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As the spotlight shifts to the Middle East, we celebrate the release of Idan Alexander, the last remaining American hostage held in Gaza. Jeff Balaban from ACLJ Jerusalem joins us live to provide an on-the-ground perspective on this pivotal moment. Learn how the ACLJ continues its tireless work both domestically and globally, defending pro-life advocates and securing significant legal victories that uphold free speech rights in jurisdictions across the nation.
SPEAKER 02 :
We got breaking news. President Trump drops major executive actions this morning.
SPEAKER 04 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 02 :
It’s Monday. Welcome to Sekulow. This is Logan Sekulow. Will Haynes is joining me in studio. Jeff Balaban is going to be joining us live from Israel a little bit later. Obviously, we are all excited to report that Eden Alexander, the last American living hostage, has been released, as far as we’ve been told, has been released. Now, the details of that are still coming out, but we’re going to update you live from Jerusalem a little bit later in the broadcast. It was a very busy weekend.
SPEAKER 05 :
for president trump there were a lot of things going on a lot of executive actions taken and a lot of deals being announced including deals with countries that maybe were unexpected including well china that’s right so we knew that the treasury secretary and a team were going to start negotiations with china but the way this has been framed was as a a talk
SPEAKER 02 :
to begin to agree on what you could talk about when you start talking so really not much action what to bring up uh it was actually one of those ones going that’s not a whole lot to talk about right now maybe we’ll get to it a little bit down the road but uh the as president trump does clearly this was all negotiation another big tactic and things were getting done
SPEAKER 05 :
I think you have to give a lot of credit to the president for having the foresight on this, but also to the Treasury secretary who went there. And the reports are he was having like marathon sessions of like 14 hours long with negotiations with his counterparts from China. And what comes down to is that not only did they agree to a framework moving forward on how to get to a more fair trade, trade situation between China and the United States, but also that there were big moves on those retaliatory tariffs, the imbalance of trade as well, things like both sides putting a 90-day pause on any retaliatory tariffs, bringing that back down to a 10% baseline for the American side as well as from China. So there’s going to be kind of an even 10%, 10%. There’s a 30% on certain sectors from America on Chinese goods, and that is to try and combat the fentanyl situation. But that was an agreement they came to that they will… move forward on how to address the fentanyl crisis as far as China taking aggressive actions to stem the flow of fentanyl and other precursors from China to elicit drug producers. And that also this is it’s a historic thing in many ways, too, because they put out a joint statement. Now, joint statements from two countries with negotiation is a very important diplomatic thing. This is something that hasn’t happened for years between the United States and China because of the very antagonistic relationship between the two. But even that, it’s a huge diplomatic win.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, just to have essentially a press release go out saying, you know, we are doing this together. This is a positive movement. I think this all stems back to what we told you originally when these tariffs started coming in. And look, maybe some of it took a little bit longer than they expected. but not that long really in the grand scheme of things, that a lot of these moves were to just get people to the negotiation table. Because as soon as you start saying, we’re going to have 100% tariffs, we’re going to have all of this, the toys are going to be less this Christmas, you’re going to have a lot of people really upset, but you’re also going to have people ready to make a deal. And that is what’s happening right now. Also, President Trump made another announcement, one that is, look, I think pretty controversial and does not necessarily speak to those who would claim that President Trump is some billionaire conservative who only cares about money and doesn’t care about the people. This is an executive order that could cut drug costs, prescription drug costs, up to 80%. Now, what does that look like? And what does that look like from a business and economic standpoint? We’re going to talk about that when we get back. So make sure you stay tuned. And we’re going to continue the conversation as well about the U.S. and China. We’re going to be talking about some big moves we’ve had at the ACLJ, some big wins that are exciting. Looking forward to reporting you the latest from Massachusetts on our pro-life case, as well as a victory that came out just this weekend. Jeff Balaban’s going to be joining us as well, live from Jerusalem, to discuss, of course, the freeing of the last American hostage, living hostage, from Gaza back into Israel, or to see where he ends up. We’re going to find that out, of course, as an American citizen. We’re taking your calls at 1-800-684-3110. But this is a critical time. We need your support. I encourage you to go to ACLJ.org right now. Support the work of the ACLJ. We’ll be right back. Welcome back, Seculo. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. Of course, we are talking about some of the big breaking news that happened over the weekend, including we’re going to go live to Jerusalem a little bit later. So if you are listening for that, we’re going to go live to Jerusalem with Jeff Balaban, head of ACLJ Jerusalem, to discuss the freeing of the final living American hostage from Gaza. Again, that is going to be a little bit later. in the show. Right now, if you’re watching on YouTube, we are well aware, as you’ve heard us talk about, of this glitch that keeps happening. Our team is working at it. I ask you, if you’re watching right now, please hit that thumbs up, that like button, and please put in a comment. That’s going to help get it back in people’s feeds. We would appreciate that. But Will, the breaking news out of this morning are a couple different things. One, We talked about what happened in China, and now we’re also going to continue that conversation. But we also want to talk about what’s happening with U.S. drug costs, because what essentially the president has laid out is a favored nations policy, which would say, hey. If other countries are paying so much less, significantly less for their same prescription drugs, we want the same deal. We want to get favored nations for anyone who’s worked in any kind of business like that. Let’s say Will signs a contract with a company and I come in and say, whatever Will gets paid, you can’t then go offer him or offer me less than what he’s getting paid. So similar idea, but now we’re talking about for the government and we’re talking about drug costs. Now again, This is not Big Pharma. This is not super lobbyist conservative, it feels like. This is another moment where you go, President Trump always kind of has his toe both in this world of economic conservatism, but then we’ll pull something like this where it shows there is this humanitarian element where he kind of says, I don’t care.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right. And there was a shocking statistic offered during the announcement of this that the United States has less than 5% of the world’s population, yet funds roughly 75% of global pharmaceutical profits. Let that sink in. 5% of the world’s population is funding roughly 75% of global pharmaceutical profits. Now, I’ve heard nonstop since the election that he’s in the pocket of big business. He’s in the pocket of big pharma. He doesn’t care about everyday Americans. He’s going to destroy Medicare. He’s going to destroy Medicaid. He’s going to destroy Social Security. Your drug prices are going to skyrocket. Every single line… from the left when it comes to the persona of President Trump is false, especially when you look at the action taken today. Once again, as you mentioned, Logan, it doesn’t come across as a very traditional Republican conservative move, but what it is is an America First move. It’s a narrative buster, and it’s really quite fascinating. They’re also going to set up a mechanism where through the Department of Health and Human Services, which I thought was just being completely dismantled and terrible for America, it’s what I’ve heard multiple times, but that it’ll have an option for American patients to buy their drugs directly from manufacturers who sell them to Americans at most favored nation price, bypassing the middlemen. You know who’s going to be very upset about this? Not seniors. are going to get a large cut in the price of their prescription drugs people who are on fixed incomes people who are on medicaid they’re not going to be upset about this the drug companies are going to be upset about this the pharmaceutical reps are going to be upset about this because the the system of prescription drugs in america i think every single rational human being would say is a very broken and flawed system.
SPEAKER 02 :
Even the advertising business of it. You got to think about, like, you go to no other countries in really the Western world, I’d say, is every ad break you see on television, every ad that you get served on social media, you know, the prescription drug of choice with all of the 4,000 side effects. It’s not how it works in those countries. And you may say, Logan, we don’t want that. We don’t want a control of these businesses. The problem is they’ve gotten so big and so out of control that they dominate You know, my kids could probably sing every jingle to every sort of medicine under the planet right now just because of the ads they get served. I mean, the ads they see are watching, you know, American Idol and they’re singing, you know, Ozempic. You know, like it’s hilarious to see or they’re singing a greatest showman parody to, you know, any of these songs. It’s unfortunate that that’s where we’re at, where that’s dominating, but that’s also part of the business that we live in. Hopefully, this could actually help that as well because maybe there’d be less money needed to be spent on these advertising. Maybe we don’t have to go ask your doctor about blank. Maybe your doctor actually should just know and be able to prescribe it.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and I think that the American people, if you followed even things like the opioid crisis and you saw how that played out, how it was the advertising, it was shady practices by big pharmaceutical companies and how that really has wrecked havoc. on on rural america on working-class people on people that were preyed upon by pharmaceutical companies by pushing a miracle cure which ended up destroying lives across this country all of that was big business and i mean i’m i’m very conservative i am for free markets But I also understand that what is happening in the United States, whether it comes to trade, whether it comes to the way that the pharmaceutical industry, which is given much favoritism by the federal government and the FDA and things of that nature historically, that that’s not really free enterprise. What we have in the United States is not a classic free enterprise system where the best rises to the top because demand for it is the best. We have a very manipulated economy. And when you see moves like this, that the president is trying to lower cost of medications, This should be something that is being praised by the left because this is straight out of what they say they really care about. Now we’ll find out if they really care about it because they will find a way to attack him, demonize him, say he doesn’t have the authority, probably file lawsuits.
SPEAKER 02 :
We are going to see the legalities of it, I think, which is a little different of an argument. Look, I’m not saying the left should be making that argument. It’s ridiculous. But I’m saying that in general, we have to see if this executive action is legal.
SPEAKER 05 :
Is it really what can be done? I also saw Ro Khanna tweeted out that President Trump should work with him and Bernie Sanders to get something like this legislatively through. Now, I don’t think the House of Representatives is going to fall in line on that. Maybe they will, because they have been very receptive to President Trump’s plans. But if you could see a breakthrough bipartisan situation on the pharmaceutical prices issue, I think that would change a lot of the narrative. And it’d be hard to argue with a lot of things.
SPEAKER 02 :
If you have Bernie Sanders and a California Democrat together.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right, saying, oh, he’s an authoritarian, he’s a dictator, he’s lowering our drug prices. what are you going to do with that he’s working with the other side on something the fact of the matter is is most of the time why he doesn’t work with the other side is because the other side refuses to do anything with the president now I’m not saying that they should change their ideas or that conservatives should change their their principles however when you see something like this which I think that most Americans should celebrate in some form or fashion it will be very telling what the response is out of The Swamp, Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, absolutely. There are phone lines open for you at 1-800-684-3110, 1-800-684-3110. I’d love to hear from you on this. As you have these kind of big moments, when you have a packed weekend, when there’s all this news, whether it’s a deal with China, and obviously we’ve seen now the drug prices, we’ve seen Eden Alexander get freed. These are some big wins, if you will, for President Trump that also leads to a soaring stock market. Obviously a response to what has happened, again, in a system that’s kind of broken, And a system, though, that is responding to the breaking news.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right. And once again, that is almost a negotiating tactic as well. It’s not as if all the tariffs with China have been taken away. They’re still at that 10 percent baseline and some things will be hit with the 30 percent tariff. But it is come down from 148 percent or whatever it was up to at the time. But it also shows that the market responded well to that. There is diplomatic workings between China and the United States. And that is something seen favorably by the market. There’s a positive outcome already early in this story. And I think you can take all of this as a negotiating tactic. You may not like the way he negotiates. You may not think that it’s gonna end up being the best deal, that’s fine. But what you can’t deny is that there is legitimate movement in a way that we haven’t seen for years. We haven’t seen anything between a US administration under President Biden and his team, that looks like this kind of diplomatic solution that we’re seeing with China. Now, you can’t trust China. You have to trust but verify. You have to go through all of those things. You have to play hardball many times. And I think the Treasury Secretary has done a magnificent job in this. He’s very even-keeled and just kind of straight facts, not much of spinning or giving political talking points. He’s just very on the face of it. But I think… that this can be a very good thing not just for the united states but the world if we can see a de-escalation of tensions between the us and china find a way that america isn’t being robbed blindly by china going forward and then we can put in real things that can help protect american manufacturing help protect american farmers help protect american business that has been so exploited by the chinese trade policies for decades
SPEAKER 02 :
All right, like I said, phone lines are open at 1-800-684-3110. I want to hear your calls and comments about all of this. In the next segment, though, we’re going to talk about some big wins that have come out of the ACLJ, some wins and some that continue on. Because, of course, not every victory, that’s the end. But look, it’s good to celebrate. We’re going to be celebrating, celebrating for life. We got a big update from Massachusetts, which I know you’ve been caring about and wanting to hear about. We got that coming up in the next segment. And then later on, live from Jerusalem, ACLJ Jerusalem, Jeff Balabons will be joining us to talk about the freeing of Eden Alexander, the final American living hostage from Gaza. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Seculo. Phone lines are open for you, as I said, at 1-800-684-3110. I wanted to brief you, though, before we head back into sort of the breaking news elements. These are breaking news in the world of the ACLJ, which, again, if you’re brand new to this broadcast, you’re brand new to what we do here. The ACLJ is our legal operation that runs here. You hear this show. This show is about what we do here. Obviously, we cover breaking news. We cover what’s going on, but we also are in court. We are in court every day. There is an incredible team of lawyers who have been together in different iterations for nearly 35 plus years at this point. And they do amazing work. And they do amazing work based on a lot of the topics that you care about the most. And we’ve gone over what we’ve done in Massachusetts now for the better part of a year. And this process takes some time. Well, as you know, our team, if you listen every day, our team was in court last week as the other side, the state of Massachusetts and the pro-abortion side of it was trying to get our case just thrown out. And not only did that not happen, There was actually some really great moments that lead us to at least believe that things are not done yet.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right. Actually, fascinating because these things happen in real time. Some of these updates today almost feel like a courtroom drama that you would see on TV. But that we, at the beginning of last week, received information from the state of Massachusetts. We did the equivalent of a FOIA request under the state sunshine laws. And we received a production at the beginning of last week that had things that would further establish the deceitful nature of the state’s campaign against pregnancy resource centers. That wasn’t in our original complaint because we were fighting to get it. Then in that hearing on Thursday of last week, our attorney who presented Olivia for went back and forth with the judge almost for an hour and a half during that hearing. And when she presented that, you know, we have more evidence that has been uncovered. that really got the judge’s attention and even when the other side the side the defendants the abortion industry in the state were pushing back saying this shouldn’t even be here to begin with the judge commended how well our attorney presented this case and so this is a up front early victory in this case this was the defendants the state and the abortion industry trying to get it thrown out of court with this motion to dismiss The judge was intrigued by the new evidence that we have that obviously wasn’t presented there fully in that sense. It was just, here’s what we’ve gotten. And so what he said is amend your complaint. File leave to amend your complaint. I will grant it. And this entire motion to dismiss is moot right now. Means it’s done. Now, the other side will have an opportunity now that this new complaint is filed. It essentially starts at the beginning. They will try to have it thrown out again. But it’s very good that we have overcome that first motion to dismiss. And the judge is at least interested in seeing what’s in there. And that’s a very good sign for our attorneys and our clients.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, I think it’s important to know that our attorneys are out there thinking 10-dimensionally, if you will, of how they could possibly win these cases when you know you’re going up against Massachusetts pro-choice activists a lot of times. What does that look like? Well, hopefully you find a favorable judge, which looks like we may have at least found a fair judge. And we’re able to continue these cases forward. I think it’s a big deal. It’s a big win. Congratulations to our team. Not a win just yet, but at least a win in the sense that it’s certainly not over. Of course, if we had lost completely, it’s not over either. We can appeal. There’s a lot of options we’re going to do. We can take this thing all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States. And with your support, we will. That is why we always ask for support and donations. None of this is being funded by major sponsors or big grants that come in. That’s not how it works here. I’d say 99.9%. of the funding that comes to ACLJ is coming from individuals, from people like you, who say, you know what, I want to give $10 a month. I want to give $75 a month. I want to give $100 a month. Or maybe I’ll make a one-time donation at the end of the year, by Christmas, whatever I have. That is how this organization is funded, and I’m proud of that. And I love that. Because we are able to do that in a real grassroots way, not in a way where we’re just taking money from some big organization and saying, we’ll do whatever you want. No, we are being run by all of you who decide to support the ACLJ and by doing that at ACLJ.org.
SPEAKER 05 :
Now, Logan, we’ve got another big victory, big update. And if you saw the show Friday, I really went into detail about this case that we have in Illinois. I saw some of it. And I broke down.
SPEAKER 02 :
I actually heard some of it. I was in Los Angeles, California. That’s right. I landed. I turned on the radio in my rental car, and Will is talking to me.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, you should have called in. I said, I want phone calls. And you could have called in. It’s the second half. They tape it. It’s delayed. Oh, that’s right. Yeah, yeah, never mind. It was delayed. It was the evening slot. But I kind of broke down how that case in Illinois has broader implications and why we have to fight those local cases that may not really make sense to you because you don’t live there or it may not feel like it really ties into you. But I kind of broke down why it matters. And I’ll give you an example here, because right there we’re fighting an ordinance that we see unconstitutional in Illinois. We had a client in Ohio that was in a criminal proceeding going to trial on Friday. I mentioned that as we were on air, it was going to be happening. That he was being charged with a disorderly conduct under an ordinance because of using some amplification. So our attorneys get to court. And they noticed something is a little bit up because our attorneys are smart. They’re like Logan said, playing that 10 dimensional chess, trying to see where they can defend our client the best. And they noticed that an 11th hour maneuver by the prosecutor that changed the theory of their case amounted to rewriting the charges on the spot. And our attorneys objected. They said we didn’t have time to prepare for this because it was something else. They also said that if you were to go back and try to rewrite these, this pushes outside the speedy trial statutes in Ohio. He will be outside that timeline. You have to drop these charges. We pushed back hard. and we got a victory. They dropped the charges, the prosecution folded, and our client was free to go without charge. But here’s now the kicker.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, I do want to say this though. That’s a big win. Understand our team is thinking in ways that are very creative and they were able to get a win for our client. That is a huge win. Take that, celebrate it, congratulate it. But understand that that doesn’t change it for the future. And that is where the ACLJ is going to take action. This was almost a technicality, a clerical mistake that caused a big win. And of course, that is a good thing because you’ll take a win however you can take a win, especially in terms of a criminal type case. Right. but now we’ve got to fight against this statute.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right so just like we’re fighting in Illinois over a statute that we see is used to discriminate against pro-life advocates we are doing the same thing with the statute in Ohio saying that it unfairly discriminates against the viewpoint of pro-life activists and that they were using it in a discriminatory way by not treating people equally under this ordinance. And so we’re filing now in Ohio against an ordinance that’s being weaponized against conservative speech. So when I told you on Friday that it takes a team like the ACLJ to go there and find these ordinances and fight back to get these overturned so it protects everyone’s speech. That’s what we do. I said on Friday that they say all politics is local. All constitutional crises begin local, in my opinion. Absolutely. And that’s what we’re doing. We’re protecting your speech there.
SPEAKER 02 :
And you just ramp it up. It keeps going and going and going if necessary. It goes all the way to the United States Supreme Court. We’ve got an incredible team that does that. You heard from some of them last week. You’ll hear from more later on in the week. But later on in the show, we’ve got 35 seconds of this segment left. If you don’t get the second half hour, by the way, join us live at ACLJ.org. YouTube, Rumble, even with the glitches. I see the glitch gang all chiming in. You’ve got to come up with an emoji for the glitch gang. Y’all come up with it in the comments right now. Do it right now. Give me some ideas. Look, we’ll be taking your calls coming up. Jeff Balaban’s going to be joining us from ACLJ Jerusalem to talk about the freeing of Eden Alexander, the last American hostage in Gaza. We’re going to talk about that coming up as well as continue the conversations that we’ve had, whether that’s about China or anything else. The ACLJ cases. We’ll keep going. 30 more minutes coming up. Less than a minute break.
SPEAKER 04 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 02 :
Welcome back to Sekulow, second half hour of the broadcast. Coming up, we’re going to be taking your calls at 1-800-684-3110. If you’re watching online, I encourage you to get engaged. Throw in a comment. I’m looking at all your emoji ideas. You guys figure it out. You’re the Glitch Gang. You can come up with it. All right, phone lines are open at 1-800-684-3110. We’re going to keep this conversation going. We’re going to talk about a few different topics. Obviously, the U.S. has agreed to slash reciprocal tariffs. Major step forward in what is going on with the tariff situation. China actually coming to the table. And not only that, we’re releasing joint statements with China. Again, President Trump, no comment. Always willing to go to the table and negotiate. Then you had updates coming in of Big Pharma, where he said, hey, we’re going to cut some drugs up to 90% of what Americans are costing, getting a favored nations deal, where whatever they’re paying overseas, the cheapest rate, America wants that as well. We talked about the victories that happened for life that’s going on right now with the ACLJ team. But we’re also going to continue the conversation as in the next segment. aclj jerusalem head jeff balaban’s gonna be joining us today marked a very important day as we see the freeing of the last american living hostage in gaza that is of course uh eden alexander this has been one that a lot of people have been talking about for a long time uh 500 plus days maybe even more than that now 600 i mean it’s been a very long time uh since that october 7th attack But maybe as the Netanyahu administration and currently now the Middle East all have kind of different points of view of how this thing is going to end. Maybe we are going to head towards some sort of peace. Hopefully it will. We pray that it will. Obviously, though, we pray for success as well, that anyone who is still alive or any remains that exist get back to Israel. And they can end this once and for all. Let’s continue to take some phone calls. I’d like to go to June, who’s calling in Kansas online, too, because June is an ACLJ champion, which means she gets bumped up to the front of the line. June, go ahead.
SPEAKER 08 :
Thank you. I’m calling from the state of Kansas. I wanted to just make a couple of comments on the drug situations. In the early 90s, I was an RN in another state. the aisle this drug rep comes in and he says oh what have you brought me today and she said well I’ll show you when we get back to the office then the other instance my own personal physician had a wall in the waiting room full of clocks they went down the hall from all the pharmaceuticals that she dealt with and I thought that is really something what a waste of money you know and it’s all these favors that they give to doctors and to providers and just accelerates the cost of our drugs. And that was back in the 90s. So just a couple of comments I wanted to add.
SPEAKER 05 :
So thank you.
SPEAKER 08 :
I appreciate all you do.
SPEAKER 05 :
Thank you for calling, June. I mean, that is kind of the frustration, I think, with most Americans is that This isn’t really a free market that we’re talking about here. We’re talking about a lot of different interests at play. You’re talking about the lobbying. You know about the revolving door at the FDA where people leave the FDA and go work for the pharmaceutical companies they were regulating prior and vice versa. People that leave the pharmaceutical companies and go to regulate them at the FDA. And it’s really a tragedy for the American people because it’s not letting the best rise to the top. And then you think about all the research grants and the scientific funding that happens from our government, which subsidizes it. But then you have people at the NIH that can profit off of the discoveries that they make while working for the government. This isn’t the way a free market system works. It’s a heavily subsidized, heavily regulated, and rightly so that things should be regulated. But what we’re seeing is that it’s not the best deal for the American people. And what President Trump is trying to do here, counter to the narrative, is actually help the American people.
SPEAKER 02 :
All right, we get back. We’re headed over to Jerusalem live. We’re going to team up with our ACLJ Jerusalem team. Of course, that would be the head of ACLJ Jerusalem, Jeff Balaban, he’s going to be joining us. You’re going to want to see him. You’re going to want to talk to him because it’s a big day in Israel. We’re going to go through all of that as well and what this looks like for the future and give you a breakdown of why it’s important. The ACLJ team, always looking for ways we can get involved in the world stage, whether it’s the ECLJ, our European center, whether that is the ACLJ or, of course, the ACLJ Jerusalem. Why do we have an office in Jerusalem? We’re going to break that down. If you’ve never heard him tell the reason why, I think it’s very important that we are there right now as we continue on in this fight. We’ll be right back with Jeff Balaban. Take your calls right after that. Welcome back to Seculo. Jeff Balaban, head of ACLJ Jerusalem, is joining us live. And, of course, we’re going to talk about the breaking news coming out of Israel, and that is the freeing of Ina Alexander, the last American hostage still in Gaza. I want you to hear first, before we go, to Jeff from President Trump making this statement.
SPEAKER 09 :
So for the first time and third, I’m very happy to announce that Edan Alexander, an American citizen who, until recently, most thought was no longer living, thought was dead, is going to be released in about two hours, actually. And he’s going to be released. before the eyes of Steve Witkoff, who has done a fantastic job. I just, you know, I know a lot of people that have a lot of talent. I know Steve had a lot of talent, but I know a lot of people with a lot of talent, but I had, there’s one that I thought had a special way about him, special personality, aside from being a good deal maker, had a special way about him. And it was Steve, knew very little about the subject matter, who does, but he learned it in about two hours. And he’s been fantastic. So I want to just thank Steve. But they’re going to be releasing Edan in about two hours from now or sometime today, let’s say. And again, they thought he was dead just a short while ago. His parents are so happy.
SPEAKER 02 :
All right. And that was from President Trump just a few hours ago. Jeff, you’re hearing this news. Obviously, it’s a positive sign. This comes out of a pretty interesting weekend for Israel, support of Israel. And there are obviously a lot of news reports that we’re talking about the daylight that may be between the Netanyahu administration, the Trump administration, if there was anything to that. So this seems like a positive move, though, to kind of restart this week.
SPEAKER 01 :
Sure. Everyone’s reading Tea Leaves. What’s that relationship like? One thing’s for sure. The question is how friendly are the current American administration and Israeli administration, whereas when it was under Biden, it was how hostile they are. And that’s really not because Israel’s changed, but because America now has a new administration. And that’s really been the coverage here in Israel throughout the day. which is what actually is the cause of this release right now? Hamas is claiming some kind of victory saying, hey, it’s the Americans are dealing directly with us. Well, I mean, Qatar and Egypt were involved. It’s not really clear. And a lot of this is right now behind closed doors. But Hamas is trying to declare victory. Others are saying, well, what really happened here is once Trump allowed Israel to unleash what it always could have done, In Gaza, now Hamas is more afraid than ever, and now they have to let them go. So no one really knows, and everyone’s speculating. What we do know is that they just had pictures now, after hours and hours of tremendous anxiety, tremendous fear, of Idan Alexander. I think you just showed the photos of him alive now.
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, I haven’t even seen those myself.
SPEAKER 01 :
Oh, there you go. That’s a clip I just sent over from Israeli Channel 14 News. I hope it’s okay we use it. And this is him, obviously, standing between Hamas operative and a Red Cross worker. And he’s obviously alive, and we still don’t know his health. He’s being shuttled immediately to a hospital. It’s unclear which, depending on his state. It’ll be the one right near the Gaza Strip, Barzilai, or else it’ll be Ikhlov in Tel Aviv. And, you know, but… All of Israel is watching with bated breath, and all of Israel is appreciative and excited and happy, but also feeling anxious and fears of what this means in the long term. But this day is a day of life and celebration of one young American Israeli being released alive after almost 600 days in captivity.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and Jeff, I think one, it does call for celebration and for joy that he is home and able to return to his family, but it can’t be lost on anyone and we should never let it go without saying that one, it should never have had to take that long that he had to remain in captivity. We can be thankful and praise God that he is alive, But there are many that did not survive captivity, did not survive the massacre. And we can never forget that and can’t in some way see Hamas as some trustworthy partner or some benevolent governing body in Gaza that has decided now to turn over someone that should never had been in captivity in the first place.
SPEAKER 01 :
That’s right, William. There is always concern that of any kind of direct conversation with Hamas, because you are doing deals, I would say, with the devil. But if there’s something worse than the devil, it’s those people. And I will say the flip side and just the kind of coverage we’re seeing here in Israel. So they were interviewing Idan’s grandmother and she was saying, you know, she said she thanked everybody. She thanked President Trump and Steve Witkoff. And, and, and Bibi Netanyahu and really across the board was thankful, but mostly she thanked God. And she, she said that, you know, there’s not been a day since this captivity that she hasn’t held onto her book of Psalms and read from the book of Psalms. And she thanked most of all God. And that is also something which really here in this country, secular, not secular, it doesn’t matter. Here, overwhelmingly, there’s a belief in God, and that’s really something which goes through Israeli society, and that’s something which is also being felt here, and something which really unites a culture that often you see. You see it on television. They fight amongst themselves politically, but there’s always an underlying truth, which is there’s a love of one each other as though it’s a family. So everyone here is very emotional about the release of this young man. At the same time, concerned about the existing hostages and the fact that Adam Bowler, Donald Trump’s special envoy for hostage said that it is not just, this is not the last hostage, that Donald Trump is committed to making sure every Israeli hostage is released. That’s another piece of news that’s very, very important for the Israelis to hear. It’s not just because Idan’s an American citizen, it’s because Donald Trump is committed to making sure the Israelis get all the hostages back from Hamas, and that includes the living, and also hopefully, the debt another piece of news which may have not made it to america is that that the masada or others have identified um bodies now um that they’ve gotten territory they’ve gone into including bodies of soldiers taken 40 years ago right that were killed and never returned to israel
SPEAKER 02 :
but still were kept. I mean, that is the part that is really shocking and disturbing. It wasn’t like that these were remains that were disposed of and destroyed. They were kept as trophies, if you will. And that is what is really heartbreaking to watch. Now in this, I do want to make sure people understand that because the reports here on Eden Alexander, There’s a lot of talk of last hostage. We’re seeing that a lot. We’re seeing that New York Times, the last hostage released, President Trump’s secure release of last hostage. And of course, if you read a little more, it is we’re talking about the last American citizen. However, there are still more. Hopefully this means if he’s alive, which clearly we see pictures, he’s alive. Hopefully that means there are still more that are alive.
SPEAKER 01 :
There may be, and we hope there are dozens alive and still living in conditions. That’s the other thing that’s happening now. Israeli news is reporting, as is American news, about some of the stories that are being told by those who survived the captivity. And they are harrowing and they’re very painful to read. But yes, there are still dozens, we hope, of living hostages. And we do hope… that the combination of Donald Trump in the White House and whoever’s running Israel right now, Vivian Netanyahu, will continue to bring home living hostages and also to bring peace to the families who have lost their loved ones and also those bodies, which also, it’s a very powerful thing here in Israel and in the Jewish faith, what happens to the remains of those bodies. And so all of those are considered hostages, living and dead, and we want them all back.
SPEAKER 05 :
I mean, you just have to think about the deranged mind that would keep someone who is deceased, that they have killed, as a hostage. We talk about terrorism, but the psychological terrorism that is so pervasive from Hamas in some ways is more active and thriving than any of their military or vocational physically violent terroristic opportunities that they take against the israeli people it’s just shocking to to think about but also to this as well eden alexander was returned without any hamas fighters being handed back over and that is also a very wonderful thing that there are not more terrorists back in gaza as a result of hamas releasing him today
SPEAKER 01 :
Very important point. There still is some concern that there may be some other part of the deal that we don’t know yet. But originally, they were talking not that long ago about 250 terrorists being released for Eden Alexander. Now it’s zero. That seems like a very big win. We don’t know what the cost might be, but there may be no cost. I actually want to add, before the segment ends, just a unique ACLJ angle to this. We’re talking about what it does to society. So Israel is a society that loves life, and it tries to live in the middle of a terrible region in terms of war and death. with light. And so something that I was brought in here, obviously because of ACLJ, just privately today was the discussion of, about policies going forward. What’s going to happen? What should Israel do legally to the Nachba terrorists, to the terrorists who committed October 7th? Because there are a lot of people who think, well, there is a death penalty for terrorist acts, or there should be. And then the question is, do we really want to be involved in death penalty for hundreds of people? It’s a very troubling issue here in Israel. What to do about this? And so being able to even have those conversations in terms of international law, but against the light of our culture and our shared civilization is a very important factor. And right now, Israel needs to find that out because it’s also torturing Israel. What to do with those terrorists who committed these atrocities? And we’re struggling here.
SPEAKER 02 :
All right. Yeah, absolutely. We’ll be sending our thoughts, prayers, but also the ACLJ team is going to be working hard to see what that could be, what the options are for Israel. And again, I want to thank all of our audience. I know it’s a hard time when you see the news, you see the press, even the conservative. news sometimes turning on the state of Israel but you are there a part of our ACLJ family with your support firmly planted we appreciate all of you who continue to support whether that’s financially or just watching this show we know that it is sometimes not the popular thing to do but we are here for you we’re going to take your phone calls coming up in the next segment at 1-800-684-3110 you’ve heard about the big wins that came out this week we’re going to continue that discussion but your support is really needed right now. Continue helping fight for our clients and for you at ACLJ.org. Donate today. Back to you with your calls in just a minute. Welcome back to Secular. We are going to take your phone calls. There’s still a minute, or if you want to call in, a minute or two, 1-800-684-3110. We can talk about any of the topics we brought up today, whether that’s Israel getting free the last American hostage in Gaza under Hamas control. Of course, that is Eden Alexander, so that is a big positive move. We also talked about the U.S. and China putting out a joint statement together, talking about new tariff rules that could be very good. And then, obviously, the price of prescriptions. Uh, potentially dropping as president Trump signed executive action that could, uh, you know, go maybe 80% drop, maybe more in the cost of your prescription jugs. And of course we’re talking about some of the big wins the ACLJ had, and that’s what we’re going to kick off these phone calls with. Let’s go to Ann in Pennsylvania on line one. You’re on the air.
SPEAKER 07 :
Hi guys. You guys are the best. Honestly, I’ve been fighting for pro-life, the baby in the womb and fighting for the constitution. And you said before the constitution is the supreme law of the land. And this, excluding you guys, this is where conservative media and I believe for years have been wrong. So the Constitution absolutely is the law of the land. This is why I firmly believe that unborn babies have the right to life and liberty in the pursuit of happiness under the 14th Amendment. And so and you so eloquently stated before about how, you know, abortion has a right. This is really what primarily Roe v. Wade was. Well, I believe that we can include the fact that states, you know, when states, when red states and blue states, they get to decide who lives or dies. It’s no different than you or I. Murder is murder. It’s no different than you or I. And I’m probably one of the very few people who are stating these facts. Unborn children have just as many rights as babies born outside of the womb. And I really want us as the conservatives on a whole. We need to get tough and we need to address it. Obviously, the overturning of Roe v. Wade is a very good first step. It really is. And I understand, you know, red states are going to do everything to limit abortion. But God forbid an unborn baby is residing in the womb in a blue state. They’re pretty much doomed.
SPEAKER 02 :
And I totally agree with you. And it’s something the ACLJ has been doing for a long time, which is fighting for the unborn. There is this narrative right now. And look, we are a little inside baseball. pro-life causes the pro-life issue is not a number one issue right now in terms of where our audience may be at and i think a lot of that is sort of the misinformation that roe was overturned and therefore abortion is now whatever it is because president trump’s been talking about saying hey we wanted to put it back to the states that’s where we got to they all go okay great so sure if you live in tennessee abortions are practically illegal here But again, if you go to Boston, go to Massachusetts, they’re running ad campaigns trying to shut down pro-life pregnancy resource centers. Again, volunteer-run organizations often, nonprofit organizations that provide, like you said, not just prenatal care, but a lot of postnatal care, a lot of food, a lot of clothing. We had one person call in and say they threw them a birthday party for their kids. These are real sweet people running these organizations, and they’re being targeted by their own state. So you have that chasm between a red state and a blue state. A red state’s going to do whatever they can, as you said, and some red states, by the way. Not all. You have a Florida where it’s a lot less restrictive than, let’s say, even Tennessee and Tennessee, where it’s practically illegal. And you have Florida. There’s some heartbeat rules and some things like that.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and I want to commend Ann for doing something that we talked about earlier in the broadcast, using her voice, speaking out, First Amendment right, because that’s also where we’re having to fight. Because what we’ve seen play out now is that, as you mentioned, the red states may be fine, but what are the blue states doing? They’ve already enshrined the right to abortion in their state constitutions, right? They’ve already opened up limitless abortion in many of their states. But now they want to shut down any dissent. They’re going after anyone speaking out against it, whether it be an individual in Ohio where they’re using ordinances to attack his speech or in Illinois where they’re going after signs that a pro-life missionary takes and they’re not applying it. They have an unconstitutionally vague statute where every single person that reads it interprets it differently. That’s what the left is now trying to do. They’re just trying to shut down anyone talking about it in a favorable way. Or in Massachusetts, they’re running a smear campaign trying to make no one trust people that are pro-life and trying to give you actual options and choice. Unlike what the left does that says only one choice on abortion. So they think the best way now is to eliminate the speech, combat everyone using their First Amendment right. And we’re not going to stand for it. That’s why we are fighting at municipal levels across the country or against the state of Massachusetts, because we know. that the First Amendment is sacred. And we are going to fight for people like Ann in a state like Pennsylvania that want to speak out against it and use their voice to share truth, to share hope and options, and not let the left that has a singular focus on shutting down your First Amendment right to take over. Because it’s not just the pro-life cause. You may say, I’m not a pro-life protester. I don’t speak out on this. Any other issue that you care about, that’s what they’ll come for next.
SPEAKER 02 :
All right, let’s continue on. Bill in Wyoming, probably the last call of the day. Bill, go ahead. Thanks for holding.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, thanks for letting me on your program. I don’t know if you remember the company, but I’m for what President Trump did concerning the price of prescription drugs because that one company took the prescription prices from like about $40 to $50, kicked it on up about 10 times as much, I think, and then they hauled off and gave the CEO… bonus for doing such a thing. I appreciate what he did.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, I think a lot of people are on the side of human rights at this point. And I think this is where maybe even the Christian side of the conservative world can find themselves in an interesting predicament because you obviously want to be a free market capitalist. You want to do all of these things. But there are times where it goes, okay, maybe we’ve gone a little too far.
SPEAKER 05 :
I think this is interesting. This is a soundbite, and we’ll probably have to end it on this. But this is from the director of the National Institutes of Health in this press conference talking about what’s happening today, Byte 20.
SPEAKER 03 :
At the same time, we’re standing up for the American consumer who’s been paying far too high prices for far too long. I can go back decades to point to congressional reports after government report after government report of tremendously high drug prices, much higher than the rest of the world. And nothing has been done about it until this moment. And I’m really, really proud, President Trump, that you’ve done this. I’m really proud to be included in this and looking forward to the work ahead.
SPEAKER 02 :
And again, that was a big moment as we are seeing this kind of shift. Hey, we only got a minute and a half left. We had so many topics today. I hope you enjoy the show because it was packed with so many topics. We try to make sure, you know, there’s some structure here where you get a little bit, but so much happened over the weekend that we could not forget about not covering all of it. So we did. But remember, the work of the ACLJ is really what’s important. That’s what continues on. We got that big win in Massachusetts with our case defending the pro-life pregnancy centers. But of course, it’s a big win. And so with a lowercase w in the sense of all the win is when it comes to Massachusetts is the case isn’t over yet. We got a treasure trove of new information also during a FOIA request that really is what helped amend that complaint. That’s why our ACLJ team is so good. They’re able to, again, think so many dimensions in how we can really go after these cases for our clients in a really different and unique way. We can’t do that. We can’t have those brilliant minds without your support. So I encourage you right now, we’ll need your continued support in this fight for life and our continued support for the fight for Israel, for all of our clients. We got another critical trial this month defending Christians who are being prosecuted or persecuted for their faith and have filed a major lawsuit and a preliminary injunction defending pro-life speech as well. That sounds like a bunch of legal jargon. No, that’s why we have an incredible legal team and we’re here to translate it for you. That’s why we have this great show. And again, I want to thank our crew too. Let’s go to ACLJ.org, make a donation today. No, we really would appreciate it. We’ll be back tomorrow with whatever news may break. And of course, all the best from the ACLJ. See you then.
