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As international tensions rise, Sekulow brings you firsthand accounts of diplomatic maneuvering on a global scale. In this episode, we explore the complexities of modern governance, from imposing tariffs on neighboring countries to securing agreements with adversaries. Discover the intricate details of Tulsi Gabbard’s committee vote and how political alliances are shifting. With expert insights from Rick Grinnell, learn about the delicate balance between strength and diplomacy in the ongoing fight for freedom and justice.
SPEAKER 05 :
Another senator flips in favor of Tulsi Gabbard as a committee vote is expected tomorrow.
SPEAKER 03 :
Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Seculo. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Logan Sekula.
SPEAKER 05 :
Good Monday, everybody. This is Logan Sekula. Will Haynes joining me in studio. We got some special guests lined up later, including our friend Rick Grinnell, who you may have heard some pretty breaking news that came over the weekend that he was involved in. And the first thing I did was text him and I said, I cannot wait to hear this story. and you’re going to have to do it on air. So we’re going to talk about that as he went and negotiated a bit of a hostage release. So it’s going to be a fun one. We also have some breaking news out of Washington, D.C. as Tulsi Gabbard, who of course has been our colleague and our friend for many years now, her Senate confirmation vote sources are indicating could begin tomorrow to get it out of committee. And we had a major change in the sense of who could be voting for her. There have been a few people that have been on the line, Republicans. And this one comes from Senator Lindsey Graham, who I know, look, a lot of you have had have feelings about. I see him in the comments. He has been a friend to us here at the ACLJ and on this show for many, many years. But look, he certainly is not someone without controversy, someone who doesn’t necessarily always toe the party line in that sense, not even toe the party line, more than he would Others, however, he was impressed and he was on Fox News this weekend on Shannon Bream yesterday and made a pretty declarative statement.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right. And when you look at some of the Republicans in the Senate, especially, there are some that are seen as a little bit more hawkish, a little bit more pro-Fox. foreign interventionalism and I think Lindsey Graham definitely would fall into that camp and so some of the concerns that were being voiced in some of the reports that were out is that he may not be a solid yes on someone like Tulsi Gabbard for this nomination and we hadn’t really heard a ton from him in the recent weeks so that also led to speculation that perhaps he may be leaning no on her confirmation vote but here is what Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina had to say on Fox News Sunday with Shannon Bream just yesterday, bite one.
SPEAKER 02 :
You’re a yes on RFK Jr., assuming you’re a yes on Kash Patel. What about Tulsi Gabbard?
SPEAKER 01 :
Yes. Yeah, I’ll be yes on her. I was waiting to see what she said about 702. That’s the ability to attract foreigners overseas who may be involved in plots against the country. I actually served in a reserve unit with Tulsi. I’ve always liked her. I think a lot of her criticism against her has been really mean and off base, but I’ll be a yes now.
SPEAKER 05 :
So B, yes, thanks to the love, the stuff that’s been mean against her has been off base. And you think you may forget that Lindsey Graham served in the Air Force for many years, fairly recently. I think he was in the reserves until 2015, something like that. So somebody said, I’ve served with Tulsi. I have a couple of questions. And look, I think we should be looking for our politicians and people that support us or represent us. I think we should give them the opportunity to ask important questions. Right. This is part of the process. And he asked the one question he was really basing it on. Now, do I think that one stance should really determine whether you vote for someone’s qualifications? Probably not.
SPEAKER 04 :
but that’s where senator graham ended up and we’re happy to see that he seems to be a yes vote and i think that this vote is more important in some ways than the senator cornyn one that we saw on friday where senator cornyn put out there that he would be a yes because he believes that president trump deserves to have his cabinet senator graham’s statement is actually more endorsing that he he got what he needed from her the the some of the questions he had has been resolved and also he likes her and thinks the criticism against her has been mean and off base and he is a yes vote so that is an important move here but With reports that we’ll get into in the next segment about the vote could be tomorrow, it’s now more than ever, it’s so much more important that you get out there and sign the petition so we can let our senators know where we stand on Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, our fight on Capitol Hill to defend and to confirm Tulsi Gabbard continues on. We saw that good movement from Lindsey Graham. And of course, the ACLJ is always involved and really supportive of our friends. So sign the petition right now. ACLJ.org slash sign or scan the QR code. You can also support the work financially at ACLJ.org. If you are watching online and you are new, hit that subscribe button. If not, hit that thumbs up. Give me a comment. Of course, phone lines are open for your questions or comments related to these confirmation hearings, as well as some of the big moves from President Trump over the weekend. 1-800-684-3110. Welcome back to Sekulow. As I said, phone lines are open for your calls or questions. We head into this confirmation vote, potentially the beginning of the confirmation vote to get Tulsi Gabbard out of committee tomorrow. But we also have, of course, RFK, Will, and you also have Kash Patel, and those should be also getting scheduled very soon.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right. And what we’re seeing actually out of reports about the Intelligence Committee is that they will be holding a vote tomorrow in closed session. So the concern here is what we talked about last week, is that in a closed session vote, they may not report who voted how, and then you just get the raw number. You get how many voted for and against, and it could give some cover for some of the potentially flaky Republicans on the panel to not vote to advance her nomination in a positive way.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, so keeping their allegiance secret. Now, fortunately, hopefully, she makes it through. No problems. You know what? We move on from that fight. Do I think it’s ridiculous? Absolutely. It just shows there’s a bit of cowardness running on with people deciding. Because it also shows they’re voting against probably what their constituents want them to vote for. That’s right. That’s what it’s showing. It’s showing that you know when you’re up for re-election that this is going to be a talking point that you did not vote to confirm Tulsi Gabbard and that your own people may be upset with you. Well, then maybe you should be looking at who you’re representing.
SPEAKER 04 :
And when you look at some of the members, even Senator Lindsey Graham, who’s not on the Intelligence Committee panel, but he is a very strong national security voice within the United States Senate. So I think that his words carry a lot of weight for those other members, as well as his tenure in the Senate. He has strong relationships with some of the others that have been there a long time that he has that that seniority, that kind of statesman feeling within the Senate body itself, that he can be persuasive in conversations with some of these other senators. But I think. One of the criticisms that sometimes falls on someone like Senator Graham is that he is almost always a yes vote on whoever the president is for their nominees, because he sees the advice and consent role of the Senate very much like what J.D. Vance was saying and what even Senator Cornyn was saying is that. Unless there is some egregious real reason that surpasses just some policy differences that you should vote yes to confirm a president’s pick.
SPEAKER 05 :
Qualification and agreement on all issues is not the same thing. He often votes for the more liberal Supreme Court justices to be confirmed if their pedigree shows that they are qualified for the job. If you’re looking at someone’s politics, that kind of goes against what they should be doing. Now, I understand we’re living in a very different time in 2025 here, where you do need to ask some important questions. We do need to make sure there are some checks and balances here. But that is the situation in terms of Lindsey Graham. And I think that’s a big move. When you had, last week, some moves happen, and now you have Lindsey Graham. And he also tweeted, or not tweeted, they put that in the chat. Well, posted on X. Post it on X, people.
SPEAKER 04 :
Get it right. That must have been Will in the production team. He tends to be on my side of being historically inaccurate at this point.
SPEAKER 05 :
It is X. And this is what the post was on X about Tulsi Gabbard from Lindsey Graham yesterday. A lot of criticism against Tulsi Gabbard has been mean and off base. She demonstrated that she understands the importance of tools we need to protect our national security. I will be voting. Then all caps YES. on Tulsi Gabbard a lot of people will are asking about that secret vote because that’s not being reported very much you know in these conversations that isn’t one of those top things we’re seeing but now that that’s looking like that could be the way that’s right so
SPEAKER 04 :
the report is is that it will be a closed session on tuesday so this won’t be an open hearing or open meeting where then press is involved so i mean they could still report the tally based on the senator but the fact that they are doing a closed session means that they one probably want to have open discussion amongst the senators about why they’re voting and also it could give cover for some senators that are concerned about how their constituents would maybe feel about how they’re voting. I feel like the momentum is in a good spot, but that does not mean that we can let up the pressure right now. We have to tell our senators that they should confirm Tulsi Gabbard. They should move this favorably out of committee because there are ways that it could be moved out unfavorably to still get a vote from the full Senate because that’s really who confirms. But what this reminds me of a little bit is a famous instance of then Senator Joe Biden with Robert Bork, who was nominated to the Supreme Court. And what did the chairman of the Judiciary Committee do then? They voted him out unfavorably and really sabotaged a very well-qualified originalist judge to go on the Supreme Court. Voted him out of committee with an unfavorable recommendation. The full Senate voted and he lost that confirmation. Many times it doesn’t go that far that you lose the confirmation. You pull the nominee. However, it went that far that the name Bork has become memorialized even in the dictionary as sabotaging someone of ruining their progression. I thought that was from the Swedish chef from the Muppets. Bork, Bork, Bork. I thought that was more it. Maybe they took some liberties there. He was always a mess. But that has become a part of Joe Biden’s legacy, how unfairly he treated a very well-qualified nominee. And who did we end up with on the court? Justice Kennedy, who was very moderate and the swing vote for generations. So when the left or someone who is not in favor of sometimes the conservative president’s pick for something, sometimes you end up with something that is not really what you want as a compromise.
SPEAKER 05 :
Hey, phone lines are open. I’d love to hear from you on this. And there’s a lot of you joining us right now online. If you are new to this show, if you’ve never seen us before, I always encourage you hit that subscribe button. We do the show each and every day. Now, I’d say I usually say about half the people that watch only are brand new. Actually, I was looking at some of the data that’s shifting a little bit. We got about 75% of people returning and watching this broadcast. So that’s very cool. A lot of you are coming back each and every day. So hit that subscribe button. You can ring the bell. And make sure you hit that thumbs up and put the comment in. All those things help get this message out into more hands. And we have this fight right now for Tulsi Gabbard. This is very important that we do this. Senator Graham also… was questioned about his support or lack thereof of RFK Jr., obviously someone who has been another controversial pick, another former Democrat who shifted, just like Tulsi Gabbard was a Democrat who found that her party had left her. We saw that with RFK Jr. Here’s actually the questioning. I think a lot of you who are not very supportive of Lindsey Graham, who are not sure, what he was mainly curious about was Kennedy’s thoughts on life, thoughts on abortion, because he had been notoriously very pro-choice in his life. And Senator Graham wasn’t sure if he was comfortable with that. So let’s take a listen to that bite. That is bite two.
SPEAKER 01 :
I am now OK supporting RFK Jr. because I think during the course of the hearing, he’s committed to a Republican pro-life agenda, President Trump’s pro-life agenda, Mexico City policy, dealing with chemical abortions. So I will take him at his word. I’m comfortable what he said on the pro-life issue. He has been radically pro-choice as a person. But I do believe that as secretary, he will implement a pro-life agenda that will be pushed by President Trump. So I will be a yes. OK, but I’ll also watch every movie makes somewhat.
SPEAKER 05 :
Isn’t that what we want? Right. You know, someone who’s saying, you know, I’m gonna make sure I’m going to watch every move he makes, because historically he has been someone who is very pro choice, has moved his way. Certainly has moderated over time. Even over the last year, we’ve seen him be able to almost apologize for some of the stances he’s made before. But someone’s going to watch RFK say, look, I’ll support him. But I’m watching him like a hawk because there’s some things I disagree with. And his stance on life has been one of them. And we have seen RFK as well as Tulsi Gabbard and Kash Patel all say, hey, we are serving to serve the president’s agenda here. So this isn’t about us. This is about serving the American people and as well as implementing what the Trump administration wants. And if they want a pro-life agenda, we will see if RFK is able to accomplish that.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, and I think when you also take that statement, what is the purpose of the Congress in a checks and balances system? It is to conduct oversight of the executive branch. And so that is absolutely the job of members of Congress and the Senate is to watch very closely what the executive branch does and provide that oversight. They have the power of the purse. They’re the ones that allocate the funding to the executive branch. And that is one way they can also very directly provide
SPEAKER 05 :
uh help control the the agenda of the executive branch is what they allocate funding for and i think that’s a big point that uh senator graham was making there yeah absolutely we’re going to talk a little bit also in the next segment about the tariff war that kind of uh lit up over the weekend as you saw mexico and canada getting uh very involved we’ll discuss that with professor harry hudgson coming up we also be taking more calls if you have a question about that because look i even my some of my most conservative friends came to me and were like, oh man, I kind of wish, I’m not sure if I wanted President Trump to do all of these at one time. Are we setting ourselves up? What is this going to look like? We’ll discuss all of that coming up, and maybe you have a question like that as well. Is it too much too soon? 1-800-684-3110, or do you support where we’re going with it? 1-800-684-3110. Later on, the broadcast will be joined by Rick Grinnell, who has an amazing story to tell as he was negotiating a hostage release that happened over the weekend. I think hostages we didn’t even know existed for the most part. Certainly something that, you know, we’ve seen this administration move very fast and be very nimble and move around the world, I mean the world, to protect Americans. Again, phone lines are open at 1-800-684-3110. As you have a huge victory from our colleague Rick Grinnell over the weekend. When you have a fight to confirm Tulsi Gabbard, another one of our on-air colleagues, It is an important time to support the ACLJ. These are our friends. These are our colleagues. And they need your help. Go to ACLJ.org right now. Donate if you can. If not, sign that petition as well. That’s at ACLJ.org slash sign. S-I-G-N. We’ll be right back with more on Sekulow. Welcome back to Sekulow. A lot of you are joining us right now, so we certainly will continue that conversation about Tulsi Gabbard and her confirmation voter to get out of committee potentially happening tomorrow. And you have someone like Senator Lindsey Graham now saying he will vote for her. So that’s positive movements. But I did want to discuss what happened over the weekend. Well, Professor Harry Hutchinson is joining us in studio as well. Because the big talk, maybe around, if you’re watching the Royal Rumble like I was with a lot of my friends and maybe more conservative-leaning friends who were over, they were like, well, what about these tariffs? Is this going to cause us problems? He’s doing a lot of these right up front, all three at the same time. What’s going on here? So we want to give people a bit of history and a bit of what this is going to actually look like and, of course, what President Trump did. And there are so many of you watching right now, I’m going to say it again. Hit that subscribe button. Comment if you can. If you don’t know what to comment, just put in there where you’re watching from. That really helps me out. I love looking at that. But also, it helps get more people to see this and hit that thumbs up. Okay, those are the three things I’m asking you to do.
SPEAKER 04 :
Will? So, we’ve known that tariffs are a tool that President Trump enjoys using to get other nations to fall in line. It is… prerogative of the United States government and of the executive to find ways within their power to try and use this as a negotiating tactic. We saw a very quick trade war with Colombia just a couple weeks ago where tariffs were announced and they immediately flipped after trying to bluster a little bit back They caved and said, OK, we will take the migrants. But Professor Hutchison, this comes not with just a more smaller economy in South America. This is now with our direct neighbors. These are tariffs on both Mexico, Canada and as well a blanket tariff on China. But give a little background of what was proposed and why. And then we’ll get into some of the moves that have already happened.
SPEAKER 08 :
Absolutely. So it’s important to note that both Mexico and Canada were warned on January the 20th that punitive tariffs would indeed be imposed on both countries if they did not help the United States stem the flow of fentanyl and other forms of trafficking. Neither country moved forward, at least expeditiously. And so last Saturday, President Trump did impose those tariffs to take effect, I believe, tomorrow. And many of those tariffs are very punitive. Now, those tariffs were designed to do one thing, to force those countries to come to the bargaining table, and they worked. And so one of the things that the American people have noted, I think, is that if you indeed have a backbone, people will react. In addition to Canada and Mexico, President Trump has imposed tariffs, up to 10% at least, on China. With more to come potentially on the European community, keep in mind that Trump’s threats of tariffs have worked with respect to Colombia, Panama, and Venezuela. Also, and this is the last point I’ll make here, You should note that President Trump imposed tariffs during his first term, and yet inflation came down and employment rose. So it’s important to keep in mind that tariffs are not necessarily inflationary, contrary to what the Wall Street Journal is saying.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right. And I think if you’re reading kind of the more mainstream media, what you’ll see these days is the people freaking out, Logan, about what is this going to do to our economy? What is this going to, this is all of a sudden going to destroy everything. I thought he cared about the price of eggs.
SPEAKER 05 :
Tariffs has become a dirty word. Right. And it’s been good. So look, it’s something a lot of us have to get educated on. It’s not like we all know everything about how this all works. As Professor Hutchinson said, a lot of this is negotiating. This is a tactic to get people to the table to get it done. The difference is you actually have a and we discussed this a little bit in our prep meeting. You have an administration. that is working on overdrive right now. We are seeing mass movements and changes happening almost to the point of overwhelming the American people. Like I said, I have very conservative friends who were talking about President Trump, but they were like, this feels like a lot. It feels like a lot when you have those things happening. You have Netanyahu meeting today in Washington, D.C. A lot of this feels very frantic, but it’s really not. You have J.D. Vance in East Palestine today, visit on the second year anniversary of that horrible, train disaster, when for years you couldn’t get the Biden administration to even show up. So it is this like, aggressive rethink of how the government works and that you can take these actions and i have to say there’s a lot of you joining us right now if you are joining us about that senate vote uh we’re going to continue that conversation in the next segment as well that’s about tulsi gabbard rfk kash patel who are the senators that have now flipped in support and who do we still need to put the pressure on so i just want to make sure if you just joined us for this we are going to get back to that in just a second if you have a question about that or the tariffs 1-800-684-3110
SPEAKER 04 :
But Professor Hutchison, also, we’ve seen already, while the world within, and by the world I mean the liberal media here in the United States, freaking out about these tariffs, the very left-wing president of Mexico has already announced just this morning, right before we went on air, that She and President Trump have agreed to a deal that will be a pause in this for one month. So Mexico’s off the hook for a little bit, but they are going to work through an even more broad deal on security in trade with the United States. What happened there?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, that’s a brilliant point. Mexico has announced that they will now send 10,000 members of their National Guard to the US border. This will help stem the flow of two things, fentanyl and human trafficking. And I think there’s more to come. Now, I think the onus is on Justin Trudeau to reach a similar agreement. I suspect Justin Trudeau is in a weaker political position and so we don’t know whether that will push him to cave or whether or not he will stiffen his backbone because he doesn’t have that much to lose. But his political party, the Liberal Party in Canada, has a lot to lose. Only 16% of the Canadian people support Justin Trudeau, partly because he’s been such a horrible prime minister.
SPEAKER 04 :
And remember, he is in kind of political purgatory right now because he has resigned pending the new prime minister that will be happening at the end of next month. Yeah.
SPEAKER 05 :
I mean, I’m looking up right now and I just looked up at the news that’s on and Secretary of State Rubio right now is in El Salvador speaking. Earlier was in Panama. This is a different Washington, D.C. This is a different America in the last two weeks. And you have someone like Schumer out there being like literally holding an avocado and a Corona and saying this is price is going to go up for the Super Bowl. Can you believe it? Do you think that’s what the American people are worried about right now? This is the big issue? No, that is living in 2020. That is living in 2021. That is living in a time where the economy was doing okay, but the world seemed a bit on fire. Now, the world seems like it’s on fire and the economy is terrible. So what you have right now is movement in the last, what, two weeks? Two weeks. The President Trump’s administration has been in office. Most of these cabinet picks haven’t been confirmed yet or even made it out of committee. And we are seeing these massive moves happening. And hopefully, with 10,000 troops headed to Mexico, to the border of Mexico, from Mexico, we will stop some of that influx of fentanyls. I know it has impacted all of us. All of us directly. I’m going to encourage you right now. We’ve got a second half hour coming up. Some of you don’t get us on your local stations. Join us on ACLJ.org. Join us on YouTube, on Rumble. Thousands of you are right now. If you’re brand new, hit that subscribe. This is only a one-minute break. So stay tuned. We’ll be right back. Again, go to ACLJ.org right now.
SPEAKER 03 :
Keeping you informed and engaged. Now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 05 :
Welcome back to Sekulow. Will Haynes joining me in studio as well. We’re going to take some of your phone calls. A lot of you are joining us right now because maybe you saw that headline that the second senator has flipped the vote to confirm Tulsi Gabbard. Of course, that is Senator Lindsey Graham. Now, there are sources indicating that tomorrow could be the vote to get Tulsi out of committee. We will see what happens. Again, those are anonymous sources. But we want to support Tulsi, as I said, pray for. There’s also a lot of calls coming in about this. And in the next segment, we’re going to be joined by Rick Grinnell to tell us about this hostage release that he was able to secure that’s amazing over the weekends. Let’s go to Ray, who is calling on line one, who is watching on YouTube, along with thousands of others right now and hundreds of thousands later on. Ray, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 11 :
Hi, Jordan. Thank you very much for taking my call. Uh, it’s a multi, um, question, multiple questions. So give me time to answer, go to the end of them. Uh, I know, I know. I understand if Tulsi, uh, is not, um, uh, is given a no vote tomorrow. Uh, does she have, will she know what Republican senators vote against her? If, uh, she does know, uh, Can she tell the public? Now, you guys know Tulsi. If, in fact, I am correct and she does have this information and it does go all wrong for her tomorrow, I’m asking you guys to let her know that she can make the public aware. And I’m also making… I’m also stating that… And the people whose senators are on the fence, maybe we should contact them at this time. I’ll shut up.
SPEAKER 05 :
Ray, I’m going to start with your last question first. Absolutely.
SPEAKER 04 :
absolutely and will’s got that list that’s right one easy way you can do it is go to aclj.org sign and sign our petition and we will be getting those names to those offices but also you can call the capital switchboard 202-224-3121 that’s 202-224-3121 and here are the senators on the intel committee that you should be asking to that are in the press They are not confirmed yes votes for her. And based off some of the things in the hearing, lean towards they were a little bit more antagonistic. That’s Senator Young from Indiana. You can call his office and be polite, respectful, and say that your constituents want Tulsi Gabbard as the next DNI. Same thing for Senator Collins from Maine. senator jerry moran from kansas and this one is a little bit surprising but this is based off press reports senator lankford from oklahoma he was previously publicly you can look up on his website that he was a yes vote in supporting tulsi gabbard because of the 702 issue she gave a sufficient answer to him in private meetings now He was very aggressive on the Edward Snowden issue during the hearing. He circled back to it. Many people in the press are concerned. They may not be concerned in the press, but they are saying that he may be not as confirmed of a yes as he previously was based off his line of questioning. So I think it would be very important for people to contact Senator Lankford out of Oklahoma’s office. Very good friend of this broadcast. Yeah, been on many times. Senator Lankford has done incredible work and has worked with the ACLJ. Be respectful when you call these senators. Say, we listen to the ACLJ and we are a constituent and we want you to confirm Tulsi Gabbard as the next director of national intelligence. You have a very important vote tomorrow and the American people want her in.
SPEAKER 05 :
we want to hear from you as well 1-800-684-3110 what are your thoughts on all of this of course we talk about tariffs we can talk about uh tulsi rfk and cash and whether who’s gonna make it why they wouldn’t make it and to answer some of the other questions i know that you had we’ll get to some of those later on as well which is will she know how can we advise her some things we can talk about some things we can’t uh 1-800-684-3110 to have your voice heard coming up in the next segment rick grinnell who you know has been a part of this broadcast for many many years but is also now a special envoy he had a very important mission this weekend and when you see the pictures and you see the videos and this is members of our team that are out there doing some really amazing work and i can’t wait to hear this story from rick grinnell so stay tuned for that but again of course we want to hear from you and you want to support the work of the aclj right now aclj.org we’ll be right back in just a moment with rick grinnell Welcome back to Secular. We are connecting with Rick Grinnell now, so he’ll be on in just a moment. Let’s go ahead and take a quick phone call while we wait for that. Let’s go to Jack, who’s calling in Pennsylvania, watching on YouTube. Jack, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 10 :
Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my call. I watched an interview with Kellyanne Conway recently, and she kind of mentioned the reason why they have this barrage of executive action and tariffs and things like that is to keep the deep state media off their backs. because they can only counter a couple of things at once. Do you think that strategy is effective and will we continue to see that strategy as Trump’s presidency continues on?
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, we’ll have to see about whether they continue on. I think what’s happening right now is we’re seeing a lot of action very quickly, which is what the American people uh voted for and i think that’s a big part of the strategy here going forward and some of those things we don’t even know to expect or anticipate and now we got rick grinnell joining us and i think that’s what happened over the weekend rick i sent you a message like i can’t wait to hear this story because All of a sudden, out of nowhere, there’s these posts with you negotiating a hostage release out of nowhere for most people that probably don’t even know that these Americans were even there. So I just kind of want you to back up. I know there’s certain things you can share, can’t share. Let us know. Start at the beginning of what this story really is.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, we had two big pieces of news. And we basically and rightfully released the hostage story first, because that was unfolding in real time. We got them out of Venezuela. And that was a huge win. Their stories are emotional. It’s unbelievable. And probably the best career day of my life was meeting these six individuals on the tarmac and getting them on the plane, the Air Force plane and taking them home. But we also were able to negotiate getting a big win by having the Venezuelan government and Nicolas Maduro directly agree to take back all of the Venezuelans in the United States who are illegally here. Obviously, we have a lot of Venezuelan Americans here legally. We love them. They’re a huge part of the fabric of the United States. But for all of the individuals that have cut the line, that have come over without proper paperwork, who are here illegally, they need to be sent back. And if they wanna wait in line and try that process, they have every right to do that, but you don’t get to just skip the line and come into our country. And so we are gonna send all of them back And the big win is that the Venezuelans are gonna take them back, but not only take them back, they’re gonna send planes to come here and pick them up and pay for these individuals to go back to their country.
SPEAKER 04 :
Rick, one thing that you’ve talked about on this broadcast for years now is the power of diplomacy. And when you look at how the left reacted to the new presidency, the re-election of President Trump, that diplomacy would be over, this is going to be the end of the world again, over and over. But what we’ve seen since the inauguration on January 20th is some of the most savvy next level negotiation and diplomacy that we’ve seen in a long time in the United States. It’s actually a return to diplomacy, getting things done through talks, even talks with an adversary like you just completed. What does the American people need to know about what real diplomacy is that’s happening now compared to what we’ve seen, especially over the last four years?
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, look, I think I’ve said this on the show, Will, with you and Logan and others, but talking is a tactic. It’s not a reward. And I think we have to be very clear eyed about that is when an American shows up to speak to Nicolas Maduro, we believe the Trump administration believes that it’s a tactic to get somewhere, to get something, to represent America. And so I was there and spoke to Maduro and his team. And I said, look, You have to take back all of these people in our country that are illegal. You need to come and get them and pick them up. And there’s hundreds of thousands of them. And if they’re illegal in our country, they need to be sent back. And we want some hostages that you have. And part of this is a negotiation because these six individuals that you were just showing, they were accused of crimes that just didn’t make sense. They were accused of being spies or terrorists and you know it’s it it’s diplomacy it’s talking to show uh the the venezuelan government you’re wrong this is not true these are these individuals are innocent this is their story in and what i said to maduro i looked at him when he was saying you know some of these individuals are people who tried to kill me and tried to kill the vice president and there are are others down in Venezuela still in prison that we’re going to have to go back and continue talking about. But these individuals, I made the case to say, look, they’re not. And I said to President Maduro, if you have evidence that these individuals tried to kill you or the vice president or anything, those are serious charges that we would take very seriously. We would not want… to just free someone who was trying to kill the president of Venezuela or the vice president. Those are incredibly serious charges. However, we don’t think that that’s true. We think that you’re confusing some facts and maybe there’s some misinformation. So let’s talk this through and let’s share information. That’s how you do this. The Biden team didn’t even visit these individuals in prison. At the State Department, we call it a wellness check. If there are Americans in prison overseas, American diplomats are required to go see these individuals and say, hey, how are you doing? Are you being treated well? Raise alarms if they’re not being treated well. Let them know that there’s a legal process. Keep them in the loop on what’s happening with their family and the attorneys that they have. If they don’t have an attorney, we help them get an attorney. This is called the rule of law. And so we are constantly pushing to make sure that Americans have the rule of law. There are times that we determine that a country doesn’t have enough rule of law, that the charges are trumped up. And so we just demand the return. And we say, this is not fair. And you’re going to face consequences if you don’t return these Americans. President Trump is great at it. He understands the tools of the U.S. government. The Biden team was horrible at it. They didn’t know how to use the leverage of the United States. They didn’t know how to go down and just, you know, look at someone like Maduro and say, let’s talk. And talking is a tactic. They didn’t do it.
SPEAKER 05 :
I wanted to bring that up, Rick. And I think people are curious about this because I got to see, you know, one of your posts said you were able to almost have like Luke Skywalker. I’m here to rescue you a moment where you got to go up to these hostages. I’m here for privacy. in honor of President Trump and I’m here to get you out of here which is amazing but you almost feel that when you hear hostage and you hear I’m here to get you out this sort of you know hectic you know intense moment but you know I see these photos with you with Maduro and are these conversations I know you can’t share details conversations but in terms of tone is this you know kind of how you’ve dealt with foreign leaders before is this a respectful conversation because I believe under the Biden administration we’ve kind of were led to believe almost all of these are these big bad villains and not necessarily they’re not, but that’s how it would be if you went to go and speak to them. That you were talking with someone who was gonna be aggressive and rude and obnoxious and like I said, not diplomats. But it feels like looking at those photos, maybe it paints a little bit of a different picture.
SPEAKER 06 :
I think it’s a really good question and I welcome it, but let me just say a couple of things. One, I’m a diplomat and I have a job to do representing America. And President Trump has been amazing at showing us what our job is, which is to protect Americans and put America first and put our country first. The question that we ask every day when we wake up as diplomats, what do we do to make America stronger and better and safer? That is the only question. We’re not there to, as you know, when I was US ambassador to Germany, I wasn’t there to talk about how great Germany was, or to travel around the country of Germany and post pictures to say, these are amazing places you should come visit. That’s not my job. My job is to push America. So when I’m looking at Nicolas Maduro, I’m a diplomat. I’m representing America. It’s a different mentality than if I was in the private sector, which I think people in the private sector, NGOs, have a role to play to push American diplomats to do and say certain things. But when you are a diplomat, when you represent America and you are trying to bring home Americans, you have to have a completely different mentality. And that’s what I do when I’m looking at Nicolas Maduro.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, thank you so much, Rick, for joining us today. I know that it was a lot of seconds. I wanted to get you on and I wanted to hear this story. And we’re so proud of the work that you’re doing. We’re proud to have you still as part of our team here because it is amazing to see how quickly things can change in this country, that you actually could turn so much of this on a dime. I think a lot of us thought this was going to take time, but here we are. We only got a minute left here, Rick, but we’re able to see quick, fast action. It’s pretty amazing.
SPEAKER 06 :
Look, you look at what Marco Rubio is doing in Panama and a bit clear-eyed about the Chinese threat, not only in Panama, but throughout a region that he knows really well, the Western Hemisphere. You look at Kristi Noem this morning going into the border, up north and down south to say to the border agents, what do you need? What have we been giving you? This is our common sense leadership. J.D. Vance absolutely focused on what happened in Ohio. How do we fix that? He brought Lee Zeldin, the EPA administrator. He had been instructed by President Trump, get to work, protect America, make America better.
SPEAKER 05 :
Awesome. Thank you so much, Rick, for joining us. I’m sure we’ll have you on later this week. We’re going to take some calls coming up in the next segment, a few questions about any of these topics. And of course, that big boat coming up, 1-800-684-3110. We’ll be right back with your calls. Welcome back to Seculo, final segment of the day. But make sure you are subscribing because we always put up new content and we’ll go back live if there’s anything we really need to cover. 1-800-684-3110 because I know a lot of you want your voice heard. It’s a great time to do it. Put in a comment, put in a question. If you’re watching online, if you’re watching on Salem News Channel or any of the other networks, you can give us a call at 1-800-684-3110. 6, 8, 4, 31, 10. We’ll try to go mostly for the order that they came in. Let’s go to Martin in North Carolina, who is watching on YouTube in line three. Martin, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yes. I know you already talked about the fact that already and within the last hour of President Trump and the president of Mexico has started talking and things have been pushed off. And all of a sudden, we find from the left and everything else, the ex-speaker of the Senate jumped on things with a very feeble thing. Look at how your Super Bowl is with an imported beer that most people don’t probably drink and a fruit that a lot of people don’t like. Trying to… That fear that they’re…
SPEAKER 05 :
Sorry, you caught me off guard. Most people don’t like it. Oh, that was a very Trump thing to say. I like that, Martin. Look, we have that bite. Let’s go ahead and play that because I agree. It’s trivializing important issues and making it like, you know, it reminds me a lot of the COVID times where it was like, let’s trivialize this one moment. And you remember like, oh, delicious cheeseburgers and fries or, you know, it feels like those kind of moments where you feel like you’re being talked down to as an American. Let’s hear from Chuck Schumer.
SPEAKER 07 :
Let’s just take Super Bowl Sunday, okay? It’s gonna affect beer, okay? Most of it, corona here, comes from Mexico. It’s going to affect your guac because what is guacamole made of? Avocados, both from Mexico.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, remember what he looked like grilling? Okay, we don’t remember that. This is the guy telling you how to have your Super Bowl party. This is somebody with frozen patties. What was that?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, they were still frozen and he put them on the grill. With cheese. They said it was his first time ever grilling after they pulled it down.
SPEAKER 05 :
He’s going to grill you on what your Super Bowl party is going to be because, Martin, your avocados, your guacamole is going to suffer. And sorry about your corona. And of course, we saw what this really is, as Rick Grinnell said, as Professor Hutchinson said, we’ve said, which is these are negotiation tactics. And now Mexico’s got a little bit of reprieve and they’re going to do what? Send 10,000 of their own troops to the border, going to help stop the flow of fentanyl into this country. This is a moment.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, and I think to Martin’s point as well, what this entire issue around the tariffs on Mexico had to deal with is legitimate security for our border. This is something the Biden administration said only Congress could fix. But instead, the same party that was saying, oh, you’re concerned about your price of eggs, but he’s going to ruin everyone’s human rights. all of a sudden are now like, oh, but what about your price of guacamole at your Super Bowl party? It’s so disingenuous, especially because when you think about the real reason that now Mexico has conceded and is going to send 10,000 of their troops to the border to help, and that is compounded by our troops on the other side of the border trying to stop the flow of trafficked humans and fentanyl, which kills Americans every single day. I think you, Chuck Schumer, saying, what about your guac? It’s a little disingenuous when you are so concerned about President Trump violating human rights. He’s trying to save lives and the dignity of those trafficked by putting an end to it at the southern border. He used trade as a bully pulpit, as a stick. The carrot is we won’t do this. And Mexico, with their left-wing president, is now complying. This is a good thing for the world and for those that are disenfranchised by cartels.
SPEAKER 05 :
But what about your avocado toast? What’s going to happen to it? Your cost of brunch is going to go through the roof. Let’s go ahead and take some more calls. Sophia is calling from New Jersey on line one with a very interesting question. Watch it on YouTube. Go ahead, Sophia.
SPEAKER 09 :
Here’s my question. We have a blue state. We only have three districts that are Republican. We wonder when we call, is it a waste of time? Because I don’t think they care.
SPEAKER 05 :
Look, Sophia, you may be right that in some ways it’s that, but you never know. And also, that is also why we have that petition. You go to ACLJ.org, you can join the entire country and those will be delivered. It doesn’t matter what state or district you’re in. You are saying, I’m an American and this is how I feel. So I encourage you, that’s a good way to do it. You can still also call the offices of the ones that are on the fence and just tell them, I’m an American and I believe this needs to get done. And I will quickly, can we go through the list of those people? That’s right.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. These are the ones that are on the Intelligence Committee so that we’ll be voting if reports are true by tomorrow. Senator Young from Indiana, Senator Collins from Maine, Senator Moran from Kansas, and Senator Lankford from Oklahoma. The three, Young, Collins, and Moran, have been a lean no or unknown for a while. Senator Lankford… good friend of the aclj and friend of the broadcast was a yes publicly on tulsi he hasn’t said he’s a no but based off the questioning and some of the reporting coming out people are concerned about his vote in in the press this is this is where this information you can see so i think that is another one that you should probably be engaging with his office letting him know that you are an american especially if you’re from oklahoma that you are one of his constituents and you want to see Tulsi Gabbard as the next DNI. But once again, for everyone, ACLJ.org slash sign. When we send it to these senators, it says, here are the ones from your state, your constituents, but here is the total number of Americans that are joining the ACLJ and asking you to confirm Tulsi Gabbard. So great place to do that as well.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, absolutely. Continuing on, Andrew in New York is listening on the radio. Andrew, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 12 :
Hi. My original question was going to be about the tariffs, but you guys expertly answered those questions. So my question is, I remember hearing about in the past when American citizens were being held hostage by various factions, we would sometimes send special forces to retrieve them. And of course, that’s not always the best solution. And I love diplomatic solutions. But how has America gone to a point where We let our citizens sit as hostages for long periods of time.
SPEAKER 05 :
Andrew, I don’t even think people were aware of what was going on in Venezuela. And I’ll put myself in that camp that I didn’t know that there are these Americans that are there ready to hopefully be freed. You know why? Because the last administration didn’t talk about it at all. They didn’t visit them at all. They made us pretend that wasn’t happening. When you hear hostage right now, you’re thinking Israel. No, this is happening. American people. who are currently held hostage. And now you have someone like Rick Grinnell, a member of our team, going and getting things done quickly in a diplomatic way. It’s a wake up call. It was a wake up call to me to watch this footage. of these hostages being released and I encourage you right now to not only continue to support the work of the ACLJ because as we wrap up the broadcast today there’s a lot of new people joining us right now I can just tell with the numbers I know a lot of you are interested in a lot what’s happening and if you didn’t see what we were talking about early on it was that Lindsey Graham has said he will vote yes on Tulsi Gabbard on Kash Patel on RFK Jr. that is what’s happening right now and now there are reports that tomorrow that vote for Tulsi Gabbard will happen. Then you have, and it may happen in secret. So put the pressure on right now. Sign that petition at ACLJ.org. You also heard from our friend Rick Grinnell. We had a huge victory this weekend. He went there, freeing six American hostages from Venezuela. Again, these people have been on our team for years. And now they’re going to be able to do incredible, incredible life-saving work. So remember the type of caliber of people we’re able to bring on because you support the work of the ACLJ. So I encourage you right now to donate if you can at ACLJ.org. We’re going to be back tomorrow with so much more, of course, covering if things happen, if things change with Tulsi’s vote. I encourage you right now, if you’re watching online, hit that subscribe button if you haven’t yet and share this show with your friends. We’ll talk to you tomorrow.
