BREAKING: Putin Escalates Ukraine Conflict, Breaks Nuclear Deal with U.S.

Breaking news today on Sekulow.

Putin escalates the Ukraine conflict, breaks nuclear deal with the United States. 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, Jordan Sekulow. Hey, welcome to Sekulow. We are taking your calls to 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. President Biden is speaking now in Warsaw, Poland. Big event. Again, speaking about the war in Ukraine. I don't know that this is, again, making much of an impact to the audience he should be speaking to more about, which is Americans, about why we are sending this money. But Putin also gave a big speech this morning before the speech by Biden where he announced that Moscow and Russia would no longer participate in the just remaining parts of the nuclear arms control pack known as the START Treaty. They will cease trying to work on a new START Treaty, which was, that one was signed in 2010, to cap the number of long-range nuclear warheads that can be deployed and the use of missiles that can carry atomic weapons. Putin also said that if the United States tests any nuclear weapons, Russia will test nuclear weapons. I still think right there is where we've talked to Rick Grenell about there is diplomacy that could be done here that is not working. He did not say we're going to test nuclear weapons. He said if the U.S. does. So he's still acknowledging the U.S. is the power player.

Yeah, it's interesting because there's a very interesting dynamic that's happened. We also have, we know there's ongoing back channels with the situation with Russia and China. Chairman Xi has made it known that he will, in fact, be going to Moscow, which is very, very unusual for them to leave China.

Recently, yes, they have not left. Putin has not been doing that, so he's going to leave and go to China. Now, to Russia, what's interesting about that is the comeback that the Minister of Defense for China said was, hey, look, you're saying, you know, if you arm Russia, we're going to take this adverse action on you. And they said, well, you're arming Ukraine. So the China-Russia alliance is for real.

Yes, I mean, their trade is projected to be at 25 percent higher from last year. Putin announced that as well. So, I mean, where China sees these international sanctions, it says because the U.S. is so, and the Western world is so reliant on their goods, you're not going to actually apply those to us. And since you're sanctioning Russia, where you are actually, they are having a tough time getting through those international sanctions, will be their savior.

So we'll go in and make sure that the stocks are, the shelves are stocked, that you can buy what you need. In return, what are they getting? Cheap oil and gas. So they're getting, for the Chinese economy is benefiting, and Russia is benefiting because the people aren't feeling the burden that sanctions would usually impose. There's another aspect of this which I think is interesting and that Wes Smith's going to get into, and that is we are, by sending them the amount of munitions we're sending to Ukraine right now and the amount of money, we're depleting our own reserves, which makes us less of a geopolitical military threat, especially if China continues to eye any kind of transaction with Taiwan, which is likely.

So you've got this. It's a very interesting world scenario right now. We're in a geopolitically different place. Part of it is when you have a weak foreign policy and your adversaries don't assess power, they do this. Now, you know, NATO is saying they're increasingly concerned that China may arm Russia. Does anybody for a moment think that NATO's saying we don't want you arming Russia is going to tell the Chinese government that they're not going to do it? But that's where diplomacy really comes in.

Rick Renell talked about that yesterday. You've got to be, war is multidimensional. It's diplomacy. It's the art of war, physical combat. It's trade.

It's all of it. And I think we're just missing it right now, and we're starting to pay the consequence. And then you don't even want to get into what's happening domestically with people in Ohio that are still having a toxic spill on their hands and the federal government nowhere to be found. Pete Buttigieg has not been there yet.

I can't even believe this. At first he blamed the Trump administration for a policy that was actually changed before that they went in. It was 2015. Now he is blaming Norfolk Southern, but taking no responsibility for our infrastructure problems that they told us were so horrible. They told us our infrastructure was bad. It obviously is, but they don't want to put money into railroads. They want to put money into wind farms that kill whales. The environmentalists are now saying it's bad. Yes, because the wind farm industry was another scam. Hold on. It's bad for the environment.

Horrible for the environment. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Sechil. We are taking your phone calls.

1-800-684-3110. The dueling comments. Biden finishing his remarks in Poland on Ukraine. Putin delivered his remarks before that.

I want to play some view from Putin today on the nuclear issue specifically and pulling out completely of whatever was remaining of the nuclear arms pact with the US, which was kind of teetering on not being very relevant anyways, but he announced today they're totally out of it by 20. It is absolutely unacceptable that the United States is redefining the world order based on their selfish interests. And now using the representative of NATO, they provide ultimatums.

And Russia has to follow what we have signed for, including START treaties. And we're going to do as we please. That's a big statement right there at the end.

What they got exactly right at the end was we're going to do as we please. That's a huge statement to the world for a country like Russia because, again, saying that means we're not scared of the United States. Well, I think that's the biggest takeaway.

Colonel Smith, I look at two things here. One is the United States is pushing back on China saying, hey, don't be selling weapons to Russia or it's going to be an adverse reaction. And then number two, Putin saying, of course, the Chinese response to that is, well, you're selling weapons to Ukraine. And then, of course, the pushback that Jordan just mentioned, which I think is even bigger, is we will do as we please.

Yeah. I mean, that's a big escalation in events. It is a huge escalation. And, you know, wars frequently, without our intentions, they spiral out of control. I have a blog going up this afternoon about our unique and troubled relationship with China. China right now has more launch sites for nuclear weapons than Russia or the United States. And I know last week, President Biden said we do not want another cold war with China.

In fact, Jay, we are already in a cold war with China. But concerning this NUSALT treaty that he says they are suspending, it limits the number of deployable nuclear warheads, not the number of warheads. Between the U.S. and Russia, there's 13,000 warheads.

What this does is it takes those that are deployable, they're ready to launch, and limits them to 1,550 each. It also allows inspectors 18 times a year in each country to inspect the sites. This is what President Putin has suspended. But here's the deal. Russia has not abided, has not, you know, kept this treaty, abided by it since 2020.

So he suspends it, but in the meantime, he hasn't been honoring it anyway. But you've got two world powers with China and Russia, Andy. I mean, these are two world powers that have a long history of tension, both tension in their relationship and the common enemy then becomes their binding force, which I think we're starting to see.

What's your sense of it? Well, my sense of it is that what Putin is doing is pressing with great vigor this concept that is embedded in the Russian mind of manifest destiny. Manifest destiny means that it is our destiny to recover the territory that was once the greater Russia, and that includes Ukraine, which is a breakaway republic that belongs to us. And we are going to do whatever is necessary, ally ourselves with whatever is necessary, just as he said in this quotation that we played. We're going to do as we please in order to effectuate our manifest destiny of reigniting, realigning this great czarist Peter the Great Empire of Russia that existed in the 18th century.

Let's play this other statement by Vladimir Putin. I mean, they're rewriting history while they're doing it, but here we go. I want to repeat, it's they who have started the war.

We have used and are using force to stop it. But you know how they define it, Wes? I think they acknowledged they went in here, but it was the breakaway itself was the war they started in 1991. Right, that Ukraine has always been a part of Mother Russia.

That's the point they're making. I tell you what is more alarming than that, Jay, is that in addition to pulling out of this nuclear treaty, which is the last remaining treaty in the world of nuclear weapons that they just are suspending, but in addition to that, Vladimir Putin keeps saying things like, and I have a quote here, that he's ready to use all means necessary to defend Russia's, quote, territorial integrity. Do you believe that he will use all means necessary? I mean, is that Putin bluster?

Or do we have the luxury to even say that? He wants us to believe it. I think, personally, he is unstable. He has a lot of troubles at home.

He's 70 years old. Some of the oligarchs and businessmen are now complaining about the war. The people have been demonstrating in the streets from time to time. Even the hardline nationalists in Russia are saying they're upset about the casualties and about the expense of the war.

I want to say something else that I think is important. He has mustered the support unquestionably and undeniably of the Orthodox Church. And I want to tell you, it was the Orthodox Church in Russia that kept Russia alive during the Soviet occupation.

But they are in lockstep. They are right with him. He's got Patriarch Kirill, former NGB, KGBD, same guy as Putin who took the religious course.

Putin took the political course. But when you have the Orthodox Church in Russia behind you, solidifying what your aim is, you have a great force, Jay. A great force.

No doubt about it. All right, we're taking calls at 800-684-3110. Let's go right to them, Jordan. Yeah, Susie's calling from Massachusetts on Line 1. Hey, Susie.

Hi, thank you very much. All this money that is going to Ukraine, and I'm very supportive of Ukraine. My dad was born there and I want to see an end and a win for Ukraine. But I'm wondering who's getting rich over all this money if it's the unionized defense plants here in the US. It is defense manufacturers, of course. I mean, there was a push to say, you know what, when we calmed down Iraq and Afghanistan. And yes, we were spinning under the Trump administration member to rebuild our own military. So they were not like they weren't making money, those defense contractors. But they like a good war because that means you got to reproduce new missiles and you got to build new tanks and you got to restock.

And there's always that back and forth in Washington. It doesn't mean those companies don't do great things by keeping us ahead, if they are still, technologically. But, of course, they benefit from this. I mean, this is what their business is war.

You know, it's interesting. I want to play, this is the statement of the US ambassador to the United Nations. They were used to 20 years of war. 20 years of war we had in the United States.

Most of my life we were at war in Iraq and Afghanistan. So that was a lot of missiles being bought, a lot of new equipment, a lot of new planes, a lot, just a lot. I mean, and then that all came to a close. And so they had to, you know, they're not going to be against this. No, of course not. Let's play what UN Ambassador Linda Thompson-Greenfield said about the situation with China and Russia.

Listen to the, especially the last part. We also have to be clear that if there are any thoughts and efforts by the Chinese and others to provide lethal support to the Russians in their brutal attack against Ukraine, that that is unacceptable. Again, that would be a red line. I think we need to stop saying red line because I think it's a meaningless phrase now. It was meaningless under Obama. It meant something under Trump. It is meaningless under Biden. And if, you know, that kind of language, you want to sound tough is one thing, but they know there's no red line, Colonel.

No, and there's no intention to enforce it. The reactions that we would have to China are somewhat limited unless we're willing to disentangle ourselves economically, which we're not willing to do. The other thing that concerns me, Jay, and you and I talked about it before radio today, and that is our arsenal is being depleted rapidly by our support of the war in Ukraine. And it makes me wonder if somehow in China's design of things, they would like to see our arsenal depleted because at some point they are going to invade Taiwan.

And it limits our reaction there if we've given so much weaponry and ammunition to Ukraine itself. You know, to me, it's interesting. It's fascinating, actually, that when you look at this thing politically and you look at it historically, that this is no different than its own. The history is just repeating itself. Different players, sometimes different leaders, obviously, but this is imperialist Russia. Well, it is imperialism. It is imperialism on the czar's model. Putin is trying to be a new czar. He's trying to be the new successor to the czar's regimes in the line of Alexander and Ivan and Nicholas and so forth. And he's succeeding in amalgamating at least the power of the people. I know they've rebelled against them and they're against conscription and they've fought and they're complaining. But the Orthodox Church and his supporters are still behind him and still doing this, just as the Germans said, Alsace-Lorraine was ours.

We're going to take it. It's our manifest destiny. And the Russian, the English years ago said, Wales belongs to us. This is something rooted in historical fact. You can't overstate that.

His attempt to embody and embrace the Ukraine and amalgamate it into Russia is a historical necessity for Vladimir Putin. Alright folks, we'll come back and take more of your phone calls. 1-800-684-3110 to talk to us on the air.

That's 1-800-684-3110. There's a lot more to talk about too. ACLJ work on life. We're taking action in Maryland again.

We defeated it once. They're trying again to pass a really radical constitutional amendment there that starts in a legislative process. It would basically, it goes way, as we've said, a lot of these states taking it actually goes way further than Roe vs. Wade. It affects the conscience protections. It affects any kinds of future restrictions at all on any abortion procedures. We're going to talk about that when we come back too, as well as Ukraine and Russia.

1-800-684-3110 to weigh in. Comment came in from Rumble. The plan for China is to deplete us. I'm afraid they will hit us first, not Taiwan. I don't think that they're going to come after directly the United States. Taiwan is what they want first. To them, that would be like, again, we drew this red line and then they'll jump over it. But they do love the fact that we're sending all these weapons over and we're talking in the press, in the news, that this is depleting our weaponry and we're trying to, again, get back to the manufacturing.

But guess what? Who do we rely on for our technology to work in these new weapons? China. We need semiconductors. We need the chips from China so that our weapons, so that the tanks turn on, so that the planes turn on, so that they can use all of their functions, so that the missiles target correctly. So they know. They have us in a bind. We have them in a bind, too, economically. And where they're trying to find an extra money is by getting involved with a Russia saying, because we have you in a bind and you're proposing a bind, you can say whatever you want, but we're going to make money off Russia.

Right now, they're making money off the Russian economy. I want to go to the phones. Richard in Nevada, online, too. Hey, Richard. Hi there. I thank you for taking my call.

My comment is this. I think the Biden administration wanted this war with Ukraine. All Biden had to do is make one statement telling Russia that Ukraine would never become part of NATO.

Putin was afraid that there would be NATO weapons at his border. And so this is reckless foreign policy. It seems like... I don't disagree with you. We discussed that, and I don't disagree with you at all, Richard. I think that the Ukraine acceding to NATO membership was a poke in the eye to the Russians, because that's the Cuban Missile Crisis. So it's the same thing with Sweden and Finland. I'm very concerned about expanding NATO.

I think it just gets us into more complex... I don't disagree. Let's go domestic for a moment here, because we've got ACLJ lawyers today in Maryland. Maryland has taken a very aggressive attitude, very aggressive on the issue of abortion, CeCe.

I mean, way more than we... I mean, way over Roe versus Wade, actually. Right. And now they have a bill for a constitutional amendment that literally gives every person as a central component of an individual's rights to liberty and equality, that every person has the fundamental right to reproductive freedom, including, but not limited to, the ability to make and effectuate decisions to prevent, continue, or end one's own pregnancy. That language is so extremely broad and so really scary, because it allows for an individual with their right to reproductive freedom, basically, to end a pregnancy. And we've seen that when they go to perinatal, even after the baby's born.

And so we... Is this... In Maryland, do they have the word perinatal in it? They do not have it. But what's scary is they say right to reproductive freedom, including, but not limited to. So what does that reproductive freedom really means? It's so broadly based.

You have the right to reproduce, but that means you can end maybe a child's life after they're born. So here's what's happening. We've had great success in the overturning of Roe.

No question about it. It was a great success. Then you had, which is now what's happened, is we had this kind of state legislatures came forward with resolutions that were very difficult to follow, constitutionally. We've represented a number of governors and attorneys general. Then, as things settled in, the courts were ruling with a more pro-life. In the last couple of months, we've had some good decisions. Now, Maryland and Jordan taking an unbelievably aggressive action here.

Yes. And I mean, this impacts conscious protections for doctors and nurses and pharmacists. So because if you go this far, this just goes way past Roe. And I think that's the education that needs to be done.

This starts with the legislature, then ultimately gets voted on by the people. It was stopped once, didn't make it through this effort. And that's what we're trying to do now, is not even get to that next point. Because we know if we get to the next point right now, what we'll be up against on a constitutional amendment is millions of dollars from Play Parenthood, who then from coast to coast, which are their kind of focus areas, want to make sure that abortion restrictions are less than they were under Roe v. Wade.

Let's put up on the screen for our television audience and our people that are watching our social media platforms. This is the written testimony of Olivia Sumners, senior lawyer for our staff at the ACLJ here. But we're also having this actual oral testimony today going on. And we've got ACLJ lawyers deployed there as well, Cece. Yeah, so the Maryland House Health and Government Operations Committee is meeting today.

And so, Ben, one of our attorneys will be testifying before that committee hearing today, basically reiterating what we submitted in our written testimony, which is that we oppose this House Bill 705 for various reasons. But specifically, just like Jordan said, because it's so broad and it will take out any protection for life that Maryland does already have on the book, conscious protections, maybe informed consent, those kind of things, they'll all be gone. And it's so broadly written.

You know, it basically gives the right to kill a baby at any time definitely before birth, but possibly because it's so broadly written even after birth. You know, you wonder when you're seeing these, you've got to say to yourself, how do we get it stopped? And that's where deploying a legal strategy is so critical. We've got ACLJ and ACLJ lawyers involved. Then we also have, we've now set up, in addition to our Office of Government Affairs, we set up the ACLJ action.

Jordan? Yeah. I mean, so we've got multiple efforts.

We have the C4 efforts, C3 efforts, but we know what we're up against. We saw it in places like Kansas, Kentucky. The list goes on. Even in the middle of the country, the pro-life red states, we were losing when these came to a vote because of the disinformation from the abortion industry.

They got into churches. They went right to the heart of evangelical America and said, you need to vote against these amendments protecting life because you, who had a miscarriage, will be investigated by the state for criminal activity. Why did you have that miscarriage? Are you responsible for that miscarriage?

It's something you did personally. Or IVF. All those issues came up. And so what we did is, I would say we lost the battle. What we weren't prepared for, we were so focused on fighting Roe vs. Wade. When that draft opinion came out, they realized they had already lost Roe vs. Wade. Right.

And they were already on to the next issue. Let's take Steve Kaul from Maryland because that's where this is. Maryland, Steve, go ahead. You're on the air. Hi. Thanks, Jay. Thanks for all your service. Just a quick comment, and that is just that, you know, we just have a new governor in office that I think he's right along the lines of his thinking. And you'll see a lot more of this to come.

And it's a shame because, you know, as part of faith and freedom movement, you know, it's everything to take the cross down in the public square and to promote things like this. Well, let me say this. We don't give up. So we deployed lawyers on this. We've already submitted written testimony. We've got oral advocates up there today.

So we're moving forward on this. Yeah, I mean, there was a political shift there, which might surprise people, but there was a Republican governor in Maryland. He's not super, super right, but was still a Republican governor who was more friendly to the life issue, certainly on having some restrictions on abortion.

I don't think I would go so far as to be a pro-life advocate, but having some restrictions on abortion and that kind of middle-of-the-road approach was more acceptable. But now you've got a Democrat governor. And what do we know about the Democrat party right now? To get to a stage where you're elected as a governor or a senator or to a Congress, you've got to go through the litmus test. And the litmus test that they use in the Democrat party is you must be 100% behind whatever Planned Parenthood wants. It's not even just be pro-abortion. It's whatever Planned Parenthood wants, whatever protection they want, whatever legislation or constitutional amendment that you will put the state's resources behind it to try and get it passed.

And at the same time, you will target pro-life America as the wrongdoers. So this is why your support of the ACLJ is so critical, because we can deploy lawyers not only to give written testimony, but also to appear. So I'm going to encourage you, go to ACLJ.org right now and support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org to make an online contribution there. And follow us on any of your social media platforms at JSekulow, at JordanSekulow, at LoganSekulow, and at ACLJ. Back with the next half hour in just a moment. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulow. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow.

All right, welcome back to Sekulow. Again, we see what's going on internationally. You had dueling events today in Europe. So you had Putin addressing, I don't know if it was the legislature directly or supporters, but he made a big speech in kind of a grand room about doing what they want. No longer abiding by any kind of the nuclear treaties that we've got with the United States, which they were barely abiding by anyways, but anything that was left there, they were done. And then Joe Biden was in Poland, huge event.

I mean, he's got more people showed up there than would show up here in the United States for anything, any speech by him. And again, just kind of saber rattling with no end in sight. That's the big problem with the Ukraine issue is not so much people are against a war of aggression and don't like seeing the imagery. And if they could do something about it, that would bring it into it and explain it to us.

But instead I see Jake Sullivan and Joe, and they're so giddy over there. Like when they were in Kiev, like they thought it was so cool that they're in a war zone and they get to go meet with Zelensky and there's the, you know, the air raid sirens going off, even though that was bogus because the Russians had agreed not to do anything while Biden was there. Do not conflict. So all that was for show.

Yes. And that's what you have to realize that this part of the world, there's a lot of propaganda going on because they all stem from the USSR, everybody there. There's a lot of corruption. And it's not to say there's not a good and bad guy here because one guy, Russia invaded a country without a real purpose because even the NATO discussion, they were toying with NATO. NATO could have rejected that immediately.

And that was a 10 year plan. So maybe there were some missteps by the Ukraine, but ultimately they were invaded a war. It is a war of aggression, but you can never tell the American people how this comes to a close. All we're told is we're not going to send this. And then a month later we send it. So we know F-16s are going to show up there.

Of course. But you know, how long does that take to bid operational? It's got to be like a year. I don't think that the missile systems that we sent are operational yet. That was months ago. And we said we weren't going to send those. Then we weren't going to send tanks. Then we did send tanks.

So you can't believe anything out of the administration. Let's go to the phones. Peter in Ohio on Line 1. Hey Peter. Hi guys.

Thanks for taking my call. My question is, what's your opinion on how the President and his administration are doing in defending our country, which is their number one priority? Yeah, they get an F to be honest. You look at the border, it's an F. You look at now the northern border, it's an F. You look at a war in Eastern Europe, it's an F. You've got conflict with China where our defense minister is not in a speaking relationship with the minister of defense. Our secretary of defense is not speaking to the minister of defense in China. So they get an F on the global stage. We technically right now have a better diplomatic relationship with Russia.

Was that a war that we're funding the other side? And we can speak to them because they had to before Biden made that quote surprise visit to Kiev yesterday. And they had to put the phone call in. They were able to put the phone call in. Right now if you tried to do that with the Chinese defense minister, he's not taking the phone call from our secretary of defense.

And then you called in from Ohio. We're not taking care of our own people in East Palestine. So Mayor Pete now just announced he's finally going to go. So this is after Donald Trump announced he would go, which then triggered FEMA having a reversal. We'll place that when we come back too from the mayor of East Palestine.

They have not tried to make this political. I will say that they've all said, you know what, these politicians, we don't need any of them. Just send us what we need, ultimately. But then they see Joe Biden pop it up in Ukraine. They got an interesting reaction to that. We'll play it when we come back on Secular. We're taking your phone calls at 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. You can support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org. You know, it's interesting. You look at the issues we've discussed today, the whole conflict in Eastern Europe. We do a lot of work there. We have a European Center for Law and Justice. We had offices in Moscow until we could no longer have them. So we know this area.

We've worked in China for decades. So we understand the complexities there. And of course, then we had the abortion issue in Maryland and ACLJ lawyers are there.

So this guy tells you the nature and scope. So as what Jordan said, support the work of the ACLJ. Do that at ACLJ.org.

That's ACLJ.org. And follow us on all your social media. We're thrilled, of course, with our good friends at Rumble who promote this broadcast. So subscribe. If you're on Rumble, you need to subscribe to our Rumble page as well. Back with more in just a moment.

Welcome back to Sekio. The mayor of East Palestine, Ohio, was on with Jesse Watters last night on Fox News. And the final question to him was about Joe Biden showing up in Ukraine. Take a listen. Bite one. Before we let you go, you saw President Joe Biden over in Ukraine. Did that make you feel slighted in any way?

Absolutely. That was the biggest slap in the face. That tells you right now he doesn't care about us. So he can send every agency he wants to. But I found that out this morning in one of the briefings that he was in the Ukraine, giving millions of dollars away to people over there, not to us.

And I'm furious. On President's Day in our country. Yeah, President's Day in our country.

He's over in Ukraine. So that tells you what kind of guy he is. Pretty straight language.

Pretty straight talk from the mayor of East Palestine. And again, we said it's important visuals to people. They know that the President shouldn't show up two days after because it's a mess. But two weeks after, now we're getting close to three weeks after. They could have done it.

Yeah, it's something you could do. And you do it because it draws the American people's attention to it. It helps fundraising for nonprofit groups that are providing assistance. And it makes sure that the country doesn't forget that this is far from over. But that you're going to be there with him. So since Donald Trump announced he was going to go last week, FEMA made a reversal two hours later that they are now going to sit in the FEMA supplies, which is what people need, like water, bottled water. And then Mayor Pete has announced, I don't know if we have a specific date yet, but he is planning to go. Yeah, well, we were pretty tough on Mayor Pete yesterday on the last two weeks on this broadcast because he has not been and he's the secretary of transportation.

Which means don't put a small town mayor in charge of your transportation operations because you're seeing what you get. Harry Hutchinson, our director of policy is there. The mayor of the town of East Palestine is upset. He's upset with President Biden being over in Ukraine. He's more upset with the slow federal response.

How do you see it right now? Well, I think the mayor of East Palestine is justifiably upset. If you look at the Biden administration, it is run by globalists who continue to preach openness, tolerance and inclusion with respect to every other country and every other individual in the world except the United States. And that was what was so triggering about the presidency of Donald Trump.

He was focused on putting America and Americans first. They didn't like that. These individuals that inhabit the Biden administration are much more comfortable in Paris, in London, in Sydney or Rome than they are in East Palestine or in so-called flyover country in the United States. And so at the end of the day, they marginalize those individuals who live there and they marginalize their interests. They don't see it as terribly important to actually show up in East Palestine. And I guess that is why the individuals who live there are so infuriated because they're having to deal with toxic chemicals, contaminated water and no support from the federal government. I do not understand what they are thinking, Jordan.

This is politically here. What are you thinking when you didn't send FEMA in? What are you thinking when you didn't send your secretary of transportation in?

What is your thought process that does this? They don't care. It's like not going to the border and then ultimately going and not really going and then having this crisis that just keeps unfolding. And again, on the border, when they go down there, it's all about the migrants. It's not about the drugs.

They're killing Americans. So ultimately, it shouldn't take a political pressure and it shouldn't take partisan action to get the secretary of transportation to show up in a major transportation disaster that is ongoing. And again, that EPA administrator, that was scary to people who said, you know, if your house was specifically tested, maybe the water's okay there. But they didn't test every house. And the governor said, I wouldn't do that. Right.

And he had like J.D. Vance, other folks there say, just look at the water. You can't drink. It's blue and all the animals are dead. But it begs the question, Harry, it begs the question of why would you not send in the cavalry? Well, in part because the Biden administration is populated by individuals who are tone deaf. They don't seem to understand this situation, number one.

Number two, they don't see it as terribly important. And number three, they see these types of disasters as basically the impetus to accelerate the green energy move to get away from carbon, to get away from all of these so-called toxic chemicals, just devastate middle America while the agenda of London and Paris takes precedence over the interests of the American people. You know, with all the emphasis that this administration puts, Jordan, on environmentalism and green energy and all this, you've got an environmental hazard that has exploded on this town. And yet, I'm not hearing, where are the AOCs of the world? Where are these other people that would normally be speaking out? I hope it's not because this area has gone conservative in the last elections like old West 2.

Yeah, I don't know if I'd call it that. They just went Republican because they are the real, when you talk about forgotten man that Joe Biden talks about, this is that area of the country that was booming until only the 1970s. It's been a long time since they've been booming. Yeah. Okay, well before I was born, these were cities that were facing a lot of economic trouble. And with all these new developments, they're not getting them.

No. And one of the reasons why is they relied on traditional forms of work and labor and Democrats shut all that down with the EPA and other groups. You can't, you know, the factories that were there are no longer there.

They're in China now or other countries. And besides that point, they don't actually care about, it's not about really the environment, it's about their agenda. And so this doesn't fit into the agenda.

Like here, we're saying this is, this again, it's an old school railroad. So now their blame is going to, first their blame was on Donald Trump. That didn't work because the law that was changed, that was 2015, which is before President Trump took the oath of office. And they haven't changed the law since the two years they've been there.

So that's one. Then he's now blaming on Norfolk Southern. Sure, they have some of the blame, but there's an interesting, you know, back and forth between the infrastructure and the railroad company that uses the infrastructure. And we passed that huge infrastructure bill. I'm not saying that would have worked immediately to fix it, but I don't see anybody out there in all the railroads I drive by fixing any of them. What, you know, this infrastructure bill passes. I remember when President Biden, Obama said shovel-ready jobs. And none of that ever happens, Harry.

You spent all this money and it never happens. You are absolutely correct. So labeling a bill as an infrastructure bill is basically a bait and switch. It has very little to do with infrastructure. And so if you look at the infrastructure bill that was passed in 2022 and signed by President Biden, very few of the funds in that bill were actually aimed at solving our infrastructure problems. In many respects, it was another green energy boondoggle. And this will excite the folks in Davos, Switzerland, and with the World Economic Forum, who can't tell you anything about how green energy actually lowers the temperature of the planet. But they feel better about themselves. And at the end of the day, the people who populate the green energy industry, they are basically narcissists. And AOC, I think, is a clear example of that. So Pete Buttigieg, I'm honored to serve as the Secretary of Transportation and help build the kind of infrastructure that creates jobs.

There it is on the screen. Empowers all and keeps travelers and workers safe. He's failed on every single situation. Airlines, airplanes hitting each other on the ground, almost while they're landing. Trains derailing.

Crumbling infrastructure in our cities. And you know, they've been in office for two hours, two years rather. They act like they've been in there for two hours. They do. But they've done nothing. No, except for, again, and it's because of identity politics, got to choose who was the Secretary of Transportation, not who was actually qualified to be a Secretary of Transportation. And again, not only do they do things that we disagree with, they're not even doing things that we can all agree with.

That's the difference. If they were going to do all their diversity training, but also keep the railroads, it's like, yeah, we wouldn't necessarily like what they were forcing on government employees and other industries. But at least they were, as that caller said, keeping Americans safe, which is their number one job. It's not about making Ukraine great again, which I've said since the impeachment against Donald Trump and that obsession with Adam Schiff on the Ukrainians.

It's first step. You know what makes Ukraine great again? A strong America. What makes China weak is a strong America. What makes Putin weak is a strong America.

And so if we start at home and we're strong, our allies and friends are strong and our enemies are weak. They don't really see it that way. I don't know why. It's pretty basic.

It's very basic. All right, coming up, Don Lemon is still at CNN. In fact, CNN apparently has doubled down.

We're going to talk about the media hypocrisy of all of this. I met a tangler or two with him, and it's never pleasant, to be honest. I was on a lot of TV over the years, especially those years representing the former President. And I will tell you, he was the only one that personalized the insult. And it's one thing to spar and disagree.

It's quite another when they personalize it. And he was the only one that did it. I got an apology from there. I got defended by Chris Cuomo, an apology from the director of the D.C. Bureau for CNN. Let me tell you how many times I went on Don Lemon's broadcast after that. Zero!

Which is about how many people are watching him right now. All right, we'll be back with more in a moment. All right, welcome back to SEC. You ever take your phone calls? Let me take Gwen's call from Georgia first on Line 1. Hey, Gwen. Hey. Thank you for taking the call.

You're on the air. Yes, I'm just wondering, where's my money going to in Ukraine? Is it going to the people in Ukraine, or is it going to Zelensky and Biden? It's going to weapons and the military. I mean, there might be some aid to the people, but most of this is military. So it's going first to U.S. arms manufacturers, to be honest, and then sending the money over. Again, sending the weapons over, and every time we got to send more weapons, we got to buy more weapons, make more weapons here. So there might be some of that where we're making some money in the United States, but again, it's not impacting inflation. It's not that large scale of a war yet, but see, they always know a good war, a good big war, gets you right out of inflation. And that's where Democrat strategy over and over and over again. They call it the military industrial complex for a reason. I mean, it is one, and I'm not saying we don't need it. But you got, oh, nutrition going on right now.

That is incredible. We're sending over all this money and weaponry over to Ukraine. We're depleting our own. So then we've got to, they need more, so we got to get them more. Then we need more because we got to replace ours. And meanwhile, China is rattling its sabers with Russia.

Without having to use any of theirs. We're not using any weapons. No. Geopolitical failure of huge proportions is what's going on right now. And to be honest, and even put your partisan hats away, this is horrible. Terrible foreign policy. Reminiscent, unfortunately, of what we saw in the 1970s during the Carter administration.

And, you know, Jimmy Carter's getting a lot of attention right now because he's in hospice and our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family. And what he did in his post-presidency is very impressive. And look, they started the Middle East peace. But from a foreign policy standpoint, the Iranians did not fear us.

They kept our hostages for 444 days. So, you know, Putin, which we said at the beginning of the program, makes that statement, we'll do what we want. You think he would have done that to the former President of the United States?

No, I don't think so. No, he wouldn't and the Chinese wouldn't have acted that way either. It wasn't like they were going to necessarily be making real positive decisions, but they weren't going to be pushing the envelope. That's the difference.

Let's talk about pushing the envelope. The last time Ukraine was invaded, Biden was part of the administration. Yeah, under Obama. ISIS rose under Obama. ISIS was defeated under Trump. There were no issues with Russia. North Korea stopped shooting off missiles. And the Chinese, we were fighting, we were pushing with. Yeah, they weren't going to go into Taiwan. That was even all pre-COVID. And we were threatening them to just say, you know what, you got this debt on us, we'll just say, no you don't.

Seek your whole economy. So, that's where we were there. Here in the United States, guess who's coming back to TV? Don Lemon. What a shock. If you or I had said what he said, let's take a listen again.

I want to remind people, just a week ago. This whole talk about AIDS makes me uncomfortable. I think that, I think it's the wrong road to go down. She says people, you know, politicians or something are not in their prime. Nikki Haley isn't in her prime, sorry. When a woman is considered to be in her prime in her 20s and 30s and maybe 40s.

What do you talk, wait. That's not according to me. Prime for what?

It depends. It's just like prime. If you look it up, if you Google, when is a woman in her prime, it'll say 20s, 30s and 40s. So, I think she has to be careful about saying that, you know, politicians aren't in their prime.

I think they need to qualify. Are you talking about prime for like child occurring or are you talking about prime for being President? Don't shoot the message. I'm just saying what the facts are. Google it. Everybody at home, when is a woman in her prime, it says 20s, 30s and 40s. And I'm just saying Nikki Haley should be careful about saying that politicians are not in their prime and they need to be in their prime when they serve.

Because she wouldn't be in her prime according to Google or whatever it is. And, you know. So he says that he. But he's still there. He's off the air. Now he's coming back tomorrow.

For a couple days. They gave him a special sensitivity training. He's going to sensitivity training. But just Google it. There's something going on there.

Like we said, what does he have on, even the new guys who own CNN. I don't understand. What I don't understand about this. Let's have a hold on them.

I don't understand this. I'm not into cancel culture. We don't like that.

No. But listen, if somebody on our broadcast made those statements, you know what we would do? Terminate them.

They wouldn't be on the air. Here, he goes away for four days. He doubled and tripled down on that statement too. He didn't like back off.

I said, I just said something came out wrong. He came out and issued an apology to the staff of CNN. Never apologized to Nikki Haley. Never apologized to Nikki Haley. And by the way, Nikki Haley, we know Nikki Haley. She's a very smart woman.

She was a very good UN ambassador. There's no Google about that. He was just making that up. You know what I think he conflated?

Childbearing. I think what Poppy Harlow said was right. I don't even know that.

I don't even know that because he said forward. I mean, you can get into all of that. That has nothing to do with being a political leader. And what she was talking about is these 75 year olds running the country. Maybe that's where we need to draw some lines.

That's all she said. But here's something you have to understand. Why is it that he's still on CNN?

Because what I don't understand in all of this. They're for ratings. Unless they think this is going to be a ratings boost because we're talking about Don Lemon. But I don't think it will.

It might for a day people do it. But those ratings were in the below 100,000. Below 100,000. In their demo, which is their 25 to 35, it was like 28,000.

25,000. So nobody was watching. In a failed show from Launch, he was already canceled from prime time for bad behavior. He said it was promoted. Yeah. Now I will tell you this personally.

There's no promotion to 5 AM. Personal experience. I did hundreds of interviews during those days of representing the former President. And they were contentious. Some of them were very contentious.

You'd be getting to real discussions. And I did MSNBC. Ari Marber I did. I had a good relationship with him.

We disagreed. We fought it out on air. Chris Cuomo at CNN. And I did Anderson.

I did them all. And then the only one that personalized an attack in that four years of representation was one guy, Don Lemon, who said something to the effect of having me on. I was on with Chris and they were doing the handoff between Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon. He said some really nasty personal attacking statement. And Chris Cuomo basically said, you know what?

If I needed a lawyer, I'd hire Jay Sekulow. So, you know, this is the reality of what it is. But he's back. I'm just saying media commentary is this. You're very careful where you get your news. You're very careful where you get your information.

You should be. Because you don't know what these other agendas are. You just don't know. No, there's something bizarre going on.

Something strange. Because it was bought by a new company who could have easily cleaned house. And this was, I mean, firing for cause. Well, here's what Chris Lick said, who's the head of it now. I sat down with Don and had a frank and meaningful conversation. He's agreed to participate in formal training as well as continuing to listen and learn. We take this situation seriously, which obviously they don't.

It's important to me that CNN balances accountability with fostering a culture in which people can own, learn, and grow from their mistakes. To that end, Don will return to CNN this morning on Wednesday. Yeah, I mean, there's no time. He was back today, correct? Tomorrow, rather. Yeah, tomorrow. And do we have any idea how that's going to go?

Not well, I suspect. No, but just bizarre. Yeah. And, again, ultimately here, it was interesting, whatever he's got going on there, that this new company, which must be something, couldn't get rid of it.

Chris Lick has been horrendous. I mean, he took a bad network. And made it worse.

And just has been sinking it. And, I don't know, maybe they want to do that discovery so they can ultimately close it. They said CNN was going to go back into hard news. Obviously not.

No. I think this is just, we brought this up because it's a commentary on life. And, you know, the duplicity of the left, when you see it the most, is in situations like this. If some conservative said that about somebody, it would be, you know, off the air. Off on Fox News or anywhere else.

But, no. Here they give him a pass. And his ratings are terrible, so you say to yourself, okay. So you got bad ratings, you make bad, horrendous statements, and they still won't get rid of you. It's Don Lemon's network.

He's the force that's driving it. Well, this network isn't Don Lemon's network, and this broadcast isn't. Support the work of the ACLJ by going to ACLJ.org.

That's ACLJ.org. They'll probably get ratings tomorrow. People will be watching. I guess. 12 instead of 15, maybe? I don't know. We'll see. Support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org. Follow us at Jay Sekulow, at Jordan Sekulow, at Logan Sekulow, and at ACLJ. We'll talk to you tomorrow.