An Emboldened Iran Tests the Incoming Biden Administration

Today on Secular Radio, an emboldened Iran tests the incoming Biden administration. We'll talk about what's going on already with Iran today on Secular Radio. Live from Washington, D.C., Jay Secular Live. Right now, the Middle East remains on edge as Iran continues to develop its nuclear program while also conducting military drills that threaten U.S. interests. All of this could change though, as reports do indicate President-elect Biden may quickly rejoin the Iran nuclear deal upon taking office later this week. Phone lines are open for your questions right now.

Call 1-800-684-3110. Over the weekend, the country actually tested a series of ballistic missiles that landed within 100 miles of the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier. In a show of force on Sunday, American B-52 bombers made their fifth patrol mission to the Middle East since November. And now, your host, Jordan Secular. There's been a few years since we've had to focus in a lot on Iran because they've been isolated from the world. They were continuing to be isolated even in the last six months with these new peace deals that were being organized by President Trump's administration, by Jared Kushner that was working on that.

He was just getting back from the Middle East last week, finalizing those deals, Bahrain, the UAE, Morocco, Sudan. This was, again, it was continuing to isolate the Islamic Republic of Iran. But now we have a situation where, surprise, surprise, as the Biden administration prepares to take office tomorrow, Iran is already, in a sense, testing Joe Biden. Now, this is a Biden administration that is saying, Iran, we're going to help lift economic sanctions. We're going to rejoin the nuclear deal, the JCPOA. So you would think, right, that if their strategy was correct, Iran wouldn't be shooting off missiles 100 miles away from our strike forces. But they are. You would think that Iran, who found not guilty an Iranian-American last year of espionage, which is unbelievable in their court system, but they hadn't let him yet return home, and now they've rearrested him and informed him that he was found guilty of espionage again and sentenced to 10 years in prison. All within the last week, this is happening. And so you would think, if they thought that the Biden administration approach was the correct approach, rushed right back into the failed Iran nuclear deal, and Iran will suddenly be nice.

And yet it's the opposite. Iran was weakened and scared of its own people and nervous to act at all under the Trump administration. Their top guy was killed by President Trump in his strike.

Don't forget that. The head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard was taken out. Soleimani. And people thought, oh, Iran is going to start a war with Israel. Did they start a war with Israel, anybody? No. Did they fire off any rockets then?

Nope, nope. So instead, when they know an administration is coming in that wants to give them money and pay them for peace and make nice and have cups of tea in Geneva with them, they start re-arresting Americans. They start firing off missiles. We're going to talk about it with Rick Grenell today, former acting director of national intelligence, former ambassador to Germany. Germany also plays a key part in this because, remember, those other countries, they're hoping the US does rush back into a deal like this because they want to make money off of Iran. They're ready to do business again with Iran, building tunnels for Iran's nuclear program. You got the IAEA saying Iran is enriching again above the levels they're allowed to do. And it's not getting the coverage it deserves because everybody's focusing it on the inauguration.

That's fine. But understand, this is what's facing our country immediately, immediately upon and we've seen this happen time and time again. It was like when it went from Carter to Reagan and everybody, all the hostages were released.

Now you're seeing the opposite. You're seeing the aggressive Iran as we transfer from Trump, who took out the head of the evolutionary guard, and everybody thought, oh no, what will Iran do? Well, they're a weak country with a bad economy. They did nothing.

But now that they know that they're going to get back into the JCPOA with the US, the money's going to start flowing again, they start getting aggressive. We're going to take your phone calls to this. Talk to Rick Grenell about it. 1-800-684-3110. Our full panel is here, but we want to take your calls as well.

That's 1-800-684-3110. As literally the Biden administration is saying, they want to rush back into this deal at the end of this week. Like by the end of this week, we're going to be back in a failed nuclear deal with Iran while they are being aggressive on the world stage and continue to oppress their own people. We'll talk about all of that today on Secular Radio. We'll be right back.

But here's the bottom line. We could not do our work without your support. We remain committed to protecting your religious and constitutional freedoms.

That remains our top priority, especially now during these challenging times. 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. And we'll see you next time.

Today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. I mean, I feel like I'm going it is a flashback to the Obama Biden years as we prepare for more Biden years. This headline, Iran jails U.S. businessmen, possibly jeopardizing Biden's plans for diplomacy with Tehran. And this was a businessman or the Iranian American kind of similar story we've heard about for years out of Iran, though cases we've handled was not happening so much under the Trump administration when people asked for assistance. This was an American who was actually found under President Trump by the Iranian in court, which is unbelievable, actually not guilty, not guilty of espionage. But when they when they made that ruling back in December 2019, they held on to his passport, so he couldn't leave.

And then he found out last week that he was actually found guilty and he's been arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison for espionage. So I want to go first to our senior military analysts. Actually, let me go to Rick Rinnell first, who is our international foreign policy senior adviser.

And that is, Rick, this Jordan said it right. This is a flashback for us. I mean, we handled the case of Iranians, Americans being captured by the Iranians and negotiating the release. And under President Trump, we were successful.

Now you got Biden coming in. It's supposed to be this re-engagement, yet they starting with the test. That's basically what this I look at this as a test. It's a total test. And remember that during the Obama Biden years, we kept failing the test every time that the Europeans wanted to do something and and try to find consensus with Iran. Our situation got worse.

It is really a test. And the Biden team so far is not getting it right. There's no clear announcements or statements of condemnation. Wes, as a senior military analyst for us, retired colonel in the United States Army, this was the question I had for you. Iran has been decimated. The sanctions have been devastating.

Their military leadership has been literally taken out. And they were at their probably weakest point, especially when you had the success of what the President did with the Abraham Accords. Yet this gives them a rebirth of energy because the incoming administration immediately goes to not just a reconciliation, but a full embrace of where they were.

It's like taking, I feel like we're taking eight years back steps. Yeah, the Iranians are good negotiators because they're attempting to negotiate from a position of strength. During the eight years of the Obama administration, we continually negotiated from a position of weakness and wanting to give, give, give.

We were desperate for a reason. The Iranians are desperate, but they know how to negotiate from a position of strength. And that's exactly what they're doing. If you want to talk to us on air 1-800-684-3110, I think this is a great question already to go back to Rick with, because Rosemary on YouTube, she writes in how quickly could this new administration undo what's been accomplished in the region the past four years? I mean, Rick, we're already seeing they've sent the signal, Hey, we're going to go back to the JCPOA. We're going to go back to the nuclear deal. And yet at the same time, they're launching missile tests, missile tests that weren't going on during the Trump administration.

Some were hitting like a hundred miles away from our strike forces in the sea. I mean, we're, we're increasing our B-52 patrols. So it's, things are getting more hostile even while the Biden administration saying here, we're, we want to, you know, relief, give you relief from sanctions, get you more money. And it's that same strategy.

We've talked about this a lot, Rick, with, with you. It's like that strategy of trying to appease them. And when you do that, it seems like they get more aggressive, more violent and more dangerous. Let's remember that Germany, the largest economy in Europe, is desperate to do more trade with Iran. The businesses have pressured the government. They want open trade. And so the Europeans are going to pressure the Biden administration. The Biden administration is going to come back and say, we're working with our allies. We have this response.

But make no mistake, the Europeans are going to water down the U.S. policy and they don't fear and have the same level of threat that we do when it comes to Iran. You know, it's interesting, Andy, because we have, of course, an office in the heart of Jerusalem. And in fact, I'm, I'm looking at, we're looking at increasing some staffing there at very senior levels. And what's, I find fascinating about that is that with our engagement in the Middle East, which has been extensive, the last four years have been much easier than the previous eight years before that. We could, and you and I negotiated very complex deals between the Israelis, the Jordanians, the Palestinian Authority. I mean, we've been involved in that kind of stuff. We have indeed, Jay, and we've been successful in doing it. The multi-sided and multifaceted aspect of the Middle East has come out in the negotiations that we have had. But the Iranians, I think, as we have said before, are now emboldened by what they see as a different administration, a different attitude, a different approach, a dangerous approach, I think, on the part of the United States.

And as Ambassador Grinnell said, the Germans are dying to do business with the Iranians, and they're going to be pressuring us as our supposed allies to cave into them. This we must not do. Let's go to Dennis in Pennsylvania, if you want to talk to us on air, 1-800-684-3110. We're going to be taking your calls throughout the broadcast. Dennis, welcome to Jay Sekio Live. You're on the air.

Thank you. Jay encapsulated perfectly what I initially spoke to you about. Iran was supposed to be sanctioned, bankrupt, completely flat financially over the past four years, from what I heard, periodically. And I'm wondering how they have the funds to send up four ballistic missiles that land within 100 miles of the Nimitz. Where do they get their money? Well, they get money from, and Rick had addressed this, but in the past, they've been supported by Russia. They have been supported by the Chinese. And previously, Rick, they had a very strong economy, which they do not have right now.

Yeah. Well, first of all, let's remember that they lie. So we don't always know the truth, but they definitely have great deals with China. They're selling oil still.

So that's a very good resource for them. Plus, they still make money off what they call humanitarian goods. So the trade that the Europeans get to do is classified as humanitarian, and it continues. I mean, when I was ambassador, I found, you know, a lot of trade that was not humanitarian or certainly couldn't be classified that that was going through.

And so we're constantly trying to crack down, but they cheat and lie and get around the system. You know, we did a symposium a couple of years back in Oxford, the University of Oxford, at one of the colleges, and Iran was a big focus of it. And one of the papers that was delivered by one of our colleagues was about the New Silk Road, that China had this Silk Road into Iran. And what people in the West don't understand from a military standpoint is that we've now, the President was, President Trump was very successful in aggregating the Middle East view on Iran, which forced in a good way, relationships with Israel, because there was a common enemy.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, all of the countries in the Middle East, and I've lived there, they see Iran as the big threat. They've known for many, many years, Israel was not a threat.

But now they're coming on board and acknowledging it publicly that they need Israel to stand with them and the United States against Iran, which is a threat to them. And it's unfortunate that I think history is going to repeat itself. Thirty years ago, we were where we are right now with North Korea. We tried sanctions, we tried aid, we tried negotiations. Thirty years later, North Korea is a nuclear-armed nation.

Now our only hope is to hope they don't use the weapons. We are slow learners, Jay, because this same thing, if we're not careful is going to happen with Iran. You know, the one thing I was thinking about, Andy, when we were talking about that in Oxford when we did that whole program, focusing in on Iran and Turkey and the whole bit that there is an Iran-Turkey connection too. Oh, there is a definite connection between Iran and Turkey. And then we have to understand that the Turks right now are not our friends, and they've never been our friends, really. It certainly haven't been the friends of Christians and certainly haven't been the friends of their NATO ally, alleged ally, Greece. It's a dangerous connection that we have to keep our eyes on. I hope it's something that President Biden is going to come to realize is not in the best interest of the United States to support the Turks. The Turks are a dangerous people. They've always been. They always will be. Jordan. Yeah, I think that, listen, we're in a situation now.

It's a classic. And, Rick, it's not like anybody wishes this on America or that we have to deal with this, but it's so predictable that within, even before President-elect Joe Biden has taken the oath, we see Iran take more aggressive steps against American citizens, more aggressive steps militarily, because they think and they know if Joe Biden's telling the truth that they're going to get back, we're going to get back into this deal as a country with him, that the money's going to start flowing that much easier. The Biden team is going to definitely try to go back and do exactly that. But I think there's one thing that's different this time, and Jay was touching on it, the Abraham Accords. I think there's a recognition in the region that they cannot go back to the days where Iran threatens the region. The Obama years were terrible for the region.

They enjoyed a very different sentiment in the region. And we're already now seeing Doha and Riyadh talking and trying to figure out with Jerusalem what they can do about Tehran. That is a big deal, and that's going to be a problem for the Europeans and for the Biden administration.

You know, I was just thinking about that, Rick. The fact is one of the lasting legacies of this President's going to be, President Trump, is going to be those Abraham Accords, because the reality is it was a complete reshaping of the Middle East. For the betterment of the world and for the betterment of the region, but also for the betterment of the United States.

I think it's tragic in a sense that that policy probably will not be continued, because what you had was an alliance because of a common enemy that became strong. Now, let me tell you what we're doing at the ACLJ, folks. So we've got people like Rick Grenell and Wes Smith, and we've got others in the region. We have offices in Jerusalem. The American Center for Law and Justice is fully engaged in the Middle East. Now, our advocacy over the last four years was easier, to be frank. Okay? It's not going to be easy now. It's going to be going back to the UN and starting that whole fighting when you're fighting with your own country at the United Nations.

And I want to follow up when we come back from the break with Rick on that, because guess what, folks? We had four years of relative peace at the United Nations for the United States. We didn't have to go up there every two weeks fighting policies like we did under the Obama administration. Remember, our European Center is a full NGO at the UN. Get ready for that. Buckle your seat belts on that one.

It'll be a lot of work ahead. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, Planned Parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life.

Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. The challenges facing Americans are substantial at a time when our values, our freedoms, our constitutional rights are under attack. It's more important than ever to stand with the American Center for Law and Justice. 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. And we have an exceptional track record of success.

But here's the bottom line. We could not do our work without your support. We remain committed to protecting your religious and constitutional freedoms.

That remains our top priority, especially now during these challenging times. 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. Welcome back to Secular Radio.

We will take your phone calls too, 1-800-684-3110. We want to focus on something too as we lead up to the inauguration tomorrow. And there's lots of news about what's happening there and what's happening at the border. But we're shifting back into a time where we have to really start watching the world again on a much more micro level, not just in macro peace deals. And we've seen the conflicts decrease. Unfortunately, what we learned over the past administration with Obama and Biden was that there was a lot of conflict. There was a lot of instability. There was this Arab Spring that turned into an uprising of radical groups, ISIS, Libya, I mean, Gaddafi being dragged through the streets and run out. But then... Yeah, we didn't support the Iranians when they had the uprising, but we tried to squelch the ones that were our allies. And then Egypt became the Muslim Brotherhood. They get thrown out.

Then you get the military back in after you put them to bark. It just always seemed like a mess internationally. You turn on the news, there was always like disaster happening around the world. Yeah.

So I go to this one with Rick. Our European Center for Law and Justice is an NGO, very active non-governmental organization with a full recognition at the United Nation. You spent a decade at the UN in various positions. And the last four years, quite frankly, we've had a pretty nice ride with the President in power and the people like you and the ambassadors and directors of national intelligence.

We've been able to defend our ally, Israel, and we've also been able to stand up for policies that we think are right on a global scale. That is about to radically change. And I think it'd be helpful, Rick, to spend a few minutes talking to our listeners as to what it's going to look like at the UN. Well, I have to say that they're going to wrap themselves around this word consensus and watch very carefully. The Biden team will build up consensus as an amazing initiative and an amazing word.

But consensus at the UN means that you have 15 members of the UN Security Council agreeing to a statement or a policy position. This is really dangerous for America because it will not be a potent policy. It'll be watered down. It will be the lowest common denominator of what 15 countries with very different views believe. I think that we're going to have to be very careful. The woman who has been nominated to be the UN ambassador is a career diplomat, which may sound good, but it just means that it's going to be very bland and very driven by what other countries want us to do. Wes, you've dealt with, on the military side, these international tribunals. The UN, as Rick just said, and I'm very concerned about this, as you can tell, is going to look very different in about 36 hours.

Yeah, unfortunately so. And to Rick's point, too, it is not reassuring that the nominee to be deputy secretary of state is Wendy Sherman, who is one of the chief negotiators of the Iran nuclear deal. I mean, it's going to be, in a bad way, history repeating itself. I was about to say that.

So, Andy, look back. We've done these cases. We've done these negotiations. We've handled stuff at the UN.

Jordan has been very involved in these. We are taking steps back here, folks. What you can't do is just say, oh, well, there's nothing we can do, because there's a lot you can do. But we have to be prepared to do it. Well, we have to be prepared, and we have to be cognizant of the fact that what we did under the Trump administration and what was done was America first, and that was not necessarily always consensus. As a matter of fact, consensus, as Ambassador Grinnell pointed out, is a dangerous basis upon which to proceed, because it's not in the best interest of the United States all the time to look for consensus among competing nations whose interests are not necessarily those of the United States. When you put a career diplomat in there who is not like Nikki Haley, who is not going to stand up for American interests, for Israel interests, who are true allies' interests, that becomes a dangerous thing, Jay.

This is a team that's going to want, it's a popularity contest. They want to be welcomed back to the UN, not feared, not, and it's feared in a good way, by the way, asserting our status as a superpower, which we did over the last four years. But, you know, I remember we had, having to go to Geneva all the time, work having to team up with our European forces because they were like, you'd have these countries say, well, what are we supposed to do?

America is taking this policy. That's how they would come to us. So they say, so we'd have to work through our other European offices and allies because they would say, they would say, listen, we're going to have to oppose America on this.

So we'd have to go, we'd spend our time at the embassy in Geneva for the United States on the behalf of a US citizen. We didn't have to do that, you know, for, for pastor Brunson and we didn't have to, you know, we were able to put together the campaign and then President Trump, you know, got it done. And that may have not made us more popular in the halls of the UN, uh, you know, the smoking sections or the, where they, yeah, by sipping their cappuccinos, but we didn't have to spend our resources there.

We had our European team basically was handling the UN these last last four years and they were doing an effective job of it on other international issues that didn't involve directly. The United States is about to change the Rick. This is about to change. How drastically is this change going to be felt at the United Nations?

It's going to be monumental. Remember that Jake Sullivan is the national security advisor who will be helping script the policy. He's been a total Chinese apologist. Um, I want to pick up on the point of Wendy Sherman as deputy secretary of state. Not only was she outmaneuvered by the Iranians, but she's got a long history of being outmaneuvered by the North Koreans as well.

She did the food aid deal, which was a disaster. And also, I think it goes without saying that most conservatives aren't quite ready to give in on the Wendy Sherman nomination and say that she's going to get that job. I think we've got a lot of work to do to educate the people and, and politicians on Wendy Sherman's record and failure. The other issue is these, because of how divided the Senate is, we don't have to give a pass to every one of these nominees. Now some are already going through right now as we speak. I mean, their hearings are happening, but because as Rick said, it's, it is so divided. It's not like they should, they're to get an automatic pass.

It's not so easy to get them confirmed. If there is an education about why this is person you got to strategically kind of pick out, you got to, who do you want to focus in on as, as people who are not well equipped for the job they're being nominated for. Iran is such a significant threat regionally and internationally that you would think whoever is handling that one, Rick, the last question, that one handling that one is one we need to exercise our voices on too. Absolutely. And then that means the US ambassador to Germany, France, UK, and the assistant secretary for Europe, that's where the Iran policy is going to be developed.

Those people need to be very strong. All right. Well, there you have it. So I appreciate it. Thanks, Rick, for being with us on this. It's a great to have you. Great to have you for the whole half hour.

Let me quickly go to Wes and I've got, I don't want everybody to do this quickly. I view Iran, this is my view is in the top three threats facing the United States. Absolutely. Along with China, which a lot of times we don't see as a threat and certainly North Korea, Iran see their behavior has not changed. They're still the state largest state sponsor of terrorism. They still sow unrest. They're still developing missiles and they're trying to get nuclear weapons.

What they're banking on Jay is for the United States to change. Now what I get nervous about too is it was relatively, we took, we were able to take out ISIS, even, you know, he took out the head of the Iranian revolutionary guard. We didn't face reprisals. Uh, in Syria, things have calmed down. Now that's because this administration's approach was we don't have to displace Assad and go to war against Assad.

He crosses the red lines. We dropped the, we shoot, take the Tomahawk missiles in right while the Chinese President was there at Mar-a-Lago. This is an administration that's also, they love intervening. Well, they love intervening and then they keep, the line keeps moving with them. They'll overthrow a dictator, but then they won't go in.

Then they don't want to go in like Libya. When we come back from the break, I want to talk about some of the complexities of negotiating a trilateral agreement, Andy, because we've done it and it's, uh, It's complex. It's multifaceted. It's very difficult to try to get Jordanians, Palestinians, Israelis, Arabs of all stripes and colors and religions to come together and to come to an accord.

It's a fantastically difficult exercise. But this is why your support of the American Center for Law and Justice and our offices around the globe is so essential right now. Folks, support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org.

It's a tax deductible donation. ACLJ.org. I think today we've just seen the work that we're going to have to do internationally just on this one issue and how it affects so many different topics. 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. Live from Washington, D.C., Jay Sekulow Live. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. Welcome back to the Sekulow Radio.

We are taking your phone calls to 1-800-68-431. Tim, we spent that first half hour really focusing in on Iran because of what has been happening. We see this time and time again, history repeating itself. And we had a change in history. We had this fundamental change in foreign policy in the U.S. that we hadn't seen in decades. This was the America first, much more like the Reagan years, much more like that. But I mean, this would have been decades since we asserted ourself and said, Europe, you can come along if you like, but we don't need you.

So we're going to go ahead. We don't have to solve the Palestinian issue to make peace in the Middle East with these other countries. We don't need to solve the Palestinian issue to isolate Iran and to take out their head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, to cut off the head of ISIS without Baghdadi. And you know, look at what happened in places like Sudan, which were where Osama bin Laden was his first safe haven.

And the people rose up and they overthrew Bashir. Now, they made also a peace deal, you know, with Israel. I get nervous now about what happens, how the Biden administration can come in and ruin these deals. And they have the potential to do that. I mean, I think that they have the, if they don't support these deals and these, these are fresh new deal.

These are very new. Then if you start tampering with whatever was agreed to, who knows where Sudan goes. Right now they have a governing council, but they have a huge amount of oil and they had civil war in their own country. And they overthrew a dictator who was, who was again, supporting radical terrorist groups. And so you see the isolation of that, of radical Islam to a point where, I mean, you know, we were dealing with ISIS threats in our own country, terrorism constantly.

I don't wish that on our country at all. But I get very nervous that you start acting this way again and the enemies of America, whether they're actual States or state sponsored terror groups, they say, Oh, you know what? We've got this administration back. You know what they like to do? We hit them.

They pay us money to stop. Here's what secretary of state Mike Pompeo said just earlier last week. Al Qaeda has a new home base.

It is the Islamic Republic of Iran. As a result, Bin Laden's wicked creation is poised to gain strength and capabilities. We ignore this Iran Al Qaeda nexus at our own peril. We need to acknowledge it. We must confront it. Indeed, we must defeat it.

Joining us on the phone is senior counsel for the ACLJ and head of our international law approach to global affairs or international law director, Skip Ash, also retired colonel of the United States army. Skip, we've been talking about this Iran situation. How serious is this threat now with the change of administration and likely changes of policy?

I think it's quite serious. We've got, uh, it looks like we're going to have a return to a policy of projecting weakness. Remember Mr. Obama said we run a lead from behind. It looks like we're about ready to do that again. The, the way the Iranians are acting right now by arresting American nationals by rattling sabers and everything else indicates that they have absolutely no fear or respect of the incoming Obama of the incoming Biden administration. So I think this has the opportunity to undo all the progress made in the Middle East by a President Trump who acted decisively and got things done. We're about ready to go back to a, to a policy like Mr. Obama's where he would draw a red line in the sand. That would be challenged.

And then he would back off and draw another one. He never rose to the occasion to project power. And it seems to me that the Iranian regime respects power. They understand military power.

They understand a pushback. And I, I'm afraid that this administration by some of the air appointees and by, uh, statements made by the incoming President, uh, indicate weakness, not strength. Do you sense the, uh, West very quickly, will they try to undo the Abrahamic reports? You think they'll buy an administration? What do you think they will they fulfill the obligation? Yeah, I think they will absolutely inadvertently screw the whole thing up. They will go in with the best intentions thinking our ways the right way, and they will sabotage the process we've made. Uh, I don't think they're wicked or malicious in it.

They're inept and they're naive inept and naive. Great way to end this segment of the broadcast. All right, we're taking a break. Uh, we'll come back with your calls. 800-684-3110.

1-800-684-3110. We say elections have consequences. This is one of them. The challenges facing Americans are substantial at a time when our values, our freedoms, our constitutional rights are under attack. It's more important than ever to stand with the American Center for Law and Justice. 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. And we have an exceptional track record of success.

But here's the bottom line. We could not do our work without your support. We remain committed to protecting your religious and constitutional freedoms.

That remains our top priority, especially now during these challenging times. 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. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life.

Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. All right, we can start taking some of your calls too. I think Austin's call from Florida is exactly kind of where people are thinking.

And we're trying to get people ready for this mindset of where we are going to fight as a country where we have to fight back now against our, in our own government, these policies, while they are putting in place the individuals they want to lead, the various government agencies. I think, you know, it's key what Rick said is that you look to who they place, not just at the top, but it's who's going to be the assistant secretary for Europe, because that's where Iran's policy is coming up. Who's going to be the ambassador to France, the UK, and Germany?

And he was the ambassador to Germany. And then you look at what Austin is asking about, and let's go to Austin's call line one from Florida. Austin, welcome to Secular Radio. You're on the air. Hi, Austin. Hey, Jordan.

Thanks for having me. I had a quick question. So I'm wondering to what level can the President reenter us into these kinds of trees and agreements without input and approval from Congress? They're not treaties. If it's not a treaty, it's easy. Remember that JCPOA was the screwy thing where you had the Senate could only go back. It wasn't like a treaty. The Senate had to go back two thirds to remove it.

Remember that? It was something negotiated by a Corker, former Senator Corker, and a Democrat, so a moderate Republican and the Democrats, to say that we won't have to approve it, but we can disapprove it somehow. And then that kind of became a mood because President Trump just pulled out of it. That shows you how much power the President had. President Trump could immediately say we're done. Yeah. So here's the thing that we have to look at legally at the ACLJ, and that is, again, our ability to now say, wait a minute, you can't just undo the Abraham Accords. You can't just jump back into the JCPOA. We have to look at every legal option to defend our own interests.

That's exactly right. And that's exactly what we intend to do now more than ever, as we say, because you can't just simply say this is a treaty and therefore the Senate approves it. No, there's a lot of influence and there's a lot of on his own action that the President can take in these matters that perhaps overstep the line. We have to be vigilant to make sure that he doesn't overstep the line and undo all the tremendous work and the legacy of the Trump administration. You know, the Abraham Accords, that's a critical root issue that Abraham, the father of all the Semites, the father of all in the Middle East, the father of us all, there's a reason for words.

Words have symbolism and meaning. And when he brought them all together and for the first time created this feeling of mutuality and Concord among the people in the Middle East that was being done, let's hope to God that Biden does not back off of that in any way that we can prevent. Yeah.

Christine, on YouTube, save my question. Could Biden move the embassy back out of Jerusalem? Could he do that legally? Foreign policy powers where the President is at their ultimate, their highest level of power.

Yeah. And remember this, the reason it was moved to Jerusalem, that there was legislation in the 1990s that was passed that allowed the President to move the embassy to Jerusalem. Didn't require it, but allowed it to happen. And finally, finally, even though Clinton said he would do it and, and Bush said he was going to do it, Obama never said he was going to do it. Trump actually did it.

President Trump. And they said the whole world was going to go on fire. And the whole world was going to inflame.

And then instead what happened was we have all these agreements with all of these international, especially in the Middle East and in the Muslim dominated countries. Now, the question is, could he move it back legally? Probably Wes. Yes. Politically. I don't know if he could. I don't know either.

I don't know. But you know, the executive has a lot of power, much more than I think most Americans realize, which is why part of the reason Obama did not bring up the JCPOA to the Senate, he knew it would not pass as a treaty, but he had the executive power to enter into an agreement with Iran. Here's the thing though, Jay, you know, our adversaries are constantly, both formally and informally, they're doing risk assessment.

They're doing cost benefit analysis. The key to America is going to be strength and consistency. And the strength and consistency is what I doubt about the incoming administration.

Skip, let me give this one to you too. What are your thoughts about that? I think that's exactly right. I think these countries came into these agreements and were willing to make deals with Israel because they trusted the consistency of the policies of the Trump administration. So now that we're right on the cusp of a new administration, they're going to be looking very closely at whether the Biden administration is going to continue down those, with these policies. And if they don't, that could unravel everything because if the United States becomes an untrustworthy partner in some of these agreements, then they're going to be that much more reluctant to enter in their agreements in the future. Andy and I were at the Jerusalem, the dedication, the Jerusalem embassy, and it was quite a moving event and it recognized what was already true.

And that is Jerusalem is the not only heart and soul of the Jewish people, but it is the capital of the state of Israel, the nation of Israel. But I, you know, not that I disagree with you, Wes, I think there will be political pressure on for them not to do it, but I could see in their negotiating to quote deescalate tensions with Iran, they do something like that. Oh, absolutely. I don't put that past him for one minute. This is another move toward appeasement and let's not forget appeasement was what led to world war II. I'm a historian and I think about these things and those are, those are symbolic moves that have a great deal of concrete consequences, Jay. You know, he might just simply say, well, I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to move the Jerusalem embassy back to Tel Aviv and then you, you work it out with them.

How, what a stupid assessment of the Iranians that would be, how foolish, how naive would that be? Very. Yeah. But like Rick said, Jordan, it's not just, who's going to be the ambassador. It's the undersecretary.

It's all right. And you know where their heads are. They don't want that. Let me tell you something. The people that are the underlings, the, the staff level people, the career people that are now empowered, let me tell you what they don't want the embassy in Jerusalem.

No, they don't. I mean, I don't know if he'll make that move quickly. I don't know if that's the first thing on the top of the agenda because I think the first thing on the top of the agenda is, is rejoining these world, uh, you know, climate accords, the JCPOA, uh, the Iranian nuclear, which is the Iranian nuclear deal and getting back to those places. I don't know if the first thing is moving embassy back and, and, but what I get nervous about is remember we were, we were fighting radical Islam the entire eight years of the Obama administration. This was a President who like hated using those terms. Remember Obama hated using those terms and we were supposed to not act like we were really at war with Islam. And, and, and yet I finally felt like under the Trump administration, we were no longer at war with Islam, that those countries had gotten their act together. They were sponsoring a lot of this terrorism. So the, the, the cutters, the, the, the, uh, Saudis, uh, the, the UAE, they said, we wanted to be part of the world. We want to be part of this economy.

Uh, so we're going to stop. So we were no longer at war with Islam. We were under the Biden.

We really were under, under war. And President Trump came in. So we're going to put in this travel ban. So these terrorists stop coming here.

We're gonna knock this off. He fought it all the way to the Supreme court. But then I felt like, you know, in these last four years, did you feel like we were at war with Islam anymore? No, we were making peace and that that's possible.

And it's, it was, it was the kind of piece that you make economic. Hey, what's in our best interest. It's not that you ought to love each other, but that it's our best economic interest. And these we've gotten these countries to join the economy at a bigger level. And unfortunately a way that we didn't engage in China, we never fully did that. That was not up to Trump or even Obama.

That goes back way, way, way further. But we now look at who are, who is the superpower of the world on the day that the Joe Biden takes office and starts making these deals like this again, acting like we need this rush back into deals with other countries, because why instead of punishing China for the, for the COVID and for the way they manipulate currency, you know, instead of punishing the Iranians for, uh, re re arresting this American and enriching uranium to higher level, we're going to go back into a deal that releases sanctions, gives them sanctions relief. This is the danger. The real danger of Biden, I think is that the, at the, at the fastest point is the international level, because that's where he has the most power to act where Congress can't step in.

Skip, let me ask you this last question to you. Um, Mike Pompeo, secretary of state said Al Qaeda has a new home base. It's called the Islamic Republic of Iran. And as a result in London's wicked creation is poised to gain strength and capabilities. What's your thoughts?

I think that's exactly right. I think Iran is, has a goal of destabilizing the entire region and the entire world. Al Qaeda is a tool, although it's a Sunni tool in a Shiite country, uh, they're willing to use whatever tools they can to destabilize. Remember Iran wants to be the major power in the Gulf region and they're opposed by all the Sunni kingdoms in the, in the Gulf area, but have, but those kingdoms have small compared to, uh, Iran. So what they're trying to do now is to get every ally they can to cause mayhem everywhere so that they can progress forward and take power. You know, we, we wrote a book called Unholy, it was written at our Oxford center, uh, called Unholy Alliance, dealing with Russia, Iran, Turkey, Syria, and you made all this progress with the Abrahamic Accords. And as George just said, do you feel like in the last four years we were in a fight with Islam? No, you did not feel like that because peace deals were being cut with some of the largest Islamic countries in the world, with the Israelis. And now we're going to take all these steps back with the same repeat retread bureaucrats that are going to go with their anti-Israel policies to the United Nations. And we're gonna have to fight like crazy.

And how do you do that? It's not protesting and picketing. It's going to the United Nations.

It's presenting a logical case. It's working, working with other international organizations. Now that we do have these new alignments that would block some of this, it's a whole new world and your American center for law and justice and our international affiliates are ready to take it to the next level. Support the work of the ACLJ. Do that at ACLJ.org.

Do it right now. ACLJ.org. We really appreciate it.

Back with more in a moment. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American center for law and justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, a play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life.

Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. The challenges facing Americans are substantial. At a time when our values, our freedoms, our constitutional rights are under attack, it's more important than ever to stand with the American center for law and justice. 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. And we have an exceptional track record of success.

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That remains our top priority, especially now during these challenging times. 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. The final segment too. And again, this is why I think our broadcast is important and key because you've got the rest of the news. They're going to cover the same story for the next 24 hours.

The inaugural and is there going to be violence and all the troops that are in DC. And that's fine because those are kind of like the broad stories, but we know our listeners want to get into more deeper issues than something that's just on kind of repeat every 30 minutes on cable news. And that's what we've done today. And it's kind of a reminder to you about what our broadcast is like, especially if you're a new listener as of the last four years, which is very different than the previous eight years. So if you've been a longer listener to our broadcast, you know that this is where we kind of pivot back to when it's not just in support of policies and kind of bring you insider information. But now let's be honest, we're going to be on the outside fighting, pushing back. Now that doesn't mean we're on the outside of, you know, we've got lots of relationships on Capitol Hill, lots of relationships across the country and internationally. But if you're new to our broadcast, you might not have heard these kinds of shows before where we get deep into the kind of threats that we're going to kind of reimpose on our own country because Ian has a good call out of Pennsylvania about this.

And it's a reminder, too, about how we got here. Ian, welcome to Secular Radio. You're on the air. Hi.

Thank you for having me. So I'm calling today because I'm obviously concerned about everything that's going on in the world. And, you know, everything that's going on is very, very imperative at this point to know about it and to be educated about it. But my question was, how how did why why did Obama enter this nuclear agreement with Iran?

And then after Trump had removed us from this nuclear deal, why is it now that Biden wants to move in on this again? And then I know there's only supposed to ask one question. But my next question is, you guys are fighting the good fight and you guys are doing a good job. And I'm happy that I can watch your show and know that there's people out there that are really doing doing something about it. And it's not just, you know, talk. It's like you guys are actually out there fighting this. But the second question was, is you guys have seen I mean, you guys have seen for a very long time everything that's been happening and all these different policies with all these different people doing all these different things.

Like what is driving these people to do a lot of this stuff? It's a world view. Well, I think it's a world view with Iran.

That was going to be like the centerpiece for for the Obama foreign policy. And what happened is you can't make deals with devils like that and think it's going to go well. It didn't go well. It was it was never right. Never worked.

Never had. They never, they never allowed. They were finding the enrichment of uranium and the Middle East just blew up. I mean, yes, blew up is the right word.

I mean, and it's not all back better. It's not like Libya is Libya is still in kind of like a failed state status right now. That happened under Obama, Syria disaster. But guess who's still in power?

Assad. And now ISIS has been taken out. But we had a three way conflict going on there with the Russians, the Syrians, Hezbollah through Iran, ISIS backed by Sunni groups. And also like we're getting money from like Saudi princes, random Saudi princes and and others in the, in the, the, the Gulf States. And that Egypt, you had the Muslim brotherhood takeover through an election.

We supported we, I mean the US government. Saying it was the fairest and freest selection in Egypt's history. They were bragging, when you and I were at an event where they bragged about how great it was that the Muslim brotherhood was in power. Now what was interesting though is that when the Muslim brotherhood was taken out of power by a military dictatorship, a new military dictatorship, they didn't, they didn't do anything to stop it.

No. Because they realized it was a disaster. You had Turkey going on, you know, it was like a disaster there.

Everything was a disaster around the world. And when that happens, who, who benefits? Who takes advantage?

China, Russia. That's exactly right. And if you look at it from a global perspective, that's why these policy differentials are going to, the ramifications of these policies Wes, are very, very significant.

Oh wow. You can say that again. The second and third order effects, the things we don't even see today, that will be the consequences of some of these policies. I mean, the danger can't be overstated. Iran is not our friend. They right now, they were in so many violations of the Iran nuclear deal. The arms control association in DC yesterday said that while it's not fully enriched, they already possess twice the amount of uranium they need to produce a weapon.

They're, you're enriching it 20%. They've increased the number of centrifuges by thousands. And yesterday they notified the international atomic energy association, that administration, that they are now constructing an assembly line.

It takes five months to complete it. And they're going to produce uranium metal, which is the key component of a nuclear warhead. The danger of Iran and the significance of our policies, Jay, cannot be overstated. You know, Andy, I wanted to briefly mention that when we've done the negotiations, we did a negotiation for the recognition of the patriarch of Jerusalem, which you would think we were negotiating a nuclear arms deal. I mean, it's so complex. You had to get the, the, the, the Jordanians, the Israelis and the Palestinians to agree.

And it was, we were there for weeks anyways, it resolved successfully. But the point is, you have to understand something. It takes sophisticated negotiation skills, even non-governmental like we are, to engage these countries, which we can through the UN, to try to keep some semblance of policy on track. Because for the rest of the world, Jordan, what you said is right. There hasn't been this, I mean, there's been terror attacks, but they've been much more reduced. And you don't feel like you're in the United States, certainly, in a war with Islam. No, you're not. And that's, you know, one of the legacies of the Trump administration, something like the Abraham Accords, something like the attitude toward and with respect to ISIS and the things that we have seen, the withdrawal from the Paris Accords, America first, the things that we have seen like that, I fear, and I'm very apprehensive as to whether this administration coming in is going to be able to continue that legacy.

I really do. Listen, it's Katie Couric, you're using words like deprogram though. None of us are going to be deprogrammed. The Senate is 50-50. We've all seen, you know, again, we had a weird election because of the mail-in balloting and I'll go through with COVID.

It was bizarre. I don't wish that on any other election cycle ever again, because I think it just made people question and it wasn't good. Okay, moving on though, we're not going to be deprogrammed. We're not going to forget what it can be like to put America first. And yeah, maybe that doesn't make you feel good when you're some European wannabe in a big city like maybe you live in New York or somewhere, or in academia where you want to be like a European and accepted like a European and you were on the Obama years, you just had to watch your back and worry about, you know, suicide bombers everywhere you went or massive terror attacks in places like Paris and London where you might just get stabbed randomly while you were going out of parliament. Or if you were at a concert in Paris, you might just, you know, massive gun attack massacres or at a bar in Orlando where a gunman goes in and just kills most people down. But oh, but you can feel good about feeling like we're Europeans. I think again, that's what we're going to be battling is that don't we all want to be accepted by Europe and loved by, no, I would rather be walking around saying, I'm an American, you're scared of me. And that's what it was like the last four years and it's a lot better feeling.

It is a lot better feeling. I'm looking at, we're not, we don't have time to play the bite today, I'm sure we will tomorrow, where he talks about what he's going to roll back and one of them is he's going to send legislation on immigration reform. There's a caravan right now with what, how many people? 9,000. 9,000 heading to the border. They will arrive in the United States, they said in what, two weeks or less.

I guarantee you, there will not be the same reaction that this current administration has to what the Biden administration is going to do. And they all said, well, we're coming because mine said we have a hundred days to come, right? I mean, you see how quickly they organized. Oh, it takes no time. There were none of these big groups funding them.

Oh yeah. These are leftist groups that fund them and put them together in no time. And they take advantage of these poor people, um, and put them on these, why the American center for law and justice is here. We're going to fight these policies. Look, it's easy to fight when you got sympathy in the white house. We don't, we've been there before.

We'll do it again. It's the ACLJ more than ever. Go to ACLJ.org. That's ACLJ.org.

Make sure you're signed up on Facebook and Periscope and YouTube and rumble and wherever else you get your social media platforms, subscribe and stay engaged. 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.