POMPEO IN STUDIO: “This is Biden’s Inflation”

Today on Sekulow we have Mike Pompeo for the full hour in studio and he says this is not Putin's inflation, this is Biden's inflation. We'll talk about that and more today on Sekulow. And now your host Jordan Sekulow. Hey welcome to Sekulow. We are taking your calls to 1-800-684-3110. So a unique opportunity as in the studio with me today.

I don't know if we can do the wide shot for those folks who are watching the broadcast and of course for all of you listening as well. You can put your phone calls in at 1-800-684-3110 and talk to Secretary Mike Pompeo today, our Senior Counsel for Global Affairs. He's in the studio with us for the full hour of the broadcast where we'll be working through issues domestic and foreign. Starting with some of the top issues as you heard in the tease on inflation from the Biden administration.

We keep hearing over and over and over again this is all about Putin, this is all about Russia, this is all about Ukraine. Secretary Pompeo disagrees and believes this is, as we agree, the Biden inflation. That is Biden policies that cause us inflation. Mike you tweeted out today, or maybe yesterday, President Biden doesn't have to travel to Saudi Arabia to bring down gas prices.

Instead he should travel to places like Midland, Texas. The American energy industry can pump just as much oil and this will make America independent, not dependent. And we were independent a couple years ago. What do you think is going on? Imagine begging the Saudis for more oil production. With everything you worked on this has got to feel like we're taking 14 steps backwards here.

Well, it's remarkable. I hear the President go out, he talks about Putin's tax or Putin's inflation. No, Mr. President, you own every bit of this. These are policy decisions that they made. Day one they closed down the Keystone Pipeline. They make it very clear that if you invest in fossil fuels you will be penalized, sent out a letter the last few days, now begging these same companies that they threaten to put a windfall profits tax on threatening them. You had this massive spending package, this last COVID relief, so-called American Rescue Plan, COVID relief bill, that just threw dollars into the economy. And then they have this set of incentives for people not to go back to work. And so you have this supply chain disruption where we, in America, in the United States of America, there is not baby formula on our shelves. The President's policies own this. They are the reason for the pain that American families are feeling all across the country. They can fix them, but it doesn't appear to me they have any interest in doing so. And that's why I know people are interested, too, is the fixes.

And we could take phone calls on that, too, if you've got questions about it, folks, for Secretary Pompeo, what he would do to fix this at 1-800-684-3110. Because we've heard, time again for the Biden administration, they just keep, well, they just claimed that inflation is higher in every other country in the world. And it's just not true. Inflation is up in the rest of the world, but we're at the highest point, Secretary Pompeo. We are, unfortunately, the leader when it comes to inflation. But I also think it's because, of course, inflation is up in other parts of the world because if it's up in the U.S., we have a big effect on the world.

It's absolutely true. U.S. policy is followed by so many countries in the world, how we think about our own interest rates, how we think about our own economy. We're the driving force at the Paris Climate Accords and the follow-on meetings as well, right? These things all have huge implications. If you're an ordinary family in Minnesota or Texas or wherever it may be, you are feeling higher prices in everything you buy, from the cereal you buy for your kid to the gasoline to drive your kids to soccer games. Those are all now so much more expensive for you, and people will stop, and we're likely to get a recession that will have an even bigger impact on people all across the country. We know the policies.

We delivered them for four years. We don't have to guess. We don't have to say, would this work? We know it works. We can demonstrably say that we had the lowest unemployment rate for African Americans, for Hispanics, for women in the history of the United States of America. We had an economy that was growing. We had risk-takers out there willing to build their little businesses. Every small company, every small startup in the country was willing to go out and take risks.

That's all been blown up by this administration and the progressive left. You know, folks, we're going to continue to take your phone calls. 1-800-684-31. Tim will start taking those too. And I think, you know, as we've done throughout this broadcast too, if you want to share where you are and how this is all impacting you, that's important too because Secretary Pompeo is traveling the country and the world.

I think we all want to know how this impacts you, what different demographics, different points of life, different economic situations. 1-800-684-31. Tim, start taking your calls. We'll be right back.

1-800-684-31. Tim, Secretary Mike Pompeo is in studio with us here, Senior Counsel for Global Affairs, but he's in the studio with us today for the full hour of the broadcast. We talked through a number of issues starting with, you know, we started with a little bit with inflation already, looking at those international numbers. And again, it's up, but when they say it's up higher everywhere else, it's not.

The highest is in the United States. And of course, we have an impact on the world because we had countries cut off Russian oil and gas without a backup plan for what we would do next because we had already shut down our pipelines, shut down new drilling in the United States. But I think it's been 20 years since we've had a new refinery in the United States of America.

Who would put one up? I mean, you're getting letters from, you know, Mike, you're getting letters from the President of the United States to the oil companies, you know, threatening them, saying how much money did you make and how much did you make in 2020? And by the way, we're going to put you out of business in three years, but we want you to invest more. But you said something also interesting, and this is, what we're seeing is everything that is going wrong, there is one enemy now. And this is, it's inflation, it's Vladimir Putin. Gas prices, which just around the corner from us, we're now for premium $6 a gallon, it's Vladimir Putin. Food prices are going up, it's Vladimir Putin. So they're blaming everything on Vladimir Putin.

So you've dealt with Vladimir Putin, you've dealt with the situation in Ukraine. To me, it looks like it's just an escape for them. This is just an easy talking point. What's your sense?

Jay, this is a dodge, and it's not honest. And it's not how leaders react. Leaders take responsibility. When things go wrong, the leader steps up and says, I'm the President of the United States. He doesn't come to the American people, as this President has done, says, well, I can't do much about this. But we should do something.

He said this on guns. Mr. President, you are responsible for the outcomes for ordinary American families. To use Putin as this excuse belies the facts. This inflation began long before February 24th, when Putin kicked off his horrendous campaign, his war of aggression on Ukraine. This inflation is not a result of Vladimir Putin. There's no doubt that putting pressure on the Russian regime and putting a little less crude oil in the market has an impact. But it is the tail, not the dog. The dog are bad Biden policies.

A set of progressive left advisors around him who are happy about these high energy prices because they think it moves to this green transition faster, it's kind of the point of what they're doing, to be honest with you. And as we're taking calls, folks, at 1-800-684-3110, I want to take a run right off the bat to go to Pam in Indiana on Line 1. Hey, Pam, welcome to Sekulow. You're on the air. Hey, thanks for taking my call.

I appreciate it. I'm just wondering what we can do as average American patriots who feel helpless. How do we save America? Listen, we're getting, and I told this to the secretary in our meeting before the radio broadcast, we're getting dozens of these calls on air a day where our working Americans, Mike, are saying, what can we do? Now, we had Senator Blackburn on the other day.

She laid out some concrete steps that could be taken. We could be producing more energy here. But this is the heartbeat of America. This is what they're saying.

What do you think the priority items, starting with inflation and the cost of living generally for people, what do you think the next moves need to be? So, look, for ordinary citizens, this is our moment. This is the time we all go get after this in ways we haven't. My first rule and guidance to everyone, and I really appreciate this call, is don't let them gaslight you.

Don't let them tell you this is Vladimir Putin's inflation. Don't let them tell you there's more than two genders. Don't let them tell you that your kid is racist in your schools. Defend the things we know. Don't give an inch on those core principles. Second, we're going to have a big election here just in a handful of months indeed. People will start voting in the general election, I think right after Labor Day, so just a couple months from now.

Tell your friends. Make sure they're all committed. They understand that there is an awful lot of stake in November. And then my last thought, America's always had challenges. When we get America back on the right track, it is almost always because people come together around our core institutions. Think of your church.

Quick the extra chili for your Wednesday dinner. Take care of your own family. These institutions of family and faith and church, these are the things that build an America. And the knuckleheads in Washington will respond when ordinary citizens like you, ma'am, who called in today, ordinary citizens like you return to the central things we know and continue to defend it in every form, whether you're at your kid's soccer game or your church or in the grocery store, you defend the things that matter to you. We're continuing to take your phone calls too, so folks keep calling in at 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. Secretary Pompeo, we know one of the things the Biden administration is now trying to do is going overseas to get oil and gas. And we know there's an upcoming trip to Saudi Arabia and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. And I think for our audience, to have you in here today, because of being Secretary of State, CIA Director, what will those meetings be like? Because in one sense it's an ally on a lot of issues, especially security issues, but we know that the current Saudi government not so happy with our current administration because of the words that were used by this administration to describe them and the threat that they were going to be punished or even a regime change there once Joe Biden became President. Now he's hoping to get a meeting with the current crown prince.

Well, Jordan, as I said, first step is to get it right at home. We should be producing our own energy. That puts less dependence on us for energy from any place, for any authoritarian regime. The relationship with Saudi Arabia is complicated.

I spent a lot of time in the region, not only with the crown prince in Saudi Arabia and with his father, the king, but with the MBZ and the Emirates and with the Israeli leadership. We had this right. It is complicated, but we had this right. They're important strategic partners of ours. Doesn't mean we bless everything that they do and that we don't criticize the things that they do that are inconsistent with our value set.

But they're really important partners. It all starts with the relationship between the United States and Israel. When you get that right, when the whole world knows that we're going to defend the Israeli people's right, the Jewish homeland of Israel, that is a good start in the region. Even the Arab nations appreciate when we do that well. Second, you have to be there and be engaged and you have to recognize that these are nations that are governed in a way that is deeply different than ours. And you should respect that this is the path that they are headed down and then make sure they understand that they need the United States as a security partner as well.

And then you have to talk to them in a serious way. Publicly and privately are two different sets of conversations, but you need to make very, very clear that you understand that our collective work to really push back on the greatest risk in the region, which is Iran. Our collective work together can secure the nation of Israel, America, and the Arab states from the threat from the Iranians. I've often said Jeffersonian democracy doesn't necessarily translate to the Middle East, but you had tremendous progress forward with the Abraham Accords. The Saudis have now cooperated with Israel in ways we never imagined. Of course, the reaction was going to be when the Abraham Accords, when you all were working on this, all this will start a bigger war in the Middle East.

And of course, it had exact opposite effect. But it seems like anything you did in your administration, the Biden administration just wants to get rid of. They're going to put a – we moved the consulate to Jerusalem, was there for that great event, and now they want – what do they want to do? They want to open up a Palestinian consulate two blocks away that they used to have as well, so kind of de-emphasizing it. There's even talk about moving the embassy back to Tel Aviv, which violates a federal law. But it seems like the knee-jerk reaction is whatever you all did, do the opposite, but look at the results.

They're terrible. It's remarkable. Some of this is just vindictive because there's no good policy explanation for what they've chosen to do. I'll give you one that's near and dear to your heart, the International Criminal Court. It's a little bit in the weeds, but they've tried to prosecute American soldiers and Israelis.

I was there. Yeah, you worked – the ACLJ did amazing work on this. We sanctioned the ICC leadership, and they undid it. They now took this woman. Her name's Fatou Bensouda. She's corrupt.

You probably know her better than I do. In any event, they just undid it because, well, Trump and Pompeo did it. This is something that the Ayatollah in Iran, the bad actors in the region – Hamas, Hezbollah, the Shia militias in Iraq – they are welcoming this money, these resources that this administration is now providing to the Iranian regime due to the lack of enforcement. And it is really dangerous for Americans to see this path move forward and to see us move away from our strategic defense partners.

The Arab states are dearest, most close ally in the region to Israelis in ways that are fundamentally inconsistent with what's in America's best interest. Continue to take your phone calls. Folks, let's go to Frank in New York online, too. Hey, Frank. Hi, Jay.

Thanks for taking my call. And Mike Pompeo, thank you for your service with Donald Trump as President. For those of us who are retiring in the very near future, this administration seems to want to just destroy any savings that we put aside for our retirement. I have to put my retirement on hold now because of what's going on. The stock market plunged today. And we're all losing money like you can't believe on a daily basis. But we hope that there is a true red wave in November and again in 24. So let me jump in here, Frank, because I cannot count how many calls we had, Mike, exactly like Frank's.

People that are on the cusp of retirement had worked for it. You see a 7000, 8000 point correction on the stock market is breathtaking. And people are very, very concerned. People are right to be concerned. And Frank, to your point, this didn't have to be.

That's the most important thing. This wasn't inevitable. It wasn't like, well, they come, it comes and it goes. When you build a sound economy, when you encourage risk taking from entrepreneurs, when you tell the American people you are with them, you're not going to climb on their back with more regulations. When you tell them when you put climate change is your first issue is going to hurt the economy and the people it hurts. We talk about the economy is this abstract thing. This economy is human beings just like you, Frank. It's you. It's all of us who are trying to figure out a way to make it all go. And if you're 60 or 65 or 70 and you think, gosh, I want to spend more time with my grandchildren or whatever it is that I want to do.

And now you see that you can't do that. It's very troubling. And I do pray, like you, I pray that we get this back. We get the economy headed back in the right direction and that, Frank, you can enjoy your retirement with your kids just as soon as possible. All right, folks, we'll be right back, taking more of your phone calls on Secular. 431, Tim, we will continue to take your phone calls with Secretary Pompeo is joining us for the full hour in the studios. Of course, Cedar Council of Global Affairs with the ACLJ.

I want to play this sound. This is from the White House. Then go to the phones and go to Secretary Pompeo. But this is Peter Doocy is talking to Karim Jean-Pierre about the situation, because remember, they're saying to these oil companies, do more. What about your Green New Deal policies that want to shut down the oil companies, shut down, you know, eradicate them from the United States?

Take a listen by three. You know, the President once said that he was going to end fossil fuel. Is that now off the table? No, we are going to continue to move forward with our clean energy proposal, our climate change proposal. Is that a priority, climate change over gas? No, that's not what we're saying. We're saying that we're saying I'm answering the question.

But if you keep with that, then it doesn't make sense when he wrote the letter to the oil companies. I want to go to Jamie's call, New Mexico, because I think this is the real feel out there. Hey, Jamie, welcome to Secular. You're on the air. Hello.

Thank you for taking my call. And this ties right into that comment about do more oil and gas do more. New Mexico is the number two oil producer in the country. The Permian Basin is part of New Mexico and Texas. And currently, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing listing the prairie chicken as an endangered species. And their territory is the Permian Basin of New Mexico and Texas.

Now, that's not helpful. I also just want to note that costs were driven up by Wall Street in 2019 and 20 when things were booming in the oilfield. Wall Street came in here and competed for leases and small companies like my husband who got laid off because they could not compete.

They could not bid enough for oil or gas. So, Jamie, you've raised the issue of regulatory issues up front. We're going to get leasing of potential oil fields off-limit, off-line, Mike, because of a prairie chicken. I mean, nothing against the chicken.

But gas is $6 a gallon. I don't know if the chicken is an endangered species. It's like they're trying to come up with something so they go to a prairie chicken, which sounds so absurd to everyone listening to this podcast, as the reason why we can't get energy independence. The prairie chicken is a tried and true one. I remember the prairie chicken from my time in Congress. Kansas, Jamie, has prairie chickens too. And farmers were being denied the capacity to plant their fields.

Same theory. They were trying to put the prairie chicken, I think it was the endangered species list at the time. I was in the very industry that you were in. I ran a little company called Sentry. We did oil and gas equipment.

I sold equipment to small companies in the southeast part of New Mexico, probably right where you're at, the western edge of the Permian Basin. These are tough businesses. They're good businesses.

They hire a lot of people. When we talk about oil, everybody thinks of the big guys. The truth is, Jamie, it's folks like me and you and our little company who hired hundreds of people for good-paying jobs to drive water trucks, to put downhole pumps in, to do all the kinds of hard work in the fields that deliver really good lives for people all across America, to watch this administration destroy those jobs, to destroy that wealth, to deny the ability to drill out a new field or explore someplace because of a prairie chicken. Sign me up for being pro-prairie chicken. But make no mistake about it, we can protect prairie chickens and still deliver affordable energy for the American people.

These are not things that are in conflict. And, Jamie, I'm so sorry to hear that you all are back at that experience and that, again, I think this is a story too oft told across America today. I'm thinking about, you know, and look, I've said it, I could afford it. So I filled up my car with gas the other day. It stops at $100. The pump stops at $100, which did not quite fill the car up.

And I'm thinking, how many people are in this situation where they can't do that? They can't afford the gas. So we have natural resources, including oil, here in the United States. And we were, got to a point when you were in office that we were exporting oil.

We were energy independent. We had a pipeline that was coming through. And it seems like that, you know, we're going to Venezuela, which is unbelievable to me, and Saudi Arabia.

Maybe that makes more sense. But the policy, I always say elections have consequences. Part of those consequences are policies. Remember when the Secretary of Energy, Secretary Granholm, was asked about this and she's laughed. She laughed in the face of the American people, the American people who both work in the industry and all of us who, you know, people forget.

Everything you have depends on these files, right? The clothes that you wear up and come from refined petroleum, plastic products, almost all have natural gas in them. It's now three, three and a half times as expensive as it was during the time I served in the Trump administration. These are policies to your point, Jay.

These are choices that this administration has made to placate the radical left environmentalists, to make them happy, to try and drive towards some nirvana that is an awfully long ways away if it's ever going to be. And the people who bear the brunt of that are ordinary Americans all across this country. Folks, we're going to continue to take your calls. So keep calling at 1-800-684-3110. We're going to get some border issues too in the second half hour of the broadcast. I know we were just talking to a caller in New Mexico.

Record numbers there. So if you've got questions on the border, comments on the border, if you live in those border states, we'd love to hear from you too. Because of the kind of dual impact of the economy and the influx of illegal migrants in your communities, the pressure that's putting on your communities. So give us a call at 1-800-684-3110. I want to hear from people across the country.

That's what we've been trying to do the last couple of weeks on the broadcast. It's not just how it's affecting New York or L.A. or Washington, D.C., but how it's affecting your business and how it's affecting you. And we've got Secretary Pompeo here to take those calls and to answer your questions and to provide comments and also solutions. So 1-800-684-3110. One of those calls coming in from Michael in California on Line 5. Hey, Michael. Hi. Thank you for taking my call.

I was about six years ago disabled and my wife and I took on her father and is helping her mother. And I'm paying over six dollars a gallon for gas and I can't even fill up my gas tank. And it it it's causing a lot of pain because under the former administration, I didn't have these issues. Right. And and, you know, I was thinking that someone said you don't let a crisis go to waste, but this is not a crisis. This is a deliberate act by this administration. And it's it's killing people.

That's why people are leaving California. Sure. So, Michael, one of the things you raise, which I think and we've got just a minute left there, a little over a minute. But I want to go to Secretary Pompeo on and that is this. You and I've talked about this before, and that is avoiding the crisis. In other words, don't get yourself.

What's the point? Instead of worrying, what do we do if China invades Taiwan? How about China doesn't invade Taiwan on the gas situation? It seems like they did. They walked into this crisis and maybe on purpose and maybe now it's gotten out of control, even for the Biden administration.

I think that is spot on. They knew they knew when they went to Copenhagen and cut deals with the Chinese and the Russians to eliminate coal, where they knew when they shut down the pipelines, they knew when they put regulations on small banks across America that said, well, you can't support the little the little fossil fuel company or the energy company in your in your home state. And, Michael, for you in California, you've got a governor who's fully on board with that, too. You've got district attorneys who won't prosecute crimes. These things are all in California. I know this, Michael, that we are another Mike from California.

I grew up in in Santa Ana, California. We know that these state level issues matter an awful lot to ordinary Americans, too. And so we need to have a good election. We need good county commissioners, school board members, district attorneys. A new governor in your state would be fantastic. And then we need to have a big success in Washington, D.C. in 2022.

Those are the things, Michael, that can make your life better in California. And I am praying that we get it. And when I hear folks like you, I am confident folks will get out and get after it as well. I want to remind people, too, that if you go to ACLJ.org, Secretary Pompeo is a regular writer there. That's a unique content just for the ACLJ. And that's up at ACLJ.org, which joins the broadcast a couple of times a week, but is unique today because in studio with us for the full hour. So call and be a part of the show. We've got a couple of lines open.

1-800-684-3110. We'll be right back. For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines, protecting your freedoms, defending your rights in courts, in Congress and in the public arena. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at ACLJ.org, where you can learn more about our life changing work. Become a member today.

ACLJ.org. Keeping you informed and engaged. Now more than ever, this is Sekulow. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. Welcome back to Sekulow. We are taking a lot of phone calls today. 1-800-684-3110. It's a unique and special show as we're live with Secretary Pompeo, who has joined our broadcast a couple of times a week as a Senior Counsel for Global Affairs.

The ACLJ writes pieces for ACLJ.org. Helps us behind the scenes as well. But is in studio with us today and has been for the first half hour and for the second half hour now and has taken your phone calls, your comments. We've talked inflation. We're going to continue taking your calls on the economy. I did want to touch the border numbers right off the bat because we're still, again, and this affects everything. This affects the economy.

It affects kind of everything that we're talking about. There were 239,000 encounters along the southwest border in May. That is a record number. That is up 38,000 more people than in April where it was 201,000 numbers. And there were 15 people on the terror watch list captured sneaking across the southern border in May. Now, one of the interesting things here is that 42% of those people that were encountered have gotten expelled via Title 42. But this administration wants to get rid of Title 42. So let's talk about the 15 on the terror watch list, which is shocking when you think about it.

That's in a day. It's a really dangerous number. As the former CIA Director, we were constantly focused on making sure that we did everything we could to keep terrorists out of our country. Especially those that we had identified and put on our terror watch list, right? So you can always miss one. The failures are possible.

But, boy, when you have known people now saying the quickest way for me to come in and do harm to people all across America, the quickest way for me to do that is to fly to Mexico City, walk, train, bus up to the border, and then either smuggle or be smuggled across the border. And you find 15 of them. 15 people in a single day that we caught.

Not counting those that we may have missed. The terrorists, the increase that someday an explosive goes off, someone shoots someone. All of the things that terrorists plot.

Someone who uses access inside the United States of America to conduct a cyber attack on our country through a physical mechanism. We were worried about all of these things. And we cared about the southern border for a lot of reasons.

We have to have a strong, sovereign nation that defends our border and has a lawful migration progress that makes sense for America. But we worried not only about the number of people coming across and the illegality of them coming across, but we did worry about terror. And we had these numbers down to a place where the risk of terror coming into our country was so much smaller. We would have never found a day when there were 15 people on the existing watch list that we encountered in a single 24-period.

That seems unimaginable. And it is a policy failure that puts a lot of Americans at risk. And then there's the child smuggling and the sex trafficking. Look at the number. In May, the average number of unaccompanied children in Customs and Border Patrol custody was 692 per day. Okay?

That was up from April, which was 479 per day. Unaccompanied children. I mean, it's heartbreaking. It's heartbreaking. The ACLJ has done remarkable work on human trafficking for many, many years.

You ought to be applauded for that. But when the volume gets to this level, the capacity for the system to respond to that in a way that actually provides human dignity for these mostly children that are 12 and under coming across the border, it's not possible for the system to respond to that. So we talked about it being a security risk. We know it's a risk to American sovereignty. And then the human toll from this trafficking, the sex trafficking, the minors that are coming across unaccompanied is just absolutely heartbreaking. And America deserves better.

And so, frankly, to those people who are being trafficked in a way that is deeply immoral as well. All right, folks. When we come back, we're going to start taking more of your phone calls again at 1-800-684-3110. Phone lines are full right now, but during the break, you might get one open. So keep calling in at 1-800-684-3110. It's opened up. So 1-800-684-3110.

You can grab that. We're still talking some of the border issues, too, and these numbers, because, again, I think it all impacts us. We're going to look at some more of the foreign policy issues, too, with Russia, with Iran, with China all coming up. But continuing to take your phone calls, using this unique opportunity where Secretary Pompeo is with us in the studio for the full broadcast to take your calls.

So on the topics, even if we're switching topics and talking about something different, you can stay on the line. We're going to get to your call as well so you can talk to Secretary Pompeo. Support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org. And remember, at the website, you can find unique pieces by Secretary Pompeo up there at ACLJ.org.

We'll be right back. Taking your phone calls at 1-800-684-3110. Special broadcast. We're live with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who's on our team at the ACLJ as the Senior Counsel for Global Affairs.

And he's on the broadcast a lot, but he's in the studio with us for the whole show and taking the phone calls with you. So I want to go right off the bat and take another one of those phone calls. This is a unique call to going back to the gas situation, inflation situation. Pamela in Texas, online for a state where it should not have the real problems with gas and prices. But Pamela, thanks for calling in. You're on the air. Hi. Good afternoon.

Thank you for taking my call first off. And I just want to tell you from a firsthand experience, we are a small business owner operated gas station. And our folks aren't putting $100 in the tank. They're putting buying gas by the gallon, one gallon at a time with change on the counter.

And it's real. People are really hurting. And it's heartbreaking because you see your customers every day and they're putting in a gallon at a time like you would when you cut your lawn. And this is how they're fueling their cars. One day, every day they come with change because whatever they could scrounge up. And you're like, you're making eye contact with these folks because you know them.

And Pamela, I know it's really, really tough. And you know, it's not just gas prices. I mean, you're dealing with it because you own a gas station. But we think about this, that you can't get baby formula in the United States of America. We're like a third world country. Gas is so outrageously priced. You can't even fill your tank up, let alone you're buying it now by the gallon.

And food prices have gone up. This is great that you're here today because you're going all over the country. This is the real people. This is America. This is what we're dealing with right now. It's heartbreaking.

Jay, I hear this every place I go. I've probably been in 20 states in the last three months meeting with people from all different walks of life. And Pamela, I wish I could tell you the story you just told was unique or that I hadn't heard something like it before. It doesn't make it any less heartbreaking. It also reminds us that this isn't about politics. This is about people and people's lives and the simple things that we try to do to take care of our families, to take care of our kids, to make sure they have a life that's better than ours.

The folks who are coming into your gas station who can't afford to fill up the tank or put half a tank in or whatever it is they can do on that particular day. Live in paycheck to paycheck are being impacted by a set of policies driven by climate change believers in Washington, D.C. who just don't care the same way, Pamela, that I could tell in your voice you cared about those people. It not only breaks everyone's heart who's sitting here today. We know this is not how Americans live. It's not how it has to be. We know that this can be fixed. And I pray that we all begin to get this back.

It's going to take a lot of hard work, but it didn't have to be this way. I served in an administration that for four years delivered really good outcomes for the people that you're describing there because we cared about them. And as we thought about policy, whatever it was, about energy policy, about regulatory things, about how we would address tax issues for those who needed that relief from the enormous burden that the federal government puts on people every day.

We were clear that our focus was, in fact, putting people like your customers in the sights of our policy and we got good outcomes. These folks are thinking – when they think about America, they don't see your customers. They see a very different person.

They see an activist from a civil rights group or they see an activist on environmental issues. They don't see the people who are being impacted by their very policies. You know, one of those policies that the administration loves to blame everything on is Russia. So we see now another billion dollars sent to Ukraine. A lot of people predicting this is going on potentially for years.

So if that's true, then we'd have to prepare, of course, our economy. But it just seemed to this administration, they walked right into this when they predicted that it was going to come, it was going to happen. People were a little bit wrong on how long it was going to take Russia, but everyone was certain that they were going to invade. They did invade, but it was like there was no plan. Like they want to cut off Russian oil and gas.

They get it done. They sell that to the American people and the world without a backup plan. Jordan, first step of someone who spent four years trying to keep America more prosperous and more secure, the first plan is always deterrence. And this is what the Biden administration did not understand.

When you tell Vladimir Putin – and I spent – I probably spent 10 hours with him. He's a bad guy. He is evil.

He doesn't care about human beings. So sign me up for that he's a bad guy. But it was – the conversations we had were serious. They were serious because we had to deliver this deterrence. We had to convince him that if you did something, whether it was cyberattack on America, economic pain you cost America, or invade Europe as he did, there will be real costs to pay.

And I think he came to believe that on our watch. And when President Biden lost that, when he said, well, a small incursion might be OK or a minor incursion might be OK, and he said – and by the way, he then went down the list of things we will not do, right? Told the bad guys, hey, there's a set of things that are completely off the table in advance. You created an enormous amount of risk, and they created the perception for Vladimir Putin that he could move about the cabin. And he has done that, much to the detriment of the Ukrainian people.

And, of course, it impacts us right here as home as well. It was so shocking and stunning when Joe Biden said, well, if they do a little invasion of Ukraine, we may not need to react. And let me tell you what we're not going to do.

We're going to take the following things off the table. So if I'm the enemy, I'm thinking, OK, well, at least I know my parameters of where I go with no reaction, which included invading Ukraine to a limited extent. He never defined limited. But who does this? Well, Joe Biden. Joe Biden did. We lost deterrence, I will say. I'm worried about cascading crises. His secretary of defense was in Asia this week and said, we don't want conflict with China, we don't want war, we don't want economic conflict.

We're not going to build a NATO superstructure there. All things that we will not do. I don't want conflict. I don't want war. But the way that you avoid those things is to make clear to your adversaries that you are serious about protecting the things that matter to us most.

And that includes the customers that Pamela was talking about. You have to be prepared to fight for the things that matter to the American economy. And if you demonstrate to the bad guys that you're not prepared to fight for those things, I don't mean sending the 82nd Airborne. I do not mean sending the 101st Air Assault Division. I mean make clear to the bad guys that we are proud of our nation, that we are going to apologize for America, that we're going to work hard to defend the things that matter to us most.

When you do those things, you will get the respect from your adversaries that you need to create the very prosperity that we built out for four years. Let's go to William in Washington State on Line 3. If you want to talk to us, folks, and talk to Secretary Pompeo, it's a unique opportunity. 1-800-684-3110. That's 1-800-684-3110. Call us now. Hey, William.

I guess. Thank you for taking my call, sir. As a disabled veteran, unable to work, and I'm looking at my home, it needs a new roof.

It needs repainted, not for vanity's sake, but just for the purpose of protection against weather. And I can't even afford to do these things on my fixed income, so it's cheaper for me to have my house demolished and then put a travel trailer here and live in that so that I can continue to pay all the high prices that we're all bucking against. You know, literally, they're running me right out of my home due to the overwhelming cost of everything. And I'm not blaming them directly, but, you know, it does have a major effect. And so there goes my little sliver of the American dream.

Yeah, but this is the – you can blame them. I mean, don't – this is – this is – unfortunately, William, this is a conversation we're having every day. Yeah, it's getting more and more extreme what we're hearing people having to do, so in William's case, thinking about, you know, keeping the property, knocking the house down, putting a trailer on the property, giving up on his American dream, as he said, is slice the American dream. But we don't want Americans giving up on the American dream. William, don't do that. First of all, thank you for your service.

Bless you for serving the United States and taking real risk for yourself and family for them, too. Don't give up on the American dream. I'm convinced that we're going to get this back.

It is not an easy path to plow. There's no doubt, in fact, that there are likely even more difficult times in front of us yet because of the choices that are being made in Washington, D.C. today. But don't give up on that dream. And make sure to everyone listening, tell your kids, your grandkids, we're going to go do the hard work collectively, all of us. Folks like who've called in today, folks who are listening, we're going to go do the hard work. We're going to get this back. We will not be in this condition forever. We will build our pathway back from this. I have faith in that.

Our institutions here are strong. If we work and we are tireless and we are fearless, we'll get it back. You look at the – you've got House and Senate in November. If the Republicans get the House and the Senate back, the least you can then thwart what they're trying to do. You're not going to get a lot of legislation through, probably, because Biden won't sign it, but at least you can stop.

You can stop it. It will also give enormous encouragement to the American people to see that, yep, America is headed back in the right direction. One of the things I hear from people is that they're all the same, that there's no difference, that it's lost. I can tell you, having served in Congress for six years and then for four years in the Trump administration, they're different.

Not all of them. I get disappointed in Republicans sometimes, too. Make no mistake about it. I hope when we get the – when Republicans get the chance to demonstrate to the American people why what it is we believe matters, they'll do the right thing.

But there's a big difference among those who we elect, and those policy choices are the result of the choice the American people made, and I pray that we get it back right and quickly. All right, folks. We've got another segment coming up. For those of you on the line, for Julie, Kathy, and Whitney, and Doug, we will get to your phone calls as well. There's a lot to talk about. You can see how it all works together. I think having Secretary Pompeo here, it kind of shows that mindset of how all these issues come to a head together.

1-800-684-3110. As always, we encourage you to support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org. You can find out new information there. We're posting new pieces up every day, some that we can get to on the broadcast, some that we don't have time to get to on the broadcast.

That's ACLJ.org. We'll be right back. Final segment coming up.

All right. Welcome back to SecHeal. We're joined by Secretary Pompeo.

He was in the studio with us for this full hour. It's been great. And we're going to take more of your phone calls right now, like we said, and talk about a host of issues that we've talked about, a lot of these going back to the economy and how all this affects, really, your day-to-day life. So I'm going to go in order now for people where they've been on hold. I'll go to first Julie in California on Line 1. Hey, Julie. Hi, Jordan and Jay and Mr. Pompeo. It is an honor to speak to you. I can't even believe I'm doing this. I see you.

Thank you, Julie. My question, I'll try and phrase it clearly. What do you see as the relationship between faith and the way the government handles economy? Because as far as the Judeo-Christian religion, we believe in individual flourishing, that you invest and you make more money and then you contribute to your community. And it seems this government is all about taking your money and then just spending it however they want. That's because, Julie, they believe, and I'm not going to ask Secretary Pompeo to say this, but I'm going to say this. They believe that government is God in this sense, that government is the salvation method upon which your economic life is built, your education life is built. So you have this government control idea or government is the way to do it rather than individual liberty.

And the founders had a very different view of this, totally different view of this. Well, Julie, first of all, thanks for the kind words. And, Jay, I'm happy to second your motion. I just don't want to put words in your mouth.

No, I'm happy to second your motion. Not only that, they think, Julie, that any freedom that you had comes from their kindness, from their willingness to step back. When, in fact, we know that your human dignity and your freedom comes from – and all of your rights come from our Creator, come from God, not from some government in Washington, D.C. They have that exactly backwards.

They think they own it all, and anything you get is something they gave back to you. Those are different conceptions of America, and theirs is dangerous. Theirs puts at risk exactly what we're seeing today in our economy. Theirs puts at risk the things that matter most in America, our faith institutions, the things that our founders knew were at the center of human life. That's how we built the greatness of our nation was a central understanding of religious freedom, the capacity for people to make choices for themselves. These folks want to centralize all the power in Washington, D.C., to deny that the Creator provided these rights, and they do.

They do, in fact, view our government as this supreme being trying to drive every aspect of your life, and that is much to the detriment not only of our economy and our capacity to pay for things and to flourish and prosper, but it really gets to the heart of who we are as human beings as well, and they are dangerous. Let's go to Whitney in Texas on Line 5. Hey, Whitney. Hi, thanks so much for taking my call. Like a lot of Americans, we had to cancel our family vacation for the year, but what's significant about our trip is that we were planning to go to an out-of-state home that we already co-own with other family members, so we've already paid $2,500 in annual taxes and insurance, but it was going to cost us over $5,200 to get there through flights and car rental, and that's before we gassed the car, before we bought food, paid park entrance, and other things, so it was going to look like an $8,000 vacation to go to a property that we already own. That's the point right there. You already were in a good financial position to have a second home and to share some of the costs with friends and family, but it's too expensive to go there.

Someone who has already planned financially to have a second home can't get to the second home. This is the reality. We say it's hitting every strata of the economy. It really is.

Absolutely. It's hurting the least amongst us. We're trying to figure out how to afford diapers for their children. It's impacting middle-class people who just want to go out with their friends, hop on their motorcycle, and go riding in the mountains. I'm from Kansas.

A lot of folks like to go out and do activities on the water, on the lakes around Kansas. It's expensive to fill their boat. You talked, Julie, about airplane travel. I've watched ticket prices for flights skyrocket because of energy costs as well. It is hurting everybody at every strata, and it will change our behaviors over the course of the coming months. It's why it was so important that we had it right for four years and why we have to get it back to the right place as well. Let's go to Kathy in Pennsylvania on Line 2. Hey, Kathy, welcome to Secular.

Thank you for taking my call today. My question is, how much money is the government spending every day to support all the illegal immigrants that they have relocated into the United States? Tens of millions of dollars. I mean, the budget numbers for facilitating the processing, the housing, the transportation, and then up to various other locations, it's breathtaking. But we have a policy in place. And then on top of that, they want to get rid of Title 42, which will make it even more complicated for the Customs and Border Patrol. So let's talk about the border for a moment. What would be job one to get the border situated with the security of our country under control in that area?

Again, I sound like a broken record, but we know how to solve this. It took us two and a half years to get the policy right. We had a bunch of cases thrown out in court at the front end where we were trying to fix the illegal immigration issue, but it took us two and a half years.

After two and a half years, we got a policy. It was called Remain in Mexico. I worked hard on putting it in place with the Mexican government that just said, we're the most decent, kindest nation anywhere in the world. File your asylum claim. But while we're processing it, you got to stay in Mexico.

And it turned off the magnet. To your point about the money today, illegal immigrants come across the border. And you'll remember a couple months back, they were getting baby formula while legal citizens here didn't have baby formula on the shelves. I was pilloried for saying that, saying, oh, you don't care about these people. You don't want their babies to be fed. But in fact, what I really wanted was to make sure that everyone had the food that they needed, but we had to get the laws right at our southern border.

Here, it's pretty straightforward. Re-institute Remain in Mexico. Put that policy back in place. Support the CBP. These are great men and women who keep us safe and who turn back a lot of really dangerous people. Make clear to the Mexican government that it is intolerable that they help these folks get from the south of Mexico to the northern part of their country. Those three things were central to – and finally, I guess, build the wall.

It kind of goes without saying, you put up a barrier, you reduce the illegal traffic across the border as well. This is a really good outcome. We did it. It had the exact right effect. I think you said 230,000-plus in one month. I try to think of me walking into the Oval Office telling President Trump that there were 230,000 people came across last month. I would have probably been the former secretary of state. And properly so.

It would have been right to do that. One of the issues, just as we're finishing up today, we've got about a minute and 30 here, and I appreciate everybody calling in and I'm glad we were able to get to so many phone calls today with Secretary Pompeo. We know of major cases coming out of the Supreme Court, the Dobbs case, between violence increase. The FBI is finally starting to investigate these pro-abortion, new pop-up pro-abortion groups that are threatening even more extreme violence. The FBI announced it today. Pelosi, don't have time to play it. She got asked about it.

Just totally deflected. But, Secretary Pompeo, we know that people out there, they have been waiting for this moment for a long time, hoping that draft opinion that leaked is the final opinion, even though we don't like the leak. But the violence that is being threatened.

All these pro-life pregnancies that are saying, close down now, we'll give you 30 days, we're giving you time. If you don't, what happens next may not be just at night or spray paint. It's dangerous stuff.

I come from Kansas, which was the heart of the summer of mercy. There you go. Very dangerous times. We need to make sure that the Justice Department and local officials are serious about prosecuting these claims, going out and identifying these extremists who are threatening these things. We need to protect everyone from the violence that it appears is now going to flow. And I'll just say one last thing. I'm praying, too, that we get a good outcome when that decision, when Dobbs finally comes out to take Roe off the books, would be a blessing to all of humanity and us here at home in America.

I remember that for 40 years. That will be great. I never thought we'd actually see it. And I'll tell you, that's where elections have consequences. Three good Supreme Court Justices makes a big difference. Absolutely. Secretary Pompeo, it's great to have you for this full hour. I know it's great for our audience as well. Share this broadcast with your friends and family, too. It's really unique to have Secretary Pompeo for the full hour. We'll talk to you next week.