On today's show, we're talking about Director Noam's response after a Democrat representative labels the terrorist attack an unfortunate accident. 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. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. We're going to take a second, let everyone start filing in, because this one's kind of a very interesting way you have to look at how. These moments, these really tragic moments happen in Washington, D.C., and how politics ends up becoming a big part of it, unfortunately, and how it never can be cut and dry, it never can be treated equally.
Of course, we know about this attack where, of course, two members of the National Guard from West Virginia were shot. There was a murder. Essentially, they happened, a terrorist attack. Those are a lot of different ways that you could describe this. that that is not how I ended up being described during one of these hearings.
And this was just yesterday. And this is from Benny Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi. Again, this is speaking specifically about That terrorist attack that happened over Thanksgiving weekend. You remember it, obviously, it resulted in, sadly, death of members of our National Guard. Again, a lot of different ways you could describe it.
Of course, we describe it as a terrorist attack. You describe it as murder. You can describe it as many different ways. But how did it get described? Sitting there, Washington, D.C.
on Capitol Hill, take a listen. Madam Secretary, you and the gentleman from CTET NCTC uh reference The unfortunate accident. that occurred. with the National Guardsman being killed. You think that was an unfortunate accident?
I mean, it was a terrible thing. No, wait, wait. Look, I'll get it straight. Then you can. He shot our National Guardsman in the head.
Look. Ms. Shaman, will you direct the witness? To allow me to ask my question, of course, the main comment there, the first line. And tried to kind of correct it, still did not do quite a good job at correcting it, calling it an unfortunate.
Accident.
something that was clearly not an accident. It was a premeditated terrorist attack on members of our National Guard. And you got to give it for Christy Noam for responding very quickly, for listening that closely. In those moments, it can be a little hard in Washington, D.C. You've heard from all these different people.
Then you hear finally from someone who says something like this. You have many people who are now double down saying that this is ridiculous. This is precisely the problem that happens in Washington, D.C. when the humanity is taken out of all of this and it becomes an unfortunate accident when we all know and we all saw what it was. That's right.
And honestly, we'll play in the next segment. We're running short on time in this opening segment, but his follow-up, because what it reveals is a lot about the mindset when they go into these hearings. It's not just the fact that he called it an unfortunate accident, what was an act of terror. It's that his entire point he's trying to make that he's frustrated he can't get through is he's trying to blame President Trump for what he would consider an unfortunate accident. He's trying to score political points.
points with the bass. Through this line of questioning.
So, his frustration there about wanting to be able to continue his line of questioning without being interrupted by the witness, who was rightfully outraged by the way he classified it, is because she wasn't letting him get to his point that, wait, this is Trump's fault. Let's blame it on Trump. When in reality, everyone should want a safer United States where people who come in through the asylum program aren't committing acts of terror against the United States. We got a lot to cover today. Of course, Jordan just joined us.
We're going to have Rick Rinnell joining us a little bit later. And a lot of you are just coming online. I can see it on our YouTube channel. Hey, put in the comments where you're watching from. I like to see, especially on these weekend days, where you decide to watch from.
And just let me know. I really would love to hear from you. Also at 1-800-684-3110. We're also going to have some big ACLJ updates you know about our case that we were ready to go to court for. With Gavin Newsome.
Well, it just got amped up quite a bit. We're going to discuss that a bit later on as well. You're not going to want to miss it. Again, Rick Rennell's joining us. Jordan's here.
Will's here. We're live. It is Friday. We made it well. Had to take a day off yesterday.
But today I'm back. Glad to see you. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. I'm seeing people check in from around the country already: North Carolina, California, Delaware, Oklahoma. That's what it says, Oklahoma, and so many other places.
Look, we are wrapping this week up. We're going to have a great week next week. I have special stuff planned. During our year-end drive, be a part of it, have your donations double. I'm going to tell you all about that a little bit later in the show as well.
But do it right now at aclj.org if you can. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Secula. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. I want to hear from you.
Of course, it is Friday. We know a lot of you are heading into the Christmas holiday right now, and we understand it is going to be a busy time over the next couple weeks. Hopefully, a relaxing time for many of you. And that's why, right now, I'm going to encourage you to support the work of the ACLJ that we're doing here. It's during our year-end drive.
Next week, we're going to pivot a little bit, have a little bit different in our year-end drive. We'll be talking about a new project that we have going on that you're going to want to support as well. But right now, This is just a big one for us. It's a big Friday. Help us break some records here today.
If you can, if you financially can support the work of the ACLJ, do it today at aclj.org. There's other ACLJ members and ACLJ champions, people that give on a monthly basis, ready to unlock their pledge, and they are ready. And you can become a champion too. And I encourage you to do that. Your first donation as a champion will be matched.
So you can do that at aclj.org. And we're going to talk about it in a little bit, probably more in the next segment.
Some of this great work the ACLJ is doing. And of course, you know we are going to court against your favorite Gavin Newsom in the state of California. What's that going to look like?
Well, we have a big update on that. I don't want to read this script they have in front of me yet because I don't want to tease it, Will. Yeah. You're going to bury the lead. You're going to wait for it.
Well, the lead. The lead we're talking about. Let's restate what's going on. No, I'm just saying the turn of phrase: bury the lead. You want to keep it out there.
Build some excitement. Exactly. And then reveal. Yeah. Next segment, we'll do it.
Revealing. I like it. But in this segment. We want to talk a little bit more about the main topics. We know a lot of you are just joining us right now.
Well, this is another top Democrat. They were having a hearing, and the hearing was about the terrorist attack that happened over Thanksgiving weekend. We obviously know that members of the National Guard were shot. And murdered. And now you had a awkward encounter, an awkward conversation where we can still play.
I think we should go back and play the original bite as well. And then even give them, you know, it got to give, you know, be fair. And give the follow-up. That's right. So, this is Congressman Benny Thompson from Mississippi.
He was on the head of the House January 6th Committee, has a history of not liking the President. But this is Bite One when he's talking to the Director of Homeland Security, Christy Noam. Let's go ahead and play Bite One. Madam Secretary, you and the gentleman from CTEET NCTC uh reference The unfortunate accident. that occurred with the National Guardsman being killed.
You think that was an unfortunate accident? I mean, it was a terrible thing. No, wait, look, I'll get it straight. Then you can. He shot our National Guardsman in the head.
Look. Ms. Shaman, will you direct the witness? To allow me to ask my question? And then when he goes on to try and clarify, because he said I'll get it straight and then you can answer.
This is how he clarified, if you will, and also reveals where his line of questioning was going. This is once again, Congressman Benny Thompson, Mississippi, talking to Secretary Christy Noam, Byte 2. It was an unfortunate situation. But you blamed it solely on Joe Biden. I want you to know Who approved the asylum uh application uh for this same person.
Mr. Thompson, this individual that came into the country, Congressman Thompson, I want you to understand when this individual came into the country under the evacuation of Afghanistan under Operation Allies Welcome was thoroughly vetted by the Biden administration at that point in time, allowed into our country, and then was never followed up. I want to remind everybody in Congress. We follow the law, and every asylum is supposed to have a check-in every single year, and the Biden administration failed to do that.
So, Jordan, what the Congressman is trying to do here is trying to say, because the application for asylum was ultimately approved, I believe, in February of this year under the Trump administration, all of the work before that happened under the Biden administration, and we know what a disaster the Operation Allies Welcome was when we saw plane loads of people that hadn't been vetted.
So, all the vetting is having to do once they are in the United States. But once again, he's trying to score political points by saying, no, Trump approved him, so therefore it is Trump's fault. And really missing the fact that what the Trump administration is trying to do is reform the asylum process because it had been so ignored and broken based off the laws of why we were in that situation. It was because of the disaster of the pullout in Afghanistan to the point where we know that there are people who bought. Identities of interpreters and others to get to the United States.
So they're not even the person they are supposed to be. We are supposed to protect those who, if we are going to leave the country the way we did, who assisted the U.S. military and their families because their lives are certainly in danger. But if they were working, let's say they were working with the CIA, and this all turns out to be correct because it was pretty quick that came out, they definitely needed that check each year. Why?
PTSD is number one. I mean, that's number one. Number two, pressure on your families back at home. The Taliban is now in control. They know who left the country, and they got to leave the country and be in the United States under the special program because they worked against the Taliban.
All of those people have family members back home, and they could have been putting significant pressure on them, saying, We will kill your family, we'll do this or that if you don't carry out an attack like this. That does not, again, justify the attack at all. It is a terror attack. But what I'm saying is they are flipping some of these asylees because of the disastrous. Unkind of it seemed like they had no plan.
We lost so many troops. Just at that one gate. The Abbey gate bombing. Right, the Abbey gate bombing. And now we've lost a National Guards person because of the way they were so like, we're getting out of Afghanistan and we're not going to leave a real contingency in place.
We're just going to leave, and here's the day we leave. And if you assisted us, try to get through. And it has it well we knew it would cause this problem. It was just kind of waiting to see. Um fortunately, I think most Afghans who have come to the United States that way are happy to be here.
Yeah, for sure. All of them though are potentially subject to that same kind of pressure. which is why checking in on them. To make sure the Taliban isn't trying to convince them that they must carry out some kind of violent attack because they've got their family, their friends, and they're going to kill their parents if they don't do it. And now we've lost a young National Guardswoman from West Virginia, and thankfully.
The other National Guardsman, who was expected also not to necessarily survive, is now on his feet. That's right. The recovery. He's not through at all. I mean, there's a lot of complications.
But it just is, it's politicizing it, but it is also because. These the Democrats know that sending the National Guard into these cities has been effective. And many of their cities are on the list.
Well, and Jordan, this is what I also want to play because here's another concern when you dig deeper in his statement that it was an unfortunate accident. And then when he corrected, he said it was an unfortunate situation.
So still very, very bad in the way that he's framing this. But it reminds me of something that Congresswoman Omar said. a few years back at a care fundraiser. And I think the problem now is that when you if We were to have another massive national tragedy. I don't know that the unity is there like it was after 9-11.
That it wouldn't be politicized immediately by political enemies to make a political point. Because this is, remember what Ilon Omar said about 9-11 at a care fundraiser, bite seven. Care was founded after nine-eleven. Because they recognize that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties.
So Jordan, ignoring the fact that CARE was actually founded way before nine eleven, the fact that Congresswoman Omar is Watering down 9-11 by saying some people did something is the same mindset that Congressman Thompson, who is ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee, he's in leadership. When he says an unfortunate accident, you're starting to see that this is the way that the left is thinking in Congress. It's not just fringe people. Right. And you know what?
Again, it's this idea that terrorism, Islamic terrorism, like does not exist in the United States anymore. And so there's two issues. There's the war on crime that President Trump has declared to clean up the cities. They don't want the National Guard in the cities. Number two is this idea that there is no more problem with Islamic extremism, which is.
insane to say, but yet this is their position. You've also got Ilhan Omar in the Somali community under intense scrutiny right now. If you look at her income, last year she reported about $200,000 net worth. This year, over $20 million net worth.
So is she part of that fraud? I think that there's a lot going on at play here. And this is why I was in Washington, D.C. We're about to enter 2026. And what is that?
That's the midterm election of the final two years of President Trump's presidency. Right. And we had to keep reminding people of that, even just this week as we're doing these shows. Remember where we're at. We're at that year mark.
And that year mark, because this is President Trump's second term, we really have a much different situation coming in the next two years. Yes, I mean, we either keep the majorities and keep Speaker Johnson and Leader Thune. and keep passing the Trump agenda. and then lead into the next election cycle, or we're going to be dealing with impeachments. And basically, a complete stall on any legislation to benefit the American people.
Yep, phone lines are open for you also at 1-800-684-30-110. Tulsi Gabbard also spoke about this. We'll play that bite when we get back.
So you get to hear your old friend from the show, hear what she has to say about the vetting process going on from Afghanistan and what that looked like and what it should look like going forward. Pretty interesting comments. And we're going to give you that big update. On the ACLJ versus Gavin Newsome. You're not going to want to miss this.
And of course, you're going to want to support the work of the ACLJ while you're at it at aclj.org. It's right now, it's our year-end drive. Biggest month of the year for organizations like ours. Help us break some records today we really could use it as we head into a really important 2026. Bone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110.
1-800-684-3110. Before we move on to one of the topics to ACLJ, I do want to hear from Tulsi Gabbert.
So maybe you can give a bit of peace and understanding of what's going on in terms of the kind of the vetting and now maybe the re-vetting process of what it's going to look like moving forward.
So let's hear from Tulsi Gabbert byte 8. We are currently very working very hard to make this happen. I don't have the latest number exactly, but I can tell you that this needs to happen very, very quickly. Again, I want to point back to that summer and fall of 2021 after President Biden's disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. You know, there were over 100,000 people who came into our country because of that disastrous withdrawal.
I'll tell you, the vast majority of them were not properly vetted. They certainly were not vetted at anywhere near the standard that we require under this administration of allowing people into our country. And of that number, we know that there are at least 2,000 who are here who have ties to or are known or suspected terrorists. I mean, in some ways you look at it and go, oh, great.
So there's 2,000 people with known terrorist ties. That's not good. But then you at least have an administration who says, you know what, we are redoing completely what our standards and practices are in terms of. Refugee status and that kind of thing, and making sure people are vetted. And when you think about that as well, what she's saying there, it goes back to that.
You can't continue to blame the previous administration. You have to show your work that you're moving towards that. They got one more month. But that is still, that's a large number that they had nothing to do with. And then you're having to go down that path, try to find those people.
But then, as Jordan said, how many more than 2,000 purchased fake documents, lied on their applications? And our sleeper cells and a real sleeper. Exactly. And we need to look at this issue of pressure that is going on. We knew that would happen when the Taliban took control of those who assisted us, who fled, and the pressure they may be under to carry out nefarious, even deadly acts of terrorism because of the fear they may have of their own families, on top of that PTSD, on top of that, the fact that they could have turned them.
Yep, absolutely. I do want to pivot a little bit because, look, it is our year-end drive. Yeah. It's ACLJ work. Our legal work is front and center right now.
And you may have been saying, you've been teasing this. You know that this case, this is that Calvary Chapel in California has been. You know, really walloped with over a million dollars in fines from the state of California, all dating back to COVID protocol issues back in 2020, 2021. And they are still out there in court trying to collect this money. And, like I said, what is a million dollars for the state of California?
Absolutely nothing. What is a million dollars for one of these churches? Potentially life and death for their church. They are still out there, even though we know what how time has changed, we know what things have moved forward. And we're not going to stop because they have helped ask us for help.
And guess what? When you're an ACLJ client, we don't get a dollar from that. That is all you know because people like you support the work of the ACLJ. They're not charged for our work, which is fantastic. We're able to offer these services to churches, to Christian groups, to school groups, to individuals at no cost to them because people like you give.
But they get ramped up, and the state of California is not backing down. And here we are. And they were, you know, they got caught, California, because not only what they did was they provided all these exceptions for second. Mm-hmm. You know, churches don't pay property tax.
Churches are non-profits.
So they kept these restrictions on churches where people needed the most. They needed some community. And it would let people, again, make up their own mind if they felt comfortable being in that kind of setting. But they totally exempted out professional athletics. Restaurants and retail.
So being just as close to people that you don't even know, that why? Because they pay tax revenue. And so, because of that, those companies were accepted out.
So, that's the first question alone. Can you actually ban nonprofit services while exempting for-profit services if we face any kind of issues like this in the future, too?
So, when people ask that question of, well, what's this case? Because if it was the protocols, let's say they did or did not break the protocols, whatever it may be, if that's what they're showing over, but that's really not the heartbeat of the case. The case you said, like, right, is that churches could be subject to scrutiny that other organizations, other companies totally exempted from. Totally. I mean, you could go, you couldn't go to a church, but you could go sit down in a restaurant next to a table.
And remember, even Gavin Newsom wasn't following the masking requirements of those. I mean, so listen, he is the leading candidate for the Democrats right now. I mean, that can change a lot to be President, to be their Presidential nominee. He's traveling the country, even to the southeast. He's reaching out, trying to reach out to populists as well to kind of be the non-mandami.
But in.
Okay. The fact he's very close to that. Yeah, let's not just forget how slick he is. And I think that is something we all. I know Rick will probably disagree with me later on.
He'll talk about how there's no way everyone will see through. The smile. If everybody saw through it, he wouldn't be elected so easily. Right, exactly. And he wouldn't be the number one choice right now among Democrats.
Maybe you're from not California and you may look at him and go, well, yeah, that's a Harvey Dent-looking dude. But that is not true for a lot of people.
Well, and I think what we should show people right now is what we are doing, what we have done today. Put it up on screen. Here is our petition to the Supreme Court. It is Calvary Chapel, San Jose, and Mike McClure versus the people of the state of California, County of Santa Clara, and then also the official capacity of the health officer for Santa Clara County. That is our petition to the Supreme Court filed today, Jordan.
People's Republic of California. This is not to me because we represent. Calvary Chapel. We represent the church. We are asking the Supreme Court to take this case, not just to correct this, right?
Not just to correct the wrong done to Calvary Chapel, but for the future as well. We saw how the government can overreach, not just at the federal level, state and local level. And with these exemptions, there's many issues. At stake here for our freedoms, not just religious liberty, but our freedoms in general. And the ACLJ is taking that to the U.S.
Supreme Court and asking the court to make it clear to our leaders around the country, federal, state, and local, that if in this kind of situation, This should not be allowed. This should be prohibited. That if somehow you're gonna shut down everything, You can't exempt Out your tax paying businesses, but close down churches. And Lord knows. Closing down those churches was the worst thing you could have done because of all the mental health impacts we've seen, still to this day, of those COVID shutdowns.
And I want you to understand, we are live and this happened this morning. They shut down schools, Logan.
So kids had nowhere to go. They got shut up for a very long time without a girl. But they could still go out to eat. Yeah. But this was just this morning.
We filed this. And I want to add this to this, Logan, as you go, because we've been talking about this for a few weeks. We told people about this, that this was coming. And it's like, well, I mean, you told us about it. Why is it just now happening?
With the appendices, a 184-page brief that was just filed to the Supreme Court. The cert petition, right? Not brief, cert petition, asking them to take this case.
So 184 pages with all the appendices and things involved. That's a lot of work from our attorneys that have been going. And let me tell you something else for our attorneys who have been working this through all the holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Uh there's another one coming. We're not going to talk about that one yet until it's finalized.
That is a CERT petition that is, again, an ACLJ case and an Amicus that's going to be filed very soon. That the ACL that we were working on until I got on the show just now that will be filed.
So, I mean, This is all going on during between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Our team works around the clock. I was on the phone with them last night at 10 o'clock at night and back on the phone with them at 8 a.m. on a case. Because when you're talking about our rights before the United States Supreme Court, I tried to apologize to the members of our team.
They said, you know what? This is what we signed up for at the ACLJ to work for the ACLJ. We're happy to work like this. Make sure That our team continues to be able to work like this because we can only continue to take these cases on. if we've got the resources.
And like I always say, Logan. I never want to have to say no.
So far, I haven't had to. We never want to have to say no. A case is going to be too big. You know, the senators we're talking to right now about filing because of that cause of action. These are major issues at play.
They're all happening right now, a week before Christmas.
So be a part of that team right now. Go to aclj.org, have your donations doubled. Second half hour coming up. You can get us broadcasting live. On ACLJ.org and all your favorite podcast playoffs.
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Secular. And now, your host, Logan Sekulow. Welcome back to Sekulow, second half hour coming up for you. We got lines open: 1-800-68-4-30110.
We are live. It is Friday. Like a lot of people, they're already off for Christmas. Not us. We're here.
We're live. We're doing it, Will. It's a show. That's right. We're also filing the Supreme Court today.
No rest for the ACLJ team, that's what I say. We'll give them off. Christmas. I think that's fair. Is it?
I mean, not off like... Work from home. I mean, how many times have our attorneys, Jordan, been working through the Christmas holiday on Supreme Court briefs, such as when we were fighting to keep ballot access for the President because they were going after it? Most years, honestly. Things get wild at the end of the year.
Yeah. I don't really know necessarily why. I'm not going to go through it. I was in Washington, D.C. for 40 hours.
I'm going to go through just my schedule. Yeah. For people in the last segment, you don't want to miss that. This is happening, you know, again, where you are. A week and a half, two weeks from Christmas, basically.
Was it 12 days away now? Yeah, something like that. What were we on the 12th?
So 13 days? Yeah, 13 days away. I mean, you're about to Hanukkah begin tonight. And you've also got shutdown looming again. At the end of January, don't bring that up.
People don't want to hear that already.
Well, that's why we're working so hard right now. It's not just our legal team, it's our government affairs team to make sure that our government doesn't shut down on your behalf.
Well, so many industries, this is like the slow. This is where, you know, we'll talk about it, you know, quarter one. We'll talk about it next month. This is how you affect you after the new year. The beginning of 2026.
Yeah. So I think for people who don't understand maybe the world of politics, Washington, D.C., and even the court system of how this all starts to play. And as you said, 2026 is going to be a very big year. It has to be a big year. This is such a unique thing for any of us in our lifetimes because we don't have any sort of cushion of a, you know, technically.
By the end of next year, you would typically see the reelection start. The whole Presidential race is going to be on both parties. I mean, yes, there's J.D. Vance, the incoming VP, but there will be others that run.
Well, it kind of has to be just because I'm going to guarantee that. I'm not going to name names.
So there's going to be a real primary, and there's going to be a real primary on the Democrat side. But for the hope of getting. This Trump agenda accomplished as much as possible. We have to win in the midterms. If we don't, We're going to see, you could see them impeaching immediately, just to stall things out.
Everybody just felt where the messaging is going. Imagine again. The Jack Smiths showing back up as heroes instead of people under subpoena who were violating the Constitution knowingly. That's why they didn't go after Ted Cruz's rec He didn't push when Ted Cruz's phone company said, wait, speech and debate clause constitution, we're not giving you the records as easily. And they didn't even follow up Jack Smith.
And that's because in his memos, they knew there was a speech and debate clause issue. They just weren't going to bring that up to the phone companies. Again, it doesn't slow down at all. The next segment, Rick Rinnell is going to be joining us. And I want you to stay tuned for that because it's always interesting to hear from Rick and his point of view.
Of course, he's had a big couple weeks too with all the different jobs and all the different things he's been running out of Washington, D.C., that's certainly not slowing down. But I do want to hear from you because after Rick, we'll be heading into the final segment. That's how quick this second half hour goes. We'll be heading into the final segment. And for the last 10, 15 minutes of the show, I love to hand it over as much as I can to you, our listeners, especially here at the end of the week.
So if you have a question or comment related to any of the topics we hit this week or any topics that may be on your mind that you feel like could fit into the scope of this show, give me a call right now at 1-800-684-31. 110. Our phone screener is standing by. People still say that? They do now.
You just said it. We should do old school. Like, I want to hear it. They're ringing. Like, oh, someone's calling.
Okay. Do that. Do like a full old telethon.
Okay. Bring it back. Maybe we'll do that next week. We'll see. Maybe that's the big announcement for next week.
It's not. Phone lines though are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. I want to hear from you. It is an important time here at the ACLJ. It is, it's been a really great week.
I'll be honest. Last couple of weeks, you really have all showed up. And that is something that the last two months of the year, I'll be honest, it has been a slower than usual year, as you'd expect, with the economy still on the rebound, people unsure where they're going to be able to have financially, what they're going to be able to donate, what they're going to be able to give to causes that they like. But now I think things are starting to settle in, and we have seen an uptick, a significant uptick, and that is because people like you have decided it's time.
So now if you feel like you can, and again, only if you can, even praying about it. Go to aclj.org because through the month of December, all donations are doubled. But hey, We know next week and the week after that, it's Christmas and then New Year's, you're gonna be busy.
So if you could do it today, do it today. Have your donation doubled at aclj.org or scan the QR code that's on your screen. Let's just leave it up for the rest of this segment. Go to aclj.org once again. Let me take your calls and comments and Rick Rinnell's joining us.
Coming right up. Welcome back to Sekulow. If homelines are open for you at 1-800-684-30-110 after we talk to Rick, we are going to take your calls and comments. And again, I'm in the studio. Will's in the studio, Jordan's in the studio, and we're joined by Rick Rinnell.
Rick, it's obviously been a big week for you. A lot has been going on, but we're going to talk a lot about what's going on also in Washington, D.C. But I did just see right before, while we were in break, Kennedy Center is hosting first, really the first Christmas show with a friend of the other thing I do of CCM Magazine, Charles Millingsley. That's going to be happening very soon there at the Kennedy Center.
So you said you were going to bring Christmas to the Kennedy Center, and you're doing it. Look, we're extremely excited. The Charles Billingsley brand is just so amazing. He's really going to bring a celebration of the birth of Christ to the Kennedy Center. It's Wednesday, December 17th.
It's just something not to be missed. I know people are already requesting tickets. Tickets are going fast. We also have Matthew West. And Speaker Johnson is going to read the Christmas story.
So we're pretty excited about it. That's going to be a great show. All great people, all great people who we're connected with.
So I love that. I love when we get to hear that. That's from Matthew or from Charles or, of course, Speaker Johnson, who you see on a lot of the work that Jordan's doing. Jordan's with earlier this week.
So, you know what? Between Rick, he kind of connects us all. But, Will, I know there was a topic you wanted to bring up here with Rick.
Well, I mean, this is exactly very Christmas-related right now. It's going to be a little bit of a shift here because the Trump administration is now saying that they're going to be setting up a militarized zone along the U.S.-Mexico border in California. This is supposed to be for three years. It'll be transferring from the Secretary of Interior this area of public land to be under the U.S. Navy's control near San Diego.
And this will be the Department of Navy looking over this land as a portion of border security to help reinforce the effort that is going on at the border. We know that the San Diego sector is very much a hotbed for illegal immigration, both having access to go around by the sea or by going through areas that are less secure than others. Rick, we look at this and we see just more results. We see more of the Trump administration doing what they said they would do, and that's secure our border. This is at a time where Most people may be like, is it needed?
I mean, we're seeing zero releases. We're seeing the net illegal immigration pretty much near zero, yet they're still doing more to ensure this security. I want to get your thoughts on it.
Well, when you look at all of the border states, the one that has consistently been the worst for America, it's California. It's under the leadership of Gavin Newsom and some really far-left radical Democrats.
So, this move is to be able to say, look, we know Gavin Newsom can't do his job. We are going to come in and do the job for him. He has consistently ignored the border, Gavin Newsom. He has mocked anyone who's tried to enforce the border as someone who's anti-immigrant, which is really ridiculous because immigrants in this country have overwhelmingly supported Donald Trump. It's illegal immigration that the federal government is targeting.
And let's go a step further. Illegal immigrants are now able to get all sorts of benefits from Gavin Newsom, and he's proud of it for the first time. He's coming forward to say, of course, I'm giving. Benefits and health care and spending billions of dollars on illegal immigrants. He somehow thinks this is going to help him, Gavin, in the swing states.
I hope the Democrats nominate this radical. I have dealt with him for years here in California. And one thing that I know is he will not work in a single swing state. If you are a common sense voter, whether you're a Democrat or Republican, if you want moderate positions, if you want common sense positions, you want to do things that create stability, you're not going to vote for Gavin Newsom. I mean, he shut down the beaches during COVID, outdoor beaches during COVID.
He's a science denier. He is somebody who is a radical. And now, what he just told us is that he wants young kids to determine their gender. And so, trans surgeries for kids is a celebration of Gavin Newsom's Democrat Party. I hope the Democrats nominate this guy.
Well, Rick, to that point, you're talking about that. I mean, we've seen him in South Carolina, we've seen him in Nashville, Tennessee, trying to go around and pop up and have these events, obviously trying to make a play very early for places he thinks he would resonate. But at the same time, what he's Publicly saying and doing is in contrast with what has caused Democrats to lose elections, such as you mentioned that. What were the Democrats fighting against during the shutdown the entire time? It's saying, no, it's not, we're not trying to give illegal immigrants health care.
It's not about that. They were trying to run from that idea. Gavin Newsom celebrating it. The Democrats and the left tried to put President Trump in jail, and we saw how that worked out. And what does Gavin Newsom do today?
He puts up an AI deep fake video of President Trump, Secretary of War Pete Hagseth, and Stephen Miller in the back of a police car in handcuffs. It's like he isn't watching what played out, but is still going down those lines, which are. To the far left of even the far left in Congress many times. Yeah, that's what happens, Will, though, in California all the time. Sacramento is completely out of it.
The media in California never hold Democrats to account, so they don't know. They show up in Washington. Kamala Harris showed up in Washington, and she was shocked that people were against trans kids. She was shocked that people didn't want to give health care to illegal immigrants. She was never vetted, and she was like a disaster on the national stage.
That's going to happen to Gavin. He is not vetted through California media. By the time he gets to Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, he's going to collapse.
Well, and you said the media doesn't hold Gavin Newsome accountable there, but Jordan, the ACLJ is, because we filed our surf petition today against the people of California, which you can read that as the governor there. Yeah, I mean, this, Rick, is the $1.2 million fine to the Calvary Chapel church out of, again, in San Jose. And yet in that same area, private businesses, not just like offices, but restaurants, bars, basically anybody who was generating tax revenue, they were exempted. But California is still fighting for $1.2 million from a church for operating. And we all know the disaster that occurred by so many of the shutting downs of churches and places of worship because people had they lacked that community that they needed.
And we're still dealing with the mental health issues. That came out of those shutdowns, but you could still hit the restaurants, you could still hit the bars in that county, in those cities and counties, but we're going to find the church because they don't pay property tax and they're nonprofit. They're not really necessary during a pandemic that is scaring the world and the United States.
So we're going to still go after them for $1.2 million. The ACLJ says no, and we're asking the Supreme Court to agree with us.
Well, the Supreme Court should. I mean, Gavin is completely off his liberal rocker. He constantly goes after individuals who are conservative or who are common sense or who are religious. He is very hostile to people of faith. And yet, I think when he hits the Midwest, you know, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and he meets Catholics or evangelicals or others who really believe strongly in their faith, I think he's going to run up against a real barrier for trying to get the nomination.
You know, the Los Angeles Times, the largest paper here, they also mock Christians. They don't understand people of faith. They look down. They're very condescending. They think we're all stupid.
That's not going to work in the Midwest. It may work in Sacramento. It may work in Los Angeles in some places. But I will tell you, it will not work in the Midwest. I'll say it again.
I hope Democrats nominate Gavin Newsome. He will have a spectacular fall.
Well, I think that's something we can look forward to seeing because I think there's a very good chance that that happens. I mean, Rick, it just feels a bit like, you know, not that it's never a sure thing. Of course, the voters have to make that final decision. We've seen some sure things. It is certainly not that early.
But we will see what happens over the next. I mean, that's the crazy part. Over the next year and a half, you know, 15 months before we really start to know. We know he's running, but we'll see if the Democrats decide. Let's get behind him.
He's a slick guy. You know, he's had 18 podcasts, just like a lot of us here. Don't say that like it's a bad thing, Logan. You know, but always trying to figure out who he is. It feels like there's always been that nature with him.
But, Rick, we are headed towards a break here, so I'll let you go. But we do have a really important time. Look, you represent California a lot, really well, Rick, and I always appreciate that. And this case is not something we need to laugh off or joke about. You are talking about a church getting million-dollar fines.
Again, something that would not affect this state at all, really. No, what's crazy here, Rick, was that they tried to hold him in contempt. That got overturned by the courts, but the California courts kept the $1.2 million fine, and California could. Could have dropped it. They continued to pursue it.
They are fighting us now all the way to the US Supreme Court, which sends a message of how they would react. If, God forbid, this ever happened again in this situation. And one of the problems the church had, Rick, just quickly, was the rules changed like every day. Very difficult to get people on board when your rules are changing by the day.
Well, thank God for ACLJ for pushing back because it will continue to happen. They'll harass churches even more if somehow we lose this.
So, thank you to everyone who is supporting us to be able to have lawyers on this case. All right, thanks a lot, Rick. We get back. I want to hear from you now. We got calls coming in from California and from Wyoming.
And I'd love to hear from you, though, if you're calling from anywhere: 1-800-684-3110. Support the work of the ACLJ right now. You hear how important this case is, and it is, and it's happening as we speak. ACLJ.org. Be right back.
Mm. Welcome back, Secula. We are going to take your calls and comments. Jordan's also going to walk us through. He's going to read his itinerary.
Not exactly what you think of. I was going to get on the show from our D.C. office Tuesday and Wednesday, and I was not able to because this is why. We landed in Washington, D.C. We were with Senator Katie Britt, who is about to become the senior senator from Alabama because our good friend, Senator Tommy Tubberville, is going to be running for governor there.
So she's someone actually, we were at one of her. Early fundraisers for. And so, again, kind of bringing her into getting on board with more of the ACLJ's work. A lot of you know Senator Eric Schmidt. We worked with him when he was the Attorney General of Missouri.
We were with him as well, and including, of course, our good friend J.B. McCuskie, who's the Attorney General of West Virginia. Congratulations to him. This week, he got elected to the Republican Attorney General's Association Executive Board. First time a first-year state AG has been elected to that executive board.
And it's an ACLJ alumni, J.B. McCuskie, the Attorney General of West Virginia. But that was not it. Then it was Speaker Johnson's Christmas party at the Nat Stadium. And then you turn around the next day, and it was a very small lunch that we do monthly off the record with just a handful of conservative leaders with the speaker to go through the upcoming issues.
And I'll bring up what I brought up because I can bring it up. It was, you know, the House was kind of upset with some of the Arctic Frost cause of action lawsuits from the Senate. And I told the speaker directly. We're looking at taking this to the next level and maybe representing some of these senators through the cause of action. They're not really looking for the 500 grand.
Some are looking at the phone companies too. Is that going to cause you any problems? You know, and that was not an issue.
So that was great to hear as well. And we told them we want to protect house members too, by the way.
So let's get some protections in for those house members, but also going through like kind of the upcoming election, where we're going to need help, where we're going to need assistance, the issues, the appropriations and shutdowns.
Okay, so that was lunch. Then we went back to the office because I wanted to meet with our DC team. Before the end of the year, our government affairs team, our legal team. And at that meeting, we brought in the Ohio State current auditor. He's a former Senate President.
And he's right now, he is the leading candidate to become AG. No one's actually running against him in the primary, Senator Faber. And so he met with our team because he asked that if he became AG, In Ohio, for the ACLJ's assistance. And we have team members right now, I think, in two or three states that have been that basically. They give you the ability to work on the team of, you're deputized by the attorney general.
We have that going on in cases right now in Missouri and a couple of others.
So he is already coming to us before the election saying, I'm already seeing the ACLJ as that kind of team.
So we can bring your expertise in. It doesn't cost the state money because we don't charge like these huge law firms. And we're a lot better at these issues than those law firms are.
So we did that. That was not the end of it. That was still midday. Then I did a roundtable with one of our very good friends here, the senator from Tennessee, Senator Haggerty, where in front of a lot of mostly a lot of corporate issues, economic issues, which affect all of us, we brought up Arctic Frost because I was there. And he talked about how he could not believe.
How his phone company would so easily, I'm not going to name it, just handed over his records without even looking at the Constitution. It was only Ted Cruz's phone company that pushed back. And Jack Smith didn't fight back when the phone company said no, because he knew, we know from the documents, he'd lose that in court. But that didn't matter to the judge either. The judge that everyone would like to see impeached, very difficult to do.
But again, serious problematic. That was not the end, though.
So we kind of circled back on and then spent the evening with Senator Ted Cruz, who is a great champion for so many of our issues. Another one of someone that is on our FOIA on Arctic Frost, and then hopped on the plane back to Tennessee. I got some, got to get back to work yesterday and on some legal issues that we're dealing with, and now I'm back on with you. We accomplished that, Logan, in. One night in D.C.
and two days. Yeah, a couple days in D.C. And also, like I said, a week or two before Christmas, before the holidays, this is what's happening. Relationships we've built and are building with our government affairs efforts and our legal victories in the next generation and generation of ACLJ attorneys. Yeah, I'm going to take a call kind of related to that.
Let's go to Karen in California online too. Karen, watch on the Salem News channel. Go ahead. Hi, I've got two, three points. One, I want to thank you and your team.
over the last thirty years for doing work that we the people just literally cannot do by ourselves. And I'm so proud of you. Thank you, Karen. Number two is I wish you'd bring up every once in a while, about twelve months ago, Gavin Newsom. Because I'm from Northern Cal.
Um said he was not going to run for President.
So you can see how he flip flops and really does not have a good compass that he follows.
Well, I think his compass actually points towards the presidency. That's exactly what he's doing. And he's going to say what he feels like is the appropriate thing at the appropriate time. Before he said, I'm not doing it. Get in that direction.
And then he said recently, I'd be dissing. I'd be lying. I'd be lying. I'm not thinking about it. But, Karen, I appreciate you calling in.
We do have one other call I want to get to today, but I appreciate the long 30-year work. You know, here at the ACLJ and what we do on this broadcast, it's evolved, it's changed, and I think that's very important to not be, you know, just playing the hits and essentially be a tribute show to what we once were. We're always moving forward. It's been one of the big messages here of the ACLJ: it never stays the same. We have to make sure we are moving forward with our listeners, with our new supporters, with the old supporters.
Everyone's been around for decades, and the people who are just seeing us for the first time today, which we know a lot of you just are, which is a wild thing, but it's absolutely true. Each and every day, about half the people that watch online, because of the way social media is run, you've never seen us before.
So, I want to welcome you to the ACLJ and to our family here. Let's go ahead, though, take one last call. Bill's calling in Wyoming. You've been holding for a long time, Bill. I apologize.
Go ahead. Hi, thanks for taking my call. Let me start out by saying I sent my this month's check to you yesterday.
Now this whole thing with the conversation with the Congressman and Secretary Noam, I've got some points of the fact that number one, I understand after since working in the service, I understand somewhat of the inertial progress of paperwork going through the government. That's why he was vetted this at this time. Number two, this I believe this he was trying to make an attack concerning President Trump's attempt to making this country secure for citizens Number three, we wouldn't be having this conversation if the borders and disastrous withdrawal had to happen. And what really gets me is this question is: how did this person get a hold of a gun to use, let alone why doesn't this congressman even say anything about gun control to begin with? Right.
I mean, Bill, honestly, it would have been a layup for the left if he had turned it into a gun control issue, but did not and called it that unfortunate accident. All very valid points, but I think the one that really hits home is that when Congressman Thompson was trying to say that it is Trump's fault, too, because they approved asylum under President Trump, it is ignoring the fact of the four years of the open borders, the disastrous Afghanistan rollout, is what led to this terror attack. And I will call it that. Yep. Look, no rest for the ACLJ team.
As much as we would like to, we can't. And we can't because there's the amazing cases. that our team look has the honor to represent incredible clients. We're standing up for their faith. And without you, none of that happens.
So I'm going to encourage you right now because we have 30 seconds left in this week of broadcasting. Go to aclj.org. It's our year-end drive. You've heard me talk about it all show. Donations are doubled.
And look, if you're brand new and you can't give, I understand. How about hit the subscribe button on YouTube? Help us get to 550,000 subscribers on YouTube. That'd be a great way to help as well. But if you can, and you've been praying about it.
This is the time. Your donation is doubled. Become a champion if you can as well. That's someone that gives on a monthly basis automatically a membership. And with that, that's going to do it for this week.
We'll be back on Monday, though, with new shows. I'm sure a whole lot more to come.
