DEVELOPING: This Isn't Over

On today's show, the DOJ says, hey, come me, it's not over yet. 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. Jordan is in the studio with me as well, and we have a very packed show today. We're going to be joined by multiple different guests throughout the broadcast. We are live.

How can I tell you we're live?

Well, we're about to see the turkeys pardoned. Yes, both. I think it was Gobble and Waddle the Turkeys who have been spending their days at the Willard Hotel, about to be pardoned by the President and the first lady. But that is not the news we're talking about. Of course, right as we went off the air, Jordan, there was some breaking news.

That's right. That was about uh Jim Comey and Letitia James. And remember, you had an is an interim U.S. attorney resign, another U.S. attorney be put in place, Allison Hannigan, and then the the Two indictments.

They're different issues, but grand juries issued these indictments. And the judge said that because she was the second person put in place by President Trump, and you have this 120-day window to appoint interim U.S. attorneys that are not yet been confirmed, that because the first 120 days had expired, it didn't start a new 120-day clock.

So this case had to be dismissed. What does that mean, though? That means that the case can be brought again. Under federal statute, and if you want to look it up, it's 18 U.S. Code, Section 3288.

If a felony is dismissed for any reason after the period prescribed by the applicable statute of limitations, that especially affects Comeys, you still have within 60 dates of the date of dismissal of the indictment to rebring. Um, uh, to go back to the grand jury to go get the indict to try and get the indictments again.

So, this is not over for Comey, this is not over for Letitia James. And the question is: Does the DOJ so far, they've said they're going to appeal that they believe the President should be able to appoint interim U.S. attorneys until the U.S. Senate can confirm someone that it should not be federal judges who do that after the first 120 days, which is kind of the current rule.

So, they're going to appeal that. They can appeal that. And even if they don't win there, they then start the clock onto 60 days to be able to bring new indictments. That does mean going back to a grand jury with the same information, but on both of these cases, they were able to get the indictments. Yeah, hey, I want to hear from you in this next segment.

We're going to have a special guest, but in the third segment, we're going to take some calls. We're going to keep diving in on this at 1-800-684-3110. But I want you to hear quickly from Pam Bondi, who was asked about this yesterday at a press conference. Let's go ahead and play that by one. If I could just give your reaction to the James Comey, Letitia James cases being dropped today back in Washington.

James Comey put out a video. He said this matters most because a message has to be sent. The President of the United States could not use the Department of Justice to target his political enemies. Your reaction to the cases being dropped into that specific message. Sure.

We'll be taking all available legal action, including an immediate appeal, to hold Letitia James and James Comey accountable for their unlawful conduct. What's your reaction to his statement? I'm going to keep going on this. I'm not worried about someone who has. Been charged with a very serious crime.

His alleged actions were a betrayal of public trust. Of course, that was from Pam Bondi. We'll be hearing actually from James Comey his response when we get back in the third segment of the show. In the next segment, Jordan, we have a special guest coming up. The co-chair of the RNC, KC Crosby, where we broadcast from in Tennessee, there is a special election.

Over 50,000 people have already voted, but the actual election. A lot of five voted stickers, yesterday. Yeah, a lot of the election is actually this coming Tuesday.

So, I mean, you're talking about right after the Thanksgiving holiday. It is a district that favors Republicans. Donald Trump won it by 20 points.

So did the former Republican Congressman Mark Green. And it's a very interesting district because it goes from both counties that I've been driving through today, but I don't live in this district. And where we are right now is not in the district.

So it's, but it's a wide swath of middle Tennessee. I think it's, yeah, it's got 14 different counties in it. It's going to be a fascinating interview. You should stay tuned. This is live.

We're going to be taking your calls at 1-800-684-30-110. Probably the most far-left candidate run. By the Democrats in Tennessee, especially in the Nashville, which does rile people up, gets that base out there. I saw it yesterday on the highway, on the bridge of the highway, saying go vote.

So, we're going to talk about that. We get back, and of course, we are wrapping up our Thanksgiving week here, and of course, wrapping up our Freedom Drive.

So, right now, I encourage you to make your donation, have your donation doubled today, as it will be throughout the end of the month. We know a lot of you will be traveling tomorrow.

So, this is a good day to be thinking about it and doing it. We'll be right back with more on Sekulow. Welcome back to Sekulow and maybe Thanksgiving week, but there is still a lot going on in the political world and here in Tennessee specifically. I was walking around yesterday. I was at the Hobby Lobby and there was a lot of I voted stickers and I think that had to remind people that there are elections going on, still special elections that are happening right here in Tennessee.

Jordan, I'll let you take it from there. Yeah, we have the RC co-chair, Casey Crosby, is joining us now. And while we're a national broadcast, this is an election that's happening on Tuesday. Over 50,000 people have voted. And it's great to have you on, co-chairman Casey Crosby of the Republican National Committee.

Let me ask you this first because we have seen some unprecedented spending. By the left and the Democrat Party in this district, which is one that the last Republican congressional candidate won by 20 points, and so did Donald Trump. Yes. I mean, they're coming in. We've seen it across the country where there's outside groups coming in and spending just crazy amounts of money, particularly on somebody like Afton Ben, who is an unserious candidate.

I mean, I want to say She's the gift that keeps giving, but not in the best of ways. And the more people learn about her, I think more Tennessee will see she does not share their values. I mean, how can you elect somebody who actually says they hate everything about Nashville? I live in Kentucky. My home state is Kentucky.

We border this district. I'm going to be there Saturday with a team of walkers from my home state trying to help get out the vote for Tuesday. And I think Tuesday is going to be a great day for Matt Van Epps. Yeah, Casey, that's very interesting. One of our team members is in that district.

I'm sure a lot of them actually are, but said that they're getting hit up quite a bit, said that they had got knocks on their door twice a day for the last two weeks and something in the mail every day that is from Afton.

So clearly the money is coming from somewhere because you would not see this normally in a special election in Tennessee for this kind of candidate. Yeah, I mean, certainly when you look at the National Democrat Party and look at the fact that they had to take out a $15 million loan to cover expenses, their operating expenses, I mean, their party that's in free fall. She is the AOC of Tennessee. I mean, every time I watch something, I think, can it get any worse for her? And in fact, it does.

Our research team has done an excellent job pulling up former comments that she has made, and she just doesn't align with Tennessee values at all. No, I want to play one of those comments from Afton Ben. This is going back to 2022, our team doing the work too in May. This is about Roe versus Wade being overturned, abortion rights in Tennessee, which is a state that is extremely pro-life. Let's play Byte Six.

This is who is running for Congress in, again, it's District 7. The election is this upcoming Tuesday after the Thanksgiving holiday. Take a listen. We are really living in a dystopian reality. I tell you, ladies and gents, it's not great.

But I want to, what is the positive if there is a silver lining?

So, what this does not mean for Tennessee is that groups on the ground will continue to provide training in terms of self-managed abortions. And so, instead of going to a doctor, because we won't have any doctors that provide abortions, how do you do it at home? We will continue to support reproductive justice organizations and grassroots movements. And yeah, and we'll continue to figure out how to get abortion pills to people.

So the organizing does not stop just because Roe is overturned. Yeah, I mean, I go to you, Casey. I mean, how do you do it at home? I mean, this is a procedure that can cause not just the loss of life of the unborn child, but the pregnant woman as well. And this is the kind of flippet statement she makes.

And she makes a lot of these kind of flippit statements throughout her short political career in Tennessee. I have no idea.

Somebody who claims to be for women who says that women shouldn't have babies, but yet says men can have babies. I've never heard of a self-managed abortion. I can't imagine, again, I live in a neighboring state, and these are just not the values that people in our states hold. And I think due to people like you getting out this information, the voters are waking up to the fact that they don't want to AOC light as their congresswoman out of Tennessee. Yeah, I think what is important, too, that you can talk about for people who aren't In Tennessee right now.

So they're not close enough as you are in Kentucky or like us to even kind of volunteer and assist in this election. What can people do nationwide? I mean, first, they probably need to know, as we're talking to a nationwide audience, that there is this special election. We know how close the House of Representatives is right now.

So, as much as you could say this is an out-of-touch, you know, very extreme liberal candidate, it's a special election, which is why the Dims are trying to pour money in to see if they can catch people off guard.

So, what would you tell people from outside Tennessee? How can they help get this message out this next week? Yeah, so a few things. First and foremost, if anybody wants to donate to Matt Van Epp's campaign, to the Republican National Committee, to the National Republican Congressional Committee, there are many outlets that I'm sure that we could use any type of financial contribution to finish this out. We are going to be probably outspent here because of the outside groups coming in.

We have it set up where people can make phone calls into the state from anywhere. Laugh, you can be sitting at home Friday after your big Thanksgiving dinner and have your bathrobe on and make calls into Tennessee to try to get out the Republican vote. But yeah, you can't take anything for granted. And I think that on a bigger picture going into the midterms, we have to look at this is how they're running elections. This is how we're doing things.

And we've been pedaled to the medal at the RNC since President Trump's Took office, and we have not stopped preparing for the midterm elections because our goal is to make sure we have President Trump as President for a full four years.

So we're not taking any races for granted, and we are also very active in Tennessee. Yes, yes. The Tennessee Republican Party has been extremely strong, and we've seen that throughout elections throughout the state, both local level, all the way up to the statewide and federal office. Let's talk a little bit about Matt Van Epps, who we hope to be the congressman from District 7. We talked a lot about his out-of-touch opponent, but tell people about him.

Well, he is an amazing candidate. I mean, obviously, he's been endorsed and supported by President Trump, and he's going to do a tremendous job representing Tennessee values and the people of Tennessee. And certainly, he will be an America first representative who will go in and make sure that he's doing what's in the best interest of the state of Tennessee. Yeah, I think that when you see the contrast between someone, again, this is someone who, again, has got the military background. He has worked in Tennessee politics, also worked in the Tennessee state government.

And you just see that he's, you know, this is someone, again, that District 7 should be proud to have. It is interesting to me because you talked about moving forward to the midterm elections as well. Are we going to see more candidates like Afton Bay all across the country? I mean, is this where the Democrats are going? I know AOC wants to see more of them, but are state Democratic parties and the National Party really going to keep putting forward these kind of activists that seem to be so out of touch with just the majority of voters, even majority of Democrats.

voters. Yeah, I mean it certainly appears that that's what the the arm of the party is doing on with the Democrats. I mean if you look at their leadership right now it seems to be AOC, Bernie Sanders, Mom Donnie. I mean those are the people who are leading the party and certainly people that they are backing. You know and again when you look at their polling as a party overall, they're at the lowest rate they've been in decades.

And part of that's because they're just so out of touch of messaging. But the moderate Democrats are scared of the far left woke end of the party. And so they keep bending to these extreme ideas and people who are just so far left. And in states like Tennessee, Kentucky, Midwestern, I travel all over the country. And outside of a few places, most people don't identify.

And again, Afton, I mean, here she was. Endorsed by the Democrat Socialist. Is that Tennessee? Are those Tennessee values? I don't think so.

No, I don't think so. I mean, I feel like that's the ad that should be running in the final week: endorsed by the Socialist Party of Tennessee, which is the same as Mandani in New York with the Socialist Party. But we are just seeing this, like, and you don't know how much of it is real and how much of it is just kind of ginned up with the spending. But, Casey, my last question to you, and I appreciate you coming: is for people right now, this is the final week. If they hunker down, conservatives get out the vote, we can win this race.

Oh, absolutely, one hundred percent. I mean, I think we are seeing that with the numbers that are trending with early voting. They've picked out up for Republicans tremendously over the last few days, and people are waking up. I was privy to some polling information that showed that You know, that people are now finally waking up to the fact that there is an election next Tuesday. A few weeks ago, people weren't even aware that there was a special election.

So the fact that we've been able to see such a pickup going right into Election Day, I think it's going to bode well for Matt Van Epps, and we're going to be celebrating Tuesday night.

Sounds great. We hope to be celebrating too. KC Crosby is the co-chair of the Republican National Committee. KC, anytime you want to come on to join us, too, to update us about as we get closer to the midterms as well, we'd love to have you. Great information on this race in Tennessee.

And folks, again, the special election is on Tuesday. It's District 7. There's 14 different counties.

So if you're listening in Tennessee, especially Middle Tennessee, do a check. If Mark Greene was your congressman, this is to fill the special election to fill that seat, which the election day is next Tuesday, right after this Thanksgiving holiday. As you said, you drive around and you're like, okay, am I in it? Am I not? I had to do a look and make sure myself because there are people almost in my neighborhood talking about it, promoting it.

I'm driving around. You're seeing all this advertising for each candidate.

So it is.

Something you got to keep yourself aware of. With that being said, I want to take your calls and comments coming up. Is this the kind of candidates? This is what we're talking about. It's not just about the politics, not about supporting a Republican or a Democrat.

You're talking about people that are going against completely the values that, specifically in states like Tennessee, I mean, it's pretty wild. It's like American values. I mean, you're calling yourself, and you're happily endorsed by a socialist party in the United States of America. But it's also the changing demographics of the region and everything that's happening.

So you got to make sure that you stay on top of it or things could change very rapidly. Does this seem like something that's happening in your area? Give us a call as well at 1-800-684-3110. We get back, we'll talk a little bit more about the Letitia James and James Comey situation, play a little more sound, including. Actually, from James Comey himself.

Of course, he loves to respond, and he did. Give us a call, though, 1-800-684-31-10 and support the work of the ACLJ as we head into break during our Freedom Drive where your donation is doubled. Welcome back to Sekulow. We are going through your calls right now. Keep calling at 1-800-684-30110.

President Trump, right now, making a big decision, right now, deciding whether to pardon, gobble, and waddle. That is live coverage. If he says anything worth going to, we'll cut in live. Usually we start pardoning too. Was it when the one flew away from like George W.

Bush? Remember that one that acted like shit? Yeah, crazy crazy. Yeah.

Well, Pete, yeah, Ducey today asked, they go, well, if he's getting pardoned, what did he do wrong? That's what they asked in the press briefing with Caroline Levitt.

So it was a pretty fun moment. Again, this is a big history moment. This is something that we've been doing for a very long time. It's Americana at this point. I know President Trump, I think, has said he's not a huge fan of doing this.

Most of the Presidents are not, I feel like, huge fans of doing it. It's one of the things they get bullied into is to pardon the turkeys. Because like you said, a good portion of the time it goes wrong. Yes, it's cold. It's an animal.

Yeah, it's a live animal. They've been living in a hotel. They're now going to go. A lot of times they go move to Disneyland where they go live. A lot of the times you can visit them.

I'm not sure if you still can, but they used to have like a farm area. I think they may have gotten rid of it. But you used to be able to see, and they go, there's the ones the President pardoned. I don't know a turkey's lifespan, so I don't know how long they're out there, but that's at least part of the lore. It's kind of like the groundhog probably.

But again, phone lines are open for you. I still like the butterball ones. They're like the beige white turkeys. Will Case just said that President Trump said the turkeys are this actually what he said? They're the first Maha turkeys.

So I guess are they smaller? They haven't pumped up with all of the hormones. These are the healthy turkeys. Yeah, these are the ones. They're free-range turkeys going on.

I got a lot of those in my backyard. I mean, I could. They're expensive, too, if you order them from farms for like up to $500. Come to my backyard. They're just a plenty.

I'm not going to eat those turkeys. Legally, I don't know if people can just come to your backyard. I mean, I got dogs, so they could take them down. That's true. They don't, though.

No, because they're scary looking. They are scary. Even my huskies are like, yeah, no, thank you. With that, though, let's get back on track here. James Coleman, Letitia James, Jordan, this was just yesterday.

A judge came out and said this was not done correctly. Done correctly because, again, you had this weird situation that you had an interim U.S. attorney. They finished their 120 days. That's all you can do it for.

And then there was no U.S. attorney to take place.

So the Senate had not yet confirmed someone.

So President. President Trump chose someone else to take place, and they went through the whole thing. They got the indictments on Jim Comey on something separate than they did on Letitia James. And then the judge said, Well, no, this appointment of the U.S. attorney was the specific problem here, Lindsey Halligan.

So then people said, Well, okay, is this just totally botched by the Trump DOJ and Pambody? No. What happens here is you appeal. You can appeal the case to say whether or not this judge was correct or that it is the President who should be filling these temporary vacancies until the Senate does its job and confirms someone. But even if the, as they appeal, if they lose, they still have time to correct this.

We call that in court, correct the indictment.

So they can then go back into a grand jury, try to seek these indictments again.

So as Jim Comey will say in this video, he knows probably more about this than Letitia James because of the federal side of this. That this is not over because of this. It's certainly a roadblock. You don't want it to happen, but there are ways to move forward to still seek justice for the American people against the wrongdoing that's alleged against Jim Comey and Letitia James. Pam Bondi said that was the case, and we played that bite earlier, but I think you got to hear now from the man himself.

You got to hear from James Comey, who always puts out some sort of bizarre videos. And here they are every bite four. I know that Donald Trump will probably come after me again, and my attitude's going to be the same. I'm innocent. I am not afraid.

And I believe in an independent federal judiciary. the gift from our founders that protects us from a would be tyrant. When I was a kid, my parents would wake us up for school every morning by snapping open the shades and saying, Time to rise and shine and show the world what you're made of.

Well, it's that time, America. It's time to stand up. And show the fools who would frighten us, who would divide us. They were made of stronger stuff. that we believe in the rule of law, that we believe in the importance of doing things by the law.

So stand tall, Shine. And keep the faith. Using your friends to leak information that you shared about. No, this guy, it's just bizarre. Yeah.

Every time from him, and you know, this Hillary Clinton didn't really love him. You know, they didn't really connect at all. Donald Trump, I mean, the whole thing, he messed up that entire election cycle. Let's not forget Democrats. Yeah.

He's probably to blame. There's a good percentage of chance that he at least had a hand. in electing President Trump. Stop calling a tyrant. And, you know, the joke is, yeah, this is a procedural matter that can be corrected.

We have laws on the books that can be corrected. I think people ran to this story really quickly. Letitia James way too fast celebrating. Jim Comey knew it a little bit better, so he's a little bit more restrained in the sense that this is probably not over for me.

So you know, so don't take victory laps yet on TV. This is, they're going to come back. Yeah, absolutely. Again, phone lines are open for you. We had some, but some of them dropped off.

I want you to call me back because there were some good comments coming in.

So give me a call: 1-800-684-30-110. President Trump stepping down right now. I'm giving you live coverage to pardon the turkeys. Of course, there is a whole conversation: will the deep state block the pardoning of the turkeys this year? Of course not.

I'm just, that's just. To joke there. But, man, that's some good-looking turkeys. I gotta say, those look way better than my backyard turkeys. That's a.

That's a nice looking turkey right there. That's a big one. Oh, this is. I love we're covering this live. This is what this is.

I mean, Donald Trump is a big dude, you know, and so I'm looking at this turkey turkey. It flexes its feathers, and you're like. You hope he doesn't jump because maybe the jumper. Yeah, that could take you out. That could definitely take your eye out.

There you go. Moving back on to what we're talking about. Let's see if we can get this call clear. President Trump said the turkeys being pardoned today go by the names Gobble and Waddle. When I first saw their pictures, is this real?

Is that really what he said? I was going to call them Chuck and Nancy, but then I realized I wouldn't be pardoning them. I would never pardon those two people. President Trump never taking a moment to not have a dig at somebody, couldn't just make this a nice Thanksgiving moment. Of course, I had to make it somewhat at least a viral moment.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, the thing. I would say, I think Melania Trump is right here, First Lady, wearing like a leather jacket because you want a little protection. Camouflage yourself a little bit, too. I don't want to protect them. But I mean, those spurs.

Yeah, I don't want to mess with them. All right.

Well, there's a lot of comments coming in. A lot of you are chiming. Look, it's Thanksgiving week. I think we should take a minute here and tell you also: number one, thank you for all of your support during this Freedom Drive during the month of November. We're going to be rolling right into another special one in December where we're going to have a lot of new stuff we're going to talk about because the work keeps going.

None of it slows down. And as you may know, as you're probably getting a lot of people reaching out saying, hey, please consider donating. Please consider supporting. These are the most important times for nonprofits. This is during the last two months of the year.

It's when people decide what they're going to give financially. And where they can do it. We know times are tough. We know things are different than they maybe have been before. But we're going to ask you if you do have those means.

We're not asking you to stretch. If you can't do it, we understand. But if you do have those means right now to support the work of the ACLJ during this month and next month, because during these. We are going, you get your donation doubled. You have an ACLJ member or an ACLJ champion, someone that gives on a monthly basis, ready to unlock a donation.

And that's at any level. We have pretty much such a large cap on that that if you beat that cap, I will be celebrating more than you could possibly imagine.

So think about what you can give, whether that is $50, whether that's $500. Know that all of it gets doubled, and we really could use the support during these really important times. Because, Jordan, as we head into break, maybe it's just something to say: the work doesn't stop. We are continually in court. We're continually fighting, of course, this broadcast as well.

Yeah, we'll have filings the day after Thanksgiving. We'll have people working through the holiday. They'll still want to take some time with their family. But no, this team continues to go. Even though this can be a busy time of year because of the holiday schedule, your kids' holiday schedule, your grandkids' holiday schedule, it's a very busy time of the year at the ACLJ on the legal side, legal front, protecting your freedoms here in the United States, your religious liberty as we enter the religious holidays and Christmas as well.

We want to protect all of you, and we are here to do that to ACLJ because of your financial support. That's right. Like Jordan said, major appeals court filings the day after Thanksgiving. We'll get into more of that in the second half hour of the show coming up at ACLJ.org, or ever get your podcast. We're live.

Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now, your host, Logan Sekulow. Welcome back to Sekulow, second half hour coming up. We are going to continue that conversation about James Comey and Letitia James, their case being thrown up, and what that looks like for the future.

We are also going to be joined in the next segment by Mike Pompeo, who is going to discuss also the Ukraine. Has made some major movements agreeing essentially to that peace plan. What does that look like? What does the future look like? Russia has not yet weighed in.

Officially, we do know that at least Russia had maybe something to do with starting that map out of what it would look like.

Now, how high up or what that means? Who knows? But that's a first big step. As I said, I wasn't sure how Zelensky was going to respond, specifically when you're talking about giving away land and all that. But then you're also talking about hundreds of billions of dollars, whatever it may be, $100 million that was going to go to the country into fixing up.

So almost almost buying the land, if you will. We're going to talk about that coming up with Secretary Pompeo in the next segment. But from now until the end of the show, I want to hear from you at 1-800-684-3110. There also is the growing concern, as we had on the co-chair of the RC, about these special elections are happening. What's happening in Tennessee right now?

As we are seeing candidates being presented that aren't even representative of the people. They're actually maybe the most extreme case, but because of that, you're getting people riled up. You're getting countries. You get that out. Outside money, you get the New York money, you get the West Coast money.

The people who wouldn't usually vote are now voting, and the people who normally would vote aren't even aware that there's an election going on. Yes, and you're doing it right after the Thanksgiving holidays.

So it can be a dangerous time for either party. This is a district that President Trump won by 20 points. It's a district that the former Congressman Mark Green, who had that seat, also won by 20 points.

So Democrats have seen something. Or they wouldn't be just spending millions and millions. They are outspending, I think, two to one.

Now, Republicans still feel confident. It's not like they think that they're going to lose, but what they are saying, and we had the co-chair of the RNC on earlier in the broadcast, is people need to take the special election seriously. Yeah, absolutely. Let's actually take a call about that. Stephen's calling in New Mexico.

Stephen, go ahead. Hi, thanks for taking my call. I'm just frustrated because I see so many on the right trying to Time dummy to everything and tossing around the socialist word. But President Trump is actually acting like a socialist. By taking Having the US government take Um, ownership stake in private companies.

Okay. Which is the very definition of the fact that. The reason why, Stephen, you're hearing the socialist word around Mondami is not because of President Trump or Republicans. He is a member of the Democrats, Socialists of America. Afton Bay, she was endorsed by the Socialist Party of Tennessee, Stephen.

So that's how they're defining themselves.

So if you define yourself that way, I don't think it's weird that a conservative or anybody in the news just says, by the way, they have taken the endorsement or they're a member of.

Now, why does the government invest in companies like Intel? I want to talk about groceries. National security. I think most people get it right there. Do you want China to own those companies?

Or do you want the U.S. to have a stake to make sure that those companies are not going to be bought off by Arab governments? Right.

Socialism is running all the industries and all the jobs. This is having a seat at the table. By the way, private and public partnerships, your whole city and town is made up of them from the federal level to the state level. I mean, your hospitals that seem private, they're not, the private universities get federal money all the time because they come up with unbelievable research that can cure disease, that can make our troops safer, that can make our servicemen safer.

So that's it. National security, national security. You don't, in this new world with tech, you want a seat at the table and so you invest. If you are going to be buying so much from these companies, you might as well have a way to direct. Have a stake in it.

With that, Stephen, again, like you said to Mom Dami, if you don't want to be defined as a socialist. Don't become a Democrat Socialist. I mean, that's not. He would not be afraid of that. I have to mention she could have rejected their endorsement, I guess.

He would not. Be offended by being offended by being called a socialist.

So I don't know what we're talking about here. Stephen, we appreciate you calling, though. And Funlin's eye is open. If you want to call in, too, if you've got a response to that, 1-800-684-3110 as we head to break. Look, I'm going to keep talking about it.

It's going to be the last day a lot of you are going to hear from us probably for this week. Because we know you'll be traveling, you'll be celebrating with your families.

So, with that, I'm going to ask you to support the work of the ACLJ once again during our Freedom Drive. We have the last few days left. We're going to give you more details of that coming up in the final segment of all the work the ACLJ is doing right now, whether that's our legal work or our media work. It does not stop. It does not stop.

It does not slow down. If anything, it ramps up. We need your help. Go to aclj.org. We'll be right back with Mike Pompeo.

Welcome back to Sekulow. We are still awaiting Mike Pompeo's connection here, so it may be a while. I may not get to him today, and that's okay. You know what? It's Thanksgiving week.

Some people have a lot going on, or they're traveling.

So, if we don't get to him, no big deal. President Trump did just pardon the turkeys.

So, you know what? The turkeys are safe. Of course, in typical fashion, you probably see maybe you set your kids around and say, Yo, let's watch this tradition. Surely, there's not going to be anything too extreme coming from President Trump as he pardons the turkeys.

Something that people watch with their families, not unlike the Thanksgiving Day parade. Let's hear from President Trump by 16. The turkeys being pardoned today go by the names of gobble and waddle. When I first saw their pictures, I thought we should send them Well, I was gonna I shouldn't say this. I was going to call him Chuck and Nancy.

But then I realized I wouldn't be pardoning them. I would never pardon those two people. I wouldn't pardon them. I wouldn't care what Melania told me. Darling, I think it would be a nice thing to do.

I won't do it, darling. Of course, that is the President. Pardoning the turkeys, but never taking a moment to not take some kind of moment to make it go viral, I guess. You know what? Hopefully, your kids, maybe you had some splining to do with them.

Who are this? This is a big story we got to break down now. But hey, Secretary Pompeo, Mike Pompeo is joining us right now. I'm going to deviate off of that, Secretary Pompeo, unless you have something to say about the pardoning of the turkeys. I got nothing.

Okay, there you go. Moving on. One thing we woke up to this morning, maybe some good news here, is that Ukraine seems to have agreed with the U.S. peace deal, at least on the core terms. We don't know the exact details, but even the core terms, I was actually a little surprised because some of those terms include land swaps.

They include a lot of things. That obviously is a lot of money to Ukraine as well. Could this be the beginning of the end? Are you optimistic here? We haven't heard from Russia officially yet.

Okay. Boy, I'm hopeful. Maybe it's just the Thanksgiving spirit, but I hope not. I hope they've now each agreed that they're going to have to make some concessions. I think you're right.

And what I read this morning, at least, the Ukrainians have clearly agreed to some things that they had declined to agree to before. They're willing to do it. We'll see if Vladimir Putin is actually serious about peace to date. Remember, Zelensky had agreed to a ceasefire. Zelensky agreed to a previous offer that had been made, President Trump.

Now, this, to date, Putin hasn't agreed to anything but what he put out seven days ago. They look like his maximalist demands.

So I'm not confident Putin will sign off on what's there, but maybe it provides a basis where Putin can say, I'll take that plus X and Y, and they can find a place. That would be a glorious and wonderful thing if the Ukrainians can get the sovereignty and the political independence that they so richly deserve, and you can stop the fighting at the same time. And I think it would be huge for the world, Secretary Pompeo, especially Europe, to end what is a live-fire war in Europe that has made a lot of countries nervous that border Ukraine, that border Russia, that you get into wintertime, they start getting worried about natural gas and keeping their people warm. Their homes.

So the timing-wise, it's becoming the most difficult weather of the year faced in this part of Europe. If this could start a process that ends the war, that ends the killing, this would be a huge accomplishment from the administration, who, I think, thought maybe this could come to an end more quickly and both Ukraine and Russia kind of dug in. Yeah.

No, it's very true. This is an inflection point. Winter's coming on us. This is the third winter of this war. They've always proven difficult for the Ukrainians to keep energy flowing, keep people warm, keep people safe.

Also, fighting in the winter, there, you know, this. We've all read the stories of World War II, fighting, World War I, fighting in cold in winter. It's nasty and really difficult. And so it would be a great thing. I'd caution only this.

I don't think for a moment Putin's going to change his mind, his objective of greater Russian empire. And so whatever deal is struck will only be material. It will only really matter if it does bring a durational peace. Call it, it's never forever, right? But call it 25 years more, where there's a security architecture put in place which keeps Vladimir Putin or his successor from doing this again.

We can't allow this to be something that looks like a ceasefire. Russia is rebuilt and six months, 12 months, 18 months from now, we're all right back in the soup. Of course, a lot of the deal points also lead to sort of the reopening of Russia and the United States having some kind of relationship. And I think we don't want to say that though Russia has not responded. We actually know right now that Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, he's in Abu Dhabi meeting with Russian officials.

So this isn't like it's not on the table. This is something that is being actively discussed right now. And that should at least be seen as some kind of positive movement. It's not like under the Biden administration where you just ice out Putin, you don't talk to him at all, and therefore nothing moves forward.

now. We know there's some things here and And one of the things that people maybe not realize, and it's sort of hard to think about, is what's going on on the global stage. It's also what's going on on the local stage in Ukraine, what's going on on the local stage in Russia, maybe more so in Ukraine, not unlike in Israel, is there is a lot of political pressure for Zelensky as well. Yeah, definitely true. No, internal Ukrainian political fighting is legendary, and we all know that.

We can all see that play out and Zelensky trying to master his internal dynamic while also executing this war against Russia.

So, yeah, this is that, and by the way, this is a little bit of peak internal fighting, too. I think as Ukrainians can see the end of the war, they're now trying to think, okay, what should this look like going forward? If we're going to have independence, who's going to run this thing? How did we allow this to happen? And how can we prevent it from happening again?

All of that will be on the table for the Ukrainian internal political dynamic as well. And you mentioned Europe. Europe definitely needs this to end. This is not something that they can extend. The European economy has grown at an incredibly slow rate over the last year, 18 months.

And this conflict in Europe has distracted them from what we all need them to do, which is to become innovative, creative, build their economies. If you can get peace, if you can get the guns to lay down, you have a chance to begin to get European growth back to a place where they can be the great and important partner that you. United States needs them to be. And we know, though, that up until these moments of actual ceasefire and actual maybe coming of end of this conflict, that as of today, the missiles are still flying into Ukrainian villages. People in Russia are still worried about drone attacks as well.

People on both sides who are just trying to go about their life. And it is a real active live war in Europe that I think sometimes we like to try and forget about. Even Europeans, trips over there, try to forget about how close it's happening. But it's going to be happening through our Thanksgiving holiday here. And we should be in prayer for all those people, especially those kids who are going through a very cold start to their winter and a very dangerous time.

Amen. That's exactly true. I've even been in Ukraine in places where there was an active conflict, and it sometimes feels like even they don't feel the pressure that sits in eastern Ukraine and sits in Poland, right? Don't forget the Russians have flown drones over parts of Europe. Vladimir Putin's objectives are deep and strong, getting to a ceasefire, an agreement which would give structure to Ukrainian security and real guarantees.

They feel like they've been sold out. The Budapest Memorandum promised we'd come to their defense. They feel like we didn't honor that. An agreement that they think, yep, this actually bolsters deterrence so that we don't end up back in this same place in the near term. This would be a blessing to everyone on earth and certainly to the European mothers and fathers who've got their kids fighting in a terrible, indecent war.

Secretary Pompeii, we always appreciate your guidance in this because I think it's important to hear from you as someone who's dealt with this on a global stage. Look, there's a reason the ACLJ exists, reason we have a European center as well, reason why we have worked in these regions before, before all of the war. Obviously, we were there very actively in Russia. Joshua, Jordan, I spent a lot of time there.

So it is something that we spent time in, and we understand the importance of it. We'll talk about it next week, actually, after the holiday. But this is about Turkey, not the Turkeys that were pardoned. But our ECLJ has been very active on Christian persecution that's seeing an uptick in Turkey under Erdogan's government. They posted a new report, and this report is going all over the place in Turkey from the ECLJ.

It's in English and in French. I didn't want to kind of throw it out today right before people go into Thanksgiving.

So I'm going to definitely bring on some of our ECLJ team who was here last week, like Greg Orr, to tell us about how their reach now is reaching into places like Turkey for the persecuted church.

So while we come together, you know, for Thanksgiving, and we are thankful for the freedoms. That we have here. One of those core freedoms in our First Amendment is our freedom of religion. That is why those pilgrims came. Yeah, you know, religion is that we are doing this work all around the world.

And if you're a supporter of the ACLJ, you know, we thank you on Thanksgiving as well. And there's a lot of people who would thank you too if they knew it was you who were the reason why they were someone out there fighting for their persecuted church far away in a country called Turkey, far away from the United States on Thanksgiving, but that you still care enough about their religious liberty and their ability to worship Christ as well. And so for this Thanksgiving, again, we want to thank all of you out there. We're very thankful because you allow our teams who love this work. But it costs money to do this work.

That's right. And the work we do in Europe, I think, is very important. And I think it's also growing. We are seeing after 25 years, we are actually seeing some real movement. Look, you walk, you go around Europe, religious iconography is everywhere.

But the idea of sort of an evangelical version of it has been largely quiet for many, many years until now. And it feels like there's finally this moment happening that we have been waiting for here at the ECLJ.

So don't think that the ACLJ just is in the, you know, within our country. Of course, that is the majority of our work or within our borders, but there is plenty of other work happening all around the world. And look, if other countries get to open up, we will try to be there as much as we can be, whether that's in the ACLJ, the ECLJ, the ACLJ Jerusalem, or our offices around the country and around the world, some of which we don't even talk about here. But that's because of you, as Jordan said. As we head in the next segment, what are you thankful for?

Are you thankful for the work we're doing? Are you thankful for the media side we're doing? Are you thankful for other things in your life and your family and the political world? Whatever it may be. Give me a call.

I'd love to hear from you. You can also put that into the comments. I'll share some. It's the next segment we'd like to hear from you. That's it, 1-800-0.

684-3110. And let me know where you're watching from as well if you're on our chat right now. I always like to see that. To know that not only are we representing the United States of America, there's always a few watching from around the world because we know the influence of what happens here really influences the rest of the world. I encourage you, go to aclj.org right now, have your donation doubled.

It's doubled because someone's ready to unlock their match. That's right. That's at aclj.org. Do it today. I'm going to give a second here.

Scan that QR code. Go to the left side. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Sekulow. Let me know.

We got him or we got no, not yet.

Okay, we'll see here. We got people calling in, a lot of comments coming in. Of course, it is Thanksgiving week, and I see a lot of you have chimed in. Thankful for a lot of the great work we're doing, whether that's our pro-life work. I'm thankful for everything for my family.

I'm thankful for, obviously, for God and for our country and for everything. But we got Rick Ridnell. And Rick, wasn't supposed to be on today. We didn't know we had little, but you know, I said, Rick, come on board. Have you on because it is Thanksgiving week?

We're all kind of wrapping up our broadcast this week.

So I wanted to say not only we're thankful for you, but for your guidance and everything you're doing for our country and for the Kennedy Center.

So you know what? I want to give you a minute and just say thank you to you as well, Rick. Logan, I couldn't resist being on with all the ACLJ listeners.

So thanks for having me. Look, it's been an amazing year. We really, I think, turned around the country. We have done such great work. I look forward to all the work that we're going to be doing.

And I hope people will be ACLJ partners. This is a organization that is filled with action, not just talk. And as you can see, we dissect issues, but we also take action. We got a great legal team and are constantly pushing to defend you. And so I hope that people will join us.

Rick, I appreciate that. And also, you know, in the last segment, we discussed a lot of what's going on on the world stage, whether that's, you know, Russia, Ukraine, whatever's happening, the work that the ACLJ does, it's beyond just our borders of the United States of America. And why I love having people like you on as well who have been involved in such a deep way with the world stage and can tell our audience of why it's important that we are engaged this way, because it's a little easy to kind of see the headline, the bubbles of what's going on around the world, to feel a little bit, of course, America, like you said, is 90% of our work here, but there is still a lot of work that is going on around the world for religious freedom, for what's happening for just basic freedoms, freedom of speech, whether that is here, whether that's in the United Kingdom, whether that's going on in Europe, or of course, areas that really need it. And of course, Nigeria and everything that's been in the news. But you've been involved in so many of those for so long that I think it's always good to have voices like you who can come on and explain why.

'Kay. It is important that we're playing on a global stage. Look, first of all, let me just say: you know, as the President of the Kennedy Center, I understand the culture war. that we're fighting and there are other Platforms around the world that we have to be fighting on. I spent eight years at the UN, and I can tell you that outside of the US, The United Nations has an incredibly powerful brand.

Now, to most Americans, that seems silly and odd, but the reality is the United Nations is a very powerful tool in most of the world. And that is exactly why the ACLJ has to have an office there, has to be there. We have to be in Geneva, in New York, fighting on these cultural issues, fighting on these religious issues, because the rest of the world is going to follow. I will also say: remember, the world followed America when we decided to go woke. The rest of the world followed us.

What we do in America tends to happen throughout the rest of the world. And so, if we want to change our world, if we want to make our world a better place, we have to show up and play that game. And many times, that's outside of the U.S. in forums like the United Nations, like NATO. And we have to be able to make the argument.

To stop some of the crazy far-left woke ideas that come out of, I would say, California where I live, New York. You look at Mom Dami and Karen Bass, the two mayors of the largest two cities in America, and they're both crazy left. That problem permeates not only within our states and within our country, but goes out to the world. And we've got to recognize that fight. Yeah, absolutely.

It's why I said in our last segment, I always tell people who are watching, whether on YouTube or Rumble or whatever, to let me know where they're watching from. Because always, I mean, obviously, again, mass majority are from the states, but there's always a handful. that are watching from places in the world you would never expect because as you said, the influence of America, go flip on Sky News. Likely what they're talking about, President Trump, likely what they're talking about is what's going on in Washington, D.C. Almost, I'd say like 80% of their coverage, it feels like whenever I'm in Europe, whether it's Sky News or CNN International, for good or for bad, they are talking about what's happening in America.

It's so true. And I've learned that lesson as I travel. And you watch international news, and it always starts with Washington. And so, what we do in DC. Is immediately exported to the world for good and for bad.

And for the last four years under Joe Biden, we've really exported the woke culture. I watched the German media quite closely after being the US ambassador to Germany, and they're in a woke fight right now. You've got the German conservatives and people with common sense fighting against the German government and this woke culture. It's a real fight. They're like two or three years behind us.

Yeah, it was interesting. I was in London, or we ended up going to Wales in the UK. Just in the summer. And we got put in like a room with a bunch of people who had never met before. And the first thing they asked, was How do you feel about Trump?

How do you feel about Trump? And they were supportive, and they were actually families of immigrants, first-generation Brits. Who were kind of annoyed with what was going on in their own country and looking to America, going, okay, well, if they could do it there, what can we do here? Again, not exactly what you were thinking, but. Again, I'm not going to go to them.

The first thing I'm not going to ask is: so, how does it feel with Kier Starmer? You know, that's not going to be the conversation I'm having.

So, it's very different, Rick. But I don't want to take up too much of your time, but we're going to wrap up here. But again, just thank you again. It is Thanksgiving. Joy, happy Thanksgiving, Rick, to you and your family, and to everyone doing that work in Washington, D.C., who sometimes get the day off, sometimes don't.

I think you've probably worked many of those holidays before and spent them away from your family.

So, hopefully, you get to spend with your family this year. And we just thank everybody out there who makes it possible for Rick to be part of our team, too. Thank you. And happy Thanksgiving to all of you and to all of our listeners. Thank you, Rick, so much.

Look, we're going to start wrapping this up. We only got about two and a half minutes left. There's going to be some great programming that's going to be running throughout the rest of the week. You're going to hear. But I'll be honest with all of you and say, you know what?

This is going to be probably the last time a lot of you hear from this live until next week because we are going to be, we have great content ready to go. But of course, you know, for Thanksgiving, we are going to spend Thanksgiving, you know, not on air.

So, and I think that's okay. And I think you understand that, hopefully, as the listener and the viewer, but we will have content for you ready to go. Don't worry. It won't be just radio silence. But with that, I do want to give you this last opportunity to support our work, Jordan, because like we said, the work doesn't stop.

Not only that, it actually ramps up over the next really eight weeks. Yes, I mean, there's a lot to talk about, too, that when we come back next week, the FBI has just started to schedule these interviews with six of those lawmakers from the video who said, you know, don't follow illegal orders. But then they got asked, well, what illegal orders have there been? They said none.

Some of them are talking about us. They're sharing our clips.

So, you know what? The U.S. Senator is sharing those clips too.

So, if you see that around that, but the second is that taking that seriously, but also, I just really want again to say to all of you out there for whether it's been 35 years or three months of your support, or you're just figuring out who we are this month today. Thank you for your support of the ACLJ. There's so many different ways you do it by sharing on social media, by sharing the emails, by donating. And that can be a $5 donation, it can be a $50 donation, it can be a $5,000 donation. Every single one of those adds up, and it's why our teams are able to act as they are.

We're filing in federal court the day after Thanksgiving. We'll be filing, I'm sure, you know, next week, too. There's plenty to talk about. The work doesn't stop, and there's always more we can do. And we always want to be able to say yes to that work and have the resources to say yes to that work.

And that's where you come in. That's right. Be a part of the team right now. I'm going to ask you to think about, pray about, and support the work of the ACLJ during our Freedom Drive. Ends at the end of this month.

We'll be rolling into December with a new push. But you know, these last two months are the most important months for any nonprofit, and the ACLJ really could use your support today. Have your gifts doubled. Again, that's at aclj.org. Of course, it's tax deductible.

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