Sekulow

Logan Sekulow: Welcome to Sekulow. Will Haynes is here. I am here. We have a packed show. Jeff Ballabon, ACLJ Jerusalem, may or may not be joining us. He'll be joining us a little bit later. We also have this new Marco Rubio conversation to discuss as he called out and got together a bunch of world leaders to discuss the rising threat of what they would consider far-left violence that is happening, or far-left terrorism that is happening. It is a conversation that we've had here for a long time. I want to hear from you about this at 1-800-684-3110. Will can give you a little bit more background of why this was happening, why these 60 countries were gathered in Washington, D.C. I think we need to get a better understanding of that. Then I am sure we'll hear some quotes directly from Secretary Rubio.
Will Haynes: That's right. This is a ministerial. That is when the State Department brings together a group of other nations and diplomats from other nations to try to expand a partnership to work together. This was led by the Secretary of State. It was remarks given to, I believe, 67 nations total that were in attendance at this ministerial about the rising threat of far-left terror. It's addressing this in a way asking for cooperation, for information sharing, intelligence sharing, etc., so that they can combat this global threat as Marco Rubio is putting it. He calls it a poisonous resentment cloaked in the language of equality and justice, referring to when you see groups like Antifa, which is on the rise in Europe as well. That is against—it's anarchic—it's against the governments that are there. They are resentful of the foundations of the nations that they are pushing back against, but they cloak it in modern language, in the language of equality and justice. You think about what we've seen here in the United States, whether it be the assassination of a healthcare CEO in the middle of Midtown Manhattan, whether it be assassination attempts against the President of the United States multiple times, or the successful assassination of Charlie Kirk. That's on everyone's mind again because of the pretrial hearings that are going on. Whether it be the group of people that across the country were just arrested, and more arrests last week, for planning an attack against the UFC event. You also saw there were Antifa members that tried to attack a detention center in Texas. They were just sentenced and got severe sentences handed down against them. This isn't one-off things. These are multiple events just here in our country, and that is what the Secretary of State is pointing out. We're going to play a lot of sound from him as well today.
Logan Sekulow: We can go to New Year's Eve in New Orleans, all the things that have happened over the last few years. I was at the World Cup yesterday in Atlanta, and the police presence and what almost felt like National Guard level presence was wild to see. You did feel very safe. I felt very secure there. There were no issues that occurred while we were there. However, that is because there was a police officer armed and very out front on ATVs and everything going throughout the crowd. It was a pretty wild scene to see, but in a way, you felt very protected, very safe to go to these giant events when you know there is this rise happening. We are going to hear from Secretary Rubio in just a little bit. We'll play it when we get back from this segment. We'll take a real short break. This is a great time to call. I want you to give me a call. What do you think about this? Is it good that we are now calling this out? What can be done about it? 1-800-684-3110. It is also midway through our Liberty Drive, and I want you to be a part of it today. All donations are doubled today. That means they are matched. Somebody is giving and saying, "I support the work of the ACLJ, whether that's your media efforts, your legal efforts, or everything in between, and I want to essentially pledge to match any donation that comes in." A big group of people does it. So get in. If we ever hit that limit, I'll let you know. But right now, those are usually pretty big numbers to hit. Any donation really of any kind will be matched. That is at ACLJ.org. You can scan the QR code you see on the screen right now or go to ACLJ.org/Liberty. Have your donation doubled today.
Logan Sekulow: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Those are the words of our forefathers written in the Declaration of Independence. They are the cornerstone on which our constitutional republic was built. Over the past 250 years, we have formed a great nation, a nation the world has looked to for guidance, for support, and for protection. This month, we celebrate our liberty. But that liberty is fragile and requires every American to defend it. That's why this month we've launched the ACLJ Liberty Drive. In honor of America's birthday, we're redoubling our commitment to continue fighting against any attacks that would strip us of that freedom. We owe it to our forefathers. You can join the fight right now through our ACLJ Liberty Drive. Go to ACLJ.org/Liberty today and have your tax-deductible gift doubled, dollar for dollar, to enable the ACLJ to fight to defend our God-given liberty. We've witnessed monumental legal victories from defending the 14th Amendment and protecting our sacred American right to vote, the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and standing up for the religious liberty of our kids and seniors. But even with the many historic wins we've achieved, the battle is far from over. The attacks on our constitutionally protected rights persist. Countless unborn babies remain in jeopardy, and across the globe, innocent Christians are being targeted and killed across this country and around the world. This fight isn't just the ACLJ's. It's all of ours. It belongs to every American who wants to preserve the values and beliefs on which this nation was founded. None of the victories we've won would have been possible without the unwavering support of ACLJ members and ACLJ champions. It's been an honor to fight for you all these years. Join us in fighting for freedom. Have your donation doubled at ACLJ.org/Freedom.
Logan Sekulow: Welcome back to Sekulow. We are going to take your calls. Please call in if you're listening right now and you want to speak out about this. This is a moment where the world is turning and looking at real extremism that is happening around the world and trying to decide how they're going to best address it. This was, again, Marco Rubio meeting with about 60 different world leaders to discuss this. You should hear directly from the man himself.
Will Haynes: That's right. Kind of why you think of almost this left-wing violence that we've seen in this country for a while now, why does this matter to the world? Why is this something that is beyond just a United States problem?
Logan Sekulow: I want to pose a question to you real quick before we play this. There has been a lot of talk about who is going to be the next Republican candidate for President of the United States. You have seen now kind of two people emerge. Again, I know that seems like it's far away. We're talking about two years from the general election, from voting. Campaigns are going to kick off in months. Many of you two years from now will have already voted in a primary. The decision will have been made already. You have on one hand, at least right now, Marco Rubio doing these kind of statements, getting together world leaders to talk about the rise in far-left extremism. On the other hand, you have Vice President Vance, who you saw yesterday. Probably a lot of you have seen the clips on Joe Rogan. He spent a lot of time and there were a lot of discussions you probably agreed with, and maybe some you didn't agree with, with his own thoughts on Israel. If those are your two options, who are you going with right now? If you had to decide today, I want to hear from you at 1-800-684-3110. As our heads turn to the midterms, we've got to remember picking our next world leader, and that's really what a President ends up being, a President of the United States. As we can see, you already have the Secretary of State doing that. So think about that as you hear from Marco Rubio himself. Phone lines are open and I want to hear from you. What do you want to play here, Will?
Will Haynes: This is bite three. This is where he's talking about why these world leaders are there. Why the individuals in the room, the diplomats that have come to this ministerial, why it even matters. Let's go ahead and hear from the Secretary of State.
Marco Rubio: You are here because your political leaders are being attacked and stabbed and shot in your streets, because your businesses have been bombed, because your railways have been sabotaged, because your police officers have been beaten and burned. You are here because this is real and it is getting worse. It can no longer be denied, and it can no longer be ignored because it is time to crush this evil forever.
Will Haynes: He talks about political leaders being attacked, stabbed, or shot in the streets and businesses being bombed and railways being sabotaged. This very morning for us, it was later in the day for the UK, but a Member of Parliament was murdered in the UK. A very conservative member, a pro-life member of Parliament, which is very rare in England these days to have even someone that's conservative to be on a pro-life agenda. Abortion is not even really discussed as a political topic. This was an outspoken pro-life member of Parliament and was murdered. They're saying it was a targeted killing. Their counter-terrorism task force is investigating this. It wasn't a dispute or some sort of a robbery gone wrong. It was a targeted killing of a member of Parliament that was conservative. As much as—and I want to read this because this actually really got me this morning. When I was reading CNN's coverage of this ministerial today, this is how they framed it. They talked about what the key priority of the administration was, talking about this left-wing violence. Then this is the third paragraph of their report on far-left political terrorism ministerial that is happening today. "However, multiple former officials said the issue has been politicized by the administration and that the threat from the far left does not rise to the level of that posed by groups like ISIS or by far-right extremists. The latter was absent entirely from the administration's counter-terrorism strategy released in May." They are still trying to drive home—these are unnamed multiple former officials—that at a time when we see what Luigi Mangione—that is a household name, people know that name—someone that decided to go and assassinate a healthcare CEO that we don't know the name of. Exactly. We do not know the name of the person who was assassinated. At the same time as a pretrial hearing about an assassination of Charlie Kirk, they are saying that the multiple former officials say the threat doesn't rise to the level of that posed by groups like ISIS or by far-right extremists. What are they talking about? Point to an example where the threat is equal. Yes, are there far-right extremists that are violent? No one's denying that. But the fact that you're seeing this over and over, and on the day that a member of Parliament that is conservative was killed in England, the Secretary of State having this ministerial talking about a very real and present problem. We should also play bite one from Secretary Rubio because he describes how normalized political violence from the left has been, which is exactly why CNN feels like they can print something like that.
Marco Rubio: So many people in positions of power have repeatedly dismissed acts of violence and even terrorism as legitimate forms of political expression so long as they served a left-wing cause. It is why, during those George Floyd—so-called George Floyd riots in the summer of 2020—as criminals and extremists burned and looted their way through America's great cities and nearly brought the country to its knees, city governments all across the country simply refused to prosecute the people conducting these acts of violence and terror. It is the reason for the now infamous image—maybe you all recall this—of a news anchor from a very prominent agency, a news anchor standing in a neighborhood consumed in flames, meanwhile the chyron on the bottom read that the protests were mostly peaceful. This was something worse than a double standard. Left-wing violence was not just excused; it was treated as sacrosanct, a protected class unto itself. That era has to end.
Will Haynes: What agency said "fiery but mostly peaceful," as he alluded to that image that we all know so well is still so fresh in our minds? The very same agency that printed, "However, multiple former officials said the issue has been politicized by the administration and that the threat from the far left does not rise to the level of that posed by groups like ISIS or by far-right extremists." It's CNN. It's the same one. Of course they're going to say that it doesn't pose the same threat because they think that firebombing entire cities is mostly peaceful.
Logan Sekulow: It's not even "do they think it?" It's "do they think their audience will agree with them?" That's all they're doing is writing content or producing content that they know is just to serve up to their audience, not letting that audience think for themselves, not letting that audience decide. Look, I could say the same happens on the right-wing media as well, maybe even so more in the alt-right space where you serve up content just based on what you think your audience wants so they get advertising revenue, so they get clicks, and so on and so on. We all know that those riots in 2020, whether you agree with the acts that preceded them—which obviously most people do not, they were horrible—you did not likely watch the looting of these cities and say, "That's the way to fix this problem." But you had to defend it in the moment. That's what happened with these media organizations. Now we've seen the same with Israel. We've seen the same with so many different topics that have come up in America where if you're not rioting on the streets, then you're part of the problem here. I like that Secretary Rubio is calling it out. I do think there are some more recent ones he could call out even, not necessarily just looking back six, seven years now. I want to hear from you at 1-800-684-3110. Let's go to Elena first in Illinois. Elena, go ahead.
Elena: Hi. Well, God bless Marco Rubio. He's doing a wonderful job. I think we are kind of late with everything. I have friends and family in Europe. I don't know how much he can accomplish getting together with some leaders from there because most of positions over there are with radical Muslims in mayors of the cities and police everywhere. So it's a big problem, international problem. It's too bad that we're just waking up now to this, even with radical people here who don't understand what it means—capitalism and what it means socialism. I just want to say that I hope something can be improved, even if it looks very serious and disappointing that it's kind of late.
Will Haynes: Elena, this is important. This is the job of the Secretary of State to hold things like that. Imagine even the concept of this ministerial ever happening with any other administration. This is a very important time. But I also think that you never think it is too late. There is always hope, and there is always—especially when you have strong leaders that want to make a difference—they can make a difference. I think you're seeing in other parts of the world too. You are seeing a turn away among many of the populations against some of these far-left policies that have given rise to this. I don't think it's too late. I think it's a very important time to do this.
Logan Sekulow: Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. Also, in the middle of our Liberty Drive, be a part of it today at ACLJ.org. We'll be back in just a moment with your calls, comments, and head over to ACLJ Jerusalem.
Logan Sekulow: We've witnessed monumental legal victories from defending the 14th Amendment and protecting our sacred American right to vote, the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and standing up for the religious liberty of our kids and seniors. But even with the many historic wins we've achieved, the battle is far from over. The attacks on our constitutionally protected rights persist. Countless unborn babies remain in jeopardy, and across the globe, innocent Christians are being targeted and killed across this country and around the world. This fight isn't just the ACLJ's. It's all of ours. It belongs to every American who wants to preserve the values and beliefs on which this nation was founded. None of the victories we've won would have been possible without the unwavering support of ACLJ members and ACLJ champions. It's been an honor to fight for you all these years. Join us in fighting for freedom. Have your donation doubled at ACLJ.org/Freedom.
Logan Sekulow: Over the past 250 years, we have formed a great nation, a nation the world has looked to for guidance, for support, and for protection. This month we celebrate our liberty, but that liberty is fragile and requires every American to defend it. That's why this month we've launched the ACLJ Liberty Drive. In honor of America's birthday, we're redoubling our commitment to continue fighting against any attacks that would strip us of that freedom. We owe it to our forefathers. You can join the fight right now through our ACLJ Liberty Drive. Go to ACLJ.org/Liberty today and have your tax-deductible gift doubled, dollar for dollar, to enable the ACLJ to fight to defend our God-given liberty.
Logan Sekulow: Welcome back to Sekulow. We are going to take your phone calls at 1-800-684-3110. In the next segment, we'll kind of reset. We're talking—a lot of you are already calling in, specifically on one of the questions I asked. You have two years until we all go back to the polls. Early voting will probably begin in August or September of just two years from now. I'm not talking about the midterms. The presidential campaign will kick off here very soon. Within six months, you're going to have a pretty good idea of who is running for President. I think the two likely Republican candidates right now, I'd say are almost shoe-ins if you will, would be Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, and JD Vance, currently the Vice President of the United States. Last night, you had JD Vance appearing on the Joe Rogan podcast, making a lot of statements and making his stance a little bit more clear on his thoughts on Israel. He said he's more of a moderate in terms of Israel and then went on to have some statements made specifically about how there are people within the Israeli government paying Americans that are then paying Americans to say bad things about him. He may believe that, but it creates a much bigger issue when it comes to when people are making their decisions on who they want to support. In the same day, you have Marco Rubio who has done a great job. Let's just be honest. He's done a great job in kind of securing his own—I would even say his own legacy in some ways. Before this, it was kind of a messy road for Secretary Rubio in terms of presidential attempts and some gaffes here and there. He finally found his footing—he was great in Florida—but I'm talking about on the national scale. A lot of people who even dislike President Trump seem to engage well with Secretary Rubio, and he still does things that are fairly controversial like this, calling this group together to say, "Hey, we need to fight the global poisonous threat of left-wing extremism." It is not exactly going to win you a lot of favors with the press, but it does it in a way that's poignant, interesting, and it points you to two different kinds of conversations of who you're going to want potentially as President of the United States. Of course, there's going to be others that will run as well, but I'd love to hear from you about that. If that election was held today, where would you end up? 1-800-684-3110.
Will Haynes: I think that's a very important thing to point out right now because it is almost as if a crossroads for the conservative movement. There is one person today that is saying, "Hey, this is important globally. This is something that we are seeing. We are seeing a poison that is infecting politics around the world where it is an ideology that is leading to violence." It's something we've been talking about, we've been decrying even the language that has moved the needle so far left and so dehumanizing that you hear people are like, "Oh, this is the only thing I can do is resort to violence." We even think of how many of us have forgotten at this point about the White House Correspondents' Dinner attempt because no one was killed. A failed attack that would normally be something that resonates in your mind is almost so normalized because of how normalized these attacks have become. At the same time, yesterday, you have another person on the right decide to go on Joe Rogan to cater to a different audience. It's the Vice President, a leader in the conservative movement. He cites Time Magazine as his source for there being an influence campaign against America by the Israelis. I never thought I'd hear a Vice President being like, "You've really got to read this Time Magazine piece. It's riveting journalism." But at the same time, he also is feeding into "blame Israel." He is feeding into that portion of the party. Whether he believes it or not, he is going right back to the tropes. He is leaning into the Tucker, Candace, and dare I say Nick Fuentes angle of the far-right movement where he's saying, "Oh, they want forever war and don't want us to have a deal with Iran." The very deal that I was negotiating, they were trying to sink. No, you know who sunk that? The Iranians when they were trying to sink shipping container ships, cargo ships in the Strait of Hormuz. They couldn't even live up to the easiest part of the Memorandum of Understanding. In fact, they went so far as to say, "Yeah, we also really still want to assassinate the President of the United States." I don't think that it's wise to start going and blaming Israel when the deal you were negotiating was sunk by the other party, not Israel. That's where it starts to get frustrating when you are at a crossroads in the conservative movement of you have two very apparent options here. What is more traditional, like "this rhetoric is bad and getting out of hand," or "let's blame Israel for everything?"
Logan Sekulow: A lot of people are asking this question, so Dale's calling who's an ACLJ champion. We've got to answer for you, Dale. Go ahead.
Dale: Hi. I would vote for Marco Rubio. However, didn't he say that if JD Vance wanted to run for President, he would not?
Logan Sekulow: Sure. You're right. On Tuesday, by Vanity Fair, he said if JD Vance ran for President, he is going to be our nominee and I'll be one of the first people to support him. Now, does that make it very clear? Sure, it makes it clear, but does it also leave a little wiggle room? Of course. And again, we've got a long road ahead.
Will Haynes: Also, that's the kind of political statement that is worth the paper it's written on. People say all the time, "I won't challenge this person," but then something—"Ah, now I feel called." That is building a political narrative. So either way, he can either say, "I'm not running because the donor pool's not there, the opportunity's not there," or he can make that pivot and be like, "I know that I have to do this."
Logan Sekulow: But look, Dale, he may have run against this before with his attempt at running against President Trump the first time around and understands that if you have this sort of MAGA base behind you, you are pretty hard to defeat and you do not walk away without a lot of bruises. So he may go, "Hey, I'm good at Secretary of State. I'll let JD take it this time. If he wins or loses, and then I'm a young man, I can wait four more years. I've been through this before." So maybe we'll see. But I think Will's right. Anything anyone says right now about whether they are—if they say they are not running for President, I almost feel like that means they are running for President. I don't believe Marco Rubio is lying. I don't believe he's saying that out of being facetious. I just think it doesn't matter right now what they're saying. If the money is there and the pressure is there, often you have people who are convinced to run for President that probably should have never run in the first place and vice-versa. Look what happened with Governor DeSantis, someone we obviously were big fans of and supported. I feel like his national positioning was burned pretty bad by what happened in the last election. You had a lot of money behind him, a lot of people saying challenge President Trump, and it was ultimately a poor decision. As much as I like Governor DeSantis, I think no one's really talking about whether Governor DeSantis is going to run for President again in two years. That should tell you a lot that the MAGA base, if they get behind JD Vance, that could be Marco Rubio saying, "I don't know." But I'd like to hear from you. I didn't ask what they think. I want to know from you, if those were your two options. We've got a second half hour coming up. If you're listening on terrestrial radio, hop on over on YouTube or ACLJ.org or Rumble. We are broadcasting live there every day, 12:00 to 1:00 PM, the full hour. Of course, you can catch it replayed immediately following it in perpetuity forever because it's available on demand. That's at ACLJ.org, the ACLJ app, or however you get your podcasts. We are there. Again, if you've never seen us, watch the full television style production that we do for YouTube, Rumble, ACLJ.org, Facebook. It's all there. Phone lines are jammed right now, but we are halfway through our Liberty Drive, and I want you to be a part of it today at ACLJ.org. When you become an ACLJ supporter today, or even if you become a champion, your first donation will be doubled because someone's ready to unlock their match. Help them unlock it. Do it today at ACLJ.org. We'll be right back.
Logan Sekulow: Over the past 250 years, we have formed a great nation, a nation the world has looked to for guidance, for support, and for protection. This month, we celebrate our liberty. But that liberty is fragile and requires every American to defend it. That's why this month we've launched the ACLJ Liberty Drive. In honor of America's birthday, we're redoubling our commitment to continue fighting against any attacks that would strip us of that freedom. We owe it to our forefathers. You can join the fight right now through our ACLJ Liberty Drive. Go to ACLJ.org/Liberty today and have your tax-deductible gift doubled, dollar for dollar, to enable the ACLJ to fight to defend our God-given liberty.