BREAKING: China & North Korea Test Dangerous New Weapons

Breaking news today on Sekulow as China and North Korea test dangerous new weapons. Mike Pompeo joins us live. While we have assessed that this event does not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel, territory, or that of our allies, we will continue to monitor the situation.

The U.S. commitment to the defense of the Republic of Korea and Japan remains ironclad. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. Welcome to Sekulow.

We are taking your phone calls at 1-800-684-3110. Secretary Pompeo will be joining us in the next segment of the broadcast to talk about the breaking news out of both North Korea and China. To North Korea first. So North Korea has test-fired for the first time in two years a submarine-launched ballistic missile. Now you might be thinking, okay, so ballistic missiles, and what about their ICBMs? Here's the difference between a submarine-launched ballistic missile. The submarine, of course, can go undetected, it can be moved around and maneuvered closer to U.S. assets, closer to South Korean assets, and so you don't have to have the capabilities of an ICBM to still carry out and have a very lethal and very dangerous weapon. And in fact, again, the testing of these weapons is always a sign to the world.

It's not just a one-off event, it captures what's going on currently in the world. You know, we're going to talk to Secretary Pompeo, but I want to recall what Rick Reynolds said yesterday in the broadcast, which was when they started talking about Russia, you know, resurrecting Christopher Steele, look towards China. Well, China also, now this test, this was a different test, so separate from North Korea's, China back in August, but the news is just coming out, tested a hypersonic missile. This is something that would go into space, this hypersonic weapon.

It would then sit in space, very difficult to detect, and then when they have a target they want to hit, they would be able to send that missile from space to the targets. And we talked about earlier in our radio meeting today the people who mocked the idea of a space force in the United States and the idea of how important this is going to be to our future, even a show made about it trying to mock the new space force, when in reality our adversaries are moving forward with these weapons. We are living in 2021. This is not just some pipe dream from planners.

These are real. You can actually design these weapons, put them into space, test them, and it is the new frontier, if you will, when it comes to national security, especially amongst the major world powers. So we're going to talk about all of that with Secretary Pompeo in the next segment, and then I want to get some of your calls and your thoughts mixed in as well.

We talked about the hypersonic weapon. At the same time, we're going to update you on our FOIA involving Chinese assets inside the United States, specifically the Chinese asset Feng Feng, or Christine Feng, depending on which name, their Western name or Eastern name, who was targeting Swalwell. And we are still in court over that. The interesting issue there that we'll discuss, because the FBI asserted a privilege different than all the other agencies that we asked to get this information on about these assets, because we thought it was important, if they are targeting, as we know, members of Congress, if they are targeting academic institutions, to what extent that private institutions also need to be aware. And that could be your business or the company that you work for, the school, your kid goes through the school you work for.

So where your grandkids go to. So that FOIA as well. That's all coming up on Sekulow today with this breaking news. Of course, South Korea, they've put their National Security Council in place because of this action by North Korea. We'll talk about all the ramifications of this with Secretary Pompeo next, and we'll bring in the team as well.

If you want to talk to us on air, it's 1-800-68-43110. Here's what I think is the big problem here. If you agree or disagree, let us know. It's that we just seem absent from the world. We're not flexing our muscles at all. We looked weak out of Afghanistan. There's some more news out of Afghanistan as well. And we look weak when it comes to these missile tests, because it just seems like our military, our capability, at least publicly, isn't there. 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. All right, welcome back to Sekulow. We will start taking your phone calls next segment of the broadcast, 1-800-684-3110, because there's breaking news. And Secretary Mike Pompeo joining us now, Senior Counsel for Global Affairs. Secretary Pompeo, some serious stuff out in North Korea today. They have tested for the first time in two years a submarine-launched ballistic missile.

It's the first test in over two years. We talked a little bit only in our opening just about the implications of how dangerous these kind of weapons can be. We saw the National Security Council in South Korea get together. But just to let people know what these kind of tests and what these weapons do to our allies and the world.

Jordan, good to be with you. So I've read the reporting. It looks consistent with a missile test out of a place called Sinpo. It's a traditional North Korean military launch point.

When they engage in this kind of activity, they get better every time they try. Even if the operation itself was a failure, they learn, they gather data. This is why what President Trump did when he met with Chairman Kim to get them to stop conducting these tests was so important. It denied them the capacity to continue to improve their capability so they could threaten the United States and our allies. So it's unsurprising that the South Korean National Security Council met the Japanese.

I am confident we'll be meeting as well. These kinds of missile tests put their people more at risk. And it's why the deterrence model that the Trump administration had put in place was so central to securing not only the American people from the threat from the North Korean nuclear program, but for the people in the region as well.

You have the rare distinction. You've been to Pyongyang. You met with Chairman Kim.

What is that regime? Obviously, there's been a shift from the Trump administration, the Biden administration with these tests. What do they think they gain? Is it clear what the North Koreans think they're gaining from this other than just trying to threaten their South Korea or threaten potential enemies? But is there something internally going on too? I think there's two purposes.

One is internal, as you suggested there. I think it is. The fact that they're struggling, I think they're still struggling with the virus. There are 25 million people that live outside of Pyongyang. There's about 2 million that live in the capital.

The 25 million who live outside live in horrible conditions. The human rights violations by the leaders of North Korea are truly of global tragedy. And so I think he demonstrates that they're still doing things for North Korean nationalism. But the second one is he's putting the world on notice that they haven't gone away, that they have this nuclear capability, and they will use this for leverage for things like humanitarian relief and assistance to convince the Chinese that they need to make sure not treat them in a way that's inconsistent with what North Koreans have asked the Chinese to do.

That is, they will continue to trade with them. Remember, the North Koreans are still under enormous sanctions. And so these missile tests are aimed at convincing those who don't understand deterrence, sometimes the Europeans, sometimes even people inside the United States, perhaps even the Biden administration, that maybe, maybe we should just let go of those sanctions so that they will stop threatening the world. Pretty disturbing trend, nation to nation, all this new testing of military might be. Every week there's a different adversary of ours testing weaponry, and so do we also have, and we just mentioned it to people, that China, we're just finding it out now, but that China reportedly tested in August a nuclear-capable hypersonic weapon, much harder to detect and intercept than ballistic missiles. These kind of reports, again, it seems like they're moving forward with bold military plans. The news ultimately gets out, and the analysts that have been in the media on this Chinese hypersonic weapon, I mean, they are sounding some major alarm bells, even about these being hidden inside satellites. They put up a satellite now having to think that every Chinese satellite is a potential nuclear weapon.

Jordan, there's no doubt the Chinese Communist Party's intent on building a military that can dominate the American military, the militaries of the West, including the Europeans and ours. Our adversaries don't stand still. We have to continue to move forward as well. We have to continue to do the things we need to do to secure our freedom. We did that. President Trump built our military up.

We began to conduct research on all kinds of things that we just hadn't done for the eight years prior to that. My biggest concern is that when you hear the White House press person say that we welcome competition from China, no, we don't welcome competition from the Chinese Communist Party. We want to continue to be the beacon for freedom around the world.

We don't want to live in a society that's dominated by a Marxist-Leninist ideology. We need to make sure that we have the military capability to defend ourselves and the economic might to help our partners and friends around the world. The risk I see too on this is that when you have, especially with the North Korean test and when they test these missiles, and we've seen some of the failures in the past, is that it puts everybody right on the edge of a serious conflict. If something was to go wrong in one of these tests and people were injured and there was a response, whether it's the North Korean ballistic missile out of a submarine, a hypersonic weapon from the Chinese, or something the Russians are testing, it just feels edgy in the world right now. It feels like we've retreated as a country. It gets edgier the more that America fails to demonstrate resolve, Jordan.

I think that's absolutely fair. The world saw that when the Iranians, through their proxy and Gaza Strip, fired missiles into Israel, when we had the debacle that we had and the way we withdrew from Afghanistan, the world can see that we are truly back to a weak foreign policy as we had in the Obama administration for eight years. That makes others more, they get sportier. They take more risk. They think that America can be pushed around. If you push America around, eventually Americans will be forced to respond, and that does create increased risk. It's why deterrence is why strength matters. It's why Ronald Reagan had peace through strength precisely in the same way we tried to deliver that in the Trump administration as well. I want to switch a little bit to Iran, because it's a little bit humorous, but really that's just the takeaway.

It's sad that it's in this state. You've got Iran hosting a conference of foreign ministers. I guess the U.S. was invited.

Russia, China, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan. They're discussing Afghanistan later on in October 27th. The focus, they put this in their own announcement, is that, quote, the six countries will be focused on how they can help form an inclusive government in Afghanistan.

Let me start right there. Just using that kind of language, they're picking up on the U.N. language and even the U.S. language that we've heard from the Biden administration, but if you were going to pick the worst countries to put together an inclusive government, this would be the kind of world powers to do it. It is, in fact, the case that the Russians and the Iranians demonstrated ability to form inclusive governments is precisely zero, Jordan. They have no interest in inclusivity other than to make sure that the Iranians and the Russians are included. They want to make sure that they have the capacity to influence the outcomes in Afghanistan, and this is one of the tragedies of the way in which we departed Afghanistan. Now, Ibrahim Raisi, a butcher who runs Iran, Vladimir Putin and Russia, these leaders have no interest in making sure there's good governments and women's rights and freedom for people in Afghanistan.

They have the singular interest of influencing that country in a way that will be to the detriment of the United States and democracies around the world. How does the U.S. turn that around? Obviously, I think there has to be a change in leadership, but even with the current administration, is there anything you think they could do, or have they given up too much already with Afghanistan? Because it seems like what these countries are doing is using the language, like using these words like inclusive, and then ultimately trying to broker deals, I guess, to see if they can help get the Taliban recognized as a government. Obviously, somehow that will benefit them, whether it's economically, militarily, or everything combined, but what can the U.S. do at this point since we've withdrawn so much? We still have enormous influence in the region.

Some of those countries that will be attending that gathering, or may well attend that gathering, are countries that depend an awful lot on the United States for their security. We should make sure and take the leverage we have in those nations, nations in Central Asia where I traveled a couple of times, nations in the Middle East that have enormous influence there, and bring them together, and try to deliver better outcomes, better outcomes for the people of Afghanistan, but certainly security outcomes that improve life for Americans here as well. We haven't given up every bit of leverage in the region in spite of the fact that we gave up an enormous capacity to influence what takes place inside of Afghanistan. Finally, Secretary Pompeo, the engagement, you were part of historic engagement with Pyongyang, and obviously all that didn't get to play out because the time was cut short for the administration, but that kind of engagement, tough talk publicly, even behind the scenes, is that just lacking in the bind? It just seems like it's not there, whether it's China, whether it's Russia, it's like even verbally, diplomatically, we're not sending out clear messages. It's hard to know what they're saying privately, but publicly you can see that the shift has taken place.

It's back to a different model than the one that the Trump administration has. We were firm, we were direct, we were clear about our expectations, and we held them to that. All right, Secretary Pompeo, our Senior Counsel for Global Affairs, as always, appreciate you spending time with us to walk through this. For all of our supporters, all of our listeners, the broadcast, this kind of insight, you can't get anywhere else, especially when you've got this breaking news. We're going to get into it with our team out of North Korea with this new test of a ballistic missile launch from a submarine, you've got the hypersonic weapon in China, you've got the conference in Iran, there's a lot going on in the world. And is Christopher Steele the person we really want to be focusing on, or Katie Couric, memoir? Maybe it's the dangers we're all potentially facing as we kind of ignore what's happening in the world as a government.

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

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

Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. 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 Sekulow. Let me go right to the phones.

If you want to talk to us, 1-800-684-3110. How concerned are you about these threats that keep popping up around the world, whether it's North Korea again testing ballistic missiles, and of course there's always concerns about their tests going so wrong that they could injure people even that way. And that, again, at what point would they take aggressive action or a hypersonic weapon out of China. This is not a science fiction novel, this is reality that we have to deal with as a nation and also with our allies. It would be nice to know, I think, from this current administration, when these kind of stories pop up, instead of all of these analysts coming in and saying what these weapons can do, the fact that there was someone from the Heritage Foundation who said, literally, when they talk about the hypersonic weapon out of China, you're talking about something that can be hidden. It looks like a satellite. So, China's launching new satellites all the time, we're launching new satellites all the time. So, you now have to imagine a world where these are weaponized satellites, but you can't detect, at least at this point, there's no public knowledge that we can detect it.

I hope that maybe that's classified, we've got this work going on, we've got the Space Force hopefully getting the funding it needs, but I want to hear from you. Are these threats real to you? Do you feel that these are real threats to our nation?

And are they getting enough attention? 1-800-684-3110, if you want to talk to us on air, that's 1-800-684-3110. Call now, we'll get you on the air like Tim in California on Line 1. Hey, Tim, welcome to Secular Year on the Air.

Thank you for taking my call. Why is it that the Biden administration is not going to respond to these provocative actions by China and North Korea? Let me go to Harry Wright on that, because Harry, the question, we don't know if there's a behind the scenes response, but certainly these public response, we might get a condemnation, we might hear words, but these words, they ring hollow these days. I think this close to the Afghanistan withdrawal and the blame game there of trying to blame the Afghan military and the facts and the numbers, they're, oh, it was 300,000 strong, what they didn't tell us was 200,000 of those 300,000 were killed over the last 20 years in battle because they were on the front lines in the war against the Taliban. And the reason that that didn't come out until a couple days later is that our words just ring hollow, so that the diplomatic work there might be something going on behind the scenes, we might see a public condemnation, but these countries don't seem very concerned. And I don't think they should be concerned.

Why? Because the Biden administration continues to exemplify one thing and one thing only, weakness and spinelessness. So the Biden administration continues to put the United States last and global elites first.

Jen Psaki, the press secretary, states that we welcome stiff competition. And apparently she is suggesting that the Biden administration welcomes threats to the homeland just so long as those threats are indeed inclusive and diverse. So apparently Jen Psaki and the Biden administration appears to love threats so long as they come from Iran, the Taliban, North Korea, China and Russia, a fairly diverse group. China, for instance, has already injured millions of Americans because of a lab leak in Wuhan, and China has effectively killed hundreds of thousands of Americans through the virus.

Meanwhile, the Biden jazz band continues to play on, and they do not respond to provocation except to exhibit one thing, and that is weakness. I want to go to Thanh in Washington, D.C., because Thanh, again, we see the members of Congress talking about it, we see the analysts talk about it, but it just seems for the Biden administration, they just want to build back better, and they don't want to talk about the real threats that are posed. It starts with COVID.

I mean, it starts with the lab leak theory, the idea that first, you know, if you talked about that, you were taken off social media and you were banned, and then now that's become the leading theory, but the evidence is just disappearing as we go. The World Health Organization is not allowed back in. So all these threats, whether it's starting with COVID or the testing of these new weapons, it just doesn't seem like we're used to a country that obviously is threatened, but it's like we're not publicly, at least, we're not staying one step ahead of our enemies. Yeah, Jordan, you know, I think one of my concerns there is that that approach might actually be dictated by the fact that that's really their foreign policy of choice. I mean, if your goal is to sort of create a level playing field across the globe and bring the United States down a peg or two, because you think that is going to calm things down, this might be the exact approach you're going to take.

Now, I think if you take a historical look, as I'm sure Andy's going to do here in just a minute, you'll see that that is a recipe for disaster. If you don't want to lead from strength, if you want to lead through appeasement and bring the power of the United States down a peg or two, you're just asking for trouble. But if you look around at just the three instances that you've mentioned so far, Jordan, I think that's exactly what you see. You look at North Korea. Clearly, Jordan, we can't ignore North Korea at this point. Now, you can have a debate about how you should engage them, about what the proper way to engage them, but you can't ignore them. So what is the United States plan at this point? I'm afraid, Jordan, it's probably just to ignore them.

Then you look at China. They have made it abundantly clear what their mission is. Their mission is to be the next superpower of the world, and they are committed to it. Jordan, are we committed to it? Is this administration committed to it?

I'm just not sure. And then you look at Iran, and you talk about this conference that they're going to have with these six countries to create an inclusive government in Afghanistan. Jordan, that says to me that they just want to create a nation in the mold of the Iranian regime. So just look at the Iranian regime and say, is that inclusive? Does that honor human rights?

Of course it doesn't, but they've filled a leadership vacuum that I would say has been created by the absence of the United States, and they're trying to create that nation in the Iranian regime's mold. Let me encourage you, folks, if you're watching on Facebook, YouTube, share this with your friends and family as we have got our second half hour coming up. If you want to talk to us on air, it's 1-800-684-3110.

You can also get comments on Facebook and YouTube. Andy, to me, it just feels like, and you get this sense that we withdrew from Afghanistan, it was disastrous, and kind of since then, that's been the Biden kind of, and with COVID to that, and the lack of response to China, the withdrawal of Afghanistan, it just kind of, it feels like that's the, like Than is talking about, they're putting us in this position where we didn't have to be. We could deal with the threats that are posed to us as the superpower of the world instead of giving up that status and not dealing with the threats.

Well, you're absolutely right, Jordan. You know, the thing that really distresses me is when I hear this press secretary, Jen Psaki, making the absurd comment, we welcome stiff competition from China, and Lindsey Graham and Mike Pompeo, we just heard, and my colleague Harry Hutcheson said quite the opposite. I don't welcome stiff competition in the area of nuclear capability and the ability to strike out and kill us.

Why would you make a stupid remark like that? But the reason is because who do you have as President? Instead of somebody with the leadership capabilities of Donald Trump or Harry Truman, we've got in the White House Calvin Coolidge and Franklin Pierce.

That's who we've got as our President, someone who is spineless and gutless and doesn't know how to lead. And listen, this makes it that much tougher. We can always rebuild. We can always take back.

We have that opportunity. We have that, I think, capability in the United States. But they make it day by day tougher and tougher and tougher to respond to the growing threats. One, by not acknowledging them. Two, by being on the payroll with the Chinese. And then three, just kind of letting the world move along, like with things where we dedicated 20 years to Afghanistan and just giving it up, just giving it up to the world. We'll be right back. Second half hour coming up.

A lot more to get to. 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. Keeping you informed and engaged. Now, more than ever, this is Sekulow.

And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. Welcome back, folks. Let me just tell you, when we talk about these issues, this is very real. One, with North Korea taking these provocative steps, you see again, it's been a shift. It didn't take them very long into this administration to yet start testing weapons again.

Start, you know, the engagement, I'm sure it's definitely not there publicly. And all the criticism the Trump administration got, people like Secretary Pompeo got, the idea was, hey, just like all these issues like the Abraham Accords, why don't we try engagement? You know, this is, these are, they have a new leader, young leader in a tough spot. As Secretary Pompeo was talking about, they're still dealing with massive issues with COVID. They're not good people.

I mean, by any kind of measure. But if you engage some, can you get these tests that can become so dangerous and risk, you know, a World War III? Then when it comes to the Chinese, it's just, I just feel like we've given them carte blanche on the world.

And I saw this a lot. We were doing work in Africa, which we still are, but it travels there. Everywhere you look, there's new Chinese development going up, mining, building infrastructure. But who was right behind them would be in some of these countries where they were heavily sanctioned, it'd be the countries like North Korea.

So we think of them as these hermit nations, like the North Koreans that don't have expansive foreign policy. They do. They just aren't doing it in Canada or Mexico. They're not in the United States as much.

Now the Chinese, they are. So we've got a new FOIA battle in court. So FOIA was filed back in 2020, in December 2020. But now it's because the FBI claimed, and none of the other government agencies claimed, that they could not confirm or deny whether they had the information that we were looking for. This was the information involving the Chinese spy and Eric Swalwell.

What was the relationship there? What does the U.S. know? But also, what should we all know about these efforts by the Chinese to infiltrate all these different aspects of our culture, government, military, inside the United States? It'd be information that would be important for Americans to know.

That's why we are still in battle. So the FBI claimed that. Interestingly enough, the other government agencies didn't. So Andy, I want to go to you on this because this is a unique case that we have now because it's whether or not the FBI improperly claimed this Glomar exception, which is that we can't confirm, we can't deny a typical line that you hear out of a military or a spy novel, but they were the only agency to do that. The ODNI, the other agencies that we sent this FOIA to, none of them claimed that. So we've now got a case on whether or not that was proper or not.

I think it just explains to people how deep in the weeds we have to go with the ACLJ and our attorneys go to get to the truth. Thank you, Jordan, and that is true. These kinds of responses are like a plea to the criminal lawyers and the criminal people knowledgeable in criminal defense would know as a plea of no lo contendere. I don't admit.

I don't deny. I don't know that I have it. I don't know that I don't have it. And my response to that is what kind of a stupid answer is that?

You either have it or you don't. So that puts the ACLJ in a position of having to say, okay, that is not a satisfactory response. We've got to file motions in court to compel the agency of which we are demanding this information, in this case the FBI, to admit whether they have it or they don't have it.

And then we've got to go to court to get a federal district judge to order that the stuff be turned over to us. That doesn't just happen overnight. All right, folks, we come back from the break. We're also going to get into a little bit deeper because there's been a lot moving, a lot of moving parts around this summit on October 27th. Iran is hosting about a more inclusive Taliban government. That's their language, the words they chose. They're using the words of the Biden administration. They're using the words of the United Nations and the other countries that are going to be there are the countries trying to supplant us as leaders of the world. I wouldn't say the free world, but leaders of the world.

Be right back. We remain 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. We 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. This is what upsets me in the world is when you have this headline, Iran to host international conference on Afghanistan and Taliban. This is a country that exports terrorism around the world in its own region.

They target Americans, they target our own troops in Syria. These are bad actors when it comes to Iran. They are now hosting next week, October 27th, a summit in Tehran with Russia, with China, also with Pakistan. Now, interesting enough, I think some of these other countries, as Secretary Pompeo said, do rely more on the U.S. than maybe Russia, Iran, and China. So they may be able to play a role for us in attendance, but it also could be that the flip side of that is that we've lost influence in those countries, that they're willing to say, hey, we'll be there, we're going to go, we're going to give this credibility by showing up. When you have the Russians, the Chinese, and the Iranians together, whether you like that or not, and I think it's very troubling, it's got credibility.

Those are major world players altogether. They're now joining other countries that are closer to the region with Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan. They're focusing on how they can form an inclusive government in Afghanistan. They're using the words that the world is using about the Taliban. Do we have the photo?

Yeah. This is the real Taliban. The New York Times, again, not conservative media, just posted this photo. This is a ballroom in Kabul. It is an event that was to commemorate all of those who carried out suicide attacks on the U.S. troops in the past 20 years. Haqqani of the Haqqani Network at the meeting promised to distribute land plots for the families, so they'll get land of the suicide bombers. So you see this room full of men in their Taliban traditional garb. Look at the commandos. Look at their equipment. You see them in the back. You can see a couple of those guys. They don't look like how the Taliban fighters looked like 20 years ago, 10 years ago, 5 years ago, 2 years ago, or 6 months ago.

But they've got now sophisticated equipment. Iran is now hosting this conference to then give – well, I think these will be the first countries that recognize the Taliban government and hoping the rest of the world comes and plays. We have seen Russia multiple times and they try to make the influence of Afghanistan.

They're trying once again. Well, Jordan, I think your analysis is absolutely correct. There are some countries in that assembly that they are putting together and hosting that are, at least we thought, more dependent upon us than they are upon Russia, Iran, and China.

But don't count all that. That might not necessarily be the case. When you look at Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, those countries may very well flip and go the way of the Iranians and the Chinese and the Russians. They don't have any particular commitment to the United States. They're in that region and they're under the influence of these bad actors. And when the Iranians are putting together a more inclusive regime, I mean, that makes me laugh. The Iranians are going to encourage the Taliban in Afghanistan to put together a more inclusive regime. Inclusive of what?

Those that exclude women, those that break apart Western musical instruments, those that make women wear clothes over their face so that they're not seen. What's going to be inclusive about it? I think it's a joke, but it's something we need to take very seriously. It's a joke because it's laughable. What's laughable is that the Biden administration is doing nothing about it, whereas the Trump administration would have done something about it.

I came back coming back to this. Where is our President? He is missing in action.

He's off the world stage. And our representatives are leaving too. So then we have State Department, the IG, I think this is a good move. I don't know what we'll actually have received from this report, but the Inspector General at the State Department has opened up an investigation into the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan. But at the same time, the US envoy to Afghanistan is gone.

Now, whether they were thrown under the bus, it's a little unclear about it. Also, whether or not they had a job to do anymore, considering we don't have an embassy there and we don't have any kind of interaction directly, I guess, very much with the Taliban. Though we're letting the world kind of take any gains we made there, and I think when they then used the word inclusive, though to us it is a joke.

It's ridiculous. What they are trying to do is unite the tribes in Afghanistan, which has never really been done before. But you mentioned as well that that photo represents the Taliban's version of Pay for Slay, the same kind of terrorist mindset that we're fighting in the Palestinian territories. The idea that if you carry out these attacks, suicide attacks, your family will be rewarded. Yeah, they're just learning from Iran, Jordan.

I mean, I don't think there's any accident. Look, they might not have the wealth or the dollars in volume that Iran has to pay for terrorists. Remember, that's something that we've been fighting here in the United States Congress.

The Congress passed a bill. President Trump signed it into law saying that there would be no more funding for Palestinians if they continue their Pay for Slay activity. Iran does this, too, Jordan. They use proxies to pay people who commit acts of terror. Now you have the Taliban doing it. There's no doubt in my mind, Jordan, that at a conference like that, those are the ideas that are going to be pushed.

But look, I circle back to the conversation you had with Secretary Pompeo earlier in the show. Yes, there are some countries that are maybe in this conference that Iran is hosting that have been traditional allies of the United States. Because the United States isn't in that room, Jordan, and those countries need assistance. They need allies in the region. If we were either there or if we were not withdrawing from the region to such a magnitude, maybe they wouldn't be turning to Iran.

But if the United States continues to advance a foreign policy of appeasement and Iran's willing to engage, Jordan, guess what? They're going to find an audience with some of these countries. What do you make of, Harry, the IG opening up the investigation? I think we've seen a lot of good information come from these Inspector General's reports.

It sometimes leads to action. In this case, I think it will shed a lot of light because we do know there were a lot of State Department career officials who do good work who were putting out warning signs. We saw from the Intel community, the State Department community, some of them were even signing on to the complaints publicly even though they had a way to do those complaints without sharing your name and doing it anonymously. They were putting their names out there even days before the withdrawal. So it's obviously led to an Inspector General who was outside the kind of pressures that the administration put on. And they're doing this just on the withdrawal. So it seems clear that at least there's some acknowledgement inside the apparatus of our government that things were not only wrong but totally botched.

I think that's correct. And so what we have is a chaotic, unthinking withdrawal from Afghanistan. And so I look forward to the Inspector General's report. The only caveat I would throw out is that that will take some time.

Often these investigations will last up to a year or longer. I think it's entirely necessary because the Biden administration has proven itself incapable of being held accountable even by the low standards offered by the Obama administration. And so I think the Biden administration has set a new low bar for competence.

And I think Joe Biden in particular is an individual who has demonstrated on the world stage that he has yet to grow a backbone. So I think at the end of the day what we have done in Afghanistan and elsewhere is we have incentivized terror. We've incentivized Iran. We've incentivized China. We've incentivized the Taliban and other terrorist groups throughout the world to basically ramp up their activities because they don't expect a real response from President Biden.

So I think their assessment is probably, unfortunately, accurate. I want to put that photo back up from the ballroom because I think what's important here is you got to the symbolism as well. So those are the photos the New York Times was able to obtain. That is a ballroom in a hotel in Kabul, the intercontinental in Kabul. That was targeted throughout these 20 years by those, when you would hear the suicide bombings in Kabul outside of a hotel with Western journalists and Western government officials. That was the hotel. That's the ballroom. So what they are doing in that photo is not only celebrating those acts of terror, and as Thanh said, their own pay-for-slay program and their version of it, which is to give out land.

They may not have, again, the financial resources to give money out, but they can still give land away. So that ballroom. But you also see there's a blurred face in one of those images. That is one of the Haqqanis running the network. So they are still keeping their terror wing very much under wraps to an extent. They're starting to show up at events. They're allowing the photographers to be there.

They're blurring their face out. That is who was running really the Taliban's relationship with Al Qaeda, the Taliban's attacks on U.S. troops with suicide bombers, and of course even the 9-11 attacks and the other attacks we saw in our embassies on the USS Cole. That all comes from that network which is inside the Taliban which focuses on terrorism. So again, you've got to understand the symbolism of that photo. Very important.

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I do want to get a little more time on this hypersonic weapon. And again, to hear from some of our good friends on our broadcast, like Senator Lindsey Graham, about the game-changing nature of a weapon like this in the hands of a nation like China and the Chinese Communist Party. We've seen how they've been acting on the world stage with COVID, whether it was extreme negligence, whether it was intentional.

This theory that it was their fault is the leading theory now. And yet, because the world is so dependent on them economically, including the United States, we take no action. The World Health Organization gets turned away, and they just say, okay. And they continue to advance because they continue to grow their economy. But take a listen to Senator Lindsey Graham about the significance of what a hypersonic weapon would mean in their race to supplant the U.S. as the world's leading power.

If in fact the Chinese have developed a hypersonic missile that can deliver a nuclear weapon, it's a military game changer when it comes to nuclear forces. We've allowed the Chinese to leapfrog us, and we're going to have to do one of two things. Get them to stand down. And I don't know how Joe Biden convinces anybody to stand down. And if they don't stand down, we're going to have to develop a capability to neutralize this. So, again, where do we actually stand? Do we have the ability and capability to do anything about this?

To me, that's the key thing is that I don't get out of Washington, D.C. clarity. We saw from Secretary Austin, well, the general statement of this just makes the world a more dangerous place. That's true, but the fact is we should be doing something about it. And if we're bringing it to light, something that happened back in August, it would be nice if we let leak out a little bit about the kind of capabilities we have just to make the American people feel better. Yeah, I mean, I think the COVID pandemic is actually pretty instructive on this case, Jordan. I mean, think about it. For more than a year, it was taboo in Washington, D.C. to even suggest that the Chinese were responsible.

And like you said, now it's the leading theory. Well, here's the problem. We've given them a year to get rid of evidence and to cover their tracks.

They're also likely not to pay the high price that they should. So guess what? They're going to do it again.

Now, I see the same scenario unfolding here. If China has developed this capability, clearly Senator Graham is correct, the United States better get on preparing a way to neutralize it. Now, I don't know where our capacity is at this point. Hopefully it's a lot further along than I'm aware of.

But Jordan, here's what I do know. There's no time to waste. The Chinese aren't going to slow this down.

They're going to go as far as the world will let them go. And when I say they're going to go as far as the world will let them go, that really means they're going to go as far as the United States is going to let them go, because the United States is going to have to lead any coalition that is going to look to mitigate these efforts. And I just don't take a lot of comfort from the year of history of the COVID pandemic.

We've got to do better in responding in a real timely fashion than we did in that situation, Jordan. Hey, you know, Joanne on Facebook, she wrote in, does Biden's Build Back Better plan actually just mean no country fears us anymore? We want to be feared as a country. It's a good thing to be feared.

You might not be loved by everybody. The Europeans might not love you as much, and you might not be celebrated as much at international conferences. But at the same time, you have that sense of stability and also that these countries know that if they cross a line, we can respond in a way that would be devastating to them. We used to, as Americans, be able to make that statement and kind of feel that way, that if these countries cross the line, we know we can respond. When we hear about these new weapons, we hear people like Senator Lindsey Graham talk about this would be the next level, surpassing us.

It takes away that feeling that we could just stop out the bad guys if we have to. I think that's cracked, and I think what we've done to American foreign policy is we have sent a signal to the rest of the world that they can cross virtually as many lines as they wish, and there will not be a real response by the United States. And so I think if we look at Biden's Build Back Better plan, in essence, it's a Build Back Weaker plan.

It's a Build Back Spineless plan. And the world, in many respects, is simply laughing at the United States because we have so much potential, we have such military capacity, but at the leadership level, we have an individual who seems frailer and weaker each and every day. And that provides an incentive for all of our enemies to get together and to attack American interests. The Biden administration continues to send out signals to Iran, to China, to North Korea, to the rest of the world.

We will not respond, even if we are provoked, because there's simply no provocation that we are unwilling to respond to. They had this idea in the Democrat Party, and I think sometimes they're right, sometimes they're wrong, but it's all about domestic politics, how much money we can get back into people through handouts, through new social programs. And so, Andy, I think it just feels like they don't have their hands on the steering wheel when it comes to the rest of the world. It's like you deal with those policies, you deal with social programs in the U.S. when the world is stable, when you've got a world that feels like it's spinning out of control, that still can't get past a pandemic. That's not the time to just play divisive domestic politics. You've got to unite to an extent and put a united front forward for the country. Well, domestic politics get votes, and that's the thing that keeps them in power, is votes. So as long as you spend $3.5 trillion on some of the nonsensical projects that they have in that bill, then you get votes and you stay in power.

Look, I'm going to come back to something I've said on this radio program many times before. I was in France during a Presidential election many years ago, and it was between the incumbent President and someone else, and the French were saying how weak their incumbent President was. And the rallying cry to elect the new President, and I'm going to say it in French, was il nous faut un President, which means we deserve a President, a real President, a President with guts, a President with courage, a President with backbone, a President with determination, a President that will put America first. And folks, we don't have one in Joe Biden. You know, Thanh, the reporting out of the, we're starting some commentary from people inside the administration.

The commentary is also pretty scary. It's simple. We have no idea how they did this. That was a U.S. official to the Financial Times talking about the hypersonic weapon. People mock the idea of the space force that President Trump created. But if indeed this weapon, which was tested in August and we're just getting the news about, people are taking it seriously. And if we have no idea how they did this, we better, again, unite and start taking seriously the new frontiers of what it means to be a world leader.

I sure hope that's not true, Jordan. But look, this is what happens when you don't focus on a threat. And I mean, I think clearly this administration has not been focused on it.

The idea that getting tough on China was the wrong thing to do is kind of laughable. And as far as the space force goes, Jordan, I mean, is there any arguing that space is where the next wave of fights is going to take place, whether it's technology or economic advances? We're going to have to engage in that more than engage, Jordan.

That's the wrong word. We're going to have to dominate and win in that space. You can't do that unless you're focused on beating your adversaries, in this case, to the punch. I think that's absolutely right. It's about winning. It's not just about staying at the same level. We should be 10 steps ahead, not trying to figure out how did they do that?

Could there be nuclear weapons and satellites? And that's a reality now that we're living with. But you won't hear that that's the real problem for the Biden team. We'll talk to you tomorrow on Secular. If 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.