SQUAD STUNT: AOC’s Fake “Handcuff” Arrest

This is Jay Sekulow, AOC in the so-called squad pull a stunt in front of the Supreme Court, faking wearing handcuffs. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulow. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now, your host, Jay Sekulow.

Hey everybody, welcome to the broadcast. As if the Capitol Police didn't have enough to do, they now had to deal with 17 members of the United States Congress that decided they were going to make a statement in front of the Supreme Court of the United States blocking access on the sidewalks. And what is interesting about this, of course, is the Capitol Police had to respond to it. They were detained and then they faked. And I want to put this on the screen right now.

This is your pictures. Ilhan Omar, AOC, and others. They see their hands behind the back, except look what's not there. Handcuffs. None of them were handcuffed.

In fact, you see, AOC is wearing a winter wool coat in literally, probably 97 degrees in Washington, DC. Yes, they keep showing those pictures and I'll explain this to a radio audience. None of these people are handcuffed, but they're faking it.

Now, I will tell you this. We have represented pro-life protesters and I will tell you what they don't do. They don't fake getting handcuffs because, Andy, they have been handcuffed. And they've been handcuffed for handing out pamphlets in front of an abortion clinic.

That's absolutely right, Jay. They have been handcuffed for doing nothing but expressing their views in a peaceful fashion, in the exercise of their First Amendment rights, in protection of life and the promotion of liberty and of life and the care of women. And they've been handcuffed and handcuffed in severe fashion in terms of manacles placed upon them. And I mean real arrests, not fake arrests as this that Sandy Cortez is shamming in Washington. Seventeen members of Congress arrested. They had a table set up to process their, quote, arrest.

But I want everybody to understand, this is in reaction to the Supreme Court's decision in the Dobbs case. And they are so desperate to try to get attention on this. You know what they're doing? Faking their being handcuffed. Now, the Capitol Hill Police are pretty busy to have to deal with this nonsense by members of Congress and then on top of it, faking it. I mean, folks, they faked the handcuffs.

They don't exist. And, Logan, you've been around this long enough to know we have dealt with it when it was for real. Yeah, absolutely. And you can tell. I mean, this was a stunt.

People immediately recognized it. It wasn't something they got away with for even five seconds. If you look at the person that's right next to AOC, hands are fully exposed and are moving around at one point. AOC herself breaks her own fake handcuffs, lifts her arm up in a protest, and then goes right back to it, I think probably realizing, oh, no, I just kind of broke that illusion.

And you saw these photos. It's all photo ops, and I think this is why people get really upset with this group. It's not because of what they stand for. It's because of the way they do it. And they do it in a way that feels disingenuous.

It feels like it's made for social media. It feels fake and phony, and clearly it is. And that's my biggest problem with them. I can deal with the fact that someone has a different political view than I do.

I don't like it, but I can deal with it. What I don't like and what people don't like is not being able to trust their representation, because when they see them and they're out there and they're making a scene that is intentional, it is silly, it is ridiculous, and honestly, it's upsetting and it's belittling of the office. But Andy, it also burns the police department, and they're plenty busy in Washington right now. This is a political stunt. It is, but this is the last thing that the Capitol City police need with all they've got going and their meager resources to defend the Capitol and to protect the people who go into the Capitol.

Now they've got 17 legislators who are supposed to be responsible people elected to Congress of the United States doing a political stunt in front of the Supreme Court. And then when they're escorted away, not even detained, making this fake illusion of being a manacled by putting their hands behind their back and then raising them when they see that the opportunity arises to waive. This is something that you shouldn't do to the police. The police have got enough on their hands right now without having to deal with members of Congress and engaging in political stuntsmanship. We're going to have more on this issue, and then later in the broadcast, we're going to talk about what we're actually doing in representing pro-life crisis pregnancy centers as compared with the stunt you just saw on Capitol Hill. Fake, handcuffed, not with like plastic, no handcuffs. They're faking it for us to see, as if no one was going to figure this out.

We'll be back with more in a moment. So, AOC, 16 other members of the United States Congress, House Democrats, get quote arrested, really detained, because they sat in front of the Supreme Court of the United States on the public sidewalk. They were charged with the DC code 22-1307, which is unlawful for a person alone or in concert with others to crowd obstruct or to use any street, avenue, alleyway, to entrance of any public or private building to obstruct the use of a passage of any public building or public conveyance. Now, that's called an obstruction violation.

It's a $50 fine. They had a table set up to prepare for these arrests. Obviously, they knew they were coming. Many members, including AOC and Ilion Omar, there's the table. You're seeing it right there. They just happen to have a table set up, Andy, for them to process the detainments and the arrests, and then show the pictures of them handcuffed.

Oh, except there's something missing. It's called handcuffs. So this is totally a political stunt, but it takes the time and resources of the Capitol Hill police to do this, Andy.

That's the problem here. We do not need to divert the attention of law enforcement officers to useless gestures and silliness on the part of public officials or, for that matter, anybody, but especially members of the Congress of the United States. These Capitol Hill police officers are already stretched to the limit of what they're having to do, as is all law enforcement. And now you've got these people who are faking that they're handcuffed, walking along the way, going to a media table, and then raising their hands behind their back in a moment of just, oh, my God, what did I do that for?

I shouldn't have done it because I broke ranks with what the deal was here, and that's that I'm manacled, which is not the case. But what I really detest is the fact that they're wasting the time of the police that don't have time to waste. Especially in Washington, D.C. right now.

So, you know, what's interesting to me is I'm going to show you some – I represent Operation Rescue. They were pro-life protesters. Some were simply engaged in pamphleteering.

Others, quote, blocked access, which would be the unlawful for a person to crowd obstruct a sidewalk. Okay, that's the same thing these people were doing. There they were taken to a table for processing, and then they faked – the Democratic Congressmen and women faked the handcuffing.

Now, I'm going to put it on the screen right now from the 1980s and 90s. This is what actually happened to pro-life protesters. As you can see, this is not – this is for real. I mean, they're dragged away from the scene. The charge was actually the same charge.

Do we have another photo? The charge – you see these people being literally dragged off. Now, it was the same city ordinances.

There was Arlington, Virginia. And what the National Organization for Women and Planned Parenthood and all these groups tried to do was criminalize this through the – this kind of ordinance. That wasn't good enough, so they tried to apply a federal statute to basically make it a civil rights violation. Now, we won that at the Supreme Court. I argued it twice, six to three. That case, by the way, said opposition to abortion was not discrimination against women.

And what's interesting, Justice Alito, in his opinion, overturning Roe v. Wade, cited Bray v. Alexandria Health Clinic for that exact proposition, that opposition to abortion was not discrimination against women, so you didn't have a civil rights violation. But the point of what we're trying to show you is the hypocrisy of this. AOC is wearing a wool winter coat. Okay, let's get that picture up on the screen.

It was, I think, 97 degrees in Washington yesterday, maybe warmer with the heat index. And she's wearing it. I don't know what the purpose is. Maybe you wouldn't see that there were no handcuffs. But they put their arms – this was a coordinated effort. They put their arms, Logan, for media theatrics. That's what this was.

Yeah, and in this moment, it is right. It's for theatrics. It's to get the news looking. They got plenty of attention. We're talking about it now, but probably not the attention they wanted.

What I think they wanted was they got arrested, and what they got was that for about five minutes, and then everyone said, wait a second, these images don't quite appear right. The conservatives and the liberals are actually coming out against it, saying stuff like you're saying, which is it's a waste of people's time. It doesn't help anyone, and everything becomes a conspiracy theory out of it because you go and you look at it and go, well, why would you do this again?

As you said, wasting time and spending all of this effort to really mislead people and to make them think that's what it is. Andy, the fine for this, by the way, is $50. So if they pled guilty, they would have $50 fines. Now, what people need to understand is not just the physical act of the detainment, but it's then the paperwork that law enforcement then has to process afterwards.

Yes, that's right. It's not just a simple act of escorting somebody away. You've got to sit down. You've got to take their name. You've got to take their information. You've got to take the details with respect to that. You've got to mark the code section that's violated, and then there's the filling out of the citation. All this takes time and effort that could be used and should be used to enforce serious violations of the law and not fake violations. I'm going to tell you this, folks.

I want to be very clear. I know they don't like the decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, but we live in a constitutional republic, and when you do, sometimes you get decisions you don't like. Now, all this does is return it to the states. The states now have the ability to regulate this issue, which is how it should have been from the beginning. This was not a constitutional right found in the United States Constitution.

This was made of whole cloth. Now, here's the problem with all of this, and I think we've got to be clear. The reaction was first leak the opinion, unprecedented in the Supreme Court history, that an actual opinion would be leaked.

Then what's the next thing that happens? Then you had the protests in front of the justices' house. Then you had somebody that was coming to assassinate Brett Kavanaugh. Now you have 17 members of the House of Representatives fake being handcuffed. So ask yourself, what are they trying to do here? And I think, Logan, that's the fundamental question that people have, is they're using media to get attention. Obviously, it was not the attention they wanted. But did they think no one was going to figure out they weren't being handcuffed? Or were they hoping they would be handcuffed? Yeah, I think they probably were hoping they were going to get handcuffed. I mean, that was the goal, I think, to go there and get arrested, and not unlike a lot of civil disobedience. You get a big moment out of it. You get to see what's happening. But instead, the Capitol Hill Police probably did their job appropriately, moved them along to the side, essentially gave them a ticket. And that was the end of the day. AOC did have a rebuttal to it, and maybe we should play it just to be fair.

So this is her from Instagram live from yesterday. Republicans' favorite hobby is to make conspiracy theories out of everything to distract you and keep you from talking about what's actually important, which is the fact that they are trying to take away your right to bodily autonomy. If I was faking that, why would I intentionally fist pump somebody?

It's so silly. Well, why did you fake it? But you did fake it. I mean, you fist pumped somebody because you weren't thinking for a moment.

But you did fake it, and not just you. Congresswoman Omar did the same thing. A number of them did. So this was planned.

So that's not a rebuttal. That's ridiculous. Yeah, absolutely. Hey, we're going to take some calls on this.

1-800-684-3110. And also, the next day, we're going to continue the discussion on life and really talk about actually what's happening, work that is important that we're doing at the ACLJ. No question about that.

Before I do, I've got one last question here for Andy on this topic. And that is, so if they're charged with this $50 – is it municipal court? Probably. In D.C. Yeah, it's whatever the municipal court of D.C. is. I mean, it's not – I mean, it's probably the lowest tribunal, the effectively traffic court for violations of misdemeanor – well, petty offenses is what it's called in the federal system.

It's a $50 fine. No jail. But, you know, again, they're trying – look, we've got serious cases on the abortion issue. There's violence against pro-life pregnancy centers.

Jane's Revenge is for real. Listen, this is – we were just talking about members of the Congress. Let's go to the Senate for a moment.

This was Senator Elizabeth Warren. This is what she had to say about crisis pregnancy centers. In Massachusetts right now, those crisis pregnancy centers that are there to fool people who are looking for pregnancy termination help outnumber true abortion clinics by three to one. We need to shut them down here in Massachusetts and we need to shut them down all around the country. We should not be able to torture a pregnant person like that.

This is absurd. Crisis pregnancy centers have been around since the 1970s. They have the right to exist.

We have defended them since the 1980s. We have gone to the Supreme Court numerous times, including against the current HHS secretary, and we won where they were trying to force a crisis pregnancy center to advertise on where you can get an abortion. That's called compelled speech. That violates the First Amendment. So rather than political stunts in front of a court that's walled off anyways and taking up the time of police officers, we're having to defend these crisis pregnancy centers not just from the violence of Jane's Revenge, but the attempt like in New York State and others to regulate them out of existence. And I'm telling you this because Frank Mannion is joining us in the next segment.

We have a three-prong attack that we're using to approach this. This is serious. So your support of the ACLJ right now is really critical. I want to encourage you to go to ACLJ.org.

We're in a matching challenge campaign. Logan's going to let you know how that works. Really encourage you, if you're able, to do that today. If you're able to right now, you can make a donation to ACLJ.org, and what that means is all donations. You don't have to do anything special.

You don't have to even click anything special. There's just, during the month of July, other donors who are ready to make a matching donation. So if you give $20, someone is going to turn that essentially into $40, and it's a really great way. It is a great time to support the organization. Go to ACLJ.org. You'll see easily how to make the donation. You can also do it on the ACLJ app, and you can check us out on all our social media platforms. But mainly, go to ACLJ.org. Not only donate, but spend some time on there. There's great content produced by our incredible team here. Make sure people see it.

Share it with your friends. Again, support the work at ACLJ.org. Take your phone calls 1-800-684-3110. Well, I want to go from political stunts to reality, and the reality is what the American Center for Law and Justice is doing on the life issue. Joining us on the phone is senior counsel for the ACLJ, Frank Manion, who's been fighting the life fight. I mean, my goodness, Frank, we've been fighting side by side for 35, 40 years. I know you were even involved before then. But look, we saw the stunt that AOC did with this faking their handcuffs.

I made the comment we represented people that were really handcuffed. But there's a much more sinister move going on right now. Since the Dobbs decision has come out, it's very clear. Senator Warren has said it.

Others have said it. They want to shut down these pro-life crisis pregnancy centers. What are we doing about it right now? Because we've got a whole team of lawyers working on this. That's right, Jay.

We've got a strategy. Really, it's three parts. There may be more parts as we develop this thing. But first, particularly in New York, an act was passed immediately after Dobbs, authorizing an investigation by the state health department and other agencies to, quote, unquote, investigate, in effect, crisis pregnancy centers and only crisis pregnancy centers. And we were able to read between the lines of this thing. This is investigate in order to terminate.

That's what this is all about. The attorney general and other political officials of New York have basically said that. They're barely holding back now. So we've been retained by two different crisis pregnancy centers in New York already. We're in talks with three others. We had a meeting this morning with one. Ed White and I are meeting with two others in New York next week. We've also had meetings with crisis pregnancy centers in Michigan. So first of all, we're going to defend them against these witch hunts.

What does that mean? Not only will we advise them, but when they get subpoenas, which they will, we will, in appropriate circumstances, move to quash those. I suspect we have a lot of First Amendment free speech arguments there. Second prong. We're going to work with the police.

Let's hold on to that. Before we get to the second one, I want to ask a question because you raised clearly this crisis pregnancy centers are the target. Andy, when Frank talks about a motion to quash, let's explain this to our audience. That is to stop the enforcement of an overbroad subpoena.

That's correct. The motion to quash essentially says that this subpoena should not be enforced, that the court should suppress it, and that the person directed to appear or directed to produce documents should not be required to comply with the terms of the subpoena. And the term that is normally used is a motion to quash or a motion to dismiss.

Usually in Georgia, for instance, we call it a motion to quash, and in many other jurisdictions, that's what it's called. All right, Frank. So that's kind of phase one, phase two here.

Go ahead. Phase two, we've got to work closely with local police and prosecutors. Now, there's some problems there, obviously. First of all, you know, they have a lot of other things to do. In some cases, we're talking about real terrorism. I mean, the one in western New York that we're talking today, his clinic was bombed with two Molotov cocktails, did extensive fire damage, all sorts of graffiti from Jane's Revenge and others threatening physical harm to the people that run this clinic and their family members. Others have simply been vandalized, not quite to that extent. Others have received threats of violence and death directed to themselves and their family members. We're willing to do whatever these prosecutors and local police need us to do to help them, and we're making that known to them, where we've been contacted by crisis predators. Now, they have their own issues, obviously. They have budgetary constraints. They have other problems that they're dealing with, and let's face it, in many of these places, they have political ideologies. You know, prosecutorial discretion is occasionally, shall we say, influenced by political and ideological considerations. Let's not hit ourselves about that.

But what I'm really excited about, Jay, is the third problem, which is something that I think is fairly novel. You and I remember when the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act was passed back in the early 90s in response to those Operation Rescue protests that you and I were involved in defending. It had a huge chilling effect on those things, and those were nonviolent protests.

But the prospect of having to be sued, facing a lawsuit, with compensatory and punitive damages and injunctive relief and attorneys fees, really discouraged an awful lot of people who were otherwise inclined to go out and protest. But now we're talking about actual violence, and it applies just as much, if not more so, to acts of violence. And what I don't think the other side realized then, and they certainly don't realize it now, is that the FACE Act, as it's called, would also cover crisis pregnancy centers and threats of and actual violence and vandalism directed against them. So we think, and it's an easier, we don't have to wait for the police or the U.S. attorney or the local attorney general to do it. An individual who is harmed by somebody under these circumstances can file a civil face action, and we're encouraging them to do that. Obviously, we need to identify defendants. We're close to doing that in some of these places in New York.

Not sure we have enough yet, but we're very close, and our investigation is continuing. And I just think it would be really exciting. Exactly. We're turning the table.

Here, you want face in your face. Here you go. And all we need to do is file one or two or a handful of these things. And I think we'll see a similar backing off by the Jane's Revenge crowd and others so inclined if we file these things, and particularly if we're successful on them.

That's exactly right. Frank, we appreciate your comments, appreciate your insight. Thanks for being with us.

Folks, we are looking at this issue kind of in a holistic way to defend the right to speak out for life, especially in light of the overturn of Roe vs. Wade. We've got calls coming in at 800-684-3110. Let's take a couple. Yeah, let's go to Brenda in California on Line 1. Brenda, you're on the air. Hi, Brenda. Hi. Thank you for taking my call. I think we should use these people that fake this handcuffs.

We should use them as an example and have justice on them to say, no, this is a wrong behavior. $50. What do you think, Jay? Well, I mean, that's the problem.

The fine is $50. I mean, it's... Which may be, you know, they're protesting. You don't want to discourage the concept of protesting. It's just the charade. Yeah, what happened here was not their right to go protest. They don't like the decision in the Supreme Court. That's a free country.

You can do that. The charade is faking you're being handcuffed for media purposes, except the media was all over it and saw that they were not being handcuffed. That's the real charade of this. It's like another call before the break. All right, Roberta's calling in Colorado on Line 2. Roberta, you're on the air. Hi, Roberta. Hi. Thank you for taking my call.

I just have a comment. This is so ridiculous and so upsetting. Other than calling the states that these women were voted into Congress, calling each one of them out, this was so outlandish, so disgusting, wasting our Capitol Police time and our tax money. That is the thing that has me the most concerned, is they have the right to protest. The faking the handcuffs makes it look like the police did something to try to put them in a bad light, which they didn't even do here. And then, as Andy said before, and I'll say again, the post-detainment paperwork could take hours for these people, the 17 people, Andy.

It does take hours. You don't just do a detention or an arrest and then just walk away. There's paperwork that follows when you should be doing other things instead of messing around with people who are faking this. I don't say they shouldn't exercise their First Amendment rights, but they were given three warnings not to crowd or obstruct the sidewalk, and after that they were escorted away. They were not manacled. They were not handcuffed. They faked it.

The police had to go in and do something that they should not have had to do, and that's waste valuable time. But what we did lay out for you is what the American Center for Law and Justice, the ACLJ, is doing to stand for life, especially with the opportunities that are now available. I want to encourage you, if you haven't already done so, we're at the last 10 days here or so of our matching challenge campaign.

Your support makes a huge difference. I want to encourage you to go to ACLJ.org. Any amount you donate, we get a matching gift for, so if you donate 20, we get 40. That's at ACLJ.org.

It's very easy for people to do it, Logan. That's right. You can go to ACLJ.org right now. You can make that donation again.

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Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. I'm talking about freedom. I'm talking about freedom. We will fight for the right to live in freedom. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulow. And now your host, Jay Sekulow. Hey everybody, if you missed the first 30 minutes of the broadcast, we talked about this fake stunt pun pulled by AOC and 16 other members of the United States Congress regarding what was ridiculous in our view, and that was this fake handcuffing because they're protesting the abortion cases. We're going to be turning our attention in the next segments of the broadcast to a very serious issue, and that is the situation with China and what they're doing to gain access and control in the United States. Now, this is not futuristic talk.

This is reality right now. And we're going to be joined by Mike Pompeo, former Secretary of State, who is obviously an expert on this. But you have to understand something here. The Chinese government, through its affiliated entities, and they own a lot of these companies, are making inroads. We already talked about it in the college campuses, in the universities. But we're going to give you some facts that are mind-blowing. I mean, could you imagine a Chinese-operated business in the vicinity of a top security military base in the United States?

You think they just happen to buy that acreage or attempt to buy that acreage? And what are we doing about it? Well, Joe Biden's talking about removing tariffs against Chinese imports, as if that's going to help inflation, which the numbers are going to show it doesn't. But this is a really serious problem. You know, the problem is, of course, we do a tremendous amount of business with China, which means if we were to cut off trade with China, the United States is not prepared for it. We were on the road to manufacturing again in the United States, and that stopped.

And I want to talk to you, and I want you to give us a call at 800-684-3110. If you have heard this in your community or in your universities, how you view this threat from the Chinese Communist Party. Let's not forget what we're dealing with here.

This is the Chinese Communist Party. That's what's at stake here. Yeah, absolutely. And like you said, we are taking some phone calls at 1-800-684-3110. You got a lot to probably say about that.

We'd love to hear from you. And coming up in the next segment is Mike Pompeo. So that should be a pretty fascinating segment to really deep dive with him about all that's going on around the world. Because Joe Biden is, you know, Andy, Joe Biden's talking about climate change right now, and maybe issuing an order on climate change while the Chinese government is acquiring property next to our military bases.

Yeah, I mean, that's a President who is not in tune with the priorities of his nation and is trying to be a global elitist instead of President of the United States. Your house is on fire and you're running next door to help your neighbor. You better look at your own backyard and the mess that's created there. We were energy independent. We're not energy independent anymore. Gas prices may have declined a little, but not that much. President Biden's policies have failed. The China policy has failed.

It's dismal, Jay. You're going to find out in the hours ahead and the days ahead how serious this threat from China is. And this administration is doing zero in that regard.

Zero. Forget the pandemic starting there, which is not easy to forget, and the economic chaos that brought to the entire globe. But when you take a state like North Dakota and you've got a sensitive military base there and the adjacent property is owned by a company or attempted to be owned by a company that is affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party, this is really serious, folks. And this gives you another aspect of what we do with the ACLJ. So our government affairs team's on top of this. ACLJ Action is looking at this right now, which is our C4 advocacy group, because we think it's that serious of a threat. So when you support the work of the American Center for Law and Justice, all of our resources are utilized here in the United States and around the globe to protect freedom, to protect liberty, to protect the right of free speech. Not just the ability to talk on occasion, but really engage in free speech.

Pro-life issues, but also issues like threats from other countries, foreign or domestic. That's what we do at the ACLJ, when a matching challenge campaign could use your help. That's right. You can do that by going to ACLJ.org to make your tax deductible donation right now. And all donations made are doubled. So that means if you give $10, there's another donor who has pledged to match that $10 and so on and so on. So you can do that right now at ACLJ.org. Coming up in the next segment, Secretary Mike Pompeo will be joining us and we're going to take some of your phone calls.

1-800-684-3110. We'll be right back. Welcome back to the broadcast everyone. We've been talking about, and I mentioned this in the last segment, this threat from China, which we broke early on this and we've been working on aggressively. And joining us now is former Secretary of State for the United States of America, Mike Pompeo, who is our Senior Counsel for Global Affairs. Mike, we have talked about the threat of China infiltrating universities through funding and grants. But this situation in North Dakota is very unique because here you have a sensitive military base and the Chinese Communist Party connected businesses. And these are controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, purchasing or attempting to purchase farmland almost adjacent to this Air Force base. And you ask yourself, why would the Chinese Communist Party want to buy farmland in North Dakota? First of all, how serious is this threat from China?

And then we'll talk about what their actions are here. How serious is the Chinese threat? Xi Jinping, the leader of the Chinese Communist Party, has made very clear his intention. He wants to undermine the Western way of life, the things that we value here, our human rights here in the United States, our ability to practice our faith in the United States, our ability to grow businesses in the United States. He's made clear he wants to change that. He wants to be the global hegemon.

He wants our kids and grandkids to live in a world that looks more like what you see happening today in China with lockdowns and the surveillance state, to look more like that than the America that we know and love. This is a serious threat. It is one of the greatest threats to the United States in all of our history now, 250 plus years. And this effort to now buy properties in and around American military installations is one thread in that threat profile. Let's talk about that one for a moment because when we got word of this and the American Center for Law and Justice is working on it, but our ACLJ action, our 501c4 is also working on this. I think it'd be important, Mr. Secretary, to explain to our audience why the Chinese government, you know, companies, because these are owned by the Chinese Communist Party, why would they acquire property like this?

What is the reason? Yeah, you make two good points to start. One is there's no such thing as a private company in China. I think that's important for everybody in North Dakota and Kansas and California, everybody to understand there's no such thing when they show up with a private company name.

It's truly just their military, the People's Liberation Army or their Communist Party itself with a facade, with a fake front. Second, why are they doing this? It's not to grow crops. It's about to make lives better for the people of North Dakota.

It's not a full employment act for that great state. It is so they can surveil that space. It is so they can come to understand who's moving, what's going where, who the suppliers are, and to be in and around an important strategic military base is something of great value to the Chinese Communist Party's leadership.

I often think, Jay, the reverse of this. Imagine an American company trying to buy a property adjacent to a Chinese military base in the western part of China. Do you think there's any chance that they would let that happen? No, because we would learn from that and we would benefit from that and it would harm their nation if we had our government owning an installation next to their military base. That's what we're permitting to happen.

We ought to do all we can to push back against this, not only in North Dakota, but everywhere, Jay. Mike, you served as the director of the CIA as well as being Secretary of State. And when we talk about the Chinese Communist Party surveillance capabilities, people sometimes underestimate how sophisticated their surveillance can be.

Unrivaled, Jay. One of the scariest things that I saw as CIA director was the scope and scale of the Chinese Communist Party surveillance state, and not just inside their own country. It is it is like nothing you've seen inside the country to move in Beijing is to be captured your face, your whereabouts, your, your movements are captured every day inside the country, but their efforts around the world are unequaled as well. They're, you know, they are own Tencent, Alibaba. These are data companies. We've talked about TikTok a couple of times, Jay, where they're collecting American information. They've done this. You talked about universities and research institutions where they're collecting data on Americans and they're putting it in their big databases, applying artificial intelligence and developing the capacity to perform surveillance like no nation has ever been able to do in the history of man's time on this earth.

It is it is staggering, Jay. So one of the other issues that's happening is Speaker Pelosi is doing a scheduled trip to Taiwan. The Chinese Communist Party have said there be, quote, severe negative impact on the political foundation of China US relations. How should we react to this basically threat from I don't agree with Nancy Pelosi on anything really, or very little, but the idea that the Speaker of the House of the United States is traveling to Taiwan and the Chinese issuing a threat.

What is the messaging there? Well, look, they're they're trying to stop us from doing what is right, which you acknowledge that Taiwan is not part of China. The history is very clear.

It never was never has been. And if America performs its mission, right, never will be part of China. Xi Jinping's intent on bringing it inside and the fact that Speaker Pelosi is planning to go there.

I was there earlier this year. I'm likely to head back before too long. We should be able to freely travel where Americans want to travel. We ought to recognize Taiwan as the independent sovereign nation that it is.

And I think Speaker Pelosi's trip should continue. And we should make clear to the Chinese that if they do something that is inconsistent with Taiwan being an independent nation, they'll be real costs imposed on them. We have a Taiwanese defense pact. It doesn't necessarily require military action. But if China were to make a move on Taiwan militarily, what it should be the world response? Because we've seen the response in Ukraine, which has been, you know, chaotic, to say the least. What happens if the Chinese because there was a lot of thought that the Chinese government was going to move on Taiwan while the Ukraine Russia conflict was going on and still could happen. How do we respond to that if they were to make a military move? Right. No, Jay, that risk is still very real.

Two thoughts. One is the most important thing one can do as the leader of the free world is establish deterrence. It's what President Biden has lost. He lost it when we left Afghanistan.

He reduced America's power and influence in the world. And we saw what's happening to the Ukrainian people as a result of that. So with respect to Taiwan, we should be using this time, this day, this moment to do what we've agreed to do to give them the tools to defend themselves. Were Xi to take an actual military attack on Taiwan?

There are many tools, some of which I just don't want to get into. But there are many tools that the West, not just the United States, but Japan, South Korea, Australia, all of the people that care about the freedom loving people of the Pacific. There are lots of things that we could do in response to that. And I hope we've communicated that very clearly to Xi, that should he undertake such an effort, there will be real costs for China and the Chinese Communist Party to pay. I want to move to the energy situation. Obviously, we're having very high oil and gas prices still come down a little bit, but it's still very, very high. The President went after the oil and gas companies in the United States saying, you need to be producing more. At the same time, he was telling them in three to five years, you're going to be out of business because we're going to do away with fossil fuels. And then he was threatening, really threatening these oil and gas companies.

He wanted to know their income, their marketing and all of this, profits. What is the White House trying to accomplish here? Not long ago, but under your administration, we're talking about 19 months ago, we were energy independent. Now, we're not only dependent, the President went over begging Saudi Arabia for more oil and it doesn't look like that happened. Yes, it looks like that part of his effort failed.

That's too bad. I would love OPEC to produce more energy as well, Saudi and all the others. Most importantly, I wish we'd produced more here.

This is something you've been very engaged in, Jay, you and your team at the ACLJ, pushing back on the regulatory state inside the United States. The difference between now and what seems like forever, but is only 19 months ago, was that we applauded private companies that were out investing, taking risks, delivering good affordable products to the American people. We encouraged that. We didn't penalize them and we didn't have this unrealistic dream, this dream that you could transition off of fossil fuels with no backup plan and impose massive costs on the American people and American families. This was foolish. This became a bit of a religion for them.

It's kind of an article of faith that you could power America with sunshine and windmills. Sadly, they began to punish the very firms that could produce the affordable energy so parents could drive their kids to soccer games and elderly couples on fixed incomes that are going to have to heat their homes this winter could afford to do so. This was an enormous political mistake. It was a decision made by the Biden administration and now the American people are paying the price for that.

Last question. A not so noticed Supreme Court case drastically limited the ability of the administrative state to achieve through their climate agenda through rulemaking, which people ignore, but it's very important. This rulemaking creates a whole new body of law. Do you see the President, he's talking about coming out with an emergency executive order on climate change. Is this another way to get around the regulatory safeguards that were put in place by the Supreme Court two weeks ago? I suspect it is. I suspect it's one part an attempt to circumvent what the Supreme Court did and second part political panic.

So somewhere in between those two. Unfortunately, no matter what it is he does, I am confident that it is very likely to continue to drive energy prices higher. When you deny the most affordable energy to the American people, this is bad for the American economy. We may well see a recession as a result of this.

It would really be tragic and it is I have to just keep in mind this is a choice. This wasn't Putin's energy price like this was President Biden and the progressive last effort to undermine the very affordable energy that Americans have come to rely on and we ought to head back. It's simple to go back to the policies we had and it would certainly save a lot of families an awful lot of money.

No question about it. Mike Pompeo, former Secretary of State and our Senior Counsel of Global Affairs, thanks as always for being with us. Folks, elections have consequences because there's policies.

Policies have consequences because it impacts you and me and everybody else. We've got a lot more coming up. Support the work of the ACLJ. Logan's going to let you know how to do that. One more segment ahead.

Yeah, one segment. If you want your voice heard on the air, give us a call at 1-800-684-3110. As you said, you can support the work of the ACLJ very easily.

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Be right back. The situation with China is really serious. So you've got President Biden pushing a climate agenda which would enrich the Chinese Communist Party. And it does so because as restrictions are placed here, what are called rare earth minerals, things for batteries, manufacturing of solar panels and so forth, so if he puts this climate emergency in place and Colonel Westmith is with us, it impacts directly the Chinese government to their benefit.

So let's explain that, Wes, because I think people need to understand they're trying to really give people a sense of what's going on here. Right. Two weeks ago, the CIA Director and the FBI Director read our conference in London and they both stated at this conference that the biggest threat not only militarily but economically to the United States is the People's Republic of China. This whole push for green energy and electric vehicles, most of those products are still made in some fashion or another, parts of them, in China. You cannot make solar panels and electric vehicles without depending on China. They're not only producing the batteries and the solar panels, China has gone around the world, including in the United States, and they've bought mines where they're mining lithium and nickel. They bought mines in the United States. China did. Because we just talked about them buying farmland next to military bases, but now you're talking about, so let's restate this, the Chinese Communist Party through the companies they own, and like Mike Pompeo just said, trust us, they own them, the government owns them, are buying mines in the United States.

Go ahead. To produce the minerals that are needed for green equipment, batteries, vehicles, solar panels, and so they are controlling it. And the United States government is allowing these transactions to go forward?

Absolutely. You know, China is flush with cash because they use slave labor to compete around the world with their products, and so they're buying influence, they're buying real estate, they're buying mines, they're buying even controlling interest in numerous US companies. And here's the thing, Jay, what China can't buy, they steal.

I read a government report just this morning that they estimate that every year the United States economy is negatively impacted to the tune of $300 to $600 billion a year with the theft of intellectual property, with fake products and pirated products all coming from China. If you've visited the Grand Canyon, there's interesting partnerships when you go there, because there's strategic partnerships with China, and who owns the land, and some of it's coming from a big business that's happening in the Las Vegas area through China, but it's also, you go there and it is kind of odd to walk through, because things are, when you go to the visitor's center, things are not in English, they're both English and in Chinese, and it's not just to appeal to Chinese tourism, it is also for them to promote Chinese tourism, because when you go there, they're like, you've seen our Grand Canyon, you should see the China Grand Canyon. And there are weird situations like that happening, you said, where you walk through and it's not necessarily land purchase always, it's these strategic agreements, it's certainly not subtle when you visit, but it is an odd situation where it's not just land purchases, it's also these deals that are happening. They're buying influence, they really are. When we were in Las Vegas, not that long ago, we went to the western rim of the Grand Canyon, and you pull up, and the signs are in Chinese, that's one thing, and then they have a whole section of food for Chinese individuals, it's a free country, but that's what's going on here.

The title of my blog that's going up this afternoon is, Is America for Sale? And the Chinese, flush with cash, are buying products and companies and land and interest around the world, but they are especially targeting those things in the United States of America, and we have an addiction, Jay, we are addicted to China and to Chinese products, they carry a bunch of US debt, and so it's hard to extricate ourselves from this, and meanwhile, China, as the FBI and the CIA director said, they are the biggest threat economically as well as militarily to the United States, and it's a long-term and short-term threat. We're also at a point where it's impossible to just cut off our reliance on China. Look, everything that's putting this on the air right now, most of what's coming from you, I mean, I've been created in China, but at least the parts probably were likely manufactured in China.

Microphones, cameras? The physical, computers, everything, you're talking to your phones, that's what's happening. That's the world that we live in. So you have to be able to figure out how those two kind of can live symbiotically, because if not, then nothing can get done.

It's a very odd time. It's not just the technical knowledge, it's like your medicines. I mean, your antibiotics are created out of China.

So, Wes, how do you deal with it? You point out the problem in your blog, Is America for Sale? But we do have to live with the Chinese business relationship.

How do you balance it? You know, I think the strategy to balance it is there is no quick fix. It's long-term. I think, you know, continuing to support products made in America, giving American corporations the support, the tax breaks, the things they need. The ultimate long-term answer, and we may not get there, is to extricate ourselves from China on products, but especially products like medicine, medical supplies, and things like that. We learned during the COVID crisis that so much of what we needed to counter COVID was made in China where COVID began.

As the COVID was made in China. What we have to figure out, though, with that situation and what's going on, is also manufacturing and making sure we actually can produce what we need. I've looked at manufacturing, we all kind of have before, and there are a lot of things that you would like to get made in America, and not only is it just financially cost prohibitive, a lot of times it's not even, the factories don't exist for certain products and things that you want to take to market. So it's also that, is actually making sure we're building a better situation in terms of, it's great to use made in America products, but sometimes that's not so easy to find.

It's not so easy for the person who wants to make those products to find them. Let's go take a call. Pamela's calling in California. You're on the air. Hi, Pamela.

Yes, thank you for taking my call. I'd like to know how is another country allowed to buy land in America? Well, there's a great question. So, you know, well, and not just land. Yeah, because we own land. Because we in the United States own land, but it's land next to Cuba.

Okay, I want to talk to Wes. You're a military guy. Colonel Smith. So the Chinese Communist Party's company buys land adjacent to a military base that is very sensitive. Oh yeah, this is not just any military base. Grand Forks US Air Force Base is where our satellite communications are headquartered. All satellite communications worldwide for every branch of the military comes through that base. And in addition to that, that is the central base for all of our drone technology as well. And so having the Chinese close by, you know.

Why would they buy that land? Yeah, what a coincidence. What a coincidence. And then Mike Pompeo just said their surveillance capability is mind blowing.

It is incredible. And yet confronted with this, because three senators, including the two senators from North Dakota and Marco Rubio, have asked the United States, the Department of Defense, and Treasury to investigate this pending purchase. And the Chinese Embassy in DC was indignant.

How dare we do that? And that we were, in their words, overblowing this issue of national security. I think that's one thing that Rubio actually specifically stated. He made a lot of big deals about him taking the UFO panels and having all of that stuff brought to light. Because he said, you better hope it's aliens that we're not catching. Because if the technology exists, what's happening when it comes to surveillance and flight and everything that's happening that we are seeing, like I said, you better hope it is. It is these foreign governments that maybe are not in your best interest.

That's not good. And that's why a lot of these people have come out with those statements. They're not talking about, you know, they're not talking about little green men in space. They're talking about, is China or these countries spying on us with technology that's well beyond our realm of thinking? Colonel Westmith has a blog about to go up on ACLJ.org called, Is America for Sale? China's plan to replace the United States as a superpower. Folks, you've got to get educated on this issue. It's not just buying land. It's not just controlling rare minerals.

It's all of the above. It's really important. We're on top of it. Our ACLJ team and our ACLJ action team are working on this situation. Your support in this matching challenge with nine days to go is critical. If you're able to donate to the ACLJ, I think we encourage you to do it today. We get a matching gift any amount you donate at ACLJ.org.

That's right. ACLJ.org. Also a great place to see, just like you said, the blog's incredible content. So make sure you not only go there to donate, check out the great content. Follow us on all social media platforms. Talk to you tomorrow.