Pres. Biden After Summit with Putin: “I’m not confident of anything.”

Today on Sekulow, after meeting with Putin, President Biden says, I'm not confident of anything. We'll break everything down from his first European trip today on Sekulow. Live from Washington, D.C. Sekulow Live.

I did what I came to do. Number one, identify areas of practical work our two countries can do to advance our mutual interest and also benefit the world. Two, communicate directly, directly, that the United States will respond to actions that impair our vital interest or those of our allies. And three, to clearly lay out our country's priorities and our values so we heard it straight from me. Phone lines are open for your questions right now.

Call 1-800-684-3110. I'm not confident of anything. I'm just stating the fact.

And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. I'm not confident of anything either. After watching the dueling press conferences, the entire lead up to what was billed as this first bill as this major meeting between the United States and Russia, our two leaders and of course their top advisors ultimately. And then it was starting to be played down as we led up to the meeting as, oh, well, they're just kind of laying these things out.

And you just heard. I mean, President Biden thought it was important enough to have a meeting with another world leader, another nuclear power to talk about things that might be mutually agreed upon, how we'll respond to aggressive actions by that country. And then our priorities as a country, and he wanted Russians to hear that from him directly.

Here's my takeaway. And this is not, it's not partisan because again, you want your President to be able to go abroad, put the partisan politics aside, which by the way, he decided not to do early on in his trip when he started criticizing Republicans in one of his three very short press conferences. And they did no joint press conferences with the world leaders, but he criticized Republicans and the Republican party while he was abroad.

So I think he's now totally open up to the full line of criticism. I think his staff failed him yesterday, putting him out in the heat in Geneva after hours of meetings and a long week of meetings. It played into the narrative that he's not up for the job, whether you believe that or not, it looked like that. He was holding onto the podium. He was angry at the press.

And this is press that is very pro Biden. And he was still, and it wasn't even, you know, nasty questions. And he was snapping at them to the point where he went and apologized to the media publicly, publicly before boarding air force one.

I mean, these, these were kind of bizarre things. Putin comes out first. So you think, okay, you can then correct all of Putin's misstatements, you know, and maybe you can take advantage of that situation. Instead, Putin comes out, takes an hour of questions, takes tough questions, even acknowledges these are not questions that he would usually answer if he was outside. If, uh, if he was not outside his country, but still answered them, had a response ready for everything, had a response ready for the domestic American audience, especially to eat out. He knew the media he was playing to.

So he invoked January six, he invoked black lives matter. And then, uh, you know, we saw all of that while we were on air. And then Biden comes to the stage, does 11 minutes of reading a teleprompter, which was his staff's response to Putin.

And it only takes 20 minutes of questions. And then the big news of that is that he's apologizing to reporters at the end, but after the press conference, before they board an air force one for snapping at the reporters, because he, you know, the question of basically, are you confident? What actually came out of this meeting? What actually happened here? And there were a lot of issues that it seemed like weren't addressed at all.

No one talked about, we're talking about as Rick Grinnell later too. You'll be talking about that Nord stream two pipeline, uh, that the U S lifted the sanctions on gave the green light to finish between Germany and Russia. And with that pipeline, I mean, is that, was that the cost of being able to sit down with the Russians? We talked about the body language from the Russians, the smiling, the kind of laid back attitude that is not natural.

Okay. So whether they were playing to the media and it was strategic or not, they felt good. And I even saw CNN try to spin it like this. Well, both sides came out feeling very confident about the meeting. Well, if you're in an adversarial relationship, that's not possible.

So, so who was playing who and who got played is the bigger question. And we'll talk about that. We come back on secular. 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. Here was the question where we got to the point, I'm not confident of anything. This is the exchange just between CNN, their White House reporter, Kaitlyn Collins, and President Biden. So somebody interacts with a lot.

There's not a negative Biden network. This is not, again, I don't think it was a nasty question either. It was just a follow-up kind of question. Okay, you talked about being confident. What do you mean by that? So listen to this exchange, because he ultimately, in another sign of weakness from an American President, spent his time at the end of this trip, running back to the press, not to give them more questions, but to say, to apologize to them, apologizing to the press.

But take a listen. Here's the exchange, by 52. So there you go.

I mean, there you go. I mean, nasty exchange, to me, may be a sign of how things really went in those meetings with the Russians and why the Russians came out smiling, Putin doing this press conference that, again, he doesn't want to be doing either. You think that he wants to be asked about the dissidents that they have poisoned and then re-arrested? I mean, that is not things he wants to be addressing, but he knew he would have to at an international press conference where he couldn't control the questions and what would be asked. And he couldn't intimidate the reporters because they weren't necessarily, weren't domestic from his domestic audience. So he was in a position, but he prepared himself for it.

He wasn't biting the head off any reporters. He answered the questions the way he wanted to. You could say sometimes he danced around it, but he was obviously prepared with responses. A question about why are you confident after you just said you're confident?

Again, to me, it just kind of summed up everything. I get very nervous when we come out of a meeting with Russia and we know what Russia has been up to and we're looking for reliability from the Russians and stability. Has it gotten to a point where we can't keep them on their toes? Shouldn't they be nervous about us all the time? They should never feel stable when it comes to the United States, especially messing with the United States. But even when they're not, I think you should always be concerned when you are a leader of a country like that and you're poking, well, you know, the Russian, maybe they understand, they're poking the bear constantly. But I want to go to our team as well because we've now taken in this whole journey, if you will, the Biden's journey to Europe at a time when you have to wonder too, why even have this meeting?

Why even do this yet? So I'll start with Andy first. Andy, you're back just kind of seeing all this lead up to, okay, first it was meetings with allies, friends. They're happy.

We're opening our checkbook again. So everybody was happy there with the United States. But then you have a meeting with an adversary and they were very critical of Trump in the way he would handle these meetings with adversaries. But of course, the press had full access to him. He would spend hours talking to the press and to the media, letting people know what was on his mind.

And then we see this yesterday from, I think we got outplayed by the Russians. Time and time again, throughout every kind of step of the way, sometimes it was Biden's direct fault. Sometimes it was his staff's.

Yeah, I was both. I mean, the President yesterday gave a dismal appearance on behalf of the United States of America. He looked tired. He looked worn. He was grabbing onto the podium.

He took his jacket off because it was too hot. He snapped at a CNN reporter of all people. Wasn't a Fox reporter. It was a CNN reporter that he snapped at because he was, he feels lack of confidence in himself, it seems to me. Look, Putin relished to this occasion. He was jocular in his tone.

He was happy. He had the stage. The President of the United States gave the President of Russia the world stage and Putin and Putin knew how to play it. He played it so well. Uh, he played it as he did when he was with the KGB.

He knew exactly how to act and how to react. The President of the United States though, came off to use our, uh, calling Harry Hutchinson's favorite word. Pusillanimous kind of a week, kind of not really up to the task, not up to the, uh, challenge of dealing with a Russian bear.

The Eagle came off bad as compared to the bear yesterday, Jordan, in my opinion. Yeah. Wes, your thoughts?

Yeah. You know, this is what weak leadership looks like. President Biden said afterwards, I did what I came to do.

And my response when I heard that was, well, exactly what was it you came to do? Mr. President, the white house and summing it up, issued a statement on his behalf that said the emphasis of this summit was strategic, strategic stability, stability, main means maintaining the status quo. Is that really what we want with Russia?

Cause the status quo right now, Jordan looks like this. Russia is more aggressive than ever in violating human rights. Novotny is still in prison after being poisoned by the Russian agents. The Nord stream pipeline has, has a Biden green light giving Russia cash for the next 20 years and making Europe dependent on Russian gas and oil while isolating Ukraine. Russian, uh, hackers continue to launch cyber attacks against us vital industries.

The Russian Navy, Jordan, as this summit was taking place, conducted the largest naval exercise since the cold war, where off the coast of Hawaii, a us Marine is still in a Russian jail. Russia is still selling weapons and technology to Iran. They still support Assad in Syria. They continue to meddle in the elections of other countries. They have a new major military base by the way, on the Mediterranean coast. They continue to illegally occupy Crimea and the Republic of Georgia. They continue to threaten to invade Ukraine.

They have two brand new Russian military units on the border of our NATO allies. This is what is going on presently. That is the status quo. So is that the strategic stability that he went there to make sure we maintain that it's insane.

Yeah. I mean, then the view from Washington, there's always this idea that, and I think a lot of this crumbled under President Trump, the media that you have these standards, but in the past, it was when your President goes abroad, you go in there, you want to support, you want the United States to look good. You put your partisan domestic differences aside, but yet we saw a world leader take our partisan domestic differences and put them back on the world stage, invoking January 6th, invoking Black Lives Matter, invoking the protest movements on the streets of the United States and the unrest that we've seen in the United States. I know it's a deflection by Putin, but he's also, he had the talking points written by him by the Biden team, by the same Democrats and Joe Biden fan was criticizing internal Republican politics while abroad. It was absolutely a deflection by President Putin, but that should have been expected by the President of the United States. And he should have come to the fence of the United States of America and the American people on that world stage. I didn't think he did that.

Jordan, just to maybe a couple of top line takeaways for you as well. You mentioned this, but I've staffed these events before and President Biden's staff let him down here. It was their job to make sure that their guy got the best atmospherics possible.

They failed to do that miserably. So he was sort of set up to fail from the beginning, but look on a couple of different points. First of all, on Caitlin Collins question, I just want President Biden to be this direct about and to Vladimir Putin. Look, he can do what he wants with Caitlin Collins and with the rest of the media, but this is the tone he needed to take with Vladimir Putin. That's the interaction that mattered. And yet he seemed to save sort of his vigor, sort of his anger for, for the press core. I wish that would have been different. And then, and then last Jordan, and this goes to the point that West made a minute ago, I said on yesterday's broadcast that I thought Vladimir Putin got exactly what he wanted.

He got visibility and elevation on the world stage. And then I said, I'm not quite sure what President Biden hopes to get out of this. Well, he told us afterwards that he did what he came to do.

The problem is Jordan. I still don't know what that was. No, I mean that, that it is, we were trying to figure that we're gonna talk to Rick Rinnell about that too is what, why, you know, it's one thing to go meet with your allies. Great. Go meet with, you know, the G7, go meet with NATO.

Wonderful. Have your discussions. Uh, but when you meet with an adversary, it's one thing to say, I mean, you know, they, they were critical of President Trump for having those initial meetings with North Korea, but that was to even get some discussions off the table.

There was a point there. The point there was, can we get to any constructive dialogue? Let's try it to do that. Maybe we've got to have a meeting for the first time. We've got to make some history to even get to that dialogue. It might not work. It might not, but at least we can start and try with this, with Russia, you know, you can have meetings with Russia and that's going to be, there's going to be issues with Russia. The timing is unique because one, uh, the most of the world is not reopened from COVID.

Uh, we're still talking about the, where COVID even started new variants. And what would you see when you look abroad, you realize how much better America is than most of the world when it comes to reopening. And when it comes to being back on some kind of track as a nation to reopen, it's like how much, uh, with, with all that happening, how it's like the Biden team is like saying to themselves, well, how can we, how can we kind of, uh, uh, run over this gift we've been given, which is the reopening of America, which would boom, but the economy would boom. And, and we don't really have to, we can kind of sit back. Well, you start talking about tax hikes, you go abroad, you look weak, uh, you go abroad, you open your checkbook.

It looks like to make friends, you gotta, you gotta pay for your friends. And, uh, and again, what are we getting in return? All of this again, and Wes went through it, strategic stability with Russia, keeping the status quo with Russia is not something we want to, is not sustainable longterm. So we'll talk about all of this with Rick Renell, our senior advisor. We come back and get his take.

I mean, there was not a single question to Joe Biden on the pipeline between Russia and Germany. And you have to wonder too, we have to approve that. 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 were 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. 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. We are joined again today by our senior advisor, Rick Rinnell. Yesterday, we were talking, Vladimir Putin was finishing up his press conference. President Biden not yet started his very short press conference in comparison with the President of the United States. He's going to talk a little bit more about the President of the United States.

He has a very short press conference in comparison. But I want to go to Rick first, just to get Rick's analysis overall of yesterday. We've talked about the other meetings, but then this lead up to a meeting with an adversary early on in the presidency. What were the deliverables?

What were you tempted to be the deliverables? But Rick, what is your initial takeaway? Because there's a lot of people that have a lot of the kind of hands up in the air, the way that Biden was treating the media again, the kind of way this ended. But also, just a sense from you on, was this meeting worthwhile? Well, first of all, because I'm such a fair and balanced, nice person, let me start by complimenting President Biden on two fronts. One, sending our ambassadors back is a very good step. The embassies have been open, but having the leaders back, I think that's good progress. And I also would say that the second thing is that he was very strong in confronting President Putin on human rights.

Both of those things are very good. But I don't understand the media's giddiness. They're all excited that things went well and that President Biden didn't melt down and have some sort of a stumble.

But the reality is if you're President Putin, why wouldn't you be in a great mood? You got a pipeline. You got a pipeline that's going to give cash and influence for the next 20 to 30 years. You can sit through some finger wagging from the Western alliance because you can go home and count your cash through the pipeline.

I don't understand why we're missing this point. And I know, I mean, because if you're before being an ambassador, before being the acting director of national intelligence, you come out of the communication, the international communications world at the United Nations. And Rick, when I saw the body language from the Russian team, Lavrov, the military, the core advisors to Putin, when they first came out, even before Putin came out, it was the first time we really saw them after the meeting. And they did not look like how Russians typically look.

And it's just kind of, this is also just body language and culture, but they were laid back. They were smiling. They were playing, I mean, they could have been playing the media, but they obviously felt like they came out of this meeting and even seen it, they tried to spin it as both sides were happy. Both sides were pleased. Is that really possible between a meeting between these two countries when you can go through the litany of issues that Russia is engaged in right now that we've called out? Well, look, we've ignored all the difficult issues. My grandpa Grinnell would say that President Putin had a kick in a step. He was pretty excited to be there. Again, you can sit through some harsh words and statements from the G7 and from President Biden.

If you got a pipeline, I mean, look, he got the big enchilada. And so anything else that we bring up, cyber security, I mean, Putin did exactly what the Russians did. He literally looked at the camera with a straight face and said, all those cyber attacks are coming from the United States and Canada. And this is my eight years of dealing with the Russians at the UN. They don't respond to moral arguments. When we try to put forward an argument that says, you should do the right thing. The international community expects you to behave. They don't care. That's not what they're there for. They want oil, cash, gas, pipelines, influence. Why do you think, I mean, why do you think this doesn't the Nord Stream 2 pipeline? It's like, you know, you go on the media, you're talking about it, you're trying to bring people's attention to it. The media knows about it, but yet even the few who get to ask the questions, it's not on their radar.

They don't include that. And you have to wonder, especially because of the meeting with Putin, with the Russians, this would have been the time of all times to ask the President of the United States about that decision. This is a very good question.

And let me tell you the reason why. And it's a philosophical reason. President Biden and his administration and all of the media in Washington DC maximize European applause. They want the attention and the applause of the elites in Europe and all of the global elites around the world, the Munich Security Conference and Davos types.

They want all of those people to say you are good. And so when Chancellor Merkel, the leader in Europe, comes forward and says, I want this pipeline with Russia, they figure out a way to deny what's best for American security to give Chancellor Merkel what she wants. Now, look, President Biden said something very insightful about his philosophy and my radar went up as soon as he said this. He literally admitted that his philosophy on foreign policy is just purely an extension of personal relationships. He said foreign policy is about him. It's about his relationships, about what he wants and what he maximizes.

That's not true. Foreign policy is about us. It's about America. It's about putting America first. It's not about Joe Biden's relationships with the world. But he gave us that little insight that he maximizes having really nice dinners and a good relationship with the world. He wants the applause of the global community. He doesn't want the applause of Americans who say you're fighting for us and that means sometimes the European elites aren't going to like it. Ambassador Grenell, let me ask you this question. What do you think of Biden's performance vis-a-vis the attitude of the Chinese and the Iranians?

What did they take away, do you think, from seeing President Biden's performance in Europe and in Geneva in particular? You know how to ask the tough questions because that's really the heart of what we want to try to not happen. Look, US foreign policy has to have a goal of making sure that the Russians and the Chinese don't gang up on us. We want to make sure that they are always in conflict.

That's just the reality. We don't need to be fighting with the Russians and the Chinese at the same time. The last thing we want is for them to gang up at the UN or at the UN Security Council or in some sort of international foray.

What we really need to do is maximize where they disagree. By the way, that's pretty easy to do because the Russians and the Chinese don't have the same worldview. The Chinese are communists and the Russians are more of a collusion type mafia organization where everything has to benefit the leader Putin and his cronies.

What we need to understand is that Russia is a problem but China is a crisis and we need to make sure that they're not working together. I would say that what they read there was an opportunity to all work together because they sense America's weak under Biden. Rick, as always, thanks for joining us. Rick is the senior advisor to the ACLJ.

I know you've been watching the media the last 24-48 hours. You've seen Rick a lot. To be able to take this analysis and bring it to you every day, folks, we are grateful of your support to the American State for Law and Justice so that we can do that. Take these issues. What stood out to Rick? What stood out globally?

How would others interpret this? To bring those kind of experts to you because of your support to the ACLJ which we appreciate so much and we appreciate Rick as always. He's got a new blog going up at ACLJ.org later today on Biden's trip abroad so you can share that too with your friends and family. That'll be up at ACLJ.org and I just think as we go into the second half hour of the broadcast to get your thoughts as well. Whether you want to share them on Facebook, YouTube, Periscope or by calling us to be on the air 1-800-684-3110. The trip is over. How did you feel that President Biden performed?

What do you think the United States looks like abroad? 1-800-684-3110. There's no wrong answers.

It's how you interpret it. 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. So folks, let's just call it what it is. It's really weird after the President of the United States does this big trip abroad. I mean, so he's meeting with G7 allies, NATO allies, trying to put forward, how is he different from the previous administration? And then of course, a meeting with an adversary, with Russia. And the first thing the media is talking about, including media that is very friendly to the Biden administration, like CNN, is, oh, he didn't have to apologize to me for being mean to another question. I mean, that's literally what it all came down to, was he went back and apologized to the media. If he's taking that kind of approach to the media in the United States, which even they said he didn't really have to do, he's the President of the United States, like he has to apologize if he doesn't feel like people understanding what he's trying to get to with his answer.

What was it like? We will never exactly know, but you can judge a lot from how these leaders come out of the meetings. Do they feel, do the Russians and the staffs feel like they accomplished what they wanted to accomplish? Did they make, as Stan talks about, do they make their boss happy?

Is their boss coming out feeling good about this? And there is just, I just deny the ability for these commentators who are trying to cover for Biden, and they're saying that, well, they can both come out of this feeling good. If you're Putin, you feel good, you feel strong about yourself. If you're Biden, how is that possible? That is not an honest assessment. The assessment is the President's back home.

He's no longer abroad. Let's just be truthful. This was a disastrous trip from the beginning. He couldn't even figure out how to get along with our allies, with our checkbook open, and he still makes us look weak. He still thinks that America can't solve anything on its own.

Remember that? That we have to have the world to solve problems. The Russia, we want reliable relationships with Russia. I mean, the idea is, and here, by the way, Russia are the 16 things we're really most nervous about.

Here's a list of them. You can pass that on to Iran and China as well if you don't want to do that bidding directly. Approving these pipelines, building where we are, helping Russia to reestablish relationships with Western Europe and the biggest economy in Europe, whereas Germany.

I mean, the list goes on and on about the optic failures, the toad. I mean, the idea of, again, how Putin was able yet again to take all the things domestic that we talk about. And we're having that conversation right now in the United States, that when you are this critical of the United States publicly and you're constantly going, your whole reason for existence as a political party is to criticize and point out the wrongs of our country, guess what our adversaries do? They take that and they use it against you. They say, hey, you're talking about our treatment of opposition. Look at your treatment. You have all these people going to jail for 20 years.

You had a riot on your capital, insurrection. They just repeat the terms and they're translated out and therefore they are talking. See, this is why I don't like, I don't feel like Joe Biden got up there and put out a message that would translate to the world.

That's the key, right? Is that, yes, he wants to talk to us, but we can hear from our President all the time. They're mostly in our country talking, usually not in the case of Joe Biden so much, but you get this idea. If you were in the Russian media, there was so easy to pick apart and there was no real message when he goes through his top three issues of why he met with the Russians.

This idea, we can play him again, but it was our priorities, where our red lines are. It was just generic that doesn't sell to the media. Whereas Putin let the United States have it right from the stage, took all the criticism of himself and his regime, turned it around and every quote is a direct hit on the United States.

I mean, that's the difference. What was the message to the world? As Andy asked Rick about, the message to Iran and China, if you see how that went with Russia, you're starting to figure out how to play this administration.

And I think that's a very dangerous thing when they're worried about it, when they can't even get their optics right. We'll be right back on Secular. 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. Start to take your phone calls to 1-800-684-3110. John's calling from Washington DC online too. Hey John, welcome to Sekulow. You're on the air. Hey, thanks for having my call.

Just a real quick thing. I'm a cybersecurity professional. I've been so in security and cybersecurity for almost 30 years now. My industry is basically on its ear right now from the comments that came from Biden saying that stay away from these 16 targets.

The total lack of any kind of understanding about what security and cybersecurity is is appalling. The comment that everyone has made to that statement is all targets are off limits, not just these 16. But then he's telling Russia these are our 16 most vulnerable.

So make sure you target those. And I think, John, on top of that, I think it's an excellent point. I think I was shocking to hear when he said I gave them a list of what not to do. And then everybody wonders, you know, Secretary, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also invited us to the ACLJ.

He was on Fox News. He talked about, well, you know, everybody's going to want to see that list and say, okay, what's not on here? Because that won't create as bad of a response either for the United States. They won't respond as aggressively. But the idea also that if you hand this to Russia, let's say, okay, Russia says, well, okay, we got it. So it can't be directly us. But we're also, you know, we're making alliances with Iran. We've got alliances with China. We've got down this list, North Korea, that have got these cyber warfare units in their military. I mean, that's pretty valuable information that you've handed over to the Russians now. They'll just use their proxies.

I mean, this is the oldest trick in the books. The Iranians do it. The Russians do it.

Now you know what the 16 most valuable targets are. So if you're concerned about a U.S. response, we don't know whether Vladimir Putin is or not. But if you are concerned about that, you'll have the proxies target those. And then, Jordan, you'll just go after all of the others. And if there's a response from the United States on those, you'll just say, well, you know, those weren't on the list that you gave me, so they should have been free game. And Jordan, I would make one quick, a larger point on Iran as well. I really thought there should have been more pressure put on Vladimir Putin on Iran, because after he told NBC that really their alliance with Iran was because of the JCPOA, he basically blamed it on the United States while continuing to purchase weapons or provide weapons to Iran. Jordan, President Biden had to push back on that.

But instead, what are we doing? We are actually funding Iran. So I think you can fairly ask the question, even if President Biden wanted to be tough with Vladimir Putin on Iran, how would you do that?

I mean, how would you do that if we're cozying up to Iran and saying, but you can't do the same thing? I want to let you all hear in his own words, President Biden, we talked about having the 16 specific entities. So not even just areas, but the specific entities themselves.

Take a listen by 12. Another area we spent a great deal of time on was cyber and cybersecurity. I talked about the proposition that certain critical infrastructure should be off limits to attack, period, by cyber or any other means. I gave them a list.

If I'm not mistaken, I don't have it in front of me, 16 specific entities, 16 defined as critical infrastructure under U.S. policy, from the energy sector to our water systems. Of course, the principle is one thing. It has to be backed up by practice. I mean, does it make you feel good? You have to laugh sometimes because I think as Putin says, to quote Putin himself, where's the quote from Putin? Oh, yeah, there's no happiness in life.

There's only a mirage. And that is the direct translation of that. But sometimes you do have to laugh because the idea that he, first of all, it's fine. You don't have to be an expert on all of the aspects of cybersecurity as President of the United States. But to talk about in a positive way that we've given over our water system info and said, well, if you hit this water system, we're going to be really upset because that will kill Americans and poison Americans. It's kind of like we're dealing with a pandemic right now, which may have been lab created. And now you can say that before, if I said that they may take this broadcast off the internet.

But now you can say that because enough people are saying, well, it looks like it was lab created. But the idea, Andy, I mean, going through 16 very specific entities, which then he said, I don't have the list in front of me right now, kind of forgot. But again, it is telling an adversary who has had a history.

It's one thing if you're trying to bait them on something, you know, you can fight back, but there's no proof that we can stop these attacks. Well, it reminds me, I mean, I'm an old prosecutor. So it reminds me of someone saying, look, there are 16 ways you can get into my house. And if you violate any of those 16 ways, you're going to have trouble. But if you find a 17th or an 18th way, then don't worry about it.

We're not going to be concerned about it or another way. There are 16 crimes that I'm going to prosecute in the coda and the criminal code of Georgia, which is a two volume set, a title 16. And if you violate any of those 16 crimes and you're going to be prosecuted, but as for the others, I'm not so sure I'm not exactly committed to them. We'll see murder, maybe one of them, maybe not be one of them, but I'll let you know when I confront that. What a ridiculous thing to do to expose yourself to your toughest adversary, or so you say, a soulless killer.

That's what he called him, didn't he? A soulless killer. And here's soulless killer is the 16 things that you better not do. I'm not going to talk about 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, but we're going to see if those things are happened. Look, the President of the United States should be standing up for America. Let the diplomats in the state department do the smooth, suave talking. You as President need to be like President Trump was.

If he'd have walked in that room, well, that would have been a mess. You wonder Wes again, when you talk about critical infrastructure, that's how he defined it. And listen, the Russians can figure out on their own what's critical. I think that they understand that too.

Energy, water, electrical grids, all the things we talk about being vulnerable to attack. It's one thing if you feel like you can stop their attack and it's kind of like bring it on. But that is not the tone was we're going to get really angry and very upset if you touch these 16 entities, which again, the world that is, even our own allies would probably love to see that. I mean, it's like, you're just handing them over something. And it obviously got specific enough to where, you know, he's talking about the water systems and items like that.

Yeah. And the thing that was alarmingly naive and quite frankly, when I heard him make that statement, I was embarrassed. I was truly embarrassed that he would say that, but here's the deal. Someone on his staff prepared that list. Someone on his staff said, Mr. President, you probably should share this with Vladimir Putin. I mean, it's not just the President who's naive and wrongheaded about this. The people that surround this President are naive and wrongheaded about this. And as Rick was saying a little bit ago, they assume that Vladimir Putin has a moral compass.

He does not. Biden's main warning to Putin about all of this was that if he misbehaves, it will hurt his reputation and the world will not like him. That is major psychological projection because Biden wants to be liked because he wants the European leaders to fawn over him. He assumes that that same thing will, will motivate Vladimir Putin. He has no moral compass. He doesn't care if we like him or not and giving him that list and the whole tone of it. Well, like I said, it was not just naive.

It was dangerously naive. You know, Thad, we talked about too, you know, our FOIA practice getting down to the information, but there was a lot there too for members of Congress who have oversight of all these different branches of the government. I mean, they've got plenty to ask now of people like Secretary of State Blinken and others when they come back to testify to Congress. I mean, this is, it was basically laid out for them in what they can drill down on for this administration as well.

Yeah, probably starting with that list of 16 or 17 or 26 or 27 or whatever it ended up being in the end. I mean, Congress probably wants that list, but you know, Jordan, I actually think that goes back to the premise of Caitlin Collins question. I mean, I think there's a lot of attention being spent on the fact that the President snapped back at her, but look, I still want the answer to that question. I mean, why are you so confident he'll change his behavior? Jordan, if President Biden wasn't going to sit down with President Putin for the purpose of trying to get him to change his behavior, then why was he sitting down with him? I mean, maybe that's why he deflected. Maybe he's not trying to get President Putin to change his behavior. And if he's not Jordan, well then there was no purpose for this summit because we should be after that. We should be after the goal of trying to get him to change his bad behavior. Yeah. I mean, I think, listen, ultimately in our final segment, you would take more of your comments too. Keep putting those in on Facebook, on YouTube. If you want to talk to us on air, the number you call is 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. And then of course the issues here domestically that we're still dealing with. I mean, I'm going to get an update from Thanh too on what's happening with this, with legislation.

I mean, because again, I think it took some time and I wanted to spend that time with everybody on this broadcast. Why these international issues are so important. Why at a time when even it feels kind of isolated because of COVID, because the lack of travel that it's tough to kind of re get back into that mindset, but why we have to snap back quickly.

I mean, you never could stop, but again, the world doesn't stop either. And the bad actors don't stop trying to utilize new ways to attack. And the new way to attack is the cyber warfare. We've known that now for decades. This is not something brand new. It's just becoming more lethal and more effective. We write back, take your calls, take your comments.

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ACLJ.org. So I thought another unique aspect, which one is naive, again plays into the hands of U.S. adversaries who can point to history to show the statement is not true and wrong. And by the way, as a superpower, it's not necessarily going to be.

But even we can point to the history and show what Joe Biden said under the Obama-Biden administration was not true. I want you to take a listen to this statement. Of course, they're obsessing with Russia and their election interference, supposedly, though again, when it was brought up, this is how Joe Biden brought it up.

Take a listen. How would it be if the United States reviewed by the rest of the world as interfering with the elections directly of other countries and everybody knew it? What would it be like if we engage in activities that he is engaged in? It diminishes the standing of a country that is desperately trying to make sure it maintains its standing as a major world power. Are we actually supposed to believe, are we not trying to undermine Putin every day and hope to bring his downfall and destabilize the country, the Russian Federation? Wouldn't that be the goal of the United States at this point if they're taking aggressive actions against us? Is that the goal against China, destabilize, support opposition movements covertly? I mean, we have a CIA for a reason. We know about the history that's been uncovered during the Cold War, about the efforts taken to undermine their efforts to put in communist leaders and our efforts to put in pro-democracy leaders.

Some of those actually became war that actually led to fighting on the ground. And we uncovered, under the Obama administration, where President Biden was vice President, that in 2016, it took a year and a half in court, but in 2016, the State Department was handing money over to Mahmoud Abbas's son to run an anti-Netanyahu campaign in one of the previous six or seven or eight Israeli elections that have occurred. But that the United States was actually doing, I mean, publicly so, caught red-handed, supporting, taking sides in politics, which by the way, I don't think is always wrong to use our position as a superpower to put leaders who we think are abusive to their own people or abusive to the United States and allowing these abuses to occur, to make them feel like we can take them and destabilize, is the exact opposite of what Joe Biden was getting at.

I mean, one, it's not true, and so they'll use that. They can use all the history I just talked about to say the US interfering elections, I mean, come on, this is like the country that invented that with their intelligence and their ability to be this kind of first major world superpower post-World War II. They picked leaders. We decided who was going to be in charge.

And if we didn't like you anymore, we would do things to stop. You can debate whether you like those policies or not, but that's historic. I mean, that is the truth. And again, to me, this idea that we should make these leaders feel stable, reliable. I mean, if you're Putin and if the US is providing you a stable, reliable platform, Andy, this is like the goal of your life.

I mean, that's exactly right. You're giving me the support that I need internationally to continue to exist. The idea is, as you say, that what we are seeking to do is to destabilize, to bring down the regime, to bring democracy, to bring freedom back, to get away with the oligarchic attitude, to get rid of this idea that only you and your friends and the top aristocracy are going to be the ones that are going to enjoy the benefits of labor and the economy. And these are the kinds of things that I think that Putin relishes hearing from a President of the United States. And we also, in this statement about interfering with elections, he conveniently forgot, didn't he, what Obama was doing in Israel and just didn't want to talk about that. So we're just as guilty of the kind of criminal activity, if that's what you are, that he is saying that he deplores and everyone knows it.

And how could you stand as a world power if you do that kind of thing? Well, guess what? We did it. You know, I want to take Ed's call online too. Ed in New York, welcome to Secular, you're on the air.

Hi, thank you for taking my call. I just wanted to comment on Peter Doocy. He asked Biden the question about Wuhan and are they going to hold them accountable and invest, they want an investigation and all this. And he deflects the question every time. And he said, he related to the, when Peter said your relationship is since it's so good, he reflected right to that when he should have stayed on point with the question and make him answer. Cause it just upsets the guy. The guy goes off the wall when you, when you hold them to task. And I just don't understand why they won't come back and ask, be fervent and persistent in their question.

I think one of it is because they barely get the question in. Doocy wasn't called on. He shouted out Biden in one of the rare times the staff wasn't able to make the eye contact or the, the, the get off the stage, you know, side. And, and he took, he took the question, but as you said, he took the question first. He just took issue. This was when he was getting angry and upset.

Take a listen by 49. He just didn't like the way it was described of him having a long-term relationship with the Chinese leader in his spirit, Mr. President, he's saying that there is no substitute for basic dialogue. And also with what you said at NATO, that the biggest problems right now are Russia and China. You've spoken many times about how you've spent perhaps more time with President Xi than any other world leader. So is there going to become a time where you might call him old friend to old friend and ask him to open up China to the world health organization investigators who are trying to get to the bottom of COVID-19? Let's get something straight. We know each other well, we're not old friends. It's just pure business.

That's wonderful. Why did you then brag about how your relationship is everything that it's all about personal relationships? If that's true, it can't just be about business.

You cannot have it both ways. But he did ultimately get to the substance of it, which was interesting the way he kind of left it out there, which is kind of like a shrug of the shoulders and like, okay, we all know what China's really all about. So he finally got to that, right?

Take a listen. You've said that you were going to press China. You signed onto the G7 communique that said the G7 were calling on China to open up to let the investigators in. But China basically says they don't want to be interfered with anymore.

So what happens now? The impact, the world's attitude toward China as it develops, China's trying very hard to project itself as a responsible and very, very forthcoming nation that they are trying very hard to talk about how they're taking and helping the world in terms of COVID-19 and vaccines and they're trying very hard. Look, certain things you don't have to explain to the people of the world.

They see the results. Is China really actually trying to get to the bottom of this? My God, for literally over a year, for the last 16 months, 20 months of COVID, you couldn't even say that the Chinese lab might be responsible for taking this virus, creating a super virus, and it could have leaked even unintentionally. Not blaming them intentionally, but unintentionally, that it was an accident.

And if that was said, you were banned, you were taken down off of social media platforms. So I don't think that the world is really at a point where they see the results. And so everybody says, yeah, it's China's fault now. Because the narrative told by Biden and the world has been, don't blame China. It's not their fault.

And not until recently, could you even have the discussion that they may be at fault even by negligently allowing this virus to escape? We'll talk to you tomorrow on Secular. 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.