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In today’s episode, we delve into the brewing controversy surrounding Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination as Director of National Intelligence. With high-stakes votes and vocal opposition from figures like Adam Schiff, we explore the claims against her and hear responses from her defenders. Our discussion focuses on the political undertones and the strategic importance of Gabbard’s potential appointment.
SPEAKER 12 :
On the eve of her confirmation, Adam Schiff takes shot at Tulsi Gabbard.
SPEAKER 13 :
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 12 :
Welcome to Sekulow. Will Haines is joining me in studio. Rick Grinnell will be on the show later today. And we are on the eve, it looks like, it could be tonight, the confirmation of our friend, our Sekulow correspondent, if you will, Tulsi Gabbard, to be Director of National Intelligence. But that is not stopping some of your favorite characters from taking some final shots to try to not have her be confirmed. Now we know Will, she got out of committee. We know now the vote happened last night for cloture. So discussion has to start wrapping up. Right. And it could be as early as midnight tonight that we will have, and maybe earlier, but midnight tonight it has to start to have that confirmation vote for Tulsi Gabbard. But of course, that did not stop people from going on. Of course, you’re going to hear from, who’s your favorite? That’s right, Adam Schiff. Still around. Adam Schiff is still around right now. He made his way onto MSNBC. We watch it so you don’t have to. Let’s hear what he had to say about Tulsi Gabbard just this morning.
SPEAKER 10 :
She has echoed Kremlin talking points about the origin of the war against Ukraine. She’s pushed out Russian propaganda about U.S. biolabs in Ukraine, one of the pretexts that Russia wanted to use for its invasion, to the point where RT Russia Today, this propaganda outfit, is praising her to the degree that advisors close to Putin refer to her as our girl, an interesting diminutive for someone who might be leading US intelligence agencies. This is someone who met with Bashar al-Assad, came back, had wonderful things to say about how he wanted to get across the impression that he wouldn’t engage in terrible things against his own people when our own intelligence agencies were saying he has gassed his own people. So hard to imagine someone more disqualified from running those agencies. But Republican opposition to all of these controversial, unqualified, disqualified nominees has collapsed, and maybe collapse is too strong a word because that presupposes there was an infrastructure to stand up to these bad choices to begin with, but nevertheless, they all seem headed for confirmation, which is just, Terrible for the country.
SPEAKER 12 :
Look, it’s not shocking to hear these kind of things from Adam Schiff. He has been notoriously a troll, saying he has evidence when he doesn’t, has been one of these few people who really you can’t trust, you can’t even listen to. And Will, when you hear this about obviously our friend and our colleague, Tulsi Gabbard, who is on the eve of a big moment, and you hear these worn out talking points that she’s answered a million times and the responses have been all stellar whenever they’ve questioned her about any of her dealings in the past.
SPEAKER 14 :
My favorite part of this is that Adam Schiff accuses her of pushing out Russian propaganda and then in the very next breath starts reading Russian media headlines. Which is it, Adam Schiff? Is state media from Russia propaganda and misinformation? Or… Is it something to be believed? Because you’re saying Tulsi does that, but then you read Russian media and say we should take it at face value. It’s very confusing.
SPEAKER 12 :
Which one is it? Yeah, what do you think? Phone lines are open 1-800-684-3110. Right now, again, by the time we’re broadcasting tomorrow, we may have a director of national intelligence, and that would be our friend, a member of this show’s broadcast team, at least until tonight. Until tonight. Tulsi Gabbard, it’s really amazing. I know she appreciates. I’m sure your prayers are continuing on. We urgently need you to take action. You still have to push people to do this. There’s going to be a few that could waffle. We’ve got that petition up. Sign it right now. Confirm Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence. That’s at ACLJ.org slash sign. Your support is crucial. Also, if you could donate, that would be great. When you have someone like an Adam Schiff just pulling out all the stops to try to block her confirmation here at the last second, we’ve got to fight back. Again, she’s been a member of this team for nearly two years and have been a friend for decades. So I’m going to encourage you, go to aclj.org slash sign. Do it right now. If you’re watching online, hit that thumbs up, hit that subscribe button. We’ll be right back, and I want to hear from you. 1-800-684-3110. Again, 1-800-684-3110. Welcome back to Secular. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. That’s at 1-800-684-3110. When you hear these kind of comments coming out of Adam Schiff, if you’re just joining us, we should probably go ahead and play some of those so you know what he’s talking about because tonight… could be the beginning of Tulsi Gabbard’s final confirmation vote. Really, the final vote. Hopefully, by the time you hear from us tomorrow, we have a new director of national intelligence. But they are fighting back as hard as they can. Adam Schiff is doing it. Let’s hear again from him. This is a different clip on MSNBC as well.
SPEAKER 10 :
Bye, too. Make no mistake, Ms. Gabbard is entitled to her own personal opinions. She can apologize for Assad or Putin or any other murderous dictator to her heart’s content. But we’re not considering Ms. Gabbard for some position in which her bizarre fondness for foreign despots is beside the point. She is not the nominee for Postmaster General. We’re considering her for one of the most important jobs in our intelligence community. And for that, Tulsi Gabbard is a walking five alarm fire and must be rejected. Must be.
SPEAKER 12 :
I mean, if he says she’s a walking five alarm fire, I think maybe we go, okay, then she’s the right person for the job. Because if you’ve made Adam Schiff this uncomfortable, I feel like you are going to be actually representing the American people.
SPEAKER 14 :
That’s right. And last night, we do need to let people know what happened. Around 530 Eastern Time, they began the vote for the cloture. That would bring an end to debate on a measure, or in this case, a nominee. And when they… vote on that you have to get a simple majority for nominees for legislation it’s that 60 vote threshold it’s just a simple majority of 51 to advance the nomination and what happened was they opened it up and these votes these votes take a while because they have to have most of the senate vote And it’s not like a legislation vote where everyone’s in their seat or even a nomination vote like a final. They’re wandering in and out. I was trying to watch it. It took more than an hour for them to get through it. However, the final tally was 52 to 46 to invoke cloture. which then sets a 30-hour clock to wrap up debate. That would put final confirmation right around midnight our time that it would be able to move forward with that. That is if the Democrats decide we don’t need all 30 hours. We just want this to be over with so we can move on to the next one. They could come to an agreement to end it earlier. I don’t see them doing it. But they could do it at midnight, around midnight, and force the Democrats to have to come vote as sort of punishment for how they drug out the process. Or they could wait until Wednesday morning and wake up and go in and vote. But as soon as they vote. for final nomination, for final confirmation, then they will move on to RFK Jr. They will do similar. They’ll do a cloture vote and then final confirmation if he makes it through that. That 5246 number, some people may be like, that doesn’t add up to 100. There’s 100 senators. Two didn’t vote, one Republican and one Democrat. Senator John Fetterman was not there for the cloture vote, nor was Senator Tillis. Sometimes, especially if it’s a Republican, if they don’t need it and they have something scheduled at 530, not everyone shows up necessarily for that. And we know that Senator Fetterman had publicly said he would not move forward on her nomination. So perhaps also the Republicans knew they had a little bit of buffer there if he wasn’t going to be there. But in the end, she got over 51 or she got to 51, got to 52. Senator McConnell, which had been a concern for some people, did vote to invoke cloture. That doesn’t necessarily mean he is a vote for confirmation. It could just be I’m done with debate. He did the same with Pete Hegseth. Yep. He voted to move it forward, saying there’s no reason to continue to debate this or to be the person that stonewalls it, per se, but doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to vote for the final. But she had enough, and all the senators that had made public statements about voting for her did vote for cloture last night. No defections. But the big one is tonight, potentially, around midnight, if they hold their feet to the fire, midnight Eastern time.
SPEAKER 12 :
So we’ll all be waiting up to watch this happen. And again, that vote, Sometimes a little faster, but sometimes not. Sometimes it takes some time. If you watch the Pete Hex’s one, it was not quick. So let’s see what happens. I would love to hear from you. What do you think about sort of these issues that have come up where you have people who are incredibly qualified? I’ll put Tulsi Gabbard as one of those. you know, they go through these kind of processes, but you still have these cheap shots taken from someone like an Adam Schiff. I want to play the first thing he said. And then I want you to hear, we’ll flash back just a week or two ago when Tulsi Gabbard was being questioned and her opening statement really addressed a lot of these claims. And these claims, by the way, have been with her for a number of years since she ran to be the Democratic presidential nominee is when they really started bubbling up. When you had Hillary Clinton sort of plant these seeds. And of course, again, much like Adam Schiff, if you’re hearing it from Hillary Clinton, you know how we need to be treating it. So let’s first hear from Adam Schiff. This was just yesterday on MSNBC.
SPEAKER 10 :
She has echoed Kremlin talking points about the origin of the war against Ukraine. She’s pushed out Russian propaganda about U.S. biolabs in Ukraine, one of the pretexts that Russia wanted to use for its invasion to the point where RT Russia Today, this propaganda outfit, is praising her to the degree that advisors close to Putin refer to her as our girl, an interesting diminutive for someone who might be leading U.S. intelligence agencies. This is someone who met with Bashar al-Assad, came back, had wonderful things to say about how he wanted to get across the impression that he wouldn’t engage in terrible things against his own people, when our own intelligence agencies were saying he has gassed his own people. So hard to imagine someone more disqualified from running those agencies. But Republican opposition to all of these controversial, unqualified, disqualified nominees has collapsed. And maybe collapse is too strong a word because that presupposes there was an infrastructure to stand up to these bad choices to begin with. But nevertheless, they all seem headed for confirmation, which is just terrible for the country.
SPEAKER 12 :
All right. So that’s his version of this. And of course, that’s coming from Adam Schiff, who we all love here on this broadcast. But how does Tulsi Gabbard respond to these kind of claims? Now we’re going to go back to her confirmation hearing on the 30th, so just about, what, 11 days ago. Take a listen to Tulsi Gabbard.
SPEAKER 02 :
You may hear lies and smears in this hearing that’ll challenge my loyalty to and my love for our country. Those who oppose my nomination imply that I am loyal to something or someone other than God, my own conscience, and the Constitution of the United States, accusing me of being Trump’s puppet, Putin’s puppet, Assad’s puppet, a guru’s puppet, Modi’s puppet, not recognizing the absurdity of simultaneously being the puppet of five different puppet masters. The same tactic was used against President Trump and failed. The American people elected President Trump with a decisive victory and mandate for change. The fact is what truly unsettles my political opponents is I refuse to be their puppet.
SPEAKER 12 :
So that is some pretty strong words. From Tulsi Gabbard, how do you respond to this? We haven’t heard from you. There’s a lot of you watching right now. And if you’re brand new to this broadcast, by the way, which many of you are, we do this show each and every day, Monday through Friday, from 12 to 1 p.m. Eastern Live. If you’re watching us later on, of course, we’re archived. Of course, we’re podcast. We’re available on our YouTube channel, Rumble, on YouTube, as well as on X. But we also have people who watch and listen on the radio, people that watch on the Salem News channel, which is where we also carry it live. So I encourage you, if you’re brand new or you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe button on YouTube. I know a lot of you watching right now. Hit the thumbs up if you already have done that. Put in a comment. But more importantly, I want to hear from you. And I want to hear from you and your support for Tulsi Gabbard. Because today’s a big day. She just cleared that major hurdle in the Senate last night. You know, the evoked cloture. And now her vote could be as early or potentially even earlier, but it could happen tonight at midnight Eastern time. So we need a lot of prayers. We need a lot of support and we need your signature. We need you to sign our petition right now to help confirm our friend, our colleague, our broadcast partner, at least until midnight. ACLJ.org slash sign. We want her to be the director of national intelligence. She has been really good to everyone at the ACLJ. You’ve heard her on this broadcast. You have heard her heart, her spirit. Even if you’ve disagreed with her, you know she is qualified for this job. Even if you thought she takes a different approach than you would, she qualifies for this job. So it is time to make this happen. So I encourage you right now to do that. This is it. I mean, this is it. It’s tonight. We got to make it happen. And of course, then RFK. And then, of course, Kash Patel. We got to make sure that there is a full cabinet ready to support your values. We’ve already seen so much in the last couple weeks. You know, some people call it chaos. You know, we call it work getting done. Things getting done, finally. that support our values and beliefs. And one of those we’ll discuss with Rick Grinnell a little bit later in the broadcast. He’s going to be joining us. If you have a question or comment, he has a new position. It’s pretty fun. We were texting about it last night. I look forward to hopefully working with him again. Phone lines are open at 1-800-684-3110. We’re going to take as many calls as we can throughout this broadcast. If you have thoughts or questions or words of support for the ACLJ or Tulsi Gabbard, it’s time to call 1-800-684-3110 and sign that petition right now. This is it. The deadline is happening. Midnight. The vote will begin. Join us. Welcome back to Seculo. Phone lines are jammed, but we’ll take as many as we can at 1-800-684-3110. A lot of you calling in, voicing your support for Tulsi Gabbard. Again, if you haven’t heard, she got out of or was voted for to evoke cloture. Right. Which essentially means debate is over for Tulsi Gabbard or needs to wrap up. And then, of course, there’s this waiting period, Will. There’s a 30-hour waiting period. Right. Which would right put us at midnight tonight. eastern time that her vote for confirmation so hopefully by the time we are on air you will have a new director of national intelligence and that will be our friend member of this broadcast team until 11 59 potentially uh tulsi gabbard which has been amazing i want to go ahead and take some phone calls and i want you to hear also from some other people in washington dc showing their support uh for tulsi let’s go ahead and take carlos who’s watching on salem news channel which is one of our new live broadcast partners carlos you’re on the air
SPEAKER 09 :
Yes, I am. Thank you. Go ahead. Well, my question is, first of all, I’m a veteran, a war veteran in the Persian Gulf, and I am for Tulsi. I believe that she’s always been on the right track, very conservative, always looking for the best for America. And my question is, why don’t we try to to establish a two-term limit for all politicians because the president of the United States has to do that himself.
SPEAKER 12 :
Carlos, I think a lot of people are feeling that right now when they’re watching. I think a lot of people are watching these confirmation hearings for the first time. Here’s what you can say about it, your comment about Tulsi. I think what’s been true is that she has been willing to learn. She’s been willing to really get into issues. And honestly, unlike a lot of politicians, actually move. you know, some of her positions if she feels like she is called to. So it’s been pretty awesome to watch sort of that transformation. Also, I think you are right. I think there’s a lot of people who for the first time in a while have watched these confirmation hearings. And when you start watching the confirmation hearings and you know what President Biden just had to go through, by the way, President Biden, who had to step down from running. And do I think he would have beaten President Trump? I do not. Do I think it would have been closer? Yeah, I actually do. But he had to step down. Why? Because people felt that he essentially was not only too old, but was not mentally ready to continue on as president. You look at some of these people who are in these offices, and I’m not an ageist, but it’s hard not to start drawing those feelings that maybe, and maybe it’s not two terms, maybe there’s something else we can come up with, just some kind of term limit. Typically, I’m not necessarily for that because I like sort of the balance of power being able to move and not be just controlled by who’s the president and who’s sort of the flavor of the week. But it’s a little tough when you see this.
SPEAKER 14 :
Well, and Carlos, there is one giant hurdle. to get term limits for Congress and that is Congress themselves. What would you say?
SPEAKER 12 :
Mitch McConnell.
SPEAKER 14 :
Well, here’s the problem. In order to term limit members of Congress, you have to pass a constitutional amendment. That’s because of U.S. term limits versus Thornton, which was a case back in 1995. That is where some states were beginning to institute their own term limits on their members of Congress within the states. It made it all the way up to the United States Supreme Court. And it was a 5-4 decision, so a split decision, that said that citizens are not allowed to term limit their own members of Congress using state laws. So 23 states that had that in place were thrown out. Now, a dissenter in that case, the late Justice Scalia, he ruled that term limits as a part, he ruled against that in the minority. But here’s the problem. In order to amend the Constitution, which is the way that it would work, that’s what happened when they put in term limits for presidents. Because remember, FDR… served much more than two terms and he was in his fourth term but they decided you know what maybe we need to term limit this but it’s a constitutional amendment process so the language first has to be passed out of congress and unlike simple legislation two-thirds of both houses have to approve the language so super majorities in both the house and the senate try to get one republicans and democrats to get to two-thirds in both houses is a hard enough lift but on top of that it’s about saying hey A lot of you guys are out of here soon.
SPEAKER 12 :
Your jobs are going to be at risk.
SPEAKER 14 :
I think that that is the biggest hurdle to getting it is getting the constitutional amendment on.
SPEAKER 12 :
I understand the feeling. Calls, I want to take some more. 1-800-684-3110. I just saw, we looked up, we have the news on different outlets and Fox and they just showed Rick Grinnell on Fox News. As those flights have begun, And I think we should pull some of those images as well when we have Rick coming on. The flights have been going now with sort of the more criminal, illegal migrants who’ve come in. And you’ve seen them. And he was there kind of getting everybody going. I mean, it’s pretty crazy to watch. Again, our friend Rick Grinnell. And also, he’s got a new position that we look forward to talking to him about. Maybe we could, though, get some of those images pulled. Let’s go ahead and take another phone call. Let’s go to Stephen, who is military. So I want to say thank you, Stephen. You’re from Virginia and you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 03 :
Hey, how you doing? I’m voting for Chelsea Gabbard. I just finished reading the book about captive Iran. And we need we need to stop these people like that.
SPEAKER 12 :
iranians um that are that the way they treat their people and everything and yeah we need somebody strong strong in there look i would encourage everyone to go follow tulsi on social just to see i mean she is strong uh her husband also is an awesome cinematographer so you can see some really cool clips done in actual way that looks fun to watch so we always like to give him praise he’s done some amazing work i really love working with him But Stephen, I appreciate that call of support. I encourage you if you have that view or if you have a question about it, give me a call at 1-800-684-3110. And of course, your support’s crucial right now for Tulsi. So what you can do is sign that petition. This is it, guys. This is it. This is the final day, really, that this is even important. The final day that you can make an impact on Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination. Sign our petition to confirm Tulsi right now. as Director of National Intelligence, which could happen as early, or it could happen tonight. We could be on this show tomorrow with a new Director of National Intelligence, our friend, Tulsi Gabbard. So I encourage you to go to aclj.org slash sign or scan the QR code that is on the screen right now if you’re watching. If you’re not watching, you should watch. It’s a fun experience to watch live. I know some of you listen on the radio or you listen to the audio-only podcast. That’s fine too. however you want to get your media, but it is fun to watch and get informed. That way you get to see our clips, you get to see great stuff. And if you watch online on ACLJ.org, YouTube, or Rumble, or X, we don’t really go to break. During the commercial breaks, you see special videos that our amazing team has put together, or sometimes we continue talking and continue that live coverage. so again it’s a little bit different experience than maybe on your terrestrial radio station or even on a salem news channel if you go watch it on our own platform you’re going to see a bit of a different experience speaking of different experiences we’ve also launched our brand new aclj app it is available at aclj.org app or just scan the qr code for this it is a great app i’ve been using it for the last few days if you’re an aclj champion someone that gives on a monthly recurring basis you have an account logged in And you log in, you actually get a ACLJ champions experience, something a little bit different than just people who go and sign in. So it’s a cool little perk. And of course, one of those perks of being an ACLJ champion is if you call in and you tell our phone screeners that you’re an ACLJ champion, they’d let us know in the little, you know, we have a computer screen that tells us and we take you first. So do that today. Sign that petition. And while you’re there, become an ACLJ champion. If you can’t do that, if you can’t commit to a monthly commitment, I understand that. So maybe just go to ACLJ.org, make a one-time single donation, whatever you can. We’d appreciate that. These months, early months of the year, really help set our tone. Our crew today is working on that incredible campaign that’s going to be launching, our Pro-Life for Pregnancy Resource Centers campaign. I’ve seen them shooting them today, the videos and the content that’s going to go up, and it’s amazing, but we can’t do it without you. So go to ACLJ.org right now. Second half hour coming up. If you lose us on your local station, find us broadcasting live on ACLJ.org.
SPEAKER 13 :
keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow.
SPEAKER 12 :
And now your host, Logan Sekulow. Welcome back to Sekulow. I’m going to take some of your calls at 1-800-684-3110. If you’re just joining us right now, Tulsi Gabbard is up for a vote tonight. So we are pushing as hard as we can to make sure it happens. But of course, on the other side, they’re pushing as well. And let’s restate it. You’re going to hear again. If you’ve already heard the first half hour, you may have heard this. But we got to hear from Adam Schiff because Adam Schiff, our favorite, he went on MSNBC. That was our favorite. Again, like I said, these guys have to watch it, so we don’t. But they get to see what kind of messaging points are being pushed on the other side of the aisle, if you will. And he went on there and he started these baseless claims that have kind of stuck with Tulsi Gabbard over the years, even though she has refuted so many of them. But they don’t care. They don’t care about lying. All they care about is pushing their agenda. So let’s hear from Adam Schiff, and then we’re going to take some of your phone calls.
SPEAKER 10 :
She has echoed Kremlin talking points about the origin of the war against Ukraine. She’s pushed out Russian propaganda about US biolabs in Ukraine, one of the pretexts that Russia wanted to use for its invasion, to the point where RT Russia Today, this propaganda outfit, is praising her to the degree that advisors close to Putin refer to her as our girl, an interesting diminutive for someone who might be leading U.S. intelligence agencies. This is someone who met with Bashar al-Assad, came back, had wonderful things to say about how he wanted to get across the impression that he wouldn’t engage in terrible things against his own people, when our own intelligence agencies were saying he has gassed his own people. So hard to imagine someone more disqualified from running those agencies. But Republican opposition to all of these controversial, unqualified, disqualified nominees has collapsed. And maybe collapse is too strong a word because that presupposes there was an infrastructure to stand up to these bad choices to begin with. But nevertheless, they all seem headed for confirmation, which is just terrible for the country.
SPEAKER 12 :
So that was Adam Schiff, and I know how you feel. And look, there are people also like Senator Thune who have responded, and we’ll talk about that a little bit later in the last segment. But I want to hear from you. I want to go to Justin, who’s calling in California on YouTube. He’s got a great comment. Justin, go ahead.
SPEAKER 11 :
Hey, thanks for taking my call. Yeah, I think our support for Tulsi speaks to our willingness on the right and for conservatives to embrace different people and ideas. I mean, obviously she’s a former Democrat, but she saw an opportunity in her life to put her values and country first and work with Republicans for the greater good. And she was ostracized by the left, by her party, for it. I truly don’t understand why that is. I really don’t.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, Justin, I think that’s true. I think there’s, especially with this version of the Republican Party and of conservatives, there is that willingness to work with people who you may have some differences, but you do have a similar core belief structure. And I think what people liked about Tulsi Gabbard, even when she came on this show and when she started coming on this show, she was just leaving the Democratic Party, may have still technically been a Democrat, became an independent, wrote her book. And then obviously later on became a Republican. But during that period of time, people just liked the refreshing feeling that she was at least being honest and she was saying what she believed. She wasn’t towing a line. And what we’ve seen now in this administration is not people who tow a party line. That’s right.
SPEAKER 14 :
And when you look at the current Republican Party, it is a true big tent party, meaning there is a lot of different factions within it. Honestly, it’s why sometimes in Congress it can be frustrating to get things done because the willingness to accept a little bit different mindsets within what conservatism is, is what has made the party strong in the last few years. But also to that point is that it shows how far left and the Democrat Party had become. And they always like to talk about Trump being an authoritarian, but no one runs their party with more of an iron fist than the DNC. If you step out of line with approved leftist talking points, even just a little, they will send Hillary Clinton out there to call you a Russian asset.
SPEAKER 12 :
That’s right. Coming up next on this broadcast, our friend, former acting director of national intelligence, current, got a couple new titles. We’ll go through those. Rick Grinnell’s joining us. Coming up. Welcome back to Seculo. We are joined now by our friend Rick Grinnell. I was going to say the hardest working man in show business, but it feels like, well, definitely the hardest working man in, it feels like, American politics. Because Rick Grinnell, you’ve had so many titles over the last few weeks, and then I’m following you on social, obviously, and we’re chatting, and we’re talking about some fun stuff that’s happening right now. And then I look on X, and there you are. escorting criminals in airplanes to fly back to Venezuela. Of course, the deal that you worked out. What is it like right now in the world of Rick Grinnell?
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, yesterday I was on the tarmac in El Paso as we were launching our first two flights from the United States to Venezuela. Paid for… by the Venezuelan government. So what’s amazing is that the Venezuelan government sent two planes. We loaded them up with the illegals and members of Tren de Agua, the gang. And so I was there in El Paso to watch them and make sure that they were escorted out. Now, this is just the beginning. We are going to have regular flights of Venezuelans illegally in our country and we’re going to escort them out. These are going to continue until we are finished. I do want to say that there is a huge difference and we should always message this. There’s a huge difference between those people who wait in line and who become American citizens through the legal process. We love legal immigration. It makes our country better and stronger. But what we cannot have are people jumping the lines and coming into the country illegally and expecting to have the same treatment. People who wait in line, who are going through the legal process, they spend money on lawyers, they follow the rules. It’s checked by the State Department and the DHS. to make sure that people are following the rules. This is the rule of law. If you undermine the rule of law through sanctuary cities and through jumping the line, then you make our country weaker and unsafe. And so we have to make sure that we enforce our rules, enforce our laws.
SPEAKER 12 :
All right. So that happens. You’re doing all of this. You’re obviously a special envoy right now. And then Rick, You are named, at least interim, to run the Kennedy Center from President Trump. Again, Kennedy Center, obviously, the entertainment, the arts, and really the Kennedy Center honors and the events that happen there. This has to be one of the ones that, I told you, I don’t think there could be a more fun one to be assigned because it needs some changes. It needs some updating. And I’m happy to hear that you’re the man for the job.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, I’m now in Washington, D.C. I just left the Kennedy Center. and uh had about three or four hours worth of meetings this morning uh look it’s an amazing place president trump is right that it needs uh fixing uh we we need to make sure that the kennedy center and uh the the public dollars that are spent represent everyone in america not just 50 of the country we need to make sure that we are inclusive you know the left likes to use this word inclusive But the reality is, is they’ve spent the last four to eight years trying to cancel conservatives, trying to make sure that half the country was debanked or deplatformed or mocked. And, you know, they called it disinformation when we had an opinion about something. And so that’s got to change. And I think the American people resoundingly elected Donald Trump because they want common sense back. And so we want to bring common sense back to the Kennedy Center.
SPEAKER 14 :
Rick, I want to play a clip for you. This is from CNN’s Caitlin Collins about how CNN is already trying to roll out a new narrative only three weeks into the second Trump presidency. So I want to play this, and then I’ve got a follow-up question for you. This is Byte 4.
SPEAKER 01 :
We are three weeks into the second Trump presidency, three weeks, and tonight there are warnings that the U.S. is dangerously close to a constitutional crisis. Now, the first shoe on this dropped when a federal judge today said the White House is defying his order to unfreeze billions of dollars in federal aid, marking the first time that we’ve had a judge expressly accuse the Trump administration of ignoring a court ruling. And in a separate case today, federal employees here in Washington told a judge that the administration was defying another order by not reinstating workers who had been put on leave. Now this all has prominent Democrats and many of the nation’s top constitutional scholars declaring that the U.S. is on the brink of a reckoning. The Trump Justice Department says the president should have the authority to decide how to run the government and that these judges are overreaching. And some of the president’s allies say the judges should not be judging any of the moves to shrink the federal government.
SPEAKER 14 :
Rick, what you’ve seen, both with the wonderful moves that Doge has done to uncover the waste, fraud, and abuse, we talked about that last week with you at USAID, but also trying to just do that, make government more efficient, work for the people, and not be wasting the American people’s taxpayer dollars. CNN… And all the cronies on the left, Chuck Schumer calling for whistleblowers to come forward because once again, they like them. They’re not going to make them lose their jobs like they did in the last four years. But it’s just so shocking of how out of touch they are with the American people that they say it’s a constitutional crisis when the president of the United States is trying to make sure your taxpayer dollars aren’t being wasted.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, well, let’s be clear about one thing, Will. Trying to identify waste and fraud in Washington, D.C. is not a constitutional crisis. I will give you that it’s a crisis for the people who love the bureaucracy and power of Washington. It’s a crisis for the swamp, but it’s not a constitutional crisis because like a sanctuary city, You know, the media and Caitlin Collins and all those people told us that Sanctuary Cities was just a nice name. I think it undermines the rule of law. I think when the president of the United States wants to root out waste and fraud, that is a good thing. And let me just say, too, I watched MSNBC this morning. I watched Morning Joe and Mika and Joe were going crazy with this constitutional crisis. And the MSNBC legal analyst, the same person that they pay to give them legal advice, pushed back on Joe and Mika and said, look, this is not a constitutional crisis. The pace that Donald Trump is working is causing the courts to have to work more because the pace is exhausting. And so in Washington, D.C., when you work really hard and you have a high pace of performance, the people here who work from home, who want to cancel half the country and want to control the money for all of taxpayers. They are the ones panicking because they can’t keep up. The reality is, is that the media and the courts can’t keep up with Donald Trump while he tries to make America great again. So let’s be very clear to people. And we say to our friends on the left, we say to the judges who are used to working three days a week, start working more, catch up, because we want to only pay people who are working, not people who are not working.
SPEAKER 12 :
I think, Rick, you’re right. I think this is a change of pace for a lot of people, and sometimes it may feel chaotic, but that’s because we got used to four years of nothing happening. We got used to politics as usual, federal government as usual, where things are just slow rolled forever and torturously long. But now you have President Trump coming in here and say, we’re taking care of business. We’re going to get all this done. Look at what’s going on right now in the Middle East and Israel and dealing with Hamas, throwing in essentially an ultimatum here, potentially about getting these hostages out. There’s a lot of this happening, Rick. And I did want to read you a comment before we leave, because this comment just came in on Rumble. And they said, with all of Rick’s new tasks, I love that he still has time to keep us updated, explain what’s really going on. I think I wanted to say thank you for doing that, for making your time still available to us. when you have so much happening. Because like I said, we’re texting about one thing, Kennedy Center, then I look on there, and there you are, all these flights. You’re coming back with American hostages from Venezuela, or you’re sending people back. And then again, of course, you’re meeting about the Kennedy Center, and of course, your special envoy. It’s all of these things that are happening, of course, so you’re still making your time available to us here on Seculo and at the ACLJ. And I just wanted you to know, as we’re spending a lot of today thanking people like you, or Tulsi, who’s been part of our team as well, as she heads into her final vote, uh we just wanted to say thanks because it is a intense time and people may feel that they may feel they may start hearing that word constitutional crisis or chaos uh and you know those buzzwords start sticking but we got to make sure there are people like you who can still help inform us well thank you it’s not a constitutional crisis it’s we got to just tell the left you got to keep up because we’re here to work we have a heavy pace
SPEAKER 05 :
I’m trying to keep up with President Trump because he’s the one who is constantly coming up with new ideas on how to fix our government and make us better. It’s amazing pace. I love it. But I do think it’s incredibly important to keep the public informed. Transparency is key. So I will keep coming on as long as you have me.
SPEAKER 12 :
Rick, thank you so much. Thank you always for joining us. Support the work of the ACLJ because you get to have great people like Rick Grinnell on our team. He can come in, like you said, and inform us on really what’s going on because he is involved so deeply. So do that right now. I encourage you. Not only sign that petition for Tulsi Gabbard to be confirmed, I encourage you to go to ACLJ.org and make a donation. There’s no way to do it without you. The blood of the ACLJ is our individual donors and ACLJ champions. No big corporate sponsors. No one telling us what we can or can’t say. Just you and us. And together we can do this. Help join us in the fight right now. Your support is crucial. Go to ACLJ.org and donate now. Your dollars will have a direct impact. Do it right now. We’ll be back with your calls at 1-800-684-3110. Welcome back to Seculo. Hey, a bunch of our lines just opened up. Not sure what happened there. So you can call us right now. This is a great time to call at 1-800-684-3110 because you’ll probably make it on the air if you call in the next minute or two. So again, 1-800-684-3110. If you’re joining us on Facebook, on YouTube, or Rumble, you can also call in. So why don’t you go ahead and do that. If you are new to one of our channels, I encourage you to subscribe. Hit that button right now if you’re watching on YouTube. I wanted to play this, Will, and you can kind of set this up because there have been obviously a lot of calls for support also of Tulsi Gabbard. I don’t want to only give attention to the Adam Schiff’s of the world, the ones who are saying negative things. This came just yesterday, I believe, as well. That’s right.
SPEAKER 14 :
So this was as they are debating her nomination, moving forward with the cloture vote, the Majority leader John Thune, who is the new majority leader of the Senate, taking that from Chuck Schumer after this election. And he on the floor was announcing his support and pushing for the confirmation of Tulsi Gabbard. Here’s what he had to say in his floor speech just last night by 16.
SPEAKER 07 :
Madam President, Tulsi Gabbard is a patriotic American. She believes strongly in the mission with which she’ll be tasked, keeping America safe. And you don’t have to take my word for it. Take it from Americans who have served alongside Ms. Gabbard during her 22 years in uniform. From the people who have put their lives in her hands. As one wrote, and I quote, her exceptional qualifications coupled with a proven track record of leadership and a wavering commitment to safeguarding our national interests render her the unequivocal choice for this critical position, end quote. And from another, and I quote again, I know Tulsi will be fully committed to protecting all Americans during this pivotal moment in American history, end quote. Well, Madam President, sounds like what we need in a director of national intelligence. And I look forward to confirming Ms. Gabbard this week.
SPEAKER 12 :
Again, if you’re just listening, we’ll have Senator Thune making his statement. Again, if you want to know about Madam President, I also see some comments coming in. That is because Katie Britt was actually sitting in the chair.
SPEAKER 14 :
Right, that’s right. The actual president of the Senate is the vice president of the United States. However, for most deliberation, the vice president is not there so someone is overseeing the senate proceedings at the time they rotate through at this point it was katie brit last night that was madam president at the time however that is just an acting role at that point she is not permanently yeah i just wanted to clarify for those who are just listening uh let’s go to charles who’s calling in colorado online one charles welcome
SPEAKER 08 :
Hi, thank you guys. Hey, I just want to call and give you guys thanks for what you’re doing. Jay Sekulow as President Trump’s lawyer, you guys are just fantastic. You’re giving the people hope, letting us know what’s going on. I really appreciate President Trump coming in from day one doing exactly what he said. Like I said, being 57 years old and watching the government over these years, and seeing no politician working like this president is working is just tremendous. And I want to thank you guys, thank the president of the United States, and keep doing what you’re doing, guys.
SPEAKER 14 :
Thank you, Charles, so much. I appreciate it. Well, and Charles, I think one of the really important things here, it goes back to what Rick was talking about, and even that outrageous clip of Caitlin Collins saying, we’re three weeks in and it’s a constitutional crisis. Things have been moving so quickly that the media doesn’t have time to form their narrative. They’re reporting breaking news. Normally after that breaking news, they can do five or six more articles that are shaping the narrative and talking points for the left. Because by the time that they could even start to pretend to get that narrative straight, there’s already another breaking news item that they bump that down on their website. So they don’t have time to create the narrative like they normally do. And therefore, you’re seeing them have to go 30,000 foot view. This is just a constitutional crisis. That’s the only thing we can say because they don’t even have time to spin it. We’ve never seen an administration, right or left, that has moved this quickly and done this much in such a short amount of time. It is breathtaking, and that’s why some people can say it looks chaotic, but that’s just because we’re used to Congress, you know, not working on Friday and over the weekend, going home early, not having to, oh my goodness, you may have to vote at midnight on a really important position in the cabinet, the director of national intelligence.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, we’re used to the D. DMV of federal government. That’s right. Exactly. So let’s continue on with some calls. Let’s go to Paul, who’s calling in Texas, but hold for a while. Paul, welcome.
SPEAKER 04 :
Thank you. I had a question. Rick Grinnell would have been perfect. My understanding of the DNI office is that it’s kind of like a super traffic cop for national intelligence on behalf of the president. But my question is, from a practical point of view, how much authority does that office have to actually make the other intelligence directors kind of give an account like, you know, hey, I heard about this thing you’ve got over there at the CIA, Mr. CIA director, tell me all about it. Do they have that kind of authority?
SPEAKER 14 :
Well, to one degree, yes and no. So the director of national intelligence also is advising the president on intelligence matters. So it’s not just a routing of information. It’s also an analytical role. And that office is performing analysis, much like the other agencies do as well. But then you also look at because they kind of advise the president and National Security Council and Homeland Security Council, they can make decisions. suggestions there that obviously top-down orders from the president could flow from, but they also ensure that national intelligence program activities and programs are structured and executed in a way that allows for budget traceability, which is following the money and ensuring that the activities are in line with maybe the administration’s agenda items, their view forward, their policy decisions. So there is a lot of oversight in this role. Now, some would argue, including probably Susan Collins, that the department has grown too large. It’s over 2,000 employees in the Director of National Intelligence Office. we could see it shrink in its responsibility some but there is oversight but you also have to remember john ratcliffe’s at cia he’s already offered a buyout to all his employees that i know that they will work in tandem to make sure that the oversight is there and some of the bad things that we’ve seen can hopefully be rooted out i want to wrap up the show with this call from pam in pennsylvania pam you are on the air
SPEAKER 06 :
Yes. First of all, I am a champion. I encourage anyone to support ACLJ. You all do a tremendous job. I did want to encourage people to call. The direct number to the Senate, it’s 202-224-3121. Just say what state you’re from, contact your senators, and let them know you stand behind Telsey Gabbard. She has done so much. She has served our country, continues to serve. Also, support RFK and Kash Patel.
SPEAKER 12 :
Pam, I really appreciate you calling. There’s also another way you can do that. Thank you, obviously, for being an ACLJ champion. That’s someone that gives on a monthly basis, automatically reoccurring, helps set an incredible baseline for us. I encourage you to do that if you can. Go to ACLJ.org. Do it right now. Here’s what I’m going to say. While you’re there, you need to sign this petition. Because you got to take action with us before midnight. Because this is it, folks. By the time that we broadcast tomorrow, our hope and our prayers for our friend, our colleague, Tulsi Gabbard, is that she will be the new Director of National Intelligence the next time you hear from us live. But as you heard, there are people who are still opposing her. So right now, go to ACLJ.org, sign that petition. If you can give while you’re there, do that as well. This is an important time. Maybe by the next time you hear from us, she’ll be a former colleague because of her new position. But you know what? She is a great friend to us and has been now for many years. So I encourage you, go to aclj.org slash sign. Do it right now.
