Gen. Milley: “Resurgence of Terrorism” from Afghanistan

Today on Sekulow, surprise surprise as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff predicts that terrorism will arise out of Afghanistan. That's terrorism that could strike here in the United States. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulow. Is the U.S. safer today since the U.S. has withdrawn from Afghanistan? My military estimate is that the conditions are likely to develop of a civil war and that will then in turn lead to conditions that could in fact lead to a reconstitution of Al-Qaeda or a growth of ISIS or other myriad of terrorist groups. We want to hear from you.

Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. You could see a resurgence of terrorism coming out of that general region within 12, 24, 36 months. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. So when this administration tells you that you might see something happen in 12 months, I think it could happen next week based off how bad they planned the Afghanistan exit and the 90 days. Well, we at least have 90 days until Kabul falls.

That was the at least, and it took a week and a half or less, and then the rest of the country was falling in days. Now the Taliban in full control. They even announced this hardline cabinet today as we speak.

I hope you all had a great Labor Day weekend, but there's a lot of serious news to discuss. First off, this is, again, who you were listening to in the opening. That's General Milley. He is the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is now acknowledging that because the U.S. has left, one, there will likely be a civil war in Afghanistan. So we've left that behind for the people there after 20 years. And two, that there will be a resurgence in terror organizations.

He named the Al Qaeda and ISIS types. We already saw them carrying out attacks inside Afghanistan. But now that we're gone, that they will be able to spread their terrorism around the world. I said this, I think it was very early on in this Afghan withdrawal.

I know it's in one of the video clips we play when I was on the air, and I said, you know, is this where we have to get back to? Are we honestly going back to, as a country, a time period where we've got to be concerned at a heightened level? There's still that concern in the United States, but a heightened level of what radical Islam and its followers can do to Americans.

What kind of attacks they can be carried out. It feels like their attention was shifted so many other places around the world. The head of the caliphate was taken out, Baghdadi, by the Trump administration. You had the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard taken out by the Trump administration. Osama bin Laden is dead for now a long period of time. And yet these groups are reconstituting, and they've got a safe haven now. And the safe haven is Afghanistan.

It is now an Islamic state, if you will, and our military is not trying to hide anything from us. I think you can question the timing. Why 12 months? Why will it take 12 months for ISIS-K to be able to plan something in the United States if it only takes convincing one person? Second to that is maybe they don't even need to convince anybody. Maybe the people are already here because the administration is admitting to – this is just when you get outraged. We've talked about this with Rick Grenell. We've talked about this about the vetting process needing to be done correctly.

It's why we have all these places around the world. We can do that vetting. But what about the people who got straight to Washington, D.C.? Tony Blinken, our Secretary of State, said that the State Department officials are, quote, doing accountings on the back end as people arrive in the U.S. So they're already here, and now we're trying to figure out who they are and if they have the right paperwork, if they're the good guys that we were supposed to be helping to get outside of Afghanistan and the people that we were supposed to assist.

Or was it just chaos? And what they admit to is that it was just get as many people out at the airport as you can and then kind of figure it out from there. That'd be one thing if you were talking about figure it out from there as in a U.S. military base somewhere overseas in a third-party country. But when you're talking about people already in the U.S. and you're already starting to talk about this problem of terrorism again in the U.S., well, maybe they're already here.

So why would it take two years or three years or even a year for them to try and start conducting these terrorist attacks again right here in our homeland? Again, so we'll talk about that. We're going to break it down with our team. 1-800-684-3110.

If you have thoughts on this, you want to share. 1-800-684-3110. Everybody watch it on Rumble, Facebook, Periscope, YouTube, and Instagram. We'll get your comments in as well. We'll be right back on Sekulow. 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, how it'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. Welcome back to Sekulow. This is our Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, so Secretary Austin talking in Doha today. Take a listen about dealing with the terror threat now that we have left Afghanistan, Fight 18. There's no question that it will be more difficult to identify and engage threats that emanate from the region, but we're committed to making sure that threats are not allowed to develop. I don't know how, because the excuse for why those planes can't take off from Afghanistan is that there are no assets there. They can't even get into the airspace, which brings up other questions, too, because what kind of weaponry does the Taliban have? I know they've got stuff that landing can be dangerous and taking off, but the airspace in general, we have nothing there. We have no control.

We've got no ground assets, so we'll see what happens. And then I want to play this, and we'll get everybody's reaction, but I want to play this because remember this is all about groups utilizing a place where they can safely plan, then they find people or get people in the United States to carry out attacks against Americans, but what if those people are already here because the refugee process, like the entire withdrawal from Afghanistan, was a mess? And I say this as someone who works in the refugee world regularly, and we want that to be robust, but let me tell you something. When you are a normal refugee, even with a serious amount of information and evidence, it feels like an uphill battle every time to get someone resettled here in the United States as a refugee, but if you've come from war-torn Afghanistan, we're just figuring it out after the fact, and I'm not making that up. This is like a lead from behind again, but even worse because these people are just here.

Take a listen to Blinken. In our effort to get as many people out as fast as we can while we had the airport functioning, we focused on doing just that, and we're doing accountings on the back end as people arrive in the United States. Wes, right there, the danger to the United States, they're talking about 12 months, which is not that long either for terrorism to have a resurgence inside the United States or terror attacks, but now we're talking about the people here, we don't even know who they are. We know that hundreds of people got on the first few planes that went out of Afghanistan, the Kabul airport, with absolutely no documentation that they had any relationship as interpreters or any other helpers with the United States, none at all. We do know that in the UK, when some of the planes landed there, we found people who were actually on the terror watch list that the UK officials happened to catch. This is just one blunder after another. The bottom line is, when you listen to Milley and to Austin and to Blinken, is that they are doing wild-eyed guessing. They absolutely do not know.

It's one misstep after another compounded by their conflicting rhetoric. And part of the reason we don't know, as they are now saying, is that we do not have the CIA. We closed down the six facilities we had in Afghanistan. We have no military there. We had actually developed an Afghan military intelligence unit.

That unit is no more. We are absolutely flying blind. Blinken, as well as Austin and Milley, represent a Biden administration that is weak, it is feckless, it is tepid. They are projecting vacillation and weakness. And what I find alarming is that that vacillation and weakness is not only with the Department of State or the White House, it's with our senior military leadership. And it does not bode well for us. I mean, with the 20th anniversary of the attacks of 9-11 just five days away, Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, does not know if terror groups will arise again in Afghanistan. Most of the world predicts it will. But he also was asked whether or not U.S. troops will have to go back to Afghanistan to counter the terror threat, and he doesn't know that either.

That is not reassuring. Five days away, we fought the Taliban, this terror group, and al-Qaeda for 20 years. And last week, we didn't withdraw, Jordan.

We surrendered. Well, Harry, this is what, you know, we had 20 years, especially the last five years, and we saw the Trump administration, they had their plan, they had the different things that had to be met, and we've already been told a lot of that wasn't being met, so they probably wouldn't have been on their same timeline. But to have this long period of time to plan this, there's no excuse to then come out and say, well, it was such a rush at the airport, it was such a mess. That's one thing if you're dealing with something you can't plan for, and then you've got to deal with the consequences of not being able to plan for it. But this was a plan. Absolutely. And this is how bad their plan was.

I think that is absolutely correct. And so essentially what we have with the Biden administration is intentional failure. Afghanistan has refocused attention, for instance, on the U.S. border, which is another demonstration of President Biden's failure.

Basically, we have an open border. We have a secretary of state who welcomes unvetted Afghanis into the United States, some of whom are on our own terror watch, and then the secretary of state says, well, we will try to account for these potential terrorists on the back end. There is simply no way to spend President Biden's failures with respect to Afghanistan. And as I said before, the only explanation is that this was an intentional failure and every American has a right to be alarmed about what the Biden administration has done. And essentially, we've given safe haven to terrorists in Kabul. They are planning on apparently restarting their terror campaign, and U.S. military officials are indeed aware of this.

And so the open question becomes, why was it disorganized? Why did we give up the Bagram Air Force Base before securing all American citizens who are now arguably hostages to the Taliban's mercy? Andy, all of this, I think we see, again, the shifting of the blame, trying to talk through this, but what I'm concerned about is the real threat this poses our country. We're going to talk politics the second half hour of the broadcasting and get into, obviously, this is having a serious impact in a negative way on the Biden administration. But there's also the reality as Americans, we could talk about that all we want, but this is going to affect us, especially when they're talking about, they could see that rise back in terrorism and the way we used to live with that threat happening as soon as 12 months with this team.

Again, that could be two weeks from now. But we know that these groups that they talk about reconstituting are already there. ISIS was already able to carry out a terror attack against Americans, killing 13 Americans in Afghanistan. They've carried out nearly 100 attacks since their constitution there. So these aren't groups that are having to reform, Andy. They now have a much safer place to be without U.S. troops around.

Well, that's exactly correct, Jordan. They have a safe haven. They're there. They have proven their ability to execute Americans, as the ISIS-K did with respect to the 13 American soldiers. There is no American presence. There is no air presence.

There is no ground presence. There is no intelligence coming out of, and by intelligence I mean not only the classic military intelligence, but there is no intelligence coming out of the mouth of the President of the United States, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, or the Secretary of Defense. All we get is the idea that we're at risk. And we are at risk. We are at risk. And not just 12 months, as General Hilly said, we're at risk in 12 minutes because we're in this posture where we don't know what is going on over there, and we're bringing people over here, and this idea of I'll account for them on the back end is ludicrous.

What do you mean by I'll account for them on the back end? I'll bring in droves of people into Dulles Airport, into Philadelphia, into other cities in the United States from Afghanistan, and then after we've turned them loose on American soil with all the rights that are going to be accruing to them, because I can hear the left-wingers right now saying all the rights that are accruing to them because they're on American soil, and now we're going to sit and go through the vetting process when we have let them in the front door of our house, and they're on American soil. We're now going to go through the process of determining whether or not they can push the terrorist button. This is ludicrous.

There's an expression that I'm not going to use on the air, but we used it in the South about being backwards on a donkey or a mule, and that's the way this has been executed. It is a shame to the Americans that we have surrendered in this fashion and that we have evacuated in this way. In our second half hour, we're going to get into more of the politics of this. In Washington, D.C., is preparing next week. Jerry Blinkenthan will be before the House Armed Services Committee, and this will be that first test because Democrats control the chair of that committee whether or not they hold him to account. Yeah, Jordan, I'll be the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and look, I would tell you this. Two questions have to be answered. One, is there going to be accountability for things like not using the Ramstein base for this vetting, doing that in the United States?

But then, Jordan, I really do think the larger question is the one you mentioned. Are we ready? Are we prepared? Are we vigilant for the next attack? I know that, Jordan, we know is being planned. Even General Milley says that, and I would tell you this.

If he's saying that, Jordan, the President was warned of that before taking this action. Absolutely. We're going to talk about an ACLJ victory for religious liberty when we come back to this. I want to make sure, with all that's happening around the world, I want to make sure we do take time during these shows to get to these ACLJ victories. Abby Sutherland, the Senior Counsel with ACLJ, is going to be joining us to talk about this victory in Pennsylvania. We're taking your phone calls as well.

1-800-684-3110. 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. We're going to 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 Planned Parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life.

Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. The challenges facing Americans are substantial. At a time when our values, our freedoms, our constitutional rights are under attack, it's more important than ever to stand with the American Center for Law and Justice. For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines protecting your freedoms, defending your rights, in courts, in Congress, and in the public arena. And we have an exceptional track record of success.

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

That remains our top priority, especially now during these challenging times. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at ACLJ.org, where you can learn more about our life-changing work. Become a member today.

ACLJ.org. Welcome back to Secio. We are taking your calls. We're going to get back into Afghanistan, the politics of this as well in the second half hour, because these leaders are going to have to face Congress starting next week. They're already talking a lot to the press.

They're in Doha today, so you have fresh insight from our Secretary of State, from the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Abby Sutherland, though, a senior counsel with the ACLJ, is joining us now to talk about a religious victory, a religious liberty victory out of Pennsylvania. And, Abby, this is an old-school ACLJ-type case where we had individuals utilizing a public place to distribute religious literature, and they were told by a city employee, you can't do that. Tell people what happened here.

That's right, Jordan. The city employee actually not only informed the church member that she needed to seize her distribution of religious information at a public square, but that such activity was never permitted in the public places within the city, which is a completely misleading statement by the city employee. We know, obviously, streets, public sidewalks are the traditional public fora, and that distributing religious literature is a protected First Amendment activity. And when, Abby, so ultimately they contacted us, and I think that's great, and I always want to remind people, because you've got employees that, obviously this is blatantly unconstitutional, but when you're hearing this at the moment, as an individual, you know, and the city employee is saying, you know, this is illegal, you're breaking the law, we never allow this, stop this action, or else. But the individuals, they contacted us, Abby. That's always key, is that when something like this happens, to contact the ACLJ, so that we can kind of figure out what happened, get the facts, and then contact the city, and that's what we did here. That's exactly right, and the individual that reached out to us was even apologetic, you know, and indicated, you know, that she didn't think this was probably very important to the ACLJ, but that it was important to her, and so we just assured her this is what the ACLJ is here to do, whether it's little or big, we're here to defend those First Amendment rights. Many times, all it takes is a phone call or a letter just outlining what the law says and what the law requires in order to resolve the matter, and that's exactly what we were able to do here within a few days of this individual contacting us. So to talk about that, too, so when the city was contacted, they took action, and I think it's great for everyone to hear this and understand what Abby's talking about, we always talk about the ACLJ.

It does take that single individual, whether they're from a group that feels like their rights were violated, or individually that their rights were violated, to contact us, to never feel like it's too small, because oftentimes this is, you're the person who was willing to contact the legal organization like the ACLJ. We don't know how many other people have been told by those same city employee that you can't be here, you can't do this, so you're standing up to protect everyone's constitutional rights because you're willing to contact us, and that's what happened. Abby, so when we contacted the city, how did they respond?

Well, the city actually responded within 24 hours of receiving our letter and indicated that they were looking into the matter, that they believed they understood that what happened was the employee was misinformed and that the employee was not speaking on behalf of the city and had obviously given improper instruction to our client. And so following that communication, the attorney followed up in writing and just explained his apologies for what had taken place. He actually explained that he's a staunch supporter of the First Amendment, that he appreciated ACLJ reaching out to him and reaching out to the city to obtain clarity on the issue. And then he assured us that our client would not experience any more infringements on their First Amendment activities. Abby, I appreciate so much you sharing that with us, because I think that this is, again, it's core ACLJ work.

If you go to ACLJ.org forward slash help, you send in your information, tell us a little bit about your situation, and an ACLJ attorney is going to contact you. And don't ever feel, this is one of those examples, don't ever feel like it's too small, because you're talking about constitutional rights, protected rights, and too many times, and oftentimes in the United States, you know, for people who are told, hey, you can't do this anymore, they just feel like, okay, I shouldn't do this anymore, and they move along. But, you know, Andy, you work with a lot of cities, and TAS, you represent them, sometimes we're filing suits against them, sometimes we're representing them. You know, they've got lots of employees out there. They need to also know what their employees are up to if their employees are violating people's constitutional rights.

That's exactly correct, Jordan. These cities sometimes take these actions not knowing that they can't prohibit the activity that they're seeking to prohibit. We have, for instance, in Cochrane, Georgia, every year, a Bible reading on the steps of the courthouse. This is like a Bible reading that has been going on in the steps of the courthouse, I mean, of the United States Capitol for years, and they tried to stop it, and we wrote a simple letter to the county attorney, and the county attorney apologized directly to us and said that the Bible reading can certainly go on as it did and as it has for years and years, and it will continue to do so. So simply, the ACLJ provides information to counties, cities, municipalities who simply don't know and need to be informed, and then once they are told what the law is, they most times, most frequently say, we misunderstood, we now understand, and we back off, and we let you go forward with your constitutional rights.

You know, Than, this is, I go to you on this because this is the core ACLJ. You know, we do a lot of complicated work in Washington, D.C., our government affairs efforts, we do a lot of complicated legal work, but we have built up, it took, by the way, decades, I think it's important to point out, for it to get to where a phone call and a letter from the ACLJ could resolve this matter. It used to be these cities and towns, they had an animus towards religious speech, they thought they, as Andy was talking about, they thought they could just shut it down. Now, we live in a different time period because of the cases that we have won, but it is always important, it's kind of a reminder when a city or a city, even one city employee takes this action, Than, that people speak out and contact us. We're not too big to contact. Yeah, a couple of things, Jordan. First of all, the remedy being fairly easy in many of these cases that you talked about, that's a direct result of decades of work by the ACLJ, and so we don't want that work to go for naught. When we see, when we have somebody who's encountering a violation, we want them to stand up, we want them to contact us, we want them to allow us to help them get that so-called easy remedy, but I would give you the flip side of the coin too, Jordan. I mean, the client in this case thought that maybe this was a little thing.

Well, guess what? A little violation multiplied hundreds or thousands of time across the country. Jordan, that's how you get a big thing. That's how you end up with an IRS targeting case where a bureaucracy feels like it won't be reined in because it has been allowed free rein without getting admonished. So I would say the time to get those easy victories are when they are little things, Jordan.

Otherwise, they become big things. Our second half hour, we're getting into that very soon on the broadcast. We're going to get into the politics of the withdrawal in Afghanistan, the refugee situation, again, just the Biden administration now that the media is finally starting to at least question some of their actions, and there's an opportunity next week in Capitol Hill to grill the Secretary of State. Now, you would think listening to both Democrats and Republicans, that's what it would be, is a grilling coming, but you never know in the partisanship that exists in Washington whether or not that was all because, well, that was then and this is now, and, oh, that now I think they've done a great job and it's wonderful, and will they try to move past that? This is where Congress has the chance to actually utilize its oversight role. We're going to get into that. We're even going to get into poll numbers because it's been a shockingly drop for Joe Biden.

We want to get your thoughts on this as well, too, how poorly managed and how much you think this withdrawal from Afghanistan is going to affect the American voter. Midterm election is not too far away, 1-800-684-3110. If you want to talk to us on air, that's 1-800-684-3110.

We'll be right back on Secular. at ACLJ.org, where you can learn more about our life-changing work. Become a member today, ACLJ.org. I'm talking about freedom. I'm talking about freedom. We will fight for the right to live in freedom. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Secular.

And now your host, Jordan Secular. I think it's so important, too, on our broadcast, utilizing that time, to remind you that there are brave Americans out there who take a stand, contact us, and yes, the complicated cases taken down the IRS over their targeting of conservative groups, the Tea Party, those can take years. There's the case of the Supreme Court. Sometimes, though, those cases of the Supreme Court is because of one individual. One individual who said, you know what, I think I can have my Bible club, or I think I can have this speech right here.

I should be able to do this. This is part of my constitutionally protected rights. And it sets precedent, and that precedent, you can see how we utilize that decades later, when there are bad actors or misinformed actors. And so when we talk about all these other big issues in our international work, in our offices all around the world, I don't want you to forget that at our core at the ACLJ is to assist you when you face one of these constitutional issues. And that's why, even in the midst of all these big things, we take that time on the broadcast today to talk about the victory out of Pennsylvania for religious liberty and freedom of speech. Now, I want to pivot back, because we're going to get into politics here. And the politics of this, I feel like it's appropriate to start looking at some of the politics of this now, because of the midterm elections, which, again, the House is very much up for grabs, as well as the Senate being at 50-50, so the impact these decisions can have.

Usually, if I was being just fair and honest as a political commentator, and so has worked in politics a lot, you would say these international issues typically fade from people's minds over time, and that they don't end up voting because of something that happened overseas. Now, I think there's something different with Afghanistan. It was 20 years. There's nearly a million veterans of that conflict, which means there's, you know, times 10 each of those. I mean, and it's more than that.

Times 50. That's how many, you know, 50 million plus people whose family, and I'm sure it's higher than that, because that's just those who served in the military during those 20 years in Afghanistan. But also, if the terror attacks start occurring here, and they start occurring in the next 12 months, well, that's not overseas. That's not something kind of distant and foreign that we say, oh, that's bad. How can we help?

How can we assist? I don't like that our country did this. But then maybe a year from now, we're kind of moved on to something else. Not if what we moved on a year from now is terror attacks inside the United States. And I just, we don't get confidence from the Biden team. I think this has been a lot of their problems with every issue, domestic and foreign, is that they don't make you feel confident when they speak. So they're speaking today, and they're in Doha.

They're at one of those refugee centers that are not in the United States to do this processing. Here's the question yesterday to General Milley about the U.S. and our safety inside the U.S. Take a listen by one. Is the U.S. safer today since the U.S. has withdrawn from Afghanistan? My military estimate is that the conditions are likely to develop of a civil war. And that will then, in turn, lead to conditions that could, in fact, lead to a reconstitution of al-Qaeda or a growth of ISIS or other myriad of terrorist groups. You could see a resurgence of terrorism coming out of that general region within 12, 24, 36 months. Here's what's important to note there.

In his largest estimate, Joe Biden would still be President first term. So they're not pushing this saying in a decade they'll be able to reconstitute and these groups will be able to, will become a threat. They're saying that right now, the threat. And when he's asked, are we safer, he just said no.

Now, he didn't resign. You would think if you felt that way, you're the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and you thought taking the 2,000 remaining troops we had in Afghanistan and these threats weren't, none of these threats, the U.S. was not dealing with any threats like this and that you would resign in protest. But at that level, they become very political, too, very much like politicians. And that doesn't mean take away anything from their service over their decades of service.

But to get to that level, you know, you're playing with politicians and politics every day. So the fact that you could say no in a bunch of words saying how this is going to cause a threat, there's going to be new terror groups, even terror groups we haven't thought of before. ISIS has already killed 13 Americans in Afghanistan. Now they can export that because we're doing back-end vetting after you're already released inside the United States.

Maybe that's why the poll numbers are so low. We'll be right back on Sekulow. 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, Planned Parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life.

Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. In the latest Real Clear Politics polls and so that's kind of the polls of polls, President Biden's at 45% approval. Now, if you get into actually the details there, where has he dropped the most? It's independent voters. Obviously, Republicans were never really in favor and Democrats were pushy, but he's lost support amongst Democrats and especially independents, which are key to any election, midterm elections, Presidential elections.

I mean, you get it specifically on foreign policy. He's only got a 40% approval rating. On immigration approval, 34%. And on is the country in the right direction or not? 30% of Americans believe we are in the right direction. That means 60%.

That gets way past just Republican, Democrat, independent. That's just a vast majority of Americans, 60%, believe we're going in the wrong direction. But it's the weakness that we portray.

I really do believe. I mean, there's the actual events on the ground, but then the weakness that is portrayed. So here we have an opportunity, Than, in Washington, D.C., to put these leaders before starting to have congressional hearings next week. They come back and they go back to full-time in Congress. And this is the opportunity because I think if they just give them a pass because the Democrats are in charge of all these committees and it doesn't feel the same way that they were talking last week or two weeks ago, then we've missed a real opportunity as a country. And I think it could start having serious ramifications on the elections because so much of what they're talking about, Than, is domestic. It's about the refugees who are here who aren't vetted. It's about terrorism attacks in the United States, not over in Afghanistan. Yeah, I agree with you, Jordan. I think it'd have a big impact, too. And let me actually start with the politics because I actually think that's what might make these hearings not as effective as they should be.

I mean, you talk about that right track, wrong track number. When that's two to one upside down, Jordan, that is a monumental number. Now, most of our listeners probably know that midterms are typically not particularly pleasant for whoever's holding the White House anyway. And that's even more so, Jordan, when there's unified control like there is now. But, Jordan, about the only thing that can save that, especially in the House of Representatives, is when you have a very popular President or the American people are rallied in a unified fashion around that President.

We have exactly the opposite right now. Democrats in Washington, D.C., I'm telling you, Jordan, you can feel it in the air. They are scrambling to try to save that.

And I think what's going to happen is what we talked about last week on the broadcast. I told you look out for a distraction from the issue that is dragging those numbers down, which is Afghanistan. So while the House Foreign Affairs Committee is going to have a hearing, Jordan, the other thing that they're going to do is they're going to tee right back up that $3.5 trillion domestic spending bill. You know, in many ways, Jordan, I almost think it doesn't matter if they're successful at not or moving it.

Now, there are certainly policy ramifications for it. But, Jordan, I think they will consider it a win if the American people divert their attention from Afghanistan and put it on this domestic spending bill. They just want a change of topic, Jordan. I think they believe that's about the only thing that can save them at this point. It does feel like they're kind of in this situation where they're throwing things at the wall, see what will stick.

So one of those is like what happened in Texas, too, the fact that the Supreme Court didn't step in and has allowed the Texas law on abortion to move forward, the six-week law. And this, again, I want to play because they're trying to – this is playing to the base. Because when you know when your poll numbers are falling, you've got to make sure your base remains solid or else you're in real trouble. Because if you don't have your 35 – if you start getting below 40 percent or right at that number, you're losing base support. You're losing just people who go out and they vote Democrat.

That's just how they vote. And so you have the media, which was being tough on Biden for the first time with Afghanistan, quickly shifting along with the White House to create a narrative for the base. I can't believe Jim Acosta said this, though it is Jim Acosta and it is CNN, but at a time when we know what the Taliban is actually doing in Afghanistan, we know the atrocities they commit. He called you, if you are pro-life, part of the American Taliban. Take a listen. What will we tell the Afghan refugees who just fled those schools for girls back in their home country? I guess the girls here will have to fill them in. Unfortunately, what we will tell them is that some members of the far right in this country have apparently decided they will resort to intimidation and in some cases even violence to get what they want.

And they could sweep into power faster than the experts thought possible. Sound familiar? Sort of like an American Taliban. Okay. If you're pro-life activists out there, the ACLJ, you utilize the courts and American law to make changes and to educate people. So you pass a law, you have to defend it in court, you know Planned Parenthood will bring a challenge. That is not like taking up arms and killing a school full of girls or having a suicide bomber go in and strap on.

Never the same. A political disagreement in the United States that divides the country on what is morally acceptable, what are we going to morally allow. I don't think any of those Afghan refugees and the women and girls there are going to see the United States as some place worse.

It's ridiculous to even discuss West, but at the same time, these are the pivots that we're talking about. Calling us part of the American Taliban because we're pro-life and acting like we're swiftly coming to power. There have been pro-life leaders already in power before we have politics.

They come and they go. The American people get to decide. These are elections.

But again, that's not good enough for them. He talks about intimidation and violence, doesn't cite what he's talking about, how that connects directly to the Texas law or any other pro-life laws. But to describe people as part of a terror organization who aren't. No wonder no one's watching CNN. No wonder no one buys Jim Acosta's book. No wonder no one wants to call on him.

No Republican wants to talk to him. But shame on him. What a shameful, horrible thing to say.

So how tone deaf can you be? We are five days away from the 20th anniversary of 9-11, which in that tragedy, we had great unity as a nation. This guy is absolutely clueless because he's talking about an American Taliban. Let me tell you what the real Taliban is doing, even as we speak, in spite of the fact that they're trying to present themselves to the world as a kinder, gentler terrorist group.

And Secretary Blinken has reminded the Taliban in recent hours that the international community is holding them to their commitments. Well, right now, as we speak, they are going door to door seeking out Christians and executing them in front of their families. They are going out and they're seeking young girls.

They went to that one young girl school that you mentioned. And they are forcing young girls as young as 12 years old to marry their Taliban fighters. You know, they are looking for people who helped us and executing them in front of their families.

They're not allowing our U.S. citizens and their helpers to leave the country. That is the Taliban. And for him to say that, I agree with you. No wonder that in primetime each night in America, CNN has fewer viewers than we do listeners on a daily basis on this radio program.

They deserve to be at the bottom of the heap. But that man, he owes every veteran and every American an apology for that statement. But, you know, he actually doubled down. This is how he described America. Now, remember, Joe Biden's President. Democrats control the House and the Senate right now.

OK. But this is how, because this is the pivot shifts that Thanh talks about, the distraction to their base too. They need their base not to think about Afghanistan and the problems of who they elected and who they support and question that. But on these base issues, like somehow there's an American Taliban coming to take over.

Because take a listen to Bite 27. It is starting to look like a combination of theocracy and thugocracy. The leaders of this MAGA ban movement, they're not counting on an intelligence failure or a lack of planning on your part. They're counting on a lack of courage to stand up for your rights in this country.

Does that ring a bell? I mean, you know, Harry, again, I play this because I know our listeners, our viewers, they're not watching this, they're not probably seeing this. But when we talk about the politics of all of this, you do want to go to, OK, how are they talking to their base? How are their kind of most extreme voices utilizing these situations in the U.S. to try and pivot away from the disaster that has been the policies? I mean, it's pivoting away from the COVID policies, pivoting away from the surge there. People just trying to get back to school, people trying to get back to work. And yet they want to distract to these issues.

Absolutely. So Jim Acosta may be the most intellectually dishonest person in the United States, other than perhaps Joe Biden. Jim Acosta is, in my opinion, an intellectual thug. Jim Acosta is simply lying to advance a left wing agenda, an agenda that targets African-Americans, an agenda that targets Latin Latinos. He supports Planned Parenthood, which commits violence each and every day in disadvantaged communities throughout the United States. So let me introduce Jim Acosta to real violence as opposed to the fake violence that he attempts to capitalize on. Yeah, I mean, they don't talk about the rising crime. It was horrendous this weekend in Democrat cities across America.

Just unbelievable violence. All failed policies they'd want to distract and not, you know, look away, look away. We'll be right back to talk more about this on Secular. 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.

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ACLJ.org. Welcome back to Secchia. I think it was so outrageous what was said. I want to give everybody an opportunity to weigh in, but let me reset it just in case you, you know, to hear it in total. This is Jim Acosta. This is CNN over the weekend. So I guess, you know, there's not a ton of people watching over this weekend, but there are people, and he's talking to the base. So he said, if you're tuning in to CNN on Labor Day weekend, you're probably a base supporter. You're really into politics. You're really into the news.

And that's not necessarily bad, but we know who's tuning in there more likely than not. And they've got this new message. It's not about Afghanistan, but it is tied to the language of Afghanistan. Take a listen. What will we tell the Afghan refugees who just fled those schools for girls back in their home country? I guess the girls here will have to fill them in. Unfortunately, what we will tell them is that some members of the far right in this country have apparently decided they will resort to intimidation and in some cases even violence to get what they want.

And they could sweep into power faster than the experts thought possible. Sound familiar? Sort of like an American Taliban. He's conflating so many different things there. You know, one, he's talking about a Texas abortion law. He's then talking about the Taliban and how they came back into power because of the bad Biden policy. And he is talking about this violence and intimidation. I'm not sure where that's coming from. I don't know if he's talking about like also putting in like what happened on January 6th, which by, you know, most people would consider themselves pro-life and conservative or even Republicans or, you know, maybe independent, but with right wing leanings, if you will, widely condemn those kind of actions.

Okay. And the idea that you conflate all three of those together. I mean, Andy, this is when you start saying that your enemy in the United States is like the Taliban when fresh on people's minds is exactly is the Taliban right now in Afghanistan going through and killing its own people, not allowing Americans to leave. Killing, you know, allowing, I liked all that talk about, well, it wasn't Taliban. It was ISIS-K. Let's just be honest.

They had the 13 American troops killed under their watch as well. And they are comparing us. That's who he's talking about to them.

Yeah. I don't think there's any question among my colleagues on this program that Jim Acosta is a reprehensible human being. He has always been that way. He took after everything President Trump said and did solely because President Trump said it and did it.

Acosta has no principles. He is an unapologetic leftist and left winger who advances anything in his cause to say and support what his ideas are. But to suggest that those of us who are for life, those of us who are against the killing of a child when you can hear the heartbeat are Taliban people or that we are supporters of the Taliban or an American Taliban goes way beyond the pale of anything I've ever heard out of his wretched mouth.

This is about as bad as it can get. And they do this when they think no one's paying attention. They're just talking to their base. And the idea, again, no one's being executed in the United States by government or militia groups, but certainly not by the government power because of pro-life legislation.

I mean, you can have all the debates you want about when life begins, but the idea is that no one is being killed, even those who might be taking the life. And if anybody has been in the past that these single actors have taken upon themselves to conduct some kind of vigilante actions, widely condemned as well. So he's not talking about reality of these movements, but then it is playing to the base of the 1990s. That's how I feel like it is.

And that's very Joe Biden-ish too. The abortion movement feels very old school because they don't like science. They don't like the technology. It's all about the protesting and it just feels dated because they're not moving with the times because the times and the information hurts their talking points. So they go back to the 1990s of calling us the terrorists and the Taliban. Yeah, it's almost hard to know where to start here, Jordan. There's so much here.

I would maybe settle for making two points. One, when he goes after pro-lifers, look, I know there's a debate in America about the rights of an unborn or a preborn child, but a pro-life activist is generally on the side of saving life, Jordan. We are those who look at a beating heart and the stopping of that beating heart as the taking of a life. We're also those who look at a child that is in utero and is feeling pain as that is happening and is crying out. And the only reason we don't hear that cry, Jordan, is because it's amniotic fluid that rushes over those vocal cords rather than air. We see that as the taking of the life.

Let's oppose that with point number two, Jordan. We know from General Milley, we've played the sound on this broadcast today, that the threat from the actual Taliban, you know, the Taliban that is actually for the killing of Americans. They've done it before.

They now control vast swaths of land. The threat from that Taliban, the real Taliban, Jordan, it's rising. So the intentional conflation of those two things does two things. One, it pushes pro-lifers away from the argument that they're making. Jordan, it also distracts from a very real and present danger that we know is coming and that this administration ought to be focused on.

Yes. And that's the threat of terrorism, which they believe is going to be a real threat for America inside our homeland. Their best estimates are 12 to 36 months. And they're not very good on estimating anything, especially when it comes to the terrorist groups. But to get back to the politics of this, too, as well, I think it's very important to just put it into scope as we talked about all these issues today is that, Wes, ultimately, people are going to go vote and it's more than a year away still in this midterm election. But they're going to make that decision whether or not to hamstring this administration further. It's still pretty hamstrung because the 50-50 Senate or buy into this.

And I think, listen, it's more than a year away. There's the poll numbers. It's whether or not Democrats embrace Bidenism or not. I think it's the big question. It's not so much the Democrat Party's problem with getting enough people to vote their way or Republican.

It's him now. It's about his policies because he's made major policy decisions. In eight months, he has totally changed the trajectory of this country and he's impacted national security, the economy, on and on and on. I don't think many of the Democrats, especially moderate Democrats or Democrats who were elected from more conservative districts, I don't think they can help but disassociate themselves from this President. I think even with the time that passes between now and midterm elections that he has a political price to pay because the bottom line, and I think they would bear this out when it comes to politicians, it's about survival. It's about being re-elected and this President is a drain on their possibility of being re-elected. I don't think that will change in 14-15 months.

No, it's hard to imagine that. We packed in a lot today, obviously talking about all the situation in Afghanistan getting you up to speed. There's a lot of this breaking too and it's important if you watch this broadcast, it will reload so you can share it with your friends and family because here's where we have. We have the military, top brass, telling us terrorism will be a real threat in this country. They can't do as much about it because we're no longer in Afghanistan.

That's now a safe haven. They talk about ISIS, they talk about Al Qaeda again, but they also talk about groups that we don't even know about yet who may be forming for the sole purpose of carrying out attacks on the American people and of course their ultimate goal is to be able to carry out those attacks on American soil. We haven't even gotten into the other issues that are plaguing this administration, that are being ignored. Again, the media took a moment to be honest and fair because everybody could see what was happening in Afghanistan and how bad that was, the crisis there. But now that the cameras are kind of moved away, they're going back to the oldest of oldest politics, calling the side they disagree with terrorists. That's what they are doing now.

They're calling you and me terrorists because we support, for goodness sakes, a pro-life position. Did CNN fire Jim Acosta? Did he apologize?

No. We'll be able to 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.