DHS: Protecting Privacy of Terrorists?

Today on Sekulow, why is the Department of Homeland Security protecting the privacy rights of foreign terrorists captured inside the United States?

We'll talk about that today and more on Sekulow. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. This one, again, if I didn't have the letter from the members of Congress to the Department of Homeland Security, you might not even believe the absurdity here, but it's real. So you've got three members of Congress, Republicans. I sent this letter to Secretary Mayorkas. They are all on the Homeland Security Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.

It said, Dear Secretary Mayorkas, this letter went out yesterday. It's our understanding the Department of Homeland Security has implemented a new policy, get this, requiring members of Congress to obtain signed privacy release waivers from criminal non-U.S. citizens, including those illegally in the United States, and submit that waiver to the Department of Homeland Security before DHS will provide the committee with general information about the threats posed by such individuals. Okay, this came about because, again, specifically, they were asking about the attempted attack on George W. Bush, former President George W. Bush, and another potential terrorist attack, again, on one of our U.S. institutions. So when you look at this again, and I understand that this was relevant to a July 4th mass shooting plot in Richmond, Virginia, by two illegal immigrants, and an assassination ISIS-style plot, again, by someone who is a non-citizen.

And I just want you to understand this legally. There's privacy issues, of course, if you're a U.S. citizen and the government's handing out information. But for non-U.S. citizens who are criminals, let's go to it a step further, who are illegal immigrants, how could Congress do its oversight job of the Department of Homeland Security if they don't even know about these individuals and what they were planning to do and to get the information? You think they're going to be able to go to some prison, if they're even in prison or if they're in custody, and say, hey, will you sign this waiver so we can investigate you further at the U.S. Congress? I want to go to Than Bennett right away on Capitol Hill because, Than, you've got these members of Congress who got this response from the Department of Homeland Security when they inquired about the individuals linked to those two events, the thwarted assassination attempt of former President George W. Bush and the planned mass shooting event on July 4th. And then they get this response from DHS, hey, members of Congress, go track down and get a signature and then send that signature to us and we'll get you some info.

Jordan, we're used to crazy things coming out of Washington, D.C., but this one really does take the cake. You mentioned these privacy release waivers. I can tell you from my time on Capitol Hill, Jordan, these are release waivers that are used by members of Congress when one of their citizens, one of their constituents, contacts them and asks for help with an agency.

You get that information so that that member can act on behalf of the citizen. Jordan, we're talking about non-citizens here, number one, so the release waiver shouldn't apply. Number two, you're talking about terror threats.

And number three, this might be the most significant one, Jordan. This is the Homeland Security Committee with an obligation to make sure that our country is prepared to safeguard against these threats. Look, we know from our work at the ACLJ that the Department of Homeland Security has actually been hiding information about people on the terror watch list that come over the border and are detained. Jordan, if the executive branch is going to hide information about terror threats that are inside our country and then they're going to turn to the members of Congress who have a duty on the legislative branch side to safeguard against these terrorists and block them from receiving that information.

Jordan, who in our government is going to stop these threats from existing? I'm not sure who's left. You know, this is, again, think about that, folks. Think about what they just said.

Don't even know who's left. And, Logan, we're doing work on this. We've been battling with the Department of Homeland Security on a number of issues. This, when they pulled down the press release on the terrorists that they had apprehended, and we've got a lawsuit, I'm holding that in my hand, against DHS on that. So we're doing a lot of work here. This might be another FOIA right here. We're looking into it as well.

Yeah, be a part of that movement right now. Give us a call. 1-800-684-3110. If you want your voice heard on the air as we protect the privacy of terrorists here in this country for some reason, give us a call. And also check out the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org.

Be right back. Alright, we're going to take your phone calls on this, too, because this is just absurd. 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. On this lawsuit, too, that we filed against the Department of Homeland Security about why they took down that information about the terrorists they apprehended at the border. You know, that goes against their narrative when they apprehend terrorists who are utilizing our porous southern border. So we've got a lawsuit there. The next update on that will be just at the end of this month. So that is moving forward there.

On this issue, let me just reset it, because, Logan, I think it's just absurd. You have a letter from three Republican members of Congress who are on the Homeland Security Committee to the Secretary of Homeland Security, Department of Homeland Security, Mayor Orkus, because they sent in a request on information on two events, and the individuals linked to two events. And these were specifically non-citizen or illegal immigrants in the United States who are criminals. Criminally apprehended, charged with crimes. In this case, both charged with terror-related charges. One, a planned July 4th mass shooting in Richmond, Virginia.

Second, a thwarted assassination attempt of former President George W. Bush. And the response they got back from the Department of Homeland Security said, we're implementing a new policy requiring members of Congress who have direct oversight – remember, they have the power of the purse here, they have direct oversight – to obtain signed privacy release waivers from criminal non-U.S. citizens. Okay, so they've got to go track down the terrorist who's in custody, somehow go through the federal custody system and say, hey, sign this so we can get more information about you before you're tried.

Like, that's going to be something they're going to get rushed to sign. And it feels like this is something that always happens within democratic regimes, that they do stuff like this. They always are giving more rights and more, you know, personality and all these things to, specifically, people who are here to do harm to our country. And, you know, they forget about what's going on at the border, they figure out what's happening all over the country, and the inflation and all this stuff, and we focus on things like this.

Not only is it offensive, it is just so off the mark of where the people are. Yeah, I mean, you think about that plot against George W. Bush, that was ISIS inspired by an Iraqi who traveled here, so he's a non-U.S. citizen now in custody. Why does the – why do members of Congress – there are privacy rights for Americans, that's one thing. Okay, so before they, like, splash your information out at some hearing, there's privacy rights to some extent. If you've made public statements, like on a social media platform, they can use all that, they can use anything they want, they don't have to get your signature. But they actually want them – I mean, this is the part I don't get, because – and that may be the intent here, is that it's impossible, it's unworkable.

How are they supposed to get these signatures? Yeah, no, Jordan, they're essentially saying that they're refusing to brief members of Congress. That's what this is, because, look, even if a member of Congress could run down, you know, this non-citizen terror threat that's been detained, you think that non-citizen terror threat is really going to sign a waiver that gives permission for the investigation to go? Now, of course they're not, Jordan. So this is essentially the Department of Homeland Security. By the way, with the fiduciary responsibility to keep this committee briefed, it's them telling that committee, we will not brief you on these matters.

Jordan, I did want to mention one thing. You talked about these three members, John Katko, August Flueger, and Mayra Flores, who signed this letter. This is a very positive step for Congresswoman Mayra Flores, though. Remember, she was just elected in a district that this was really the main issue that that campaign was run on.

Border security, terror threats to the United States, and she came to Congress saying that she was going to get to the bottom of some of these problems. So I will say, as much as I'm outraged that the department has had this response, good for her, Jordan, for coming to Congress and making this one of the very first issues she leads on. You know, Ben Sisney from our legal team, and folks, I want to take your calls on this, because this is directed at our national security.

1-800-684-3110. How absurd is it to you that they're telling members of Congress, the Biden administration, go get a signature of one of these terrorists before we're going to provide you any information about them? And by the way, they can provide information in classified briefings and private briefings that aren't on television. That's pretty common for the Homeland Security Committee. So that's not what they said, though. They didn't say, hey, we'll do this in private for you.

No, it's you have to go get their signature. This is outrageous, folks. Give us a call.

1-800-684-3110. But Ben Sisney just pointed out that in our lawsuit, a FOIA lawsuit involving Congressman Swalwell and Feng Feng, the agency has redacted and withheld info about Feng Feng to protect her privacy. She's a non-U.S. citizen Chinese spy who might not even be Feng Feng.

I mean, that's just the name that they — again, who disappeared after — so this is the absurdity here. So we at the ACLJ are able to expose it. We've got our own legal documents. They're telling members of Congress this. And I think for the American people, this is where it gets nervous. They are giving more rights, like Logan said. They provide more rights to the bad actors than just average citizens.

You don't have to be a good just average citizen. Doesn't get these same kind of protections because they'll throw your tweets up, you know, as, oh, you're radical. They'll ban you from this. They'll ban you from that. You'd be under surveillance from Department of Homeland Security and DOJ and FBI because you went to a school board meeting.

Not a lot of privacy protections there. But this, to me, to members of Congress who decide their budget, to say you go get their signature, that is — it's unworkable. It makes no sense. And it stands — it is a way for them to avoid briefing on topics that go against their narrative about the border, that go against their narrative about being weak on crime, weak on terror, and their failed foreign policy. Liberal world order. Yeah. And it shows you exactly how they would operate because they are operating that way.

And you think Mayorkas would learn his lesson, but he knows what he wants to do. So we can say all the time, this is absurd. This guy is ridiculous.

But he's doing exactly what he wants to. Let's go to the phones, Logan. 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. We want to hear from you on this. Yeah. Calls are coming in from around the country. Let's first start with Rachel, who is calling in New York.

Rachel, you're on the air. Yes. Hello. Thank you for taking my call, and I appreciate all you guys are doing. And congratulations on your victories. Thank you. My question is simply this, is that since Mr. Mayorkas is doing such a horrendous job, and I've heard it mentioned before in hearings, can he be impeached?

Yeah. Any cabinet official at that level, yeah, they can be impeached. The votes are not there. I mean, you would think then this would be the kind of cabinet official who has taken a lot of heat, made a lot, you know, with the disinformation board. I mean, you can go through the list with him. He has not had a great rollout with Congress. But as I said, I think they are okay with that because he's putting forward their most controversial agenda items. So they let him get beat up, but they're actually standing with him because if it was a different administration, you might get rid of this person. You don't have to go through an impeachment process, which the votes aren't there for right now in Congress to do. So instead of doing that, you would say this is someone not effective for my administration, thus I'm going to replace them.

Well, I'd say a couple of things, Jordan. First of all, Speaker Pelosi led U.S. House is never going to impeach him. It's just not going to happen. But I will tell you this.

I predict that he resigns if the Republicans take the House of Representatives because I actually do think a number of these scandals rise to the level that impeachment will definitely be on the table for him the next cycle. I don't I don't say that just to be outlandish, Jordan. I mean, several of these really do.

And let me just let me just put this out there. The second threat we're talking about here were two individuals that were trying to conduct a mass shooting. Jordan, clearly we have an issue with that in our country. God forbid if an event like that were to happen and individuals who are illegally present in our country were able to actually conduct an act like this after the secretary of Homeland Security has taken an action like this. Jordan, how could a House of Representatives not impeach a secretary that would have abdicated his responsibilities to that extent and then an event like that happen? So I sure hope that those circumstances don't play out. But Jordan, I think in the next Congress, I don't think this will be your secretary of Homeland Security.

And I don't think it should be. Yeah, I mean, again, folks, we want to take your calls. 1-800-684-3110. That's 1-800-684-3110.

Let's go back to the phones. Jerry was calling in Rhode Island. Jerry on line three. Jerry, welcome. Hey, Jerry. Hello.

Hello, team. Isn't it amazing the most rookie member of Congress has the common sense to not sign or sign that letter negating that proposal? Yeah, Congressman Maya Flores. I'll say she's someone I, you know, was not on a lot of people's radar right that race and then boom, she wins.

I will say it, I sent a donation. I don't talk about a lot of that on air, but I sent a donation to her campaign because she's speaking the truth. She's coming right to Capitol Hill and she's on the letter. She's one of three.

There's the ranking member and then John Katko, another member of Congress, and then you've got Congressman Fluger and then Congresswoman Flores. And I think, again, she's showing the impact she can have right away. She's on the committee. And, again, they put forward information. One of these events was in her state because George W. Bush, of course, in the Bush Center and where this ISIS-inspired Iraqi who came to the United States to kill George W. Bush would have likely been in Texas.

So it also been in the state she represents. So I think, you know, you look at all this information, the fact that they are trying to, again, prevent Congress from accessing the information. Than, this is, I want you to go back to what I said. It's so they don't have to answer questions. So if they get questions and hearings on this next time they're before, they'll now rely on this as a reason not to answer.

I think we lost stand there. Here's something I think we need to push forward and people need a reminder because you keep saying, you know, George W. Bush assassination. By the way, this was like three months ago. Yeah, this wasn't something when you hear that you're like, oh, we're really talking about something from five years ago, 10 years ago, 12 years ago.

No, no, no. This is happening. This is the kind of stuff that's happening right now. And these are the people that they are protecting. So I just want to make sure that is clear to our listener that we're not talking about old news.

We're not talking about pull up things. We're talking about active, July 4th shooting, July 4th planned mass shooting in Virginia. 1-800-684-3110. If you want to talk to us about this issue, about this new policy by the Biden administration, give us a call. 1-800-684-3110. Support the work of the ACLJ. ACLJ.org.

Back. Happy birthday. That is Jordan's birthday today.

It's a big one. I won't say you join us 40 years old. I remember going to Will's will. Our producer, his dad's 40th birthday, which was all like offensive.

I think now to think about that was like, you know, at that point, like you're an old man over the hill over there. So happy birthday. Thank you.

So we don't want to. Yes, we're excited. So thank you for playing that.

We appreciate it. Yeah, it's it's a big one. You're an adult now.

People can you can be everything, anything you want to be. Yeah. At 35, you can run for every office. Yeah.

So 40 is just 35. It seems like if you do run for that office, it's like give it a few more years. Yeah. Now you never know that you're right in the mix. Yeah.

Better do it now. The hell was Obama like 40? Whatever you ran for. Thank you. I appreciate that. Whatever you ran for.

But most of things. I don't know. I don't know if I want you as like my head of my like HOA.

Like I think that I don't know. You'd be like, yeah, you'd be like all up in my business. Like I couldn't have a snake. I live in an HOA neighborhood for freedom purposes.

Yeah, exactly. I'm on the HOA board. I'm vice President.

So I'm the one telling you no snakes. Yes. Yeah. In our neighborhood you do whatever you want.

What kind of dog is that? Yeah, that kind of thing. All right. Let's let's go ahead. Continue our conversation. What? Oh, yeah.

I'm sure you're probably listening. Let's move on. All right. All right. Should we take some calls? Yeah.

OK, we'll get back on track. We're obviously talking about a very serious topic here, but let's go to Kelly, who's calling in Connecticut on line one. You know what? I think for Kelly, you say most of our callers today, Connecticut, New York.

Not exactly. I think when you when you think about our listenership, a lot of people. This is just the showing the support and the the impact the ACLJ has and the show has is that you think of who's listening to conservative talk radio. Who's listening to conservative Facebook lives and that kind of thing.

And you start using carpet, you know, car penalize it to be. Maybe it's from the south. Maybe it's from Arizona and Texas, deep red states, Oklahoma, whatever. But no, most of our supporters come from all over the country. Actually, some of our biggest pockets of supporters are Southern California and New York and Connecticut and places like that.

Obviously, Texas and those as well. But Kelly, welcome. You're on the air column from Connecticut.

Hey, Kelly, thank you for taking my call. I marvel that anyone could suggest or even think that if you're not a citizen here, you get these right. But what what idiot comes up with this kind of. Well, this is their career.

This is what I think he says, why it's idiotic. They created this thing. I mean, that's I think what the report is like his fans talked about on the air is that they created this policy. It's not mandated by any laws to protect non U.S. citizens, to protect illegal immigrant criminals. These are people who have already been charged with crimes. So they are they have already lost many rights, as even as noncitizens, because they are they are charged with serious crimes of terrorism. They were just like randomly trying to get information about random illegal immigrants, which, by the way, they should be able to do.

But in this case, it was they had a purpose. It was people charged with terrorist related charges in Iraqi link to ISIS to try to kill George W. Bush a few months ago. And then you've got, of course, a mass shooting that was planned by illegal immigrants on July 4th this month, 10 days ago, and they want to get the information out of the bill.

Not now. Now to get the information, we'll give it to you. If you can get your staffer to get into the prison, make the arrangement to get their own their signature from the noncitizen so that the non so that you can then get information. And by the way, there's nothing that requires that noncitizen to sign this.

I think that needs to be made clear, too. They could just say, no, Congress. And then Congress doesn't get the information. But yet Homeland Security will then say, we need eight hundred million dollars this year for our budget.

We need another billion dollars for this or three billion dollars for this. But we're not going to give you the information about the even in a classified briefing. So it's a way for them not to provide info to Congress.

Why? Because it goes against their narrative that they are somehow able to protect our borders. They are not able to protect our borders right now. They are not.

They have ignored that and they don't want to talk about the consequences of not protecting our borders. I do want to get to an ACLJ topic. We'll continue to take your phone calls on this throughout the broadcast. 1-800-684-3110. But CC House joining us.

Two things, CC. First, we filed 13 country reports. I want you to tell people about that and the countries we filed on with the United Nations. Because it is significant and it brings up the really important human rights issues to front and center at the U.N. Yeah, we stay engaged with the U.N. This is the working group at the U.N. Human Rights Council. It's the working group Universal Periodic Review, which actually does a review of each of the 193 member states, basically their human rights record.

And so we do 14 a session. There's three sessions each year, about 42 countries each year. And then in a period of five years, we've done all reports on all 193 countries.

This report was Argentina, Ghana, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Peru, Zambia, South Korea, Guatemala, Benin, Czech Republic, Japan, Switzerland, and Gabon. And most of them, only two of them actually, we had issues with Christian persecution. The other ones, almost all of them have issues with human trafficking and sex trafficking. And then there are abortion issues. There are forced marriage and conversion issues that we address in all of these.

And we do it every session and, you know, each year for five years and then we'll start over after the five-year cycle goes. So we just filed those. Actually, Ukraine was in this because typically we do 14 reports, but Ukraine was removed from the list because they're in actively in a war. So we keep staying engaged. And then on top of the UPR, we've also done a special urging of the Special Rapporteur at the U.N. on the freedom of religion belief to take action on Christian persecution in India. So this is outside the UPR.

Tell people about that action. Right. So there are a lot of ways that we stay engaged at the United Nations. And we have Special Rapporteurs on different sections within the United Nations. This one was the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion and belief. And he asked specifically on information and reports on any kind of persecution against indigenous people. Well, India is number 10, ranked number 10 on the World Watch List as the worst persecutor of Christians around the world. And of course, Christians are indigenous in India.

They have tribal groups. And in 52 A.D., Thomas actually was the one that brought Christianization to India. So we point out that in this past year, 2021, there were 761 reports of Christian persecution. And then in 2022, just in the first five months, there were 207 reported actions of violence against Christians. And we just point out that the Hindu group there is violent, really, against the Christians and what needs to happen to protect them. We knew the Trump administration took this very seriously, religious liberty worldwide. There's people like Secretary Pompeo, people like Rick Rinnell who were advising the President, and President Trump himself with clients that we had. This administration, they just don't seem to engage. I mean, you see the families sometimes of people being held abroad.

You see Griner, you see the other issues, whether it's religious freedom or other issues. And it's like they just don't, it's not a priority. Not only do they not engage... Because it always messes up their narrative.

That's right. Not only do they not engage, we see things like taking Nigeria off a country of particular concern when they're one of the biggest persecutors of the Christian faith. So it's not, not only do they not engage, they actually take actions against it. You know, that's, again, think about that.

Not only do they not engage on international religious persecution, they take actions to prevent engagement on international religious persecution. That's why our role, where we can get outside of just relying on the U.S. government and go right to the U.N. is so important and critical. We have a matching challenge this month. Double the impact your donation. If you're able to do it right now, if you're financially able, I know it's a tough time.

But for those of you who, you're financially able to do it, double the impact your donation. We have a matching challenge right now. Donate online at ACLJ.org.

Be right back. Second half hour coming up. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's Matching Challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at 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 your phone calls to 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. And I want to get your thoughts on this again. So you've got members of Congress. They have oversight authority, of course, because they have the power of the person. Very important, when you're a federal agency and you want money, you go to Congress.

And the exchange is that Congress can get information on what you're doing. And here, we have the Department of Homeland Security popping up once again. This is the newest agency. It's a cabinet-level agency.

It was created after 9-11. But it's become very political, very politicized law enforcement agency, especially out of Washington, D.C. There's good people at DHS, the Border Patrol, ICE, trying to do their job. They're completely demonized all the time, of course, by the Department of Homeland Security.

But get this. They tell members of Congress in a letter. Members of Congress asked for information about the Iraqi who came to the U.S. three months ago, inspired by ISIS, to kill former President George W. Bush. They wanted some information on that individual who was captured, thankfully, by law enforcement. And then they also want some information on some illegal immigrants who were captured by law enforcement, thankfully, before carrying out a mass shooting on July 4th in Richmond, Virginia, at a celebration for America's independence. So they put forward requests to the Department of Homeland Security for more information about these individuals, where they linked to other people. By the way, these members of Congress used to deal with classified information. The briefing can be done. It doesn't have to all be done publicly. It's not necessarily we all get this information. This is for members of Congress.

But think about this. These are non-citizens. In one situation, it's a non-citizen who came here to kill President George W. Bush.

I think legally came here. But still, a non-citizen doesn't have the same kind of rights. They get some rights, not the same kind of privacy rights. And then others were illegal immigrants that wanted to carry out a mass shooting.

So you got those two situations. And then there's a Congressman told, yeah, we'll give you the information, which we have, if you go get their signature, Logan. Which they're in federal custody. So guess who's in control of you getting access to those people? The feds, not Congress.

It'd be the – again, a federal prison would be run by one of the executive branch agencies. So you'd have to get their permission to go in. And do you think their government-provided attorney is going to say, yeah? Like if you were their attorney, would you say, hey, they've created this new right for you.

Sign it away. Yeah. It feels like an absurd waste of time also in a lot of ways that they are doing this. That this is the priorities that are being spent. The time that's being spent on these kind of things just feels – when you're dealing with such a crisis in the country right now, when it feels almost like a failed state right now, to be like, what do we need right now?

We need more protections and privacies for people trying to do harm to our country. Feels absolutely insane. I'm sure a lot of people feel that way, too. We do have some phone lines open because we took some in the last segment. So that's at 1-800-684-3110.

If you're watching online, you can call into 1-800-684-3110. Yeah. I mean, again, the idea that you would send them to get this information is just absurd. So what do we do? I guess that's the question.

For a lot of people, they'll be hearing this. And I think what's good about this broadcast and the ACLJ in general is we're not just here to rant and rave and tell you and get you fired up. We also can give you at least a pathway to solutions.

Yeah. So first we've got to expose it. And members of Congress helped do that. But we want to give them more of a voice.

So take it to more people. The young ones are coming in. Rookie, Congresswoman Flora has been there a couple of weeks and has already signed on. She took a seat on the Homeland Security Committee. So it makes sense that she signed on to this in one of these potential taxes. Not necessarily in her district, but in the state, Texas, because that's where George W. Bush has his center.

That's where he is most of the time, especially in public events. Yeah. And again, this was recently. I think you'll be able to hear George W. Bush in your head thinks, you know, years and years and years ago.

So you amplify it. But then you also were looking at Ben Sizzie's talking to our team right now as he listens to the broadcast and he's looking and he kind of heads our he does head our FOIA department. We're looking at now getting in the Freedom of Information Act request, which ultimately leads to the lawsuit and the challenge, because we're willing to do that. The ACLJ to put in those resources and time to get the facts, to get the information and to assist members of Congress would try to do their job. But you know what this goes against?

The open border policies of the Biden administration, because bad people are taking advantage and they don't want you focusing on that at congressional hearings. Support the work of the ACLJ. That's at ACLJ.org. Double the impact your donation. We have a matching challenge the entire month of July. Donate today.

ACLJ.org if you're financially able to. I know it's a tough time for folks, but if you are, we really need your support. Hey, welcome back to Secula.

We are taking your phone calls too. You know, President Biden is in Israel, so if you've got calls about this, a great time to put those calls in, we can answer your questions at 1-800-684-3110 before he heads to Saudi Arabia. But I want to go to Jeff Balibon. Jeff Balibon is a senior counselor with the ACLJ, oversees our office in Jerusalem, and he's there now. And Jeff, just an update first on kind of the Israeli reaction initially to President Biden's trip that he's engaged in right now. It's a complicated time because he's with an interim prime minister and the government there. There's going to be, looks like elections coming up again for the fifth time in three years. But what has been kind of the overall takeaway by Israelis?

I've been hearing things really all over the place. They're not sure what the purpose of this is. There's some cynicism that this is, it started out as one thing, and then when the current government here disbanded and now there's an interim government, they feel that it looks just like a political move by both the President and the current interim prime minister. But in terms of substance, you know, as always, when Presidents come, no matter what they say, Israel treats it as though it's friendly, and Joe Biden certainly sounds friendly, but there are some details that are troubling. So people are wondering if there's any point to this other than a political round for Joe Biden maybe to get some credibility and help back at home, where he's obviously weak.

Yeah, he'll appear to push his own luck for prime minister here, but it looks political more than substance. I mean, they signed this declaration, we're not going to have Iran have a nuclear weapon, but we know, Jeff, that the Biden administration, following the Obama administration, is putting Iran on the path. I mean, the deal that they want to get back into expires in a few years, and Iran has been violating all of the IAEA rules. We know that Iran is on a path to a nuclear weapon, so that rings pretty hollow to me when I see President Biden as a face of that, when his own administration and team are the ones still trying to get a deal with the Iranians. You're exactly right, Jordan. Their language throughout started with Obama, President Obama, and they pushed this JCPOA, quote, Iran, which everyone in Israel, from the right to the left, in the government, in the opposition, agreed, was a terrible idea, would definitely lead to Iranian nuclear weapons, and now I'm pretty sure the White House people just told us that Iran is basically turnkey. They're already only a few weeks away from nuclear weapons, thanks to the JCPOA, and yeah, so they use the rhetoric of safety and security for Israel when they're really doing is literally guaranteeing that Iran with nuclear weapons, and Jordan, as I always try to remind people in America, Iran also has intercontinental ballistic missiles, and they don't need them to reach Israel.

No. They can reach America. This is a huge threat, not just to the region, which it already is causing.

It caused some positives. The Biden administration is likely to talk about the Abraham Accords. We'll get to that in a minute because of the visit to Saudi Arabia, but it has seen some new unity in the region between Israel and some of its neighbors, so it assists when you have a common enemy, but if you let that common enemy have just weapons that can wipe you out, wipe your entire country out, and Israel's a small country, but even the United States, when they are religious zealots who believe, part of their religious belief is that they've got to initiate the end of the world, and you do that by causing a massive attack. I think, again, this is what people, it confuses people that look, because they just would see in the news, if they watch their local news tonight, or their national news, they'll see Joe Biden standing with the prime minister of Israel, signing a thing saying we're never going to have Iran have nuclear weapons.

Sounds tough. And I think, and I'm sure Jeff can speak upon this as well, is you also have a large portion of the country that also doesn't know what's going on in Israel, doesn't understand that they're in the middle of governmental turmoil. There's a lot of stuff happening that isn't really being a part of this conversation, and obviously, last time around, when President Trump was in office, there's a lot of combination of Israeli love and the Trump administration. It was one of those things that kept happening to the point where they were naming train stations and things after President Trump.

It became almost over the top in some ways. When you have the opposite reaction, when you have President Biden going in, saying they're going to sign these, trying to do a two-state solution, all those same rhetoric that comes up, but again, ignoring the fact that Israel itself is in a bit of political turmoil. Yeah, and I will say, Jeff, they're pretty used to dealing and still operating and functioning this way. So unlike our country, which would not, again, it's a country of 7 million versus our country of nearly 400 million people and all these different things we've got set up. But has anything come up about the Palestinian, the consulate in East Jerusalem, any of those issues arising publicly, Jeff?

It's interesting. You're raising a point that when last President, when President Trump came here, Israelis, the streets across the board were really excited because every place he went, he made clear that America recognizes that Israel is the Jewish state and the land that it's on is the Jewish homeland. So he went to the Western Wall, the Wayland Wall, a very holy site, obviously, in the old city of Jerusalem, and that was a very powerful moment.

He moved the embassy to Jerusalem, and we were there, and that was a very powerful moment. And it's important because America finally recognized publicly Israel's right to the Jewish homeland, to the Jewish state's right to the Jewish homeland in a way that Israel is the only sovereign nation that the world hasn't recognized that. And here comes Joe Biden, and I have to say, forget about his rhetoric that he loves Israel, and I don't think he hates Israel, I don't think that's the case, but he has a very leftist set of ideas. And so he's insisting, and it's interesting in this joint document, you'll notice the Israeli prime minister, interim prime minister did not agree to this. Joe Biden asserted his support for two states, right, in which he's pushing that, not the Israelis, and Joe Biden is actually pushing the Israelis away and saying, in your capital, that our country just recognized a few years ago at the capital, in your capital, I, the President of a foreign country, Joe Biden, will go to one of your Jewish holy sites on the Mount of Olives, by the way, Jewish and Christian holy sites, the Mount of Olives, and visit your enemies and show that they have sovereignty. And so his words are saying one thing, but his actions are saying something else, and the people who are watching that the most closely are the Arab nations who have been busy making warm peace and normalization, and they're seeing this, and that's the danger. This was a bizarre statement by President Biden, one of your actions, Jeff, because it was about, it's so common for this administration, they ignore the Abrahamic courts, they ignore them completely, take a listen to bite 33, Biden. The broader picture is that there are those who thought with the last administration, we sort of walked away from the Middle East, that we were going to create a vacuum that China and or Russia would fill, and we can't let that happen. So, and secondly, the more Israel is integrated into the region as an equal and accepted, the more likely there is going to be a means by which they can eventually come to accommodation with the Palestinians down the road. He's forgetting, one, the Abrahamic courts completely, Jeff. I mean, the fact is, Israel is much more accepted in the region because of the work of the Trump administration and actual agreements that were done, treaties that were signed, bilateral that the US helped negotiate. Celebrating Hanukkah and UAE.

You have direct flights from Israel to Saudi Arabia right now. This is insane. Where is the mindset?

And of course, it's not just the old man, Joe Biden, because he's got a lot of young advisors, Jeff. No, this is, okay, this is the big problem. The big problem is, and people today don't remember this, the history of this, but I'll do the short version, okay? Until the Oslo Accords, until the early 90s and Bill Clinton and really Hillary, I want to push this the first, it was clear, right wing governments, left wing governments, right wing groups, left wing groups, Democrats, Republicans, America, Israel, that the idea of a Palestinian state was anathema, that it would destroy, it would destroy the stability of the region forever. It would make it miserable for the Egyptians, Jordanians, the Israelis, the Saudis. But with pressure from the Europeans and on the far, far left, they started this actually illegal negotiation with a terrorist organization, the PLO, which they now call the Palestinian Authority. It is still a terrorist organization.

In fact, they've just written more terror if they don't get what they want. They have never engaged in a peace process. And the fact is, this was a terrible blunder.

It was a terrible mistake. Israel, officially, it is no longer Israel's policy to pursue a state solution. They would be open to it if there was someone to talk to them, but they know there's no one to talk to when the other side wants war and to wipe out Israel. For some reason, and by the way, the Arab nations who created this myth that really there's another indigenous people who should have a state to replace the Jews, they know the truth. And they're over it, which is why they would just want to make peace with Israel and move ahead into the next century and grow and live well.

And here come the Democrats and Western Europeans on the left, and they're pushing this narrative again and again that really the future has to do with taking this terrorist organization and giving it a state. The Abraham Accords were the exact opposite, and Biden, again, he talks the language of anti-Iranian nukes, he talks the language of peace and normalization, but his actions all refer back to giving the terrorists this land. Jeff, as always, we appreciate it, and I appreciate Jeff being in Israel, overseeing our office, ACLJ Jerusalem. We have that office, and so when these visits happen, we're able, and we work very closely with the Israeli government, both, all sides there politically, but we're able to have that office that we've had for years and build those relationships because of your support financially, the ACLJ. We have our matching challenge this month of July, you double the impact of your donation, so $20 is like $40 for us, but you're just charged $20. If you can, donate today, ACLJ.org. That's how we continue that work in Israel.

Welcome back to Sekulow. Hey, this is our last segment of the day. One, it's Jordan's birthday. So, if you want to give him a nice birthday present, we have some phone lines open, and we want to hear from you. Right now, 1-800-684-3110. I mean, we only have about nine minutes until this show wraps, so if you want to get your voice on the air, do it right now, call in, we're going to quick screen some of these calls, we'll try to get as many up as possible.

Again, that is at 1-800-684-3110, as we are right in the middle of our matching challenge here at the ACLJ, and what that means, I think it's important to know. You've heard from so many voices today. You've heard from our office in Israel. You've heard from C.C.

Heil, who was talking to countries all over the planet with the work that we're doing here. So, while it's easy to get isolated, talk about the news, and this show does talk about current events, what's happening in the world, I think it's also very important to hear the work that we do at the ACLJ and see it. And you can do that by not only going to ACLJ.org to donate, and right now it is the matching challenge, so all donations are effectively doubled.

That means there's somebody else right on the other side saying, hey, if this person gives $10, I'll match it, $20, whatever it is, they will match that donation during the month of July. So that's awesome. But there's incredible content, and there's more coming at ACLJ.org. New stuff gets posted every day. I mean, we had a piece yesterday from Mike Pompeo that kind of went viral. It made breaking news from a lot of major outlets just due to the blog. So not only are we providing it to you, we're also providing it to content, curators, stuff that are producing mainstream media who are looking for places to find incredible new content, and they're finding it at ACLJ.org.

That's right. It's a Civic Secures Democracy Act, and we'll talk about that with Secretary Pompeo next time he's on the broadcast, but it's on our website, ACLJ.org. He was picked up by other places because he was kind of the leader who got out front on this, him and his team, to expose what, again, Civic Secures Democracy Act is all sound wonderful and great. It's another CRT, horrendous gift to the teachers unions and the radical left on indoctrinating your kids, and so why you should oppose this legislation in Congress. But I do want to say it's up at ACLJ.org so you can learn about it, share it with your friends and family, but we'll talk about it with Secretary Pompeo next time he's on the broadcast. The other reason I'm going to use my birthday as an opportunity to say this, because this is a matching challenge month where you double the impact of your donation, so if you give like $50 online to ACLJ.org, that's effectively $100 for us. We have a group of donors that match the donations that come through in the month of July. So it's not one of those crazy ones that you get in the text message about politics, you know, six times match.

It's double. And I'll take the day of my birthday to say, to use a little bit more time on it, because the reason why we could go right to Jerusalem and we have Jeff Balabon there, and it's not just Jeff, but an actual office in the Jewish homeland and the Jewish capital, the state of Israel in Jerusalem. The reason why we could go to our CC, can work with our office in Strasburg and put together these UPRs in all these different countries and we have all this expertise, it's all because of your financial support to the ACLJ. It's because we can continue to expand, so we can add people like Mike Pompeo to our team, we can add Rick Grenell to our team, and we can continue to think about new initiatives, like launching, we launched ACLJ Action.

That's about to take its first action, actually, in a couple of different places, one on life, one on an issue we'll get into further that involves China. So we're able to do this because of your financial support of the ACLJ, and Logan, this is a really important month for us because, again, it's a mid-year and it allows us to continue working. It's not just like, it's not planning for next year, it's what else can we do on top of what we're already doing, how do we increase our efforts when we know we have such a hostile administration right now? Yeah, I think that is something that we always are doing, and look, there are a lot of things happening that we can't even talk about, and there's a lot that is upcoming.

We're planning 2023 already, we're starting to look to the future. You have big things happening, obviously, in politics in the next few months, we have stuff like ACLJ Action, and then we're not that far away from really getting back going into what's going on in the political spectrum. And the ACLJ is always there to make sure that your values are stood up for and we're there for you. I mean, we have people right now, if you could see, I always say this, I wish you could all see beyond the glass, see beyond the camera, to see the incredible work that's happening just in this building alone. And this is one of many buildings across the country that has ACLJ work going on. There are hundreds of people who work on this broadcast, who work on the legal side of this, and so that we're able to broadcast and spread the word throughout the country and around the world. We have people right now who just posted Happy Birthday Jordan's Blessings from South Africa, where they're watching the show right now, and you have to start thinking about it that way. When you hear those countries like Sisi rattled off earlier on in the broadcast, you go, wow, the work of the ACLJ goes well beyond.

We just had our office from Jerusalem on the phone immediately while President Biden is there, getting engaged in what's happening in Israel constantly. And why that's important is just because of this incredible work, and we can't do it without you. This whole organization is based off of your donations.

A lot of those are small. Don't think like if you can't give $100, I'm not going to do it. A lot of those come from $5, $10, $20 donations. And during these special months, these matching months, again, all donations are effectively doubled. But it's really an amazing time to say it's Jordan's birthday. Still a lot of comments out there saying that we are twins.

I think that is a very wrong assumption. I am much younger. No, I am a few years younger. I have twins. So I think that may be where people have heard twins a lot.

But no, I think they want to clear that up. But this work for the ACLJ, it's never been more important. And we started back in 2021, you know, the ACLJ more than ever campaign. It's kind of rolled right into 2022 because it is more important now than it's ever been to have your voice in Washington and around the world.

I'm going to have a little fun with this, too, because it's my birthday. But you know the ghost handshakes. We got people watching the broadcast. Well, even in Israel, President Biden is shaking hands with ghosts.

This time it was with the Israeli President, which that country is a little bit different. So there you go. He walks out for a pretty long time. He turns it to a point, if you see it right there. I do have to say, I didn't write this joke. I stole this on the Internet. So someone said it was the prophet Elijah.

He was shaking the hand. It is in Israel. It is in Israel. Maybe he's having experiences. People have experiences there. Yeah, exactly. You never know. Maybe. Yeah. Look, if he comes back and says it was a spiritual experience, we'll give it to him.

But yeah, shaking hands with more ghosts. It just makes me very nervous because he's talking about Iranian nuclear weapons. And we're talking with Jeff Bell about ICBMs that could hit the United States of America. And I wonder, Joan on YouTube wrote, thank you, Jay Jordan, the entire ACLJ team for your hard work to bring truth to light. We appreciate that. Listen, part of this broadcast is like amplifying what those three members of Congress wrote to DHS. We're amplifying it to the whole country.

And as Logan said, the world about the absurdity here. And when it's good things, we amplify good things too. There's been a lot of bad things under this administration.

But you'll see a shift back and forth. We're not always trying to be negative. We're just actually dealing with reality. And the reality is you could hear nice words from Joe Biden in Israel, but understand that his policies don't add up to that. So that the people running his administration, their policy, they don't add up.

It doesn't fit together. So, yeah. I think there's even an interesting bite from Senator Ted Cruz that I think we should play. It kind of gives you an idea of the world's- What it's like for them in Congress. Yeah, exactly. Let's listen to Senator Ted Cruz to wrap that up.

It is amazing, Joe. You look across the world. Every single region of the world has gotten worse because the Biden administration will not stand up to our enemies. And it's almost as if they can't differentiate between our friends and our enemies. They treat our friends terribly and they treat our enemies with weakness.

Yeah. And you have comments like that. I think there's a lot of false narratives that go on saying, you know, why are we blaming the Biden administration for what's happening in Russia and Ukraine? Well, you forget how much the U.S. is this global superpower and we are involved in just about everything.

Everything. I mean, it's true. I mean, it is true. And you can't shy away from it when you have that important role to play as a country.

You have to be very careful because you don't want to give up. The one thing I think the Biden administration is slowly giving up is our is our power as the superpower. I think it all relates back to that. That's what Ted Cruz is talking about. Support our work at ACLJ.org. I appreciate it today on my birthday. Double the impact your donation. Make that donation to ACLJ.org.