Logan Sekulow navigates through the troubling rise of divisive rhetoric both domestically and abroad. With conversations from ACLJ experts and exclusive insights from Israel, this episode unravels the layers of political tension that are manifesting in both American politics and international relations. Join us as we unpack these developments and highlight what they mean for freedom of speech and global diplomacy.
SPEAKER 02 :
Congresswoman Tlaib delivers an anti-Semitic and anti-American speech for a rowdy crowd in Michigan.
SPEAKER 04 :
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 02 :
Welcome back to Sekulow. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. That’s right, you had a day off without me. But now, look who’s back. Settled back into my chair. It’s good to be back here on a Wednesday. Hope you all had a great day off on Monday. And of course, Will and Jordan were holding it down yesterday. But we’re back. And I’m going to want to hear from you because you’re going to hear these comments coming in from Congresswoman Tlaib. And of course, we’re also going to hear from Chris Martin. That’s right. From Coldplay. You know, we got a lot to cover today because, you know, the the intentional and unintentional anti-Semitic rhetoric, anti-American rhetoric. still seems to be on the rise, whether they mean to or not. But I would say that Congresswoman Tlaib did it in a place where I believe the intentions were there. The intentions were pure, if you will. Purely evil will. Right, I was going to say purely evil. Yeah, there you go. And we’re going to play some of that. Should we kick it off with that?
SPEAKER 03 :
Let’s start. Yeah, this is from a… Let’s set it up where it is.
SPEAKER 02 :
Right.
SPEAKER 03 :
This was in Michigan. This is at the People’s Conference of Palestine. The subtitle of this conference was Gaza is the Compass. So effectively saying that we need to follow the way of Gaza as we seek to free Palestine. And this is one that caught a lot of attention because as she starts to talk to… to this crowd about the Palestinian cause, and she starts to take a turn back towards America. This is Bite One from Congresswoman Tlaib just days ago.
SPEAKER 05 :
They thought they could kill us, rape us, imprison us, violently uproot us from our olive tree farms, starve our children to death, and we would disappear. Well, guess what? Now we’re in Congress, and we’re every corner of the United States. Y’all, they just don’t get it. They just don’t get it. They will never truly comprehend, even after seven decades, that we aren’t going anywhere. We are just getting started. I want to say to all of them, every genocide enabler, look at this room. We ain’t going anywhere.
SPEAKER 02 :
That is Rashida Tlaib with some signature language. I feel like she always throws in there. You guys can fill in the beeps for yourselves of what she was calling what you would say, quote unquote, genocide enablers, which at this point, well, I think it’s kind of an all encompassing. It feels like it’s not just people who are supportive of Israel and their cause to remove Hamas from leadership. We’re also talking about Americans. We’re talking about anyone who they believe. And look, the first part of this, you could say is pretty generic rhetoric, generic rhetoric we’ve heard now for the last number of years. Nothing too, I’d say, over the top. Is it offensive? Of course it’s offensive, but it’s nothing extreme. And then it does take a turn. And you’re right, when it starts turning towards the United States, we’re now in Congress and we’re in every corner of the United States. That does feel a little from the river to the sea-ish.
SPEAKER 03 :
And when we get into the next segment, stick around, because she turns it not just about the situation in the Middle East between Israel and Gaza, but she actually makes it about the United States in our very system. And it starts to show, Logan, and as we will explain throughout these next segments, that when they talk about the from the river to the sea and when they talk about free Palestine, the true meaning is starting to come out because it’s not just about Gaza. It sounds a lot more like the rhetoric coming out of Iran between the little Saint Israel and the great Satan, the United States. And we’ll talk about why in the next segment.
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That’s right. Phone lines are open for you. We want to hear from you at 1-800-684-3110. Of course, We are always fighting back against this anti-American rhetoric, anti-Semitic rhetoric, and honestly fighting for both sides. Whether you’re a leftist Democrat or a right-wing Republican, it doesn’t matter as long as your freedom of speech is protected, but also that we are standing on the right side of this. So I’m going to encourage you to sign a petition right now. Urge Congress to support America, support Israel. Go to aclj.org slash sign. We’re prepared to defend America and what truly makes America great. I just got back from New York City in New Jersey. Spent a lot of time over the weekend there. Some amazing people. And it feels like this is a moment. This is a moment where the tide is turning. Be a part of that tide right now at aclj.org slash sign. Welcome back to Sekulow. Phone lines are open at 1-800-684-3110. We are coming upon, once again, another weekend now as we are into the back quarter almost of the year here. We’re in September, and the rhetoric as we approach, once again, another anniversary of the October attacks. Now what? Going on multiple years. It’s hard to even… The years start blurring together, whether it’s two years or three years, however long this has been. And look, I think for a lot of us, that wear and tear that’s come through mentally is starting to show. It’s starting to crack in terms of it. We’ll talk to Jeff Ballabot about this coming up in the next segment from ACLJ Jerusalem, because there is just one for this war to end. And I can’t tell you that that’s across my mind multiple times going, you know what? We’ve got to just be able to move on. You can’t spend every waking minute thinking about this. I was very lucky this weekend to spend some time in New York and New Jersey and kind of fellowship with some great people, went to a lot of concerts and events, and these were events that were not political. These were events where there was never anyone talking about that. They were just celebratory. And that was refreshing. It was refreshing to be in an America where everything wasn’t divided, where it wasn’t just talking about where someone landed politically. It was about just enjoying each other’s company, whether that was 200 people or 70,000 people. But we’ve come to this point where it feels like you’ve hit that point of no return where everything has to be politicized. And it’s not that Rashida Tlaib is anything new. for Rashida Tlaib it’s more that this is something that has been embraced by a certain segment of society and I also want to play in just a minute a clip that kind of on the internet that I have which has a lot of you know pro-Israel conversations and a lot of music a conversation that happened live on stage at a Coldplay concert just over the weekend as well where you had a couple come up on stage we brought up by Chris Martin the lead singer and he asked hey where you from they say israel and then you can hear the crowd reaction and chris martin go into almost a full blown panic to try to calm down not only the crowd but to make himself look better and i think he probably meant well but shows some really uh poor words that push more of this uh dehumanizing uh stereotypes that come from uh that come from this sort of radical left that has demonized all Jewish people, all Israeli people. People, look, I mean, you go to Israel, and I want to make sure people understand this too. There are people in the streets right now, Israeli people, in the streets protesting against Netanyahu and the regime. that they do not agree with what he’s doing. They do not agree with what they’re doing, just like there’s people in the streets here protesting Donald Trump. Now, does that make them any less Israeli? Does that make the people there any less American? No, I would say in some ways, of course, that’s a good thing. We should have people who disagree with us and they should be out there saying, now there is a line. Of course, that line seems like our own Congress people are willing to cross that line into taking it from just a normal stand-up for your party and against the current administration to taking it to bordering on violence.
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Well, and Logan, this is the reality of what we’re dealing with now. Because a lot of people on the right have been duped by the anti-Semitic crowd, the vile things that you hear. More and more, you’re seeing very… top names within the conservative media space fall into this trap. And it’s all based in the same hate and evil that’s thousands of years old, this anti-Semitism. But what you have to realize is that their ideology isn’t just about taking down Israel. It’s also about taking down places like the United States, where there is a Western-style government, where there is Western-style freedoms. They don’t want that. This is from Tlaib, from the same speech, just moments after that first clip we played, where she’s taking it not just about, at this People for Palestine conference, it’s not just about Palestine, in her words. Play Byte 2.
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It’s that as an American, this city taught me, taught me that the political structures that I have to work in, that we all are surrounded by, was built on slavery and genocide and rape and oppression. Detroit taught me that these institutions will never save us. Detroit will remind me constantly, the community mothers, That it’s not the genocide enabling Congress or the White House that will free our people. It is only us. It can only be us.
SPEAKER 03 :
Logan, this is getting dangerously close to some of like overthrow type rhetoric of she’s a sitting member of Congress. And she’s saying that the political structures that she has to work in. But, you know, poor her being elected to Congress has to work in these that are built on slavery and genocide. and yet it’s not the Congress or the White House, not the freedoms that are enshrined in our Constitution that can save people. It is only the people in that room.
SPEAKER 02 :
I thought this was some of the protesting that I’ve seen, and whether that was from celebrities or whether that is from members of Congress. There was another famous musician who got on stage this weekend and said anyone who’s involved in the administration essentially is evil or whatever. Of course, that not only alienates half of your audience likely, if you’re playing music, but also it’s again, it’s this over demonization. It’s no longer about whether we’re going to run a better candidate next time. And we are going to give a better point of view. And that better point of view is going to win us the day. It’s now this talk of, like you said, of like overthrow where it gets a bit uncomfortable to have these conversations because it’s no longer about, And you’re right. It’s the talking point. It’s not about whether you agree or disagree. It becomes right or wrong. And when you start saying something is wrong or is evil or is genocide defending or any of the words that she was using on there, yeah. Of course, your first initial thought is, well, we have to overthrow it, much like what was happening currently in the situation in Israel. They feel like they need to overthrow Hamas. They can’t leave Hamas standing because we know it will just revert. Now, eventually, do things get worn out on the war field, on the battlefield? Maybe so. But look, I mean, President Trump just posted a truth. Tell Hamas to immediately give back all 20 hostages, not two or five or seven. And things are going to change rapidly and it will end. So you have President Trump still out there trying to find an end to this war. that maybe doesn’t involve a full submission by Hamas. And I think that’s more fighting for the American people. And I don’t necessarily have a big problem with that. People have asked me that specifically. Do I think that that’s the solution? No. But I also saw someone this weekend said, you know, terrorism can never be defeated, so we got to stop this. Well, that’s no way to look at the world either. You know, if we’re not fighting for inevitable peace, what are you fighting for? And I guess the answer can’t just be, well, they’re going to eventually just try to kill us anyway, so might as well just let them.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, and once again, I think we should play this final clip because the previous ones could just sound like fiery rhetoric, but it does take a turn, which could be interpreted as almost a direct call for some sort of violence. And we will play that just in a second. But also other speakers at this this conference. said things like this. This is Nadal Jabbour, who is with Doctors Against Genocide, said, it’s time for us to pay back and stop the criminals, the perpetrators, the child murderers, and we all know who they are, whether they are in Israel, in Tel Aviv, in Washington, in Germany, in Europe. We name them all. We all know them. They need to be locked up. They need to be taken out. They need to be neutralized to save children, to save humanity. That’s calling for the elimination of of american leaders people in washington directly at a conference here in the united states and that’s very similar to statement by congresswoman talib bite three where she is talking about the tactics inside gaza already being deployed here in the u.s let’s play by three what’s been tested on the killing fields of gaza
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is already being deployed right here in the streets of America.
SPEAKER 03 :
I don’t know that there are many other ways to take that other than support of the massacre on October 7th, the way that Hamas utilizes terror to keep a people contained, have no freedom, no liberty there, no diversity there. And saying that what’s been tested on, as she calls them, the killing fields of Gaza is already being deployed right here in the United States. In Gaza, you don’t see a healthy legal protest community. You don’t see outspoken against tyrannical government that governs them in Gaza. That would get you killed in Gaza. The only thing you see is terror from Hamas killing Israelis, killing civilians, massacring people on October 7th. Saying that that’s being deployed right here in the streets of America, this goes beyond a call for a censure within the Congress. That doesn’t stop her. That makes her more emboldened. She wears it as a badge of honor because she doesn’t like the political structure she works in. That is dangerous rhetoric coming from a sitting member of Congress.
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Yes, you can sign our petition right now at aclj.org slash sign or scan the QR code that may or may not appear on your screen. I’m not even sure if there is a QR code. Is there, guys? Is there one? Let’s see. Look at that. I think I manifested that well. I’ve seen you do it before. So there’s the QR code. You can scan it on your screen right now where you go and directly sign. You can also, you know, a great way to sign the petitions and to get involved is through our ACLJ app. We don’t talk about it that much. It’s been newly redesigned. It’s an incredible experience. You should download it. If you become an ACLJ champion, you get sort of a custom overlay also, and it’s all tailored to you. So say you care about Israel, but you don’t really want to hear about even issues that maybe we find very important, like life, but you’re like, you know what? I’m here. Maybe there’s a lot of liberal Democrats that come on and support the ACLJ. Because they support our work with Israel. And you’re like, I only want to hear about Israel. Well, you can do that on the app. You can just opt into the topics that you really care about. And you’ll get push notifications and all that. You can sign petitions with just a quick click of the button. So do that today. Go to ACLJ.org. Download that app if you can. We’ll be right back with your calls, comments, and Jeff Balaban. Welcome back to Secular. We are joined now, I’m going to jump right in, by Jeff Balaban, who is running our team in Israel, the ACLJ Jerusalem team. And Jeff, I know, I want to preface our listeners, viewers, and those who support this show, to know that currently there may be some sirens going off, and if that happens, it’s because… There’s some airstrike warnings, which means you need to get out of Dodge. You need to get to your safe space. So if you do have to get up, that is what’s happening right now. I don’t know if people understand that that is still happening in Israel. And when you have Rashida Tlaib saying, you know, we need to start looking at the same tactics.
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She said what’s been tested on the killing fields of Gaza is making its way to the streets of America. Remember, Jeff Balaban right now is experiencing what she thinks is tested in the killing fields of Gaza as there may be air raid sirens.
SPEAKER 01 :
While we were in the last segment, the phone, our phone has, I have actually two apps on the phone that indicate when there may be incoming into your area of Israel. Very well targeted to where you are, but when there’s a possibility that it’ll be intercepted, a large missile intercepted, as often happens from Yemen, then it’s a broad area of Israel, including where I am right now. I’m going to show you, I don’t know if you can see, this just came over now. This is a picture of… you can see it, of the missile launched in Yemen that they say has been intercepted. So hopefully there will not be an alarm. The alarm goes out on launch. But if there is, yeah, I’ll have to get up and run to the shelter. I happen to be in a place with a shelter on my floor. So it’s not that inconvenient. But yes, that is exactly what they mean. And it’s interesting, the inversion of language is what struck me in terms of what Rashida Tlaib and others at that conference. They are perpetrators of genocide. The entire Palestinian collective is defined around every one of its foundational documents of its intention to commit genocide. genocide of the state of Israel and of the Jewish people. That’s what the river to the sea means. It’s interesting that they’re adopting language inverting the truth. Others at that conference talked about how we, the normal people, Americans, We worship death. We love death. But the truth is, for decades, until they realized it’s clever to invert it, they said the reason that they would win the Palestinian cause, Hamas, the Palestinian Authority and others, is because they said openly that they love death. They worship death and their enemies more than we love life. Well, they’re being clever about how they’re inverting it, but what you really hear… And it’s hard for me to even believe such a person could be in Congress. The absolute hate that she has for America, the hate that she has for everything America stands for. And in the room, riling up, the energy in that room was so hostile and so profoundly anti everything that America stands for. And yeah, that is a war, as you said before on the segment. This is not just about Israel. It has been clear from the beginning. America is the great Satan. Israel is the little Satan. The Jews, they despise. The Christians, they hate worse. And the truth is, this is a war. Israel and the Jews are on the front line of the war, but it is a cultural war, which already has come to America. She’s right. They already are in Congress. They dominate the universities. And so it’s very hard for Americans. I’m an American. We grow up feeling we’re at peace. But the truth is the world has changed and we are at war. They’re already waging war against us and we have to stand up and see it for what it is.
SPEAKER 02 :
Jeff, over the weekend, you bring up how the rhetoric has changed so dramatically. I was in New York and just outside in New Jersey at MetLife Stadium at a concert, an Oasis concert. And one of the reviews I read said how refreshing it was to just be in a room of 70,000, 80,000 people and there weren’t flags being raised of any side of politics. There was no Palestinian flags. There was no conversation about it. They just went out, played their songs, and had a great show. It was a unifying moment of 80,000. And now you flip over, and they said it was kind of like the end of what was going on in Britain in the 90s and what was happening in America, what really it should feel like in America. And then you go over to Wembley Stadium, and this happened over the weekend. Chris Martin and Coldplay were playing. And Coldplay, again, maybe a little more politically active, have always had maybe their finger on the pulse a bit of what was going on. Chris Martin, highly inspired by a lot of Christian music, grew up in the faith, was raised on Delirious, a lot of those bands, you can hear those influences. But he had a moment where he brings people up on stage, and a lot of times he’s had some moments this week, this tour, where he has acknowledged Israelis that were there and people who claim Palestinian background that were there, people with flags, and tried to kind of play both sides a little bit, but was honestly one of the better ones at keeping the crowd at bay. Then he brought up two people up on stage, a pair of fans who came up, and I want you to hear what happened. And then I both just think he made just an atrocious mistake at some of the words he’s using because I think he’s trying to figure out how to get himself out of this issue that was about to arise at Wembley Stadium. So take a look at what happens here.
SPEAKER 06 :
Where did you come from today? From Israel. Okay, well, wow. Okay, well, listen up. I’m going to say this. I’m very grateful that you’re here as humans, and I’m treating you as people humans on Earth, regardless of where you come from or don’t come from. Thank you for being here. We’re grateful, and thank you for being lovely. Fine. Okay, I’m writing a sign. And, although it’s controversial, maybe I also want to welcome people in the audience from Palestine, because we have…
SPEAKER 02 :
Again, a guy tried to clearly backpedal out of the conversation as the crowd erupts in boos when these two fans just say, hey, we’re from Israel. We came to enjoy your concert. And he has to say, well, I’m treating you. Look at me. I’m treating you as human beings. As if, number one, every Israeli represents the Israeli government, which is insane. But number two, as if that even had to be something that was treated, had to be said, it really is a shocking moment. Even if, again, the intentions may have been pure.
SPEAKER 01 :
It’s like when people say that Israel should have the right to exist, or I support Israel’s right to exist. No other nation in the world is talked about that way. I support France’s right to exist. It exists. The idea that the only people in the world, their right to exist as a people, in peace, in safety, in sovereignty, that the Jews, that the world can’t accept that, is what’s so extraordinary. And you’re exactly right. And by the way, because we’re on the topic of music, music is so important because music You know, you can legislate a lot of things, but you can’t really legislate culture. And we at the ACLJ, we work in law. You can litigate a lot of things. We look in policy. Again, that’s legislation. But also, and the reason, obviously, that we have the show is because culture is above all of those. Culture underlies all of those. And let’s not forget, that the worst scenes of horror happened at a music festival. Kids just going to enjoy music on a Jewish holiday, and the savagery that was done to them, it doesn’t even bear thinking about. And that’s what the enemy is. And that’s who was gathered in that room in America, in the heart of America, and sort of trying to foment that kind of hostility and hatred at a deep cultural level. Oh, wait, another…
SPEAKER 02 :
uh another notification from the phone i have to see what it is uh whether that’s all clear or not give me a second i’m sorry no problem jeff you focus back on that while we do this this was a moment uh that really was over the weekend this is what you’re dealing with here this is what jeff has to deal with when people who are living in israel have to deal with and look chris martin coldplay are not uh you know the only example of this i mean chris martin’s jewish uh at least poor partially jewish children uh you know he’s married to gwyneth paltrow who’s half jewish who that means their children at least uh by DNA sense, are part Jewish, quarter Jewish children. Of course, he’s dealing with there and having to play both sides of that game. And to say, okay, we support everyone here. Everyone has the right to be here and be excited to be here as fans. I have no problem with that. It’s when it takes it to the level of saying, I am here, I am doing the good thing, because you are human to me. Again, as if that should be even a question. Just based on where someone is born, where someone’s from, what kind of religion, what religious background they are, whatever it may be, that is somehow some universal declaration of, look at me, I’m treating you as if you are human. It’s really sad. It really is. Again, as someone who raises children and family to understand their heritage, it is where we are in society and the culture war continues on. Thank you, Jeff. Hopefully stay safe, please. We’ll be back with second half hour secular coming right up. Stay tuned to ACLJ.org or on YouTube or Rumble or however you get us. We’ll be right back.
SPEAKER 04 :
keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 02 :
Welcome to the second half hour of Sekulow. We are going to take some phone calls in this segment. I want to hear more from you at 1-800-684-3110. If you’re just joining us, we were just had on Jeff Balaban, head of ACLJ Jerusalem, who had to leave, literally had to duck out at the last second of the broadcast due to some warnings of incoming missile fire. You got to remember, this is what happens in Israel all the time. You’re not hearing about it every time it happens because it is continual. Of course, they have the Iron Dome. They have a lot of ways of protecting themselves. They have safe spaces. But this is what they’re living through 24 hours a day, and specifically the overnight hours. This is the real deal of what’s going on, and it’s easy for us to forget that that is what’s happening. We also were talking about Rashida Tlaib making a very, very, not only anti-Semitic, but an anti-Israel, as you’d honestly expect. But really, an anti-American point of view at this conference, I guess you’d say a pro-Palestinian, a pro-Gaza conference in Michigan. And then that followed up with a clip we played from Chris Martin from Coldplay, who again, you know, people love Coldplay. I got no problem with their music. I’ve seen them before in concert. Goes up on stage, brings up two fans, says, where are you from? They say Israel. The crowd starts booing. And Chris Martin, in a moment of, I believe, I’ll say, I believe he was probably trying to settle down this crowd. says essentially, you know what? It doesn’t matter where you’re from and that it’s controversial where you’re from. I’m gonna treat you like the human beings that you are. And the fact that that alone, and that is dehumanizing on its face. Again, do I think his intentions were negative? I don’t know. But I do believe they’ve been highly public in their views when it comes to some of their political points of view. There’s a lot of interesting Coldplay comments. I’m saving my Coldplay musical commentary. You can put that however you want. I’m not saying one way or the other. Just have fun with it. But I do feel that way when you look at this kind of commentary. Just because these two people who came as fans bought tickets. And by the way, Coldplay was here in Nashville three weeks ago. Tickets were so expensive to this show that a number of my friends went and stood on the bridge outside of Nissan Stadium and took their kids. That’s the kind of price that they are demanding to get into the building. So this couple, not even a couple, I think it was just two friends, show up, get pulled out of stage, probably the moment of their life, a big moment of their life, and then they’re told, you know what? We don’t care where you’re from because you’re from a controversial place. We’re going to treat you like humans. And then have to go, and by the way, those people that have been killing you also and attacking you, where are they at? Where are you at fam? And then let them have their moments cheering. And because they’re getting booed off the stage, just because of where they were born.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s where you see the anti-Semitism creeps in like a cancer. It literally takes over the entire way that people talk. Because if you got up there and said, I’m from Canada or I’m from the United States. And he had said, uh, I’m going to treat you like a human regardless of where you’re from. Because I don’t like Donald Trump. People would maybe laugh like, oh, he’s making a joke. Like that is such an absurd thing to say.
SPEAKER 02 :
Making a joke about Trump.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right. But no, he had to find a way to be like, oh, it’s okay. I’m going to treat you like a human even though you’re from Israel. The subtext of that is that anti-Semitism has so permeated the culture that you have to remind people people from Israel are humans.
SPEAKER 02 :
All he would have had to do if people were booing is just say, you know, we welcome everyone here at Coldplay. You know, this is a unifying place. Moving on. If he had to even address it at all. You know, it wasn’t like it was the whole stadium erupted in boos. Yes, you could hear them. Of course, this is in the UK where there is a, I believe, not only a religious, there is a Christian moment happening in the UK that we cannot be, you can’t deny is happening. We got to keep our eyes on what’s going on there. I think you are just a couple years away from a major pendulum shift in the UK. Not unlike what happened here in America. This is a big moment. Faith is on the rise. Family values are on the rise. We’re seeing a rejection of what has happened there over the last number of years. And again, we got to make sure we’re keeping our eyes on it because it’s pretty wild what’s happening there. I mean, it’s obviously happened in the US as well. It’s going to continue to happen forever. phone lines are open i want to take more calls i’m sorry to get your calls uh we got rick grinnell coming up in the next segment but if you’re on hold right now we are going to get to you and we have phone lines open at 1-800-684-3110 1-800-684-3110 we’ll be right back on seculo but before we get back i want you to take a moment and sign our petition go to aclj.org sign the petition scan the qr code we’ll be right back Welcome to Seculo. Welcome back. Rick Ronell’s joining us now live. Well, we have been talking a lot about, obviously, Rashida Tlaib and all the remarks that came out this weekend in Michigan. I want to get Rick’s point of view on that as well. But there’s also been some pretty interesting moves in terms of world leaders. Getting together, having a good time together, Will. And these are ones that haven’t necessarily been in the same room in a number of decades, but it’s not necessarily the ones you want in the same room. That’s right.
SPEAKER 03 :
So over in China, we have Vladimir Putin visiting, Kim Jong-un visiting, and this is celebrating the surrender of Japan in World War II. And you have some strange summits going on over there. Yeah, so you have… Xi Jinping, Kim Jong-un, and Vladimir Putin. That’s right. All hanging out.
SPEAKER 02 :
All in one room.
SPEAKER 03 :
And then you have President Trump posting this on True Social. The big question to be answered is whether or not President Xi of China will mention the massive amount of support and blood that the United States of America gave to China in order to help it secure its freedom from a very unfriendly foreign invader. And then he goes on to say, May President Xi and the wonderful people of China have a great… and lasting day of celebration, please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un as you conspire against the United States of America. Very, I mean, maybe the most perfect Trump post of all time. But Rick, I want to get your take on what’s going on over there and how the president handled it.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, first of all, let’s just say we’re so happy that it’s President Trump who’s in the Oval Office handling situations like this, because the reality is, is that he understands what’s going on. He’s following it in real time and reacting in real time. And so putting the Chinese in a position where the president of the United States says, I see what you’re doing and I want to have good relations with you, but this is not helpful. I think, is is the exact position that that that we want to be in. President Trump is watching it very clearly. Nothing gets by him. And yet his his reflexive nature is to make sure that he’s fighting for America, not picking fights, not immediately going for you know, a conflict, but showing a little bit of humor and showing the world that he sees exactly what’s going on and nothing is getting by him. And I think this is what we want to do. It is troubling to see Putin and Xi together because rule number one of foreign policy is to make sure that Russia and China are not working together against the United States. So I think this is the exact perfect response from President Trump.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, I think that’s absolutely true. When I saw that image, there is the part of you that goes, okay, President Trump did a good job in kind of diffusing it from a public perspective, but it should be a little bit alarming that we have these guys in the room together because, again, let’s not de-emphasize their power that they have on the world stage. That is not something to be laughed at. Of course, you said, Joseph, President Trump is still paying attention of course that comes over a weekend of all of the silly rumors that were coming out of his wellness the guy took one day off i mean you know how long it was between biden press conferences i mean there was like counters that were running like three months president trump takes one day off and they’re like well he must not be doing very well he must be sick and look your 80 year old man sometimes you do get stuff happens but that was not the case but of course this is where we have to run to these they honestly just they stole the playbook but not a good way right you
SPEAKER 03 :
And Rick, one other angle of this summit that’s going on that I want to ask you about is something that took place on Monday of this week where the prime minister of India was actually meeting with Vladimir Putin as well as Xi Jinping. Not as surprising to see Kim Jong-un join into that group. But President Trump has had a better relationship with the prime minister of India than obviously the Biden administration had and had made some great progress towards some more economic stability and trying to keep some of the interaction between Pakistan and India in check. What do you make of this show of unity between Russia and China with India on Monday, especially in light of how much progress the Trump administration had made with the prime minister of India?
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, look, let’s be clear about one thing is, is that all hell went into chaos when Joe Biden spent four years in the Oval Office trying to be the one that was running foreign policy. Remember, he didn’t speak to Vladimir Putin for three and a half years. And, you know, the relationship with India was not good. And so now President Trump is having to pick up the pieces here and to see India, which is the the natural pivot away from China for us. To see them all of a sudden continuing the relationship that they’ve had for the last four years is definitely troublesome. It didn’t get past President Trump, and we’re watching that closely. But the reality is, is that we’re reminded that the United States has to keep the pressure on in order to get these relationships to a better state. That pressure for the last four years was completely off, and we see a whole bunch of chaos in the world. Remember, President Trump handed President Biden total peace in the Middle East and total peace in Europe, and Biden turned around and handed President Trump two world wars. It’s chaos. And it’s something that President Trump is now trying to dig us out of. But again, thank God we’ve got him there who’s watching it and having as his natural instinct a position to try to find common ground, try to push for good relations with another country and the United States in order to benefit the United States. He doesn’t naturally go to the conflict. Let’s go to war. Let’s have some sort of an attack. And I appreciate that and I’m thankful for him.
SPEAKER 03 :
Rick, I want to shift topics just a little bit here. Rashida Tlaib, the congresswoman out of Michigan, made some headlines after a speech she gave at a conference for Palestine over the weekend, mainly going into things about how genocidal and racist and built on slavery that all of our institutions are here in the United States. But she made this line. towards the middle or end of her remarks. And I wanted to get your take on how this should be taken from a sitting member of Congress. And this is bite three about what’s been tested in Gaza and making its way here.
SPEAKER 05 :
It’s been tested on the killing fields of Gaza. It’s already being deployed right here in the streets of America.
SPEAKER 03 :
Sitting member of Congress is talking about the tactics and what’s been tested in Gaza making its way here. That’s very alarming to me and to much of our audience. And I wanted to get your take on that.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, three things jump out. One is she was reading those words. So it was very deliberate. It wasn’t off the cuff. She was glancing down at her speech. That was a well thought out attack that she had planned to do. And so I think people need to realize that, that this is going to get worse from her. This wasn’t an off the cuff emotional moment. It was, it was a strategic statement. Secondly, She’s lucky that she lives in the United States where there’s freedom of the press and freedom of speech and freedom of religion. She gets to say anything she wants because we have great American military men and women who protect those freedoms. I believe in the First Amendment, but she should be thankful that she lives in the United States because here’s the third point. She couldn’t say those words in another country. She probably couldn’t even say those words in the UK at this point. The United Kingdom is having some real problems with freedom of speech. But as crazy as her words are, and they are protected speech, I think the best way that we can deal with this is to let her words be known to every single person. let her radicalness be known because she’s not helping her cause for one. She’s certainly not helping Michigan. She is someone who is a problem, a growing problem. And it’s not just politics and PR, but it’s getting to the point where she is really not helping our national security. And so she needs to be able to feel the pressure of the public on her words, because those words were strategic and very unhelpful.
SPEAKER 02 :
Rick, I appreciate you coming on and giving your point of view on that. I want to hear more from you later on in the week and next week about even some of the more things that will, I’m sure, shake out. It’s always good to hear from your point of view, specifically when it comes to sort of what’s going on on the world stage and even the pop culture stage, obviously, as you are You’re heading up the Kennedy Center and all the changes have been going on there, which is amazing. And, of course, we talked about, Will, and we played that earlier, what was going on at Wembley Stadium with Chris Martin coming out saying, oh, I brought some Israelis on stage on accident. Oh, I got to make sure to say I’m going to treat you like a human. You know, I don’t feel like that’s going to happen at the Kennedy Center. I feel like maybe your team there understands that we are all humans. And it doesn’t have to be prefaced. All right.
SPEAKER 10 :
I think. Go ahead, Rick. Look, that that Chris Martin fiasco was embarrassing. He didn’t know what to do. And and I think he’s damaged by that now. People see him. I see a lot of criticism towards him. And that will never happen at the Kennedy Center. We’re doing Parade, by the way, is a great musical. And it talks about anti-Semitism. So come see Parade at the Kennedy Center.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes. I’m sure it will be excellent. I didn’t mean to cut you off, Rick. We’re running out of time. But again, thank you always for coming on. We have more information about what’s going on at the Kennedy Center. I always like to hear about that and support our friends in the arts and the arts community. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. We’ve got three lines open. We’ll take your calls when we get back. I’ll see you now. All right, let’s finish strong today with some great callers. Don’t let me down, callers. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. We’ll take three calls, then we’ve got three more lines open. We’ll try to get to as many as we can. Three will 100% make it up. Let’s go to Martin first, who’s an ACLJ champion. Martin, go ahead. Thank you, sir.
SPEAKER 08 :
A comment and two real quick questions, or any case. Every elected… federal government official has to take an oath to uphold the Constitution and protect the United States of America. So I believe in First Amendment free speech. But first of all, when does that become potentially inciting a riot or putting together of a government coup takeover for government? What Khalid said, and I like what Rick and Marilyn said, too, and what kind of sanctions does she have against her for doing that if it’s flirting with that at this point?
SPEAKER 03 :
Martin, one, I stand with Rick saying that we are for free speech here. And a lot of times you want those people to keep saying what they believe because then everyone knows it. You don’t want her to keep that inside. But as far as upholding the Constitution, yes, there is a referendum on members of the House every two years. So if her people don’t agree with that, they should vote her out of that district and no longer represent that district. She knows what she’s saying, though, to get her voters there fired up. And I fortunately believe that she is not the majority of her party, even though they do have a lot of power within that. And she’s definitely not the majority of America. So that’s a good thing that we can stand on and why we have to keep pointing this out so it doesn’t creep more. But if the House of Representatives were want to expel her, they could. Each house may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and with the concurrence of two thirds, expel a member. We saw George Santos was expelled most recently. Other members of Congress, people during the Civil War were expelled for disloyalty. So there is a way to get someone kicked out of Congress without just voting. However, with the makeup of the Congress, I don’t think that any Democrats are going to join the Republicans to expel her.
SPEAKER 02 :
Probably not. And then, of course, you open up another door that I’m not sure we’re ready to do as Americans. I mean, look, Martin, I watched a clip yesterday from Chris Cuomo’s broadcast, which his whole thing now is on News Nation, be someone who’s a moderate. kind of treat both sides equally he had ben shapiro on and ben shapiro was essentially saying we’ve got to be done with pendulum politics we’ve got to get people from the left and the right and the center together when you have or we’re going to be heading for chaos when you have ben shapiro who has built his whole i mean the whole world of the daily wire uh which you know just down the street from us uh on pretty partisan politics, I would say. Pretty one-sided in the terms. And now he’s even saying, you know what? Our world is shaking right now. We’ve got to bring people together. And if not, this is what you’re going to have. You’re going to have these extremes. You’re going to have people like Tlaib who can go out there and say these things. And they’re not only not held accountable for it, they’re celebrated by the mainstream voter. Because the mainstream voter is the ones who have not become disenfranchised with the entire political system, which is probably 80 percent of people at this point who are just done, who just want to throw their hands up and say, I want to live my life. I want things to be, you know, maybe it’s selfish, but to say I’m trying to keep my family safe and anything else, you know, it’s none of my I don’t want to deal with it. It’s sad when we get there. It’s sad when we get there, Martin. And I appreciate you being an ACLJ champion. That’s someone that gives on a monthly basis because you know we have to continue to fight for all of these important issues. So again, I want to thank you for doing that. Martin is an ACLJ champion, which is essentially like a member of the ACLJ. Someone that signs up and when they donate, they decide to opt in and donate every month automatically. Of course, you can cancel any time. Another ACLJ champion is on hold. If you become an ACLJ champion, one of the little perks I offer is you get bumped to the front of the line. So Martin was first because he had been on hold for the longest, but Marion has only been on hold about 10 minutes because Marion is a champion. Boom, to the top. Go ahead. Marion, you’re asking me, right? You are the one and only Marion on hold right now.
SPEAKER 07 :
Go ahead. Well, you got that right. Okay. Yeah, first I’ll ask the question. People say answer the question afterwards, but my question after my comment is I want to know how… George Soros is getting away with all this upheaval chaos that he’s creating in America, putting prosecutors that don’t follow the law and just trying to disrupt our nation. I don’t know why nothing has been done to him for that. That’s my question. And my comment is this. One of the reasons that Putin and these people around the world are very upset is because Trump is wielding one of his strongest powers, and that’s the tariffs. And now we’ve got these activist judges that are coming along and saying, well, they’re no good. We’re going to get rid of the tariffs and all of that. And whereas that leverage that… Trump had is now going to be removed. They’re going to say, wait a minute, they might take those tariffs away within his own country. So let’s just hold off as long as we can and see what happens. So they’re delaying the power that Trump has using tariffs because they’re thinking, hey, they might go away. So that’s my comment.
SPEAKER 02 :
All right, we got to address both these. We’ll try our best to do both. We’ll start with George Soros comment. Here’s the thing. A billionaire is going to billionaire. And if you have a billionaire on your side who is this politically active, I mean, yes, there’s a lot of loopholes. There’s a lot of ways to work around. A lot of these are not loopholes and ways to work around. A lot of these are very legal ways to influence what’s going on in politics. That’s just the way our system is built. That’s why I was very excited, by the way, when we had Elon Musk kind of on our side for a while, because you had someone like a George Soros who felt like they were at least cheering on your side for a little bit. Sadly, that had to come to an end. because we couldn’t keep that together. And look, I understand if you’re a billionaire, you’re probably a pretty eccentric person, I think, or a brilliant mind, no doubt. But it was the unfortunate situation, because I think you can look at Elon and Tulsi and RFK and really thank them for what became a President Trump second term. They shook things up like no one ever had, and I would put Elon at the top of that list.
SPEAKER 03 :
And Marion, on the judicial rulings, maybe we’ll get into that some more tomorrow. We don’t have enough time to really dissect it. But as you say, we’ve started to see some more rulings this week that were surprising in light of a lot of the leniency that the Supreme Court had given to the executive branch. A little bit more activist style and some coming out of the Fifth Circuit, which is a lot more conservative than the other appeals courts in the country. So a little bit of surprise there. We’ll see how it goes. But I think some of them are set up to be overturned at the Supreme Court. We’ll find that out and we’ll get into that more tomorrow. You want to try to take Jerry real quick?
SPEAKER 02 :
Jerry, real quick. We got like 45 seconds. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 09 :
Question, did the Tlaib comments make the mainstream media? Because I only heard about them here. And number two, interestingly, she said seven decades. She’s not 70 years old, but she’s referring back to the establishment of Israel. And I don’t think Rick Grinnell has a hold of Tlaib at 480.
SPEAKER 03 :
Jerry, you cut off. I think he was saying hold a seat for her at the Kennedy Center.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, I know. It’s a seat parade. Call me back, Jerry, tomorrow so I can get you more on the air because you’re on hold for 52 minutes. I didn’t realize you were on hold that long. I apologize, number one. But yeah, of course, she’s talking about the establishment. of the government, the state of Israel. Of course, we know about the historical state of Israel. We know about the biblical state of Israel. Same land, same place. But of course, then when it was founded, and there’s a great piece, by the way, on ACLJ.org that gives you the full breakdown on Israel, the background of Israel, so you have an understanding. Because I think some people get confused of where biblical Israel ends, where historical Israel is, where the government of Israel is, when it was founded. You hear 1948, you hear all these different years. And he may throw you off. Go to ACLJ.org. Spend some time in our section on Israel where you can really kind of deep dive so you are fully engaged in that conversation. But thank you to all the people who called today. Thank you to everyone who signed the petition. You can still sign the petition. It’s wide open right now for you at ACLJ.org. We’re going to be back tomorrow with a lot more to talk about. And again, every day we are fighting against this anti-American, anti-Semitic rhetoric that we’re hearing from, sadly, not just from pop culture, but from representatives of our own country. And you can fight back and be part of that team as well. Go to ACLJ.org. Give if you can. Sign the petition. That costs you nothing. Be a part of the team. That’s again at ACLJ.org. And we’ll talk to you tomorrow.
