Kimmel Returns: Was it a PR Stunt?

As Jimmy Kimmel returns tonight to ABC, the big question was it all just a big PR stunt. 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 back to Sekulow. Will Haynes is joining me in the studio. This is Logan Sekulow Pack Show today. Rick Rennell is going to be ending our show later on, and Mike Pompeo will be joining us in a few segments. You want to stay tuned for that.

As phone lines are open for you, of course, we are reporting again on the news of the Jimmy Kimmel situation as Jimmy Kimmel will return to air yesterday. You may have remembered when I was yesterday, tonight. Yesterday, when I was on the show, I got ahead of myself. On the show, people said, What do you think? Jimmy Kim will cancel it.

I said, I think he'll be on air by the end of the week. And I even said, I wish I had put money on it. And now I really do wish I had put money on it because Jimmy Kimmel has been reinstated, Jimmy Kimmel Live, which was never canceled. Was suspended uh production was suspended Indefinitely.

Now when you put the word indefinitely on it, That is the spin problem, because that sounds like that could last forever. It's like when a band goes on permanent hiatus or whatever you're calling it. It just feels like a version of not saying we're broken up.

Now, Jimmy Kimmel returns tonight with sort of the big swerve. is that both Nexstar And Sinclair Broadcasting, which again holds a massive amount of the affiliates, which is actually what you're watching. When you're watching ABC in your local market, you are not watching ABC, you're watching ABC programming on an affiliate station. I know it can get a little confusing, a little hairy now, most of the time. To have a deal with ABC or to have a deal with these networks, they do have to carry the prime-time main programming.

However, late night has actually always been one of those things that has gone in and out. Jimmy Kimmel, in certain markets, is on an 11. Certain markets is on at 10:30, certain markets on at 11:30. It would just depend. I remember growing up, when we were in Orlando, he would always start 30 minutes after the other shows because the local news preempted Jimmy Kimmel.

Now, that being said, though, Sinclair Broadcasting, Nexstar, that accounts for a large percentage of the affiliates, which means a lot of you watching right now are not still going to be able to get. Jimmy Kimmel live in your local market. And the reason I present the question. Of is it a PR stunt? Is that once again, no one was really talking about these shows until Stephen Colbert, they announced Stephen Colbert was going to go off the air next year.

And ABC very likely could have been like, you know what? We need a little bit of that. We need a little bit of that love that's coming in. I'm not saying that's what happened. But maybe even the Jimmy Kimmel producers said that and said, what's going to happen here?

What can we do to kind of get some people paying attention to the show we're doing right now? You know that's the conversation that's happening. Maybe they decided, let's push it over the line a little bit more. In the wake of the Charlie Kirk tragedy, what can we do to get people interested? Because you know what?

I'll be honest, and if you're being honest with yourself, there's a good chance you would at least watch that opening monologue tonight if it was available in your, in your uh, region in your household. A lot of you won't have it. But there's a lot of you that would have. Ratings will spike. Tonight.

It's not unlike the cracker barrel situation. Which I believe the crack and braille situation, if I was a betting man on that, the entire thing was a publicity stunt. Um that there was never a plan on it being turned into what it was. I've been saying that since the very beginning. The marketing department is always a step in front of the consumer.

I think there's at least cleanup happening now at ABC. They did have a lot of backlash within Hollywood. A real protest to the streets.

So a lot of people said, This is what finally got you to protest. Not, you know, October 7th, not any of these things. What got you to protest was a show you likely didn't watch was getting taken off the air temporarily. That's right. And when you look at the reaction, how widespread it was in the entertainment industry about Jimmy Kimmel being taken off the air, the silencing of his free speech, one, all that was ridiculous.

But also, if the Trump administration silenced Jimmy Kimmel, Are they responsible for the back? I'm very confused about how this fascism that they allege works when he's joining the lineup again tonight. Yeah, exactly. He was off air for what, a whole three shows, I believe. A Friday and a Monday show.

What do you think? 1-800-684-3110. Again, we're also gonna be joined by Mike Pompeo, Rick Rinnell, coming up in the next few segments. But phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. I did also want to tell you, support the work of the ACLJ.

In the light of last few weeks, they've been more important to protect free speech. and protect our faith. You need to be part of the team right now. Go to aclj.org. We'll talk more about that coming up.

Welcome back to Succulo. As I said, there are phone lines open right now, and I'm gonna ask if you're watching on YouTube. Just throw in the comments where you're watching from. I'd love to see that. And kind of.

really see how much this could impact your Your local market and what's going on. Obviously, this is a whole free speech discussion. This is a media discussion that goes beyond. ABC, it is funny to me to see the left going on rants to cancel Disney Plus after the far right did that for what I feel like was the last four or five years of saying cancel all of your Disney boycott Disney. I realize I don't think there's much that Disney could do for me to cancel my subscriptions or not go to Disney World.

I realize whether it's the far left or the far right, I'm somewhere in the middle, which is probably where everyone is going. Just entertain me. put on a good show. I don't even care if I disagree with the politics. I'll still enjoy it if it's a good, well-produced production.

I think Disney's kind of flaw in this entire spot was they should have said, which look, I have to give it to Fox. They always do this for Gutfeld. Is whenever there is a big breaking news story or a national tragedy, something like that, they say, Hey, We're preempting the show tonight. We're going to take a breather. We don't want to inflame anything.

And they do that in general. Because why? That show is inherently political, is on Fox News. Right. But so are these shows now.

They didn't used to be. But now they are inherently political. If you think you can tune in and watch, and I'm not talking about a joke about the President, that should always be on the table. That should be something that is happening. That's pop culture.

That is culture. But when you're talking about political commentary, that is what those shows had become: whether it was Stephen Colbert or Jimmy Kimmel, and to a lesser extent, but still Jimmy Fallon, where it felt like he was pressured by those who follow him. It was exactly the same as the others. I think it's unwatchable because how much it is just a political commentary show at 12:30 at night. Right, which is the last time you actually really want to be watching that.

You should probably just go to sleep at that point. If you feel like Seth Meyers is something you need to watch, but I think this is interesting because, as you mentioned, Nexar and Sinclair, that's about 25% of the TV viewership audience just between those two networks of affiliates. That is a big portion of the country. It's a big portion of ad revenue. Obviously, Disney is going to see, and ABC is going to see probably the biggest ratings they've had in a long time for his show.

I would even expect. With those, that 25% chunk taken out, because I don't know how many people in those markets were watching it in general. We know that the ratings were low, it wasn't doing great. There was only about 220,000 in the demo that were watching. I feel like they can make that up.

In Los Angeles alone tonight with the Solidarity Watchers that are going to be doing it. And I do think, though, as it exploded into this whole discussion of free speech. We were critical of the comments that the FCC chairman said. I mean, we traditionally are more anti-FCC in general about government overreach. In terms of content.

Right. I think of content moderation, the FCC at this point is. Virtually worthless. I think it's a waste of money, probably a waste of tens of millions of dollars. You're looking for a place to cut.

It is a good place to start looking.

Now, do I think the FCC serves a good purpose? Yes, because there are things like air traffic control, the way that the sound and the way we connect on different things. There's a lot of things in terms of communications that do need some government assistance and make oversight because for our own safety. I believe that that is 100%. What I'm talking about is a group of people listening to the radio and watching television and deciding what is good and what is bad, what is moral and what is immoral, because the line is so blurry.

This is not the 1950s. This is not the 1960s. What they're allowed to do on terrestrial television, over-the-air television, or whatever you want to call it, the basic networks. is so far and beyond Maybe why the FCC had this in the first place. I mean, remember, you go back and in just our lifetime, not our lifetime, but our parents' lifetime.

Uh you know uh Lucy and Ricky slept in separate beds. You know, I mean, that's how extreme it was. And now, a lot of that was regulation, right? Was what was decent on the air.

Now look at what you've been watching on ABC, CBS, NBC, these networks, whether that's from their comedy sitcoms, whether that is from their dramas, whether that is from their comedy late night shows. If you look at all of that, and you could tell me that it's You know, G-rated. Ooh, we talk what are we talking about now?

So, you have a whole group that now, when the FCC started to say something like this, I don't like it. I don't think it's necessary. I think the FCC at this point needs to stay out of content moderation. This is my opinion, by the way, not the organization's opinion. We haven't really done a deep dive organizationally, but this is just someone who is.

I've always sighed on. away from censorship. But I also don't like the idea of the government getting involved. They've gotten involved a lot in religious broadcasting over the years. I was talking to one of my friends, you know, his name, a longtime family in Christian television.

And he said, Yeah, you know, his family had to go talk to the FCC so much in the 80s, the amount of money they had to waste. Because they were just trying at that point, talk about Jesus on the air. That is what happens when the shoe is on the other foot. That's exactly why we pushed back against things like the fairness doctrine for so long as an organization is because the heavy hand of government wasn't wielded even-handedly. It was going after mostly religious broadcasters and trying to force religious broadcasters to showcase the other points of view about faith on religious broadcasting.

That's on their own networks. But this is an interesting question. This comes from YouTube that says, if Jimmy Kimmel had asked ACLJ to defend his free speech rights, what would the ACLJ do? And that's where I think this becoming a whole free speech issue, I think it disproves the theory that this was the FCC putting pressure on Disney, the fact that he's going back on air today. Yeah, I think it was 100% a business decision for them.

Right. If this was a decision that you could say you could draw. A direct correlation to the government overreach and government doing this. Sure, I think there could be something that could be said there.

However, it was not that. Uh I don't think the FCC should have commented. Uh but At the end of the day, it was a corporate decision by Disney. And now it's going to be a corporate decision on how they're going to distribute this broadcast. What are the rules and regulations?

If it's blacked out in your market, can they only put it on Disney Plus? Can they put it on a a free streaming service? I know that they were being p Put on there later on, you know, clips and things and full shows later on. But what about you'd say the live airing? It's not live, but the live airing.

That's going to open up another door. And is that what tries to get people to go? I know they've talked about that with shows like Saturday Night Live, where maybe they would move exclusively to a Peacock platform for NBC to drive numbers up for Peacock. And because They didn't really want to have to deal with. The sensors and everything that was going into what was this late night comedy show that are made, by the way, in rapid speed.

Most of them written the same day.

So, you got to imagine dealing with standards and practices is not easy.

So, if you can move it to your streamer, you better believe they will, just in terms of. But you have to have the audience. And that's the big deal. But You know what I mean? I I've watched recently.

Peacock launched their version of a new spin-off of The Office. The paper. The paper. Enjoyed it.

However, what was shocking to me, and this is maybe the prudish for me, is like. It is like the the language in it is of an R-rated movie. But you're like coming off of almost building a brand on a PG-13. What can be on TV? What can be on TV?

So it feels like what could be on TV. Like our brains are accustomed to this, like a sitcom having words that we're not used to hearing. But that's just me talking as a consumer, by the way, not as the government. Let's, you want to take a phone call? Let's take a phone call.

Yeah, let's go to Ronald calling from South Carolina online one. And if you want to be on air, call 1-800-684-3110. But, Ronald, you're on Sekulow. Yes, thankfully. For taking my call.

Yeah, I see that this. Um All the late night shows, and I think that Logan literally hit the nail on the head. Yeah. Literally just A way, a platform for the liberal. Bolster their point of view because there are very few shows.

Especially on uh national a platform to voice their opinions. Yeah, I mean Ronald, I think your other Yeah. that Greg Gutfeld became the number one late night show. Uh on the on the in the country almost immediately after launch.

Now some of that is Fox News has a very dedicated audience. of millions of people that watch every night. But he got in that discussion real quick. And he's cable. And the rest of them are, again, Traditional networks, ABC, NBC, Fox, but what you can obviously take from that.

is that that doesn't really matter anymore. And it matters less and less. as the days go on.

So, once again, as I said, if we were policing these things, if they were still being the FCC. Of the 50s and the 60s, which I don't believe they should be, by the way. But if you were that, okay, you could say, all right, well, they highly police what goes over the air. But that hasn't been the case. That hasn't been the case since really the eighties.

maybe even the seventies. Um Where this has happened.

So who we tried to kid? In terms of being like prudish Americans, that doesn't exist in modern media. There are great options for that, by the way. If you're looking for clean entertainment, obviously I'm all about it. I'm all for it.

Whether that's Christian music, whether that's Christian television, or there's options like Great American Family, which really spun off the idea of you can no longer trust. A lot of the What felt like the family safe hallmark lifetime type of thing with the office spin-off? Yeah, you just wouldn't expect it.

Some of that's building brand trust, brand loyalty. But yo, they've thrown all of that out the window. And that's why I start to lean on were we being played? Were we being played the whole time? What do you think?

You think about the Cracker Barrel situation? I think we were being played. I love Cracker Barrel, but you know what? I think that entire thing. You know, they're pulling the signs down now.

You see the videos of it. They're putting all... Give me a break.

Okay. 1-800-684-30110. We'll be back with more on Sekulow. Join us. And we're going to have also coming up, Mike Pompeo.

Next thing. All right, welcome back to Sekulow. Mike Pompeo is joining us right now, Senior Counsel for Global Affairs. To set up what's going on, though, President Trump just spoke at the UN General Assembly. This happens today.

Of course, after the launch of the Jewish High Holy Days, With Rosh Hashada and the Jewish New Year happening as we speak right now. It started last night. We had a celebration at our home and discussed the history and the legacy of that. Of course, this is under a time when Israel is under pretty extreme attack. Of course, President Trump, though, this isn't even the clip that we're going to play, but I saw a clip earlier.

He brought up the hostages, brought up Israel. Because you know what? When other people can't be there for their religious reasons, At least President Trump was there. Let's go ahead, though, and hear from President Trump to set up this conversation. Bye too.

What is the purpose of the United Nations? The UN has such tremendous potential. I've always said it. It has such tremendous, tremendous potential. But it's not even coming close to living up to that potential.

For the most part, at least for now, all They seem to do is write a really strongly worded letter And then never follow that letter up. It's empty words. And empty words don't solve war. The only thing that solves war and wars is action. Secretary Pompeo, you've been involved in this kind of action for many, many years and been involved, of course, but President Trump directly calls out the UN.

for essentially doing nothing. To stop any wars, like he says, writing letters, making statements.

Now, we've always said it's very important for the ACLJ team to be there, and I do think it's important for us to be there because we have to be able even to fight back with words when necessary. But Isn't this what the UN is supposed to prevent? Aren't they the ones that are supposed to be going out there saying we need to have calm? We need to stop wars, but it seems like their language always fires it up.

Well, good afternoon. That's exactly right. Look, the the U Ed, I I wouldn't have said this ten years ago, but now having personally experienced this and now watched it After the last four and a half years after I left. Left office, you can see very clearly that the UN has become dysfunctional. It no longer serves its intended purpose.

When war breaks out, does anybody think let's go to the United Nations and solve this? I think the answer to that is no, and they turn instead to the United States for that kind of leadership. And so, my judgment, the UN, has become. incapable of accomplishing its mission. The President said he's still thinks it has high potential.

I'm not confident that that's actually true. I think we need to refresh and start over after. 75 years, I'm not sure the United Nations is any longer fit for purpose. It doesn't help. Keep peace.

Well, and Mr. Secretary, to that point as well, while he said, you know, it has tremendous potential, his olive branch that he almost reached out was more directly to individual nations. He said, I am here to offer the hand of American leadership and friendship to any nation in this assembly that is willing to join us in forging a safer, more prosperous world.

So while he was saying that there's tremendous potential with the UN, he was very, I feel like, direct in also saying, listen, we understand that we need to go directly to nations to be able to form these partnerships to make a safer world because the UN is not going to be the one that does this. No, that's exactly right. He was offering an alternative vision for how we get to a more prosperous. more stable world, right, with a lot more peace and a lot less risk for American young men and women who Serving our armed forces. He was definitely at that.

And I think he's right. And you see that with all that's going on in the world today, right? You see so many places where the UN simply can't step in and solve it, but many of us working together, individual nations or coalitions of nations, cannot. Can actually do that and achieve a good outcome for them and, most importantly, for the United States of America. Another thing that's been happening around this UN General Assembly is we saw the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, they recognized a Palestinian state.

And yesterday, France at a two-state solution meeting with Saudi Arabia Also, formally announced that they will be recognizing a Palestinian state. What was interesting to me is both the UK Prime Minister in his statement tried to say this isn't a reward for Hamas, and President Macron yesterday also said that this is bad for Hamas, that they are recognizing this Palestinian state and that it will increase the odds of Israel being able to live in peace with their neighbors.

Meanwhile, we saw Hamas senior members praising the recognition of Palestinian states, saying that anything that moves the legitimacy of the Palestinian people forward, they welcome. What's your take on what the... members of the UN and very close allies of the US are doing? And is it in any way make Israel safer? Or in reality, does it reward Hamas?

Oh, goodness. You know, I kind of separate out the Gulf states and their views from these Uh European uh Knucklehead leaders. I I I use that term generously. because that implies that there's some sanity to what they've done. But the reality is what they've done has created an enormous amount of risk not only for Israel, but for the greater Middle East, and for themselves and for the United States of America.

There is no Palestinian state today. I don't know what it is they're recognizing. It seems like pure fantasy to me. And I always ask when I hear people talk about We're going to recognize them at Kahoot. Who's going to come to the meeting?

Who would you want to sit with? You want to lead to the character? terrorist leader from Habas? Go sit with Abu Mazen, who's In the 20 years on or so from his four-year term in Judea and Samaria. There is no state.

Today, what we ought to do is work towards developing a peaceful solution, is what President Trump's been trying to strive for. And that is not going to happen. long as Hamas continues to have the capacity to engage in armed conflict. And as long as the Iranian regime continues to fund in the region. We're committing these acts of terror against Israel.

And that feels like a long road, Secretary Pompeo. I think when I heard Stammer going out there saying, you know, this is what our plan is, but our plan also says. We cannot have Hamas in control. We need to stand shoulder to shoulder with our Jewish brothers and sisters. And here's why, because we have to make sure we have a new government, a new leadership in place.

We need to make sure they're not being funded by all these other countries. To me, it's like you make this big declarative statement. With no teeth, because you know that the hope is that we could get there one day, but that right now. None of that's even on the table at this point. Yes.

I think that's right. And I must say too, the timing of this is especially outrageous to me, not only during the Jewish holiday, but as we are now just a couple of weeks out from the anniversary of the slaughter of uh Israeli citizens by the way Israelis of uh uh Islamic, Muslim uh Israelis, Jewish Israelis, Christian Israelis. And 48 hostages are still being held. It is pretty outrageous for them to go to the UN and claim they want peace. while the folks who are holding hostages have absolutely absolutely refused any terms that make any sense.

For anyone.

Well, Secretary Pompeo, we always appreciate you joining us. And look, I haven't spent a lot of time today or this week talking a lot about the ACLJ and the specific works we do. But having your voice is always great to have someone who has been there, been in these rooms, and been a part of the conversation. Of course, we're going to be joined later on by some more people who have done that as well. Because we have a second half hour coming up on this broadcast.

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So do that today. Back with the second half hour in less than a minute. Yeah. Keeping you informed and engaged.

Now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Secular. Welcome back to Secular. Will Haynes joining me in the studio.

We have Rick Rinnell joining us a little bit later in the broadcast. And what that means, because he's going to be joining us at the very end, I want to take phone calls in the meantime.

So give me a call right now at 1-800-684-3110. Let's go ahead and take some. Cambria is calling. Cambria is an ACLJ champion, which means they give on a monthly recurring basis like a membership fee, and we really appreciate that. They do it not because they get something special, they get special treatment.

Though here, I usually bump them up to the front. They do it because they want to set it, forget it, and make sure that they are supporting the work of the ACLJ. But, Cambria and Utah, go ahead. Thank you. Um I just wanted to speak.

towards the Disney Plus and and and all of that. topic. Uh um I'm I canceled. Them. Not because of Charlie Cook, not because of the shenanigans of ABC.

Um 'Cause I believe it was I forgot the word you used, but it was a setup. But to make it clear, I was a Disney fan. And part of their legacy, my grandfather worked for them. over 40 years. And he's his name's all over the place.

However. That loyalty does not replace my moral compass. And because Disney is supporting all these other things, that's why I canceled. And even if they came out with a God-fearing movie, I would not support it. because it would line the pockets of those.

Who hate God?

Well, Camria, I'm I'm not cutting you off. I I believe that that's up to you as as a Uh Consumer, if you decide that you do not want to support a certain company or certain organization. More power to you. That's the p that's the beauty of uh of capitalism. that you get to show off and say you know what pay with you with your pocketbook you can say Uh or with your wallet, you can say what you want to support and what you don't want to support.

I'm not saying people need to do that or not. I tell you, I have not canceled my subscriptions. I have not done that. And not to say that I wouldn't or I wouldn't consider it. There are certain things that I don't do anymore.

I don't eat Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Ben and Jerry's lost me completely. Ben and Jerry's lost me completely with the way that they treated not just the. The plight of the Palestinians, which I understand can be a kind of a heart pull. even if you disagree with some of the things going on.

They were treating Israeli citizens, Israeli businesses, tremendously bad.

So, with that, I had to say, okay, that's enough. I'm not going to support this anymore. And when it comes to Disney, I think you have a publicly traded company that is beholden to its stockholders. If the stockholders make enough noise, Responses can happen. You actually have seen that.

They've actually changed over the last year or so, two years or so, where they have backed off a lot of the programs that they once held. You have seen Bob Iger meeting with President Trump. You have seen Bob Iger making some pretty big moves as they brought him back to try to bring Disney at least back to a politically neutral company.

Now, that is way easier said than done when a lot of the damage had been done. But what you actually saw this time was that the left was who was saying we're canceling Disney. For why? For throwing Jimmy Kimmel off the air.

Now, if they had just read a little further, they would have read, oh, this show is suspended right now. And I think Disney probably could have been clearer and said, that's why I do believe there is part of this was PR. They could have said. We're we're uh postponing the show for the rest of the week. due to the current climate in the world and we want to make sure that we are respectful of that.

And we don't want to put our foot in our mouth in any way possible. Because we know there's a good chance that that will happen. If you have an open mic, and trust me, Will and I can attest to this: you have an open mic for an hour a day. You're gonna say something inevitably that's gonna make someone mad. You're going to say something wrong.

Uh we're never perfect. Specifically, if we don't have scripts in front of us, which a lot of us do not. Uh you know, this is all coming off of our brain in real time. But when it comes to the Jimmy Kimmel situation, it's very different.

Now in the next segment, I want to hear from you. Carol and Deborah, stay on hold. Phone lights are open. I got four lines open. 1-800-684.

3110. That is 1-800. 6843110. And I want to take as many calls as I can in the next segment, as in the last segment. We're going to hear from our friend, Rick Rinnell.

Now, Rick has obviously been a member of our team for many years. He was at the Charlie Kirk Memorial, so we can even ask him about that as well. But we can also. Uh discuss President Trump at the UN General Assembly, as he's been involved in that. And we could talk about his Volume Me.

He's a Hollywood guy. We can talk to Rick about that. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Sekulow. I'm going to take your phone calls in this segment because the next one we'll be joined by Rick Cornell.

So I want to make sure we get to as many voices as we can. Let's go to Carol in Colorado, line one. You're on the air. Hello, I've been one of your uh members for years Thank you. And supports you.

Oh, what a blessing. I was just so uh Yeah. clean up America. That's what we've been trying to do and pray for our country. And all they're doing is just throwing garbage at us.

And trash. And I I was just disappointed And then if they can Uh have a girl lay on a desk and start taking her clothes off and I'm not sure exactly what we're talking about on that one. And I'm not cutting you off because we're on terrestrial radio. We actually do have rules. The FCC can't go after us.

So I'm not sure exactly what we're talking about here. But, Carol, what I will say is, I know there was a lot of celebrating, and I think there's a lot of people prematurely celebrating someone getting kicked off the air. You know, I'm not necessarily someone who has been kicked off the air before. I understand that it is the network's decision if you don't align with their policies. And Will brought up an interesting point: which was: remember when they were going to bring him back on the air?

Was it just a few days ago? They were having ongoing discussions with before they had decided to suspend it. Yeah, it was the day after he made those remarks. Remember, because his initial remarks were very good. Very, very unifying to McKimmel.

Second day makes this uh statement about uh you know labeling essentially the the shooter potentially as a as a a MAGA guy. That causes a lot of controversy. Disney brings him into the office and says, All right, let's figure out how we're going to handle this tonight. And all reports lead to saying that Jimmy Kimmel was going to essentially double down. And they said we need to let cooler heads.

Chill. And that's precisely what Disney did. I think that's the right decision. And sure, did a lot of people maybe prematurely get excited thinking, oh, Jimmy Kimball's going to be off the air? Uh Yeah, I think they did.

I don't praise anyone losing their job like that, but I do think there are some consequences to your actions. I look forward to seeing what he has to say tonight, as long as Law America. I haven't watched an episode, we talked about this, of Jimmy Kimmel Live. Probably in 15 years. Right.

It's of the three that were airing or still airing, he was my probably the late least one that I would go to.

Now, originally, when he launched, I thought it was a very innovative, interesting show, just like Jimmy Fallon when he took over for Jay Leto. They made a very interesting show, but they all kind of, as they get older, fall into the same tropes. And his show became so fiercely political. I used to love it. Dicky Barrett was the MC or was the, what did you recall?

The band leader. No, he wasn't even the bandleader. The host. He was the announcer. Yeah.

He was the announcer. Dickie Barrett from the Mighty Mighty Boston.

So it connected with me many ways early on. Obviously, he came off the man show, which was highly popular on Comedy Central. Highly divisive, though. Highly divisive. I mean, at the time, it wasn't as much because it was in the 90s, and you know, things were just a lot cooler.

But then, now, uh. He became so politically hotheaded. And that's name as Stephen Colbert. I was a huge fan of David Letterman, not as a person, not as a guy, and not as personal life. I know nothing about him, really.

But as a host. Very funny. Dry, could be mean. but was not necessarily mean in the terms of his audience. The politics were there.

And then, of course, you have Leno and then you have Carson, who were like. Yeah. They were so even-handed politically that you didn't even know who they Who they would have voted for. You had no clue who either of them would have voted for because they were either even-handed or said nothing, which is probably where it should land.

Well, and honestly, as people wanted to say, this is censorship, this is a free speech issue, and we've already talked about the comments made by the FCC chairman. But here's the reality. Here's what real censorship is. Here's what real government overreach is, and using the power of government to silence someone. Garrett O'Boyle, who was an FBI whistleblower.

That we represented at the ACLJ, he got a real indefinite suspension. Where he was suspended without pay for years. His security clearance was suspended, revoked. He couldn't go get another job. to support his family, because he was still technically an employee of the FBI, just without pay and on indefinite suspension.

That is real government oppression of someone for what they say. Disney deciding after having a meeting with the guy, and he was like, Here's what I'm gonna say, and Bob Iger is like, I don't think you should say that.

So, here's what we're going to do: we're going to decide when you can come back, but it's not going to be this week. In three days, that's hardly an indefinite suspension. That is hardly censorship. That is a business decision to try to get through something and see where they go from there. And I don't think he's gonna be hat in hand, very humble tonight.

I think he's gonna be the exact same thing he was last week.

So, no, this wasn't censorship. This wasn't a freedom of speech issue. This is someone on a broadcast network where the heads of that entire company, global company, decided, you know what? We're going to pause for a minute. And then what did they do?

They bring him right back. And there's also Walter Kern, who is very well respected. Up in the air. Exactly. Has worked with Matt Taibbi a lot.

But he put this out. And now I've looked around. I haven't seen any sources confirming that this is the truth. But if he's saying it, Someone's telling it.

Someone's either telling it, or this is him just being the cynic that he is. But he says California Newsome on Kimmel now after publicity stunt lead up. If that is the truth, then yeah, the whole thing is. He's also claiming it's a publicity stunt. He's claiming it's a publicity stunt, but if it is something like Gavin Newsom, On the night that they're going to have the most eyeballs, if it is something like that, then yeah, the whole thing was a political stunt.

All right, let's take some phone calls. A lot of you are calling in a lot about this and also a lot about the UN. I need to make sure we take both of those because, like I said, in the next segment, we're going to hear from Rick Grinnell. Let's start with Deborah, who's actually asking about the UN, and then we'll move back to Jimmy Kim. We'll kind of bounce back and forth.

Deborah in Pennsylvania, go ahead. Um hi. I think when I called, I was a little bit confused between the UN and NATO, but And they're not interchangeable, but somewhat They are. that if everybody is supporting the Palestinian state, which has no land and it has no people. Yeah.

Supporting it, does that mean that the United States is incumbent upon them? To Follow Um the Palestinians into War? No, Deborah.

So the difference with NATO, which has a military alliance, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, it has the details in that treaty of how this group defends itself. The United Nations is a diplomatic body. These people that are these nations That are recognizing a Palestinian state. They are essentially saying we will have diplomatic relationship with them. Many of them already had like a mission from the Palestinian, from the Palestinian Authority.

Now they're going to upgrade it to embassy status, try to make it look more impressive than it is. But there is no obligation at all for the United States or even for the United Kingdom or France to actually do anything other than having diplomatic relations with a state that doesn't really exist and doesn't have a government.

So that's all it means. It's more empty words on paper than anything. Let's bounce back to the Jimmy Kimmel conversation. Michael in Florida watching on YouTube, line four. Go ahead.

Gentlemen. With regards to Jimmy. Kimmel? He still has the First Amendment right to have a the freedom of speech. The issue becomes the avenue by which That is supported and or aired.

With ABC or Disney. channels. The Subscribers of that. Who are the Um lesser the channels locally that air it Also have a choice as to whether they want to Huh? Air his His viewpoints.

So You know, it's not a freedom of speech issue. Yeah, I think, Michael, that has been a ridiculous overreach that this was a freedom of speech issue.

Now, if the FCC is coming down on you and a network is having to make that decision based on that, I think an argument could be made. But if we're talking about just an organization, if you have a boss, if you've decided to work for an organization that has a boss, guess what? The boss is going to make that decision. You are working for them.

Now, what is weird is, and I'll be honest, because this is going to be a little bit of an ACLJ pitches. We're fully independent. I was listening to one of my friends who's also fully independent. Uh and he said, you know what?

Sometimes it's nice to have that boogeyman boss. Because you'll rally behind those guys. Because a lot of times she won't rally behind us independent sources, us sources that have no one telling us what we can and can't say, which is fantastic, by the way. Of course, YouTube could say that. They could de-platform us.

You know, any of these can. We've had that hot conversation for many years. Thankfully, we have not. We've grown a massive audience there because they have at least turned the corner on free speech. But What was good for Jimmy Kimmel?

What was good for Jimmy Kimmel was to have a bad guy. A lot of us out there. We are the only voice for the Independent. And if you're the voice of the independent, you need to support those people. You need to support the people that are out there making these decisions, not based on, if you're watching us on a network right now.

They're not paying us. I'm just telling you that. Quite the opposite. This and this is just coming out from Jim Jordan. This is great.

Due to the oversight efforts in Congress, Google has committed to offer all creators that were kicked off YouTube due to political speech violations to return to the platform. They also, YouTube has admitted the Biden administration's censorship pressure was unacceptable and wrong. That was real government overreach. We actually defended Charlie Kirk in Turning Point USA, represented them on a brief to the United States Supreme Court about this very issue: the censorship of their platform. Under the Biden administration.

So, once again, if you wanna talk about free speech issues and the government pressuring people, look to the last administration, not this one. And we're gonna keep fighting, but these are big wins. Yeah, we'll keep that updated coming up.

Next segment, Rick Runnell's joining us. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Sekulow. Rick Renelle's joining us right now. But I first wanted to kick us off, like going to the phones.

Let's go to Cliff. Who is an ACLJ champion? That is someone that gives on a monthly recurring basis. We always appreciate when they call in. Cliff, you're probably going to be the last call of the day.

Make it good. Again, you're in Illinois, but I know you to comment. I think this is going to be a great segue into our segment here with Rick. Go ahead. Alright, how are you doing?

I am here. We're here. All right, good. Listen, I'll go real quick. I watched Trump speech at the UN.

What a what a show that was, huh? Um That's pretty uh dirty pool how uh They schedule the thing to go against the nation that was attacked. And they couldn't even represent themselves. I think these things are scheduled. That was a Really a dirty thing to do.

Cliff, of course, is referring to this happening, this UN General Assembly meeting happening during the Jewish New Year celebration during Rosh Hashanah, where a lot of Israel cannot really represent themselves. But thankfully, you do have President Trump out there, and he made some really strong statements in support of the hostages going after Hamas, saying we need to get this done, where Hamas, he said, has repeatedly rejected reasonable efforts to make peace and that they were being rewarded for horrible atrocities, including October 7th. And we have to get the hostages back. That was from President Trump earlier during this UN meeting.

Now, Rick, you've been involved so many times on these kinds of meetings and these kinds of situations. I want to get your readout of just what went on today and what that could look like. Hopefully for a a future.

Well, look, we are all really used to President Trump being filled with common sense and speaking very plainly and transparently. And we see it every day, right? He goes to the Oval Office. Americans are watching this. We're quite used to it.

That room is not used to it. That room is filled with diplomats who are shocked that the President of the United States is just.

So Much. Filled with common sense, right? He is somebody who calls out countries, compliments countries depending on what they need. He was criticizing the UN in a very normal way: I just arrived here, the escalator is not working, now the teleprompters are not working. And so he delivered that speech.

Without teleprompters. I'm not sure other leaders could stand up there and do that. They might have to wait for the teleprompter guy to fix the problem. But President Trump just goes in, speaks from the heart, and really critiques the place that needs to be critiqued. For me, the headline was really Brazil.

You know, we've been having some issues between the US and Brazil. Uh, President Lula spoke right before Trump, and President Trump came out and said, Hey, I just was in the back. I saw President Lula, we spoke, we actually liked each other for 30 seconds, and we've agreed to see each other again.

Now, that is huge because previous President Bolsonaro in Brazil and President Trump were very good friends. And President Trump and President Luba have not gotten off on a very good footing.

Now I believe they are. They'll meet. That means for us, maybe solving the tariff issue. which we're all feeling the crunch on coffee right now from Brazil. Rick, you mentioned the escalator issue and the teleprompter.

I think maybe the conspiracy theorist in me thought that it was a little too convenient that the moment Melania reached her foot forward to step on it, it stopped. And then, as soon as President Trump started to speak, the teleprompter went out. But maybe I'm reading into the way the UN feels about the President a little too much. But also, he did bring up that he's been wanting to help the UN refurbish the UN for a long time. We actually have a photo that you put on X of you, a younger Rick Grinnell, and a younger President Trump talking about refurbishing the UN.

So he's nothing if not consistent with his goals and plans and wanting to make progress. Come on, Will, I look almost identical, don't I? It's just that it's blurred. It's just blurred because you're in the background. It's blurred.

It's like I have a filter over my face back then. I can promise you that we look exactly identical: the Rick from 2005 and the Rick 20 years later. But it was a fun day because that was sitting in front of Congress, sitting in front of the Senate, where President Trump was talking about how to make the UN better. and how to refurbish it and why it could save money. The Senate didn't take him up on his ideas and neither did the UN.

I love that picture so much because that's in 2005. And President Trump and I are sitting there. It's future President Trump. It's really just businessman Trump. Sitting there in front of the Senate, U.S.

Senate. 20 years later. He's speaking at the UN, saying, You didn't take me up on my ideas 20 years ago. We could have had this place fixed. I love the moment.

I've joked with the President about it. I've shown that picture to President Trump multiple times just to remind him of what we did together early in our relationship between the UN. And back then, I was working with him because he had such great ideas on how to fix up the place, the UN. And I was working at the UN for eight years. And so we've stayed friends ever since then.

And now you're doing it for the Kennedy Center.

Now you're bringing all of that refurb to it. I see all the new designs coming at it. You know, that's such a good point, Logan. I need to bring that up to the President to say, you know. We had all these big ideas for the UN.

They didn't take us up on it. But now look what we're doing at the Kennedy Center. I think he'll like that. Yeah, absolutely.

Now, obviously, one of the other big stories, and look, you're a California guy, a Hollywood guy. We saw the protests going on in the streets. Of course, what is Hollywood going to protest? They're going to protest a late night talk show getting thrown off the air temporarily. That is what's going to get them to the streets.

Is it the hostages? Is it any of the issues that we really hold dear in this country? No, is it even the fires that happened in California? No, of course, what's going to get Hollywood really engaged is going to be that a beloved late night talk show that very few people were watching gets temporarily thrown off the air. And of course, we're seeing it was reinstated tonight, though a lot of the affiliates will not be carrying it.

Just want to get your thoughts on this. Kind of feels a bit like a PR move, a PR stunt, but also it shows you what happens actually when Hollywood gets motivated. But sadly, this is what gets them motivated.

Well, if you follow the liberal logic. That just means that Donald Trump rehired Jimmy Kimmel. That's all that that means. They said that Donald Trump kicked him off, but look, the reality is, he's still losing money. And ABC made the decision because he's losing millions of dollars every single year.

But it makes sense to me. If you have a business, if you have a show, and you're only appealing to one side of the country, 50% of the country, you're not even catering to because Jimmy Kimmel doesn't have conservative guests. He always mocks conservatives. He's a mouthpiece for the left. Of course, you're going to lose money when you're only trying to cater to half the country.

And so, Disney needs to understand that losing money. Uh is the new woke. Policy: If for some reason you're pressured into keeping these losers because they keep losing money, but you don't have the guts to fire people simply because you can't make decisions about your bottom line. I think shareholders at Disney should be outraged. Yeah, and I think they will be, and I think you're going to see in a year's time.

We'll see what happens. I do think this is an attempt to pop a rating tonight. I'm sure it will be. A lot of us are interested in what he has to say. Is he going to come out with a hat-in-hand apology?

I doubt it.

Well, you know, you'll never know. We'll see what Disney's pressure can actually do. Who knows? I mean, look, other than that show. Disney has tried to backpedal and to fix a lot of the problems.

You look at it even like a dancing with the stars. They have always appealed now to finding guests that were Christian conservatives as well as on completely the opposite side. They have tried to appeal to really just the masses. There's just these coupled pockets that they can't seem to get their heads wrapped around that Even the liberal audience a lot of times doesn't want to see at 11.30 at night. They just want to relax.

They just want to shut down for the evening. But that doesn't seem to be the case. Look, we got to wrap up. We only got 10 seconds left. Rick, thank you so much for joining us.

That's going to do it for today's show. We'll be back tomorrow. Support the work at the ACLJ, ACLJ.org.