Biden Makes Wild Claims in New Interview

This is Jay Sekulow. I know you're going to be shocked.

President Biden makes wild claims in new 60 Minutes Interview. 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. Well, you know, we're going to get into the technical side of this inflation situation tomorrow with Professor Hutchison because he's doing an in-depth analysis actually today. But there was a 60 Minutes Interview and I want Logan to set this up, folks.

If you're watching, by the way, on any of your social media platforms, we encourage you to share it with your friends. We're going to give you some real analysis. We're also covering a lot of topics today.

It's a Monday so we've got a lot of topics to hit. Yeah, Scott Pelley was hosting 60 Minutes last night and you may have seen it. He had a one-on-one with President Biden. First time he's done that, believe, about eight months or so, seven months since he's had a one-on-one.

And look, you got to give it up to him. It happened to be on after football last night. So I'm like, I'm going to sit down and watch part of this. It opened up pretty strong with some real hard-hitting questions. Now, later on in the show, it got a little more softer.

They went to a car show together. But there were a few nuggets there and it really opened with, I mean, they even talked about it. You had James Taylor singing Fire and Rain. We almost directly from this show said, Fire and Rain, while the stock market hits the historic low.

This was CBS, not exactly your conservative news talking about this. And this is one of the very first questions he asked. So if we can do that, I guess by 10 and then keep leaning into it. People are shocked by their grocery bills.

What can you do better and faster? Well, first of all, let's put this in perspective. Inflation rate month to month was just an inch, hardly at all. You're not arguing that 8.3 is good news.

No, I'm not saying it is good news, but it was 8.2 or 8.2 before. Maybe I can make it sound like all of a sudden, my God, it went to 8.2%. It's the highest inflation rate, Mr. President, in 40 years. I got that.

But guess what we are? We're in a position where for the last several months, it hasn't spiked. It hasn't spiked. It's because it's careened through the top. Yeah, it's already spiked because it already happened.

Professor Hutchison is going to get in this tomorrow. But you know what the inflation rate was during the previous administration was running? About 1.6%. Even during the Obama administration, it was in like 2.4, I think. Yeah, the later years.

Yeah, the later years, the beginning of the years, they had the Bush issues, the economic collapse issues. But here's why they're doing this, Logan. I mean, it's comical in one sense, except the American people are paying $9 for a package of beef jerky at the local Mapco. What I should take out of this is I feel like it's a win for us in the sense of the media actually calling people out. I really do appreciate Scott Pelley pushing back, because we've seen a lot, specifically with Harris, where they'll ask a question, she'll give a ridiculous answer, and then they'll just move on, Chuck Todd or whoever it is.

They'll pretend like she didn't even, or that she answered the question. He pushes back and says, you can't be arguing that this is good, essentially, that this inflation rate is good. It even said, it's the highest inflation rate, Mr. President, in 40 years. When you're a President and you have to deal with that kind of quote back to you, and your answer back is, yeah, but it hasn't spiked in a while, that's not an answer people want to hear. It hasn't spiked in a while only because it is at the spike.

So this is what makes no sense. It hasn't spiked in a while. Hey, it went from 1.3% to 6%, but came back down to 1.4. This one went from 1.6 or 7 to 8.4 or 8.5.

It drops from 8.5 to 8.3, which saves you nothing. By the way, at this rate, if it was going down a tenth of a point a month, it would only take, what, 10 years for that inflation to come back down? So here's the real issue and the real problem is he doesn't understand, or at least he is not articulating, an understanding of basic economic principles regarding inflation and the impact inflation has on America. Not just, by the way, people say it really hurts the middle class, which it does. It hurts everyone in the United States, from the largest earners to the minimum wage earners. It makes it very hard to do business in an inflationary cycle like this. Yeah. When you hear President Biden out there celebrating this small win of what, a.2, not even.1, non-win, saying inflation, you know, it's already spiked. At least we haven't spiked even more.

It's just a little hair down there out there celebrating. How does it make you feel, the person who's actually dealing with it? I'd love to hear from you. 1-800-684-3110. We have six lines open. 1-800-684-3110. Get on the show, get your voice heard around the world today. This would be a great time to do it. Again, 1-800-684-3110. We'll be right back.

Hey, welcome back. So the President goes on CBS 60 Minutes and talks about inflation. And he says, you know, he makes this statement, hey, the lease is not spiking. And that's because it's at a spike right now. We're at an all-time 40-year high, which I do appreciate that Scott Paley from CBS News pointed out. But then is the economy going to get worse before it gets better? That's the question that's asked.

Listen to the question from Scott Paley and listen to President Biden's response. Is the economy going to get worse before it gets better? No, I don't think so. We hope we can have what they say, a soft landing, a transition to a place where we don't lose the gains that I ran to make in the first place for middle-class folks, being able to generate good-paying jobs and expansion, and at the same time, make sure that we are able to continue to grow.

Yeah, so that's a real comforting thought. Is that a confidence-building measure? No. And he doubles down on that.

Let's play Byte 13 as well. I think this is just the next part of that conversation that you can hear when he does push back and he asks that big question of, are you going to tell the American people that inflation is going to come down? And you would tell the American people that inflation is going to continue to decline?

No, I'm telling the American people that we're going to get control of inflation and their prescription drug prices are going to be a lot lower, their healthcare costs are going to be a lot lower, their basic costs for everybody, their energy prices are going to be lower, they're going to be in a situation where they begin to gain control again. I'm more optimistic than I've been a long time. More optimistic than he's been a long time, which does give you reassurance that he's not optimistic. But somewhere he was thinking around going, oh no, this is not going well for a long time. I hope they're saying that.

And all of a sudden he's like, whoo, all right, made it through that. I think that's true. I think a lot of, you've seen some of the upticks in his favorability ratings, those kinds of things have happened. So I'm sure there is a bit of relief coming from the Biden camp.

That's because gas is not, they send a new normal gas, it's under $4 is like a bargain now. Yeah, after years of what it is. Yeah. All right, well, a lot of you are calling in, we'd love to hear from more of you.

1-800-684-3110, 1-800-684-3110. There's also been that big question that comes out of, you know, President Biden's oldest President. It's just a fact, it's not like we're giving any commentary. And he kind of answered the question and I think she'd hear him pull it up. Kind of. He answered the question, they asked him, they go, hey, look, you have to know people are talking about this, that your age is getting up there. So let's hear bite 27 and then bite 28. You are the oldest President ever.

Pretty good shape, huh? Which leads to my next question. You are more aware of this than anyone.

Some people ask whether you are fit for the job. And when you hear that, I wonder what you think. Watch me.

Honest to God, that's all I think. Watch me. If you think I don't have the energy level of mental acuity, then, you know, that's one thing. That's another thing of just watching and, you know, keep my schedule.

Do what I'm doing. I think that, you know, I don't, when I sit down with our NATO allies and keep them together, I don't have them saying, wait a minute, what did they say? You know, I mean, it's a matter of, you know, that old expression, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. It is that old expression, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Except it's not the expression. We've all heard that one before. That's a very common phrase.

Even that last part was just, if you didn't have the transcript in front of you, it was just a mumbled mess. The proof of the pudding, it's very sad when this is the commentary on this, which is, I will show you how good I am. I'm going to say something that is so wrong. We all know that the saying is not the proof of the pudding, it's in the eating, which is terrifying actually.

Why don't you clarify what it's supposed to be? The proof is in the pudding, right? I think we all know this. I don't think that people, you know, it's in the eating. You don't eat your meat, you don't get any pudding. He eats a lot of pudding, I'm sure. You're making a statement.

I mean, I'm not saying by fact, by age alone. You think he eats pudding? I got no problem with eating pudding. I feel like you eat pudding at two ends of your life, the very beginning of your life and towards the end. You're eating a lot of pudding. So maybe he's just thinking about the pudding he's eating.

He's just like, oh man, he's waiting to get to that buffet and just slop the chocolate pudding. Okay. So on a serious note, here's the problem. Inflation is still 8.3%, okay? Yeah. Proof is in that pudding.

There's proof in that pudding, right. There is a general malaise in the economy. The stock market, the last time I checked was even or down 30 or 40 points. We'll find out what it is while we're on the air here. This is the problem. Many of you are not old enough to remember this, but I am old enough to remember this.

This is starting to feel an awful lot like Jimmy Carter, circa 1978, 79. Yeah. Even so much of, you want to hear what he said about Putin? Okay. All right, let's play that, bite 19. Vladimir Putin is becoming embarrassed and pushed into a corner.

And I wonder, Mr. President, what you would say to him if he is considering using chemical or tactical nuclear weapons? Don't. Don't. Don't.

That's it? Not that there'll be consequences that your country will pay. You will be isolated from the rest of the world. You could have retribution coming back. I mean, he also said, I mean, I don't know if we have this sound, that he's ready to send troops in to defend Taiwan. It's like when they... Do we have that one? Yeah, okay. You ready for another international conflict? We're going to fight the Chinese in Taiwan. Here we go.

Yeah. What should Chinese President Xi know about your commitment to Taiwan? We agree with what we signed on to a long time ago. And that there's one China policy, and Taiwan makes their own judgments about their independence. We are not moving, we're not encouraging them being independent. We're not, that's their decision. But would U.S. forces defend the island? Yes, if in fact there was an unprecedented attack.

Okay, so wait a minute. We're not going to take a position on it. We're not going to take a policy position on this with China. And it's a one China policy in Taiwan. They have to determine their own independence. If they're attacked, are we going to send military troops? Absolutely.

Yeah, so talk about... Well, think about that for a moment. I mean, the consequences of that. Now, listen, I don't like what China's threatening to do to Taiwan, but I would go with the most severe... The economy in China is shaky right now. I would go with the most severe economic sanctions. The problem is that's going to impact us too, so we'd have to be prepared for that.

But the idea that you're going to send American military men and women into Taiwan to be in a war with China, you've got to ask yourself this fundamental question first. How in the world have we gotten 8.35% inflation in 18 months? How did the stock market go down from 36,000 to maybe under 30,000 by the end of today? How did the price of gas go from a buck 90 a gallon to $7 in some parts of the country in 18 months? That's all this has taken.

It's taken 18 months to do this. It's a failed state. Well, you know what the answer to this is?

Because when you have elections, policies matter and policies have consequences. Yeah, absolutely. And I think a lot of people are saying that, a lot of people... Look, when you said the, what are you going to say to Biden or what are you going to say to Putin, don't. Just don't. Don't.

That's what Kamala Harris said as well. They said, what are you going to tell people who are trying to cross the border? Don't come.

No, it's secure anyways. Don't come to the border. Just don't.

Don't. That's the policy. The policy is, we prefer you not. We prefer you not use nuclear warheads. We prefer you do not cross the border. What are we going to do, stop it?

I don't know. You know, Tina on Facebook, and this, she's brought up a really good point. She said, it's not only groceries, it's utilities too. My electric bill this month was $815.

Yes, you read that right. $815. I've never paid that much. That is two thirds of the amount of my mortgage payment.

So her power bill, we don't know where Tina's from, is $815. Yeah, that's wild. But that's what American people are being impacted with. That's the reality. Yeah. I mean, I think that this is a big problem and a lot of people are calling in and we want to take some of those calls coming up in the next segment.

So if you want to be on the air, give us a call 1-800- 684-3110. I want to know how it's affecting our folks. And here's the problem is by saying essentially, and I know we have a bite somewhere there, that inflation is here to stay. It becomes the new normal, if you will, that these are the prices you're going to have to pay. And the problem is Americans are very quick to kind of come into a malaise where you just get accustomed to, well, that's the cost of gas. That's the cost of power.

That's just the cost of being an American. But we know that that is not the case. But maybe you can inform people because the last time you said a lot of this happened was 40 years ago. There's a whole group of adults with families who were not around during that, who were not even born. So how did the tide turn? Ronald Reagan was elected President. And he just put in new policies. Brand new policies that gave some hope to the American people. So much of this becomes a psychological self-fulfilling prophecy, but we not only had gas prices that were through the roof Logan, we had gas shortages.

So you could not get gas. And that was part because there was a revolution in Iran and Carter backed the wrong guy and didn't protect the Shah, which kept the area stable. So you had that whole milieu of situation that was happening. It was all happening at the same time. Russia was being very aggressive.

The Iranians had captured Americans. So the stock market was down. Inflation was high. The unemployment rate was high. And that's why you had a landslide election for then the governor of California, Ronald Reagan, a Republican, who's the governor of California, by the way, think about that, Republican governor of California. And he wins in a landslide and the country starts turning or the hostages are released almost immediately. The economy starts turning around.

It took a while. It doesn't happen overnight, but the policies in place made a difference. And that's what I'm trying to tell everybody. Elections have real consequences.

And those consequences impact policies. We're going to take your calls when we come back at 800-684-3110, 1-800-684-3110. We encourage you to support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org. That's ACLJ.org. Logan and Jordan's podcast releasing an episode later this afternoon.

Yep. Today, Secular Brothers will have a brand new episode. If you missed any, we have three that we did last week.

We'll have three this week. You can get that at secularbrothers.com or you can subscribe on all your favorite podcast platforms or on YouTube. Just search Secular Brothers. You'll find us there and all the links on secularbrothers.com. Hey, welcome back to the broadcast, everyone. We've got a jam-packed program. We've talked two segments on the issue of inflation. We're going to go now to our office in Jerusalem. We're going to have more discussions coming up on what's going on at the border. More info on the Department of Justice appeal to the Eleventh Circuit and the Mar-a-Lago raid. A lot to talk about.

Jeff Baumont's joining us. He is in our offices in Jerusalem today. Jeff, we've got some notes here and I think it's important for people to figure this out is you're getting questions by a lot of leaders as to what the United States support level is for Israel. And then you've got a statement of where basically Joe Biden met with Mahmoud Abbas.

We'll get into all that. But what's the general discontent, I guess is the word I'm looking for, right now? Well, there's confusion. There's confusion that we just came from an administration that clearly supported our ally Israel. And now we have an administration that typically says nice things about Israel, but throws its weight behind the unabashed terrorists of the PLO. You know, that now they call themselves the Palestinian Authority, but they're still but they're still paying for terror. And when Biden came here, the President of the United States, he went to a part of Jerusalem, which is to say Israel's sovereign capital, told the Israeli government, you're not allowed to come with me. I'm going to meet the head of the Palestinian Authority. And then he put a Palestinian Authority flag on the Presidential limo. So he's sending every possible message that undermines Israel's strength and sovereignty and the relationship between U.S. and Israel.

Israel, of course. If I want to jump in, how significant is it that the President of the United States puts a Palestinian flag on their U.S. vehicle when, in fact, the United Nation has not yet recognized Palestine, or that area, as a sovereign state? It's beyond significant.

I mean, you know, symbols matter. And this is one of the most egregious. The fact that Joe Biden told what's supposed to be an ally of ours, a sovereign state, a liberal democracy, you know, that has real elections, unlike the Palestinian Authority, that he said, no, no, you can't come to a part of Jerusalem, your capital city. Now, and by the way, Israel could have said, no, of course we're coming.

But we understand that Israel really bends over backwards to try to make nice and make believe things are good. But in fact, here it's causing nothing but consternation. And all the wrong messages are being sent. And it's emboldening. I'll tell you, with the feeling here in the streets is that there's something brewing and there are more terror incidents than there have been in the past.

And it's happening again. It's becoming a low brew constant. And there's a sense that it's mounting.

You know, I was going to, C.C. House here also, I was going to say, you know, C.C., one of the things that I think is so interesting about all of this is a subtle change, like a flag on a car by the President, sends a really big message. Yeah, it's a subtle change, but it was a change done on purpose to send a message. And that's what's problematic. It seems like this administration, just like Jeff said, has done an about face from where we were supporting Israel. And now what are they doing? They're supporting the Palestinian authority and stirring up dissension where they should be promoting peace. You know, Jeff, the other thing that's interesting is Israel gets flagged for building what are towns, people like to be disparaged and call them settlements, in its own sovereign territory. Yet, you point out that the leftists in Europe continue to fund illegal Arab settlements and lab grams in Judea and Samaria to the tunes of billions a year. First of all, where's this money coming from? So, actually, there was just an article that broke now, an Israeli organization called the Im Tirtzu, which I know very well.

We've worked with them. They were digging around and they're having evidence that tremendous funds flowing, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars flowing from Europe annually. And a lot of the number one, here's a shocker, Jay, Germany. Germany loves to talk about, it's sad about the Holocaust, but for some reason they think it's okay to fund up the killing of Jews today. So, and these are actually not, these are NGOs and nonprofits that are related to political parties there. But that's just, that's far from the only country. And, you know, I've been spending a lot of time in Judea and Samaria.

And what we're seeing now is there's an influx of tractors. The Europeans are sending tractors to the Arabs there so that they can knock down Israeli plantings, Israeli trees, take them over, claim it's theirs, take land that's disputed or belongs to nobody and claim it's theirs. And then when Israel tries to react to the law and enforce the law, the world goes crazy and says, look at these horrible occupiers of Israel. Well, the fact is there's money coming from around the world trying to kick the Jews out of Judea and Samaria. You know, we know this from our work at the United Nations, that there are more resolutions brought against the Jewish state of Israel than any other country in the world.

Absolutely. It seems like the main purpose of the United Nations is to attack Israel. Israel, which is our ally, you know, and democracy. And we are attacking them when we actually have terrorists and bad actors all over the world and we leave them alone. And the UN focuses its efforts and intentions against Israel exponentially.

Yeah. So, Jeff, when you're talking to our allies there and our friends there, and you work a lot with the leadership, especially in Judea and Samaria, but throughout the country, what do you tell them? Because I want to let them know, I mean, I know you've communicated this at groups like ours, American Center for Law and Justice, big presence in Israel. We've been to the International Criminal Court in The Hague on behalf of Israel. I mean, so it's not like we've been a passive observer just, you know, talking heads. We actually put our feet on the ground and do the work. Ministry of Presence, I call it.

You're there right now. What are you telling them and what kind of reaction are you getting back? Well, first of all, they're very grateful that we're physically here and they're grateful that we act for them in the United States because there's a limit to what Israelis can do and say in our country, in America. But there's no limit what we can do and say in our country. And the fact is that this is not just a Jewish issue. This is an issue that tens of millions of Americans really put front and center on what they're passionate about. And so it's very important that we be seen to represent the point of view in America as Americans that's supportive of Jewish life here in Israel, because basically all around the world you can look and you will not find friends as much as the American people. And right now, that means we have to actually make sure our government understands that we're not going to tolerate the way they treat the Jewish state. One of the things I worry about is the next generation of leadership here in the United States and their view of Israel.

And Logan, you've been concerned about this for, I mean, I can remember conversations you had with Tommy Levy, our former director general on this topic years ago. Yeah, I think that this has become a, where Israel was a big conversation that would happen within the church supporting Israel. I think that's changed over the last decade or so, where it's been more sympathetic to the Palestinian plight and cause. And I think what they don't understand is that also you have Israel who is sympathetic to the Palestinian plight and issues they've had there.

The difference is they're often under attack. I think, honestly, one of the biggest things, and we've had that concern even here, and we tried to do a big trip that would have been in the summer of 2020 with everyone, is until you see it, it's very hard. So when you have something like COVID that really did shut down Israeli travel, maybe more than anywhere, Israel took it very seriously, as they should have. We want to take everybody on our staff. We want to take everybody, because I do think you have to see it.

And I know that's hard because most people cannot see it, but when you hear just the mainstream news, you don't understand you have pretty much a ancient but fully Western country surrounded by pretty hateful groups ready to come after them. Yeah, so, Jeff, that's always a concern. We only got a minute here, but you're communicating to them, and we're also working with members of the Knesset to get policies in place, and also we're doing the same thing here in the United States with members of Congress.

That's right. It's very important for us to act as that bridge, because we understand both sides. We understand Washington and we understand Jerusalem, because really we've been in both places for many years. And so it's very important for us to be able to communicate clearly what's actually happening.

All right, Jeff, we appreciate it very much. Thanks for the update from Jerusalem. You know, folks, a lot of people can talk about what's happening in Israel. There's a few groups that have an American... Now, look, our office in Israel is not the Israeli Center for Law and Justice. It is the American Center for Law and Justice, Jerusalem. So it is to definitely have an American presence.

I always call it the Ministry of Presence. Your support of the ACLJ makes all of this possible. This broadcast you're seeing, Jeff's work and our work in Jerusalem and our office there, and offices in the United States around the globe. ACLJ.org, ACLJ.org, another half hour coming up. For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines, protecting your freedoms, defending your rights, in courts, in Congress, and in the public arena. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at ACLJ.org, where you can learn more about our life-changing work.

Become a member today, ACLJ.org. Keeping you informed and engaged. Now more than ever, this is Sekulow. And now your host, Jay Sekulow. We had a jam-packed first half hour dealing with the inflation issue and Joe Biden's statements, some of which we're going to get back to, like, you know, are we going to be in war with China over time?

Well, that'll be interesting with Colonel Wes Smith. We had Jeff Balaban just gave us a report from our office in Jerusalem. You know, this is a subtle thing, and you're hearing it here. And, you know, one of the reasons I love that we're able to come to you every day, nobody's reporting that I know of, maybe it got picked up in a couple of places, that President Biden, when he went to meet with Mahmoud Abbas in Israeli territory, put on a Palestinian Authority flag, a State of Palestine flag, except the United Nations nor the United States.

Neither of us have recognized the State of Palestine. But these subtle statements, especially in that part of the world where symbolism is such a big part of the culture, that little statement, Cece, is a huge statement. It's a huge statement. And to take off the Israeli flag off of the car and put on a Palestinian Authority emblem, that might seem trivial, but it's not. It's making a huge statement of who they think has the authority there in Jerusalem, which is Israel's capital. Yeah, I mean, those little things, Logan, you've been to Israel a number of times, those little symbolism is huge there.

Yeah, I think so. You have sacred places and symbolism. Sacred places, symbolism, and you have an entire citizenship that serves the military. So you have a different kind of loyalty to your country, a little bit loyalty to your flag, if you will, when you have a country that is essentially 100% military service people, who have been through it, who at least did their duty.

So I think it is a different vibe there when it comes to not just the historical significance, but the people who are currently there, because you're saying, oh, it's not you're putting the flag of the enemy, but you're putting close to it, something that you at least are continually in conflict with. These are major statements, but I've got to tell you a major statement that we've got coming up. And I don't know, can we tease the statement from the Congressman or should we hold onto it, Wes? Hold it? Okay.

Let me just put it this way. Democratic Congressman from Texas not agreeing with the Vice President that the border is secure. And as I said on the broadcast the other day, it's secure if your definition of secure is it's unsecure. So if that's your definition of secured, it's unsecure.

That's right. Exactly. It's that ridiculous for anyone to go on now and to say in an interview that our southern border is secure is absolutely ludicrous.

Nobody's buying it. And exactly what you said is correct. The only way you can say the border is secure is if the definition of secure means it's completely porous and unsecure. And the sex trafficking numbers and the human trafficking numbers, folks, are breathtaking.

Yes. So there's about a million people, men, women, and children that are trafficked across international borders, across the world. 17,000 of those are coming across our border. And the majority are women and children. I mean, you think, folks, and that's affecting every community in the United States, Logan. Everywhere that is an issue.

Yeah. Everywhere. Especially anywhere there's massive amount of people you know that shady stuff is happening, unfortunately. It's just the nature of whether that's a sporting event or things of that nature. Do you see it at sporting events?

You don't see it. You hear about it. I mean, it's not like it's out in the open, but there are reports since we're doing a lot of the sting operations.

There was a big deal a decade ago or so at some of the NASCAR kind of events in the infield because it's so easy to move people around. That's where a lot of those things were happening. Or if you live in a state where there's a lot of highways that all interconnect, unfortunately, it's kind of been woven into the fabric of our society knowing that this stuff is happening and that there are great organizations that are out there that are doing their best to stop it. And we drafted the laws for all 50 states. I mean, we gave them model legislation, which took the emphasis off of penalizing the young girls and putting on the people that were putting them on the street.

Absolutely. That was a long process, but we were the ones that did the review of all 50 states and their legislation and helped them made suggestions of how they could approve so we could attack. You said it's a long process. It was a three-year project that the ACLJ did back in the, I think, early 2010s, right around there.

It took three years. Every law in the United States. So, again, we don't just talk about it here. We do something about it. Support the work of the ACLJ, ACLJ.org, secularbrothers.com to subscribe to their podcast. New episode dropping, being recorded today and dropping today. Yeah, it'll be out this afternoon. Great.

Back with more. We're taking a call at 800-684-3110. I'm going to go ahead and take Justin's call out of California. Justin, you're on the air. Hey, Jay. Hey, Jay.

Thanks for taking my call. President Biden says, watch me. Well, we are watching, Mr. President.

And quite frankly, we're not in press. This administration is celebrating the Inflation Reduction Act while gas is $6.79 in California. U.S. service members are going on food stamps and now having to get part-time jobs on the weekend just to make ends meet. President Biden has no good plan.

He's just on the rollercoaster with everyone else and has no control over the ride. Yeah, and don't worry because the border's also secure. Except, like I said, that's if your definition of border security is it's not secure. So, Representative Congressman Cuellar from Texas, a border state, a Democratic member of Congress, had something to say about that.

Take a listen. We get thousands of people along the border, you know, from six to eight thousand people a day. They're releasing people and we can send you pictures and videos of what's happening in Del Rio and the Valley, El Paso and other places. People are coming in. We have 1.7 million people that were encountered last year.

We're going to have two or maybe 2.2 by the end of this fiscal year in about two more weeks. That's almost four million people. That doesn't even include the getaways. The getaways are the people that Border Patrol has a good idea that evaded them.

So, you're talking about almost four plus, maybe 4.4 million individuals in two years. If you call that secure, I don't know what secure it is. This is Representative Democratic Congressman Cuellar from Texas who's being honest and that was a direct contradiction to everything the President of his party and the President of the United States and the Vice President have said. Colonel Wesley Smith is with us.

Colonel Smith, here's the question for you. We know that the Border Patrol is saying it is not in control and they have a serious problem at the border. How serious is this?

It is extremely serious and when they say things like this, it is not only insulting, Jay, it's infuriating because everyone, you know, that old story about, you know, the Emperor has no clothes. The border is totally not secure and so we look at human trafficking. You look at last year, Jay, over a hundred thousand Americans died from fentanyl poisoning and you look at national security. So far, we know about 66 people on the terror watch list who have been caught just this calendar year but we don't know how many people on the terror watch list were in that 500,000 getaways.

But he calls them getaways. Yeah, this is an extremely serious issue not to mention, of course, the human trafficking and all of that that's going on. And the human trafficking situation is really serious and the sex trafficking, they're part of the same problem but they're two distinct issues.

So you've been looking at that. The numbers are staggering. The impact this has on young lives is staggering as well and it's impacting communities from coast to coast, not just border states.

Absolutely. Human trafficking is a, you know, absolute blight on the world but it is also a blight on the United States. And there's about a million people and this is just an estimate.

I think the estimate, it's actually much higher, but a million people that are trafficked across borders each year, approximately 17,000 of those, which I think that number is higher too, are trafficked across our borders into the United States. And just in a year, there are 5,046 people arrested and charged with human smuggling. So you can imagine this is a growing business. It's a big business. It's a billion dollar business now for the cartels. So it's going to continue to grow and if we keep our border open and porous, it is just going to aid in the fact of human trafficking in the United States. But Logan, they are doubling down on the border security. I mean, the vice President is doubling down on this. Yeah, let's take a listen to this.

This is from just a week or so ago. This is Chuck Todd interviewing Vice President Harris, 42. Would you call the border secure? I think that there is no question that we have to do what the President and I asked Congress to do. The first request we made, pass a bill to create a pathway to citizenship. The border is secure. The border is not secure and passing a bill for a pathway to citizenship, which has been bipartisan support for many, many times. The first part of that has to be secure the border and they're not securing the border and that's what you get.

Yeah, I looked on the internet today and did some research. Why do people lie? Usually it's either to avoid blame or embarrassment or to cover up a plan that they are pursuing some plan of action.

What is the plan of action here? I'm assuming they're lying. Yeah, they want an open border and while most American people are against open borders, plus you can't really have a sovereign nation with no border. So most Americans are against it, but they cannot say that to the American people because it would be wildly unpopular. So they simply say, oh no, no, don't believe your lying eyes.

The border, it's quite secure. And they keep saying this over and over. You know, I've been watching Ken Burns documentary on the Holocaust, which just started airing last night, which is really well done. And as someone that's had hundreds of family members killed in the Holocaust, it hits home very closely. But there was this whole discussion about immigration and there was some anti-immigration sentiment big time in the United States during the early 1900s. And then of course, before World War II broke out, even with the Nazis and the United States not letting a number of, keeping down the number of Jews admitted.

And there were nativist groups that were, you know, this is going to destroy America and so forth. So those arguments have always been out there. The differential is of course, you have people fleeing poverty and horrible situations, including death. So let's say that's legitimate, but you know what was not coming in with them? Fentanyl, illegal drugs, prostitution, child sex trafficking.

So there's a whole cottage industry that has been established now on these topics. Right. It's not, you know, again, it's how the left likes to spin it that these are, you know, very poor people that just are looking for, you know, a chance at the American dream, but that's really, that's not 66 terrorists.

That's right. That's not who's coming across the border. The cartel realizes it as a way to get drugs here to get, you know, human trafficking, human smuggling here, you know, gangs, their gang members here. So it's not just this innocent, you know, Oh, poor people coming from poor countries that want a chance at the American dream. That's not, that's not what's crossing our borders.

Those are not the people that are getting arrested. Let's take some calls. Let's go to Terry in South Carolina, Terry on line one. Hi, thank you for taking my call.

I think there's a point that some people are missing about the illegal immigration coming here as well. And that's that citizens of this country who have paid their taxes, et cetera, they are being denied services, medical services, et cetera, because the healthcare system is so overwhelmed. I have a dependent.

My son is medically fragile. He's on a waiting list. He's number 8,000 at something in the state. And at the rate they're going, it's going to take 25 years for him to get the services he needs. You know, I'm no spring chicken, so I'm hoping that after the, you know, it doesn't take that long, but you know, it's a real concern because the more people who come here and, you know, cut the line, the actual citizens are hurting. That's the story we're hearing over and over again. Well, think about it. Just since President Biden took office, 4 million people have crossed the border.

What will happen? Is it going to be 8 million when he, when he leaves office, it's changing. We used to talk about 20 million with the number of illegal.

Oh yeah. I said, you know, that number has got to be at least two times that. And that's where a pathway to citizenship on some sense, cause you're going to get them paying taxes would be good, would be helpful. But if you don't secure the border, you can't do that.

Absolutely cannot do it. We're the most hospitable nation on earth. Even with our legal immigration process, we accept more people into America than any other country in the world.

And yet it has to be done legally. These people coming across and then being released into the United States with a, with a notice to appear in court someday, and most of them don't, that is not fair to the people who are going through the process. Other people who do have legitimate asylum claims who are trying to come to America. You know, when I think, talk to people your age, you know, mid thirties, late thirties, early forties, that kind of that generation, there is sympathy for these people. But there is, I'm starting to see an awakening that you would, because I think the fentanyl crisis, that you just can't let people in. Well, there is this, there's sympathy for families or sympathy for children. It was kind of like in the Afghanistan thing, we saw the children being held over. There's not as much sympathy for, and that was a different situation, sympathy for everyone in that. But in this situation, you do see the damage that's happening. Like you said, when a lot of your friends and family are dying because of the results of, like you said, the fentanyl crisis, you do start to awaken a little to what's actually happening. Sure, we will always have sympathy.

We will always care for those in need. It's a question of how do you differentiate between those that are really in need and those that are bringing over Rainbow Fentanyl to get in your schools? You know, that is a big, big problem and a big difference. And the question and the answer, I guess, to start would be figure out a way to secure the border and then go from there. Right.

That's, that's exactly it. You have to shut down the border and then you have to evaluate these people wanting to come through. And right now, when we have millions coming, you know, we were talking, the caller just talked about the healthcare system being backed up, but the court system as well, we cannot handle and process millions and millions and millions of these people coming and just getting released into the United States with the hopes that they may one day have a court case, you know, in years down the line. The entire system is so out of whack. It's not functioning medically.

It's not functioning with controlling access. And it's certainly not functioning, Wes, legally. And it's a national security issue as well. You know, 9-11 wasn't that long ago.

At some point, we're going to really regret the fact that, that our border is open and that terrorists who will do the American people harm are crossing the border and we have no way to track them. All right. We're going to take your calls in the next half hour. 1-800-684-3110. And the economy is going to join us on the DOJ, Department of Justice, appealing the ruling of the judge that appointed the special master.

That's before the 11th circuit right now. If you're watching right now on all of our social media platforms, going to ask you on YouTube, hit that thumbs up. You'll see it below the video title.

And if you're on Rumble, hit the plus, share and comment if you're on Facebook. We'll be right back. Okay. I want to play this situation on Taiwan because there was a question that came up in the interview about this. And Scott Bailey asked the President about the situation in Taiwan and what the United States would do. And then do we have the clarification from the White House?

Well, take a listen to this. After our interview, a White House official told us US policy has not changed. Officially, the US will not say whether American forces would defend Taiwan, but the commander in chief had a view of his own. So unlike Ukraine, to be clear, sir, US forces, US men and women would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion.

Yes. Why in the world would the President commit US troops to that situation as it's unfolding? Why would you do that, Colonel Smith? Careless speech by our President. Careless speech by the commander in chief of the armed forces. Our official policy, and this is actually the third or fourth time that he's made a misstatement about Taiwan.

And each time the White House comes out to quote unquote clarify what the President is saying. But our policy is strategic ambiguity. And that is, we will not say one way or the other under the Taiwan Relations Act, we armed them, we trained them, but that is not our policy that we will go in and defend.

We could do cyber warfare. There's lots of things you do without committing men and women. But he said, that is our policy. And that is flat out wrong. That is not the policy of the United States. That is our policy. That's not our policy. Flying the Palestinian flag of a state that we don't recognize is not a policy either. But he did it and the symbolism matters.

That's right. And when you have a President that the White House has to come and clean up after every time, you wonder anything that he's saying or doing, what is actually supported 100% by the United States officially and what is not, or if he's just making it up on his own. And you deal with diplomats all the time. We don't have any idea what they're saying behind closed doors. We really don't. We have no idea what's taking place behind closed doors.

No. That's, Andy Akan was joining us by phone. And Andy, we're going to get to the January 6 filing that was made. Let's do that tomorrow because it's going to be, the responses do tomorrow.

But let's talk about this. Jeff Malamud was on and talking about how the President decides when he's in Israel, in Jerusalem of all places, meeting with Mahmoud Abbas, he decides to put a Palestinian flag on the beast, on the Presidential vehicle, which is a country that understands two things, sacred spaces and symbolism. That's absolutely right. The most important thing in the Middle East, of course that is historically true anywhere, is sacred space and symbolism. And when you do what he did, you are sending a message that you really don't want to send and ought not to be sending. When the Palestinians and the Israelis see that, they read a lot into it. They understand that we believe that the Palestinians are a sovereign, independent nation with borders and lines and abilities to do things that sovereign nations can do. That's not true of the Palestinian authority. But when the President of the United States displays that flag and makes those kinds of public shows and displays, he is making a threat, in my view, against the sovereignty of Israel and making a statement of basins toward a nation that is not a nation. We have to deal with foreign governments all the time, especially when we've got persecution cases or international religious liberty issues. And when an administrator, and Cece, we've been through this rodeo before, when a government does not publicly say what the policy is and behind the scenes are saying something else, that also undercuts our ability to do what we have to do. Absolutely. It shows a weakness for the United States.

And things that we're fighting for publicly and maybe the United States says publicly, if they're saying other things behind closed doors, it totally thwarts every effort that we've made and the United States publicly has made. Let's take a phone call. Let's go to Scott in South Carolina. You're on the air. Hey, Scott.

Thanks for taking my call. Gentlemen, Colonel Smith can back this up. One thing that people don't realize about illegal immigration, there are United States soldiers with families who make too much money to qualify for assistance of certain types. I did 22 and a half years in the United States Army.

And I know for a fact, that's a true statement. And that kind of bothers me because they're helping these people, but I've had soldiers that needed help with food and rent and stuff like that, and couldn't get it because they were drawing a paycheck that disqualified them. Scott, first of all, let me tell you this. I appreciate your service to the country, as we all do on this broadcast, as the entire ACLJ does. But when we got word last week that men and women were being told by the Sergeant Major, and make sure I get this right, Colonel Smith, by the Sergeant Major, here's how you can get food stamps to the enlisted men and women.

Explain exactly what happened. Yeah, the Sergeant Major of the Army at the Pentagon, the senior enlisted officer for all of the United States Army said, here's how you can get food stamps. It was, on the one hand, you're glad the Pentagon realizes they're struggling, but on the other hand, why are they struggling? But if you look at the figures, you look at inflation and you look at the raises that our troops have been given, over the last three years, they have had a 12.5 decrease in their salary and they are desperate. The Pentagon, last week, issued a report and said 24% of all enlisted soldiers are in need of food.

They're food insecure, as they call it. What a travesty that this is going on. And Scott's right, it should not be.

It's unreal. Logan, you said this thing on your podcast. I know you covered this extensively on the Secular Brothers podcast. But I thought one of the interesting points were that if there is this need, which apparently there is, we have to figure out a way to do it for these soldiers with dignity. Yeah, I think that's the main thing. People are okay with some subsidies and helping out and doing that. If you are saying, hey, our troops need food. I think we're okay with making that an okay thing that we offer as part of our spending. When you are giving billions and trillions around the world to humanitarian causes, we can start at home and say, let's treat our troops.

I mean, this is like the way people describe how things were when they get out. No, we're talking about when they're active duty. These guys are on food stamps. This should not even be part of the system.

We can easily fix this. It seems like something, like you said, with dignity. And just even using the term food stamps for our military, you go, okay, there's got to be a better way. There could be a stipend. There could be a card that they can get. And it's just part of what you get as part of your military service. I think as much as we are against big spending and all of those types of things, we'd all be okay with it. I don't even think people would push back at all.

Not a moment. On saying, yeah, we provide meals or we provide some kind of stipend to future families. The thing that bothers me the most about this is, A, we're not giving them enough money, but we're also hurting their dignity. You're putting food stamps.

Here's how to get food stamps. It's terrible to the military. And just like the caller said, we have all these illegal immigrants coming over. We've created the problem. Costing us billions and billions of dollars. Right. We've created this problem and all the funds that we are throwing at that problem, we could be providing to support our military, which is exactly like Logan said, where our money should be spent. In a dignified way, Colonel Smith, in a way that doesn't impact the dignity of the men and women that are serving our country and we take care of their families. Right.

I'm not a big fan of executive orders and the President ruling by executive fiat, but instead of forgiving $300 billion worth of college debt, why not give our soldiers by executive order something to help them through this inflationary period? Andy, we only got a minute here, but I wanted to ask you this. Priorities matter. Matters in the law, it matters in politics. And the problem is they don't have their priorities right.

Well, that's right. The priorities of this administration are skewed. I mean, as Colonel Smith said, the idea that we are not supporting our military with as simple a thing as food is ludicrous and it ought to be condemned roundly and soundly. But the priorities of this administration have been skewed from the very beginning.

And for example, going back to the flag where he said displaying the Palestinian flag shows a priority toward the Palestinian authority over Israel that should not be. Nope. All right, secularbrothers.com. Great way to get the podcast information, support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org. But Logan, tell everybody about the podcast.

That's right. You can subscribe right now, secularbrothers.com. We do new episodes three days a week, talking about news, pop culture, politics in a casual environment. We hope to hear you join us later today.