Join us as we examine the role of new media and digital platforms in today’s political environment. The episode covers the sharp decline in viewership of networks like MSNBC and CNN, while highlighting the rise of alternative conservative media and their influence. Listen to insights on the importance of having a diversified media diet, as well as an in-depth analysis of the nomination of Tulsi Gabbard, her military credentials, and the confirmation challenges she faces. This conversation brings light to the critical junctures Tulsi’s nomination represents for national security and civil liberties.
SPEAKER 07 :
today on seculo chaos major news networks look to sell 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, Jordan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 10 :
All right, folks, welcome to Sekulow. We are taking your calls. 1-800-684-3110. That’s 1-800-684-3110. One thing we do at the ACLJ, of course, if one of our colleagues is nominated to serve for the president in a cabinet position that is extremely important, like… the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees all of the U.S. intelligence agencies. We have one of the former directors on our team, Rick Grenell, and now a new member of our team that has been nominated is now coming under the most absurd attacks. And you know who I’m talking about. It’s Tulsi Gabbard. And the way the left, and specifically the hard left, like AOC and the squad, it’s like they know nothing about Tulsi. They’ve never listened to her actually speak on conflict. I think they imagine just because she has served in the military for 20 years, she must be this gung-ho, let’s start any fight because that’s been such a big part of her career. But it’s the exact opposite. We all know Tulsi’s view is you have a strong military to deter having to have to use that military by the way she served three tours where she has had to act in a again in a operational status so in these they’re not called wars at this point but missions so she follows the lead but I want to let you listen to what AOC said here’s her line of attack She won’t get a vote on this because she’s in the House. Here’s the line of attack she’s putting out to social media and to the left on MSNBC.
SPEAKER 06 :
And we haven’t even gotten to Tulsi Gabbard potentially having access to national security information. And Russia loves it, loves her.
SPEAKER 05 :
And I actually think almost more than Matt Gaetz, Tulsi Gabbard’s appointment is amazing. Devastating. And Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination, as much as she says that she’s an anti-war person, she’s not. She supports very pro-war individuals. Including in Syria. And let’s be very clear, a Tulsi Gabbard nomination is a pro-war nomination globally.
SPEAKER 06 :
Point blank, period. As is Donald Trump as president of the United States.
SPEAKER 09 :
Again, as if they had never heard from Tulsi Gabbard before. And I have to say a couple things about this. One, MSNBC is hemorrhaging right now, viewers. If you look at what’s happening, they have lost so many people who are either totally disconnected or have actually moved to other outlets. I posted my picture with Tulsi Gabbard congratulating her. I didn’t know how my people who follow me would respond or if they would at all. I got more DMs saying, you know, yes, go get her, we love her, more than anything I’ve ever posted. Which means there are so many people out there excited about people like Tulsi Gabbard potentially having real positions within the administration. They are so excited about it. And on the converse, though, you have a panic of MSNBC. And MSNBC, even the fact that Xfinity, Comcast, Universal, NBC Universal in their quarterly earnings call at least hinted at the fact that MSNBC may be on the chopping block, may come up for sale as it doesn’t necessarily generate enough revenue. We’ve heard about CNN having their issues financially and that layoffs are on the way. We have seen a flock of audiences move to digital platforms. We’re looking right now at the people who watch and listen to our show each and every day and so many other podcasts and broadcasts. It is a new time, but we even have that from MSNBC. And I’ll get the quote from that quarterly earnings call. Again, it’s kind of a business doublespeak, but in that business doublespeak, you have them essentially admitting that they may offload this issue that they have. And what that issue is, is MSNBC.
SPEAKER 10 :
We’ll compare who the real warmonger is and we’ll have clips of Tulsi Gabbard. Maybe we should send to AOC. Good idea, guys, actually. We probably should tweet them directly to her. All the times on this broadcast, she’s talked about how she balances service in the military against the idea of ever wanting war to be the first option or the only option on the table unless it has to be. We have to have a strong military, but we don’t want to have to use them because it puts our troops in harm’s way. Support ACLJ. ACLJ.org. Donate today. We’ll be right back. All right, welcome back to Seculo. So, Logan, I want you to kind of start going through these numbers, and I think we’ll do it, should we do it like kind of as we, should we play a Tulsi by first? Kind of the idea that she is not a warmonger, this whole idea that she, from AOC, because I wanted to push back with direct appreciation.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, pull up a good one, and we’ll go to that in just a second here.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, because it’s from our show, and we’ve got lots.
SPEAKER 09 :
And then she’s been on the show multiple times a week for the last year.
SPEAKER 10 :
Part of our team. And then, guys, let’s actually pull a couple of them and tweet them back to AOC from the team.
SPEAKER 09 :
Sure. This is actually a clip from our special we put out as the Afghan withdrawal was happening. So while that was going on, we decided to do a real time documentary special series. And I spent some time called Revenge of the Taliban. It’s on YouTube. It’s available on ACLJ.org. we were able to spend some time with Tulsi. It was actually one of the first things she ever did with us on camera. Take a look. for people of our generation who, it’s a very stark moment of what happened before that, the nostalgia, then the 90s, and then now post 9-11 to say, well, was any of this worth it? If you’re here saying, you don’t think necessarily we’re in a better place, is that something that can be even changed then? And I know that’s a little off topic, but I’m just curious your thoughts on that. It just struck me as something that’s a bit hard to deal with as the normal American.
SPEAKER 02 :
Of course, it has to change. It has to change. And it changes with leadership. It changes with the kind of leaders who respect and trust the American people, who are honest with the American people, and who most importantly, put the interests of the American people in our country first. put country before party, put service above self. And unfortunately, over time, this is something that we have not seen happen for a whole host of reasons. But ultimately, coming down to that basic reality, whether it’s partisan politics, desire for power, or continuing to wage these wars that are counterproductive, that do not make us more safe, to serve the interests of the military industrial complex, or because you have leaders who are not willing to admit, Hey, we were wrong. We screwed up and we’re going to get us back on track. as a country. Because ultimately what it comes down to is having that kind of leadership that the American people and our servicemen and women deserve.
SPEAKER 09 :
And she was in that special, obviously going really specific on the military industrial complex, kind of the person who made that a mainstream term to start using. I feel like I didn’t hear it that much until… Right, until you start hearing it from Tulsi. But like you said, at the same time, we have seen sort of the move in the media. As I said, it was one of the more popular posts I’ve ever done. I was just posting a picture of Tulsi saying congratulations. But we know what’s happening right now. MSNBC has lost a remarkable amount of numbers. It’s really a shocking… uh for the liberal the liberal tears over at msnbc yeah i mean you have a a noticeable drop a over let’s see msnbc total daily viewers is down 16 and 57 during prime time in the key demographic that means all of them all their shows had the smallest audience of the year last friday they’ve had the entire year like how small do they have the numbers like like a Hundreds of thousands. I think they said MSNBC averaged during the month of October, because they had a big October, had about 1.1 million viewers during the month of October, but plummeted to an average of 1,736,000 on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Again, 31% drop as Fox News. had a bump of over 61%, 61% over the same period. So it wasn’t that people were uninterested, but I do think you probably have a moment of people going, the left saying, I’m not watching this anymore. I’m turning this off. I’m sad and depressed. And then maybe for the first time in a while, you’ve had conservatives feel like that they were now the winning party here and let’s see what happens. I mean, I’m following it more now than I was a year ago or I was even a month ago. Now that we’re seeing all the nominations and all the picks, it’s a lot more fun.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well it’s fun yeah it’s it’s more interesting again to watch because it’s not just about beating someone it’s not just the campaign and I told you this is when if you enjoy politics this is really the second phase of politics which is the more I think the real behind the scenes work and also what you’re seeing above like who’s getting the nomination do they make it to confirmation the senators the the house the fact that we still have votes going on is insane to me by the way I mean this is America and we still of course for the democrats
SPEAKER 09 :
uh you know they want they want these votes to keep on going i mean msnbc’s ratings so you have an idea yeah i thought year to date have fallen 51 fox in that same time period 58 rise in ratings msnbc is on the chopping block i would not be so msnbc has lost more than half actually said and we’ve talked about the rick about this that as someone who um uses what you’d say i guess nbc universal xfinity comcast products regularly or that msnbc is this weird piece of their business that i never quite understood i understand having a news division i don’t understand having like the the leftist mouthpiece news division when most of their business is uh you know feature films for families a lot of it uh theme parks hotels i’ve worked with them many times there’s some great people who work uh for nbc universal and work for comcast it is it’s always been this strange thing that they’ve had Even in brand alone, MSNBC, Microsoft and NBC, decades ago, when that became the news outlet, I could see them getting rid of it. And that is actually what they have said. There was a statement that was put out from the Comcast president in their quarterly earnings call. He said, I want to be clear what I said. We’re going to commence a study on whether it’s a good idea. of creating a new well-capitalized company that would go to our shareholders existing shareholders of uh comprised of our cable portfolio networks so that’s a group i’m not talking about peacock or broadcast essentially all they’re talking about is maybe i guess you could put usa in there as well but some of their cable outlets that i’m sure are not doing as well as they once did uh there’s also breaking news that chris wallace has resigned or resigned or resigned resigned chris wallace has resigned from cnn so that is breaking news as we’re on the air right now he resigned because he was his contract coming to an end or do you think i think he’s probably going to get cut and they decided let’s see their report man week he left because he wanted to slash his yeah eight million dollar salary so they went to renegotiate they went to go renegotiate and up doing a web show for them Yeah, I mean, he did come back. He did have his own series, I think, on there, right? Chris Wilds? Yeah, he did. When was it? Was it a wannabe Sunday show? Again, no one watches that. He also listed his Washington, D.C. home today. He’s taking off.
SPEAKER 10 :
It’s about time. Also, I mean, this guy… Not a nice personality, I’ll say.
SPEAKER 09 :
No, well, he’s another character in that sort of news world who is not liked by really either side. And I think when you have that, you have no respect on either side.
SPEAKER 10 :
He thinks he’s a genius and he’s the only one that’s ever right. And it doesn’t matter if you’re Republican or Democrat. But, of course, you have to make these decisions in the world. He just acts like, oh, if you pick from here to this. It’s just, again, he jumped on a sinking ship because he didn’t have another ship to jump on.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah. I mean, why not? Take the money. Who cares? I mean, that’s a good chunk of cash to have for a few years there.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, but I can’t believe they paid him that much to begin with when he was already just floating out there. You would think he could have paid half of that. CNN, when you started going through the payments, you wouldn’t believe it. $20 million to Anderson Cooper. How many people are watching that show?
SPEAKER 09 :
I mean, I have to pull up the ratings. It’s one of their more popular shows, but not many.
SPEAKER 10 :
It’s not hitting seven figures.
SPEAKER 09 :
Low, low. If it is, it’s low. It’s not.
SPEAKER 10 :
We’re not talking three, four, five million.
SPEAKER 09 :
No.
SPEAKER 10 :
I think the idea here is, look, keep the press on. Keep utilizing social media. Keep using other forms. Of course, you’ve got your Fox News. You’ve got your Newsmax. You’ve got OAN. There’s the I-24 now for the Israeli news. I mean, there’s all these different options to get news for us. That, again, I don’t think most people are as liberal as MSNBC. It’s like you don’t want to keep that on with your kids around because they end up just either saying really horrendous rhetoric against conservatives. I mean, you know, this idea, if your kid’s listening about Tulsi Gabbard, maybe, you know, your kid knows who they are because you’re like doing what we do. And they’re calling her these horrible things. Exactly.
SPEAKER 09 :
That’s why I’m saying that MSNBC shouldn’t be in their portfolio. It should not be in NBC Universal’s portfolio, in Comcast and all of it. It doesn’t make any sense that it is, that they’ve decided to continually fund a failing leftist news outlet. It doesn’t make any sense. Look, I would say the same thing if they ran a conservative outlet, except for the fact that it would be financially probably a much bigger success. But you could at least argue the business side of it. Becoming just a mouth, not even just a CNN style mouthpiece, which at least pretends to be objective and in the middle and all of that. They at least act that way. One of my favorite clips was on Colbert. He had Caitlin Collins on. It was Caitlin Collins, I believe so, last week. And he said something to the effect of, we know it’s CNN. You try to keep it, you know, and you try to keep things politically neutral and the crowd laughs. And she’s like, was that supposed to be a joke? He’s like, it is now. Kind of that wink and a nod because we know we’re CNN stans, but they at least pretend. nsbc doesn’t pretend uh and they are losing massive amounts of people and who are you seeing who are popping up uh in terms of new media once again just like terrestrial radio was in the 80s who’s taking over for new media in podcasts and all that it is almost exclusively leaning to the right uh yeah whether that is your joe rogan’s or any of those affiliated even the ones that weren’t as right like joe rogan made a huge shift Yeah, and I think people like Tulsi and people like Joe and people like RFK should at least be given their honors for really probably taking it over the top.
SPEAKER 10 :
For all of us, they brought new people into the party. Absolutely. And if we do the right thing, we can keep these people in as part of the party. We need to welcome them in. They share way more of our views than a lot of moderate Republicans. I’ll tell you that. A lot more of our views. But we need your support at the ACLJ. Look, we’re battling to support our colleague Tulsi Gabbard as we’re utilizing the show today. And we’ll be doing more with her confirmation against the left’s attacks, which started on the minute. You heard from AOC. They think her appointment is more dangerous than… than Matt Gaetz. So they’re putting her at their top three list of those who they hate the most. Tulsi is number one from the squad, and we have to fight back. Let’s make sure we have the resources. Donate today. Have it doubled. ACLJ.org. Donate today. All right welcome back to Sekulow so as we said you know AOC says that uh Tulsi Gabbard’s uh nomination to director of national intelligence is the most dangerous nomination so far she says even you know more dangerous than Matt Gaetz as attorney general now it’s funny they all act like they dislike Matt Gaetz but they he’s always cozying up with her because they’re both kind of rebel rousers in Congress so I think it would have been uh again they don’t like Tulsi once she was a very effective democrat who then when she ran for president she’s the one who really they kept playing it throughout this campaign took down Harris she took down Harris to where Harris did not even make it to any of the actual votes in that Democrat primary and then of course quits the party and has an ideological transformation while serving in our military for 20 years she also believes I think that’s why it’s so real that the military options should be the last options. All this talk about, you know, Russia, this is all the same talk they would say about you or me because we’re saying, where is the end game? We understand why there needs to, it was bad that Russia invaded and we needed to help and the international community did to put a stop to it. But no one has ever given us a goal. Like, when do we stop? When is it enough where we can declare this is over and start moving forward and rebuilding Ukraine? Like, those kind of issues make you somehow a Russian agent? No. And then the second issue, that meeting with Assad, let me put it to its perspective. I don’t have much information on it, but I do know publicly this. She’s been in the military and is in, probably has to leave soon, for over two decades. Okay? Over two decades.
SPEAKER 09 :
Actively.
SPEAKER 10 :
and in that time she’s gone up to lieutenant colonel she’s been deployed to the Middle East and North Africa so into combat she is has a very high security clearance so I don’t think any of the things that she did in a public way like even meeting with Assad well there was a lot going on in Syria at the time like we were going in to defeat ISIS we didn’t want him using chemical weapons we also want to make sure our U.S. troops weren’t hit with chemical weapons so I don’t think if that trip was so bad or dangerous or outside the norm that the military would have kept Tulsi, given her a clearance that she’s continued to get higher clearances, and on top of that, keep her as a leader. inside the military so that is another one of those like uh like uh you know there’s good people on both sides you have to really i think what she’ll be able to do is go into closed door which they often do with intel nominees and if they really are pushing her on that i think all she has to do is say i have to go to some people make sure i can talk to you we have to go to closed door or in a skiff and i can explain it all and that will be that but but she’s got to make it to make it to the hearings, Logan, is your first goal after announcement. And so I want all of our folks out there to know they are playing a part get Tulsi Gabbard into a position so that you as an American aren’t going to be spied on unconstitutionally which is what Rick Grenell was doing when he was at DNI and is what Tulsi Gabbard will continue to do protecting your rights while still defending the country by using and getting and receiving the best intelligence possible to brief the president with the best information possible so he can make decisions but on the top of her list is that he won’t she won’t be briefing him about how they’re spying on Americans and violating our constitutional rights so I think all of us can get behind that and you would think the left would except they’re no longer the party of freedom liberty and free speech now this takes resources You know those hearings. You’ve seen them on TV. But you already see how the attacks start now. We want to make sure Tulsi makes it to the hearings, gets through the hearings, and becomes the director of national intelligence. None of this is a given until the final vote is in and you’re taking the oath.
SPEAKER 09 :
So, it will be brutal. Yes. I understand. Even the ones who end up sailing through the votes, the actual experience of getting confirmed, if you haven’t spent time and watched them, which most Americans probably haven’t spent time watching in the middle of the day, they can be brutal, brutal on your family, brutal on just about everything because they have the opportunity to grill you on anything. And they will take the opportunity to do it, even if they know you’re going to pass.
SPEAKER 10 :
Right. They try to hurt you as bad as they can, and they pick and choose a few people to really try to take down. She’s on the takedown list.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, I’d say her, Gates, and probably Pete Hegseth.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, Pete Hegseth. And it sounds like the ones that the left would love to take off the most is Tulsi, and that’s because of internal politics, because she left the party and took with her a lot of… She took with her the Rogan vote, the vote of people like Elon Musk, I mean, you saw that she brought those people on board and RFK, who was running his own campaign because of talking to Tulsi and working with Tulsi and then getting to Donald Trump, dropped it and was, I don’t know, the first Kennedy to endorse a Republican ever.
SPEAKER 09 :
It was probably the most effective campaign. move of votes than that probably has happened in terms of this group.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, I remember talking about it here and I said, we’ve got to get Tulsi’s part of our team. Yeah. Once she was available, once she announced that.
SPEAKER 09 :
I think there was a large conversation happening when she ran against Trump, remember? A lot of people going, well, I’m voting for Trump, but if he wasn’t the candidate, I would be voting for Tulsi. They’d be voting for a Democrat.
SPEAKER 10 :
She’s good on life. She’s good on all the constitutional protections we care about. The First Amendment, free speech, religious liberty worldwide, and go America first in the sense that we don’t send over troops unless that’s the only option we have to protect America’s interests.
SPEAKER 09 :
And you brought up her military experience. I mean, how many times on this broadcast where she was going to be on and then would get, something would happen or she’d get called up or something. And sometimes for a few weeks. So there was times where you’re like, oh, Tulsi wasn’t on the show for a few weeks. It’s a lot of times was because she was serving, actively serving in dangerous areas. And some places where she couldn’t even tell us where she was. Not just like reporting to an American base somewhere in Texas.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, no, think about the fact that she says it now but doesn’t get into specifics. And one of those times for three weeks was, I’ve got to deploy to Africa. The Horn of Africa. I mean, very dangerous place in the world, but not a place you think of where a lot of necessarily deployments are going on. So she understands the intricacies in the use of special forces and how the use of special forces can be much more effective than full-scale wars. So if you balance intelligence with tough diplomacy and then have the strongest military in the world always ready to go, you can get a lot done without having a fire shot. It doesn’t mean you don’t have to be ready. Why would she be in the military if she didn’t believe it? So keep working with us on this because I do believe, I mean, we’ll see how the schedule comes out because they will all go through the individual, like the Intel Committee will, of course, be the first committee to hear from Tulsi before it goes to the full Senate for a vote. So we’re going to, again, keep updating you on that. We really want to get behind it with our Faith and Freedom Drive. Let’s get an ACLJ colleague. Juan is about to swear in as the Attorney General of West Virginia and he’s going to be able to hold bureaucracies to account and help in what President Trump is trying to do in Washington D.C. You know how much West Virginia has to deal with the EPA and these environmental issues just trying to make sure people have good and fair jobs there and so we’ve got an ACLJ alumni there and he’s Juan so he’ll be taking the oath as AG we’re going to work closely with and then We’ve got an ACLJ alumni who is about to become a cabinet member. First time in their life.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, it’s pretty wild and it’s incredible. It’s thanks to everyone who supports the work here at the ACLJ. We’re going to fight for them for sure. So I want you to support the work of the ACLJ as well. We’re going into the second half hour of the broadcast. If you don’t get it, find it broadcasting live or later on the podcast on ACLJ.org, wherever you get your podcast, YouTube, Rumble. But right now we are in the middle of our Faith and Freedom Drive for the month of November. And I encourage you, if you want to make sure that we are there to help support these people and support your values. This is a very critical time of the year for us, and we need your support. We’ve launched the Faith and Freedom Drive once again to equip us with the resources we need for all of these monumental battles that are ahead. Have your gift doubled today. Go to ACLJ.org right now. Scan the QR code. The fight isn’t over. Even if the election is over, these fights continue on. ACLJ.org. We’ll be right back with Second Half Hour and Rick Grinnell joining us.
SPEAKER 07 :
keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 10 :
All right, folks, welcome back to Sekulow. We are taking your calls. I want to do that. And folks, if you want to talk to us on air, Rick Grinnell is joining us next. And then we will have a segment again where we want to take your thoughts, your calls. What do you think about the current nominations? What do you think should be priority one for President Trump? And of course, we know there’s some legal news to report as well out of Texas. the Trump world from Jack Smith so we can get to that but I want to take your calls to 1-800-684-3110 and hear kind of from you now that you’ve had more than a week to digest the victory and start seeing some of the nominees that are being put forward by President Trump and a question on that goes to line one Tony in New York welcome to Sekulow you’re on the air hi long time listener and a champion thank you thank you Tony
SPEAKER 04 :
I just have to ask about Mike Pompeo. I’ve listened to him as a team member of the ACLJ. So impressed with his loyalty, his insight, his wisdom, his calm demeanor. I just I don’t understand why his name wasn’t prominent.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, well, I think that there’s a couple of things. One, he’s very close to the president still. He was there with him on the final rallies brought to the stage. Remember, he served in two cabinet positions already. He’s been CIA director and secretary of state. So if you’re looking for a different position, there’s probably only one or two. I mean, and so… I think that would be at the level that you would take after being secretary of state of the country, or it would just not necessarily make sense. So, you know, you got all these people who are qualified for a very few number of positions and remember in even four years, there’s going to be turnover. And I’m not talking about the kind of turnover we saw with president Trump initially. Uh, but I do think there will be people and maybe I’m wrong, but usually this is the norm. Some of the people that have been named, uh, will not make it to an actual hearing. Something could happen in their life personally. Some attack actually hits too hard, and they think that by staying in, they are going to be damaging the president too much, even if they can defend themselves, even if the attack is wrong. I mean, you were trying to serve the president here. It’s not about you. So I don’t think it’s the end of Mike Pompeo. I think we’ve only just begun kind of filling in the potential names that the president would like to see confirmed the oppo people are now out in full force trying to take them down and you know that when it comes to Mike Pompeo they don’t have to worry about those issues but it does have to be the right fit they share he is extremely loyal to President Trump as he is to the ACLJ you know I respect that as well and again I think for a lot of these folks we don’t know exactly the full makeup of this cabinet and and think about some of the good people that came through in the second round of the Trump picks which were actually the rounds where people like Pompeo got elevated to secretary of state when people like Rick Grinnell got elevated to a cabinet member as director of national intelligence so that was not the first round it was the second round a lot happens in these four years so I would not take their name out of that mix whatsoever at this point in time folks again You’re about to hear from Rick Grinnell, who has been a top advisor on the Trump campaign, was with everywhere, has worked with us at the ACLJ, has been, again, ambassador to Germany. He’s also been acting director of national intelligence. And so to have him on, so we’re bringing folks to you who’ve worked on the inside with President Trump on some of the most important issues, like his secretary of state, director of national intelligence, and with Germany, very important because of the gas deals with Russia, affecting all of those situations as well. So being able to bring that to you continually while we see this kind of fill in is unique to the ACLJ as well because of the teams we’ve been able to build. And Logan, that’s because of the finances, the contributions people have given. And I know I’ve talked to a lot of them about how we prepare for the battles that are coming up in January with the funds we receive now. those in between, but it’s also how we prepare to bring on new members to this team, too, to keep this show.
SPEAKER 09 :
We’re going to lose at least one voice. Yeah, well, we are the media now, so we need your help. We need your support. We’re not funded by major sponsors or anything like that. It’s all from support from people like you. You know, the old PBS model, if you will. Thanks to viewers like you, we’re able to stay on the air, but that’s absolutely true. Now more than ever, that’s true. And over 445,000 of you are just on our YouTube channel. And we have an amazing team who does that. Okay, that’s not just one guy. An amazing team that’s doing that. Support the work of the ACLJ. Be right back with Rick Grinnell.
SPEAKER 10 :
We are joined now by our senior advisor, Rick Rennell, former director of national intelligence and ambassador to Germany. And Rick, right off the bat, a big thank you to you. We were, of course, as you were kind of taking us around the country on this show to all of the places you were. campaigning and working to see President Trump and JD Vance get elected, going into communities that Republicans had not gone into before like in Dearborn, Michigan and going to the Islamic communities, going to just the places where Hispanic communities, places that Republicans the past thought we just have no chance of getting those votes and I think Rick because there are folks like you who are ready to go to the places that we’re told, oh, those are no-go zones for Republicans. That didn’t scare you. You went right in. And lo and behold, we see these vote totals that are just gigantic. So a big thank you from all of us at the ACLJ and the team here, but also I know from all of our listeners, Rick.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, thank you for that. It was actually a much easier task because of Donald Trump. You know, President Trump is somebody who made very clear he wanted peace. And he didn’t want to fund Iran. And those are two very important issues that I think Jews and Arabs and Muslims and Christians are all in agreement on. You know, the fact that peace is popular shouldn’t surprise anyone. anyone even in Washington, D.C. And so President Trump made the opening and it was, you know, something that that we just jumped on and went in and really saw a lot of progress on.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, too. I think that. You talked about the idea too, because of this threat of Iran. And I think a lot of people, and of course what Hamas did, and a lot of people think, oh, well then that must be the Muslim world supports this because they saw these protests in America. There were a lot of times the majority of the people in them It might have been some Muslims there, but the majority was like white college kids or white kids with just a lot of privilege to be able to spend their time protesting on another country’s issue. Had no idea what they were waving flags of, but we saw those protests. So you feel like, yeah, there’s no way to get into that community. And then you realize, wait, The people here in the United States who are practicing maybe Shia Muslims, who are Persian, they left Iran because of the same reasons Iran is a threat to the world right now, Rick. I mean, so it makes sense that they don’t want to see that country that used to be their home, that regime, be more empowered, get more money, or be bought off with nuclear technology. Quite the opposite. And then to the rest of the Arab world, Iran uses proxies to attack them.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, and this is one of the things that I think American media have really missed, is just how unpopular Iran is in the Middle East, in its own neighborhood. People know that this is a radical regime that has funded terrorism, whether it’s in Yemen, whether it’s in Lebanon, whether it’s in Israel, or even in Europe in some instances. We are clear-eyed from our side, but the media has been very slow to understand that when Donald Trump wants to squeeze and bankrupt the mullahs in Tehran, the radical regime in Iran, that is a popular opinion in Cairo and Beirut. And in Ankara, all over the Middle East,
SPEAKER 09 :
uh countries recognize that iran is not a a good player in the region and has been someone who has tried to destabilize the region absolutely rick and i’ve been watching a lot of uh social media reaction and it is as jordan said people that don’t know what they’re talking about you saw i i saw one uh influencer post this whole thing and i sent it to one of our producers because it’s just her nails were you know acrylic nails painted though in the Palestinian flags. And then Hamas is like, you don’t even know what you’re dealing with here that you think that that is even appropriate for, for that community. I mean, it’s wild, but president Trump made a statement just yesterday, actually specifically about the college campus issues with antisemitism and what he’s going to do on day one. And I thought this was a pretty powerful statement and I think he’s right.
SPEAKER 01 :
And here’s what I will do to defeat antisemitism and defend our Jewish citizens in America. My first week back in the Oval Office, my administration will inform every college president that if you do not end anti-Semitic propaganda, they will lose their accreditation and federal tax credit support. Truth is, you don’t have to do much after that. You do that. It’s going to work miracles. Please sit down. We will not subsidize the creation of terrorist sympathizers, and we’re not going to do it certainly on American soil. We’re not going to do it anywhere. Next, I will inform every educational institution in our land that if they permit violence, harassment, or threats against Jewish students, the schools will be held accountable for violations of the civil rights law. It’s very important. Jewish Americans must have equal protection under the law. They’re going to get it. At the same time, my administration will move swiftly to restore safety for Jewish students and Jewish people on American streets.
SPEAKER 09 :
Rick, this is what people voted for. When you see what ended up being pretty much a landslide victory for President Trump, it is exactly these kind of moments. It’s this kind of person that we want making these statements. And really, what we know about President Trump… probably putting the feet to the fire for it.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, look, I think one of the things that President Trump learned when speaking to Arabs and Muslims in Dearborn and in Detroit and the larger state of Michigan is that the Arabs and the Muslims, they don’t like Hamas either. And Hamas has really ruined so much of the progress that they were trying to make. And they have been the victims of Hamas and bad leadership. And so there is this very real situation where Donald Trump has been able to articulate the peace argument and the protection of peace and making sure that we’re listening to to all of the various groups that want peace and then implemented peace. Peace is popular. And the president has been able to grab that and authentically talk about protection of individuals and really forging peace. Now, you contrast that with how the Democrats have really been schizophrenic. They were running different commercials in Dearborn that they were and in Jewish areas of Philadelphia. And they were caught on delivering two different messages. Donald Trump didn’t deliver two different messages. He had one message towards everyone, and it turned out to be a really popular message. Lastly, I’ll just say, people recognize that Donald Trump has the ability to bring people together, whether it’s in Ukraine, with Russia, or it’s in Israel and Gaza. There is an ability for him to bring people into a room and demand that they speak, that they work out a peaceful settlement, not imposed from the outside, but that the parties themselves are put in a room and told, We’re going to have peace and we’re going to work this out. And so let’s start talking. The United States is the only country that can do that. And Donald Trump is the only person that can can actually credibly do that for the United States.
SPEAKER 10 :
Rick, I wanted to get to your comments on this. This was Tony Blinken. He’s talking about their plans on Ukraine in these last 65 days they have before they leave office. Take a listen.
SPEAKER 08 :
As we’re working to make sure that Ukraine has what it needs to effectively defend itself, the United States continues to step up. We’ve obligated just recently and pushed out the door another $8 billion in security assistance for Ukraine. That was in September. Another almost half a billion dollars just a few weeks ago. And President Biden is committed to making sure that every dollar we have at our disposal will be pushed out the door between now and January 20th.
SPEAKER 10 :
I mean, Rick, what he’s missing there is he didn’t say that. And by doing that, the conflict will be over or nearly over. And we’re trying to assist help the incoming administration put an end to this. No, they are going to funnel American taxpayer dollars as much as they can. in between this time so that the war begins raging even harder when president trump takes office and they are still to this day brag about the funding and yet have no way of defining what is victory what is uh the end game here what are they actually looking for
SPEAKER 03 :
Look, I’m sitting here listening to Anthony Blinken, and it’s so outrageous because he’s a diplomat. He’s not the Pentagon. He’s not the Secretary of Defense. He should be talking about demanding peace agreements. Shouldn’t be talking like a Pentagon official. And this is the problem that I think Joe Biden has had for four years. He hasn’t been able to pick up the phone and talk to Vladimir Putin. It’s been more than three and a half years. And they haven’t even spoken. How are you going to get to peace if you don’t speak to the two parties that are involved? That’s been the problem all along. You can’t just fund war and expect peace.
SPEAKER 10 :
Rick, as always, we appreciate that insight into all those very different issues for joining us and for, again, going to help us to throughout this process.
SPEAKER 09 :
Absolutely. Hey, phone lines are open right now, and I’d love to hear from you in the next segment. We try to take as many calls as we can in the final segment, because your voice is just as important as anyone else’s you’ve heard today. Give us a call. 1-800-684-3110. If you’re watching on YouTube, make sure you’re subscribing. Same with on Rumble. But while you’re at it, give me a call. I’d love to hear from you on these topics. 1-800-684-3110. We’ll be right back.
SPEAKER 10 :
All right, folks, let me encourage you to support the work of ACLJ. Again, we are in a critical time. We don’t do this often, but we got through the election. We knew that there were going to be election issues. We assisted individuals. I’m glad our team was able to so quickly provide that election hotline so that ACLJ could make sure people’s votes were being counted correctly, received correctly, and to provide them. I’m also glad that we didn’t have to go into court yet across the country to put votes to a stop now there’s some states that are still counting votes in these congressional races and even that senate race in Pennsylvania where you’re kind of like okay what is going on here we’ve been in contact with the groups watching that closely and if we’re needed we’re ready to go we also want to be ready for as we go into already these confirmation battles especially those of our friends so those resources plus the fact that not only are we battling to support our colleague like Tulsi Gabbard there could be more coming we’re battling the deep state in 18 lawsuits 18 lawsuits including a FOIA on the quiet skies TSA targeting of Tulsi and defending those whistleblowers remember many of them even those that we’ve won in court are still waiting to actually get their check back and their back pay and their security clearance restored so we’re fighting on that issue we and you know we have to be ready to go because the confirmation battles Logan are going to be very tough and I think the democrats are going to make even though they don’t have either majority They’re going to try and make this extremely difficult for President Trump like they did the first four years and that means not just the elected Democrats but all those bureaucrats in these agencies. That’s why we got to get people confirmed fast and their staff because they use those times to try and take down the initial leaders the president has chosen even those who get confirmed. Think about how they almost took Bing Carson down because they came to him saying that he needed to remodel his office. Instead of saying you could if you want, he said it was like he had to pick. And then they tried to take him down for that because he bought some new offices for a Secretary of State in the United States ceremonial office. Like, that’s such a horrible thing. Remember what they did to Jeff Sessions immediately? They said, well, you’ve met with a Russian ambassador. as a U.S. Senator so you can’t oversee an investigation which by the way was made totally bogus off this dossier you must recuse yourself that’s what he was told by the Department of Justice and told by the political class on the left he does and what comes from that four years of the persecution of Donald Trump without any prosecution of Donald Trump and of course We did the Mueller, we did impeachment. They even impeached him, remember, when he was out of office. Then look at all the court cases, six criminal cases brought against him in those four years he was out of office, none of which prevented him from getting to the presidency. So you know what people think of our justice system right now and our legal system? Not highly. So we want to restore that. Because part about making America great again, Logan, is making our justice system great again. We work in that area. So it’s so important for you today to donate during our Faith and Freedom Drive. Double your impact, your donation, Logan. And this is because we now have an opportunity to assist this administration. And you sometimes are busier in suing the federal government when your friends are in charge because the federal government is coming so hard after them to finally get people’s faith restored in our agencies like the FBI and Department of Justice and U.S. attorneys and courts and also the election. People need to have that basic faith, Logan, and they feel like their government is at least trying their best to make as many Americans life better as they can through their policies not just doing it because of ideological purposes or big companies saying it would be great if you did this and don’t do that and so that is why we need that support because the outside battle is actually who brings in the most war against our people will also be from the outside groups.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER 10 :
It’s a time we got to fill the coffers.
SPEAKER 09 :
I’m curious for you. And yes, we obviously support the work of the ACLJ. Go to ACLJ.org. Your gifts are doubled. Tax deductible. Do it right now. Faith and Freedom Drive. It’s happening right now. We’re right in the middle of it. We really could use your support. Your gifts again are doubled. We still have resources really going to that. I mean, that’s where we’re going to be doing it. So you have the confirmation process coming, and a lot of people will probably look at it and go, oh, well, if you’re kind of following very basically, you’re like, well, Republicans have control of everything. Why should any of these have issues? But we know that not all Republicans are lining up, just because you have that R. Well, first of all, we’re talking about the Senate.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah. Okay. And the Senate has a very different mix of Republicans. I’d say, you know, you go to the conservative side of Ted Cruz, our friend here, Bill Hagerty, and Marsha Blackburn. I mean, I can go on. Tom Cotton. There’s a whole list of people that are very conservative. Mike Lee and more. I’m missing a lot of names because there’s lots of them that are conservative, but certainly not all of them. So you look to Lisa Murkowski. and Susan Collins. So if you’re at 53 and they don’t like one of these nominees, you’re down to 51. So if they pick off, they’d have to pick off two more because the vice president can come in and cast a vote. But, um, If you’ve already lost two, and those two’s job is just to find two more people to say, why I don’t support this person, it’s over for them, even if you make it to confirmation. Now, the committee votes no longer determine if you get a floor vote. Now what they do is say, does the committee recommend your confirmation or not? The Democrats are not going to help any of these people get confirmed unless it’s maybe one or two that basically everyone is supporting. And then you may get a few no votes. Most of these will be right on the line, partisan votes, and there will be Republicans who will at least threaten. um that they will not support someone and if there’s enough of serious threatening then sometimes those nominees pull themselves out of the process rather than take up more time if they feel that they don’t have an opportunity because they know they care about the country that all that time spent is leaving that that department open and run by liberal bureaucrats trying to undermine president trump So this is all about all of these big positions that we talk about. They have, they have one goal, serving Americans and carrying out the policies of the president. Those agencies are not going to carry out the policies of the president until they have the president’s people in. I guarantee you that they’ll put every roadblock possible. Uh, so the longer these confirmation battles take, uh, the Democrats know the less time he has to govern.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, absolutely. Quick, quickly take Daryl real quick. He’s been a hold for so long. Daryl you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, thank you. First off, I’d like to tell you guys I really appreciate your work. We need you in the gap standing against the darkness.
SPEAKER 09 :
Thank you, Darrell. Appreciate it.
SPEAKER 11 :
Thank you very much. Also, Trump came out of the gate swinging. I mean, that’s just awesome. He’s going down taking names. But I wanted to emphasize a point I think that would be of value to us is looking at the remedy to these problems that we’ve had in the past by putting pain on those that that supported these actions. For example, when we deport the illegal immigrants, which we should do all, thank you to Mr. Holman, we should put them in Mexico, not their country of origin. If we send them back to Mexico, Mexico will seal their borders and stop them from coming across into their country.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, I mean, we’ve got a minute left just to jump in. I think this is the issue, right? Would you want to really put all back in Mexico with what you just said, that Mexico is not doing enough to deter them? So I think those who are of Mexican origin and are illegal immigrants, and I think you start with the priority list, the people who are the most dangerous down to the least, and you focus on the most dangerous, because that’s how you’re protecting Americans. And… Again, they should go back to where they’re from. So I think just putting everybody back in Mexico actually could be dangerous for the country because the border has not yet been secured and Mexico has shown some ability, but certainly not a full capability resource-wise to actually be able to prevent that many people from getting back over. So I think it has to be done much more strategically. And it sends a strong message. We want immigrants to America, but you’ve got to follow the legal process. And we will welcome you here, regardless of your background, especially if you pass all these things that you’ve got to do. Do it the legal way and support the work of the ACLJ. Let’s make, again, respect for law again in our country. ACLJ.org. Donate.