break. But it is quite shocking. to learn that there are journalists at CNN, alleged journalists, that are pursuing a story where they’re going to claim that someone may or may not have committed voter fraud, when once again, that has been pushed on everyone that that is just a conspiracy theory, Republican talking point, and a dangerous thing to even allege in this country. But we’ll get into some of that when we get back.
SPEAKER 04 :
we’ll keep this conversation going again we’ll be joined by cc how we got some updates on some aclj matters as well as rick cornell who’ll be on the show in just a little bit phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110 1-800-684-3110 and of course a lot of you showed up yesterday and i want to say thank you but today we’re continuing on still the life and liberty drive for the month of what month are we in well april april logan we’re in april i had a brain fart there for a april donations are still doubled right now scan the qr code on your screen right now and give there’s a great group of aclj donors and supporters ready to unlock their donation again phone lines are open for you six lines available right now 1-800-684-3110 get in line get your voice heard Welcome back to Seculo. I did want to say congratulations to Mike Huckabee. There’s a lot of comments going on. Mike Huckabee confirmed as ambassador to Israel. I couldn’t think of a better person to do that job. He’s obviously been a friend of our show and a friend for many years. He was actually even in our movie Jingle Smells. If you watch our Christmas film, there is a kid’s cartoon parrot. That is also a puppet. He’s a puppet. And if you look at the voice of that, that is now ambassador to Israel. If you look at the voice, if you listen to the voice, you can tell. I’m having lots of problems today, Will, clearly. It’s all right. You know why? Because you got Tulsi Gabbard. And they’re going after her. And I don’t like that. She’s a friend.
SPEAKER 12 :
That’s right. And we’ve seen already that there were not only the issues of them trying to say that she’s a Russian asset, that she’s a puppet of Assad. They put her on the domestic terror watch list, the Quiet Skies program. We’re having her surveilled on every flight she went on. Did you think that… My cup could be actual puppet in our movie. That’s true. This is not a real puppet. But not a puppet of a foreign autocrat.
SPEAKER 04 :
No, a puppet of a Puppeteer. Yeah.
SPEAKER 12 :
Okay, go ahead. But here’s what the deal is with this. Her attorney sent a letter to CNN because they have been notified that CNN was planning on publishing a story that they say falsely asserts or implies that Tulsi Gabbard committed voter fraud and suggests that she had abandoned her longstanding Hawaii residency. Director Gabbard was, is, and intends to remain a Hawaii resident. that is where she lives pays taxes and of course votes and uh just anecdotally we’ve connected with her many times when it is very early in the morning because she is in hawaii i mean obviously she travels a lot now is in washington dc uh primarily i would assume right that’s where her job is currently but how many senators never return home to their home state but don’t give up their residency of idaho when they are in washington dc But it is interesting because what it seems like they’re trying to harp on here is that there is property she owns in Texas and that there is a homestead exemption that was claimed in Texas and where she they they refute this saying any suggestion she’s no longer a resident. because she took the advice of local officials to register a homestead exemption to protect her and her family’s privacy is flat wrong, factually and legally. Texas case law is clear that just because a person has claimed a homestead exemption at one property does not preclude them from being a resident somewhere else. Then they go on to say, and this is where the teeth of this letter come, because it’s not just don’t publish it. And normally, when you are a public figure, it is hard to get to that bar of defamation. But that’s exactly what the attorneys here are threatening CNN with. The proposed publication of these allegations constitute defamation under applicable law. Defamation involves the publication of a false statement that injures a party’s reputation. In this case, the allegations against Ms. Gabbard are demonstrably false. and have the potential to cause significant harm to her personal and professional reputation. Publication of such false statements with reckless disregard for the truth meets the legal standard for defamation. And they go on to say that if they do… proceed with public uh publication of these allegations we will not hesitate to pursue all available legal remedies to protect miss gabbard’s rights this may include initiating a defamation lawsuit seeking substantial damages and requesting injunctive relief to mitigate further reputational harm i’m not for someone who wants to censor the press and thinks that we should be in there and look i think we’ve had a lot of those calls that call in and say well why aren’t we going after cnn why are we going to invest in bc
SPEAKER 04 :
It’s not only about your political differences. I think that is fair game. And look, everyone kind of spins it in their own direction. However, these kind of egregious claims are really hurting people’s safety. And hopefully they’ll take this seriously. I want to go to Rob, who’s calling online, too. Rob, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 07 :
Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. Yeah, when I, as I told your call screener, when I discovered the book called The Naked Communist, which was written by an FBI agent, and he had a lissy called The Communist, I started realizing Communist News Network and Marxist state Nazi Bolshevik channels, their allegations are actually confessions.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I think that, look, and I need to clarify what you’re saying. Obviously, CNN and MSNBC is what you’re talking about here. I know There is news that is particularly aimed at certain audiences. There’s no way to watch MSNBC and not see the slant. CNN tries to hide it a little better. But even we, I remember that time it was a Caitlin Collins or someone was on Colbert and she said, you know, we’re always trying to be, you know, neutral and the crowd laughed. And then she was like, that wasn’t a joke. I don’t know if it was her. I don’t want to make sure. And you saw that response from an audience, a actual guttural native laugh, a real laugh, something you can’t fake because they know that that’s not true. And you can look at the lineup of hosts. Of course, Fox’s lineup stacked with conservatives. But as Quentin Tarantino once said, they have Jessica Tarloff. Who does MSNBC have? Michael Steele? When was the last time he was actually a Republican? A conservative. Yeah.
SPEAKER 12 :
I mean, it’s like no one really pulls weight there. Well, but what you are starting to see is a trend where a lot of times because of the First Amendment and the freedom of press, which we are adamantly supportive of. have started to see a shift. And NBC News just settled with a $30 million defamation case with a Georgia doctor. There have been, CBS came to a settlement with President Trump over issues he had with them during the campaign. This is now starting to be a pattern where people are calling their bluff. So while you look at the statements previously against Tulsi, arguably meant to defame her, calling her a puppet of Putin or having commentators on to express their opinion that she may be too cozy with Assad, that they can get away with. But when you start trying to cite that you committed a crime, A statute violation that would harm your reputation when they are showing the law where this was not the case. And if they still go forward with that, that is where you could see the jump for a public figure of publishing something that then at that point they know is false. and then are still trying to do that to harm the reputation. If you could go after people for defaming a public figure, then every corporation that is a major broadcaster would be bankrupt because of how many times they called President Trump Hitler or a fascist. Those are not true statements, but you get away with a lot of rhetoric when it is a public figure.
SPEAKER 04 :
I see a lot of conversation happening right now on our YouTube channel And look, thousands of you join us, by the way, each and every day. Thousands live and then hundreds of thousands later on. 470,000 of you have subscribed to this channel. I think it’s 469. Let’s get that up to 470. How about you help us out and subscribe? I know about half of you are not subscribed right now. There’s a lot of comments going, well, don’t they have broadcast things? They have your rights in the FCC. Well, these are cable outlets. So the rules are a lot less. These are private companies. These are not over-the-air broadcast. Look, is it archaic? maybe that we have those different rules yeah probably in 2025 do i think the fcc should exist yes do i actually think they should be a little looser than they are a lot of times also yes i think some of the rules and regulations are like i said very archaic but remember you’re dealing with a different situation when you’re watching your local news or even nbc news on the weekends whatever than you are in msnbc or you are a cnn or a fox news for that matter there’s a lot less regulation. There’s still some, but a lot less regulation. Phone lines are open for you, by the way, right now at 1-800-684-3110. I did want to move us a little bit because obviously Tulsi is a friend. She has been on this show for a number of years, obviously had to leave the show due to, I don’t know, being confirmed as the Director of National Intelligence. But you know what? It doesn’t mean we can’t have other Directors of National Intelligence. That’s why we got Rick Grinnell joining us a little bit later on the show. But that being said, there’s been a lot of conversation around the tariffs, a lot of conversations as the stock market. Your liberal friends two days ago said it was the end of the world and Donald Trump had to destroy the economy. Then yesterday, the stock market roared back. Then today, it’s kind of evened out. You know what? That’s the volatility of investing. That is part of the game. It is also, though… a direct indication that people are coming to the table. And we’ve seen that now. We’ve even seen China say, you know what? We’re willing to talk, which is what this was all about.
SPEAKER 12 :
That’s right. So the U.S. economic advisor to the White House economic advisor, Kevin Hassett, has said that there are more than 15 countries that have made explicit offers that they’re studying and concerning offers of a deal. 60 or 70 have reached out. That’s right. So you’re looking at a large portion that are coming to the table with, as I said, explicit offers like here is the deal that we can make. And that prompted the pause. There is also the bond market was a little topsy turvy. And that also the White House reacted to that, seeing that the bond market was in a bad place, which is a different situation because that’s leveraged debt around the world that could also. And so they were like, look, these people are coming with good faith offer. Let’s pause these and keep moving forward. And also, China, you’re up to now 124%, something like that.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, something wild. And look, I know that’s hurting a lot of people, too, a lot of small businesses. So hopefully this can get taken care of shortly. I don’t want to laugh that off. By the way, we’re going to continue this conversation, but we’re also going to be joined by CeCe Heil, one of our senior attorneys here at the ACLJ, to give you an update on a few things the ACLJ is doing around the world. of course, here at home, and of course, at our European Center. Because remember, when you support the work of the ACLJ, you also support the European Center for Law and Justice, ACLJ Jerusalem, and other offices around the planet. We are there for you, spreading your values. And we can’t do it without you. So I encourage you right now to go to ACLJ.org, make your donation, scan the QR code. We got about a minute break coming up. So it’s a perfect time to make that donation and have your donation impact doubled right now. Welcome back to Sekulow. Stay on hold if you’re on hold because we are going to get to your calls a little bit later in the show. So stay on hold if you’re Ken, Victor, Bill. We got a couple lines open at 1-800-684-3110. I did want to talk about some work the ACLJ is doing. You may not be thinking about the next election already. And look, if you aren’t thinking about it, that’s probably good. It’s probably good for your mental health that that is not on your mind, that we’re not in election year every five days, it feels like. because, man, there are stuff happening right now that the ACLJ is getting involved in, and this comes out of Oklahoma, of all places. You wouldn’t necessarily expect that to be where things can get hairy. Now, look, this gets a bit in the weeds, so I want you to stick with us, and CeCe Hiles joining us to explain it all, because this really has to do with what qualifies you to be a member, not even a member, but to be the nominee for your specific party. And why that’s important, we’ll break that down. Because you may say, hey, Logan, it’s freedom of whatever. I want to be able to just say I’m this, I’m that. There shouldn’t be these qualifications. Well, the problem is you can have a lot of nefarious things happen. A lot of disruptors come in who are not there for the proper reasons. Let’s break this down. Start us from the top.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah. So Oklahoma has an initiative petition, which basically is saying that you don’t have to be or gain approval from a political party. So if you’re a Democrat or if you’re a Republican, you don’t have to have approval from the Democrat Party or the Republican Party to have your name on the ballot. as a republican or a democrat and that is an initiative that is in oklahoma so we filed yesterday with the supreme court of oklahoma saying you know that violates and and we represent the uh… oklahoma republican party that violates our clients first amendment rights they get the right to choose who their person is that gets on the primary they get to choose that person and it that also tells the voter that this person that’s on the ballot aligns with the morals and the values and the beliefs of the republican party or the democrat party so it you can’t just go on and if you’re a democrat run as a republican
SPEAKER 12 :
And CeCe, as we see in many states, that even a lot of times the Democrat Party and the Republican Party, the parties run the primary even differently. We saw that very much alive in the 2024 election with the presidential nominees, how some states were doing things differently. Even the timelines were different of when the primary was hold for the party. And the concern here is that because this is the initiative petition for those of you watching, citizens can get together get signatures on a petition to get a ballot initiative placed on the ballot to try and propose a law or amendment to the oklahoma constitution oklahoma being a red state traditionally a lot of times the primary is the general election because it is historically one of the most conservative states in the country So once again, as you think about even the lawfare around the 2024 presidential election, groups try to get in early and sneak things in to try and disrupt future elections. While you may not be thinking about the midterms here in 2022, where control of the House of Representatives will be on the table. You better believe that the Democrat Party and the left are trying to find ways to disrupt, to cause havoc, and that’s why we are representing, once again, we represented the Oklahoma Republican Party when they tried to get President Trump thrown off the ballot. We’re representing them again before their state Supreme Court, trying to preserve the freedom of association under the First Amendment to allow the party to define what a Republican is.
SPEAKER 01 :
That’s right, and to pick their person who’s running.
SPEAKER 04 :
yeah absolutely and when you look at forecasting for elections i do want to make sure you all understand this someone that’s been involved and we’ve been kind of deep in it in the weeds who’s going to be running what those nominations look like often are decided years and years and years before trust me the conversations for the next presidential election started happening before the last election was over for years is not a long time think about the olympics you know you gotta think about that way think about uh the world cup those things are announced how many almost a decade plus in advance the same things happen in politics obviously the media frenzy around it and things change and there’s a lot of disruptors that can come in but don’t think that this is not an active discussion of what’s going on of course in the midterms because that’s uh in some ways politically around the corner you know how the government works tell me you got a two-year wait that sounds like nothing But you have the midterms around the corner and then the presidential election right behind it. And these things are going to start piling up. And if they pile up in Oklahoma, it can really start happening around the country.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, absolutely. If you see it in Oklahoma, you know that they’re trying it every place that they can try it. And we’re going to be there to fight it every step of the way, too.
SPEAKER 12 :
But, CeCe, not only are we working on this domestic issue, which when you support the ACLJ, you are fighting to preserve the integrity of our election system, but also we are fighting for the persecuted around the world. And if you get the ACLJ emails, you got an email about this very issue and many of these issues today and if you don’t get them go to aclj.org and sign up to get those they keep you informed on many topics we don’t even have time to get to on this broadcast but cece we’ve made some major filings at the un our universal periodic review filings just within this last week can you tell us a little bit about what we were doing with these
SPEAKER 01 :
Absolutely. We try to file with the UPRs, like you said, the Universal Periodic Reviews. And that’s basically, they’re just documents that show the human rights record of each member state of the United Nations. And in a five-year period, we will review all 193 member states at the UN. And so this one, it’s three times a year that we submit this. It’s 14 countries. And we focus, like you said, on their human rights records specifically christian persecution but we also target abortion pro-life issues human trafficking and child marriages and so in these 14 reports we highlighted that and what’s interesting is belarus maldives honduras and libya those were the countries that had christian persecution issues but the United States of America was in this round as well. And although our UPR five years ago, we were able to commend the United States on its human rights record. This year, we were able to show that under the Biden administration, and I’m going to go through these quickly, but it was, you know, 14 TSA candidates employees could not attend church and you had libraries that wouldn’t let Bible studies and senior living centers that wouldn’t allow Bible studies and the DOJ going after pro-life demonstrators. And you had 436 instances, um, against churches in 2023 alone. You had a school teacher that couldn’t pray before a flagpole military laboring pro-lifers as terrorists, FBI asking banks to, uh, bring up information on those who purchased a bible or who you know had maga associated with them fbi targeting catholics and hospitals requiring health care providers to promote abortion those are just a few of the things that we were able to point out on the christian persecution that’s happening that was happening under the biden administration and how it has now changed also we were able to commend again the trump administration coming in and correcting all of those human rights violations
SPEAKER 12 :
And Logan, one other important thing is that, as CeCe mentioned, we do review each and every country. Not every group does that. And when we do that, it gives us credibility at the UN that we are paying attention and we are filing in these. So our credibility also gets raised and it allows us to do more work to help protect the persecuted around the world because of that credibility.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, and that’s absolutely because of you. I’m going to ask to throw up that QR code right now because we are… Headed to a break. And some of you may lose us here if you do find us broadcasting live on ACLJ.org or YouTube. Right now, though. The left is clearly in a relentless attack on our constitutional republic, and that’s why we’re continually battling numerous fights to defend our life and liberty here and abroad. Of course, you just heard what we’re doing at the UN. You heard what we’re doing in Oklahoma. Again, we can do things on a worldwide scale, and we can do things on a local scale. You can support that church, and you can support a president of the United States. Scan the QR code, make your donation double. We’ll be back in just under a minute. Perfect time to make that donation.
SPEAKER 03 :
keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 04 :
Second of our Sekulow coming up right now. Rick Grinnell is going to be joining us in the next segment. We’re also going to hear from you at 1-800-684- 3-1-1-0. I like to say it a little slower that time because people say, Logan, you say it too fast. Well, you know what? You’ve been saying it for 25 years. Sometimes you say it a little too fast. Will Haynes is joining me in studio right now. We’re all going to take some of those calls. Some of you called related to the Tulsi Gabbard situation where she is pushing to potentially sue CNN for releasing some information and really defaming a lot of her character. Let’s go ahead and go to Bill in Wyoming on line three. Bill, welcome.
SPEAKER 09 :
Hi, thanks for taking my call. Well, actually, I’ve got two comments. First of all, if you wouldn’t mind doing me a favor and passing this on to Tulsi Gabbard, is the fact that my first boss that I worked for, he had something to say on a occasion like this. He said, you know what? Jealousy is a serious form of flattery. Oh, yeah, absolutely. And also concerning the people scared about the worldwide recession, I think what they need to do is get together and see what they can do to improve things and get mine. That would take care of the problem with the recession.
SPEAKER 12 :
Well, and once again, I think you’re right there on jealousy being the most sincere form of flattery. But I also think that they don’t like that she’s an independent thinker. I don’t think they’re jealous of that. I think they are concerned. They don’t like when someone can use rational thought and realize, oh, this party, this groupthink that’s going on, I’m not a part of anymore. That’s when she became a threat to the left, and that’s why she has been targeted by them in every way possible.
SPEAKER 04 :
it’s rfk jr it’s a lot of these people that came together with a different point of view look rfk jr they went after this week for saying that the measles vaccine was good he said that’s one that we need to keep doing because it’s proven it’s tested it’s eradicated this virus that is a concern that we have and now they’re going how dare he this anti-vax guy now says he’s what’s like again independent thinking it’s not all or nothing for a lot of people Okay, that’s what we have to get rid of in this country is this idea that you can’t have any differences of opinion. You have to fall in line with your party. If you don’t fall in line with your party, then you’re out. It’s ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. And of course, then you’re out, meaning we’re going to smear you in the press. We’re going to try to take your legs out from under you. Because that’s the only way we know how to work here. It’s ridiculous. It’s uncalled for. It’s unnecessary. And it’s just not how we should be doing things in this country. You need to be having good conversations. Arguing well with people. Having debates. Thinking about different concepts and ideas. Not just, maybe she voted in the wrong state. Because Tulsi Gabbard’s votes weren’t the exact same as yours. Exact same as Will’s. Rick Grinnell’s maybe worth more. I don’t know. I feel like it. Because he’s just got, you know, some gravitas. Yeah. We’re going to have him joining us in the next segment. Of course, his isn’t. But you know what I’m saying. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. Let’s quickly, I know we only got a minute. Let’s go ahead and take Victor real quick in California. Victor, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 05 :
God bless you guys. God bless you guys. So many of the parables of Jesus deal with the separation of the wheat from the chaff. which is exactly what we see going on right before our eyes. For example, at the State of the Union address, the Democrats sitting down looking like death warmed over. That’s the wheat. Sorry, sorry. That’s the chaff. God is using the abortion as a means of separating the wheat from the chaff. God is even using Elon Musk. to separate the wheat from the chaff. So in view of that, we shouldn’t get upset. We should remember all things work together for good for them who love God. So let’s just stay the course, relax. Praise God and persevere. Somebody say amen to that.
SPEAKER 04 :
Victor, absolutely. Thank you for calling. I loved your comments. And I think we all need to have that mental point of view, a little bit of a reset here to always remember that all of this is part of God’s plan. And it’s going to work itself out. Give us a call at 1-800-684-3110. We know how the story ends. It’s just how we get there. 1-800-684-3110. Rick Grinnell is going to be joining us. And we’re going to continue the talks about what’s going on with Iran. Maybe a little tariff talk. Maybe talk a little Tulsi. Maybe a little Kennedy Center. We’re going to have some fun with Rick Grinnell coming up in the next segment. Support the work of the ACLJ. It’s a very important time. Do it right now. You got a minute before Rick is on. This is when you need to make your donation right now. Welcome back to Sekulow. Joining us from the Kennedy Center, it seems like, once again, Rick Grinnell is joining us. And, of course, we’ve got a lot to cover there, Rick. But I was looking at the Kennedy Center lineup this week. We were talking earlier about some of the great things that you are doing there. But, Will, I was going to let you take the lead on this one here for this because there is more movement happening in those negotiations with Iran.
SPEAKER 12 :
That’s right, Rick. There’s this kind of surprise announcement that President Trump gave earlier this week when he was meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu that the U.S. would be negotiating directly with Iran. And these talks are expected in Oman this week. We know that there was a deadline imposed by President Trump early in his administration of them getting their act together on this. But what we’ve seen now is this new repression. port out of a DC-based think tank Institute for Science and International Security that is talking about what appears to be an extreme ramp up by the Iranians since President Trump took office to try and increase their nuclear threshold capabilities. One, I think we have to Take this. This is an outside group. But what are we looking at? What is the reality of kind of the Iran situation where we’ve been so focused on the international negotiations on trade and tariffs and things of that nature? But we can’t forget this very important issue, which President Trump has been so strong on.
SPEAKER 02 :
Look, first of all, let’s remember that what we’ve been talking about for years since the first Trump administration is squeezing Iran so that they don’t have money to try to foment war, terrorism and programs for a nuclear weapon. So what we did in the first Trump administration is really squeeze Iran. We had worldwide sanctions and that worked. When President Trump left and Joe Biden came into office, we were shocked to find out that Joe Biden was funding the Iranians to the tune of $6 billion in a trade, and then more money if you count the sanctions relief, debit, credit, and all sorts of issues that they put together to somehow please the Iranians. The Joe Biden administration believed that they could talk the Iranians out of a nuclear weapon with money. And what we’re now seeing from this report is that not only were the Biden team completely wrong, But the Iranians were lying about their pursuit of nuclear weapons. They had the money. The Iranians got the money from Joe Biden. What did they do with the money? They’re racing towards a nuclear weapon. No one should be surprised. This is why the original Trump idea of sanctions on Iran, squeezing them, squeezing them, constantly squeezing them, was the right policy, because they didn’t have money to race towards a nuclear weapon. And guess what else they didn’t have money for? a war in Gaza, a war in Yemen. So you look at what’s happening in Lebanon, Yemen, Israel, and you see this is because the Biden team funded the Iranians and the Iranians went out, started to get programs towards a nuclear weapon, and they funded their proxies to start wars.
SPEAKER 04 :
wanted you to you’ve talked about this before but i think it’s important to remind our audience because i’m looking at some of the comments and obviously there’s all points of view that come in on in terms of sitting down you know across the table if you will from a country like iran where you are dealing with uh funding terrorism and you’re dealing with a lot of these situation but the trump administration specifically even you uh with your dealings in venezuela and other places have said that Just because you’re sitting across the table from the person doesn’t mean they’re now your best friend. You can have this diplomatic relationship. You can go in as a diplomat, sit down and try to protect the American people. That it’s important, even with people who are unlikely or truthfully and honestly, maybe promoting evil and destruction. But sometimes these conversations have to happen. I’d love for you to kind of explain that to our audience when they get concerned. And I think it’s understandable they get concerned when you hear we’re sitting down with these people.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, look, I think if you’re concerned about talks with Iran, then you’re assuming immediately that somehow it’s a reward for Iran to have talks. And I think there’s an assumption in there that somehow Iran is getting something just simply because a delegation from America shows up. But I can assure you that if a delegation shows up and they’re Trump diplomats, What Iran is going to hear is not stuff that they like. And so talking is the tactic. It’s not the reward. I think it’s incredibly important if you just look at what what’s happened in the war in Ukraine. Joe Biden didn’t speak to Vladimir Putin for more than three years. Donald Trump did. And when Donald Trump spoke to Vladimir Putin, Vladimir Putin didn’t hear all these niceties. He heard you better end this war. There are going to be consequences. He heard directly from Donald Trump that America wants an end to this war. I think that talking to someone directly is just simply a tactic. And what you have to do is you have to focus on what is said. What is the message from the messenger? Don’t focus just on the fact that there’s a messenger, but focus on the message. What is being said? Because if it’s tough talk, If it’s saying you’ve got choices here and there are going to be consequences and you’re very clear eyed, then it’s absolutely a good thing. I’ll just finish with this. All parents know that talking is a tactic. You can look at your child and say no. You can look at your child and just try to give an evil eye. You can ignore your child, but nothing works better than actually grabbing them, getting their attention and telling them the consequences.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, Rick, and I think what people don’t understand is that idea of not talking to Vladimir Putin was as much political propaganda as it was some sort of big statement. It was we’re not going to talk to him. Well, what that ended up being was just a talking point for when they go on the campaign trail because it doesn’t help anyone. And, Will, that has been something that President Trump has always done with his previous administration, with people like Rick, with even people sitting across the table, Mike Pompeo sitting across the table, with Kim Jong-un. It wasn’t like, again, these aren’t friendly relationships, but it’s also not playing politics above the country’s safety.
SPEAKER 12 :
Well, and I think when you look at recent history, you had eight years of an Obama administration and four years of a Joe Biden administration compared to four years of a Donald Trump. So what we are now conditioned for the most recent history is. is when talking with an adversary is the Jake Sullivan-style capitulation to an adversary. And within those 12 years out of 16 that I’m referencing, it most of the time ended up in the United States giving the adversary money. And so what we have to now retrain ourselves is that diplomacy is a good thing. Talking is a good thing because it’s powerful when it’s not caving to your enemy. And I think that’s what we’re talking about here.
SPEAKER 02 :
Let’s give our listeners a specific example. So under the Biden administration, there were three people who went down to speak to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Three diplomats went down, spoke to him, and they didn’t bring anybody home. They didn’t bring any hostages home. They didn’t have a deal. And yet in the Trump administration, I went down and I fully give credit to Donald Trump because the threat of Donald Trump is really what moves And so diplomats who work for Donald Trump have this incredible gift to be able to go down there. And when we talk and when we say, here are the consequences, and this is what we think you should do, there seems to be action. So I went down by myself and returned home with a flight deal. for the Venezuelans to pick up individuals that were here illegally and they were gonna pick them up and pay for them to go back home. And we got six American hostages returned. That is because Donald Trump is willing to talk to people and he’s got a credible threat.
SPEAKER 04 :
Rick, thanks so much for joining us today. I did want to encourage everyone to give me a call. We’ve got two lines open right now, 1-800-684-3110. As we head to the break, I always like to hear from you. I always say we hear from incredible people like Rick Grinnell. We hear from CeCe Heil. We hear from Will Haines, from me. We’ve got tomorrow another stacked lineup of people coming in, including some celebrity guests that will be on, which is going to be a lot of fun. So stay tuned for that tomorrow. Just a little tease. But we do have two lines open because the most important voices, as I say, are yours. 1-800-684-3110 to have your voice heard. But I did want to take this minute and a half right here to tell you that we are smack dab now in the middle of our life in Liberty Drive for the month of April. We extended it for the month because we need your support. And the ACLJ donors and champions that said, hey, I will unlock my donations, they are still ready to unlock their donations. So any donation you make, is matched right now you heard about us filing at the oklahoma supreme court challenging a measure that would violate the first amendment rights of political parties and their members across the state we’ve you’ve also heard about massachusetts our fight for life for those pro-life pregnancy resource centers we know next month because the judge finally said it after our ad campaign started running that you guys all supported Our ad campaign together, our Choice Begins Here campaign, the judge said, now it’s time to take a listen to this case. Because I don’t know, I think we’re getting a little bit of attention and a little bit of fires happening right now. Be a part of that. You can clearly see those attacks on your life and liberty that are happening in this country and really around the world. And we can beat it back together. So I’m going to encourage you, go to ACLJ.org or scan the QR code right now. And have your gifts doubled during this life and liberty drive. Again, phone lines are open for you. 1-800-684-3110. Stay on hold. If you’re on hold, we’ll do our best to get to as many calls as we can in this next segment. But I want you to think about it. Pray about it. Go to ACLJ.org and support the work today. We’ll be right back with your calls. All right, let’s do it. Let’s get to your phone calls and comments at 1-800-684-3110. Last chance to get your voice heard on the air because we’ve got two lines. We’ll do our best to get to everybody we can. 1-800-684-3110. Let’s just go in order of which they came in. Ken’s calling in Louisiana. You’re watching on the ACLJ app. You’ve been on hold for a long time, but I appreciate it. Go ahead, Ken.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yes, how are you today? I’ve got a question. I wonder why we don’t follow Attorney General Schmidt from Missouri’s lead. He filed a suit against China, I believe, over the COVID issue and prevailed. I think if Trump were to do so, or at least negotiate with that threat… A lot of countries in this world would follow suit, and perhaps we could even eliminate our debt, declare it null and void if we prevail on that case. I know there are international norms that have to be considered, but if he wins that, it should open us up to a really good bargaining position.
SPEAKER 12 :
So, Ken, the case that you’re referencing, for those of you that have been following this, is that the Attorney General of Missouri had sued China over the damages from the COVID-19 pandemic and won in a court a $24.5 billion award from this case. Now, here’s where the real problems come. It’s like, you won it in court. China is not going to… pay the $24.5 billion. So is it just a show? They are claiming that if there are assets within the state of Missouri or things of that nature, they will try to go through court to collect on that. But when you’re talking about how large the trade deficit and situation is with China… uh there there’s no way that even the assets that we would recover in the united states would cover that so for a national policy i think the state took a very novel idea and pursued it in court uh and and they were able to win a judgment and now china doesn’t recognize that judgment i don’t think that is the way for national policy to play out i don’t think using the court in the United States, especially when the foreign government is not going to recognize it. It’s not going to settle anything. When you have the power of the presidency and the foreign policy power of the United States doing things like a trade war, negotiations, those type of things are going to make a much… bigger impact long term and be able to get that economic adversary to the table more efficiently than trying to do a novel claim through the court system and then try to force them to pay it. So I like where your head’s at. I like the creative thinking. But as far as for the United States government, It wouldn’t put a dent in it and could actually harm things even more so than doing it through these levers that the president has the power to do. The attorney general of the state would not have the power to do.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right, let’s continue on. Thank you so much for calling. Let’s go to Carolyn, your next stop. Calling from Idaho, listening on the radio. Welcome.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, thank you. I just, with this Kelsey Gabbert and a lot of the other issues that are going on that the Democrats are making false statements and such, I just wanted to say something that I thought that the end of Republicans, it says I can, and the Democrats has a rat on the end and that speaks for itself. Thank you.
SPEAKER 04 :
Carolyn, thank you so much for calling in. And sorry for those listening if they had some connection problems there. But I think your statement is right. A lot of people, look, you heard Tulsi over the last couple of years on this broadcast. You saw her move from being a Democrat that was running against President Trump to seeing really behind the curtain and working her way towards the center and then towards the right. We saw that with Elon Musk. You’ve seen that with a lot of people when they were exposed to really what was going on. They changed directions. Especially with their own party. When their own party started going after them because they weren’t left enough. And that’s really what even this CNN claim is doing. They’re trying to just decredit somebody.
SPEAKER 12 :
That’s right. And for all the left’s claims of being the tolerant party, the inclusive party, in reality, they are only… accepting of you if you follow their party platform and ideology to a T. If not, you are cast out. And if you are a public figure within that movement, they will say the worst things in the world about you. and end up putting you on the Quiet Skies Terror watch list or saying that you commit voter fraud or say that you are a puppet of some of the worst adversaries the United States has. And that is what we have seen play out. That is the reality of where the party and the way that they dictate, you have to stick with their ideology every step of the way.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right, let’s continue on. Let’s go to William, who is calling in North Carolina, watching on Rumble, one of our favorite free speech platforms. William, welcome.
SPEAKER 08 :
Trump is sending the DOJ after Miles Taylor and Krebs, Chris Krebs. I thought he was only a dictator for a day. And can you guys tell me what remotely or legally did those guys do?
SPEAKER 04 :
Okay, I’m not even sure what you’re talking about. Again, you lied to our phone screener of what you did, which is fun. We can respond to that at some point. But you know what, William? I don’t respond when people tell the phone screener something else because you’re just trying to trick them. And that’s not fun.
SPEAKER 12 :
Right. I mean, if you want to say what you want to say, and if it’s something we would talk about, then even if you disagree, yeah, just tell the truth. Just don’t lie. But that was a straight up lie. Yeah. We see you, William. It’s your fellow William. No, not my William.
SPEAKER 04 :
Let’s go to Nancy, who is calling on line four. Nancy’s watching on ACLJ.org. Thanks, Nancy, for watching.
SPEAKER 10 :
Thank you for taking my call. You were so hip the other day about the dire wolves. And I imagine the scientists who are working with these would like to raise a tack and reintroduce them. But would you like these things introduced into your neighborhood?
SPEAKER 04 :
nancy first i’m on nancy’s side on this but you go ahead do i want them released into my neighbor oh what i love that you called thank you so much for calling because uh you know i needed something else to talk about right now when i want dire wolves released into my neighborhood no but what i also want i know tigers released into my neighborhood that are also bred in captivity a lot of these things are happening there’s a lot of zoos in this world with a lot of crazy animals uh so you know i mean i’ve been to gatorland Will and I have wrestled alligators. So when you’re asking us about exotic animals, I’ve had monkeys climbing all over my house. That happened. Okay, you know what? The wrong person asked this question, Nancy. But I understand what you mean. The consequences could be there.
SPEAKER 12 :
Well, and that is kind of the question is, though, is to what end? When you reintroduce something that went extinct, and maybe there was a reason it went extinct, this went extinct long before the left could claim that it was the carbon issue that forced them to go extinct. So cute. But to Nancy’s point, it’s like, yeah, what’s the point? What is the next step? And I looked it up. I mean, they are considering studying the behavior, creating packs and trying to reintroduce them to tribal land. But once again, we’ve seen Jurassic Park, Logan. I keep going back to that. It didn’t end well in the film.
SPEAKER 04 :
I don’t know that.
SPEAKER 12 :
Well, the film did well, but that was a film.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right. Well, we got a minute left. And Nancy, thank you. We needed that. We needed a little bit of a break. After that first fake call. And look, you did tell the phones. I want to make sure people know this. You did tell the phone screeners you were going to talk about dire wolves. And we said, you know what? Let’s do it. Let’s keep it up there. Because you know what? Sometimes you got to have a little fun here towards the end of the show. I want to thank you all for listening, and I want to thank you all for supporting. I know that’s an interesting way to now go into a segue to say support the work of the ACLJ, but you know we have a little fun here as well on this broadcast. Got to keep it entertaining. What does it say at the beginning? We got to keep you informed and engaged. Well, what is more engaging than a talk of bringing back a 10,000-year-old species? With that, I want you to support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org. It’s Life and Liberty Drive. You’ve heard about all the serious cases that we’re involved in. You’ve heard about what’s going on in Massachusetts and Oklahoma and around the world. And then we can have a little fun. We can joke around a little bit here towards the end of the show. You know that that is real and that our ACLJ team is in action and we can’t do it without you. So right now, let’s help beat back together. Go to ACLJ.org. Have your gifts doubled. That means if you give $10, there’s another ACLJ champion ready to give a $10 and match it. So do that right now. It’s limited time. ACLJ.org.
