RUSSIAN OFFICIAL WARNS: "Uncomfortable” Signals Ahead of Biden-Putin Summit

Today on Sekulow, Russia warns the United States that uncomfortable signals are ahead of the Biden-Putin summit on the 16th.

Live from Washington, DC, Sekulow Live. First hackers hit the country's gas supply, now they've hit the meat supply, shutting down work at the facility behind me, one of the largest in the country. And as these hackers are getting more brazen, experts are warning companies to be on the lookout. Phone lines are open for your questions right now.

Call 1-800-684-3110. JBS notified the administration that the ransom demand came from a criminal organization likely based in Russia. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. So it's one thing, you know, for the Biden administration to be pushed around by China. They've got a population of over a billion people, stronger economic ties to the US.

So when it's strained, it's strained. But for the second time in just a matter of weeks, first our pipeline, now the meat processing, ransoms being paid by the United States and US companies, and in this case, a Brazilian company that had all these processing plants in the United States, a fifth of the meat processing plants in the United States. And this is all the lead up to the meeting between Biden and Putin, June 16th, in Geneva. And you have the Russian deputy foreign minister willing to go on in the media, which they know will end up getting reported here, and say, quote, the Americans must assume that a number of signals from Moscow will be uncomfortable for them, including in the coming days. There's debates to be had about how you respond to China and the economic ties, and how do you move away from that when we don't have the manufacturing capability yet in the United States to say, we're done with you, China. But Russia, we don't depend on them for a thing.

No, and you've got... But we're getting pushed around by them again. We are getting pushed around by them again. And you have a former CIA Moscow station chief, Dan Hoffman, who noted that he was saying all of this is Vladimir Putin's resurgence strategy. This is Putin trying to play strongman, which, Andy, we've talked about before.

And a lot of these autocrats, that's what they do. Well, where did Putin come from? He came from an environment of the Communist Party. He knew how to push people around. He knew how to intimidate, how to rattle the sword, how to rattle the saber, because he learned it in the old communist system. And he's just put on a different hat, different face.

Now he does his cross and kisses icons. But he's still the same Putin, and he's still acting the same way, Jay. Yeah, and he was a former KGB agent.

I was going to say, he was the director of the KGB at one point, as I recall. Putin is a thug. He is an international bully. And part of the reason, like a lot of bullies, he's that way is because he realizes the Soviet Union is no more. His military is no more. His military is so much weaker than the United States and a lot weaker than NATO combined.

And so he throws his weight around. And the only way you can really deal with a thug or bully is to stand up to a thug or bully. And I'm not sure Biden's doing that. Yeah, and I agree. And, Jordan, people are thinking, why meatpacking processing plants? I think it's anything that's vulnerable that they know they can get a quick few billion dollars off of. And that's what they're doing. But this is basically, now we're into a hostage ransom situation. I think the pipeline serious because that affects the ability to travel in the United States. It's one thing to say, okay, you can't have hamburgers for a couple of days.

And that wasn't even the case. These companies are acting quick. They're getting hacked immediately. They're painted out to Russia in cryptocurrencies and other ways. And the idea here, it is easier for people to understand that when the Chinese do something, whatever name they do it under, the Chinese government had to bless it. In Russia, you've got the mob, you've got criminal elements, but you would not be taking on international conglomerates without the nation, the federal government there, which is the Russian government. And the Russian Intel knows this too. Yeah, giving them a pass or else they'd be arresting them. They can arrest these people and treat them like the criminals they are, but they're not because it's all tied together. It's not as clear cut as China where everything is state controlled, but certainly you don't get away with doing this in Russia without a nod, at least from the powers that be. And the powers that be happen to be extremely tied into those same mob elements that control too much of Russian society. Unfortunately, we come back, Rick Rinnell will be joining us to talk about this, the pipeline in Russia that Joe Biden's okay with while at the same time canceling the Keystone pipeline, stopping Alaskan drilling yesterday.

We'll talk about all of them when we get back. 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, the 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, welcome back to St. Kiel. We are joined by Rick Grinnell, our senior advisor for foreign policy, national security.

Rick, I want to go right off the top here. So we've got Russia. We have a Russian official saying, quote, the Americans must assume that a number of signals from Moscow will be uncomfortable for them, including in the coming days. This is in light of the June 16th summit between Biden and Putin in Geneva.

Here's my question, Rick, right off the bat, which is, you know, I get complications with China because of the economic ties, because of our own manufacturing, unfortunately inefficiencies and things that we need to build up in America that make it harder to cut off immediately, not that we shouldn't be tough on the Chinese. But the Russians, we're approving pipelines for Russia, we're canceling our own pipelines here, we're canceling Alaska drilling, they're beefing up their military in the West. This is, again, this is a pretty serious show of something from Russia leading up to this meeting, and it seems like the U.S. just keeps shrugging our shoulders, ransoms get paid, and, you know, first it was our pipeline, then it's meat.

And we've got our recruiting videos, which are clearly permeated with woke culture and language, and not looking for the best and the brightest, and I think that's a big problem. Look, I think that what the Russians are signaling is exactly what Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has publicly said, which is exactly what the Chinese told us in Alaska, which is that America is a racist, sexist, homophobic place. They get these talking points from the Democrats, who have spent the last four years telling Americans that our entire system supports racism and sexism, and so we can't be surprised when countries like Russia and China are going to leverage those talking points while negotiating with us to try to get the upper hand.

You know, of course, the duplicity in this is historic in scope. I mean, the Russians and the Chinese government criticizing the United States on human rights abuse or discrimination is really absurd when you think about it. I mean, recognize what Putin has previously said about these very issues. Oh, we don't have that in our country, and China, of course, denies everything.

But there's a fundamental thing going on here, Rick, and that is this idea that we've got US companies now paying for basically ransom is becoming now the cost of doing business. Look, I learned in my eight years at the UN that Russia and China do not respond to moral arguments. When we create arguments to say, you know, do the right thing, or the international community is asking you to do the right thing, or just, you know, don't be racist, sexist, or homophobic, these are all moral arguments that work in the United States. But in Russia and China, they don't have a moral compass.

They don't care about these arguments. They're looking for business deals and money and leverage. And so we have to be smarter when dealing with countries like Russia and China and some other countries that are not moralistic in nature. And we have to make the best arguments. So when our companies are trying to do business with these entities, they have to be trued, and they have to understand what works and what doesn't.

Moral arguments do not work. Yeah, Rick, this is a question I have, because the reporting gets very different. You know, when it's China, everyone gets the nod that there's nothing really in China that's going on. It's Chinese government control. They have a hand in every company, every corporation, and that's kind of accepted. In Russia, it's all being blamed on, you know, these criminal elements. But, you know, I'm thinking this is a strongman government. If they wanted to clamp down on these criminal elements, they could.

They don't have to allow this to go on. So is it similar? I mean, when you were dealing with it with the UN, is this a similar type relationship with China, just on a smaller scale, that these entities are getting the nod, they're getting the okay to move forward with these attacks on a superpower like the United States? I think they're different in that the Chinese are very ideologically driven. I mean, take for instance now, they are telling families in China that you can possibly have three children, not just two anymore.

So they're controlling the number of babies that are born. But a country like Russia is just really, it's all about Putin and money and the oligarchs. It's a corrupt regime. It's not as ideological as you think.

Their ideology is how do we make the elites more money? You know, Benjamin Disraeli famously said that when you're dealing, he was talking about Russia actually in the 1860s, that they understand one thing and that's power. And power doesn't necessarily mean war, he said. Diplomacy can be power. But he had this phrase of diplomacy is war. I mean, it's kind of a war element to diplomacy. But they understand power. What are we signaling right now with lending all of this just fester like it is?

Well, that's such a great point, Jay, because also I would take it to one step further. Therefore, if they understand power, they don't have a consistent moral compass where hypocrisy or pointing out hypocrisy or hypocritical policies is something that's going to work. They can't be embarrassed because it's all about the power and the money. And so I think what we have to do when we send in negotiators, which we are now going to be in a negotiation with Russia, we have to understand what moves them.

What do they maximize? And we are going to be at a deficit if we try to make some sort of arguments of do the right thing and behave like an international player. And that's just where we've flawed in the past. We've done it through multiple administrations. I would say Donald Trump didn't do that.

He negotiated from strength and from power and from trade and from money and from economic input. I think you're right, Rick. And in many ways, you know, the Putin regime is a criminal organization.

It really is. And I think about that. But what I'm wondering, other than things like the START treaty, which I know you're very familiar with, what is it that we need from Russia that would cause the Biden administration to signal weakness and to sort of be super nice and bend over backwards with them? President Biden said yesterday that he has to believe that Russia, that Putin did not know about the hacking of JBS because in a civilized country, they would not allow that to happen.

I don't think he really believes that. I think he's trying to convince the Russians that maybe he believes that to try to entice them to act nice. But for the United States itself, geopolitically, what is it that we need from them that would cause us to really not be stronger, more firm with the Russians? Well, ironically, what we need from the Russians is for them to act more moral, is to play by the rules and to follow the rules. And so that's where I think the rub is, is that we want them to act like a responsible international country and therefore follow the rules, whether it be, you know, international trade rules or UN rules, the rules of engagement and war, just to be honest and fair.

But I think that we have to start from the premise that that's not what they maximize. And so we're going to have to put guard rails. And what I would argue is the exact line, the old Reagan line, which is trust, but verify.

So we need to have transparency and guard rails so that we understand how to check them because we can't trust them. Yeah, I would take a call. Let's go to Dodger, Kansas on line one.

Hey Dodger, welcome to Secula, you are on the air. First off, thank you very much for taking my call. My question is, so when it comes to the summit between the President of Russia and the President of the United States, I was wondering, what do you think the differences are between a Trump, Trump, sorry, a Trump-Putin summit as opposed to a Biden-Putin summit? A power. I mean, I think that the lack of – you saw the relation between Putin and Trump was one of mutual respect because you had a – you had strong leaders on both sides. I don't like the way he leads, obviously, Vladimir Putin, but you can't say he doesn't exercise power and projects power. President Trump projected power with the Russians, so they weren't going to mess with us. That's how I take it, Rick.

Yeah, I think that's exactly right. And I would just state that it's a confidence thing. Right now, Putin is extremely confident that he can outmaneuver Biden. And this is an opportunity for the Biden team is to come in and when you're the underdog, when people are not suspecting that you're going to be tough, have a couple of ways to really put them in the corner and show that somehow what appears to be weakness is not weakness. That's the challenge for the Biden team. They know that Putin thinks that they're a pushover. And so they're going to have to counter that somehow, some way. Folks, as again, it's always great to have Rick Cornell, our senior advisor for foreign policy and national security, especially this summit leading up to June 16th.

The Russians say it's going to get more and more heated, more and more uncomfortable is the term they use. We've already seen the pipeline hack and the ransom paid, and then the meat processing plan all paid. 20% of the meat processing goes through that plan.

Yeah, and it gets paid immediately. These rants are getting paid and the summit is still 14 days away. So I know we'll be talking about with this Rick. And remember, we just greenlighted a pipeline between for them in Germany, where Rick was the ambassador from the US to Germany. So Rick has always been a close one in the United States.

Close one down and drilling in the last year. Really, really great policies when you think of the danger of this. So thanks, Rick. We appreciate it.

Yeah, we'll have a lot to talk about with Rick in these coming couple of weeks. Just on this issue alone and how the Biden administration will deal with it. We come back, we'll start taking more of your phone calls to 1-800-684-3110. What's the HCLJ up to at the United Nations as well?

1-800-684-3110. We'll be right back. 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 HCLJ'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 HCLJ 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 HCLJ is empowering the right to life.

Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at hclj.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 HCLJ 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. All right, welcome back to Secular. So we, again, we're going to keep following everything out of Russia in this lead up to the summit, which the Russians say, basically, be on alert, making threats to the United States. I would love to see the United States stand up today in a meeting and say, you know what, nevermind on that pipeline. And by the way, we're going to put in economic sanctions on you, Putin, and everybody associated with you in the lead up. Take something off the table from the Russians.

Hack something with there. We've got cyber forces. Take down their infrastructure. Take down their entire militaries, a way of communicating.

Do something just to show that you can. It'd be nice if we had a country that just showed that, hey, we have this power to wield. We're not bad actors like you. We're not going to ransom it off. But we will show you temporarily how quickly we could ruin you and your, basically, your mob kingdom, which is nothing like China.

Yeah, we're going to turn to UN in a minute, but I was going to ask this to Andy. I used that quote with Israeli about understanding power. And what Jordan just outlined is a power move. Again, it's diplomacy as war.

It's not bullets. It's diplomacy. You think you could do that to us? We're not, like you said, we're not going to ask for ransom. We're just going to show you for two hours.

We're going to shut down your grid. Well, this is, yeah, this is the difference between someone who reads a history book and someone who does not. If you'll notice, Jay, that in the case of Pastor Brunson in Turkey, he was incarcerated in Turkey. President Trump basically told President Erdogan, I will make sure that your lira is worth pennies in 24 hours. I will divide, I will make your lira worth absolutely nothing if you don't release that pastor. And Erdogan blinked because President Trump exuded power, could exercise power, would have done that, and the Turkish economy would have been in utter and complete shambles.

And suddenly, miraculously, Pastor Brunson is released. This is the kind of power and authority that the United States should exude and the leader of the free world should exude. Biden is incapable, I'm afraid, of doing that.

He certainly hasn't shown that he's going to do that now. Let's turn to the United Nations because the European Center for Law and Justice, our European affiliate, is a non-governmental organization with the UN. That's a story in and of itself how we got that status.

But C.C. Hiles, our senior counsel, she works on these issues. And there's a lot of them up right now, C.C., including the situation with Nigeria and Boko Haram. Let's talk about what we've done and what's the status of everything.

Sure. So we take every opportunity we can at the UN to point out human rights atrocities. And we do that in the Human Rights Council's general sessions and we do that at the working group on universal periodic reviews.

And so this is the 47th session of the Human Rights Council. And we filed submissions on Nigeria, on Myanmar, on human trafficking, and on the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. And Nigeria is one that's really... Tell everybody the story about what's going on there because the Cheribu case has made a lot of news.

But we have new listeners all the time. The one in Nigeria has a specific person attached to it that is a really tragic situation that we've been working on for a couple of years now. Right. And in our report, we were able to point out that since 2013, we've actually done 17 submissions to the UN pointing out the atrocities in Nigeria and specifically asking for Leah Cheribu's release. So in 2018, in February of 2018, Boko Haram, who's a terrorist organization there in Nigeria, kidnapped schoolgirls. And Leah Cheribu was only 14 when she was kidnapped. And she was held on because she was the only one that would not renounce her faith in Christ. And so she has been held captive. She just celebrated on May 14th, she just celebrated her 18th birthday. So this is the fourth, and I say celebrate, she just had her 18th birthday. She has been held captive, 14-year-old, 15-year-old, 16-year-old... And now has two children by these captives. Now has two children by the captives. Yes.

And lost her childhood. This is the thing that people need to understand. These UN submissions are not just, well, here's a piece of paper and let's see what happens. These are real people involved in these. And sometimes, and Jordan, you've done these interventions, CC's done the oral intervention, we all have.

You have to bring this up constantly. It's not friendly territory at the UN, but you have to be there. It's the ministry of presence.

Yeah, that's right. And if you don't talk about these issues, these groups, again, that continue to act the same way. And in these cases with Nigeria, when you have as a government that is just weak, they're unwilling to go in and try to do anything. So they've been paying ransoms too.

That's their bonus opportunity. Yeah, so you see some releases in the past, but in these more high-profile situations, unfortunately, what you see is that, again, they're not willing to send their military in. And that's because they were a very destroyed country, 50% Muslim and 50% Christian. And we're not talking about just kind of, that's how I associate with my cultural group. So it does not go well. It doesn't necessarily mix well.

It's very, very turbulent. And you add all that together. So someone has to speak the truth to these countries. You can't just let them get away with, as we keep saying back, going and having their tea and coffee and cigarettes together in the UN rooms. You have to hold them to account and embarrass them. And that's what you do. I mean, a lot of the UN for what the work we do is hold them account, make them look like the weak countries they are.

The cost of their suit, the cost of their tie doesn't mean they don't come from countries that don't even have militaries, that don't even, can't even protect their own citizens. Yep. So I want to focus in on Nigeria and the Leah Sherabu case.

As far as we know, she's still alive. That's the reports that are indicated. Has the UN taken the mantle on this at all? Have they done anything in response to these reports we filed? They have not. And that's, you know, that's, that's what our report is pointing out, that you need to take some action, that someone has to be held accountable.

Yeah. So what, because in some of these cases we've gotten that unlawful detention committee has done it and then we get a release. What are we asking for here? That the UN actually acknowledges that there is something that Nigeria can do and they should be taking action. And we, just like you said, we bring the human story to the United Nations. We're able to put our clients there to testify and here to say there is an 18 year old little girl who could be your daughter, who could be my daughter, who could be anyone at the UN, their daughter. She has been captive by terrorists and not released and now has been forced to have two children.

She's literally lost her childhood at the hands of terrorists and Nigeria has done nothing. And the UN, Andy, has done nothing, which means you have, and by the way, what we can't do is say, oh, well, the UN is doing nothing. We can't, we have to keep bringing it up and bringing it up.

Like Jordan said, embarrass them into action. And that's what we do, Jay, in our practice before the United Nations. It's a question of persistence on the international scheme. You have addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations.

You know what it is to stand there with the assembly of the nations in front of you. And we have done that kind of work and we persist in doing that kind of work. Whether we get results immediately or in the long run, the question is that the ACLJ persists in bringing these civil rights and human rights violations before the international forums. And hopefully someday, somewhere, the governments in Africa, throughout the world, not just in Africa, but throughout the world where we make these interventions will come to and do something about the people who profess their Christian faith.

For example, in the case of this young woman and who are persecuted, who are raped, who are destroyed in their lives by it. All right, we come back again. We're going to continue to take your phone calls. 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. We continue on with the international focus because the U.S., again, it's hit every week with another international crisis targeting corporations, ransoms, and then you've got this summit between Biden and Putin. Remember Biden approving a pipeline for Germany and Russia, closing a pipeline to the United States. We'll be back in the second half hour coming up. For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines protecting your freedoms, defending your rights in courts, in Congress, and in the public arena. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at ACLJ.org, where you can learn more about our life-changing work.

Become a member today, ACLJ.org. Live from Washington, D.C., Sekulow Live. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. All right, welcome back to Sekulow.

Let me just reset for a second. So what we are seeing play out in the last couple of weeks in a lead up to a summit between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin. Remember, I want to remind you that for four years, we were told Russia's the big threat. It's not China.

It's not Iran. It's Russia. It's always Russia. Everything involving Russia. Then when Russian actors do take on, whether it's a U.S. business and the pipeline or a Brazil-based meat processing company where one-fifth of our meat in the United States is from their processing plants in the U.S. that they own, they're hacked by Russia. And then the Russian – a spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry comes out and says, things are going to get really uncomfortable in the lead up to June 16th. I don't see Democrats, liberals, the left rushing to figure out Hunter Biden's contacts with these people and the Ukrainians.

Where are they on that? I mean, this is, again, China – we know the Biden family has gotten rich off China. We know they've gotten rich off Burisma, too. When they were getting rich off Burisma, by the way, Ukraine was being controlled by Russia. The President of Ukraine was a Russian, basically, asset. So this is – remember, they all got overthrown. The only reason they ever got into Paul Manafort's office was because those guys had to flee.

They had to leave Ukraine. But that was, again, we're not – no one's talking about negotiating that. They're literally threatening us in lead up to a sit-down meeting. But don't worry.

Good news. The most effective communicator we have will be there in Geneva. This is the White House deputy press secretary, Karen Jean-Pierre. President Biden is the most effective communicator of American values and priorities. And hearing directly from President Putin is the most effective way to understand what Russian plans and intends. So I'm going to go to Wes and Andy in this first.

So don't worry. Putin's going to tell the President what they – what the Russians are planning and then what they intend. Yeah, and then he's going to get a lecture from Biden, the most effective communicator. Let me tell you, Vladimir Putin is laughing at Joe Biden. Vladimir Putin is a tough, hard KGB agent turned Russian orthodox pious and so forth.

But he's the same man of steel that he always was. And nothing happens in Russia that he doesn't know and control about. And he's going to sit across the table and be lectured about moral rights and human rights by Joe Biden, who can't even elucidate a sentence, who can't even come out with a coherent thought, who represents weakness and effectiveness in the United States.

I think there'll be a laughable session. I think his entire family is compromised, including Biden himself, his brother, with doing business with these guys. Yeah, when they do billions of dollars of business, they're paying a crack addict. Yeah, I know that. Think about that.

Think about that. So the Russians know they could do this because they were paying the crack addict's son while he was on crack, millions of dollars a month. And guess where that money was going to?

The whole Biden family. And this is a guy who's been- Don't worry, there's a special prosecutor. Yeah, right. But there's not.

I know. There's no special prosecutor. Well, the US attorney in Delaware. Yeah, I don't know where he is anymore.

I don't think he exists. Maybe he's a Russian agent. But we're not talking about $5,000 here or there. We're talking about millions to a family that has been on the government payroll forever.

That's Joe Biden. You think I was talking about a communist on the government payroll forever. But literally that's all he's done. And he's used his family to reap the rewards of that. And both the countries that are causing us the most trouble right now are the countries they've reaped all the money from. One released a pandemic on the world, either intentionally or unintentionally. And the other is hacking all of our businesses. One shut down travel, the next shut down food. They're just showing you what they can do. And what they can do is pretty catastrophic. Why aren't we doing anything?

Oh, because who's seen Joe Biden talking in days of telling bad jokes and forgetting what Memorial Day is about? We'll be right back. 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. Let's start this segment off here because what Jordan just said about what's going on and the projected weakness that we're doing has got really serious implications and puts our national security at risk. We have been hacked now in our transportation system, and I say that because of the fuel issue that we had three weeks ago, shut down the East Coast travel for about four days, had people almost panicking. There's meat packing people saying, well, I don't know, is that a big... Yeah, it's a really big deal because companies are now spending money to keep out Russian hackers. And if you think this is going on without the Russian government being somewhat aware, guess again.

But I want to take it a step further. The naivete of what's going on here, Wes, is what's got me concerned. Yeah. I mean, you go into a summit normally, signaling strength, cooperation, willing to negotiate, I'll be your friend, but strength. President Biden is actually going into this summit signaling weakness. It's like I was asking you during the break, going into a summit with Russia and you know they're bad actors and they harbor bad actors. Why would you lift sanctions on a Russian pipeline that is so valuable to them financially and strategically two weeks before that summit? Why not at least use that as a bargaining chip going into the summit?

Why would you do that? But as I told you during the break, Robert Gates, the former Secretary of Defense, wrote a book a few years ago. And in that book, he said that in every international issue that came up during his time with the CIA and the Department of Defense, that Joe Biden was literally wrong on every issue, including trying to get Osama bin Laden when he was killed. And he was asked the question a few weeks ago, do you still think that is true?

He is now the President of the United States. Do you still think he is wrong on every issue? And Robert Gates says, yes. And he is wrong on this. He's going into a summit signaling weakness.

Why would you do that? Yeah. You know, we operate all over the world, so we understand the ramifications of this. And you have, you know, President Putin is, we're sending our most effective communicator. That's what the White House is of course going to say with the President. And, but yet she also says in the same sentence, but we will understand directly from Putin what Russia plans and intends. Now, CC, you've done a lot of international negotiations on behalf of the ACLJ. Putin is not going to tell us his plans.

No. And, and what's silly is we already have an idea of what those plans are and we're totally ignoring them. But we know what these regimes, just like Andy said, when we were dealing, you know, had an issue with Turkey, you don't win those positions by showing weakness. You show power. And that is what got Pastor Brunson out is when we didn't back down and the United States showed power. That's what is effective. I just think it's one industry after another.

And so you have to, you have to look for a case. So banking would be the next one. I mean, what, where are we vulnerable? We're vulnerable online. Everybody's banking online. You know, no one's using cash anymore.

But what if you do go to the ATM, like you're saying, it doesn't work for an hour. People, there will be panic in the United States. Stock markets would collapse in, in, in, you know, with, and these companies have safe havens that are, that are pretty, uh, that are, again, they're not having to hide out in some random hit mountain somewhere where they don't have internet access. They're able to use all of the technology and the power that comes with that technology while, uh, not, not having to fear be, be, um, any consequences for their own government. So long as I'm sure they're lining the pocket of government officials in Russia, which is at a minimum, at a minimum, how these hacks are going forward is that they are paying off Russian government officials, uh, like Putin to build another palace for him. Uh, so if you want to talk to Sarah too, it's 1-800-68-431-10. You know that we have an interesting soundbite.

I want to play it because, and this is a good setup. And that is, are we rewarding the, remember when President, they don't want President Trump meeting with Vladimir Putin because all the Russia conspiracy and that ended up being a total hoax. Now, uh, listen to this question from the reporter. It's a little bit inaudible at the end, but take a listen to the, uh, reporter's question and then the deputy press secretary's comments. Is there any rethinking of the summit with Vladimir Putin in two weeks, given this latest ransomware attack, you said a criminal organization based in Russia and conversation.

Yeah. I appreciate the question. So we, so we do not regard, as you can imagine, this meeting with Russian President as a, as a reward, right?

We regard it as a vital part of defending America's interests. Uh, President Biden is meeting with Vladimir Putin because of our country's differences, not in spite of them. Uh, there's a lot we have to work through.

I don't mind meeting Andy. I always say it's what there's nothing wrong with leaders of countries meeting, but you have to have an agenda and you have to have a process and you have to show some strength and you have to show the ability that West said earlier during our break, someone like Ronald Reagan, who walked out of the meeting when necessary. You have to have the ability and you have to have the predisposition that Donald Trump would have had.

And that is if I don't like what I hear and you start lecturing me and you start threatening me, I'm going to get up and leave. And you know very well that Donald Trump would have gotten up and left the meeting just as the American delegation in Anchorage, when they were being lectured by the Chinese should have got up and left and said, you're not going to tell me I'm a racist in country that enslaves our population and not tolerate that. But Joe Biden doesn't have that ability. He doesn't have the sense to do that.

He doesn't have the backbone or the guts to do that. But you know, it's, it's more than that though. This is policy. You have to understand something here. This is not, this is not just some, you know, idle thought. This is not some ended, you know, how do we handle it?

This is the policy that's being put forward. They, they hack our fuel lines. We do nothing. They hack our meat processing plants. We do nothing. They, next thing they hack, we do nothing. You keep we doing nothing.

Guess what? Russia's government, it may be strong in Russia, but their economy is weak. Their military is weak. Their ability to engage on the world stage is not strong.

I don't care how many troops they mass on these borders. The fact of the matter is that's all that is, is a test to the United States. No, I mean mostly it's, it's a, it's a, it's a criminal run country.

Not a lot of unity. Be easy to topple a Putin type. Might not be worth toppling a Putin type. I'm not saying that that's the, because you don't know who is, who is next or who's worse. But at the same time, I mean, this is, you know, again, it's not a country that has the luxury of acting this way unless they feel like there's no repercussions and they can line their pockets.

They're not, you know, it's interesting. We don't know yet the number that was paid by the meat processing companies. Resilient base, but I mean, it's a fifth of our meat processing plants. But the last one, you know, it wasn't like they got paid $50 million, 4.4 million, but they wanted quick hits, quick hits, one hour hits. So like you say, it's how many times can you take down something for a couple of hours, 24 hours, $5 million, disappear, move on, which, which shows you, but that will start building up after when the wind turbines, the pipeline, this we don't know about yet, but let's assume it's around that same amount.

Now you're getting into $20 million of just lining a criminal's pockets. Yeah. And then while we are approving the completion of a Russian pipeline with Germany, we, we closed instead of banning Germany from using natural gas, which is what it should have been.

Only by, how about say by ours? Right. Instead, well, it'd be great, except we're closing our pipelines down. I mean, you know, and stop drilling in Alaska so that now we become energy dependent on these countries.

Yeah. The last four years for the first time on our history, we were completely energy independent. Say that again, people need to understand that.

First time in the history of the United States, we were completely energy dependent, independent under Donald Trump. That already is not going to be the case, you know, and you know, the great communicator, President Biden, that ms. John Pierre talks about, that's going to understand Putin and Russia's intentions. I can tell you what some of their intentions are. They are going to invade Ukraine because they've had 14,000 troops on that border. And we complained, they moved the troops back, but left all their tanks, weapons, and supplies on the Ukrainian border. They're going to continue to bully the world. They're going to continue to sell weapons to Iran, which ships them to Yemen.

Those are the kinds of things that he intends to do. You know, CC you're dealing with the case right now in China, for Pastor Saul. Again, very difficult government to deal with, the Chinese government.

Extremely. Again, it's these same kind of regimes where they don't know anything but power. I think when Rick was on, he said, they don't, they don't, you're doing humanity and you're pleading with them to do the right thing. They don't operate that way. They operate like bullies by power. And so when we have situations like this, like in China, it's extremely hard because Pastor Saul's been in jail now for what, four years?

Yes. And is there any, what has the UN done on that one? Well, the UN working group on arbitrary detention ruled in our favor. And so we have a good opinion that says for China to release him immediately and pay him reparations. So what has, what I think is important for people to understand this is a long process to get for CC to get that win took a while.

Now we got it. Now what happens? We just keep forcing and pushing and asking because that's all that we can do. Meanwhile, they're a member of the P5 and they could disregard a UN resolution like this, Jordan, from, from the arbitrary detention.

Yeah, you disregard it. They could, they could veto any, any kind of moves against them. But, but the truth is we aren't flexing our muscles. So unilaterally the US could do more than UN.

I mean, I'll repeat that again. We have more resources to, to take down governments, hack elections if we feel like it, throw out leaders, all done with, this is all done without military action, take down economies. And yet it just seems like we've lost our edge. We've lost the, the edge of espionage. We've lost the edge of taking down leaders or embarrassing people like Putin. We should be embarrassing him every day with a personal story, leaking out information about his life, except we don't even know who, what his life is. Think about that. Are we afraid to tell people?

Is that because you're paying the crack addict's son? We don't want to tell anybody about what he's doing. Who is he? Where are his children living in Switzerland? Probably like, uh, you know, most of these kids, but why aren't we doing more without having to take military action, but we're letting them, we're letting them run rampant around the world. We're getting, we don't know what's next. We have no idea. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected.

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We can take your phone calls to 160-431-10. Going back to some of our UN submissions, one that sticks out to me, because you would think it'd be easy, you'd think this was, again, another one where the world would say, yeah, this is right, terrorists are bad. We submitted to the UN Human Rights Council, the request of the UN to condemn Hamas and the Palestinian Authority for their many violations of international human rights law.

We lay it all out. They won't, especially the UN Human Rights Council, which I have to remind people, remember, like the UN Refugee and Works Agency, the Trump administration stopped funding, stopped participating in because of the biases of the members. When you get there, CC, and you actually speak out and you look at the country list of who is running the Human Rights Council, I mean, it's not to say that you don't want to reach out to countries that have problems, but the countries that get empowered by these, it's laughable.

Right. They're the biggest offenders, the ones that are running it, and so that's why we stepped out. But we don't stop at the ACLJ and the ECLJ, we don't stop advocating because we want to be the one voice that points this out about Hamas and the PA because we know that the UN continuously goes after Israel and we point out just the ridiculousness of that and we're able to do that.

You spoke at the BDS conference and we continue to take every opportunity to point out human rights atrocities and typically taking on the underdogs. I'm holding in my hand our submission. Do we have these on the screen for people? Let me hold it up there so you can kind of see it.

Maybe they can get one up in the next minute or two. Let them get... Oh, there it is. Okay. So you put this on a UN letterhead, that's how it's worded, and it's all written statements submitted by the European Center for Law and Justice in English and then in French. And as Jordan said, and CC was just talking about, this one is requesting that the UN condemn Hamas and the Palestinian Authority for their many violations of international human rights law, which we laid the record out because regardless of the action taken or the lack of action taken, we want, Andy, on the record the violations of international law that here are so pronounced.

This is exactly what we do at the ACLJ and at our European counterpart, the European Center for Law and Justice centered in Strasbourg. We lay the record out. We give it fact by fact, chapter and verse. Here are the facts.

Here is what has happened. Here are the atrocities that have been committed by the Palestinian Authority and by Hamas in the case of the instrument that you just showed the viewers and the listeners. And we lay it out, the conclusions, then we draw, and then we hope that the United Nations and other agencies like UNRWA and their counterparts will come out and adopt what we say and do something about it. All we can do is dig out the facts and we spend enormous amounts of time doing that. I want people to understand that putting these reports together, I'm holding five or six of them in my hand, CC has an entire team of lawyers and government affairs experts working on these all the time. I mean, there's constantly, how many reports, we must submit what, 50, 100 reports a year?

I mean, it's a lot. We do, yes, because again, we take every opportunity that we can at the UN and that's through the general sessions or like the working group on the universal periodic review, which goes after the human rights violations. And in a five-year period, we review every single member state at the UN. Do you hear that? Let her repeat that again.

I want that to sink in over a 60-month period. Yes, we review every single member state at the UN, their human rights violations. So, I mean, this amount of work that goes into this, folks, is really significant. And Wes, from your perspective in the military, pointing these things out is very important.

Very, very important. We are the voice, sometimes the only voice for the rule of law, for justice, for freedom, and for the voiceless. I was thinking about the United Nations and I know it's an uphill battle, C.C., that we're engaged in, but I was looking at 2019 because last year with COVID, the General Assembly did not meet in as many regular sessions. But in the year before that, when they had a normal year at the United Nations, there was a total of something like six resolutions bringing, you know, to bear, you know, condemning places like Iran and North Korea. That year, there were over a hundred resolutions in the United Nations passed against the state of Israel.

That's what we're against. Yeah, I think it's fair to say that the reality is that the work at the UN, I want our audience and those of you that support the ACLJ to understand this, this is ongoing all the time. We've got, you're currently working on submissions now for July. Yes. How many countries will be in that one?

That's the actual last session in the cycle. Okay. So there's only 11, but typically there's 14. Only 11. I mean, we only have to do reports on 11 countries. I'm just trying to give you the sense of the scope of what this is. That's right. And I do say only 11 just because there's typically 14 throughout the five-year period, but the last one is the one that they reduced because it's not an even number. Yeah. But we do these three times a year. So as soon as we end on this one, as soon as we submit them, our team will start working on the next ones.

And so we have research going on constantly. Jordan, people need to understand we fought long and hard for that UN status for a reason, and that is we wanted to have an impact. It's the ministry of Presidents. You have to be there, even if it's a hostile environment. And believe me, the UN Human Rights Council is a hostile environment.

Yeah. I mean, so we're able to still take the action, even when the US said, we're out, we're done. We don't have to, it doesn't mean you don't have a voice. We still have a voice. When you do have a weaker administration coming in and playing footsie with the UN, we're able to go in and still call out the problems.

But I think the biggest issue we face is that we're being led by an administration that would love to do one of these reports about how bad we are. Because I mean, and I saw that, and I think that there's the idea that the language that's used, it's okay to acknowledge wrongs of the past and history. But we are living in reality, and these countries, we have genocide going on in China. That's not something that happened 100 years ago. That's not something that happened in Russia. This is mob-run Russia, Myanmar, I mean, all these situations that are horrendous human rights violations. But I feel like our administration would like to just write a report about why the US was bad in the 1950s and 60s. And that's what they would like to focus on, because that's where they want to keep focusing all of our attention on, not what these countries are doing right now on camera to their own people. Yeah, and they do it with impunity.

I mean, there's no consequence here, Andy, for their actions, and that's why we have to keep bringing it up. Well, that's what we do, Jay. The Ministry of Presence is partnered by the Ministry of Persistence.

Presence and Persistence, those are the kinds of things that we do, and those are the reasons that we occasionally but definitely will succeed. Cece, and just, we only have less than a minute left here, paint what the hostilities like at the UN generally. Like, you meet with these countries. Yes, and you know that they aren't friendly to us, but I would say that the ECLJ has a good reputation. We even get thanks from the UN, which is almost unheard of, of our reports, because we do them respectfully, we do them factually, and, you know, of course, we do them with the Lord backing us up too, and truth on our side.

It's persistent. Yeah, it is Ministry of Presence, Ministry of Persistence, you're right, that's the new one. Yeah, and so if you want to see all this work too, if you go to ACLJ.org, it's all there for you as well. You can see it and how it's formalized, how we do our reporting, ACLJ.org, that's ACLJ.org, throughout this week as well. I think we really have to watch this lead up. We've been threatened by the Russians. I don't think that the meat, this latest hack is the last one. I think that we're going to see a parade of different actions by the Russians in the next 14 days in the lead up to this summit.

They want to see how far they can push the U.S. until they cancel it, and that's what they're testing. 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.