In this episode of Sekulow, we delve into the recent change in the Department of Homeland Security as Kristi Noem transitions to her new role as the Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas. We discuss her achievements and criticisms during her tenure and explore what this move signifies in the larger political narrative. The conversation includes insights from Montana where conservative leaders gather, highlighting the intricate dynamics of Senate seats and the significance of strategic political alliances.
SPEAKER 03 :
We’ve got a big update. President Trump paves a new path for Kristi Noem.
SPEAKER 05 :
Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Seculo. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 03 :
Welcome to Sekulow. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. Let’s wrap up this week strong. I want to hear from you, questions or comments. Of course, we are talking about some of the breaking news of the day, but we are going to be joined a little bit later by my brother, Jordan Sekulow, joining us remotely. He’s having a big event right now in Montana. We’re going to talk about that. We also have Rick Grinnell. joining us a little bit later to give an update. So it’s going to be a packed show. But in between then, I’d like to hear from you at 1-800-684-3110. Of course, a lot of news is still focused on what’s happening in the war in Iran. And of course, the war that’s kind of surrounding it right now, we’re seeing right now as we’re reporting, there’s some breaking news, some explosions that are going on in Beirut. And a lot of other developments are happening. But one of the big ones that happened that’s not related… To that is the head of the Department of Homeland Security is no longer. And that was Kristi Noem. She is no longer the Department of Homeland Security, the head of Department of Homeland Security. And we’ll be moved into a new position. I think that is one of the things that is not being reported as widely. You’re seeing a lot of fired language. And look. I think from all accounts, certainly. And look, we’ve worked with Kristi Noem before and we’ve represented her in the past. So I have nothing bad to say about her in terms of our relationship and what we’ve had with her before. So again, you’re not going to hear that on this show. But it was clear that President Trump wanted to move in a different direction. This is the first big kind of ousting of this term, the second term of President Trump in this way. Of course, there were some before, you know, Matt Gaetz and then it became Pam Bondi. But since he took office, so this is the first big one there. But we have seen an actual update where Kristi Noem, though clearly wasn’t doing the job that maybe President Trump and the administration was looking forward to and wanted to see for the future. She did, however, do some pretty good things at the border. And so they are reassigning her to, it seems like, focus more on that.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s right. So one thing you have to give the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, credit for is what a great job DHS has done at getting control of the southern border. That was one of the big campaign promises of President Trump and has been fulfilled. That has been unbelievable how well they have controlled our southern border. And then, obviously… Kristi Noem was a target of the Democrats from the very beginning. Why? Because they have been so pro open border that the person that did a great job of shutting it down and then was leading the department in charge of the operations of getting illegal immigrants out of the country is going to be one of their main targets. This happens in every administration. There is always a first cabinet member to leave. So this just happens to be the one here. What I think is interesting, though, is that, yes, there had been distractions around the Department of Homeland Security. The Democrats are keeping it shut down right now, refusing to fund it. So I think the the move here managerially, if you are the president of the United States of saying, OK, let’s try to shake things up. do something a little different. There have been a lot of criticism from many people, even on the right. Let’s move Kristi Noem, who he says he appreciates. We’re going to give that statement in the next segment, but let’s not just get rid of her because I appreciate what she’s done. He’s created the Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas, a new security initiative in the Western Hemisphere that they are doing a big announcement on this Saturday. So we’re going to find out more about that. We can talk and speculate a little bit of what that looks like. But he is moving her into a new role. And one thing we do know under the president… Special envoys actually do something. It’s not just a title that they hand out to give some sort of trophy to people. There’s actual work to be done.
SPEAKER 03 :
There’s jobs happening. And look, we’ll talk about that coming up. One of the people they said who was majorly a part of this decision also was Tom Holman, someone who clearly President Trump is turning to in these times. Of course, those are just reports. And again, phone lines are open for you at 1-800-SERVICE. 6 8 4 31 10 1 800 6 8 4 3 1 1 0 I want to hear from you about this situation about the war whatever you want to talk about it’s Friday we’ll open it up a little bit to your calls and comments because we’re gonna be taking calls kind of sporadically throughout the show as we’re wrapping up our first week of our double your impact drive I want you to be a part of it right now all donations are matched again that is at aclj.org slash impact or scan the QR code you see on the screen again aclj.org have your donation doubled today Welcome back to Secular. Phone lines are open and a lot of you have called in already. We’re going to get to as many of you as we can. Of course, we’re reporting on the news. Yesterday, the big headline was that Kristi Noem had been fired was the word that was being used a lot in the press. And of course, look, she was the head of Homeland Security. That’s a big position. Secretary Noem had taken that position last year. This was a big moment. So I don’t want to pretend like this was some friendly move to a different position. But I also don’t want to pretend that they don’t see the success that she has had. And that is with this new position that they are bringing her in on. They’re going to announce soon. Now, at the same time, you do have a new head. of the DHS. And that is Senator Mark Wayne Mullen, who you may remember from sort of the testy argument he had last year where they were kind of got in each other’s faces. It was with the Teamsters boss during a hearing. Bernie Sanders had to break up a fight. Former MMA fighter, undefeated MMA fighter, And also, hey, again, he’s been a senator for quite some time, along with a lot of other qualifications. But again, he’s from Oklahoma. But this does now open up potentially an election, a seat in Oklahoma.
SPEAKER 02 :
So we can break down all of that here as well. That’s right. So one thing I want to point to as well. President Trump has no issue firing people, right? Like James Comey didn’t get a reassignment as a special envoy when he was fired from the FBI. So when you read President Trump fired Kristi Noem, I think it is a misuse of that term because he clearly values her input. and clearly values what she did for the administration and for the country as the leader of the Department of Homeland Security. For his own reasons, whether it be the ways that the Democrats were able to latch on and attack her so frequently, whether it be distractions, and that some even within the Republican Party had turned on her as far as questioning some of her leadership moves. Clearly, the president thought it was time to move on. and to put someone else that maybe can take some of the uh the the scandal that the democrats were putting out there about department homeland security maybe put some of that out of the picture and maybe get the department actually refunded to continue to protect our homeland while we’re you know in a conflict in the middle east with a nation that likes to do things like fund and promote and export terrorism around the world Maybe that’s a good idea. So the president reassigns her. It’s a newly created position that is the special envoy to the shield of the Americas. We know a lot of the moves that the president has done in the Western Hemisphere are very important to him. This special envoy position, I assume, much like many of the other special envoy positions that he has created, will actually do work. Before he was put in office, a lot of people pointed when people got special envoy positions like, oh, that’s the consolation prize. You’re not a cabinet member. But what we have seen from people like Rick Grinnell, Steve Witkoff, who was in the room negotiating with Iran, or Rick Grinnell, who has done so much work as a special envoy. that these positions for Donald Trump actually mean something. They mean you will continue to work for the betterment of the country. And if it takes some distractions away to move you into a different position, that’s just good management. So I do also take issue with the word fired that the media is loving to run with because that makes a better headline for them instead of actually telling you that she has been moved into a new position. which is the reality of it. But you also brought up Senator Mullen, Mark Wayne Mullen of Oklahoma, one of the most conservative states as far as representation and voting and state government. It could be a safe one to lose, if you will, as a senator. Right. One, the elites are already attacking him because he doesn’t have a bachelor’s degree, so therefore is not qualified to do anything. Of course not. That’s their line, obviously. Many times you see them turn to their elitist roots whenever they can to try to attack someone. But there is a little bit of intrigue here with the seat in Oklahoma. It is expected to be safe, no matter who the next person is, of maintaining itself as a conservative, a Republican seat in the Senate. But the filing deadline, because the way the Senate works, it’s not like in the House of Representatives when there’s a vacancy, they have a special election. The governor of the states appoints someone to fill the seat until there is another statewide election. That will be happening in the midterms this year. The filing deadline is April 1st. So people that want to run for this Senate seat have to be filing in a couple weeks. So that’s a quick turnaround to try to get a campaign and the thought process. Want to go? Many people, I mean, I’m not a resident. I don’t think I would meet the qualifications. But here’s a new law in Oklahoma.
SPEAKER 03 :
I think of some Oklahomans we know.
SPEAKER 02 :
Many times in a state, the governor can appoint someone they think is a strong candidate that can then run in the general and win. Oklahoma has a new law that whomever the very conservative Kevin Stitt is to appoint cannot run. So we’re going to have three different senators within the span of eight months.
SPEAKER 03 :
So someone gets appointed now as he takes this new position. That person will not be the senator.
SPEAKER 02 :
They are not able to be eligible. So you have this very brief period of time from when Mark Wayne Mullen, the senator, steps down. What a way to make that decision. It’s an interesting run. It’s the law that somebody in the Oklahoma legislature decided was a good idea, and they passed it, and the governor signed it.
SPEAKER 03 :
You said he isn’t taking immediately. Do we know when he would take?
SPEAKER 02 :
I kind of want a head of the Department of Homeland Security. Well, obviously, there are deputies that will be serving in the interim. They’re saying beginning of April is when he’s expected to. I assume he will probably wrap up things in the Senate. He has staffers in the Senate that probably are going to be looking for new gigs, things of that. Some may move over to DHS, but get all the logistics in line. And I assume… He may even be able to take it as an acting director while waiting for confirmation, but he will have to be confirmed by his colleagues in the Senate.
SPEAKER 03 :
I’m sure you’ve got to go through all of that. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110. Let’s go to Robert in New Jersey calling on line one. Kick off some phone calls. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 08 :
Hey, Logan. Thanks for taking my call. No problem. Just want to let you and your brother know I’ve been watching you guys since day one when your dad started the ACLJ with Pat Robertson. Thank you so much. Oh, yeah. Followed you guys since day one. So my question for you, and if your brother and Rick and Nell are listening, you can possibly have them comment also. But it seems as though there’s a lot of talk now that I’m listening to that people are believing that Trump may have been compromised. especially with going into this war with Iran, when his campaign promises was that he would not start any new war, Yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, of course, war is, you know, in quotes right now, it is a obviously it’s a military strike. I’m OK with saying the word war. I think that it’s a little disingenuous always. I think for the common people who are watching, whether it’s you’re declaring war, you’re not declaring war. It is a little different in terms of the technicality of it. However, so let’s just say in general, this is war. I don’t think that he’s been compromised, to be honest. I think he’s listening to some of the right people. I feel that way with his support of Israel. I feel like that’s been pretty strong. I think he also is somebody that if you’ve looked historically has said, don’t press me. And you know what? Historically, that has worked. He has been able to negotiate his way out of a lot of things. because he is good at making the deal. The problem is you’re trying to make a deal with countries that are not, you know, dealing with normal Western values. And I’ve said this a bunch of times, which remember what we’re dealing with here. You’re dealing with dictators. You’re dealing with people who are holding down their people that are specifically un-American, un-Judeo-Christian in their values. So when you do not have that basic human standard that we all think is kind of, you know, we’re born with, we’re not. You’re negotiating with very different group of people. So of course you had a situation in Iran. I did also see the things got escalated really the day before that it was going to be potentially a week later or something like that. But they had located exactly where the Ayatollah was and said, you know, this is the time. I had a friend down at Mar-a-Lago performing at an event. President Trump was supposed to speak at that event. He came in and waved and said, you know, I got some things I gotta handle. Hours later, the Ayatollah was no more. Now the reports are coming out that essentially right before that event, as he was arriving there, this was like a charity fundraiser event, They were told, this is where the Ayatollah is. I said, you better get that copy of Time Magazine to tell your kids or your grandkids about it because it’s going to be an important day in history. In terms of, do I think he’s been compromised? Again, no. I think, again, you have people who are pretty smart in this. You have people like Tom Holman and other… maybe more level-headed people who are coming in there and saying, this is how we need to take care of things. Here’s how we can calm things down. Here’s how we can get Minnesota to no longer be the number one trending story because of how chaos within our country has come. And not just move away, not just distract with something else, but actually get things handled. I feel that way has happened now with this as well.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, and I also want to say the use of the military in this way. President Trump, yes, said, I don’t want to start new wars, but he’s also been very clear eyed ever since he ran way before that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon. And also, he has very much been the Ronald Reagan peace through strength doctrine. This has not changed from him. So when you see someone who believes that in order to maintain peace, there has to be a credible threat of military force behind it. And if you never act on that, and they keep pushing you around and delaying installing, and you never act on that, there is no credible military threat from the United States. He just showed the world exactly what peace through strength means. And I think the Ayatollah, who’s no longer on this planet, found that out.
SPEAKER 03 :
Phone lines are open for you. We have about four lines open. 1-800-684-3110. Next segment, we’re going to be joined by Jordan, my brother, who is in Montana right now. We’re going to discuss why he is there and why it’s important to be the ACLJ all over the world. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Sekulow. We are joined by my brother Jordan Sekulow, who is coming to us live from Montana. Jordan, maybe just start off with why you’re there. Of course, Montana’s been in the news, but what’s been going on?
SPEAKER 04 :
Sure. Well, we’ve got this is a meeting here and we are in Big Sky, Montana, with two U.S. senators and one who made news this week, which I think looking back, this may have all been a plan to get us here from all across the country. Conservative leaders and organizations are coming together to spend time with Senator Daines, who served two terms in the U.S. Senate, just announced he was going to retire. his uh kind of replacement pick which is the same person uh president trump has already endorsed and the governor of montana has endorsed and the other senator who will be here senator sheehy that former uh navy seal he’ll be here as well but so will uh the candidate they’ve endorsed that he’s been a u.s attorney twice so the first trump administration And the second Trump administration. His name is Kurt Almey. I’m excited to meet him, too, because of that legal connection we’ll be able to make in Washington, D.C. Logan. This is part of what we do through ACLJ and ACLJ Action to keep those relationships with U.S. senators. active so that if it’s on a text basis, if the emergency, if they need help with legislation, anything goes. We like to be able to go directly to the senator when necessary. And then, of course, our team and staff can go to their staff when we don’t need to go, you know, 20, you know, a 24 hour notice right to a senator. So actually two senators and likely a next senator will be here and they’ll be joining all the events. And we’re actually a co-sponsor of one of the events tomorrow evening.
SPEAKER 02 :
Jordan, you say that one of the senators has been in the news. Actually, two of them, both of them. Maybe the first time ever that both senators from Montana are making headlines in the same week. Obviously, with Senator Daines saying that he will be stepping down. But the Navy SEAL, Senator Sheehy, that you mentioned, also assisting U.S. Capitol security in removing a protester from a hearing room. That was kind of spectacular to see, but also shows the toughness of the senators. from Montana. Montana itself is an interesting state. I think people should think about one, a big economic producer in many ways, but one that while very conservative people can be kind of a challenging state for these Senate races because the kind of vein of people that it produces, even the Democrats can be a little bit more on the moderate side. So sometimes, and why important to go and get a feel of it, it is an interesting state when it comes to the electoral politics of it.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right. I mean, when we had Senator Sheehy, who will, again, I think we should play that video at some point, the former Navy SEAL, take on John Tester. You remember him. He was a Democrat. He tried to play up as a moderate, Will, but he never voted moderate. He always voted moderate. in line with the party. So eventually, people here figured it out. He didn’t resign. He was beaten. So what we’re seeing is a state that is moving towards becoming an entire red state. And that’s why you have to build on when a vacancy like this opens up. It’s why Senator Daines is having us all together right now to get behind someone, because we want to keep Montana red from the governor’s office, who is a conservative as well. He’s endorsed the kurt allman as well the u.s attorney so a lot of exciting things but you’re right this was not a reliable red state for republicans and conservatives for for many many years really up until john tester was beat in the last election so you have to fight really hard nominate really good candidates and we’re here of course to uh keep up our relationships with folks like senator sheehy or new he’s only been in washington just a little over a year and also with the with the candidate that was endorsed by President Trump and Senator Daines, who we have a very close relationship with, who is leaving. We’re going to then make that contact while we’re here. Those meetings are already ongoing since I’ve been here.
SPEAKER 02 :
And Jordan, you mentioned that takedown from a U.S. senator of a protester. While I’m talking, go ahead and roll that so people can kind of see it as B-roll as I lead into this next question for you, Jordan. But essentially, there was a protester that was a Marine veteran from a long time ago that had broken in in uniform, making a statement. trying to say things that were against the administration, against the war in Iran. He is very pro… There’s the senator right there, grabs his hand, actually breaks it. But what you see here is that someone was trying to use their uniform… to make a political statement, which is illegal, by the way, under the Unified Code of Military Justice. But how that senator, the pride he has in America in standing up for that, rushes there knowing what this individual is doing wrong, who is very pro-Islamic regime, if you see the posts that have come out from this individual now. But Jordan, just speak to that. I mean, the…
SPEAKER 04 :
I think it just shows you this is the kind of leaders in Montana. He will now become the senior senator of Montana. So you have a former Navy SEAL who isn’t afraid to help and assist and to make sure his colleagues in the Capitol Police, that they’re also kept safe when you’ve got one of these protesters who starts fighting back. It’s a code pink protester. You know, there’s even some discussion about whether or not that person is a Marine, retired, wasn’t a Marine. But the end of the day is you can’t go into a congressional hearing and start spouting off anti-Semitism and anti-Israel statements. And that’s exactly what he was doing, is that the U.S. shouldn’t be there because U.S. troops are dying for Israel. forgetting the fact that the Iranian regime wants to destroy the United States of America and has killed thousands of American soldiers starting right after the Islamic Revolution with the bombing of the marine barracks in Lebanon.
SPEAKER 02 :
I was going to say, you also mentioned that ACLJ Action will be co-sponsoring an event. I wanted to get a little bit more information about that. What does that look like for those? We know that we have a lot of people that are always interested in the work of ACLJ Action that they may not hear about every day. What does that look like? What does it mean? And what do you expect to come from it?
SPEAKER 04 :
So ACLJ Action kind of has two two folds. It has the Washington, D.C. fold, the federal fold. We also do some state work as well. And what we’re able to do with the C4 is utilize the donations. And we really appreciate that to ACLJ Action to support donations. other C4s that are in line with the messaging of candidates people will likely agree with and issues people likely agree with. So we’re able to expand the influence of the ACLJ because for us to be at events like this is very unique because we’ve also got grassroots machine and, of course, our multimedia that we’ve got available. Most of the other attendees, very good for us to know, are big corporations, and they’re delegates to these meetings. Well, we’ve been doing a lot of work with ACLJ Action just a couple of weeks ago in Washington, D.C., on legislation that’s now passed, the Protection uh for uh miners with the app store the app store protection act i mean that was huge it got out of committee so we know it’s got the votes in the house we have to keep fighting there but we’ve been working on that with some major uh tech corporations so again able to bring in new people to the ACLJ. And a lot of what’s awesome, Will and Logan, is that these folks, just to find out that they can work with us that way, they’re so excited because they know how good our work is, both in the courts, our policy work, and our political work.
SPEAKER 03 :
Absolutely, Jordan. Thanks for joining us. It looks beautiful out there. It’s 80 degrees here today, and Jordan’s got a nice snowy background. I’m in shorts. I mean, I think I’d prefer where I am right now, but I understand. I enjoy the snow. But I have to say, this is why it’s important during these double-year impact drive right now that’s happening. Jordan’s able to go out there, send a team out there. None of that is cheap. None of it happens without you. And we can have major influence about what’s going on in Washington, D.C., around the country, and around the world. And you can be a part of that team as well by just going to ACLJ.org right now. And all your donations are doubled. That means they are matched. There’s somebody ready to unlock their match. So make your tax-deductible donation today and have it doubled during this Double Your Impact Drive at ACLJ.org. Don’t go anywhere. If you’re watching on social media or on YouTube… rumble we don’t go anywhere i got a second half hour coming up if you get us on terrestrial radio you may need to flip over to aclj.org but second half hour starts in just a minute keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever this is seculo
SPEAKER 05 :
And now your host, Logan Secular.
SPEAKER 03 :
Welcome to the second half hour of the last day of the week here. We made it to Friday. Can you believe it, folks? It is ACLJ.org right now because we are. in the end of the first week of our Double Your Impact drive. And I want you to be a part of it right now. So I’m going to lead off with this. It is an important time. You just heard from Jordan. We’re going to hear from Rick Grinnell next. We’re going around the world right now because people like you can support the work of the ACLJ. And I encourage you to do so in these special months. It’s only available for a few months a year where we’re able to offer these kind of things because we have to go and get pledges and donation matches from other people. And because of that, we’re able to open it up Whether you give $100, whether you give $10, it doesn’t matter. The impact has doubled. Make it today. And if you can become a champion as well, someone that gives on a monthly basis, that’s great. We, of course, are covering the top line story, which is that Kristi Noem out as head of DHS, new person being brought in, Mark Wayne Mullen, but also she’s being moved to a new position. I think there was a little bit of… of uh you know word salad that got brought up and you can even see the headlines that were being brought up saying hey she’s been fired she’s been fired multiple times president trump’s statement said she is being reassigned to a new um really a focus on what she’s been good at So I think it’s interesting. We just put up President Trump’s statement.
SPEAKER 02 :
I don’t think I can read all of that. That’s a lot of words. But the main point from it is that he does say the current secretary, Kristi Noem, who has served as well and has had numerous and spectacular results, especially on the border, will be moving to be special envoy for the Shield of the Americas, our new security initiative in the Western Hemisphere. We are announcing on Saturday in Doral, Florida. I thank Kristi for her service at Homeland. Also interesting about this when you’re looking forward, this new initiative, security initiative in the Western Hemisphere. What has President Trump been teasing a lot lately? Cuba. So… When I say special envoys actually do work under the president here. You start using the term hemisphere. I have a feeling that the special envoy for the Shield of the Americas will be very interested in the situation going on in Cuba. Did you see there was two-thirds of the country had an unexplained blackout this week? I mean, a lot was going on in the news. What’s your official title again? A special envoy for the Shield of the Americas. I’ve been seeing a lot of Marvel memes going around about the Shield, obviously, but obviously a very important issue for the president. You’ve seen Venezuela, the way that he had Secretary Rubio deal with Panama and the Panama Canal early in the administration. All of these things in our own backyard. People talk about the Monroe Doctrine, and they’ve now dubbed this the Donro Doctrine, talking about security in our own backyard. part of the world, and I think it’s an important issue at this time.
SPEAKER 03 :
I want to take this call. We’ve only got two minutes, but let’s go to Samantha in California. She’s going to lead us into our next segment. Samantha, go ahead.
SPEAKER 06 :
Hi, yes, good morning. Thank you for taking my call. So I support our brothers and sisters in Israel, and my question is, I’ve heard more and more pastors speak about how it is our Christian duty to support our Jewish brothers and sisters, and I guess I get a little confused or stumped when it comes to the conflicting religious views, and correct me if I’m wrong, but, you know, with the Jewish faith not believing that Jesus is the Messiah and the King of Kings. So my question is, I guess, are we to try to evangelize them to accepting Jesus, or what our role is, really, as supporters?
SPEAKER 03 :
I think that’s two different things. We’re talking about the Jewish people and religious Jews, which is also different. And you were talking about whether you should evangelize on them. And then you’re talking about Israel. You’re talking about actually a few different topics here.
SPEAKER 01 :
And the U.S. government. And the U.S.
SPEAKER 03 :
government and what our involvement should be. Look, do I think you should evangelize to your Jewish brothers and sisters? Absolutely. Bring them to the Lord. I’m totally fine with that. That’s great. You should be doing that. But again, the support of Israel, though it is a part of our history as Christians, I mean, it certainly is. There are the biblical roots, of course. Without Judaism, there is no Christianity. You need to look at it from a geopolitical statement. You need to look at it from a values statement also. When you say Judeo-Christian values, there’s a reason, and that is because our values are linked historically to the Jewish people. Why? Because they respect human rights. They have a lot broader than any other country in the Middle East. When you go to Israel, yes, it feels like its own country. It feels like the Middle East. However, there are some intrinsically almost American values that are being spread in Israel. You don’t find that outside of that country. It’s happening more and more, but that is because of the influence of the United States and Israel. We’ll talk about that more coming up and why people like you, you hear it, which I understand, from your church and your pastor, and they do feel like they maybe are in lockstep. Well, some other people feel that way on the other side. We’re going to talk about that coming up. to Sekulow. We’ll be joined by Rick Grinnell shortly when he joins us. We will let you know. We are taking phone calls at 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110. Let’s go ahead and take a call. Might as well.
SPEAKER 02 :
Go to Phil on line one from New York. Phil, you’re on Sekulow.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay. First of all, thanks a lot for taking my call. I have sort of a question in two parts. Part one, do you think that American and or Israeli intelligence services are in contact with Iranian dissidents on the ground in Iran. And pursuant to that, would you give me an… An assessment of what you think about the possibility of regime change.
SPEAKER 02 :
Absolutely. The answer to the first one is 100%.
SPEAKER 03 :
Without us even knowing details of that, I think, look, they knew where the Ayatollah was. I mean, they were able to locate him specifically. Do I think there are people that are obviously involved in getting that information to America? yes do I know if they’re Iranian dissidents do I know if they are people who are fighting back internally or if these were people who infiltrated I think that’s a very different situation but I think both the answer to that is yes on the other question regime change do I think that’s a good thing and the chances I do think the chances well
SPEAKER 02 :
it’s a hundred percent of our regime change right we’ve already seen that happen because we no longer have them in order now will the Islamic republic go away I think that is still up in the air but I think the odds are looking likely right I think one the opportunity is now I don’t think we know or have the ability to know 100 what is going to happen as far as the regime yes the supreme leader who had an iron grip on the country for a very long time is dead but they have been around since 1979 this revolutionary system that they set up having different councils of clerics and people that are high up very secretive groups as well are all many of them not all of them have been killed So the fact that the remnants of this regime still exist, the fact that they have the ability to still plan and plot, the IRGC, very powerful paramilitary group with a lot of riches. They owned businesses. They controlled exports. They have the ability to hang on for a while. What comes next is the big question and the unknown. We know that the United States campaign is continuing and the Israeli campaign is continuing. We have heard talk of the Kurds being sent in as a ground force to fight the IRGC. Those are the unknowns. There is a very good chance of it. The best hope we’ve had since 1979, 47 years of the Islamic Republic being completely removed from there. But I don’t think that any of us could in good faith give you a percentage of what that’s going to be because there are just so many unknowns of what could happen.
SPEAKER 03 :
All right.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you so much for calling.
SPEAKER 03 :
We’re still waiting on Rick, I assume. He’s going to be joining us in the next segment.
SPEAKER 02 :
He’s a busy man as a special envoy in many ways. There’s proof of that. We’re going to move him back to the next one.
SPEAKER 03 :
All right. You know what? Then we’re going to take calls throughout this segment. So give me a call if you want to be on the air. This is the last time for the week. 1-800-684-3110. 1-800. I’ll say it slower. 684-3110. Let’s go to Alex who’s calling on line three. Alex with a similar question. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 07 :
Hi, guys. Colin, you’re from Michigan. Thank you for being there today. A couple of quick questions. How are we as the American people and the American government going to be able to believe that a stable government is being established and what’s there is not going to be able to come back? I did hear your previous comments. That does help sum it up. Hello. We lost Alex.
SPEAKER 03 :
I can answer some of that. I think the truth is, sure, there’s some unknowns here. Do I think the U.S. and Israel and some of the other countries in the Middle East are going to get involved in this situation, though I believe the Iranian people will be making the decision? on who is elected who has decided to be the leader what does it look like i do think we will have influence on making sure that it is legitimized and if it is brought up legitimately and there is a legit regime change you’re going to have a moment of clarity hopefully for the iranian people as we’ve seen them in the streets but as will said this is still look there’s anything that’s true if there’s a universal truth in every nation is that people have differences of political opinions There are people mourning the death of the Ayatollah. It is not probably the majority. It’s probably not the majority of the, definitely not the majority of the people outside of Iran. Some of the people that would like to return to their homeland at some point, but let’s not pretend there isn’t political feelings on both sides of pretty much every issue.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, and I think here’s the other issue as well. Extremism. Um, I think when you hear from Pete Hegseth, and this is where some people are trying to be like, look, they don’t have a unified message. The president has been saying, you know, like we want to see the people overthrow the government. We want to see regime change from the people, take your country back. But then Pete Hegseth says, that’s not our goal. And I think to some degree, those aren’t at odds. The president does want to see that. What is the goal of the military? To ensure that whatever comes after the Ayatollah isn’t able to have the strength of the military a nuclear weapon ballistic missiles that hit uh israel and potentially united states and our bases in the region and that is currently what is taking place the operational ability of iran is being decimated as we speak and already has been there were experts so-called experts that never thought it would be possible for us to have air superiority and supremacy over Iran. They thought if this conflict ever started, there would be no way to ever achieve that. And thus, that’s why it would be so deadly, so costly of American lives, is that no matter what, every mission was high risk because of their air defense systems. And we proved every single one of those experts wrong. The Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, the President of the United States, our wonderful men and women in the military proved every single military and foreign policy expert wrong. in just a couple of days that now these missions of our fighter pilots and our bombers are not as risky. They are able, yes, there are inherent risk in this, but the fact that they have basically free reign over the skies of Iran to pick their targets, drop their bombs and leave. That’s why some people try to say, oh, they’re using gravity bombs now. It shows that we’re running out of guided missiles. No, you use the cheaper, uh munition that you have a lot more of when you don’t have to worry about their radars their anti-missile defense systems you can go in there and pummel the targets because there’s no one shooting back at you that is what the u.s military has been able to do so yes the regime chains the confidence if there is that it will be better it’ll be a lot better than the ayatollah i don’t care yeah even if it is his son it’s going to be better than what that ayatollah was but second The confidence that Iran will no longer be the threat that it was, even if the Islamic Republic remains, that is much more in line with the president’s doctrine of America first, too, of not seeking regime change and not saying we have to meddle in every way. I do believe he is going to be very involved in what comes next. But at the same time, I think that those operational objectives are very attainable.
SPEAKER 03 :
All right, let’s try to take one more call. I did want to say, people are asking about, you know, we’re not discussing the Kristi Noem thing. You saw that as the headline. If you just joined us now, we did about a half hour on it about her new position. Mark Wayne Mullen, who’s been now assigned. So there’s a lot of chatter about that. We’ve done it already. Go back, watch the earlier part of the show when we’re done, which we’ll be done here in just a few minutes. Stephen’s calling in Pennsylvania, line two, go ahead.
SPEAKER 09 :
Hi, I think that’s me. That’s you. I’m from Boston area.
SPEAKER 03 :
I’m sorry. They just put it up wrong. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 09 :
Anyway, I’ve been hearing rumors that Senator Thune refuses to pass the Save America Act. And I’m wondering if maybe he’s been compromised, and I want to know what your thoughts are.
SPEAKER 02 :
Compromised is the word of the day. I can answer this for you, Stephen. Here is the very real issue, and it’s something we warn about and we’ve warned about for a very long time. And the ACLJ and Jordan with ACLJ Action works very closely with Senator Thune, Leader Thune, actually. Here’s the problem. Why he’s not willing to pass the Save America Act is to do that… he has to change the filibuster. As soon as you change the filibuster, when you lose the majority, the next majority is going to push through every piece of legislation that you, Stephen, hate.
SPEAKER 03 :
And there’s no check on it. I think we always have to explain that. Remember, you’re setting a precedent when you do these kind of things. When you make these big changes, you may be seeing it inside of a vacuum. But the tide will turn, okay? We have had Republicans and Democrats controlling every branch of government my entire life. Back and forth, back and forth. So you may feel like right now, when you have President Trump and you have all this, that it’s gonna always stay this way. But simply, America shows that is not the case. You may have different waves, different generational waves, but think back in your lifetime, how many times you’ve had a Republican and a Democrat. It almost swings back and forth dramatically every four to eight years it seems like there’s a big swerve sometimes in two year increments so always remember that if you feel like your representative is doing something you don’t agree with do a little digging further to see what they’re actually doing what is the actual game plan here and hopefully that should give you some clarity double your impact months happening right now we’ll be right back with last segment of the week don’t go anywhere Welcome back to Seculo. Final segment of the week. Rick Grinnell’s joining us. And I did want to start off right before we get to Rick and just let you know, this is wrapping up our first week of our Double Your Impact drive here at the ACLJ. A very important time. If you want to support the work of the ACLJ, it’s a great time to do it. Only a few times a year can we offer something like this where your donation is essentially doubled and matched. We don’t do it all the time. We only do it when we absolutely can. Right now we can because of people like you who support the work. So I encourage you right now, go to ACLJ.org. All your tax deductible donations, any donation you make, $5, $500, whatever it may be, is doubled. So I appreciate everyone who’s doing that right now, and please continue to support the work all throughout this month. We have a lot of great content that we’re going to be sharing over the next month or so, and I want you to join us on that. Now, Rick, I did want to get your thoughts. We’re now a little bit into what you’d say is this moment in Iran where you’ve seen a lot of change happening. We’ve had a couple calls today. who seem to be questioning or curious about the likelihood of a regime change and what that looks like. From your perspective, as someone that’s worked on the world stage for so many years, where do you feel that likelihood is? Of course, we know that there will be different leadership, as there has to be at this point, but are we looking towards a future that is brighter?
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, I think we’re definitely looking towards a future that is brighter, and that’s because we’re removing this nuclear threat. What President Trump has been clear about is that they were reconstituting their nuclear programs. They admitted that they were close. or at the point of having multiple nuclear weapons. So they’ve been lying about the number of centrifuges. They’ve been lying about the heavy water that they’ve been getting to create this high nuclear intensity. They’ve been lying about the access that they’ve given the IAEA to Fordow and Natanz and a couple of other locations. And so we just know that the enrichment process that they’ve been doing has been phony and a bunch of lies. And so the president is protecting U.S. national security. Remember, too, that there’s billions of dollars that have been given by Presidents Obama and Biden to the Iranian regime because they believed that the Iranians were interested in giving up their nuclear weapons, and so we brought them cash, credit, and sanctions relief under Presidents Obama and Biden. That is the scenario that President Trump had to deal with, and I think that he is focused on removing the nuclear threat. To the extent that that means removing the individuals who are responsible for pursuing the nuclear weapons, then so be it.
SPEAKER 02 :
Rick, one thing that has been frustrating to me is a mild way to put it, but when you see what’s going on surrounding this action against Iran, whether it be from the Democrat leadership or the activists here in the United States, It feels like the old days of I completely disagree with the policy or I even completely disagree with this military action. But it seems like we are seeing people almost actively cheering for the United States to fail. at this mission it’s one thing if you disagree with it or you say it could be done differently but whether it be senator kelly saying that you could pick a random group of people off the street in dc and they do a better job to seeing people spreading fake news that every one of our bases in the in the region has been completely destroyed we’re actually losing to iran i’ve seen the That just feels extremely anti-American. And I guess I know how we got here, but have you ever seen anything like this?
SPEAKER 01 :
Oh, I’ve seen it. I’ve seen it for years and it’s called politics. So look, I’m in Washington, D.C. I’m at the Trump Kennedy Center right now. So let me also say that anyone speaking from Washington, D.C., including myself, needs to be fact-checked because this is a place, this is a city where politics prevails. And so we have a problem in that politicians will do political things and things that politicians do, which is only view issues politically. in the context of whether or not it helps my political party or hurts my political party. So we have a whole crop of people in this city who will look at whatever, the border, they’ll look at the Trump Kennedy Center issues, they’ll look at Iran, whatever the issue is in Washington, and they will say, how do I make sure that my party benefits? It’s called politics. It’s not about putting America first. We have very few politicians that are willing to go in and deal with problems rather than kick the can down the road in order to create a better political playing field for their party. President Donald Trump is somebody who will go in and fix problems and let the politics work itself out. He has done that with the Trump Kennedy Center. He’s doing that with Iran. He did that with the border. He’s doing it with drug prices. I think that the president deserves credit for doing what Washington hates, which is fixing a problem, even though it appears to be messy in the short term.
SPEAKER 02 :
Rick, final question here, and this is a little bit of a pivot, but kind of during the New York mayoral race, we saw the inability of Mandami to say, I disagree with from the river to the sea, or I disagree with globalizing the intifada. I disavow that language. Now it seems like we’re finding out We see that there’s been some reports of people digging that his wife was liking posts on Instagram in the days after October 7th that was footage of the attacks and celebrating it.
SPEAKER 03 :
And we’re not talking about a year later. We’re not about when you decided to switch from being pro-Israel to anti-Israel. We’re talking about like October 9th, like in the first few days.
SPEAKER 02 :
Right. One, I would say, how did the opposition research not figure this out during the election? But two, I mean, it seems like they are what we were concerned about the entire time.
SPEAKER 01 :
Look, I’ve always been concerned that we have radicals on both sides, right? There are people that are interested in trying to solve the issues between the Palestinians and Arabs and Jews. Israelis or within the region, there are people that are focused on trying to fix these problems. And then there are people who are so radical that no matter what happens, they are brazenly and proudly working against one side. And what has been clear all along is that Mayor Mamdani, candidate Mamdani, was a radical, is a radical. He is not someone who’s balanced or in the middle. He’s not interested in finding peace. He’s interested in doing anything that he can to crush Israel. And that’s where I think we’ve just got to out these people and show them that these people are not rational. They’re not in the middle. They’re working against solutions and common sense. And this is the mayor of New York City. He is someone who is a radical and we need to get used to it.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I mean, Rick, I think what I’ve said and you’ve brought up too, same with California, same with a lot of these places, is I hope our audience doesn’t forget that these are places that need to be thriving. We need to have a shining New York. We need to have a shining Los Angeles. In Southern California, we need these areas in our country. because they are supposed to be the pinnacles where people think of it when they want to come to America, when you want those people who are going to be great Americans. You want to have these thriving cities, so we appreciate that, Rick, for joining us. Hey, we only have 30 seconds left. I’m just going to take this 30 seconds. Let’s put the graphic up on the screen. I want you to go. This is the last 30 seconds of the week. I need you to go to aclj.org slash impact. Have your donation matched today. It’s only going to be available for a limited time that you can do this. So again, if you give $10, it’s $20. If you give $100, it’s $200. So on and so on and so on. So please, if you are thinking about donating, this is the perfect time to do it. All of our legal work, all our media work, all of it is because of people like you. Talk to you next week.
