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Join us as we explore the complex web of political and social issues ranging from the implications of judicial decisions affecting federal employment to the alarming situations in Israel. Special guests Rick Grinnell and Jeff Balaban provide their expertise, while our hosts field questions and concerns from listeners, making this a dynamic and engaging episode.
SPEAKER 06 :
We got breaking news.
SPEAKER 11 :
Judge and I’s request to block Doge. Keeping you informed and engaged. Now more than ever. This is Sekulow. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments. Or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 06 :
Welcome to Sekulow. This is Logan Sekulow. Will Haines joining me in studio as well. Feels like the week of the Doge. You know, it’s a special week. It’s like, you know, Lunar New Year. There’s all those. This is the week of the Doge. I feel like every day, these are not repeats. We are talking about this because there’s obviously always brand new news coming out of Elon Musk’s Doge department, whether they are trying to clean up the roles of the IRS or whether they are trying to scale down, maybe get rid of some people who are not necessary right now and cut the budgets, of course. And right now I’m looking at this, Will. There’s news coming out and people maybe saw it yesterday that another judge has gotten involved in the Doge situation.
SPEAKER 07 :
That’s right. So this is another one of those cases where a union group tried to block the firing of federal employees. And remember, a lot of these are probationary employment. They aren’t like vested as full employees yet. And the union brought forward this complaint saying, hey, you got to put an end to this court. You can’t let them just fire these bureaucrats. And this judge, Judge Christopher Cooper from the district court in D.C., decided to not block the firing of employees or the spending freezes that are happening, saying that, once again, not the right forum for this, that they didn’t have standing to bring this. And so, therefore, he was not going to temporarily block this. the firing of federal employees. He did say, you know, you should probably go through the Federal Labor Relations Authority. He wasn’t necessarily on the side of Doge in the Trump presidency, but following the law, saying this isn’t the right place to do this, you have other avenues that these employees could take. It’s very similar to some of the other decisions we’ve seen, even the one out of Judge Chutkin. The unlikely
SPEAKER 06 :
Judge Chutkin.
SPEAKER 07 :
She also said she was concerned about it but that once again they didn’t have standing to bring it and therefore wouldn’t block it. So it’s quite the contrast of what we’ve seen over the last four years where the legal system and the court system was so weaponized against President Trump from state courts to federal court to the special counsel and just how much the country went through. But now we’re even seeing some of those same judges follow the law and say, this is, you know, this is what it is.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, maybe even with an administration, they know they have to stick by, not stick by, but they have to actually do their job. Then, you know, the pressure’s on a little bit. Phone lines are open for you. 1-800-684-3110. I’d love to hear from you on this matter. We are going to be talking to Jeff Balaban a little bit later about the the horrible news that came out of Israel. I mean, again, I didn’t want to talk about it yesterday. We’re going to spend a segment on it later, so if you have a question or comment related to that, as well as the terror attacks that happened there, thankfully, miraculously, no one was hurt. But again, it was a multiple bus bombing that happened there, but they got their timing wrong, and thankfully, they were empty. We also have Rick Grinnell joining us. We’re going to be talking about A few different things, including the confirmation of Kash Patel, who is his close friend. And then also in the next segment, we’re going to be talking about an ACLJ victory. And this victory is really interesting. You’re going to want to stay tuned. It just happened this morning. It happened so recently that the script I have in front of me to make sure that I do the promos right is incorrect because it says today we’re headed into court. Today we’ve already been in court. And guess what? We won. And one big. So you know what? You need to be a supporter of the ACLJ right now. We need you to join us in this fight. You can help defend Christians worldwide, protect life, defend the rights of your kids and your schools. And look, this is a really cool one. We sent a demand letter to a hospital in New Mexico. We’ve been waiting on it. They were forcing ultrasound technicians to participate in abortions. But now all five techs. have received opt-outs from participating in abortions. Again, it was a big concern. We’ve had that kind of issue come up years and years and years. It keeps coming up, but we’ve got to make sure we’re there. Again, for the individual. It’s not always about what’s going on in Washington, D.C. It’s what’s happening around the country. You can support the ACLJ right now by becoming an ACLJ champion by going to aclj.org slash champions or scan the QR code that’s on your screen. We’ll be right back with that big victory. Welcome back to Secular. As I said, phone lines are open at 1-800-684-3110. Harry Hutchinson’s joining us in this segment. We’re also going to have one of our ACLJ attorneys remote, Liam Harrell, who’s just had a big victory. We’re going to talk about that in just a minute, but I know a lot of you are tuning in right now. A lot of you are just joining us because of the headline, which you heard was the judge denies request to block Doge, at least somewhat of a victory in some sense, because the judges are presumably doing their jobs.
SPEAKER 01 :
Absolutely. And so we have seen a number of these victories, which reflect the fact that the Trump lawyers are actually well prepared this time for the left’s lawfare. And so if you go back to 2017, the Trump administration had some difficulty first with Jeff Sessions as attorney general, who I think was unprepared. And then he decided to recuse himself. But Pam Bondi, the Department of Justice lawyers, the lawyers for Donald Trump are prepared to to do combat. And if you look at the specific decision by Judge Cooper, it’s important to keep in mind that the judge has declined to block Trump’s effort to shrink the federal workforce. That is something Donald Trump was elected to do, and the failure of Donald Trump to fulfill his mission, arguably, would be an affront to democracy. And I think the
SPEAKER 07 :
judge read the constitution properly and harry i think it’s it’s another thing that we should point out of why this is a big deal is that these cases where they decided to file and obviously this these are in dc there was also the one from judge chutkin so it makes sense because it is uh the federal government but you know there have also also been cases filed in Rhode Island, New York. A lot of times we know that the plaintiff will find a forum, forum shopping is what it’s referred to, or jurisdiction shopping, where they will find what they think are going to be favorable judges. And you have to admit that the D.C. Circuit It has taken the place of the Ninth Circuit. We used to always think of the Ninth Circuit as being the most liberal judicial circuit when it comes to the judges that are on the bench there. D.C. definitely has taken that place because, really, of some of the appointments of President Trump during his first administration. Still a very liberal-leaning court out there in the West, but the fact that we’ve now seen two decisions out of the D.C. District Court is amazing that we’re not seeing the activist judge that we would almost assume would come out of these districts. What are your thoughts on that?
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, number one, these judges actually can read the Constitution. And if you look at Article 2 of the United States Constitution, it vests the president with the entire executive power. And so the power is vested in President Trump rather than in a lifetime bureaucracy. Don’t get me wrong, federal employees, they have rights. This particular judge said that these workers maybe can appeal their case to the Federal Labor Relations Authority. But that’s their sole remedy as he reads the Constitution. I think the judge is precisely correct. And I think this has surprised, if you will, many individuals on the left wing of government and the Democrats in particular. And so many Democrats in Congress are reduced to providing singing lessons to the American people.
SPEAKER 06 :
Let’s go take a call because we got a call related to this. I’d love to get Harry’s point of view. Let’s go to Michael who’s calling from Florida, watching on YouTube. Michael, welcome.
SPEAKER 09 :
Gentlemen, it just seems to me to be a direct reflection of who these people are that when Doge comes in and either is pointing things out to make cuts or even to the ones where Doge will be, it’s a direct reflection on how they feel about the money, meaning it’s their money.
SPEAKER 06 :
And so it’s really, though, our money, is it not? Well, of course, this is a lot of our taxpayer dollars doing the work.
SPEAKER 07 :
That’s right. And in reality, Professor Hutchison, that is the biggest problem with the bureaucracy and the way the federal grant program has ballooned over decades is that those within the government aren’t really seeing themselves as accountable to the American people and not really taking good stewardship of of the American people’s tax dollars.
SPEAKER 01 :
I think that’s precisely correct. And indeed, many people in the federal bureaucracy are simply using the federal government to launder taxpayer money to their friends and, if you will, their relatives who are running many left-wing organizations. So, for instance, there are published reports that USAID funding has gone to George Soros’ foundations so that he can pose a threat to democracy in Western Europe. This is ridiculous!
SPEAKER 06 :
All right, let’s go ahead now and switch gears a little bit on some successful ACLJ work that just happened. One of our attorneys, Liam, he is joining us remotely right now because Liam, why don’t you give people an understanding of what just happened? You walked into court this morning. Like I said, my script here is actually already out of date. It says today we’re headed to court to defend the rights of a preacher arrested for telling people about Jesus. Well, we’re not headed into court. It’s done. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 02 :
headed out of court that’s right um this was a great case this is a i would say classic aclj case we had a street preacher in chicago right outside millennium park uh where he had a little speaker he had a microphone he was spreading the good news And the police came up to him and said, hey, you need a permit for what you’re doing. So they tried to cite him. And they also tacked on a resisting arrest obstruction of justice charge, which was completely unfounded. And we know that because his friend had filmed the entire interaction. So the minute we heard about this case, we knew we needed to step in. We came into Chicago this morning Totally prepared for a trial. We got a hold of the prosecutor and we got to show him the video before the before we even called the case. And we explained to the prosecutor, there’s no way this is this isn’t right. And after I think about 20, 30 minutes with the prosecutor, we got a hold of him. prosecutor admitted or agreed to dismiss the counts. And so that was a great favorable resolution. It was absolutely great to, you know, shake this guy’s hand and tell him he’s free to go and continue spreading the good news.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, I think these quick wins sometimes mean, look, it still takes time. You got to go through this process. We got to get connected with a legal team and all of these things again at no cost. to the street preacher himself who was doing this. But sometimes this is what it takes. Always good to have your cameras ready also too. I think we all know that now. In 2025, always good to make sure that you are covering it because at this point you can walk in and go, here’s what happened exactly. And it gets taken care of. Now this isn’t always the case, Liam. Sometimes these cases go on for years. But in some instances, because of the strength of the ACLJ team and your expertise, we’re able to get things done fast and get these quick victories.
SPEAKER 02 :
Absolutely. It’s a pleasure to work on this case, and we’re glad to take it on.
SPEAKER 07 :
Liam, good work, and good work to Ben Cisney as well, who’s there with you. It’s always important for us to be able to show those of you that watch this broadcast, when we talk about our attorneys are doing work while we broadcast, while we talk about these cases, they’re not located in Chicago. They left D.C. to go to Chicago to be prepared to go to trial. And trials… Not always quick. No. So they are on the ground. It’s the Ministry of Presence that you’ve heard about here for so many years that our lawyers show up at no cost to the client and didn’t even have to get to the trial phase because they were able to say to him, you are free to go and get this resolved.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yep. Thank you, Liam, so much for joining us. And thank you for the ACLJ supporters out there and ACLJ champions. It has been wonderful to see these successes and to hear these stories coming out of our team. And again, you can find even writings from Liam and everything on our website on ACLJ.org. It’s really great content there. So make sure you’re staying tuned. But look. This is why we need you to help us, you know, join us in the fight. As we say, you got to help defend Christians, pro-lifers. You got to help street preachers, your kids that are in school right now. And again, we’re thrilled to report that that is a victory right there. And we also have another victory for life because as we said a little bit earlier, we sent a demand letter to a hospital in New Mexico, again, representing five techs who did not want to participate in abortions. These people that are pro-life and we were able to receive opt-outs for all of them. Again, these aren’t people who have to then go pay for our services, not how it works. It only works because people like you support the ACLJ. And now is the greatest time to do it ever because we are fighting these on every front, whether that is in the law, whether it’s in the media, whether that’s Washington DC or around the country, whether we’re in court in Chicago or New Mexico, or, you know, in Europe, all over the world. ACLJ Jerusalem is there as well. We’re going to be joined by Jeff Balaban a little bit later because it is a sad time happening right now in Israel. We’re going to discuss what the ramifications are. That’s coming up next. So stay tuned for that. And again, if you want to get engaged and join us in this fight, become an ACLJ champion right now. Go to ACLJ.org slash champion. Scan the QR code. We really would appreciate it. Phone lines are also open for your calls at 1-800-684-3110. We’ve got about four lines open. Great time to call. 1-800-684-3110. Welcome back to Secular. Jeff Balaban is joining us via phone, head of ACLJ Jerusalem. Jeff, a grim, sad few days here for our friends in Israel. And I didn’t want to talk about it yesterday. We briefly mentioned it. It’s hard not to get very kind of overwhelmed with emotion and seeing the the you’d say the show funeral, I guess, procession that happened through the streets. of Gaza was heartbreaking. But of course, heartbreaking turns to anger once again, because in those moments, there have been a lot of reports that have come out and the official report that has come out and said that the mother of these two children was supposed to be one of the three returned, that this was not even the body of the mother. This was an unknown person, not even one of the people they had on the hostage list. again, shows you sort of the brutality. Not only do you have two babies not returning home alive, you have another kind of odd bait-and-switch show that shows the brutality of really what’s going on with Hamas.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah. It is obviously extremely painful. And… I’m also struggling for words to describe the depravity. I think that it’s very hard for people in the West, it’s very hard for decent people to really understand the utter and complete depravity of all of Palestinian society. We have to be very clear about this. Hamas is just one engine, but there are many engines there. The notion of a Palestinian Arab is a fiction. It was created intentionally and explicitly. There was no such thing as a Palestinian Arab. They took the word Palestinian… the jewish homeland’s name right and and and they created this fictional people with the express purpose and they say when they created of genocide of eradicating israel and the jews not just israel but the jews and so you have generations now raised by the way with the complicity and the use of american tax dollars through organizations like unruh that raised literally to have no purpose in life other than to delight in the slaughter of Jews, of innocents. And by the way, they’re very happy to kill others as well. So this is what we’re seeing now. This is just, you know, it’s one tragic moment, a glimpse into an entire culture. And honestly,
SPEAKER 06 :
the notion of an innocent palestinian is a lot you can have innocent adepts of course you can but it’s like saying an innocent nazi this is the purest most depraved evil humanity has ever produced yeah i know we all have a lot of questions that people will call in so if you want to call in you can 1-800-684-3110 israel’s obviously said this is sort of a violation of the ceasefire this is a violation of the agreement and they plan on uh retaliating appropriately uh so we’ll see with that turns into what that actually means because uh jeff you know who who was silent yesterday uh every celebrity every uh influencer that i’ve seen that these pro uh palestinian i guess you’d say or pro hamas protesters that have always been online they were all silent yesterday because when you see uh you know custom-made child-sized caskets being paraded through the streets um as you said any decent human being who may have been on the wrong side because the media has been lying to them They can’t take it.
SPEAKER 08 :
This is a very important moment where it becomes clarified who is so clinging to their narrative that who is open to the truth. and is shocked into realizing that they’ve been supporting the wrong side, or who, and I’m afraid it’s going to be more, who actually say, well, if this happened to these Jewish babies, it’s because the Jews deserved it, because Israel deserved it. And that’s what’s been happening throughout the course of, since October 7th, the greater the atrocity, the more horrific the atrocity committed against Israel and the Jews, the more they have to justify it by saying, well, Israel is even worse. And so we’ll see this moment, how this divides decent human beings versus evil.
SPEAKER 06 :
Look, even before October 7th, when did it happen? Also, throughout the history of time, it feels like that this has been the case, which is when the Jewish people are on the right side, they often are under attack, and under attack by people who are Western or should have some sort of sense of reality here, but of course they don’t. Well,
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, and Jeff, yesterday also, after the shocking propaganda video and moment that they put together for this entire thing, there was also an attack planned in Tel Aviv with buses. These weren’t planned by the people from Gaza, but rather from Judea and Samaria, what the media wants to call the West Bank. Miraculously, as tends to happen without Israel’s history, the perpetrators, the terrorists, got the timing wrong, but they tried to add insult to injury with more depravity, and they failed, thankfully, terrorist attack yesterday. What are your… What are you hearing about what happened yesterday with that?
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, I would actually say they were trying to get injury to insult, because yes, there was a massive insult to us, to the world, to decent people, and they were trying to use this to blow up more innocent people. And there are reports, although as yet I haven’t seen them confirmed, that this was actually planned, once again, by our friends in Iran, but executed by this, again, this group that the world has come to know as Palestinians, that, again, one purpose in existence, and that is to destroy as many innocent Jewish lives as they can. And so, you know, and these were miraculous. It is seen very much as miraculous. There were five bus bombs, and they exploded with no one getting hurt on them, which is extraordinary. And two, I believe, were diffused or were stopped. And so, again, this is another, it’s just, it is literally a miracle that this didn’t happen, that this did not take more innocent lives. But again, you’re right. It just reflects the endless. There is no bottom. There is no bottom to their depravity and their evil. And we are not called. I’m just going to be very Jewish here for a minute. We are not called. upon to love and forgive the enemies of our people, of humanity, or of God. We are called to root out, to purge evil from among us. And I believe that that’s the mode in which Israel must go to now.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, Jeff, I think a lot of people are just filled with emotion right now. We actually have a caller coming in. Let’s go to Ann quickly in Pennsylvania. Watch it on Facebook. Ann, welcome.
SPEAKER 04 :
Thank you so much, ACLJ, for your support for Israel. And thank you to this wonderful guest, Um, I am so blown away by the babies and the children being slaughtered by these fake Palestinians. Okay. It is, there’s no moral equivalency to, um, you know, Palestinians dying, uh, Israel warns them beforehand and the Palestinians use children as human shields. And my heart, my heart is just breaking for Israel. Breaking for the Israeli children and anybody in our conservative movement. who actually has a problem with Israel, will they know they can do what I want to say they can do. They can shove it.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, and we appreciate your calls. A lot of people have the frustrations that you’re having right now. And Jeff, we only got a minute left, but I think that represents a lot of what’s going on in America right now. When you see those images, that’s the line. And I think that’s the line that was crossed.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, you know, it’s very important, and even I’m getting emotional listening to this caller, because Jews often feel very alone. And that’s one of the reasons that I work so closely, work with ACLJ and represent ACLJ in Jerusalem, because it’s important for the Jewish world to hear, not just the state of Israel, that there are tens of millions of decent, wonderful, loving Christian Americans who stand with them. Because we do feel alone, especially, and you know this, at days like today. Yeah.
SPEAKER 06 :
Absolutely, Jeff. Thank you so much for joining us. I hope you get some rest this weekend and hopefully maybe there’ll be some better news that comes out of Israel soon. But we appreciate you coming on, sharing your thoughts, your vulnerability. And we always appreciate that. And you’ve got to support the work of the ACLJ because this is what we’re doing here. Folks, I’m not going to give you another big pitch right now. Go to ACLJ.org. If you’re moved by what you just heard, become an ACLJ champion if you can. We’ve got a second half hour coming up. We’re going to reset. We’re going to go back a little bit, talk a bit more about Doge. We’ve got Rick Grinnell joining us, talk about Kash Patel, try to lighten it up, have a little more fun in the next half hour. So stay tuned. We’ve only got a one-minute break coming up. So be a part of this conversation. Get in the chat. We’ll be right back.
SPEAKER 11 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekula.
SPEAKER 06 :
Welcome to Sekula. Will Haynes joining me in studio. Rick Grinnell will be joining us in the next segment. We have just a couple hours away from Kash Patel being sworn in. I believe they said at 4 p.m. Eastern time. That’s going to happen. Of course, as someone who’s very close to Rick. So we’ll be talking about that in the next segment.
SPEAKER 07 :
segment but will we wanted to reset for all the people joining us right now and if you are just joining us welcome you may have seen the headline here the judge denies request to block doge what does that mean will that’s right so this was another case brought by a union that was trying to represent uh workers uh people that were employees of the federal government that are now facing layoffs as the department of government efficiency as well as just the heads of these departments Start looking through and seeing redundancies, seeing ways that they can trim their budgets, that they can trim their workforce, as we all believe that this federal government has gotten so bloated and is not working effectively or efficiently. So this was a case before U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper out of the federal district court in Washington, D.C., And the union was trying to get him to put a temporary block on the firings of federal employees. Most of these are probationary employees. Their full employment status is not fully vested at that point. And what this judge decided to do is not block it. He said that he lacks jurisdiction over the claims brought by the union. This echoes what we saw out of another DC District Court judge, Judge Chutkan, famously of the Jack Smith Special Counsel January 6th cases. And as we look through this, you’re starting to see more and more judges that we’ve seen or have heard about in the past because they were maybe appointed by a Democrat or maybe their record is not been what people that support President Trump would prefer. But they’re saying, we don’t even have jurisdiction here. I can’t block it. I’m a judge. I’m not going to go outside the bounds of my judicial authority. And this one even said, try the Federal Labor Relations Authority. Maybe that’s where you should start if you want to try to get this blocked.
SPEAKER 06 :
But as of now, they’re gone. You know, when you’re like, I need to speak to someone else in another department, and then they got to transfer you. That’s what it feels like when they’re like, no, I’ve already been transferred. And then all of a sudden, you’re back in the hold music. Right. That’s very good hold music, by the way. Well, I know it well. You’re calling a lot of customers support. I have a lot of issues. Things are breaking all the time. My wife said that today at the house. Did you try unplugging it and resetting it? My wife at the house today said, she’s like, what are you up to today? She’s like, I’m going to figure out why everything is breaking in the house. You know, we’ve had frozen pipes. We’ve had heaters going out. You know, it’s what happens when it gets cold here in Tennessee. We’re going to take your phone calls also coming up in just a minute. Maybe we can grab one of these. Will, what do you think? You look through it while I do this pitch here. 1-800-684-3110. Let’s go to line one. Let’s go to Trenton, Nevada on line two. You’re on Seculo, Trent. We are finding all of this money.
SPEAKER 07 :
My question is, is
SPEAKER 12 :
Is it money that’s been spent and or allocated and we can’t retrieve it? Or is it money that. hasn’t been spent and we get to keep it.
SPEAKER 07 :
A little bit of both. Yeah, a little bit of both, Trent. That’s why there’s also the funding freezes. So they are trying to stop money from going out the door. But a lot of these line items you’re seeing, some is monies that have already been spent, that have been sent out the door. Others are allocated or grants that have been granted but haven’t necessarily been fully spent yet. Sometimes the grant money doesn’t all go out at the same time. So it’s a lot of both. really and it’s shocking because the numbers are so large and so vast that uh you realize how much of u.s taxpayer dollars were just being shoved out the door willy-nilly by the previous administration all right in the next segment we’re gonna be joined by our friend rick grinnell trent thanks for calling we got a lot of you on hold right now tory earl mike will stay on hold we’ll get to you uh in the next segment we’ll have rick and then following that we’ll take all the calls we can again at 1-800-684-3110 great time to support the work of the aclj
SPEAKER 06 :
You’re going to hear about if you were moved by what happened in Israel and that conversation we had. I know we tried to lighten it up in this segment and we are going to continue it. But Attorney General Pam Bondi says we’re not going to take it here in America. We’re going to discuss that with Rick, as well as the confirmation of Kash Patel will be sworn in this afternoon. Again, phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. We’ll be right back with our friend Rick Grinnell. Welcome back to Sekulow. We’re still trying to get connected with Rick Grinnell, so we’re going to go ahead and take some of these phone calls. So get ready. Let’s go with Tori, who’s calling in Texas on Line 1. Tori, go ahead.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes, I’m a postal worker. Sure. And I just got noticed this morning to call my congressman because President Trump is talking about getting rid of the PRC. And there’s rumors flying all over the place about shutting down the postal service. Yeah, there definitely are reports. I’m 59. I’m 59 years old. My husband is 60. We both are rural carriers. I’m not marketable. I am petrified of losing my job.
SPEAKER 06 :
I am not trying to cut you off because this did happen this morning. There’s a lot of conversation of it. But the White House has actually put out a statement saying that there are no executive orders, no such EOs in the works pushing for this. So though they are denying it, I’m not saying that there won’t be reform. I’m not saying there won’t be things. This has been a conversation. Look, I feel for you for sure. And I feel for your family. I feel for everyone, by the way, getting laid off in all of this. It’s not like we’re sitting here and cheering. Of course, there are things that need to be cleaned up. Things should be privatized. There’s a lot of things happening right now. So I hate that for you when I hear that. But again, there essentially is a flat out denial coming from the White House right now that this is happening. So yes, has that conversation come up? I’m sure it has. We’ve heard that for years. There needs to be a cleanup of the Postal Service because it is not running efficiently as well.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, and what Torrey is asking about specifically as well, you mentioned the statement from the White House. They are pushing back on a report that the Washington Post put out late last night. It was last night at 1015 Eastern is when it came out. And they said they have the exclusive that he’s expected to issue an executive order as soon as this week, which would be 12 hours. I mean, they didn’t have much time left. to fire the members of the Postal Service’s governing board and place the agency under the control of the Commerce Department and the Commerce Secretary there, Howard Lutnick. Because the Postal Service does operate as a quasi-independent government agency. It’s not under the executive branch as you would normally look at a government bureaucracy. And I think Also, to Tori, I want to say this and echo kind of your statements. It’s a real tragedy economically. that the government has creeped so large that now that we’re looking under the hood of how we operate in this country, I mean, the book Undemocratic about the bureaucracies written by your dad was so timely because it was ahead of all this. But when you really start to peel back the layers and you realize, The United States of America is not supposed to be fully dependent on our government. We are guaranteed the rights, our life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. The pursuit of happiness. Right. But when you start to see how much propping up of NGOs, of contractors, all to make the government continue to work, and it’s all being funded by our taxpayer dollars. It just balloons. It just keeps getting bigger and bigger. We shouldn’t be concerned about the post office. Those are essential services by the government. But when you look at how many people now are 100% dependent on the government, they have a job, but it is almost government welfare across the board. That’s not how our economy should be running. And it is going to be very painful. to claw back from that. And I think that it is the appropriate measure for our country to try to get away from such dependence on our government. However, what you’re seeing is the result of the way president after president and congress after congress has expanded the control over the economy that our government has today.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, Tori, I appreciate you calling. And look, we understand the concern. I’m not sitting here laughing at it or doing anything like that. I hate that this happened, as Will said. But you know what? It got approved somewhere. And I think we have a call related to that. Let’s head over to Mike, who’s calling in Virginia. And hey, because we took Mike and we took Tori, phone line’s going to be open 1-800-684-3110. Mike, go ahead in Virginia, listening on the radio.
SPEAKER 10 :
Hey, first of all, thank you all for everything you do. Really, you’re like a godsend. I appreciate it. What I was calling about is all this money, wasteful spending that they’re finding in the USAID. I’m ecstatic about it because, you know, our debt and all. My question is, who approved all that? All I hear is how much wasteful spending there is.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, but where did it come from? Yeah, I mean, it’s a complex question, Mike, because some of it is direct appropriation by Congress. So those would be direct line items like fund this program.
SPEAKER 06 :
Isn’t some of it also like a mission creep, if you will? Like it’s like a ballooning situation that just got out of control.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, and then there’s discretionary spending where Congress may write a, hey, humanitarian aid, USAID gets, you know, 70 trillion dollars that’s not the real number but uh you know and then it’s up to the bureaucrat the bureaucrats within that agency to sit there and decide who they give the grants to so sometimes it is congress sometimes it is the agency head and sometimes it’s just bureaucrats that they pick and choose with discretionary funding who to grant these grants to and yeah it’s out of control It really is out of control. And the fact that, you know, there have been so many fiscal conservatives in the Republican Party that have for years been saying this is the problem. But it’s within our own house, too, if you’re a fiscal conservative, because there was a lot of talk. But the Republican Party itself didn’t do anything about it either. They kept funding the government, kept moving forward. And now it is a reckoning. And it’s a necessary reckoning, but it’s not going to be easy because they allowed the bureaucracies and the government to get so big and find their way into every facet of your life.
SPEAKER 06 :
I hate hearing those calls like from Tory. I mean, they are heartbreaking. And I hate the fact that people feel like this is where the country has come to. But again, you have to sort of look at it from a different point of view, which is, again, no one’s sitting here celebrating that people are losing their jobs. They’re celebrating that we are eliminating government waste. And look, the Postal Service, as much as they do great work, and Dory, I’m sure you’re an incredible employee, and I’m sure you’re great, and I’m sure your husband, it’s another friction point, a pain point for a lot of people. It’s like the DMV, where it’s being run in a way that is frustrating, that feels like technology has not moved forward. where it feels like it’s always chaos. Unfortunately, that is the case. Look, even our local post office. I mean, how many times you walked in and it felt like even the staff was not thrilled that you were even coming in, especially if you came in with five boxes or something like that. We need to kind of change the way we even deal with customer service for the American people. If your taxpayers are going in, tax money’s going into this, you should be treated with respect as those taxpayers. All right, we’re going to continue on with some calls. I think let’s go to Will in Tennessee. And not the Will from Tennessee sitting next to me. Not this one. Another Will in Tennessee who’s watching on YouTube. Go ahead, Will.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yes, I was thinking about these judges who are flagrantly and, frankly, arrogantly overstepping their bounds and usurping the executive. I was wondering, do you think if we got two of them, like… Judge Engelmeyer and Judge Amy Brennan Jackson and subject them to an impeachment hearing. We may not throw them off the bench, but I think putting them through the process would be a reality check and a shot across the bow because I truly believe these judges have gotten so arrogant they don’t think they can be touched.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, you know what? Well, you could say that they don’t think they can be touched. But then today and this week, you’ve actually had some victories coming out for the Trump administration. You know, it may be that a new sheriff is in town and they know it, but it’s also shows there are still even the ones who seem like they were activist judges, not necessarily voting the way you think. So, Will, though, I understand the frustration where it does feel that way. And sure, I’m sure things can get heated. But a lot of these positions, Will, are not as they seem.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, and I would caution, and it’s what we’ve cautioned, back when the Democrats decided to weaponize the impeachment process during President Trump’s first term. If they get control in the midterm, you know they’ll do it again. That’s not how the United States of America should work. And fortunately, there is an appeals process and there is the Supreme Court of the United States, which is very, I would say, friendly to the Constitution in its current makeup. I don’t know that the impeachment process for judges, especially the lower judges, district court judges, would be the right signal. Because then you’ve expanded the impeachment fights, which will just take over Congress and become the only thing that Congress does. You don’t lower the bar. Let’s not do it. Don’t lower the bar.
SPEAKER 06 :
We have one line open at 1-800-684-3110. When we come back, we’ll take as many calls as we can. So be a part of that conversation right now. And look, you’ve heard about the work of the ACLJ this last hour. We need you to join this fight. You can be a part of the team here because all of the ACLJ is funded through you, the viewer, the listener, the supporter, those that care about the media, those that care about the law, those that care about the law in Washington, D.C., and also care about New Mexico, some hospital techs that didn’t want to participate in abortions. Or maybe that street preacher in Chicago. And maybe that could be you. But we can’t be here without you. So I’m going to encourage you right now to become an ACLJ champion as we head into break. We’ll just take about a minute break. You can do it during that. Give monthly. Scan the QR code. Join the over 20,000 people who have become ACLJ champions. We need your support. Creates a great baseline. We’ll be back with your calls and comments right after this. Okay. We’re still going to take some calls. We got Rick Grinnell joining us via phone right now. Rick, there’s been a lot going on. You also have Attorney General Bondi. After we saw really what happened yesterday in Israel, just the tragic visuals that came out of there, saying that we’re not going to tolerate these anti-Israel student protesters that are here on visas, that they are not a part of what we want in America right now. This is a really interesting development. Obviously, we’re not talking about American citizens protesting. We’re talking about people here who are disrupting and are causing real violent chaos in the streets.
SPEAKER 03 :
Look, we cannot have a country that doesn’t follow the rule of law. The rule of law is pretty simple. We have immigration laws. We have a state department that enforces visas. We have an interview process at the state department. If you want to come into our country, you’ve got to prove that you’re actually going to go back to your country. And when we have people that just completely ignore the rules, come through the southern border, break our immigration laws, and then we have a system where we say this is a sanctuary city, which means we’re going to… Oh, I think we may have lost Rick.
SPEAKER 06 :
We’ll try to reconnect with him. While we try to reconnect with him, let’s go ahead and take a phone call. Let’s go to Daniel in Texas. Daniel, you’re on the air. Daniel, you there? Good morning. I have a question on the… Yes, can you hear me? We can. Go ahead. Can you hear me? All right, let’s put Daniel back on hold. Daniel, I’m sorry, buddy. It just seems like it’s not working. We’re going to try to reconnect with Rick Grinnell here in just a moment. We’ll see if we can get to you.
SPEAKER 07 :
Daniel’s question was, though, will Doge audit the VA, the Veterans Affairs? And there are already works that they are looking into every government department.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, conversations are happening.
SPEAKER 07 :
That is to answer your question, Daniel. Yes, it does appear that they are looking into that. I know that a lot of veterans have questions about the way that the Veterans Affairs Department has operated. And that is one thing I think as a country that everyone should be in favor of. It should be bipartisan. We have to look out for and care for our veterans.
SPEAKER 06 :
right i think rick’s joining us rick i wanted to take a minute also and discuss uh the confirmation of your friend cash patel i think people put a lot of weight especially our listeners and when you put uh your support behind something and you put your support behind cash as someone who seemed pretty close you even put up a a meme it looked like from wicked you did like a wicked parody meme there it is it says uh you’re gonna be popular with cash with you whispering to him laughing a funny moment uh But also, it seems like this is somebody that you’re behind and you have been behind. Who’s going to be confirmed later today?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, he got confirmed and he’s going to be sworn in later today. Yep. And it’s pretty exciting. I mean, Kash Patel is going to be, I think, the greatest FBI director because he’s not about protecting his elites. He’s not about trying to find… you know a political prosecution he is literally somebody who has been a prosecutor and a a defense attorney he knows both sides and he’s going to look for what is the right thing to do he’s already told me that he’s going to concentrate on the fentanyl crisis and the crime rate and and homicide These are the traditional things that FBI should be doing, and yet they really became wayward. And so he’s going to bring common sense back to the FBI, safety, and I can just tell people buckle up because he’s really going to fix the FBI.
SPEAKER 06 :
I think that’s what’s interesting with Cash is that if you look at him from… the confirmation hearings you kind of saw a different guy than maybe we were used to seeing for the last few years we saw a very serious uh you know well-spoken guy he was obviously very serious well-spoken it’s also kind of an entertainer kind of a brand guy he saw him on rumble a lot he was hanging out with my buddy john rich he was a definitely a character so maybe that name when people first saw it they thought really that’s who we’re gonna put up and then you watch those confirmation hearings and you couldn’t help get behind him and think, this guy is smart. When you’re talking about the fentanyl crisis, that is a crisis that has touched just about everyone in this country. And it’s just gotten out of control. And so to have him say that is going to be one of the first things I’m working on, it’s a breath of fresh air for a lot of us.
SPEAKER 03 :
I say this with all affection. Cash is a normal person. And most normal people, at least the people that I know, they can let their guard down. They can be funny. They can go to music shows. They can like different things on the weekend. But when it comes to their career, they’re serious people. who want to get stuff done. And that is what Kash Patel is. He is a normal guy who’s going to bring common sense to the FBI. Here’s one thing. Should FBI agents be fit enough physically to be able to chase down the criminals? Absolutely. And yet we have lowered the standards at the FBI when it comes to physical fitness. Cash is going to bring that back. He’s going to make sure we get rid of people who are doing desk jobs and get them out solving crimes. I can’t wait to see what he does.
SPEAKER 07 :
Rick, I know that a lot of people have been watching CPAC this week, which has almost been a different tone, I’d say, than what CPACs have been over the last four years because it’s very celebratory. And we’re actually seeing the vice president and cabinet members and President Trump all speaking to the base and speaking about things that they’re going to get done and What is what’s your take on the feeling in the movement within conservatives in the United States right now as we watch this unfold?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I’m here in Washington, D.C. at CPAC, and I have to say there’s incredible energy. There’s people who are here to talk about solutions. You know, when you’re in the opposition, you are all about criticizing what’s going on. But when you’re in control, you’re about solutions and ideas. And that’s exactly what we’re seeing from this CPAC. The American public, they’re also seeing an incredible pace. that President Trump and his cabinet are doing right now. They’re getting things done. They’re trying to make sure that they made promises to the people during the campaign, and they’re trying to deliver on those.
SPEAKER 06 :
All right, Rick, thank you so much for joining us. Enjoy your CPAC. We’ll let you go. Thank you all for listening today. I’m sorry to John and Adrian. We’re just not going to be able to get to your calls today. You had some really good comments, but unfortunately we just ran out of time because Rick’s connection issue there. So if you want to call back on Monday, we will do our best to get you to the front of the line because I know you’ve been holding for a little while. With that, I would say thank you so much for listening this week. I know it has been a busy week for a lot of people, whether you’re dealing with the weather, whether you’re dealing with stuff at your home or school, but you tuned into us. You became a part of this family, and I want to encourage you to do that right now as you head into the weekend. Become a member of the ACLJ. Become an ACLJ champion if you can. And the difference is a champion gives on a monthly recurring basis. You can also become an ACLJ supporter just by making a one-time donation and know that that really does a lot of work as well. So being a champion, great. I’d love to see more. We’re at 20,000. I’d love to see that doubled. I’d love to see our whole baseline be covered by those of you who become ACLJ champions. But right now, I just encourage you to donate however you can. And if you’re brand new, I’m going to ask you to just hit that subscribe button. If you’re watching on YouTube or Rumble or Facebook, however it is, if it’s like, subscribe, whatever it may be to follow along what we’re doing here. We do a show each and every day, Monday through Friday from 1 p.m. or from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. Eastern time. But we also put up incredible content. Our team here does an amazing job, whether that’s the written word on ACLJ.org, whether that’s more great YouTube content, Rumble, Instagram, however you find your social media, you can find us there. So I encourage you, if you’re brand new, that’s a great way to get involved. We’ve got petitions. You can get involved so much. We’ve been engaged in so many issues, including if you’re a pro-lifer, we’re engaged in 182 pro-life legal matters over the last year. And this is a big moment right now. So take action with us. Become an ACLJ champion if you can. Again, a couple victories that already happened just this week. We sent a demand letter to Hospital of New Mexico. Boom, handled. Five techs received opt-outs for participating in abortions they didn’t want to do. Of course, you heard about that street preacher this morning. We walked in with the facts into court. Got it thrown out. That’s what we do here at the ACLJ. We get things done. It’s not just about talking. And you want to be a part of that. I know you do. So we’ll be there for you when you need us. Go to ACLJ.org today. We’ll talk to you again on Monday.
