After chaotic weekend, President Trump pushes back on Gavin Newsom's lawsuit threat over the L.A. riots. Keeping you informed and engaged. Now, more than ever, this is Sekulow. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments.
Or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Logan Sekulow. Welcome to Sekulow. Will Haines is joining me here in studio.
This is Logan Sekulow. Rick Grenell will be on the broadcast later on. One of our favorite Californians. He'll discuss what's going on in Los Angeles. Obviously, it was a big weekend in L.A. And for a lot of us, you may have been watching, I was watching late night coverage of what was going on even up into the early hours yesterday morning. Or this morning.
I guess it was late last night. Including car chases and the chaos that was breaking out in Los Angeles. And we're seeing some of the footage right now.
And look, it's horrifying. What you're seeing right there, I was on those streets two weeks ago, three weeks ago. As you see, a lot of those Waymo, the automated cars being destroyed, that was interesting that that became the target.
Those are the cars that are autonomous, do not have drivers. So I guess they felt maybe that, you know, less of a soul to burn in that. But it was chaos in certain areas. Now, look, I think we have to always keep in mind the scale of what we're actually seeing here. When you zoomed out and they showed sort of the big picture of L.A., it did seem like it was happening in pockets. But some of that is because they sent in, you know, essentially combatants, whether that's from the local governments, the local police force.
And then obviously the federal side of this to say, hey, we may need more protection in here. And some of it, as Will and I were watching last night, we were watching local L.A. news, which I thought was a fascinating version of it. They were talking about a lot of the issues coming from the lack of police.
That's right. They were talking about how there were budget constraints on LAPD and the L.A. County Sheriff's Department and some of these things were making it worse. That was the coverage that the local news was giving. At the same time, Governor Newsom had said that President Trump had manufactured a crisis and was in flaming conditions. This is in reference to him activating and federalizing National Guard to go and help out with the situation that had become worse over several days. Gavin Newsom is saying that they will be filing a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration today, and we'll get into some of that as well today. But Carolyn Levitt, the press secretary, pushed back on Gavin Newsom's claims that Donald Trump had manufactured the crisis and he can't solve it and we will. And she said this on X. Gavin Newsom did nothing as violent riots erupted in Los Angeles for days. Federal law enforcement officers were attacked by violent radicals and illegal criminals waving foreign flags because Governor Newsom was too weak to protect the city. As the Los Angeles police chief has even said, the riots were getting out of hand. President Trump has stepped in to maintain law and order and protect federal buildings. But there are big questions when the President of the United States uses the National Guard or military for policing civil unrest, as we're seeing here.
Generally, the Posse Comitatus Act is something that forbids the use of military from enforcing civil law, but there are always exceptions and we're going to get into that. But that's what the crux of this lawsuit threat from Governor Newsom is going to be around. So I think our listeners need to hear what the law says, what the options are here, and kind of how it can potentially go forward. And we'll get into all of that today in the next segment.
That's right, we will. Our phone lines are down right now, but we are working on it as we speak. So right now, if you're trying to call, unfortunately you're not going to get through, but I'm going to ask you to move those into YouTube comments, into Rumble comments. We'll try to pull some questions or comments directly from there right now, and I'll let you know once our phone lines are back operating. Apologies, I know a lot of you want to call in on Monday, but unfortunately, sometimes we have some technical issues and they're down right now.
Share this broadcast with your friends if you care to as well. We're going to really break down not only the implications of what's happening in Los Angeles, but around the country, and how we are going to look at this not only as people who respect law and order, if you will, but also those that are Christians. I know there's a lot of people who feel like they're being pulled in many different directions. Let's discuss that coming up in the next segment.
What do you think? How do you feel about not just the riots? Because the riots, I think we can isolate a little bit and talk about the real truth behind what's going on there, but even the issue overall. We'll be right back.
Welcome back to Sekulow. Like I said, phone lines are actually down right now, so we're going to be taking comments through our social media feeds. So if you find one on YouTube, if you have a comment, feel free to put it on.
If you're watching on YouTube, you're watching on Rumble, put a comment in there, and we'll do our best to get to as many of those as we can throughout the rest of the hour. Look, I think we got to look at what's going on holistically in Los Angeles and what's holistically happening around the country. You do have to look at the riots and say how much of this is real, how much of this is media making it a bigger deal, and also how much of it is being inflamed by people that are not there for the right reasons, or even for, you wouldn't say the right reasons, even there for the cause.
And you can honestly tell. You can kind of look at the crowd and go, that person cares about immigration. That person is there to cause chaos. It's a lot of the similar visuals that we saw in 2020, which is there were people who I think were protesting for the reasons that they felt they were passionate about, and I don't take anything away from them. Same way I feel about people who are protesting this. I don't necessarily have to agree with them always, but that is not what we're seeing on the streets. What you're seeing is destruction, rioting, all of the sort of boxes that you can check for this to be a moment of being exploitive of a protest, of a demonstration. It's not always, it just becomes spray painting and violence and looting, and it goes well beyond the issue at hand.
And the issue at hand, of course, is about immigration and ICE. And they're like, I can understand the genuine feeling that you feel like people that have been here in this country for many years, even if they're here illegally, that are peaceful, who have been living their lives, who've been raising their families here, who have been working in jobs, feeling like they're getting rounded up and sent out of this country. I don't love that.
I'll be honest. I don't feel good about that. Now, when it comes to people who are here illegally and are also violent criminals, sure. I don't have a problem with that. And I think a lot of people would have a problem, not have a problem with that, but the lines get blurry. And the lines get blurry specifically when you are trying to, what, obviously kind of quote what President Trump and what Pete Hegseth have been saying, which is really to kind of clean up the streets, if you will, to try to deport as many people as possible.
I don't know if that's the best method. We've been saying for years on this broadcast, we believed in a comprehensive immigration reform. I still think getting to this country and becoming a legal, tax paying immigrant citizen or even just the steps to become a citizen is, yeah, that's where I wish Elon Musk could come in and clean that up as well, because it's a bit archaic. It's not easy. It shouldn't be easy, but it's certainly not clear. And you have a lot of people who are now protesting this saying we need to, yeah, there's the writing in the streets as they wave the Mexican flag, as they wave then also Palestinian flags. And that's where it starts to become like, okay, what are we actually seeing here? The protests are against Trump or are they against ICE or are they, you know, it just becomes conflated once again. But look, I think President Trump got to get this to get, you know, and it chilled out a little bit yesterday, got to get a hell hold on this though. People do not like to see this in their streets, even in cities that sure are maybe known for a bit more high crime rate, but still they don't want to see that in Los Angeles. Like I said, I was there three weeks ago and did not feel that way.
Well, here's the big question that comes down to is will this lawsuit that Gavin Newsom has put forward, will it stop the use of the National Guard in this situation? And one, to that point of the narrative that, you know, they're just going around and rounding up people, the Department of Homeland Security put out a list of people that over the last week have been detained by ICE. Someone convicted of second degree murder, illegal immigrant that was convicted of that. Some of these charges, I cannot read on air what these people had done to people in the United States while they're here illegally. It's grotesque. It's terrible.
A lot of violence, a lot of very horrible crimes. So it's not just that one narrative. They are doing what Tom Homan has said is that they are going to first go after the worst of the worst and try to get a handle on what is seen by many people in this country that voted for this, that this is rounding up and getting rid of the people here that are doing horrible things and shouldn't have been here in the first place. But the big question goes back to can the President even do this? Can he send the National Guard? Legally. Can he legally do this?
And it's kind of an untested waters at this point, as many things within the... They said the last time National Guard was done something like this was under Kennedy, I believe. There were some that it was used in this way where governors of some southern states were not allowing the integration of universities. And so therefore the President, because the governor was not allowing the enforcement of federal law, sent the National Guard there. So some of that during the Civil Rights era, the National Guard was used in this way outside of the normal channel where the governor can request the President to federalize the National Guard to help with disaster relief. If there is an out of control riot, it was used at the request of the governor after the Rodney King riots in 92 during George H.W.
Bush. And so the National Guard was used there, but it was in conjunction with the governor. What we have here is where normally the National Guard is under the governor's control. But under Title 10, all forces at the end of the day are under the commander in chief.
So can the President direct the National Guard outside of the governor's control, federalize them, so to speak? And what it comes down to is actually an interesting title from 1807. It was the Insurrection Act of 1807.
We're going that far back. But that is a part of Title 10, which is how the armed forces are to be conducted under federal law. In this, it says, the use of militia and armed forces to enforce federal authority. Whenever the President considers that unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United States make it impractical to enforce the laws of the United States in any state by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, he may call into federal service such of the militia of any state and use such of the armed forces as he considers necessary to enforce those laws or suppress the rebellion. What the President is saying here is that, under this title, that this is a rebellion.
Their entire purpose is not just to be heard, but it is to stop ICE enforcement, the enforcement of federal law. And the governor of that state is not on board with helping the President ensure that federal law is being carried out. Yeah, we know he has his own political motives. We know Gavin Newsom has been someone who has been flirting with running for President for how many years now, debated Ron DeSantis. I mean, remember, all of that's happened only in the last, what, 18 months that all of that has happened. So you have a guy who is out there who is somehow largely becoming more popular, it feels like, over the time, had his podcast where he's like, I'm going to talk to Charlie Kirk.
My son's a big Charlie Kirk fan. I'm going to have a lot of these interesting conversations. I think those are good moves from a political standpoint. This one is going to be interesting to see how it plays out. I think for Democrats, and look, I've seen this even from the pro-Israel crowd, because a lot of those are Democrats saying, I believe we've gone too far, that maybe there needs to be a pause to this ICE situation until we can figure out how to not escalate it to this point. Because you may not, and you say, look, they got some great people off the streets, people that were doing horrible things, and you've got to give it up to the department for doing that, but we have seen some blunders, we've seen some mistakes, we've seen some hiccups in this, as you are going to, when you have any sort of situation like this, where people were either wrongfully detained or held, and there does get that word, that feeling does come in that tugs at your heartstrings.
Now, I see a lot of people saying, well, it's not about that, it's about the law. Right, but I'm talking about when you're trying to galvanize a base, and even galvanize a liberal base, a Democrat base. When you're trying to galvanize a Democrat base, you want to be the rebellion. You want to be there. Look, I think Americans want to be the rebellion. We see that.
You empathize with them. You feel for a rebellion, because you know that's, in the back of our heads, that's America. America was founded on some form of rebellion.
Now, this is obviously not what we're talking about. I was about to say, the imagery here, I don't know if a lot of Americans are empathizing with when they're burning American flags in the street, sending cars on fire, throwing rocks at police officers, and waving Mexican flags. I think our audience will not, is not. I'm talking about a liberal California base. I think they are. I think they do see that there's a good and a bad, and I think to them, and some of that is Gavin Newsom presenting that, which is good, the people, maybe we don't want them to be violent.
They'll say no violence, of course, but they don't do anything about it. They want that imagery, because they also want to see a pushback on President Trump. They want to see President Trump's campaign promises fail or have issues. And I think, look, you can see that. You can see that with their response. I saw one person that put up a post, and I got to give it to one of my friends who re-shared it, who is much more liberal than I am, saying, you know, Obama deported so many more people.
We were even better at that. And it's like, okay, well, that goes against your entire narrative of what we're talking about here. He's like, we deported 3 million. He only could deport 2.5 million. It's like, okay, that is where it's, that is the Trump issue, which is everything Trump does is bad, and look, we can even do it better. We can commit the atrocity of which we say is an atrocity even worse.
Ridiculous. Phone lines are not open for you, because they're still down. I do want to get to some comments coming up, and a few of you put in some comments. Also, President Trump just made a statement on Truth Social.
We'll read that to you when we get back. Rick Grenell will be joining us, and of course, if you want to support the work of the ACLJ, you know, today we're talking about the news, but there's a lot of great work happening in the ACLJ, and I want to talk directly to our ACLJ champions. I want to tell you that you're the reason we could take on some of the biggest fights in this country right now, not just defending clients, but defending freedoms. But right now, we're defending, as we said, peaceful pro-life advocates on the streets that are being criminally targeted. We're battling the Supreme Court to stop rogue judges from stripping away Presidential authority, and we are suing to protect Christian clubs and public schools once again.
Back in the news. That's it. Stand with us. Become a champion right now if you haven't already.
If you have, thank you. Welcome back to Sekulow. Hey, it looks like our phone line situation has been fixed, so if you want to call in, great time to do it.
1-800-684-3110. We should test to see. Let's go to Ann who's calling in Pennsylvania.
Try it out. She's watching on Facebook. Ann, welcome to the broadcast. Oh, hey guys.
Love you guys. Yeah, I just wanted to say the Insurrection Act of 1807 absolutely gives the President the right to deploy the military, to deploy the National Guard. There's a lot of violent protesting going on. Our Constitution states very detailed that you must peacefully protest.
People are being hurt. Cops are being, their cars are being set up. I mean, the President has broad powers and discretion on also military matters. The President has the right to send in federal troops. When the states, the governors, and the mayors force the police officers to stand down, this is our way of being able to protect and serve the American people.
Their protection is of the utmost importance. If the President has no executive privilege to be able to deploy the National Guard or the military in circumstances where there is an emergency taking place, where these states are denying the protection of the people, he absolutely has full discretion to be able to do this. And this is constitutional. It's constitutional.
I love you guys. Ann, I think what the argument in court is going to be from the state of California when they try to block the President from doing this, is they're going to argue that what the President did didn't rise to the definition under the Insurrection Act of 1807, and they're also going to probably argue that in his memorandum he did not cite that that was the reason. However, I think you can read Section 252, this is from Title 10 of the U.S. Code, Chapter 13, where it says, whenever the President considers that unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United States make it impractical to enforce the laws, then they can use that.
But then you also have to look at what the President said in the memorandum to the Secretary of Defense, the Attorney General, and the Secretary of Homeland Security. Numerous incidents of violence and disorder have recently occurred and threatened to continue in response to enforcement of federal law by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other U.S. government personnel who are performing federal functions and supporting the faithful execution of federal immigration laws. In addition, violent protests threaten the security of and significant damage to federal immigration detention facilities and other federal property. To the extent that the protests or acts of violence directly inhibit the execution of the laws, they constitute a form of rebellion against the authority of the United States government of the United States.
That is using the language of the Insurrection Act, which was codified under Title 10 of the U.S. Code. So it's using the language, but I also wonder if the state of California will try to pick that apart and say, they didn't say, under the authority given to me by Title 10 of the U.S. Code, Chapter 13, subsection 252. So this is going to have a fight in court and it's in California in a federal court. So now we're going to see if they file this lawsuit today, if a district judge puts an injunction against the use of the National Guard in L.A. This has become, what was a dangerous situation has now become a huge political fight between someone who wants to be President of the United States and someone who currently is President of the United States. And they're going to be arguing over executive power. And heading into a midterm, it also does change the way we look at the National Guard.
That could fundamentally change the way they could be used. You always hear, and I think that's why, we live in a pretty peaceful country overall. If you think about in a grand scheme of things, if we were to take this to the Middle East, if we were to take this to China, any other areas of the world, we live in a pretty peaceful United States of America. We're split politically, but though there is violence on the streets and it's getting worse and worse, and trust me, I feel it, it's still overall, we've always heard, send in the National Guard.
It's almost a joke. You know, that sentence is like a funny catchphrase that people say, what do you do, send in the National Guard? So now when it's actually time to send in the National Guard, we honestly, it feels like mentally we can't handle it. Well, and to some degree as well, as conservatives, one thing that we aren't a big proponent of is martial law. And when you're using the military to carry out law enforcement, that is a form of, if not directly, a martial law situation. Obviously it's not nationwide, it's not everything, but we also need to be careful about that and the precedent it can set. Now, when you see a governor that is saying that they've got it under control, when the entire protest and riot is not against his police force, it's against the federal government trying to carry out and faithfully execute the laws, that is a different situation than what we saw in 2020 because those were a response to local police action and it went across the country. This is directly trying to stop the enforcement of federal law and under that definition of rebellion that is cited, I think it is very clearly a form of rebellion. Now that will get fought in the courts, I don't have high hopes that they will not get some sort of temporary restraining order from a district judge in California if they so file that, but that is what we're going to see here and now we're potentially going to have a Supreme Court fight about the Insurrection Act of 1807 and how it can be used and how the National Guard can be deployed. This could change the tone of how we even say that term Send in the National Guard because once again these are things that generally had not been done except for in very limited cases. It's like a sentence that we say that we don't even know you could do. Let's go to, we know you could do it, but you know what I'm saying, it doesn't get done very often. Let's go to Gilbert who's calling in Nevada.
Gilbert, you're an ACLJ champion, means you get bumped to the front of the line and first I just want to tell you thank you, because people like you are the backbone of this organization. So thank you, but go ahead with your comments. Oh yeah, it's common to agree with you brother Jay, brother Logan, and all your brothers and I thank you very much for your program and I do listen to 90.1 FM in Vegas and thank you very much, but I agree with you all the way. If people are citizens here that's got their home, they've got their school kids in school, they get a job, I think they should definitely stay. I don't see you out there trying to get Social Security with the USCIS, but the other ones, the vagrants, the ones that are, they're traffickers and murderers and killers and you name it, drug dealers, cartel and all, they should go.
I agree with you, I just wanted to let you know, so I know you're in a hurry, so I just wanted to make a comment. No Gilbert, I appreciate that, and that's why I was trying to kind of get the tone of what people were feeling online and on the phones, and I think as Christians we want to help the least of these, we want to always help people who are in need, we want to help the poor, help the immigrants. We all are immigrants from somewhere, not that far back. We're a very young country, so in general, none of us have been here all that long, except for the Native Americans, but none of us have been here. So I think there is a natural want to help.
Now what does that look like? I think when you have a situation at hand, and I'm not saying there's an easy answer, certainly there's not an easy answer because we would have had every other President who has made these campaign promises actually fix this problem, fix what's going on at the border, actually make immigration something that we encourage, but properly. And how do you make this difference between someone who has been here for decades, who has been a good citizen, has looked like a good citizen to their community, but maybe not originally got here legally?
And how do you make the difference between them and someone who has committed murder or child trafficking or trafficking of drugs? I do think we need to figure that out, because this chaos can't spread all across the United States. Phone lines are open for you now. Again, they are back up, so 1-800-684-3110. That's it for the first half hour, second half hour coming up. Become an ACLJ champion if you can. If you don't get us on your local station, find us broadcasting live now on ACLJ.org and all of your favorite podcast players. We'll be right back. Keeping you informed and engaged. Now more than ever, this is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow. We do have a statement from President Trump that we will read to you in just a moment.
It is pretty long, so I'll make sure we have the time to do it. Of course, responding to what's happening in Los Angeles as those riots, which have seemed to have calmed down some, really reached a peak over the weekend. We're also following the story out of Israel right now, where you had Greta Thunberg. She had a, what did they call it, the selfie yacht?
The selfie yacht. The IDF had to essentially intercept as they were heading into Gaza with less than even one truckload of humanitarian aid. This is the global problem here, everybody. Do I think we should be getting humanitarian aid into Gaza? Absolutely, I think we need to be helping people out. I think we need to be helping starving children. I think that that shouldn't even be a question. Do I think we need to make these cartoon characters into some kind of hero, and this is the issue we have.
And you see the pictures that came out of that, and you saw her very happy, it seemed, to be being intercepted and handed plenty of water and food and sandwiches, all from the Israeli Defense Forces. So again, the show crumbles very quickly. This is where we actually need real help and not social media help. This is where the performative side of it, some people have said that there is philanthropy issues online because it's all about me, me, me.
It never becomes about the people at hand. This is like the number one that I've ever seen. People have gone after Mr. Beast. Mr.
Beast, because he, I don't know, decided, let's cure thousands of people to blindness. Let's build wells across. Sure, I'll do a video on it. That video with ad revenue then goes to support this. Great, I got no problem with that. I think people who go after him are absolutely ridiculous for that specific reason. But this, where you have Greta Thunberg and friends loading up a boat to try to sail to Gaza, I mean, it doesn't even sound fun. It just sounds like a publicity stunt, and that is exactly what it was. And of course, that is at the same time that California is having so many issues. In our next segment, Rick Grenell is going to be joining us, and Rick obviously has been someone who has been an advocate, probably the biggest advocate for the state of California that I know, especially on the conservative side. So I can't wait to hear from him and get his feedback and thoughts, because he's someone who's living there and dealing with it and whether we're seeing this being overblown or whatever it may be. Here is a statement from President Trump.
This was just posted just minutes ago. He said, we made a great decision in sending the National Guard to deal with the violent, instigated riots in California. We had not done so. Los Angeles would have been completely obliterated. The very incompetent governor, Gavin Newsom, and Mayor Karen Bass, again, these are his words, not mine, should be saying, thank you, President Trump.
You are so wonderful. We would be nothing without you, sir. Instead, they chose to lie to the people of California and America by saying that we weren't needed, and these were peaceful protests. We will always do what is needed to keep our citizens safe so we can together make America great again. So kind of a traditional Trump statement, throwing some insults in there, flipping some thoughts towards some catchphrases, some names, overall just saying, look, if you strip away the Trumpiness of that post, what it really reads is, we had to do it to protect the citizens.
We had to send in the National Guard. I wish they were thanking us instead of making us the villains. Well, and he also wrote a statement in the National Guard, I wish they were thanking us instead of making us the villains. Well, and he also raises that many of these people have been saying these were peaceful protests. You even saw a statement out of the former Vice President's office, Kamala Harris, that said, you know, these demonstrations in defense of our immigrant neighbors have been overwhelmingly peaceful. They're redoing the meme of the fiery but mostly peaceful that CNN, I think, lost every last bit of credibility they had in that moment during the 2020 riots, that these are fiery but mostly peaceful. The moment that they are throwing cinder blocks at police or shooting fireworks at police and it's going unchecked and they're setting cars on fire, that's no longer peaceful. That is causing property damage, potential life-threatening damage. They're throwing bird scooters off overpasses at police cars. That's not peaceful.
I don't care if half the people aren't doing it or what numbers are. That isn't peaceful when that's now being fostered and your presence on that is giving cover for those of them that are not peaceful. So the whole thing becomes not peaceful. All right, and we get back peaceful, not peaceful. We'll be back with Rick Grenell, one of California's finest, and he'll be on in the next segment here. He's been an ACLJ contributor for many years and we usually love his advice and his thoughts and this one is gonna be perfect. So we'll be right back.
Welcome back to Sekulow. Rick Grenell is joining us right now and Rick, obviously someone who, California is very close to your heart and been a part of your life for a very long time. I wanted to get your feedback on this because we see a lot of comments coming in, a lot of mixed feelings. Obviously, no one wants to see violence on the streets of California, but there's also people who, you know, their heartstrings are being tugged for being a part of California. So Rick, I want to get your feedback on this but there's also people who, you know, their heartstrings are being tugged for people that feel like their families are being pulled away from them.
But again, a lot of this comes from Gavin Newsom and what's going on in California and it feels political once again in nature. It doesn't feel like a protest that has the right heart behind it. Yeah, first of all, if you're protesting some sort of policy that's protected speech, we welcome that in America.
We celebrate that in America. But that doesn't mean that you throw bricks from an overpass onto ice cars. It doesn't mean that you stand in front of moving vehicles. This can be extremely dangerous and so what I would say is we welcome peaceful protests. Of course, this is America, but at the end of the day, you can't stop what law enforcement is trying to do, which is to keep our streets safe.
I'm in Washington, D.C. and I'm here in Washington, D.C. Now I just came back from California last night. I live in Los Angeles and my neighbors, people are freaking out. They don't want to see riots. We just got through the fires and we have communities that have been upended.
My community is flooded with people from Pacific Palisades who are trying to start over and start a new life and their kids had to go to new schools and they still aren't. It's devastating to these families and all of us in the community know that these individuals are hurting and so we all feel it and then on top of that, we've got now our politicians that seem to be outraged. They're mad that somehow we're trying to bring in more law enforcement officials. I think what President Trump is trying to do is to make sure that we're sending in more law enforcement officials. I think what President Trump is trying to do is send in more of the good guys, more people that want to calm the situation down and I don't understand how Gavin Newsom thinks that sending in more police is somehow antagonistic. The only way that you can think that sending in more police is antagonistic is if you hate the police. If you're somebody who doesn't want law enforcement then Gavin Newsom is the author and creator of Sanctuary Cities and States. This is a term that sounds so nice but at the end of the day, it's a wink to say you get to decide which federal law you follow, which federal law you don't and you get to live in our city and we're not going to punish you and you get to pick and choose.
It's an attack on the rule of law and so I think having more police officers, more law enforcement officials is a good thing when there's riots going on. Rick, how much do you think of this Gavin Newsom plans, like you said, even the Sanctuary Cities, all the things that he's done over the last few years and then of course he had a podcast where all of a sudden he's talking to conservatives and saying Charlie Kirk, you know, my son loves you, all these things. How much of this is politics?
I honestly look at what he says and go I don't know if you even believe what you're saying here. It's not even like a Bernie Sanders is what he's saying. Gavin Newsom just feels like he's always one step ahead in terms of where his political future is going and trying to kind of keep up with that tide. Look, between the hair, the voice and the motions, the guy is a total robot who just everything is politics. He's the most inauthentic person in politics today.
There's just no question about it. He will say anything and do anything and he does this faux outrage and he's on MSNBC beating his chest. I mean, I just can't imagine that Gavin Newsom works in Michigan or Wisconsin or Pennsylvania. The idea that he's going to run for President, which he is because everything is politics with him, and he's never been vetted, by the way, in California. He's never been vetted by the California media.
They just celebrate him and all Democrats. So as soon as California Democrats get on the national stage and they get looked at by media, by real journalists, they all implode because they haven't been vetted for decades. And Rick, I think when you look at the politics of this and the way it's already playing out is they haven't learned lessons from the past when we saw in 2020 the riots that took over the country that were in towns that had nothing to do with what happened in Minnesota with George Floyd that were getting millions of dollars of damage, people losing their businesses, losing their livelihood that had nothing to do with what took place. And the CNN meme of the fiery but mostly peaceful, you're already seeing Kamala Harris saying these are overwhelmingly peaceful. You're hearing Karen Bass parrot that when we see what's happening and the moment that these things go from being a march and a peaceful assembly, which is what the Constitution allows for and protects, to firebombing, throwing bricks, having pallets of bricks show up out of nowhere on street corners where there doesn't seem to be any construction.
We know this game and we've seen it before, but we also hear people like Senator Chris Murphy saying that this should be the moment that everyone realizes they need a new country calling for more of this. How do they think that this is rehabilitating the brand of their party, which was so utterly rebuked over this very issue just a few months ago? I mean, when you put Karen Bass, Kamala Harris, and Gavin Newsom on one side of any issue, common sense is on the other side. And so many Californians know that. They're so tired of this. I actually think they're helping fix California because they're all together and they're screaming about the same issue and they don't want more law enforcement officials. They want fewer. And they want people in the streets. And common sense Californians are tired of it.
They know after the fires that this crowd was ill-prepared. They've given us policies like less water. They've killed desalinization plants. They've given us policies that when it comes to forest management are atrocious. We can't clear the forest bed of dead trees and dead bushes. This is a tinderbox that is literally going to, in a hot, dry weather, happen all over again.
We're going to have wildfires and we still don't have enough water because the water is not in the reserves. This crowd is totally incompetent and Californians know that and when they see now them advocate for fewer law enforcement officials during a riot they say, well, there you go again. I think we should actually, Rick, while you're on the air real quick, take this call. We have Michelle who is an ACLJ champion who is in California and she has some thoughts and I wanted to give her a chance to weigh in as well. Go ahead.
Hey, thank you. Okay, so I watched what was going on yesterday on a live stream because I don't look at mainstream media because they live and it reminded me totally of the BLM riot. The police were absolutely standing down and the situation escalated over literally hours. The police vehicles on the 101 freeway should never have been destroyed. The little cars, the electric cars should never have been burned.
They burned one at a time. There was no presence there whatsoever. The police have been allowed to do their job and disperse the crowd in the beginning.
None of this would have happened. This is all on Karen Bass and the last thing, I hope the FBI gets involved and finds and prosecutes all these people who broke the law. All right, Rick, I'll let you respond to that because I think a lot of people also see the sort of liberal talking points coming out going, hey, don't let them tell you that there are riots happening in LA. These are isolated. These are small. They're there. You're just seeing a small group. Hey, we're going to follow one car chase.
It'll be fine. What do you say that though to Michelle who's calling in again, an ACLJ supporter and a Californian? Well, first of all, for those of us who live in Los Angeles, we know that this is a very real riot and multiple riots. It's happening. Our city already is mismanagement when it comes to fire, water and homelessness and taxes.
Michelle is right. We need some sort of federal response to punish these individuals, whether it's DOJ or the FBI. We can't just point out all of these individuals that are fanning the flames of lawlessness. We need to prosecute people so that it doesn't happen again. The California common sense voter and citizen is so tired of this. I really believe that we are going to see in the next election someone like Karen Bass completely defeated, someone like Gavin Newsom completely defeated because people want common sense leadership. They want people who are going to solve problems.
Right now, California and specifically Los Angeles is getting worse, not better. Thank you, Rick, for joining us. I appreciate it. Rick Grinnell, obviously a great member here at the ACLJ, always been someone who is just incredible to hear his feedback and thoughts. Of course, at the Kennedy Center right now, heading up to Kennedy Center. I was looking at the Tonys last night and I was like, is Rick there? I don't think Rick is there, but we are going to have in the next segment your phone calls. And we haven't got any right now.
I'm just going to be honest. The first three segments, the phone lines were down. Usually we get people on hold, we get ready, paddle, start going after me saying, I'm taking the time. That means we got right now six open lines for 3110 with your feedback, with your thoughts, your comments over your weekend. What happened? Make it short. Make it sweet. Let's get you screened up. Let's get you on the air coming up in the next segment because I always like to hear from you all over the planet.
Once again, 1-800-684-3110. And before we go to break, once again, I want to thank you for being an ACLJ champion. It means a lot. We'll have some Breaking ACLJ news later on in the week.
I can't wait to share with you. Welcome back to Sekulow. We only have two lines open right now, but we are still screening those calls. So it's going to take a minute for the first caller to get up, but we'll get them up in just a second.
Stay on hold if you're on hold right now. Again, I wanted to let you know that the ACLJ is hard at work. We will, and I just got off of right before this broadcast, a call with our legal team, which we do every week, where they give us an update on what's going on with our legal team. What's going on, what any new cases, any updates. And there are some really great ones that sometimes we can't share all the information with you in the moment.
But no, there's some really good things on the horizon right now. And you've been standing with the ACLJ for a long time, many of you for decades. And I wanted to tell you that I appreciate it. And when we rolled out the champions campaign just a few years ago, where you could become a recurring monthly member, because look, the ACLJ was built, honestly, on individual diversity and diversity. ACLJ was built honestly on individual donations, not by big sponsors, not by big giant corporate sponsors or even large donors. And yes, there are some amazing large donors.
I want to thank them. But the basis of it was individual donations. Now we're able to build a baseline with not only individual donations, but with people who give on a monthly recurring basis to become ACLJ champions. So we know going into a month, at least we have an idea of where we're headed, where we could set our budgets, where we could set our budget, and where you want our money to be spent. So when you give and you donate, you may say, hey, we can tell if it's on this kind of show or if it's on another show or what topics that you care about. When you become an ACLJ champion, you can also download the ACLJ app and it tells you, hey, one of these are most important to you. That's a lot of data for us to be able to look at and go, okay, what do our members actually want?
What do our champions actually want? And it's a really great part of sort of the way the new media plays out. And it's a really great part of sort of the way the new media, we're not just picking in thin air, hopefully you'll like this. But also because we're not controlled by major sponsors or a network, we can also tell you the truth.
We can say whatever we want within realm, within reason, you know. We're able to say essentially how we feel and that's been today's show, which has been really interesting to watch all the comments come in because again, there is two kind of sides to this, your heart and your head going, okay, I believe we should not have people here illegally who are breaking the law and then you have people, and we certainly shouldn't have riots and protests and violence. The other side of people going, well, we need to be helping the least of these. We need to make sure people that want to be here for the right reasons have a way to get here and all of a sudden you have this interesting split and I love seeing in the comments that conversation happen. You can't do that on most mainstream news outlets.
You can't have nuanced conversations. Let's go ahead and take a first phone call. Let's go to Vince who's calling in New York.
On line three, you're on the air. How are you guys doing today? Pretty good, Vince.
Go ahead. I agree with Trump that he should send in the National Guard, that he should stop the violence. My only concern is the precedent that it sets in a future liberal administration. Could they use this to somehow start like a federal police force?
Vince, I think these are always the real issues. Will and I talk about this. You have to look at the unintended consequences of a lot of the decisions coming out of the Trump White House, which is what does it look like in three years if there's a Democrat President? Well, and I think to some degree, you'll hear from the Gavin Newsom's and the politicians on the left. They're saying this is a fascist move. This is the act of an authoritarian. But then when you read the memo from President Trump and you see what's going on and he talks about what is happening constitutes a form of rebellion against the authority of the government of the United States because these protests weren't just to make their voices heard.
The goal was to stop the faithful execution of federal immigration laws by the Department of Homeland Security, ICE, and the like. And so there is a very valid point, and I'm sure this is going to be fought in court, that the President is making about that as a rebellion under the law, under multiple different laws, both the Insurrection Act of 1807 as well as other Title 10 uses of the military that he can make that case. And now, once again, though, it should be something that is rare. This shouldn't be something where we see the National Guard is always deployed anytime there is something like this because of the potential future consequences. Right now, at least according to the White House and the way that they are putting this forward, I think you can make the good argument they are doing this legally through statutes that are on the book and the way that the commander-in-chief can operate.
It should be rare. We are seeing this unfold this way. There is definitely going to be legal challenges to it. But I don't want it to move outside of, well, it's not really a rebellion, and they're not trying to faithfully execute. We just don't like this protest, and there are no cars on fire. They aren't trying to hinder police activity. They are just using their voices. That is the concern that also could be used by a future administration.
That's a little like China. Right. Let's go to George, who is calling. George in Georgia is ACLJ champion in my home state of Georgia. Go ahead, George. Yes, good afternoon, gentlemen. I really appreciate your program.
I've been a long-time listener. The one thing that really bothered me, I've had this conversation with family members, is often we will say, well, someone got here illegally, but now they are a member of society, they are family members, they have families here. But we have families in America that are broken up every day if someone breaks the law, and that family member, the father of someone there, is sent to prison because of what they've done. I know they say they want to remove the worst of the worst, but if you're here illegally, then that means you're already a criminal, a lawbreaker, if I understand the law correctly. George, I mean, you're not wrong. It doesn't mean that people don't have different points of view on that because I understand what you're saying, and I don't think you're wrong in the sense of going, yes, they came here illegally, therefore they have broken the law, therefore they are a criminal. Sure, absolutely. But you were talking about tens of millions of people at this point, so now we also have to figure out what that looks like.
It's not like you could just throw everyone in jail, and I honestly don't think you could deport all of these people. George, I appreciate your comments so much, and I definitely appreciate your ongoing support. Let's take one last call for the day. Christine in California, good way to end the call or end the show today is to go to California and hear from you. Christine, go ahead. Hi, good morning. Yeah, I just kind of said all I had to say, and you actually answered some of my questions.
Go ahead, though. The protests are so huge. We have to come back and answer back with the National Guard and different things, because this is unprecedented. And when the National Guard was called in, I could sleep at night. It gave me a ton of peace. It's amazing.
I mean, it's out in my backyard, and it's just so disruptive. And also, I do believe that the Democrats and the mainstream media are using the same old playbook. They're using compassion as a weapon against, to me, it feels like the conservatives and the Republicans, and to come against Trump on this. First of all, I believe the President has a duty to protect the American people. Not just a right, a duty.
So this is, it needed to be done, and I am really mad at Newsom right now. Christine, California, I appreciate it. I'm only cutting you off, because we only got a minute left, Will, and we want to encourage people to become ACLJ champions today, because as we head into the end of the show, it's always good to take a look at what we're doing at ACLJ.org. Look at how you can give, obviously, financially, monthly, but you can also look at some of the great free content we have on there. That's right, as well as our legal team is even looking at this, trying to see what state FOIA angle we can take to find out if there were stand-down orders from the governor or from the mayor within California. And so our legal team continues, and when you stand with us, it gives us that opportunity, that ability to keep fighting not just for our clients, not just for the people that have been told you can't pray here, you can't do this, you can't have your Bible Club, but for the Constitution and for everyone in America's freedom, and that's what we fight for every day. And you as a champion, when you stand with us, you give us that ability and opportunity. Join today.
