USA Today: “Nothing Can Unite Us Now” — Amb. Ric Grenell in Studio

Today on Sekulow, on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the 9-11 terror attacks, the USA Today puts out an article saying nothing can unite us now. We're joined in studio with Rick Rinnell.

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Recall 1-800-684-3110. I can hear you. I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow.

And welcome to Sekulow. We are going to take phone calls, your thoughts and comments too on all the social media, various places the show is streaming right now. If you want to talk to us on air, 1-800-684-3110. We've got a special guest in the studio with us for the full hour of the broadcast. Rick Rinnell is joining us.

He's a senior advisor to the ACLJ. Rick, great to have you in the studio. It's so nice to be here.

For the full hour, not just for one segment. I want to just talk to you right off the bat. The 20th anniversary of 9-11, and we're going to get into some of your story where you were in life and kind of where it took you. But just the initial reactions, 20 years out from those attacks, the different level of effects it's had on different generations of Americans. I think for all of us who were alive that day and cognizant of what was happening, so not too young, this was a defining moment for many different generations.

It certainly was for me. It's always somber. I still get really emotional this weekend and the couple of days surrounding 9-11. I am really reminded of what so many of my Jewish friends always tell me of. Telling stories about the Holocaust is so important.

Remember, remember. As we find the people who directly experience the Holocaust, as they're starting to die off, the stories are incredibly important. I feel that same way about 9-11. My story of what happened that day is so unique and so new to even my nephews and nieces who were too young to remember. It's shocking to me that we have people who are adults today who have no idea the emotions that we're going through, all of us.

It's a generational thing. We have to tell our stories is my point. We have to remind people of what happened to the United States of America on September 11th. We have people in our office right here that were two and three years old when it happened. It's easier now with technology because every year, not only is TV presenting the imagery, but we're presented with it on social media.

Everyone's still talking about it, but you're right. The stories need to be told and the impact. My son reads all these stories and they definitely treat 9-11 in school now almost like the Titanic. It's one of those things where he's coming home with books of, look, this is a book about surviving 9-11. It's odd to have lived through it, especially you guys both did, both in D.C. at the time.

I was in college. It was a very unique moment and something that none of us will forget, but as you said, we do need to keep reminding people. Especially with things like Afghanistan, when this happens, it definitely brings back a lot of those feelings, a lot of that emotion. That's what we're going to do next time with the broadcast.

We are live today. Folks, we'll take your phone calls if you've got thoughts too on where you were on 9-11 and just that feeling. I'm sure that for most of you, you can recount exactly what you were doing when you figured out the gravity of what had happened. It really had wrapped your head around it. You probably know where you were standing and who you were talking to and where you were in the country if you want to share those stories.

This is the day you can do that as well at 1-800-684-3110. Let me say something about the bind mandate because I know a lot of you out there are wondering what the position of the ACLJ is. He has not put this out into actual rules yet. He announced that there would be rules, but all we've got is bullet points right now. What he said, I will tell you this, some of it sounds extremely constitutionally questionable, potentially unconstitutional.

We'll talk about it later as we have more. 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. Robert on Facebook wrote in, remember 9-11, also remember Afghanistan. I can't say, you know, no true words spoken. I mean, the idea that all of that happened during this buildup to the 9-11 and the 20th anniversary, you know, I think, again, all the reminders.

So from what happened on 9-11 and the conflicts that came out of it, the terrorism that we were dealing with, even on our own soil here in the United States, very serious. Let me, we've got Rick Rinnell in the studio with us, and Rick, we just kind of hinted early on, and folks, I want you to share this with your friends and family. We're doing this live as a looking back, but kind of to tell, we've told every year different people's kind of stories and focused on where they were, what they were doing.

Rick, you've got a really unique story. So when we go back to 2001, you find yourself in Washington, D.C., starting out in, you've got a position, you know where you're ultimately going to be in New York, but tell people about it. So I had worked previously with Ari Fleischer, my friend, who was the Ways and Means spokesman. I had worked for a congressman on the Ways and Means Committee.

We got to know each other, and he helped me. If you remember, he became the White House press secretary for George Bush. He helped me get into the administration, the Bush administration. And this was before 9-11, and I had worked on the McCain campaign, so I was a McCain guy coming into the Bush team, and Ari got me a job up at the UN, and I was going to be the U.S. ambassador to the UN spokesman. U.S. ambassador nominee at that point was struggling with confirmation, and so we were fighting for his confirmation. It was John Negroponte at the time. We had scheduled, finally, a hearing for John Negroponte in Washington. We were preparing for the hearing when 9-11 happened, and the hearing was delayed by a day or two, I remember, and they rushed John Negroponte through confirmation.

What we thought would be a messy confirmation fight, 9-11 made it kind of moot, and they immediately rushed him through. He was confirmed by voice vote, sent up to the UN immediately, like days after 9-11. And I found myself in New York working for John Negroponte at the UN when we were organizing what to do about this tragic 9-11.

You talked about, sir, you get to New York, ultimately you end up spending eight years there working with four different ambassadors. The conflicts begin pretty soon after, but before we got to the conflict in Afghanistan or Iraq, what was it like walking in as someone who's newly represented the United States to this international body, their response at the time to the United States? I think people forget sometimes where the world was, how the world felt. Well, you know, I was a young staffer, basically, going up to the United Nations, and at that point you view the UN with kind of idealistic eyes.

This is where the world comes together, and so when you walk into that huge General Assembly hall of the UN, and you look around and you see 190-plus placards from countries, you quickly look for the Europeans and for others who share our values. Capitalism, the rule of law, and so when I arrived, there was an incredible outpouring for the United States of America because of what had just happened to us, and people could see that terrorism had come to the United States. George Bush was only eight months into his presidency, and if you remember, he won on this compassionate conservatism mantra, and he was going to kind of change the way we talked about immigration and minorities, and that was the goal. And then 9-11 happened, and he became the war President, and for the rest of his tenure, it was about foreign affairs and military action, and that was not what he had planned. But he rose to the occasion, and I think all of us immediately were thrown into this.

That was my first serious job in foreign policy 20 years ago. I was going to say, we heard that clip from President Bush at that moment, at Ground Zero, with the bullhorn, and those are moments that he said, we'll live forever. I was there. You were there. Those are the moments they play at the Hall of Presidents when you're at Disney World.

They go, here are the five or six moments that make it, a clip from Kennedy and a clip from Bush. You were there. What was that like? Well, whenever the President came at that point to New York, there was a huge organization for any President, obviously, and so I was just doing kind of the staffer things, right? So I didn't get to be with him in that moment, but I was down there organizing, and to be honest, I can't even remember exactly where I was, obviously organizing media and doing all the things that you have to do to get there. A blur for everyone, even people who weren't working directly there.

That what you're talking about days later? Very emotional, and I think we had so many foreign dignitaries that wanted to go see 9-11, the Ground Zero, and we would take them down, and I can remember doing that time and time again, taking world leaders down, showing them what happened, and their emotions and their advice to say to us, please don't hesitate. What can we do to help? They're pleased to say, we're with you. This is terrible. Around the world.

It feels like times have changed, unfortunately. And then the coalition comes together pretty quickly, so the work there, to go from thinking, my focus is going to be for immigration and this kind of compassionate conservatism to organizing a war, and that was what was being done at the UN as well, was putting together the coalition that would do that. I say thank God we had Condi Rice, and I believe that God had placed her in this role, because Condi was national security advisor, incredibly patient, smart, unflappable, and remember, George W. Bush was the Texas governor, and his team largely were from Texas. They were not equipped in that moment to run an international program, a war, a response, a diplomatic response, and yet they did rise to the occasion, but I think that Condoleezza Rice became incredibly important, and I think that that's when their relationship really selected them. Because President Bush trusted her, and she didn't miss a beat.

She was really a hero then. Yeah, absolutely, and I think we look back. We only have a couple of minutes in the segment left, so I want to make sure that we cover everything as much as we can with you. So in the coming segments, we are going to talk for those who are curious about what's going on in California. I know we're headed towards that week.

What's that going to look like? And the process seems to have unfolded, but we want to make sure we spent time, a proper amount of time, Jordan, on this memorial holiday, if you will, now coming this weekend, something that, again, every year for the last 20 years certainly has become a topic this year, more maybe prevalent than ever because of what happened in Afghanistan, nearly almost exactly 20 years later. And that's sort of the heartbreaking part about this.

I know that the original date was to get out by September 11th in sort of a celebratory way, but now times have changed, and we've seen what's happened last month. I think a lot of people don't even want to think about it. Do we have time for me to admit something? Yeah. We have two minutes.

Two minutes, 20 seconds. I want to admit something that I, in today's world, I'm a little bit embarrassed by why I didn't get this at the time. But I was in Washington, D.C. on 9-11, as I was describing, and when confronted with the planes going into the Pentagon, or at that point, CBS was reporting a car bomb at the State Department. Really, some misinformation, but scary stuff for those of us in Washington, D.C. Somebody had said to me, oh, a weather plane went into a building in Manhattan. And my response was, why are you talking about Manhattan?

We have a situation here in Washington, D.C. Like, I did not connect the two in the slightest. I thought a weather plane had gone in in Washington, in New York, and I was in Washington hearing about all of this chaos. My focus was where I was, a very selfish, personal moment of, wow, this is an attack possibly in Washington, and you're talking about some weather plane going into a building in New York?

Like, come on, get focused here. Times have changed with that, where I think now, if social media existed, you wouldn't have known immediately. Those clips would have been available in two seconds. Obviously, we all saw a lot of the imagery, but you had no idea what was happening. What's crazy, though, within the day- Young people can't even fathom that. A day before social media. When we were just watching it live unfold and trying to figure out how it affected your life. I was in Florida.

It was so disconnected. No, I was in D.C. I was finishing up college, and class hadn't even started yet that morning, and they came and they got us told to go back, to leave class. That's when they said there was something at the State Department. I was at GW, so it's right there. And, yeah, we turned on the TV. I remember school started back, interesting enough, to Resilience of Americans the very next day in Washington, D.C. It was a different D.C., but that was the kind of resilience and unity, and I'll tell you, GW, there was a lot of students from the Northeast.

People were just trying to figure out, you know, their uncles survived, their dads survived, their moms survived, because of the amount of loss. We come back, we'll continue to discuss this with you, with Rick Grenell for the full hour of the broadcast. 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. 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. It's a special broadcast. We've got Rick Grenell in the studio with us for the full hour of the broadcast.

It's also unique because we are about to approach the 20th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks. And we've talked so much with Rick about Afghanistan. I mean the fact that, Rick, you know, looking forward a little bit, we were all telling our story and we could talk about that for hours. We all could about it, especially the positions you were in and the position of Brie West into the conversation as well.

He was in the military. One thing that we're hearing today, unfortunately, and we saw the USA Today and I think, you know, with the mandate announced yesterday, there may be some truth to it. We certainly all feel the partisan politics. But they make a claim that nothing can unite us now. I tend to always fight back against that as an American.

There are huge issues. I remember when Osama bin Laden was killed. That felt like that united the country for the most part.

People didn't care about politics that day. That there are still going to be moments that unite us that are positive. They don't all have to be negative as well.

They can be positive moments. But it certainly is a different age. So those eight years you spent at the UN, things shifted. The view of the US and the Bush administration and the empathy and sympathy for the United States began to evaporate. Look, I think it's really important to look back and admit when I think we overreach or did something wrong. I was part of the Bush administration. And I think that changing the focus from Afghanistan to Iraq was the wrong decision. And I was a part of that. The love and the unity that we had at the UN completely went away when we shifted the focus to Iraq.

And we all know the resolution 1441 and the problems that it had in the French and the Germans and so many countries, even the British, against us. And, you know, trying to read what we needed to do. And I remember President Bush saying, I cannot wait until the individuals are climbing into the cockpit. It's too late, then we have to get them before they make their plans. And that was the whole idea of Iraq.

It made sense to me at the time. But I think, you know, over time, I've now become somebody who wants to focus on the immediate threats to the United States. And that's the criteria is the immediate threats not to try to find places where we can build democracy.

You know, it's terrible that little girls can't go to school in Afghanistan, but they can't go to school in the Congo either. And where do we stop? Where do we start?

Where do we go? And hindsight's 20-20. I mean, I think for you, as you bring up, it's easy to look back for anyone and say, okay, well, maybe my views and look at your life experience have shifted.

At that point, 20 years ago, you're a young guy for one of your first major jobs working under there. Obviously, the intelligence you thought was there, everyone thought that was the right thing to do. There was still mass unity in certain parts of the world and the country for Iraq. And I know there are a lot of people who still obviously talk about it and that whole experience.

So I don't want you to like, you struggle with, I could tell in the conversation, but I think we can all look back. It's a lot easier to look back 20 years ago. And say, sure, we may have made the wrong decision, but at the moment we were trying, America seemed to be trying to do what you did. Now prevent the next attack and to maybe in not necessarily the best way, bring about some form of peace in this area. And I do see that point.

And there was a lot of support from Democrats and Republicans for Iraq. I personally just think it's really important for public servants to be transparent. And we need to declassify and let people see the process, admit we're humans, we're never going to be perfect. And I do think that we've learned so much. And for me, Donald Trump really helped solidify this idea of putting America first rather than just deal with consensus around the world, not letting others veto what is best for us. Wes, you've got a new piece up at ACLJ.org, A Solemn Remembrance, 9, 11, 20 years later. I kind of contrast that with the headline that we can never unite again, which is such a depressing thought as an American. And I can get people's extremities at the moment, but I think they do forget the good and the bad that unites America. But this is a tough one because we're looking back 20 years and that same day we're doing that, we're talking, our government is working with the Taliban. Tragedy often brings unity, and that is a good thing. It's bringing something good, coming out of something very tragic and very bad. Yeah, I think we all want to be united right now.

It's tough. I think we should try and be united. But so much has changed in the last 20 years. You know, in 2001, the Taliban controlled a few provinces in Afghanistan where they harbored Al Qaeda.

Today, 20 years later and billions of dollars later and over 2,450 service members lives later, they control the whole country. And that is a tough thing for Americans to get our heads around, you know, and we want to be united. But had the events of the last three weeks not happened, we would be commemorating tomorrow in a very different way. And it is not a celebration. We don't ever celebrate what Congress has deemed Patriots Day.

It's something we commemorate, much like Pearl Harbor Day. But yeah, this is a tough time. I still think we can be unified.

I'm not hopeful that it's going to come anytime soon. So much has changed. You mentioned during our pre-production meeting, social media has changed so that how word gets out in people's opinions, there's a lot of bitterness and a lot of division. Rick mentioned earlier that this is an emotional time for him, and it is for all Americans, I think.

As a retired Army officer, I've teared up a lot watching people being interviewed and clips and what have you. But as the retired Army guy, I have had a lot of pride the last couple of days thinking about the fact that the first battle in the war on terror was actually fought over the skies of Pennsylvania. And average Americans took a vote and they attacked the enemy.

And that's been in the front of my mind today. This war has been going on 20 years. But the first battle, we won it. We won it with average Americans in Pennsylvania.

Can I add something to that? It's just a challenge for young people and people listening. If you were on a plane and that happened to you, would you get out of your seat and fight somebody trying to take over the cockpit? Would you stand up and do it? Because they were average people who had incredible courage, above average courage. And they didn't hesitate. Let's roll.

Let's do this. We're the Saiyans. And that humbles me to think about the just everyday people on a plane that were willing to say, no, you're not going to do this and take over. Their behavior was really Medal of Honor kind of behavior. Absolutely. It's definitely a way to look at it. I think that that's often forgotten. I think that's I've never heard it put that way.

So thank you. And that's a very interesting perspective on this. We talked about the uniting situation and we brought this up a little bit before in previous shows we've all discussed, which was Jordan, you said, will we ever we're never going to be able to unite again. I think over Afghanistan, over what we just saw, there was actually a decent amount of uniting. I think we didn't unite around a presidency. We didn't unite around our government, but we all united in horror over what we were seeing. You actually could say for the first time, maybe in four or five, six years, you saw what was considered deemed typically the more liberal journalist, liberal news actually doing their job and responding and saying, this is ridiculous.

This is a massive, massive failure. So there may be uniting moments, but they may just not look the same. They may not be as red, white and blue flag waving as they once were.

They may be that we all are getting together and realizing when we've messed up and how we can go out and fix it. Just a thought. We've got a second half hour coming up. We can take more of your thoughts too. 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. Different things unite us different ways. There was that moment. The question is does that moment continue as well? Does it continue to hold the feet of the fire of the Biden administration? We'll be right back on Sekulow with Brooke Rinnell.

Second half hour coming up. For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines, protecting your freedoms, defending your rights in courts, in Congress and in the public arena. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. If you're not, 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. Freedom! Keeping you informed and engaged. Now more than ever, this is Sekulow.

And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. I wanted to spend that first half hour because we're not going to be able to talk to you tomorrow live about having Rick on the set with us, having Wes here, to be able to reflect on 9-11 and on where we are now as a country. But there is a lot going on in our country. We've got political battles. I know a lot of you right now would say, why would I spend this whole show on the mandate that was announced yesterday? And I'm just going to tell you this. We're a legal organization.

I've got a little bit more time here. As a legal organization, I'm not going to really go through a bunch of bullet points and talking points from a President who, yes, he sounded tough. Yes, he sounded extreme. Do the rules that he actually imposed match that or was that a lot of big talk? So before I start saying what is and what isn't right or what isn't legal, what you think is right or wrong policy is a different question. But if we talk to the legal issues, we've got to see it.

We've got to see what this emergency order actually looks like. What does it mean to have 100, especially when we look outside of the federal government mandate, what do the 100 employees mean? Do they all mean that you have 100 employees at one location?

What if you had two employees at a location and 98 other employees worked remotely? Does that apply to you? We don't know any of that yet. We don't know what exemptions are there, what exceptions are there. I will tell you there's things that seem very constitutionally suspect. To those of us at the ACLJ, we want to see what they are trying to do and then we will respond accordingly.

So don't think for a moment we're not following that very carefully and tracking that very carefully. Everyone should start delivering some sort of mail within their office and then characterize themselves as a postal worker. That's right. And then you would get around that. Exactly. No better for you. Let me go, Logan. I think one of the issues we want to talk about, and we'll spend more time in the next segment about it, but is of course California where Rick lives and the recall effort which you've been involved in because we get tons of questions about it.

Sure. California is one of our biggest support groups are there for the ACLJ. Southern California is. People like to characterize Southern California in their heads as this, obviously it is highly a liberal area, an area that you think of Hollywood, you think of that.

But our biggest base, like if we were to do a world tour, our number one stop would be Southern California would be either LA or Orange County somewhere. Millions of conservatives that are there and they're very active people and we're seeing what's unfold. Yeah, frustrated and maybe rightfully so as we've seen obviously your state take a very interesting turn over the last couple of years. Look, I think that it's really important for Californians to understand what we have been able to do by even getting this recall vote to a vote is a huge win. We have organized and placed on the ballot Gavin Newsom's leadership, whether or not we win or lose, we won by the world watching. I mean Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have all come to Gavin's rescue because they're so nervous.

Gavin is having to tell us why he is good and make a case for his leadership. I hope that no matter what happens in this recall that Californians realize we've made a huge step in fighting back. We must continue to do that. I have this organization called Fix California.

You can go to FixCalifornia.com, sign up, help us. We are fighting the long term fight of cleaning up the voter rolls. We just released an ad that really talks about all of the voter fraud problems. My attitude is unless we look into each case, we don't know how much is there. It's a lot of really troubling and concerning issues right now. Let's keep that conversation going. If you're in California, give us a call to 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110 if you have a question about this. I know there's a lot of debate over the ballots and how that's all working just like there was maybe a year ago. I feel like this is going to become a common thread that we're going to continue to follow.

Jordan? Yeah, so check out FixCalifornia.com. We come back and we're going to talk about it because if you're outside California like we are, you get the news of kind of the reports of here's where the polling is, here's some of the hijinks that are going on. But what is being done there to attempt to save Gavin Newsom? It's pretty shocking how they're voting in California. We'll talk about that when we come back.

Or printing, yes. 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. So if you're wondering, like, what's happening out in California with this recall, as you see in the news occasionally, you'll see, well, there's been a lot of support, obviously, because as Rick was talking about, it got to the point where they're having the vote. First you had to have a vote on whether or not to even hold a recall. The votes were there to do that. Now, we'll see next week, maybe next week, how the votes come out.

Let's explain to people why I said that, Rick. You were talking before, what they're doing with ballots there is even more shocking and seems more egregious than even what we saw in the last Presidential election with the mail-in ballots going to everybody. But in California, there's a step further. You can print your own ballot at home? Print your ballot at home.

It's coming to a state near you. Now, look, when Kamala Harris became the vice President, she was obviously our senator, and Gavin got to appoint the U.S. senator. He appointed Alex Padilla. Alex Padilla actually happened to be our secretary of state, so he moved out of the secretary of state job into the U.S. senate job, which then meant, okay, now Gavin gets to appoint the secretary of state who's in charge of elections. So his handpicked appointee, while he also has emergency powers, he has said we're doing mail-in ballots. Every single person on the voter rolls received a ballot. We know that ballots are going to people who don't live in California, residency violations, dead people. This is just fact.

I don't care what anybody tells you, any of the media. We have the proof. People who should not be getting ballots are getting ballots. People who just kind of were living in California for two or three months and had an address and then moved away seven, eight, nine years ago, still getting ballots. You can send those ballots in, and now our secretary of state has announced you can print your ballot from home because COVID is so bad you can't leave your house.

That's what they're trying to tell us. I mean, actually, think about that, folks. For most of us, this would be, it's hard to imagine that you would just hit click print whether you were, you know, in your home office, and boom, you got your ballot and you go stick it in the mailbox. The issues with that, I mean, it doesn't take a genius to figure out the issues you can have with that. I mean, you're printing it, you can throw a cop. I'm not trying to tell people ways to do things illegal. It just is very obvious.

It creates the most potential for voter fraud with the least amount of, like, what appears to be the seriousness of voting is taken away, too, completely from that process. I want to take this call to Tony in California online, too. Hey, Tony, welcome to Secular. You're on the air talking to Rick Rinnell as well.

Thank you for having me on. Yes, I just want to let you know, first of all, my husband and I did not get our ballots. And so I went to go vote in person yesterday in my voting place. And I had a concern when I voted. I walked in and they give you a card and the setup, the tables are set up.

They're about 18 inches on each side of each table in row. So they have access to see your movement when you vote. They hand you a card, you go to the machine, and the machine is like a large iPad. And so next to it is another machine where you stick the card in like an ATM machine.

You stick the card in, then you proceed to follow the instructions on the iPad. Now, what it does is that first thing it asks you if you want to recall yes or no. So you do your answer there.

What concerns me is that the dividers for each of these tables are about 18 inches high. There's no privacy. Well, this is interesting. I want to jump right in here because we were talking about this before the show, Rick, this privacy issue about being able to determine the votes without even opening the envelopes. The majority of these will not be like Tony's.

They will not be in person. They're going to be, you know, mail-in ballots. And you were saying there's a couple different ways, different counties are doing it different ways, but in one county you could see if someone voted yes to recall. Yeah, I think Tony's hit on something which we all want, which is secrecy within the voting process. And we have in L.A. County the envelope for the ballots have two circles, open circles, open holes. And we are told that this is important and a must-do. And it's happened, you know, they say, oh, no, we've done this for years.

We've done this all the time. When you've usually shipped out millions of ballots to everyone unrequested. And it's because people who are blind need to be able to feel and figure out where to sign. Well, we have a thing called Braille. We should be able to figure out how to do that, how to help people who are blind figure out where to sign without showing holes because the reality is if you fold your ballot a certain way and you slip it in, if you voted yes on the recall, it shows up in the hole. This is just a reality. Now, if you voted no, it doesn't show up.

Now, maybe it's a coincidence, but regardless it's wrong and it's a flaw. And I don't trust the system. And, you know, Tony's point about secrecy I think is a valid one. So this gets to a bigger issue is that kind of however this vote goes, and people need to get out there and vote. I mean, voter turnout is going to be huge about this. But the problems within California, these are huge. These are huge structural problems that maybe with a recall you get to start tackling some of. But people, like you said with Fix California, people have got to be like a little bit more dedicated to just an election cycle because these problems that are kind of systemic within.

You've got to take it seriously. And one election is not going to change all of that, all of this built-in bureaucracy. I mean, whether or not it's this goofy stuff like being able to see the yes vote, printing ballots at home. But instead of trying to move to something more secure that would still be new like the online, which is a lot more security. We have to have voter ID, I think.

Well, yeah, that's the thing. There's no voter ID in California right now. I mean, you can print it at home.

I don't know what stops you from printing it again or just putting it through a copy machine. I was U.S. ambassador to Germany. I can tell you that the German government mocks us for not having an ID. They, of course, you have to have an ID to vote. You have to have an ID to vote around the world in other countries. But somehow conservatives have been put into a corner that if you say, no, every person must show an ID, the response back is we're racist.

And we then back down because we're afraid of that. I'm not backing down anymore on voter ID. I believe that if you are against an ID to vote, then you are trying to cheat because it's just so obvious. You must have an ID to do so many other things. Voting should be one of those things. Your ID and how many times a week? Quite a lot for things that are inconsequential, that are clear, but you have to do it. It is an interesting topic because you brought up that is sort of the politicization of these topics and with the rise of social media and these things, people are nervous to tackle any issues because they don't want to see what happened to them happen to everyone else or what happened to everyone else happened to them specifically.

When you start having those kinds of responses. No, clearly there should be some kind of ID. We have an ID in this country for just about everything. I think we all have to go through the process of going back to the DMV this week or this year to get the gold star.

All of that is happening. It's an inconvenience to everyone, but for some reason, it's been the one topic that woke us up. When you fly, you have to have an ID. Try flying without an ID. It doesn't work. If you don't have your ID and you have to prove it because our producer had to do it once when he lost his ID, it is quite the process to prove you are you. It happened to me. It is not easy.

I didn't have an ID and literally I missed my flight because they brought me into another room and I had to show. I was pulling up websites to be like, see me? Like, I'm fixed. In California, this has been a movement to come to, especially for conservatives. We've got such a big audience out there. I don't feel bad talking almost directly to them right now because they're so important to the work of the ACLJ. There's been a lot of grassroots work, like you said, to get to this step.

Now you're at the edge of seeing how things worked out. As you pointed out, you believe that all the work that was done, this organizing, is a success on its own and potentially the more success of the future. We have found so many more conservatives in California. My organization, Fix California, has found 1.3 million conservatives who are not registered to vote. I think over time what's happened in California is people are frustrated. They think, well, it doesn't matter, my vote doesn't matter, this is California.

So they have decided not to get involved, not to engage. This recall has changed people's attitude. Whether we win or lose, we must keep fighting. We are suing every county in California to clean up the voter rolls.

I think that that is one of the solutions. The voter rolls are messy, too messy. So I want to encourage everybody, keep organizing, keep pushing. We have already won by getting this to the vote of the people. Folks in California, you've got until Tuesday, that is the vote. And there's obviously a lot of different ways to make sure you vote in California right now. So no excuses not to be involved to our California audience.

We come back more with Rick Rinnell. I encourage you, go to ACLJ.org as well. That's ACLJ.org. You can see all the different work that we're doing around the country and the world. That's at ACLJ.org. We'll be right back on Secular. 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 Sec Hill. Final segment with Rick Rinnell. And we've talked a lot. We've gotten into the heavy stuff of the 20th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks. And talked about Rick's story. And each year we've tried to bring out new stories, new approaches, kind of a new view of what it was like that day.

And so got in some heavy stuff. But I did want to, while Rick was here, get into the recall in California as we were talking about what was happening in California specifically. His group, which, again, FixCalifornia.com, put together an ad for Californians on voter fraud. But there's a warning in it. It's not just about California.

Just take a listen or watch. Coming out of California, where voter fraud has been found. Notorious street gang may be behind efforts to rig a local election. Meanwhile, some voters in Riverside County have received multiple ballots. Our elections are under assault by liberals who want to make it easier to cheat.

They're hell-bent on winning at any cost just to be in power. Even if it undermines our entire democratic process. In California, democratic leaders are pushing reckless, unsafe, and radical election law changes to make it easier to steal elections. Including blindly mailing ballots to everyone, even non-citizens, allowing people to print ballots at home. Compton City Councilman Isaac Galvin and five others are facing election fraud charges. Prosecutors say the final tally for the second district vote was rigged. We know fraud exists in our elections, and yet the left and the liberal media refuses to investigate. The recall election in California is just as bad.

This is asking for fraud. They can see your vote from the outside of the envelopes. Hundreds of gubernatorial recall ballots mailed out by the state did not make it to voters.

Torrance police seized a loaded 9mm handgun, drugs, and stolen mail, which included 300 recall election ballots. The radical effort by liberals to undermine our elections here in California is just the start. What they get away with in California will be replicated in states across the country. It's time to fight back. Join us at FixCalifornia.com to sign up and join our fight for free and honest elections. We'll be right back.

We'll be right back. This is what the left wants. They somehow spin this as direct access, easy voting, but the reality is it's reckless, and we all know that. And if we don't get focused on it right now, to call it out and stop it, you cannot print your ballot from home.

That is crazy. And let's get focused on it now in California, because if we don't stop it in California, it's coming to Tennessee, to Michigan, to Illinois, to Ohio and Pennsylvania. Why wouldn't they? It does seem like one of those things that, sure, could there be voter reform? Should we probably have some changes in the way the process works? Maybe it isn't as secure as it was. That's part of your organization. But it sort of, it does remind me, it reminds me of immigration, where it's like, we have a crisis, we have an issue. Here's a Band-Aid that totally messes up the entire system, instead of actually going down and saying, all right, how do we actually fix a problem?

It's coming to more. It's not like the people who are in the economic situation or are elderly. They're the ones working a printer? Right. I mean, so we know that this is for people. I can barely work a printer. This is for people to do nefarious activities with. I don't want to say that people are going to.

Well, combine it with not having an ID. Who's got the printers? Who's got the access to that, to do that? I don't feel like that's the grandma at home who feels isolated and needs a little help, or the people who are economically hurting.

Let me be really honest with you. People who are isolated at home love going out to the polls to vote. I don't buy that they want to stay in their house to vote. They know that this is one of those activities, that they participate in society.

It's a good thing to do. They plan their day. My mother plans her day on voting day.

She goes to lunch with people. They go vote together. It is a social thing that she feels good about because she's investing in her community. Yeah, I feel that way. A lot of people feel that way.

It is one of those moments. A bunch of us got together here and went out and voted all together because there is that communal, patriotic feeling that you get from it. Understand times can change. Things can become adjusted, but this is clearly not the way. Like Jordan said, it's really hard to hear things like, you're printing your ballots at home and not immediately jump to, well, this is just for fraud. Let's remember that the reason why this is happening is because Gavin Newsom still has emergency orders in place.

He has grabbed emergency orders' power because of COVID, and he is scaring people into believing that this is what needs to happen. You need to print your ballot from at home, and then other people will come pick it up. And we're not even hearing about that, honestly.

You brought that up today, the printing at home. This first, I've really even heard that that's happening in California, and you're right. It will have a trickle down throughout the country because that's what happens in California.

It still has major influence. Especially if it works for the other side. If this works for the other side, they're going to fight as aggressively as possible. First, they'll start in the blue state. They'll start where they've got the control because they can get it through and solidify their support, and then they'll start pushing out lawsuits about why you must do this. I mean, I can write the script for them because they've done this script. Yeah.

Over and over and over again. They have had some hurdles because when the Supreme Court said, okay, these provisions of pre-clearance in the Voting Rights Act can be lifted now because we're enough years past that, that affected a lot of states in the Southeast. But now they're suing states like Georgia.

The Department of Justice is suing Georgia right now because of changes to tighten up the voter rules, but also to extend voting to more people. Rick, we've got a minute and a half left here. It's a big weekend in the country because of the 9-11, different memorials that will be going on, the 20th anniversary. Just like a final word for people, we can get heavy again to close it out.

Sure. It's such an emotional weekend, and I love telling the stories. I love telling people the emotions.

My nephews and nieces always ask me around this weekend, hey, tell me something new. Because they were not able to even, some of them weren't born, but some of them were five, six years old, even 10 years old, and they don't remember. I love, Jordan, what you said earlier about how everyone who has a memory does know exactly where they were when they found out about 9-11. When they turned on the news, when someone called, whether they were in California and they were three hours behind and they turned the news on, people were calling.

My mother was panicking, trying to get to me. Those are the times that build unity because we cared for each other in a crisis. I think that's what you were talking about, Logan, is that we can get to that place where we have that unity and it doesn't necessarily have to be a negative. Absolutely.

Jordan? We've got a lot on at ACLJ.org. We've got a Heroes of 9-11 documentary you can share, a short documentary with your friends and family. I just encourage you to utilize those resources that are available at ACLJ.org.

We'll talk to you next time. 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.