This episode delves into the appointment of Tom Homan as the Border Czar tasked with operations in Minnesota and the unprecedented shift in approach from the Trump administration. We analyze the significance of finding common ground in a political climate often marked by division. Will Haines engages with listeners to explore these changes and the broader implications for ICE operations. With key sound bites and insightful commentary, the episode lays a path for understanding the real impact on communities.
SPEAKER 04 :
Boarder Czar Tom Homan reveals the details for changes in Minnesota.
SPEAKER 03 :
Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Seculo. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 04 :
It’s not Logan Sekulow today. It’s Will Haines sitting here. And I want to go ahead and get you in this conversation early. 1-800-684-3110 to talk to me on air. Because we heard this morning a press conference from Border Czar Tom Homan, who has now been tasked with leading the operation in Minnesota. We talked about yesterday how… The responses from both the governor, Tim Walz, as well as the mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Fry, were very accepting and amenable to having Tom Homan there leading this operation, which is kind of surprising considering how demonized Tom Homan has been by the left for years. Now he’s welcomed as this voice of reason. But I also think it’s really interesting, and this is where I’m going to get your comments on, 1-800-684-3110. This is a different tactic than we’ve seen from the Trump administration, maybe in the history of the Trump administration, going back to the very beginning. When there is such pressure and organized pressure and the ways that these protest movements take place, normally it is not… the M.O. of the Trump administration to change course, to do something differently, to find common ground. But it seems like that’s exactly what we’re seeing here. As a matter of fact, Tom Homan, he said in a press conference that he’s talked to the chiefs of police, he’s talked to individuals on the ground, but also that President Trump wants this fixed and i’m going to fix it with your help at this press conference he also went on to say i don’t want to hear that everything has been done that everything that has been done here has been perfect nothing is ever perfect anything can be improved upon and what we’ve been working on making is this operation safer more efficient and by the book Admitting mistakes have been made. Now, while everyone understands like this is common knowledge that there can be mistakes in any human endeavor, it’s a different tone than you’re used to hearing from someone in the Trump administration and even saying that the president has tasked me with coming here to fix it. Normally, even if that is the real goal, the Trump administration is very strong in their language that we are going to build upon what we have done, not giving an inch, not backing down to the detractors on the left. This is a different playbook. It seems like, and I want to know, do you think this is a refreshing thing to hear? Do you have trust that Tom Holman is going to, uh, be the voice of reason when we have seen so much irrationality from those leaders in Minnesota, but also the fact that they’re saying they’re having productive conversations. We’re coming, we’re meeting in the middle. We’re finding common ground. When Tom Holman was decried as someone who was inhumane, ruthless, uh, uh julian castro who’s the former hud secretary when he was named border czar tom homan said he is the heart of cruelty that doesn’t sound like the person that you’re hearing at this press conference today and we’re going to play some sound from tom homan in the next segment and i want to get your phone calls early because we also have a packed show we have secretary pompeo talking about a senate hearing the that Marco Rubio had yesterday that didn’t get a ton of attention because of everything going on in Minnesota. We want to make sure you see that. We also have Rick Grinnell joining us to talk about some of the ways that some of this has been framed. And we will round out the show from Jerusalem with Jeff Balaban, our director of ACLJ Jerusalem, about some of the work that they have going on there. But if you’re watching this today and watched yesterday, you know that we were out a couple days this week because of this crippling ice storm that hit much of the country. But you know who wasn’t out during that time? aclj attorneys they still were on the ground in court in missouri fighting planned parenthood today our team is in massachusetts defending pro-life pregnancy resource centers tomorrow we have a deadline in houston with a demand letter for a client that was sharing the gospel there our attorneys never stop working no matter what the situation with weather is support the aclj aclj.org Welcome back to Sekulow. I said I was going to get to some of this sound from the press conference this morning with Border Czar Tom Homan because I thought the tone was incredible. I thought that he spoke firmly but softly. It wasn’t an attacking of people. It was a very… level-headed press conference and taking questions and really getting to the heart of what the issue is here. And once again, I think this was important as well because he called out the rhetoric. And this is bite four. But this is where he was getting to the point of that he had been saying for a long time, if you keep… the rhetoric that we are Nazis, that we are authoritarian, that this is secret police, then bad things are going to happen. And so let’s go ahead and play that because I think also his tone, you got to hear this, how well he laid this out without being accusatory in a way that was our side versus yours. This was very much a let’s come together and fix this type of serious tone bite for him.
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I begged for the last two months on TV for the rhetoric to stop. I said in March if the rhetoric didn’t stop, there’s going to be bloodshed. And there has been. I wish I wasn’t right. I don’t want to see anybody die. Not officers, not members of the community, and not the targets of our operations.
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And once again, that tone was so key to me because we have heard such loud voices on this for a while now. And you see how that has ratcheted up the tensions on both sides. And I feel like his tone speaks volumes. His words are great, but this press conference set a tone for how the federal government can enforce the law in a way that isn’t in your face and making the tensions with those on the other side continue to increase. I feel like this was the right call. I’m very appreciative too that in these statements, he was saying that this has not been perfect. He’s still committed to the mission, but he is acknowledging there is a change. This is a fork in the road for the way we are going to do this. I’m going to make changes. I’m going to continue to pursue the mission. I’m not abandoning this. This isn’t giving up or surrender, but this is a course correction. And I feel like that should be welcomed, not just by people that are maybe, obviously not the people in the street. I don’t think that those that are organized to an incredible level with their signal chats and dispatching people, I don’t think they’re ever going to be satisfied. But the people that are maybe more apolitical, that are getting fed stuff by their social media algorithm, that is making them think that the country is falling apart. I think this is the right tone to set the mission of our law enforcement on a good path forward and also calling out the insanity that we have seen going on. And I think that everyone should be pleased with this course correction, this shift in tone from Tom Homan. But like I said, he’s not giving up, but he is showing that the need for the amount of people there was a lot in part because of how much the leaders in Minnesota were pushing back. So I want to play bite three, because this is talking about discussions he’s had with Tim Walz, with Attorney General Ellison, who are not friends of the Trump administration, but how these conversations can lead to less ICE presence in their state, which is what they’ve been calling for. Bite three.
SPEAKER 05 :
Based on the discussions I’ve had with the governor and the AG, we can start drawing down those resources as far as those looking for Public safety checks being released and doing it in jail with much less people. So the drawdown is going to happen based on these agreements. But the drawdown can happen even more if the hateful rhetoric and the impediment and interference will stop. So Border Patrol, I was a Border Patrol agent. These men and women are patriots. God bless them. They’re here to help us. And the drawdown will come soon depending on When this actually, I see this in play, but the agreements we have alone is going to cause a significant drawdown.
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Once again, the agreements we have alone are going to cause a significant drawdown. I also think these images that you see of ICE in the media, in newspapers, online, as well as social media, it makes you have this image that ICE is just roaming like an army through these city streets. The reason that protesters are able to get there so quickly and it seems like they’re always there isn’t because ICE is ubiquitous and it’s on every street corner. It’s because they are stalking federal law enforcement, coordinating through these signal chats to be able to get people and surge their protester resources there quickly. So don’t always believe even what the images appear to be. They want, and the media wants it to look like this is authoritarian takeover when in reality they are executing a mission. They have, they get information, they find out, they go after people that they have information on that are here illegally and many times are criminals. beyond entering the country illegally. I want to get to some phone calls really quickly, too, because we do have a lot of guests coming up in the remainder of this show. But let’s go to Patricia calling from Georgia on Line 1, watching on Salem News Channel. Patricia, you’re on Sekulow.
SPEAKER 07 :
Oh, hello. Thank you for taking my call. Yes. I want to call in response to a lady that called in yesterday. She was talking about Christians ought to be welcoming to the people that come into this country. But we always have been. But you can’t just open the doors and allow anyone to come in that you don’t know. They have to go through a vetting service first. I mean, I’m sure she wouldn’t just open her door and allow someone that she didn’t know to come in and spend the night in her home. Just because you’re a Christian, that doesn’t take away your common sense. You can’t just allow anyone in here.
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely. And Patricia, thank you for calling. And I think that this is a difficult discussion, right? As Christians, as people of faith, we know the commands of Christ to love our neighbor as ourself. We know even the parables of Christ of the Good Samaritan and things of this nature. And And the commands to love others and to share the gospel and to further the love of Christ with others. And I made a point, too, as well, that, you know, there is a distinction between our commands as Christians and the role of the government. I mean, the back to why. The letter from Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist about mentioning that wall of separation of church and state was not so that the church would not corrupt government, but that it was vice versa, that having a state church would not corrupt the government, would not corrupt the church itself, the institution. But yes, there are also needs for the government to protect, to ensure the safety of the citizens of the country. And what we saw, the lawlessness under the Biden years, it was at a fever pitch. It was open borders. It was the sanctuary cities that were harboring the migrants. It does not take away from the responsibility of the government to protect the citizens of the country and having a border and having a secure border. It also doesn’t mean that many good Christian organizations, Christian individuals are not also able to show love to those that are here in this country, that are immigrants both legally and even it’s not the role of individual citizens. To go after illegal immigrants, just like it isn’t the role of the citizens to go after ICE. When you see what is going on in Minnesota, you see many people trying to say that there is a love for their neighbor. Therefore, they are assaulting federal officers. That doesn’t square with what scripture commands either. So it is a difficult discussion and it’s something that can be debated and talked about for a very long time. But it also doesn’t take away from the fact that we do have laws on the book, that the sovereignty of a nation does not mean that whomever crosses the border instantly gets here and gets full benefits of a citizen and gets full government benefits as we have seen so often. And that is what has happened. become so tiring and frustrating to many people that just want to see the law upheld. And we can even get to it later. Tom Homan even talks about ICE itself is not making this up. They’re following the law. They’re enforcing the law. If you have a problem with the law, go speak to Congress. Have them change it. We at the ACLJ have called for comprehensive immigration reform for decades. And is Congress not doing their job that continues to add to this problem? We’ll talk about it more ahead. Go ahead and call me if you can at 1-800-684-3110. Welcome back to Sekulow. We’re joined now by Senior Counsel for Global Affairs at the ACLJ, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Mr. Secretary, yesterday we saw on the Hill, we saw former Senator Marco Rubio, Secretary of State Rubio, testifying before a Senate committee on, much of it was on the Venezuela action, removing Nicolas Maduro from the country, fulfilling warrants that were out for his arrest. you know that the bounty had been raised by even the biden administration and they did nothing about it but this was really it’s getting lost in the news because of everything going on in minnesota and potential government shutdown but i think it was important and i want to get your takeaway what did we learn yesterday from secretary rubio’s testimony before the senate yesterday
SPEAKER 10 :
Look, I think we saw three things. One, we saw a Secretary of State who’s very much in control of managing what is an incredibly difficult process. By the way, it also reminded me of my time when I was Secretary of State, when I’d had Democrats scream at me about things that were completely hypocritical. So it brought back some memories as well. A little trauma maybe?
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I mean, have you been able to deal with it?
SPEAKER 10 :
I won’t quite go that far, but I know. I’m not in therapy yet, so all good. But we saw a Secretary of State who was clearly in control, who, by the way, I think shares the urgency that some of the senators had that said, hey, we need to restore democracy. In Venezuela, we know this, you’re not going to get the economic investment that President Trump wants into Venezuela until you have that political democracy. They’re not going to come in with Delce Rodriguez in charge. They just won’t trust that it’s not going to fall back and have their stuff stolen again. So I think Secretary Rubio can see that. When he spoke to yesterday about his sense of urgency, he was also clear that it’s going to take a little bit of time. And I think that’s incredibly reasonable. Some patience is normal. for a process like this some amount of time is normal. So I think those were the things we saw yesterday. I would just, if I was talking to Secretary Rubio, I would tell him that speed does matter. Leaving the current folks in place when the Venezuelan people have clearly demanded change is not something that is, you know, even medium term acceptable, the opportunity will fall away. And I know they’re putting pressure on the current folks who are in control of the military to do the things America needs. And I think they’re prepared and President Trump is prepared in the event that they do not do that, to take the actions necessary to get them to conform to what’s good for the Venezuelan people and good for the security of America as well.
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You mentioned your time as Secretary of State and also how you have Democrats that will say hypocritical things or go after you. But I think one thing that separates when you have a conservative administration versus a Democrat or leftist administration is that The Republican Party is a very diverse party when it comes to ideology, and I think you saw that on display yesterday. I want to play this exchange between Secretary Rubio and Senator Rand Paul, because Rand Paul, I feel like, does… speak for a very significant portion of the MAGA movement that has gone this more isolationist route. But I wanted to play this exchange, it’s by 23, between Senator Rand Paul, who is of the same party and former colleague of Secretary Rubio, and get your take on this and how the secretary handled it by 23.
SPEAKER 06 :
Let’s vote on these things. But I think we’re in violation of both the spirit and the law of the Constitution by bombing a capital, blockading a country, and removing elected officials. And we certainly wouldn’t tolerate it, nor would I if someone did it to us.
SPEAKER 01 :
We didn’t remove an elected official. We removed someone who was not elected, and it was actually an indicted drug trafficker in the United States.
SPEAKER 04 :
And once again, as you have been in that chair before, you know that when you are with a Republican administration, it doesn’t mean that you get a pass from half of the Senate as you would if you were with a Democrat administration. But what was your take on even how quickly he was able to respond with facts about Maduro’s even holding of the office of presidency?
SPEAKER 10 :
I loved it. I think it was instructive for the American people. Our party, your point is exactly right. The Republican Party has always had a diverse set of views on many issues, including national security issues like Senator Paul does. I’ve had this conversation with Senator Paul many times or related conversations. uh so i think it was lovely by the way very intellectual no one was screaming it was uh it was uh arguments being made by each side of an opposing views uh i happened to share secretary rubio’s view on this particular issue i thought he handled it perfectly not only uh is he not the duly elected president the leader of venezuela he it was a coup that put him into power but it’s also the case that there are drug charges against him in the united states and the response responsibility to bring those fugitives to law is definitely an American role. Um, but I thought it was instructive because it does, uh, Senator Paul does represent a number of American people, by the way, from some Democrats as well. Uh, and I thought that’s exactly the purpose of these hearings to allow people to make arguments, uh, to have different voices heard, uh, and in the end for an administration to be held accountable for the things that they do by the other elected officials. I thought that was a very important part of yesterday’s hearing.
SPEAKER 04 :
And one of the reasons I was glad that you were on today and that we could talk about this is because I feel like it hasn’t necessarily gotten as much attention as maybe it normally would if other things weren’t going on domestically. But I also think it was important the way Secretary Rubio was differentiating, even with some of those conversations with Democrats or even with Senator Paul about And I know he had this back and forth with Senator Duckworth, which we don’t have time to play. But I did want to bring up is that she was asking about us being at war with Venezuela. And Secretary Rubio was saying, no, we are at war with drug traffickers and that this is something that needs to be differentiated, not just to the Congress, but I think to the American people to understand how this works and why it’s important to engage on these issues at this point.
SPEAKER 10 :
no that’s exactly right uh no we’re no more at war with venezuela than a man in the moon right we’re actually with the venezuelan people some 80 or 90 percent of them voted not to have maduro be in power and to have their country be a terrorist narco state driven by the iranians the chinese and the russians it’s not what the people want and so we’re actually there uh attempting to effectuate the will of the venezuelan people broadly speaking, and no one, frankly, in the hearing yesterday even disputed that. So, you know, I think Senator Decor’s comments were aimed at just making a news clip for her constituents, not at actually effectuating an argument, which is good for American security and it puts America first.
SPEAKER 04 :
Thank you so much for joining us today Mr. Secretary on such an important issue that we here at the ACLJ will continue to break down and analyze for people and it’s because of the support of ACLJ members and champions that we can have voices like Secretary Pompeo on this broadcast to break down these issues. Someone who has been in that very seat that Secretary Rubio was in yesterday. And I feel like having that insight is invaluable to not just our audience, but to our team here as we analyze these issues and bring forward content to you, is that having someone that is a voice that has been not just in the room, but in the chair. You can’t get that anywhere else, folks. And we get to spend, this is a nine-minute segment. He was here with us for nine minutes multiple times a week. breaking down these issues, not just a three or four minute hit on TV, which there is plenty of seeing people with vast experience, but we can get deeper into these topics with these individuals because of the support of the members and champions of the ACLJ. And I think that is valuable to you as you get this broadcast for free. We don’t put it behind a paywall. These issues we will analyze and the legal work that the ACLJ does that you get to hear about on this show that equip you in your daily life, in your conversations, in your relationships with your family and friends. But as well, if you are ever targeted by the government, having your rights suppressed by a school, you know you have a resource here at the ACLJ, and it’s at no cost to our clients, ACLJ.org.
SPEAKER 03 :
Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever. This is Seculo.
SPEAKER 04 :
to the second half hour of Sekulow. I’m going to get to some phone calls here. We also have Rick Grinnell coming up, as well as Jeff Balaban from Jerusalem. I do want to let you know, if you’re on hold, you are more than able to stay on hold if you’d like. I’m probably only going to be able to get to a couple more calls. So I want to get to them very quickly. First, we’re going to go to Mary Ellen on line four, and then I’m going to play a soundbite from Tom Homan. But Mary Ellen, you’re on Sekulow.
SPEAKER 08 :
Oh, thank you. Well, and hopefully I’ll quickly make my point. It’s really a two-pronged point. As I listened to Tom Holman this morning, and I’m happy he’s saying what he’s always been saying, you know, give us, you know, in the jails, we’ll meet you in the jails, give them to us. We don’t have to go out to the neighborhood, which is what the politicians were allowing to happen. So that’s good. That’s point number one. Point number two, and that’s the second prong, which is the problem there, was these revolutionary agitators And now I see maybe they’ll be coming down there, but they’re going to be going… I mean, they haven’t left the country, and they need to be rooted out, especially before the election. Because I can see them turning it into, you know, 2020 again or whatever, and they’re going to go around to other parts of the country. So… That’s the second part.
SPEAKER 04 :
Thank you for calling. I think it’s very important. One, I do want to play Tom Homan’s bite here, but then I want to respond to something Mary Ellen said. So let’s play bite nine. It’s something I referenced earlier, but I think was a very important point to play here. This is bite nine. We’re not making this up, folks.
SPEAKER 05 :
ICE is enforcing laws enacted by Congress. They’re a federal statute. That said, I’m not here because of The federal government has carried this mission out perfectly. First thing I said to senior staff when I walked in here is what I told you earlier. I didn’t come here looking for photo ops or headlines. I come here looking for solutions. I do not want to hear that everything that’s been done here has been perfect. Nothing’s ever perfect. Anything can be improved on. And what we’ve been working on is making this operation safer, more efficient by the book. The mission is going to improve because of the changes we’re making internally.
SPEAKER 04 :
Once again, I just want to reiterate the the humility he had, but strength he had was was just a master class in leadership through that press conference. He was not coming there bombastic and saying and going even going after the the migrants themselves. It wasn’t about illegal immigration. It was about the mission, course correcting, making internal changes. I think that’s important. And I think people from all sides need to hear that. That was something not very Trump-esque that you are used to seeing from the administration. And he was tasked by the president to go there and make these changes. So I think that’s an important thing. It felt like having a cooler head there. We’ve seen how wild even the officials in Minnesota have been. It’s like having the adult in the room now to say, hey, let’s work together. Let’s do this so no one gets hurt. We’re going to enforce the law. We’re the federal government. We’re going to do that. But let’s make sure no one gets hurt. But also to Mary Ellen’s point about the individuals, the agitators that are there, I do think that the government needs to look into that. It’s not about, and he even says, I support your First Amendment rights. I support your right to protest. I’m just asking you to keep it peaceful. And by peaceful, meaning not what we’re seeing interfering with law enforcement, getting in their face, causing them to have to restrain you. That’s not the same thing. And so I think looking at the organization, which seems to be very, very advanced, needs to be looked at. But before we go to break here and we have Rick Grinnell, I do want to remind people, as our broadcast was unable to make it to air the first two days of this week, know that we were not done working. We didn’t have just a couple days off, even though it was a historic ice storm. Both the ACLJ media team as well as our attorneys were still working. Our attorneys were in Missouri at a trial with Planned Parenthood, a historic trial. during all of this, and we have a lot more ahead, and I’ll get to that later, but support the work at ACLJ.org. Welcome back to Sekulow. I’m now joined by Rick Grinnell to talk about still continuing this coverage of what’s going on in Minnesota, the changes that have taken place now at the direction of the president, putting Tom Homan, the border czar, in charge of the operation in Minnesota, which we’ve discussed and said is a great thing. We were very impressed here by his comments this morning at this press conference. But One thing also, Rick, and this is where, you know, I love to get you riled up about media and the way things are reported, whether it be your favorite, the LA Times or any of the other wonderful institutions of journalism in this country. But one of the things that we’re seeing pretty consistently now, especially with the way that Minnesota is portrayed, whether it be The imagery that you see that make it look as if it is a war zone, as if there is ice patrols on every single street of Minneapolis met with what would, if you just were to extrapolate the imagery out, probably 50 million protesters because they seem to be everywhere. We know that that’s not the reality of what it looks like on the ground, nor what has been taking place. But what we also aren’t hearing and what we haven’t heard for a long time is kind of the contrast between… What we are told ICE is doing and how inhumane they are, how egregious, how many false arrests are happening, and how that even compares to other presidencies, even during the same amount of time. But the New York Post has decided to report on that. And there’s a new report that is breaking down those numbers and shows that ICE is actually doing a much better job when it comes to not arresting the wrong people. not having tragedies happen than even under the Obama administration. And I want to get your take on that.
SPEAKER 09 :
Look, these are difficult issues. And what we do know is that under the Obama administration, under the Biden administration, our border was practically wide open. It was massive amounts of people coming across the border. And so as that number was dramatically increasing with people illegally coming over the border, they were also exporting quite a few people and taking them and getting them out. Now, President Trump came in and said, why are we spending money to deport? Why don’t we just close the border and not have to deport as many? And so that was the first common sense decision, which is close the border and dramatically decrease the amount of people that you have to export. What I would also add is that President Trump, in his strategy, is looking at all of the illegals that were able to get in, that were not pushed out and should have been pushed out under previous administrations, and he’s having to now go play cleanup. So he’s playing catch up from all of the bad policies that people did before him. But make no mistake, we now see the media and the left fabricating these protests under President Trump when they took a pass at protesting under Presidents Obama and Biden. And that just highlights the hypocrisy when we see that they suddenly now pretend to care more about people who are being deported today than they did under Obama and Biden when Obama and Biden were deporting 10 times as many as President Trump.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right. And also, as you see, the way that organizations that like to use numbers to tell their narrative, statistics are a tricky thing because they are easily manipulated to tell the story you want them to tell. But just even the fact of ProPublica trying to cite that 170 U.S. citizens were detained by ICE. that 130 of them were detained for assaulting officers and the other 40 were erroneously gotten but that is a point zero zero six seven percent error rate and you compare that to the obama administration having a point oh two two five percent error rate these are minuscule numbers by the way and it normally would not even be reported but even that error rate of detaining us citizens improperly It was significantly higher than under the Obama administration than here. It tells a different story that the Trump administration is trying to be extremely cautious and careful here.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, I would also go so far as to say that those numbers were absolutely not transparent and reported during Obama and Biden years. People in the media did not care what the error rate was. And suddenly now, They care about the error rate. The Trump administration is being very transparent to say, yeah, here are the numbers. These are the mistakes that we’ve made. We’ve tried to correct those. But the media does a really poor job of giving the context that the error rate under Trump is way less than the error rate under Obama and Biden. And yet, they get away with it because people are not reading the full context. And this is what we talk about, I think, every single day, which is the media having an advocacy arm. They’re playing for the Democrats. They’re helping the Democrats and attacking Republicans all of the time. And it’s fine if that’s what they’re gonna do, but they don’t get to then label themselves as unbiased reporters. They need to be activists or opinion journalists, and they need to be labeled as such. And that’s one of the things that I think the public needs to know. Let’s just have truth and transparency in who’s reporting. Who is it that is giving these numbers, and what is their agenda? And once the American people know who’s talking to them and who’s spinning them and who’s giving them their opinion, I think then they can go out and get multiple sources to understand the real truth.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, and honestly, that was a… discussion I had with a family member who is comes at this from a different perspective, different agenda, if you will, based off of that different politics that was asking, you know, because we’re family and we can have civil conversations and not dislike each other because we have different views, but was asking what sources they thought I thought they should look at when it comes to this story, which is one remarkable thing. Like, this is how people should interact if they want to see a different perspective. What should I look at? And and in some ways, I think no one is doing a great job as far as the media, whether it be conservative leaning or or the mainstream liberal media of fully telling this story. And I think one of the things that concerns me the most, Rick, here, and I am curious your thoughts, especially because you’ve worked in intelligence, you were the director of national intelligence under the previous Trump administration, the organization on the ground of these protesters and what we’re seeing about these signal chats and how developed this operation is, how efficient they are running this operation, having 24-hour call-in numbers, having people that are stalking essentially federal officers and being able to give real-time updates on where they are. It is why the chaos appears in photos by the Associated Press and Reuters to seem so insane and militaristic But in reality, it’s this movement that is not organic. It is not a grassroots movement to stand up for immigrants. It is a very well-oiled political machine. And I just wanted to take, even with your history looking at organizations, what does this tell you about what we’re facing in Minnesota?
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, look, this is a political strategy. It’s cancel culture, it’s boycotting, it’s attacking. Some of the same tactics are employed by the left here at the Trump Kennedy Center. They’re trying to get people to cancel. They’re trying to get people to quit and not participate. in the arts, imagine that. And so this is a real intolerance from the left, and we see it as a strategy, as a financial strategy for the donors on the left, and we see it playing out in Minneapolis. But the one thing that I do wanna make sure that our viewers and audience hears is that we have to be clear-eyed that the media is a business. They are looking for clicks, they’re looking for a consistent audience because they need to be able to make money. And so, we as consumers of news have a responsibility. We’ve gotta get our news from multiple sources so that we can actually understand the truth because the business of the media is gonna always give us what they wanna give us according to how they make money.
SPEAKER 04 :
Rick, thank you so much for joining us today and giving us your insight on these very important topics that are pervasive in our society. We are seeing them everywhere we turn, whether it be social media, conversations with coworkers or friends. But it’s important that we are able to bring insight like that from Rick Grinnell, like from Mike Pompeo previously about that testimony from the Secretary of State. These are real issues that affect your way of life, the way the country continues forward. And having this insight equips you in conversation, in the way that you analyze these things going on in the world. But also, that’s not the only thing we do here at the ACLJ. We also have the best legal team in the country, and we fight in court daily for your constitutional rights. Our attorneys, I’m looking at four very important issues that we are in court in this week. So when you give to the ACLJ, you support all of this work at ACLJ.org. Welcome back to Sekulow, final segment of the broadcast. And I’m now joined by Jeff Balaban from ACLJ Jerusalem, who is joining us from Jerusalem. And Jeff, you know, we had talked earlier this week about having you on your important conference there in Jerusalem. And I want to talk about that. But the timing today, as we saw another anti-Semitic attack on the Chabad world headquarters in Brooklyn. In a city that has elected Zoran Mandami as their mayor, we are already seeing a continuation of the anti-Semitic attacks. Fortunately, no one was harmed. This was an individual that rammed their car multiple times into an entrance of the headquarters there. But we already knew we were going to be talking about this because it is something that we have to fight for every single day at the ACLJ. But in light of that and the work that you are doing, I just wanted to kind of open the discussion there.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thanks, William, and thanks for raising that. I heard a statistic yesterday. I have not double-checked it, but it was from a very serious source from the Center of Studies Antisemitism Academically that’s associated with many universities, but is not far left-wing at all. They’re very clear-eyed. And they said that in the last few years, it might have been since October 7th or maybe a couple years before that, More American Jews have been killed in America for being Jews, and I’ll explain what that means, than have been killed in the 350 years before that, since the 1600s when they started having, you know, records of Jews who were being killed. And what they mean is, what does it mean to be killed as a Jew? It means someone’s in a kosher restaurant or someone is at a Hanukkah celebration or someone is in a synagogue. So they’re being targeted because they’re Jews. And that is horrifying. I’d never thought about that. And I work on this every single day. If that’s true, and it does not sound wrong that more Jews have been massacred in America for being Jews in the last few years than since before the founding of the United States, since the colonies.
SPEAKER 1 :
And-
SPEAKER 04 :
I just wanted to also talk about, I mean, that is shocking. That is something that should not stand in the United States. We’re talking about death because of your background, how you were born, your religious identity. That is what you’re being murdered for, killed for in the United States. That should be something that you are seeing massive protests in the streets about. you’re seeing massive government response to. Unfortunately, we have an administration that takes this seriously, but quite the opposite on all other fronts is happening. You’re seeing more and more people be indoctrinated into lies that are thousands of years old. And it’s despicable that this keeps going and that we are having to respond in real time trying to fight these millennia-old lies.
SPEAKER 02 :
Look, it was, the International Holocaust Remembrance Day was this Tuesday. And here in Israel, I attended a conference that’s hosted, this is the second annual conference specifically about the subject, takes place in the relatively newly formed ministry, which is focused on, it was just diaspora affairs, and then it became fighting anti-Semitism around the world. And it’s not just America. I mean, we see this among those who participated, there were many Americans, but there were foreign leaders from Italy, from Belgium, from Brazil, from Argentina, from Australia. I mean, from, I don’t know how many countries, but certainly a dozen, two dozen countries or more who came to talk about this as a crisis in their own countries. The famous saying after the Holocaust was never again. And whether that was a hope or a wish or a promise, It is happening again. It’s already happening. The Holocaust didn’t start by gas chambers and ovens. The Holocaust started by street violence being ginned up by anyone from the media to political leaders to, unfortunately, religious leaders. And again, we’re seeing that again today around the globe. The same thing, and you’re right, William, I wish there’d be massive protests in America about Jews being killed more than at any time in our history, but we don’t. On the contrary, what we have is massive protests against Jews just for existing. And of course, they don’t always say Jews, although now increasingly they do, but they talk about Zionists. But again, they say Zionists, they don’t ask a Jew what a Jew’s belief is about Israel. They just pick on Jews.
SPEAKER 04 :
And Jeff, I wanted to also go to the work that you’re doing there in Jerusalem. You just got back just a few days ago. And just tell us a little bit about the work now that you’re back in Jerusalem that you’re doing there, some of the meetings you’re having, some of the discussions you’re having as we tackle these very difficult issues.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, it’s really on many different fronts. Part of it is about the physical security here of the Jewish state. And right now there’s a lot going on in terms of debates and discussions. And, you know, Israel is very clear that it feels the need to annex and just finally put Jewish law, or not, sorry, Israeli law, over the Jewish territories, over Judea and Samaria, that the world wants to give to our enemies, to the people who keep on saying they want to kill us all. And other countries, thank God America has not, other countries have started recognizing a Palestinian state. Well, thank God America is holding that line and not doing so. But again, there is a very serious overlap. Those countries that are recognizing, are giving into forces in their own countries, which are violent, they’re afraid of. This is really not about morality. It’s about being held up by terrorists and whether the country is going to give into it or is going to not, recognizing that if you give in saying, well, it’s just the Jews or it’s just Israel, recognize, no, it’s not. They’re here to change our societies as a whole. They say it very openly. They want to change all of the United States of America to be under Sharia law. They want to change all of the United States of America to be our enemies and simultaneously here dealing with the fact that we are all seeing this and we at the ACLJ talk about this all the time. There are people who are speaking as though they’re speaking as patriots and as Christians and yet what’s coming out of their mouths seems very much like Hamas terrorist talking points or excuses and justifications for all manner of not just anti-Semitic ideas, but anti-American and anti-Christian ideas. And we’re working on that in consultation and dealing with religious leaders political leaders government leaders security folks and intelligence truly across the board and of course there’s the legal aspect of it because not just in america but around the country we’ve been in contact actually yesterday and not yesterday on tuesday at the meetings or a number of people came up with potential legal issues for us to look at in europe as well
SPEAKER 04 :
And I think that’s important for you to hear today, folks. We’re wrapping up this broadcast. It’s been a jam-packed show. If you came in late, I encourage you to go watch the whole thing. We’ve had a lot of analysis and experts on today. But even what Jeff is talking about. As the country was hit and shut down by this massive snowstorm and ice storm, our work continued here at the ACLJ. Jeff and I were on the phone multiple times talking about these very issues, about how the ACLJ and the world and the Christian community can message better. And fight back against generations-old lies. Thousands of years, these same lies about the Jewish people have been pushed forward. And they’re demonic. And we have to push back against it. And we can’t let it infiltrate our politics or our churches. And so it’s important that we keep fighting this battle every single day at the ACLJ. At the same time, our legal team was in Missouri yesterday. in court battling Planned Parenthood. We have a team today in Massachusetts to defend pro-life pregnancy resource centers. Tomorrow, Houston has a deadline to respond over re-arresting our client who is preaching the gospel. And yet another team is preparing to go to Kansas to represent and stand with our client helping to change the law there because kids are being targeted for their free expression in school. And we can’t do any of this work without you. Donate today at ACLJ.org or become a champion.
