In today’s episode of Sekulow, we delve into the breaking news of the FBI’s successful raid in Woodbridge, Virginia, leading to the arrest of a top MS-13 leader. This significant action showcases the Trump administration’s resolve in tackling organized crime quickly and effectively. Listen as we hear from key figures like Pam Bondi and Kash Patel, who monitored the operation live and share their insights on this remarkable victory for law enforcement. Beyond the arrest, we engage in a broader discussion about the impact of such achievements on local communities and immigrant populations. We also tackle the role of
SPEAKER 07 :
We got breaking news. Kash Patel unleashes the FBI in a secret successful raid.
SPEAKER 09 :
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 Sekula.
SPEAKER 07 :
Welcome to Sekula. We do have some breaking news and a successful raid that happened this morning in Woodbridge, Virginia, out in the suburbs outside Washington, D.C. One of the top leaders of the MS-13 gang, again, a major… leader in drug trafficking, was caught. And now, again, this is a statement from Kash Patel, who posted, I can now confirm that earlier this morning, law enforcement personnel arrested a top MS-13 leader in Virginia. Outstanding work from AG Pambandi, our brave agents, and our partners. This is a massive victory for a safer America. Justice is coming. This, again, was a big moment also. They were there live. Pam Bondi and Kash Patel were monitoring it live. There’s incredible imagery of this happening. Unfortunately, this, again, happened in a suburban area. They said lots of Easter decorations up, family area. You’ve been to Woodbridge many times, especially if you’re driving to Washington, D.C. It’s kind of on the outskirts of Washington, D.C. And this top leader, what they’re saying, an alleged top East Coast leader, was only 24 years old. And that shows you really what’s happening with these gangs that are coming in. Knock, knock, knock at the door. And there are the FBI and everybody coming to arrest this leader. And this happens again, a successful mission that happened this morning. And it’s something that we can at least look at and go, okay. Government action, things are getting taken care of. Even Bernie Sanders said, you know, the fentanyl crisis is something that he wants to agree with President Trump on and agrees with President Trump. And I believe right now, Pam Bondi is speaking. So let’s make sure we’re monitoring that. Hopefully we can grab a sound bite from her of what she’s talking about specifically there. She’s in Manassas, Virginia.
SPEAKER 10 :
That’s right. And we actually do have some sound from her, from a presser that they gave right after this. And I think we should hear from the attorney general right now. This is bite two.
SPEAKER 03 :
This morning, one of the top leaders of MS-13 was apprehended. He was the leader for the East Coast, one of the top three in the entire country, right here in Virginia, living half an hour outside of Washington, DC. He is an illegal alien from El Salvador, and he will not be living in our country much longer. He’s in custody this morning. One of the top leaders right here near our nation’s capital.
SPEAKER 07 :
And again, that is from Pan Body. And when we say Manassas, Virginia, it is essentially a suburb of Washington, D.C. And this is what’s happening in the suburbs. Of course, that means that could be happening in your backyard as well. And again, I don’t want to put this too lightly. There should be a lot of information that you get from this. one is that sure we’re able to catch an ms-13 leader right now that also means a few months this is just a few months into a trump presidency the trump administration which means things are being taken more seriously and this is able to happen i mean we’re watching kash patel they’re live talking about this early early this morning this happening uh this guy 24 years old, there with a family inside the apartment. He was the only one arrested. But again, they was there with children. A scary thing to happen. I’m sure if you are one of the members of these families, if you don’t know, this is what’s happening under your nose as he’s apprehended at 24 years old. And one of the major leaders, again, of MS-13. And maybe if people don’t know MS-13, again, this is one of the big drug trafficking organizations, big trafficking organization that you hear about all the time.
SPEAKER 10 :
That’s right. And once again, I want to reiterate what you said. This is only two months into the presidency and they were able to get one of the top three leaders of this gang. And we’re going to talk about it in the next segment with Rick Grinnell, what it means now that we have law enforcement actually going after the bad guys again, shutting down these operations and how quickly they were able to do this. They were able to get this operational intel and be able to execute this with no one getting harmed. And now they have someone in custody. I mean, it’s remarkable that it happened, but it also begs the question, what was going on the last four years?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yep. Phone lines are open for you. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Action is happening. 1-800-684-3110. Once again, 1-800-684-3110. We only got a few days left here at our March Life and Liberty Drive. This is the time where we urgently need your tax deductible gift. Give now and your donation is doubled. Scan that QR code. Take your calls coming up. I’m Rick Grinnell. Welcome back to the show. Rick Grinnell is joining us live. Beautiful shot, by the way, Rick. It looks amazing right now. But of course, we are celebrating in some ways because these are the big moments that happen. This is what we’ve got to be paying attention to because when you have a change in administration and you want to see proof that things are getting done differently, here they are. This morning, around 6 a.m. East Coast time. You had Kash Patel, Pam Bondi in there making this arrest with their team, of course, of this MS-13 leader. Again, only 24 years old, one of the leaders. You’ve got to understand what we’re dealing with here. One of the East Coast top leaders of MS-13 captured at his apartment, arrested, and this is showing the success and that we are not going to take this lightly. I mean, even Bernie Sanders said… I appreciate what president Trump has been doing in the Trump administration on fentanyl on border security, because these are things that we have to make sure we’re cracking down on. And here’s the proof.
SPEAKER 06 :
Look, one of the things that I thought was really remarkable this morning here, the governor of Virginia, he’s been trying to do things like this for three years and he didn’t have any cooperation from the feds. Now the cash Patel is there. Now that Pam Bondi is there, They’re getting cooperation and we’re going through and digging in and finding these sleeper cells of gang members who wanna do nefarious things to the United States. This is what we have to do. This is tough work. This is trying to use intelligence to dig down, find out where people are, find out where they live and go get them. Yes, it’s disruptive. Yes, it’s going to be loud in these communities when you go in and do something like this, but it makes our communities safer These individuals never should have been in our country. They are in our country because of the Biden administration. We now have to dig deep, find them and get them out. This is a gang member. The governor of Virginia has been trying to get out for years. And now under the Trump administration, we got him out.
SPEAKER 10 :
Rick, something I saw in these hearings, the global terror threat assessment hearings that have been going on this week, both in the House and Senate, that obviously got hijacked by the Atlantic story. But normally what we’d be hearing about is the work of the law enforcement and the intel communities around things like this. And one thing that was probably missed by a lot of people, because all the clips and everything showed on the news is about the Signalgate scandal as they’re trying to make it. But I heard a member of Congress ask Kash Patel or basically put him on notice and say, hey, if when there’s a terrorist attack in this country and you’ve been wasting your time on illegal immigration, we’re going to hold you responsible. And one, the assumption that the FBI and Kash Patel is not able to, you know, chew gum and walk at the same time of being able to track terror threats in the United States, as well as this type of thing. But this proves that law enforcement is once again doing their job. And those on the left don’t seem to understand that this is real police work. This is real FBI work. This is a dangerous, now designated terrorist organization leader living in the United States here illegally. They may want to say that’s policing the border. But in reality, this is fighting violent criminal gang and terrorism crime in this country.
SPEAKER 06 :
Look, I was watching how this was unfolding at the press conference on TV. I was flipping back and forth between Fox and Newsmax and watching this, and I flipped to CNN this morning. And CNN was not doing this story and was not talking about the state and federal law enforcement action to get rid of the leader of MS-13 from the East Coast. Instead, they were reporting on European soccer. And I thought it was really unconscionable that we’re trying to dig deep and root out individuals in our society that are making our society less safe. And the mainstream media, CNN, is disinterested. And this is an outlet that is the first one to complain when there’s something going wrong. But yet when there’s something going right, when you’re trying to fix some of these problems, they don’t even show up for the press conference. This is a press conference with the US attorney, the FBI director, the attorney general and the governor of Virginia. I would argue that CNN purposefully decided not to talk about this good news because all they wanna do is talk about bad news. This is not the way you run a society. The media have got to start doing their job. And that means covering the good news and the bad news.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, I think you’re right. And when we were flipping through, obviously, we have all the screens up of all the news services doing this morning. And when we were watching this, obviously, Fox had it. I think even MSNBC had it for a second. And then right in the middle of CNN, and they were saying it’s opening day for baseball, which means great. You know, I mean, celebrate opening day of baseball. But you are right. These are big moments and we can’t just let them slide by. And of course, it doesn’t fit their narrative. And look, we see a lot of comments. I mean, you look online, you see a lot of comments, even from sort of your fans. right-wing influencers who maybe who knows how who they’re being influenced by they have a lot of issues with Pam Bondi with Kash Patel they’re making these statements louder and louder but the proof is in what they’re doing and I think when you look at this you go okay there are days where you can wake up and though like you said it’s disruptive in this neighborhood Woodbridge very suburban area they said most of the neighbors had you know Easter decorations up But likely this, like you said, was a known threat. This is something the governor wanted to go after and just has never been able to actually get it done because of the narrative, really.
SPEAKER 06 :
One thing that we will never know, Logan, never know. what the next crime that this gang leader was going to commit. The Trump administration stopped something from happening in the future by getting this leader out. And we don’t know what that is, but I can tell you that it was certainly a vicious crime if you look at the history of what MS-13 has been doing. Today, we are safer by having this individual caught. He never should have been in our country. But because of the Biden open borders, he was he was like a sleeper cell sitting and waiting. And Kash Patel and Tom Homan and Pam Bondi and the governor of Virginia worked together to get him.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, and to that point also, Rick, you bring up that we’ll never know what was stopped, what that next crime was, what that next tragedy for that community anywhere on the East Coast would be. And it’s kind of like the old… saying that, you know, the CIA, you only know when the CIA has a failure. You never know about the victories and the things they stop. It’s similar here with the FBI, except for you can showcase these wins, these victories. And when I just think about… How when you talked about CNN showing soccer, not showing this during the press conference and the reality of this is the FBI doing the FBI work that they should have been doing all along. This is the reform of the agency already just two months in. This isn’t a press conference about, you know, we are investigating parents at school boards. This isn’t a press conference saying, you know, we are looking into these narratives of Russian interference. This is a press conference of doing the actual job that they’re mandated with doing successfully. And they were able to get this leader only two months in to this administration. When it makes you wonder what was happening for four years. That they were able to get him so quickly.
SPEAKER 06 :
A brutal gang leader was taken out of our country because we had people that were looking at the intelligence and making it a priority. If you don’t make it a priority, you’re going to have brutal gang leaders in your community just lying and waiting like a sleeper cell ready to act. But instead, we said, no, you’re not welcome in our country. We’re going to arrest you. There’s more to be done, and people just need to buckle up because there’s a lot more to be done.
SPEAKER 07 :
Thanks for joining us again. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. As we head into the next segment, I am going to take some of your calls. We’re also going to talk about the coverage of NPR and PBS, how they were having some interesting conversations, Will, with some of the GOP lawmakers as they discuss what future funding… from the federal government looks like for public broadcasting. Again, phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. But I wanted to take this last minute and a half in this segment before we go to break to remind you, we only have four days left in our March Life and Liberty Drive. This is a time. Look, this is it. Countdown is on for the month of March. Again, the month of March, we focus on life and your donations are doubled. Again, right now, in the past 12 months, here’s just a little bit of a list of what we’ve done. 186 pro-life clients, cases, briefs, and demand letters. 186 just this year. 218 free speech matters, 92 religious liberty matters, 153 actions battling the deep state, and hundreds more on individuals and world leaders. Remember, the ACLJ team is all over the world, whether that’s our European affiliate, the ECLJ, ACLJ Jerusalem, where Cece Heil is there right now, and she was just waiting to depart the airport in Israel right now when those real-time missile threats came in. and had to do what you have to do when those moments happen. We’ll talk to her about that, I’m sure, next week. But we’re aggressively fighting also at the Supreme Court. We are so involved in every big issue that’s happening right now, and we are still short of our goal. It is a really important time to support the work of the ACLJ. Again, your gifts are doubled. Dollar for dollar. 25 becomes 50. 50 becomes 100. So I encourage you to go to ACLJ.org right now or scan the QR code on your screen. Again, four days left. We need your help. Can’t do this show without you. If you hear sponsors in your local area, that is not going to us. That’s going to the local stations or to the network, and that’s fine. But that’s not going to us. We are on the air because of people like you. We’re going to talk about PBS, Will. We’re going to talk about NPR. Like what you did there. Listeners like you. So we don’t have those big foundations dropping us those checks. We just have people like you who say, hey, I can do this at a $10 level, a $20 level, $100 level. So do it right now and have your gifts, tax-deductible gifts, doubled. Phone lines are jammed. We are going to continue that conversation that we had about Kash Patel and the MS-13 arrest because we had so many of you call in. I want to make sure we get to those calls. But we’re also going to talk about the PBS and NPR funding and what that’s looking like. As someone, Will, you know, you worked at NPR. It’s true. And as someone that has ingested a lot of NPR and PBS content over my life, I’m totally in favor of their content if it could become… know i don’t know a little bit unbiased i remember i was watching with my kids uh years and years ago probably 10 years ago now and there was an episode of a show and in it it was a hanukkah special and they decided to make it all about the israel of course the israel and palestinian conflict and it was whether the birds the birds that landed there were they the original birds were there other birds that were there before these birds And I just sat there, you know, my face is turning. But hey, we got a lot of calls coming in about this Kash Patel situation, about the situation where the MS-13 leader of the East Coast, a 24-year-old, was arrested in suburban Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. Let’s take some calls on this. Let’s go to Mark in Illinois first. Mark, you’re up.
SPEAKER 08 :
Hey, guys, thank you for taking my call. You know, I want to piggyback a little bit on the MS-13 thing. One thing I haven’t noticed just yet, and I’m a retired police officer recently, Antifa. that’s the one thing too because i’m going to tell you right now guys i was in law enforcement for 33 years the tesla stuff that’s going on with the arsons and that that has antifa written all over it i was in the riots in chicago um very well organized very well planned a lot of these kids were not from illinois they were bailed out by a mysterious west coast fund kim fox uh blanketed them basically immunity I was always curious about that. They’re a domestic thing. And then with the Hamas protests recently, these kids on the college campuses, I was involved with that, too. All bought and paid for. And my question is, how do they not explain that when these kids get detained by ICE, immediately they have high-powered lawyers? How do we not… Put that to the American public. Look, these kids have money flowing from overseas, and that has to be shown to the American public.
SPEAKER 10 :
I think, Mark, I mean, I think it’s known by people that watch this broadcast that there is coordinated efforts, one, both. They are not organic protests at universities.
SPEAKER 07 :
If you see a Molotov cocktail in the year 2025, there’s a good chance that it was coordinated.
SPEAKER 10 :
It’s like, man… all these people decided to take Molotov cocktails that they all decided to, to the different locations about, no, there’s coordination within protest. I put that in quotes, protest groups. Um, yes, I agree. Especially the, the Tesla ones have very much that feel of that Antifa style. Um, and then they get bandwagon people to join on to give them cover for their activities. And then a lot of times those people are the ones that get in trouble. Um,
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, that’s what, if you really look at those protests, a lot of times, some of those people are legitimate. They’re real people that are there protesting, but they’re spurred on by some sort of funded group. We know this. We’ve seen it. They’ve been taken care of sometimes and prosecuted over it. We know that these things are happening, specifically on those college campuses. We knew that was happening. So, Mark, I get that, that you feel that way, because it does all, they do all share similarities. They all do things that you’re like, well, that feels like it’s very connected. Now, this one this morning just seems more like finally the FBI is able to do their job.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, and when you look at this as well, and back to what Mark was talking about, we know that they are starting to go after leaders of those college campus movements that were spurring on violence against Jewish students or people that supported Israel on the campus that were made to feel unsafe. So we know that that is also a part of what the Department of Justice is doing As the same time as this. And that’s what I even said with Rick. It’s like the left seems to think, OK, well, they’re going after one gang member. So the whole of FBI is focused on the one thing. They are ignoring everything else. No, they’re actually just doing the real work of law enforcement that they should have been doing all along. but weren’t doing because that wasn’t the agenda of the administration. But I think we should play Kash Patel as well before we move on topics because he gave a really solid statement about police work and law enforcement at this presser that we played Pam Bondi from earlier. Let’s go ahead and roll bite one.
SPEAKER 02 :
This is what happens when you let good cops be cops. And we’re going to continue to let good cops be cops across this country. President Trump gave us the executive decision to go after and safeguard our communities. General Bondi is our warrior of justice leading that charge. Governor Youngkin, it’s an honor to be a partner in this operation with you and U.S. Attorney Siebert. This is a mandate we have. Right now we have an American dying every seven minutes from a drug overdose. That is a national security crisis we have not seen ever before. We have a woman or child being raped every six and a half minutes in this country. We have a homicide twice an hour. No part of that metric is a safe and secure America. But thanks to the brave leadership of this administration and the folks that you see here, we are returning our communities to safety. As you heard, we took down this morning a top leader of MS-13. That is not done easily. That is done with brilliant law enforcement.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, I mean, again, that was from Kash Patel just this morning. This all took place within the last few hours. And you know what? They haven’t released the identity because you do have to go through the legal situation of releasing the identity. We already have more information about this than we do almost anything that happened during the Biden administration. And we have it in record time. Within hours, they have given you details. They have celebrated the success. They have celebrated the people who did it. This is the kind of action we’re looking for.
SPEAKER 10 :
You know what I’m ready for, though, you know, talking about the media side of it, I can’t wait to see the headlines or the commentators on CNN. And we’ll probably see Scott Jennings shut them down, you know, as he tends to do over there. But I’m ready for them to start saying, well, I mean, was he really a top leader?
SPEAKER 01 :
of MS-13.
SPEAKER 10 :
He’s only 24. Yeah, he’s young. Do we know? We don’t know the name yet, so are we certain he was a top leader or are they overselling this that they got this person off the street? Because they can’t take the win. They can’t give any credit. They’ll probably try to spin this somehow back into the signal gate thing of like, oh, no wonder Kash Patel wasn’t discussing military plans even though he’s the FBI director. He was going after a low-level MS-13 gang member. They won’t be able to just report it and say, you know what? for every single American, for every immigrant community in America, for anyone who is here legally and should live under the protections of American law enforcement and safety and that promise of liberty, this is a good thing. I want to see them say it. I just want to see them tell the truth one time on a story like this. But they can’t because it’s President Trump. So that’s my prediction is that we’re going to start seeing headlines that this wasn’t as big of a deal as they wanted it to be.
SPEAKER 07 :
Or you just have CNN deciding, you know, recovering the World Cup, as Rick said, or recovering, I don’t know, the baseball opening day, which, again, I’m excited about. Sure. Get behind it. Look, we got a minute and a half in this first half hour, and that’s it for some of you on your local radio stations. If you listen to one of those markets that only carries a half hour first, how dare they? Second, you should find us broadcasting live noon to 1 p.m. Eastern time each and every day on ACLJ.org, on YouTube, on Rumble. You just search for us. We’re there. You can find us on Facebook, on X. But again, a lot of great community happening on YouTube. Right now, we are over 468,000 subscribers strong on just YouTube alone. So be a part of that community by subscribing. But we also are in the last few days of our Life and Liberty Drive. We know some of you got to get to work. Some of you have other things you got to do right now. You’re not able to listen to the second half hour of the show right now. I encourage you to listen to it later. It’s going to be good. It’s going to be a top show. But right now, your donations are doubled during the ACLJ Life and Liberty Drive. That’s how we do this show. That’s how we do our incredible legal work. That’s how we’re able to get our team to Israel. That’s how we have ACLJ Jerusalem. That’s why we have people like Rick Grinnell. I guess we have one of the best media teams on the planet. Why? Because we’re able to afford them. We’re able to afford them because you know this message is that important. So I encourage you right now, scan that QR code. We only got a few days left and we are short of our goal. Stand up, be a part of the ACLJ team, become an ACLJ champion if you can. We got the shortest break in the show right now, back in under a minute. So this is the perfect time to make your donation now.
SPEAKER 09 :
keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekula.
SPEAKER 07 :
Welcome back to Sekula. Will Haynes is joining me as well. And look, we’re looking on all the news sources because Rick kind of brought that up. Hey, he flipped over to CNN. They weren’t even talking about this. They were talking about soccer. They were talking about opening day. Why are they not talking about one of the top gang leaders in MS-13 who was arrested this morning with an incredible act by the FBI, a really strong act by Attorney General Bondi and Kash Patel. But no, I’m not encouraging you to go to the MSNBC website, but right now, if you went to their website, guess what is not even on the front page? This story. A lot of other stories will, but this story is nowhere to be found. It was the number one story of the morning across all of television, across all of the news. It is the thing we should be talking about, our nation’s leaders, even if some reason in some weird way you disagree with it happening. This is what’s happening. Well, and of course, they do kind of disagree.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, this is the most amazing thing that I found in real time while we’re talking about, hey, the media may try to change the narrative on this. But one of the top pieces on MSNBC’s website right now is this headline. Trump is undermining domestic terrorism prevention efforts. And the sub-headline is, the administration cites national security to justify its most aggressive actions, but it’s dismantling programs to combat extremism and domestic terror. And what it’s referring to are some of the cuts in funding that they’re doing to what are called prevention programs. These are community programs where they give grants to community organizations to try to stop people being radicalized or something before they become radicalized now here is probably the most amazing sentence that i’ve read from an msnbc article because they’re talking about that he’s harming prevention of uh of domestic terror protection and and they say it’s these these prevention programming that that they’re chopping through doge it’s terrible then they have this sentence While many civil rights advocates have opposed federally sponsored prevention programming for valid reasons, it’d be a grave mistake to assume the Trump administration has moved to curtail those efforts with pure intentions. So literally, the sources they would go to, the civil rights advocates, don’t like these programs. And the Trump administration is cutting those programs. And what’s the response at the top of their website right now? One of the three articles across the top. It says, yeah, the people we normally trust say they’re bad programs, but because Trump’s doing it, it’s bad. It blows your mind that this is reality, that they could write a sentence like that and feature it at the top of their web page.
SPEAKER 07 :
We are going to continue on this discussion, but we’re also going to talk about that NPR and PBS funding. Maybe we’ll get to that in the next segment, because right now I just want to encourage you to call. We’ll take as many calls as we can on that as well. And Ronald Stainhold, we’ll get to you coming up in the next segment. Because right now, again, as we head into the break, some of you, this is our first break. This is a great time to support the work of the ACLJ. You’ve heard all about the work we’re doing right now. Look, our very own Cece Heil, who you hear on this show, senior attorney, she’s on every week. She just reported a real-time missile threat while she was waiting to depart Israel to come back to the U.S. That happened to her while she was there. It was one of the targets. This is what our team is dealing with on a daily basis. It’s not just fun, exciting radio, fun, exciting broadcasting, podcasting. No. We are here, and there are people all over the country right now, whether that’s in Chicago, dealing with those street preachers who are being arrested, or whether that’s going to Israel. Yesterday, you may remember, we were on the show live, and one of our team members got to join us live as they were originally supposed to be on the show. Then they got called to a special meeting with the president of Israel. we’re able to take a facetime call if you will with them and show it here live on air this is the work the eclj the aclj the aclj jerusalem and all over the world what we’re doing here and you can be part of that again this is the last few days you’re going to hear me talk about it a lot last few days of our life and liberty drive for the month of march which is usually focused on life and you know about that incredible campaign we’ve been running in massachusetts where hundreds and hundreds of people are searching for pro-life pregnancy resource centers in their area. And what we can only assume that means is they are at least considering life. Hundreds of children’s lives have likely been saved because of you, the ACLJ supporter who lets us get creative, lets us do interesting things and change the way people think, their hearts and minds on these important issues. We’ll be right back in just a moment. welcome back to secular i want to start this with a phone call because ronald you’ve been holding for a while ronald on rumble on line four and then we’re going to talk a little about that npr pbs situation i promise we’ll get there it’s just taking us some time i know you’re making me hold off loading our phone lines open for you though right now 1-800-684-3110 1-800-684-3110 if you have any question or comment related to any of the topics we’ve talked about today or this week i encourage you to call in because usually at the end of the show Try to take as many calls as we can. We actually, because Rick was on earlier, we don’t have a guest coming up in the next segment. So let’s hear from you. Ronald, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thank you. Thanks for taking my call. Yes. As Will had brought out earlier in the show, it says, why couldn’t they have done this earlier during the Biden administration? And the reason why is because the Department of Justice and all of the agencies were geared to trying to keep conservatives and those who are supporting Trump and watching over them and everything and even in the way of bringing all the governments to come against then candidate Trump. And so I think all the times they were just literally so myopic and close-minded that they were just not aware of how many dangerous people were coming across the border.
SPEAKER 10 :
That’s right, Ronald. And honestly, when you look at even how many lawsuits we had, I believe it was like 12. I asked our team for the number, but things that turned into lawsuits against the FBI during the Biden administration because of the weaponization of government. That’s what we saw. It was systematic. It was so many different instances of using the federal government through the executive branch, to weaponize the government for political gain. Now, the left will try to weaponize the news of what the Trump administration is doing for political gain. But going after and getting one of the top leaders of an international gang, which President Trump warned us about this gang in 2016. MS-13 was already on the rise back during his first administration, and it was one of the angles he wanted to go after. But remember… The cabinet wasn’t as amenable, I’d like to say, as it is now. And there were obstacles and there was Russiagate. And there were things that genuinely hampered the administration from doing then what they’re doing now by going after and being able to use the actual executive branch the way it should be used and allowing the FBI to do the right thing. Remember, James Comey was the head of the FBI when President Trump was elected. And what was the head of the FBI doing when President Trump was elected? Sending spies into the White House, leaking things to the press. He was asked, why did you send agents over to interview Mike Flynn? Because I could, because they were disorganized. That was the FBI then. Kash Patel’s FBI is different. What is Kash Patel’s FBI doing the first two months of his presidency? Getting top gang members off the street. This is night and day, folks, of what happened with James Comey’s FBI that was weaponized, that was politicized in 2016. Now, President Trump learned a lot in that first administration and is completely different. And now the FBI is actually doing law enforcement instead of political weaponization. I’m here for it. This is what makes America better. You fired him up. I did because when you think about the context and the history, you can’t get over how wonderful a move like this is of getting a top gang leader off the street and no one’s killed. No one’s injured. It is successful. They get him off the street. He’s here illegally. And now we’ll probably no longer be here.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, I think we’ll learn a lot more soon. They said you got to go through some of the process. But all we know is at least up front, 24-year-old. They said one of the top leaders, really one of the top bad guys, as they said, of MS-13 was one of the East Coast leaders. Again, though, 24 years old, hanging out in the suburbs of Virginia. in woodbridge virginia good barbecue in woodbridge virginia phone lines are open for you i wonder if you wonder if we ever shared a meal with this guy didn’t know because we’re sitting at the table next to you that’s what’s going on it’s pretty crazy 1-800-684-3110 to have your voice heard on the air today i would appreciate you calling in we actually have a full bank open right now because we took so many calls so if you’ve ever wanted to be on the show this is the time i know will likes that makes our phone screeners uh get a little itchy but you know what You know, it’s their job. See what happens. 1-800-684-3110. I did want to move our attention, Will, to what was going on. This was, what, yesterday? Yes. There was a panel, NPR, PBS, the top honchos of those public broadcasting services, which, again, is a bit of a misnomer. We’ll talk about that. We’re getting pretty grilled by a lot of GOP lawmakers talking about what they were funding, why they were funding. Did it feel, which you would say, quote unquote, fair? Would you feel like it felt balanced at all? And of course we know, public broadcasting… historically, and look, like I told you earlier, I have been known to be a listener of public broadcasting, because I can discern whether I agree with something or disagree with, and I can appreciate good production. And you know what, they’ve put out some quality stuff. Some of their kids’ stuff, I think is excellent. I think some of the stuff they’ve put out, some of the comedy stuff that’s happened on NPR over the years, the Prairie Home campaigns and all that, always politically left. You knew they were politically left, but I could kinda sort through it. Now, it feels like they have taken a much larger turn towards that. And people don’t really know the ins and outs of how that work. You hear public broadcasting, you hear PBS, you hear NPR, and a lot of people’s minds go to government run, government operated. But what it is, is more partially government funded.
SPEAKER 10 :
That’s right. And this is one of those fights that, to me, at the end of the day, is kind of a nothing burger for reality. Because the left makes it, you think, if you take this away, people will not have access to this media, this news. It’s life-saving. And the right, I think, to some degree, overblows it a little bit that this is 100% state media kind of operation. But what I do agree with is that The United States government does not need to be funding this. There’s about $320 billion a year that goes to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which then issues grants. It’s like a quasi-government entity that doesn’t really have oversight in particular. But it then gives grants to both public media stations and then also the production houses. And that’s NPR stations, what you listen to, aren’t owned by NPR. NPR is basically a production company. They used to only own two radio stations. I don’t know if they even own those anymore. The content they create is then licensed. Right. They sell their content to affiliate stations. And so when you look at this, though, and you break it down, NPR corporate, the company that makes All Things Considered or Morning Edition, only about 1% of their entire budget comes from federal funding. And sometimes that’s not even directly. That’s because the local stations buy those shows. Then on the local stations, any individual station may only get about 8% of their budget from the federal government, from the corporation for public broadcasting. So in reality, we could just not spend $320 billion in, And these businesses would remain. Right. There’s no reason that we should be paying for, especially because there is no conservative viewpoint. There is no balance to it. It is effectively a propaganda machine. I love the quality. I love the history. I love a lot of the content. And Will worked there. And that comes from my college internship at NPR Corporate in Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER 07 :
And I did mine at MTV Network. So you know what? We are both. You’re cooler than I. I am the nerdier of the two.
SPEAKER 10 :
We’re both working for… We went to the The belly of the beast, as they say. But one thing too, it’s like even one of my major projects while I was there was before they went into all the podcasting. I helped create the budget, the forecasting and the philosophy as an intern.
SPEAKER 07 :
Obviously, I don’t take credit for it.
SPEAKER 10 :
I like they had interns doing that work. But that was one of the projects I was tasked with. I have the Wall Street Journal business section still when the CEO, about three weeks after my internship ended, announced their plan forward because I worked on that. I like content. I like listening. I like the aesthetic. But in no world do we need to spend $320 billion on this.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, and when you have so much access to free media, whether that is online, whether that is other radio options, whether that is, again, most of them are listener supported, just like our show here, just like our organization. You can speak with your wallet and say what you want to support or not. I know Mitt Romney, I remember he got a lot of flack because he’s like, Big Bird needs commercials. You know, I actually didn’t like that thought. I think that there are some things that can be funded without the need for big commercial sponsors. That you can say, I think that this is good, it’s necessary, and I want to make my donation for it. That could be for Sesame Street. That could be for this show right here. It could be for Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. That could be for the ACLJ. You tell, essentially, the landscape of how media looks. You control that now. With your eyeballs… And of course, with your wallet. And as we head to the last segment of this show, I want you to give us a call at 1-800-684-3110. I’d like to have some more calls. Discuss this. We can talk about that. And look, I’m looking at the chat right now. It’s a lot of talk about barbecue right now, Will. It’s just a lot of barbecue talk. I’ll do that in the final segment if you want. A lot of debate of whether Virginia could possibly have good barbecue. And then there’s a whole debate over East and West North Carolina barbecue. So if you have a question or comment about barbecue, I’m not saying this is the time to call, but it’s probably the time to comment. And we can answer those on the show. Go to ACLJ.org right now as we head into the last segment and give us a call. Welcome back to Seculo. We are not just spending our time talking about barbecue. The comments are. And there’s big fights going on. There’s some territorial… It’s like the old wrestling system. The old wrestling territories. That’s happening right now. People’s barbecue. What’s your favorite barbecue, Will? Well, I mean… Oh, I put him on the spot. He didn’t even have an answer.
SPEAKER 10 :
No, I love pulled pork barbecue. I just don’t want to anger people. I love, you know, a good pulled pork sandwich. I love in Georgia when you can get the chopped pork. Okay. Georgia barbecue. And it’s like the real diced pork. I know what you’re talking about. I know. I love it. I love a good chopped pork sandwich. that’s a Georgia thing.
SPEAKER 07 :
Love Georgia barbecue, love Alabama barbecue. I’m a Memphis man. I like a Memphis barbecue. I think Memphis has the best barbecue. Phone lines are open for you. You can talk about barbecue, but that’s really not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about NPR. We’re talking about this MS-13 raid. A lot of you are talking about my necklace on the chat today. 1-800-684-3110. I’ll give you the history of my necklace. People ask it all the time. Maybe we’ll do that a little bit later if you want it. Some of the anti-Semites on there really would like to know. Let’s go ahead though and go to Devorah who’s calling in New Jersey on line two. You’re on the air.
SPEAKER 05 :
Hi guys. I just wanted to call in and give my comment about, um, the MS 13 guy that was apprehended. Um, I just wanted to, to reiterate to everyone that’s listening. Um, these people really are dangerous and I’m talking from lived experience because my parents are from El Salvador. Both my parents, my whole family, they came to the U S in the eighties, um, when they were having the civil war in their country. and um before their current president president bukele got in office my family was actually being extorted by ms and so these people really don’t care they are very dangerous and i am congratulating president trump on what he’s doing with the gangs especially specifically ms-13 because i actually had cousins that were extorting my own family um because they were in ms-13. devora i’m going
SPEAKER 07 :
glad you called in because I think people just hear MS-13. It’s almost like a boogeyman name. They don’t understand sort of the organizations that are behind these groups, that they are running this way. You’re right. The people of even El Salvador, they are working there. They are against even their own people and they are ready to act in an organized crime gang sort of way in a way that you almost don’t imagine is still happening.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, and once again, to her point as well, when the left tries to say that they are pro-immigrant And that the president’s administration is not. When you talk about people that come here legally to flee actual, you know, actual asylum seekers or get here and it’s through the regular process legally because they want to leave the extortion, the terror that’s being put upon them by things like MS-13. They’re going to be victims here, too, when you have an open border policy that allows, you know, the third highest ranking U.S. gang member to come here from El Salvador illegally. They’re also going to target people that came here legally. that are in immigrant communities or they have connections back to El Salvador, they’re gonna try to pick on the easy targets they can as well. So if you are on the left and you actually want to support immigrant communities like I think we should, then you have to be praising this move because this is supporting even the communities that may be vulnerable to this kind of violence.
SPEAKER 07 :
What’s interesting is I think that they’re not necessarily not supporting the move. They’re just going to ignore it. It’s happening. That’s what happened on MSNBC. That’s what happened on CNN. A lot of these places are just going to pretend it doesn’t happen because you can’t really argue against The fact that we were able to arrest one of the top leaders of MS-13, who was not really hiding, who was under our nose, right outside of Washington, D.C., in the suburbs of Woodbridge, Virginia. This is where that’s happening. They said there were Easter decorations around most of the other houses. And when they found him, he was there again with a family. This is a 24-year-old. This is not what you’re thinking of. This isn’t when you think of organized crime. You think of Tony Soprano. You think of these larger-than-life older characters. You were talking about what is essentially a kid, a kid that has gotten himself into a crazy situation. And of course, money is involved. Of course, drugs and death is involved. And we got to make sure that we support, like you said, these immigrant communities that come in that are amazing people. They’re doing amazing things and are bringing so much life and so much culture to our country. I have no problem with that. It is when you have these situations where you’re not able to go get at the bad guys and include that even in our own country, by the way. I’m not even just talking about immigrant communities. During the last administration, crime was, I mean, look at what’s happening in the streets in New York or in San Francisco where your storefronts have to just be closed up. A Target, a Whole Foods just has to say, you know what? It’s not even worth the risk. to be open in business in these neighborhoods anymore because there’s so much crime and crime that’s not getting taken care of. Last year, two years ago, I was in San Francisco. There are signs that say, roll down your windows and make sure you take everything out of your car. So then guess what? Your car’s not going to get smashed in because the criminals know you have nothing. Because petty crime, as they would, I guess, say, is no longer treated that way in the state of California. Hopefully now, We can make a major adjustment and a major change. And that’s what we’re shooting for. Let’s go to Forrest in California, who is an ACLJ champion, which by the way, that’s someone that gives on a recurring monthly basis, essentially a member. And how you do that is you support the work of the ACLJ. You give a donation and there’s even just a checkbox or you can go to ACLJ champions. There’s a few little perks. If you give, right now, by the way, your first month will be doubled as well, and then it will roll into that. But Forrest is an ACLJ champion, which means he gives, like I said, on a monthly basis, which is amazing. It’s incredible. And you get some perks, like being put up to number one on the phone screening list. And he is, right now, getting pushed to the top. Forrest, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes, how are you doing? One of the ways you can assess the bias of a TV or news program radio news talk show is by the ratio of the number of people on the left versus the right that they interview. I listen to NPR a lot and sometimes other leftist channels to know what they’re saying. It is absolutely striking that not only are all the hosts on NPR clearly woke slash leftist, but all those interviewed are as well. I watched an hour of CNN coverage on the last night, and the ratio was four to zero Democrats, Republicans, but they occasionally aggressively interview Republican now and then. Not so NPR. Right now, today is the time for each of us to call a Republican congressman and assist a defund NPR. They might as well do PBS, too, because it’s almost as biased.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, Boris, thank you so much for calling in. I appreciate that, and That’s a lot of sentiment of a lot of people calling in right now who feel that way. Look, I believe if you want to support NPR, you like what they do. Fantastic. I can’t say I haven’t given money. I’m sure I’ve gone to many NPR events. I’ve gone to things that are NPR related. Same with PBS. PBS, I think, does some of the best. children’s programming now again much like npr they’re not necessarily making those programs someone else is making the program they’re licensing them like a mr rogers or fred rogers foundation that’s making a daniel tiger’s neighborhood that’s not necessarily being made by pbs it’s just giving them the outlet so i think there are places you can always put your money to support the content that you like and of course i’m also going to talk about us right now because this is wrapping up the aclj’s life and liberty drive it’s happening right now And your safety and freedoms are in jeopardy right now. Around the world, we’re hearing this from Christians, from conservatives, people that feel like this. And then look at our country, it is much less. But it’s still problems. There’s still street preachers getting arrested. There’s still churches being shut down. Churches that have been meeting for 20 years on the beaches in California and told, you can’t do this anymore. You can’t meet here weekly anymore. And we’re there for them at absolutely no cost. So as we head into the final 30 seconds of this show, I’m going to ask you to put up that QR code. There you go. It’s not that I don’t want you to see my pretty face. Of course I do. But go to ACLJ.org, scan that QR code, because this is the time. There’s only a couple days left in our March Life and Liberty Drive, and you are supporting our life campaign in such an amazing way. And you know we are touching hearts. We are touching minds. And of course, we are aggressively pursuing legal action at no cost to our clients. But that is because of you, and that’s why we need your help. We’re going to hear more about what we’re doing in Israel. You’re going to hear more about what we’re doing all over the world. You’re going to hear more about Will’s favorite barbecue. He really could do that if we have your support here at the ACLJ. So I encourage you, scan that QR code right now, and we’ll talk to you tomorrow.
