On today's show, as a winter storm hits Manhattan, Mondami's political nightmare. begins. 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. We're live. It's Monday.
Will Haynes is in the studio. Rick Rinnell's joining us a little bit later in CCIL, ACLJ Senior Attorney. We got a lot of big updates, but of course, A lot of the news is focused on On what happened this weekend, State of the Union tomorrow, and of course, the winter blast that is hitting Manhattan right now in the New York area. And some pretty funny, you want to say funny concepts that have come out of how you can get help and how you can be part of the help relief. You know, I think it's great.
Abdomy said, you know what? It'd be great if New Yorkers would get together and help out and decide they want to be snow shovelers as well. In theory, I like this. I think this is a good idea. He said, We're going to pay you.
It's not like we're talking about volunteer work, though, I think being a volunteer, a snow shoveler, would be very appreciated. They know they can get people motivated and people they're going to be out of work. Because there's going to be a lot of people out of work for a couple days here in New York. We know how the system runs. A lot of people rely on their day-to-day wages just to afford to live there.
Very expensive place to live, Will.
However, It's not that simple. According to the requirements.
Well, I think we should hear from him with his request saying you can join this, and then we will go into how you actually go about this process. And this is all in the context of everything that is going on within his own party nationally.
So let's hear bite four from the mayor of New York himself on how you can get involved with such a massive historic snowstorm. We're utilizing 33 DSNY vans and two DSNY buses to transport shovelers where they're needed, faster. And for those who want to do more to help your neighbors and earn some extra cash, you too can become an emergency snow shoveler. Just show up at your local sanitation garage between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m.
tomorrow with your paperwork, which is accessible online at nyc.gov/slash/snow, and you can get started right away. Show up with your paperwork. You know, maybe just go to the website. Maybe there's a simple application you could print out. You know what?
You'll be good to go. You'll be shoveling snow in no time in New York City. Again, From an in-theory point of view, and actually, even with the requirements. I'm not against this. I think that this is an interesting idea.
We just went through a historic ice storm. I would have loved anything to have been able to motivate people to get out and help as much as they could. A lot of us were stuck. New York City, very different, though. It's not a city reliant exclusively on automobile transportation.
A lot of people can just get out and walk. It can help out and make a little extra cash. Of course, though, you go to the website. 'Cause you're like, Hey, I want to do this And there are some Basic requirements, Will. I think these would be considered basic requirements.
That's right.
So, to become an emergency snow shoveler where you can make $19.14 an hour, which increases to $28.71 per hour after your first 40 hours of work in a week, here's your eligibility requirements. You have to be 18 years old, eligible to work in the United States, and able to perform heavy physical labor. Here's how you register, though. Which is raising some eyebrows. You have to bring two small photos of yourself, I assume for credentials.
And then you need two original forms of ID. Two, not one, two forms of ID. Plus copies of them. And your Social Security card.
So it seems to me in a time of crisis in New York, it is much harder to become an emergency snow shoveler than the DNC would have it be to vote in an election in the United States. That is, if you count it, Three forms of identification you have to bring just to get out there and shovel some snow for $19 an hour. We knew that these kind of things would happen, but it is comical that, of course, this is the case. If you want to work for New York, if you want to be a snow shoveler, Not only multiple forms of identification, you gotta find your social security card, you gotta come up with all of these things. Of course, they say that's very difficult for people.
Oh, it's so difficult. Why, in times of emergency, have you then made it so difficult, if you will? to become a snow shoveler. At a time when you think you'd just say, hey, all hands on deck, if we bring your driver's license, bring one form of ID, let's get you working, because I don't know, there's going to be 15 feet of snow. Then of course not.
But Will's right. If you'd like to vote in this election, ha! You can leave all that at home. You just tell them your name. See where it goes from there.
All right, phone lines are open for you. What do you think? 1-800-684-30-110. We're going to jump into a lot of different topics. Of course, a lot happened over the weekend.
We'll get into it. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Sekulow. Talking about a few topics today. Of course, the one, the irony that is the identification process.
We have a snow shoveler. During a historic storm, of course, Mom Dami said, Hey, This is just long-standing rules. Nothing I can do about it. Of course we know. when they fight back against something like this in terms of voter identification.
They will claim to you that it's nearly impossible for people to get. Things like their social security card or a passport or two forms of ID or anything like this, that it's nearly an impossible task. How dare we ask that to register to vote? But if you would actually like to help today, In New York City, You are one of the people that said, you know what, I'll go out there and I'll help shovel snow, which I think is a great thing. I think this program is excellent, by the way.
I'm all for communities getting together and helping out where they can. God bless you. Go out there and do what you need to do. But you cannot Be blind to the double standard. That shows you how politically motivated things like voter ID are.
We have seen issues with the Mamdami mayoral ship already. This will just show that he's going to be under extreme scrutiny and extreme cracks. The fact that his team did not even notice that this was likely the requirements, because I do believe there were things like this set up before, but he's like activating it even more so, almost making a PR moment saying, Come out and do this. Not to look at the fact of going, This could blow up in our face if we don't address this. Maybe we can figure out how to just say a simple one form of identification, something like that, just to say you are who you say you are, which I think, again, by the way, I don't think there's anything wrong.
With The identification system they have here. I think it is intense for something in an emergency situation. Voting, by the way, not an emergency situation. You likely know you've had to vote, or you're going to vote for hopefully it's on the calendar from the Constitution. Yeah.
So like indefinitely. Right.
So, you know, I think you have time to plan and get your ideas together and all that. But for this, when it is purely an actual emergency event, I can understand where this may be hard to find your social security card. Maybe you're dealing with power outages, or you can't be in your home, or whatever it may be. And he was pressed on this. I think we got to be fair, let's listen to what Zoran had to say.
Go ahead, byte one. There's a bit less. Controversy over the snow laborers and the sort of what some see as onerous. Need to have documentation. Can you just talk about if that's new and what you make of the controversy?
This is all longstanding. This is a longstanding program and longstanding requirements. And this is a way that New Yorkers get paid to shovel snow in assistance with the city's response to a winterstorm event. Federal law requires that employers get authorization and documentation to pay people for their work. We are not allowed to just cut checks to individuals for their work.
And these are the policies that we've had in place, but I understand that for many, it's the first time that they've ever heard about it.
So here's a lot to break down. One, because he's not wrong. There are federal work requirements. There's the I-9 form. When you get a job, you have to fill out.
And you know what no one complains about? That's stopping people from getting a job. Right? But they are so concerned that the requirements to have less. In some cases, forms of identification to register to vote to secure the elections, that somehow is seen as racist.
It is seen as un-American. And it just shows the absurdity of this. But I also love that, remember, he invoked weather. the the mayor did when he was in his uh inauguration speech. He talked about replacing the frigidity of rugged individualism.
With the warmth of collectivism. Those were his words. Right now, they are seeing a historic snowstorm.
So maybe it was ill-advised of him to invoke weather when talking about this. He is faced with really, this is, I would say, the first major crisis of his administration. It is something that happens that you can't control. And you first was meeting with President Trump and actually having a good experience. That's right.
That could be a crisis. But you're seeing this, and he's the one who chose this language and talks about rugged individualism and the warmth of collectivism. I will say, we had that historic ice storm here in Tennessee. And you know what you saw? You saw people getting out with chainsaws, posting on next door and Facebook, who needs a generator?
We had one. We didn't lose power. Who needs it? There was a community helping each other, getting people that were trapped in their homes, with being able to free the streets from these trees that have broken and made it impassable in so many areas. And they weren't paid by the city government.
Yes, I agree, this is a program that is probably well intentioned. But when you have the warmth of collectivism, what it is is the government has to find ways to coerce you to help your neighbor. And I feel like that is something we also can't lose sight of here. Is that in areas where the warmth of collectivism is something that is envisioned as this utopia society, what you end up having is the government having to find ways to coerce their citizens to help each other. When you go to places where there is rugged individualism, it's people that understand I can work hard and I can do something for my neighbor.
Individualism does not mean you don't love your neighbor. And I think that we can't lose sight of that in all of this. Is that when you have the rugged individualistic spirit that America has, that ends up helping your neighbor. It ends up caring for the best of your community, not being forced by your government or your government having to find ways to incentivize you to do the right thing for your neighbor. And so I love this story for that fact alone: is that we can point out.
That in New York, they are having to find ways and encourage people to get out and help their neighbor. Is it nice that they're actually paying people to do this? Yeah, absolutely. Have no problem with that. But it also shows the irony of their ideology: that the very basic requirements to work, to shovel snow in the city on an emergency basis, is harder to do.
Than they would have it be to even register to vote and protect the sacredness of our elections here. They've also made it very hard to live there. And I think that's something that when you look at people who are probably going to be signing up for this program, like I said, it's people who are taking a day or two off work or three days off work, whatever it may be with the storms that are coming in. These are people that need their hourly wage or they need, maybe they need their gig work or whatever it may be, and all of a sudden have no cash, have no way to afford it.
So I get there are ways you can have a lot of people, a lot of New Yorkers who are in need right now and will need help and will need financial assistance and let them go work. I got no problem with that. But when you start counterbalancing all of these issues that he's going to have, they've got to be smarter in this. Look, I've told you, I'm wearing it today. I pray for a thriving New York City.
I think New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, these are places that maybe our audience has written off. I have not. I think they're three of our best cities in the world. It's one of some of our biggest places you can come and visit. That's why people want to come to America often is to see what I'd say, New York, LA.
Orlando and maybe San Francisco and a few other cities around the country. That is some of the biggest driving force of tourism. We want these cities to be thriving. I don't wish any ill-will towards the people of any of those places. Of course, you'll see maybe massive upturn right now because I know a lot of people who are planning on traveling obviously can't be traveling.
And again, it's going to change the way people are running up there. But look, we've got a lot to cover today because it's not just about this. This is one of, you know, this one is a bit more of a look at this and look over here. Like, can you believe this situation? There's also some real stuff happening.
We're going to have a big ACLJ update coming up from Cece Highle. Maybe not the best of news. Look, folks, we're going to need your prayers and support coming out of our lawsuits in Massachusetts. You know, we've been fighting for a long time for those pregnancy resource centers. You know, we got, I guess we got bad news that could lead to some good news.
We're going to cover that. But look, that is just the truth of what the world is when you're dealing with the law, you're dealing with courts. These are uphill battles, especially in states where you're fighting for life. And it's states like Massachusetts.
So we're going to have an update from Cece coming up. A little bit later, we're going to talk to Rick Rinnell. We're even going to be discussing that Gavin Newsom tour. And look, he was here in Nashville just two days ago. Big crowd, big turnout.
I was not one of them, but I did see the line and it did look pretty insane. People that are showing up.
So you can't write off Gavin Newsome just yet. Went to Atlanta, Georgia, and kind of stepped in it. We're going to talk about that and what that looks like. As he says, essentially, I'm just like all of you who are here at this event. You know, not very smart, can't read, all those kinds of things, just like you.
That's how he's going to relate to the American people. And that's barely, by the way, a paraphrase. That is essentially what he said to this audience. And however you want to take it, you can take it. Of course, he's trying to say, oh, this is a fake news story.
We're going to talk a little bit more about that coming up. And we're going to take your calls and comments at 1-800-68-430-110. I do want to hear from you today. When you hear things like what's going on in New York, or you hear my domini, look, there's also. A big story over the weekend was obviously the released segment interview with Tucker Carlson and Ambassador to Israel.
Mike Huckabee. What are your thoughts on that? I mean, I'll give you my general thoughts in general. I thought, former Governor Ambassador Huckabee. did an incredible job.
And I thought he uh dismantled most of Tucker Carlson's claims aggressively. but with you know great uh poise. and handled him very, very well.
Now of course a lot of those supporters who are don't want to hear that. Are you going to say, no, no, no, here's why. I mean, I watched it. I tried to watch it from as unbiased of a position as you could be, which I think was very difficult for a lot of us. Or more on the side.
of the Jewish people. We'll discuss that coming up. What did you think about it? Give me a call. I want to hear from you on any of these topics: 1-800-684-3110.
And of course, We all celebrated yesterday. Is the U.S. men's hockey team? Was it yesterday, Saturday? Yesterday.
It was yesterday. It was yesterday. You looked at me like I was. I didn't know what we celebrated yesterday.
Okay. The U.S. men's hockey team brought the country together. Put a weapon on, Canada. And look, as someone who loves Canada, I like being there, it's an enjoyable place.
It's a heck of a moment. Never did I think we would see. A gold medal presented, our national anthem played, And then Freebird. Freebird hit the airwaves across the world. It was an amazing moment, so congratulations to that whole team.
All right, we get back. I want to hear from you at 1-800-684-3110. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Sekulow. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-68-430-110.
If you want to talk about Snowstorm, Mandami's rules to become a snow shoveler.
Now, of course, that that is a much more intense situation, become an emergency snow shoveler. than it is to register to vote. And to become a active voter or at least what's what they want you to do. We also are talking about. We're going to talk a little bit more about Gavin Newsome a little bit later, his situation, his book tour, some of the gaps that were made.
I want to talk a bit about. Mike Huckabee. Tucker Carlson, they had a Very interesting interview. Want to get your thoughts on that as well? I told you mine earlier in the last segment.
But There is always important work of the ACLJ. And look, you know, if you've been following this case with us for the last couple of years. And that, of course, is our cases in Massachusetts where we represented pregnancy resource centers. as they've been really under attack by their own state. I wish I was coming to you with better news, but it doesn't mean that it's over.
It doesn't mean this is the end. But. It's not maybe as fully as expected. We thought maybe we'd have a better outcome than we did. But you are in uphill battles in these states.
We've told you that, and we've been honest with you. We're in uphill battles when you're talking to Massachusetts about anything involving life.
Now, again, when I say Massachusetts, I don't mean the people. I've met so many of you. I've talked to so many of you. It is not the people. It's just the people in power.
C C Heil Senior attorney here at the ACLJ is joining us, CC.
So let's at least start with the update and then where we go from here.
Okay, and like you said, I'm just going to remind everybody that this is Massachusetts. This is their public campaign that came from the government.
So directly from the government, targeting pregnancy resource centers and basically saying that they're dangerous and they're threats to public health and accused them of deception and urged the public to avoid them. And this again was directly from the government.
So the ACLJ sued the government of Massachusetts. Our client is Your Options Medical, which is a licensed medical clinic in Massachusetts that has provided services like ultrasounds and everything to Massachusetts for more than two decades.
So the state had filed a motion to dismiss, and unfortunately, the federal district judge dismissed our case in Massachusetts against the government there.
However, this is not the end of this case because we will be appealing immediately to the First Circuit and just pointing out that the judge was really wrong in his decision here because he basically said that Massachusetts was merely expressing views and promoting public health and saying that that's definitely something that the government can do. But unfortunately, he viewed each comment or component of the state's conduct individually. And there's case law that requires a court to actually view government conduct in context and in totality.
So we are obviously going to argue that he did not review this case correctly because when you look at what the government has done in totality, It's absolutely a comprehensive campaign to silence and punish speech, which the First Amendment does not allow you to do. I mean, the title of it was Avoid Pro-Life, Avoid Pregnancy Resources, Anti-Abortion, Fake Clinics. I mean, it was pretty obvious trying to take down these organizations. There was no other way around it. Fortunately, that is right.
Court did not rule in our favor in that.
However, as Cece said, I don't want to be doom and gloom here. It's not over. And the fact that you could get to probably a potential better court option once you get out of this region. That's right.
And Cece, that was always something we expected here. You plan for. You fight to win in these at the district court level. But we always knew the district court level is the uphill battle. We were honest about that from the very beginning.
We got an early quasi-win, which gave us a little bit of hope with the district court. And we know that our attorneys are the best in the country and they are on the right side of the law on this. And where we had this judge allowed an amended complaint filed. This is the second time we were at the motion to dismiss stage, where the defendants here were trying to get this out of court. They said, no, this is a frivolous lawsuit, whatever.
This doesn't apply. Get rid of it. The judge allowed us to amend our complaint with new information we heard, and was very praising of our attorneys in the argument there on the first motion to dismiss about how they handled it, how they laid out the law. As well as interested genuinely in some of the new information we got out of a FOIA, a freedom of information state law request that we did there. And so we had some hope.
Olivia, who is one of our great attorneys here, did an excellent job that first round and in the second round. But as we see here, the judge did what was expected all along and says, no, motion is misgranted, throwing it out of court. But now we know where we really shine at the ACLJ is the appellate level. Yes. And that is where we take it now.
That's right.
So the First Circuit, and I'll just say we have a little bit of hesitation there too, because the First Circuit is not just completely conservative as well.
So, but that will not be the end. You know, if we lose there, we will keep going. It keeps going until, yes, we get justice because we have said, look, the Constitution is clear. It doesn't permit government officials to use their regulatory power to silence or punish speech that they disagree with. And that is exactly, exactly what is happening here.
And just because the district court judge tried to view this under a lens where he, you know, separated each individual event separately, he can't do it. Do that. You have to take it in context. And there's no, everyone can see that this was absolutely a comprehensive plan to punish and silence speech that the government does not agree with. And that's pro-life speech.
And we also know from our clients that there was not just this reputational harm, but that the volume of people coming to them as a result of this campaign from the government. Decreased. That there was actual harm to the organizations and to the women themselves that would be seeking to go visit by this campaign of the government.
So it's not just even a hypothetical that this speech by the government and this campaign by the government could harm the client that we represent. Genuinely did in reality. Yes, there's absolutely documented harm. Like you said, there was documented reputational harm. reduce patient value, volume, sorry.
Operational disruption. It disrupted their operation, and one of their physicians resigned because of it.
So, absolutely, there's harm, and that's exactly what the government wants to do. It wants to shut pregnancy resource centers down because they have a speech that they disagree with, and that is pro-life. Yep, and we wanted to give you the opportunity to get involved in this. We know sometimes this can be disheartening, but we also know this is the time where we need your help. And there are many different ways you can help, obviously financially.
You can have our team in your prayers. But right now, we have launched a petition where you can help defend these pro-life centers and be a part of it. I want you to go to aclj.org/slash sign right now. We believe this judge erroneously ruled. And we need to take this as far as we have to take it.
That could be all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Be part of it right now because you know what's going on right now. These pro-life pregnancy centers, these are run by sweet people. often volunteers.
They provide things like formula. They provide things like clothes. We had one person call in and said, they threw a birthday party for my child. on their first birthday. It is not what people make it out to be.
Do they provide abortions? No. Will they provide actual health care when needed? Will they actually be able to show you an ultrasound? Get your prenatal vitamins, those kind of things, that's what they're there for.
We want to support them. And I need you to do it today.
So, I'm going to encourage you to sign that petition. It's a great way to do it. Help defend these pro-life pregnancy centers. From the state-sponsored smear campaigns. And we know if they get away with it in Massachusetts, we know it's growing.
And we know it's even part of the New York Mondami plan. We've seen it. He's very honest about it. We got to support these people. Go to sign the petition right now at aclj.org/slash sign.
That's aclj.org/slash sign. Second half hour coming up. Join us on aclj.org, YouTube, Rebel, or however you get your podcast. We'll be right back on Sekulow. Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever.
This is Sekulow. And now, your host, Logan Sekulow. Welcome to Sekulow's second half hour. Coming up for you. We got a bunch of phone lines open, by the way.
Some of you called in, some didn't stay on hold. But we've opened them all up at 1-800-684-30-110. Hitting a bunch of topics today. Of course, the first one we're talking about is a big winter storm that is hitting New York City. And with that...
Mayor Mum Domi said, You know what? We'd love for you to come out and be part of the snow shoveling team. Which is fine. I'm all for that. And he says, You know what?
We're also going to pay you. We know a lot of gig workers, who knows a lot of people in New York, they're going to be out of money, out of revenue. It's expensive to live in this town.
So come out, we're going to pay you even. Great. All for it. What do I need to do? Is it, you know, do I just need to bring my driver's license?
Do I need to just show up? You're going to cut me a check or hand me some cash? No, you're going to need two forms of identification, a social security card, and way more than you ever would to even be able to prove that you're a citizen and vote here. Not that those two things are connected, but they are hilariously so. Because this is really the not very nuanced look at how important these issues are.
To become a snow shoveler in New York City, something that is important right now is they are facing a massive winter storm, and the city is completely shut down. And they could use all the help they can get. And look, I'd be willing to say at this point, you should be able to take whoever you can get. If you can pay them, you can take them. But of course, with Mom Dami, he had to say, you know, well, this was preset planned, so nothing we can do about it.
Now, I'm not even so sure that's right, that there's nothing they can do about it.
However, those are the excuses as they move into this historic storm. But of course we have to look at the counterballs saying we know what happened last week with all the complaints against voter ID. That it was just too difficult. And this again is that reverse racism we've discussed on this show before. And of course you had a similar moment happen with Gavin Newsom.
in Atlanta, Georgia, my hometown. And that happened. We're going to discuss that with Rick Rinnell coming up. Because Gavin Decided to try to be relatable once again. You're relatable to the people that were maybe in the crowd in Atlanta, Georgia.
And what did he essentially say? I'm dumb like you. My SAT score is bad. I can't read. Just like you.
You know, the people that would come out to his event. The people that come out to see a Presidential candidate, a potential Presidential candidate for 2028, and you're essentially saying, This is how I'm going to relate to you as my potential voter.
Now, I understand. He talked more about his lifelong battle with dyslexia. I'm very sympathetic to that, members of my family. suffer with the same issues?
So I get that part of it. But when you start Implying that your audience in Atlanta, Georgia, and you're talking to the mayor of Atlanta, you're talking to people in that audience who are largely diverse, and you start essentially equating them. to being You know, like me, not so smart. It becomes a bigger story than it ever needed to be. And of course now he's saying that everyone who is blowing through it is doing that just to blow up a non-story.
But We have to look at our potential Presidential candidates like this. I also want to bring up the statement that the mayor of New York said when he said, you know, this is a longstanding program with longstanding requirements. And he also said that, you know, their federal law requires employers to get authorization and documentation to pay people for their work. We're not allowed just to cut checks to individuals for their work. These are the policies that we've had in place.
And I understand that for many, it's the first time they're hearing about it. Why are these considered employees? Why are the emergency snow shovelers not independent contractors they're hiring on a case-by-case basis? Why is it structured? in a way that they are employed by the city.
That you have to get these requirements. If you're an independent contractor, you're not showing forms of identification because you're not employed. By the individual. And if these are policies, it shows even more so the issues with the bureaucratic mess that individuals that love big government always want to add the layers to. Cut through the red tape.
You're going to file paperwork for all these people showing up in an emergency basis. It also shows how inefficient these governments are run. I could talk about this for days, but we got to get to a break. Yeah, because Rick Rednels joining us in the next segment again. He'll be with us, and then I want to hear from you.
Where are you? You're out there watching right now. I can see you've got great numbers online. Give me a call. I posed the one question, what did you think about that Tucker Carlson interview with Mike Huckabee?
No way you avoided it. If you did, we have very different internets, because man, for the last three days, that is pretty much all I've been fed. What did you think? 1-800-684-3110. We'll take calls on that.
And any of the other topics we brought up today. Rick Minnell's joining us in the next segment. Welcome, Mike Sekulow. Rick Rinnell's joining us via phone. Rick, I need to start off real quick.
I know I definitely want to get into Gavin Newsome's latest gaffe as we'll discuss that coming up shortly. As he was on that book tour, did come to Nashville, Tennessee. Did seem to draw a pretty big crowd. I was not one of them, unfortunately. I'm sorry, Rick.
But he did seem to draw a big crowd throughout the South.
So it's definitely something we need to keep an eye on. But I also wanted to first address, as we've seen a lot in the news this morning, on some of the vandalism and issues that may have happened at the Kennedy Center. Just wanted to get your thoughts and updates on that.
Well, look, it's pretty sad and frustrating to see this type of terror attack on A ice rink that we put in to do some programming of really cool. events on ice artistic programming. And we had to cancel the beginning performance because Somebody Walked up and put some sort of toxic chemical on the ice, which destroyed the ice. We had to. scramble to try to fix it and really it went deep into the ice, so it took us a while.
We ended up having to cancel the first performance. And got it back up for the second. But you know, this type of attacks. trying to terrorize us and intimidate us. is pretty typical.
I'm confident And I get criticized for saying this, but I'm confident that it's somebody on the left. who is listening to the attacks against the Trump Kennedy Center and the Arts Institution. They've been calling for boycotts. They've been calling for artists to say, stop. performing.
Artists have told us this, that they're getting harassed. And so I really believe that this is a strategy. And what is really scary is we saw what happened over the past weekend at Mar a Lago. You've seen attacks on ICE law enforcement officials. This is getting worse, and I think it's because the rhetoric Of people like Adam Schiff, who says, I can't even go to the State of the Union address and sit in the same room because these people are fascist.
When you do that, you encourage unstable people to take action, crazy action. And so I think we've got to change the rhetoric on the left. They need to be able to talk to people that they disagree with. Yeah, I think that is what we all are fighting for. But Rick, you're right.
I mean, the rhetoric has gotten higher. And again, it's not necessarily always about that person, it's who that person is inspiring. And we have seen those threats go up so majorly. Over the last few months, it's really, really shocking. It's really scary when you thought that actually the pinnacle.
of it, assassination attempts and then assassinations. would have maybe actually brought everyone to to their knees and to their senses a bit. It seems like it has gotten more and more as time goes on.
Now, speaking of which, I did want to pivot a little bit and maybe we can go to a little bit more lighthearted information. Of course, not that lighthearted because it's insulting and it's ridiculous. But you had Gavin Newsom, governor of California. He's on his book tour right now. Like I said, it was in Nashville.
Made the swing throughout the South over the last few days, went to Atlanta. And Atlanta. Speaking to a very diverse crowd, as you'd expect in Atlanta, one of the most diverse places in the country. If you've ever spent any time there or lived there, as I did, my hometown. He spoke to this crowd.
And he tried to relate as only Gavin Newsom can relate. And how did he decide he was going to relate to Southerners? How did he decide he was going to relate to people of color that were there? You know, again, Atlanta being as diverse as it is. How am I?
You know, you can imagine him on his bus or on his plane going, How am I going to talk? How am I going to relate to this crowd? I got to connect with. The American Southern. I got to connect with the Southern African American crowd.
What am I going to do? Let's hear from Governor Gavin Newsome by two. I'm not trying to impress you. I'm just trying to impress upon you, I'm like you. I'm no better than you.
You know, I'm a 960 SAT guy. Yeah.
And I'm not trying to offend anyone, you know, trying to act all there if you got 940. But literally a 960 SAT guy, I cannot, you've never seen me. Read a speech. Because I cannot read a speech. This may be the wrong business to be in.
The crowd goes largely quiet. Crowd goes mild, as they say, trying to respond to Gavin Newsome essentially saying, All of you that came out here, I'm just like you. I'm not smart and I can't read. Rick, it's another one of these moments where it feels like he's so disconnected from what's actually happening and puts his foot in the mouth once again.
Well, first of all, I'm glad to see that he admits that he's in a business. He views politics like a business, not like a way to serve. He just he says, look, this is just my business. Um I I think this guy is totally phony. And the more people see outside of California, because remember, he's never been vetted in California, so people are really finding out a lot about him for the first time.
I don't see African Americans finding this remotely relatable or funny. Nikki Minaj pointed out that Gavin Newsom began to slow down the way he was talking in front of the crowd. And not only was he offending people to say, we're all stupid, and I'm just as stupid as you. But he he literally slowed down the rhetoric like he was talking to people who were stupid. And so this is not somebody who is Authentic.
This is an elitist attitude. And it's very typical of Gavin. It's not going to work in swing states, and it's certainly not going to work with African Americans. And that is the common thread. This is what drives me crazy.
You are right. His speech changed. And look, I could probably go back to many different Presidential candidates. who have run where that happens, where they go in front of an audience. An audience in the South, an audience that is primarily people of color.
and decide to adjust the way they speak. To try to relate or to talk down to. And to them, it's this other version of this. It's the same with the voter ID stuff when you start going, well, you know, it's hard for them to get down to the DMV. And then you start asking who's them.
And then it becomes this. This really vile. situation. Where it is elitism, it is acting better. You are telling me.
That your crowd that came out to see you, by the way, number one, nothing wrong with your SAD scores. I understand family suffers from dyslexia. I understand that's a real thing. There are ways to talk about that, and that actually be something you can relate to. I love when I find out a celebrity has dyslexia.
I use it as an example for people in my family who need that. Rarely is it spoken about as something that should disqualify you. But when you speak like this, It's treating it like A pawn that you're able to use, but I hate it. I really do. I really hate the way that this is discussed.
Because what you're saying is all these people who came out, bought my book, and are sitting in this room spent 50 to 60 bucks on my book, unsigned, by the way, probably, just like the ones here. 50 to 60 bucks unsigned. They came out to see what is likely to be a 2028 Presidential candidate. They are that informed. That they are following along that closely, but you are saying, I'm just like you.
I'm dumb.
Well, and Rick, you say all the time that you hope he is the nominee and you hope he does keep talking because these are the types of things that he will say. And once again, the elitism that you see from him, the Pandering to the crowd, but also the just completely diminishing his base that would be there. And even the mayor of Atlanta that he was talking with, who went to Georgia Tech, a very difficult school to get into for undergrads. And has an advanced degree as well. Like these, the mindset of someone sitting there thinking, this is the American South, therefore they're going to understand if I say I'm dumb.
And also, does he not realize a lot of his former constituents now live in these cities because they wanted to get away from him? Look, one of the things that you've got to remember about Gavin Newsom is that it's all manufactured. It's all phony. This is a new line of elitism. He's trying to be relatable because he's running for President, but he just makes stuff up all of the time.
He is a proud liar, and he doesn't have the gene where he's embarrassed when it's pointed out that he's a total phony.
So I really do hope he's the nominee because he will implode with different groups. The more they get to know him, and especially in swing states. All right, Rick.
Well, thank you so much for joining us today. I always appreciate hearing from you, even when you're on the road, just to figure out what's going on in the world and how we can all relate to it, especially when it involves people like Gavin Newsom, who seems to be a common topic here on this show. The more and more we get closer, I feel like, to 2028, which isn't all that far away. Of course, he is going to be in the news. But thanks for joining us.
I did want you, by the way, if you're watching right now and you want to know how to get involved, and you maybe didn't hear the first half hour of the show. We had CeCe Hilon, our senior attorney. We had an update out of Massachusetts in our pro-life case, fighting for those pro-life pregnancy resource centers. Unfortunately, the case from this level was thrown out because Massachusetts decided, hey, we're not really going after him. But that is not the end.
We're going to appeal it. We're going to take it as far as we have to go because these pro-life pregnancy resource centers, they're under attack right now and they're under attack by their own states. They're trying to put them out of business. And this is not a hyperbolic rhetoric. We are seeing it.
We saw it in real time when I was there in Boston. And again, when I say Massachusetts, I'm talking about the state, I'm not the Commonwealth, I'm people, the political wing. People that are in office, I'm not talking about the people there. I know what the people want. And a lot of them are great pro-life people.
I want you to sign that petition. Get involved right now. We got to protect them all over the country. We know it's coming to New York as well. Go to aclj.org slash sign.
Aclj.org slash sign. Sign the petition today. In the next segment, I want to hear from you. And we have a completely, we got a big audience watching right now. I can see the numbers.
I got a completely empty phone bag.
Okay. Maybe we're just too smart, well, could be. Star SAT scores. Give us a call if you want to be on the air. If I don't any of those topics, 1-800-684-3110.
We'll be right back with more on Sekulow. Last segment of the day, we are screening some phone calls. Give me a call at 1-800-6-8431-10. Why don't you look at me like that, Will?
Well, you put some mustard on that. Yeah.
Yeah.
We talked about mustard last week. You said so mustard. Phone lines again are open for you 1-800-684-30110. We can hit any of the topics. I'm Domi, New York.
Snow Shoveling, Gavin Newsome. And of course, we're going to chat a little bit right now, which is that conversation between Tucker Carlson and Mike Huckabee, which dominated my Social media feeds for the last few days on both sides. of people who thought Mike Huckabee got destroyed and people like me who thought Mike Huckabee Utterly dismantled Tucker Carlson at pretty much every turn. And I'm very proud of Ambassador Huckabee. I think he did an excellent job.
of holding his own. And I got to give it to him for not falling for a lot of the conspiratorial nature of some of the questions and comments that came out, and even denied ever hearing them. And I have to say, for a lot of people, some of these claims were brand new. For those of us who grew up in the Jewish community, they are not necessarily new claims. We've heard them all before.
But it was nice to have somebody um who is as You kept his composure. But was able to Basically dismantle. All of the claims of Tucker Carlson. Can I tell you my favorite part of the interview? was the fact that because Ambassador Huckabee, everyone knows his personality.
They know that he's lighthearted, he's jovial, he's disarming. It's why he's a Southern Baptist past. Exactly, but it's also why he's effective as a communicator. That. Tucker Carlson at the very beginning is before he even got to the interview.
Did like a 10 minute But not only talking about the horrific situation he, as an American passport holder, had to go through with security in a foreign country, but also. Him trying to explain, like, well, you know, I've wanted to interview Ambassador Huckabee for a long time, but it's so hard. He's just so nice. He's so nice, and I come across as a jerk all the time. I'm a jerk, and so I don't even know how to do it.
I love that he admitted his own shortcoming, that he couldn't. He's like, I don't know how to handle this. And he didn't do very well because he does come across as a jerk. And he's spewing the same stuff over and over again, trying to trap. Ambassador Huckabee.
In ways that he's not going to be trapped. Yeah, and it was the whole you know, just asking questions. that really are questions that are just to lead people into Yeah, blood libel and conspiracy, conspiracy. And I've been through it before. Maybe not so much on this side of the fence.
Uh to this extreme, you know, I I thought Maybe Tucker, you know, I was a big fan of Tucker. The early days, crossfire days, MSNBC days. Remember, Tucker's been around for a very long time. I think he's a very gifted communicator. But I think he's just dead wrong on almost everything in terms of Israel.
I understand not having a political dog in the hunt, if you will, but when you start going after people saying they need to take DNA testing. To see whether they actually belong in the homeland and then start using terms. Even, I mean, there's a lot of coded stuff throughout all of it, which makes you wonder where his funding is coming from. And look, I don't know Tucker. Never met him.
Everyone I know knows him say nice guy, I'm sure he is. Uh but He has completely lost me on this. Uh, really is someone who I thought, well, I can at least tolerate him, except for on this issue. At this point, uh, I am no longer someone who can really focus on what's going on. I feel bad for him.
I pray for him because again, I think he's a very gifted and talented guy, uh, who has been, by the way, has been willing to admit when he's wrong. And I'm hoping we can flash forward five years from now, and he is over there admitting he was wrong. I also think he's about to have a world of pressure. uh building upon him Because it seems like there's some news in that. That's right.
So we are seeing reports that Tucker Carlson is at the White House today. Jake Sherman posted that he is there. He has been seen there. There's also reports that this is not supposed to be a public meeting, meaning it sounds like he was summoned to the White House maybe to knock it off. But I also wanted to read this one thing from a tweet or a post on X that Ambassador Huckabee said.
Gotta be Jake Sherman. Because he said... He speaks Hebrew. Tucker and I had a very twisty and frankly confusing discussion about the meaning of Zionism. And he goes on to how Tucker would say, I want to talk theology, but then I want to talk politics.
But I think this is a really important part. And it's something we talked about with Jeff Balabon last week. He said, lots of Christians who don't have a theological basis for supporting Israel are actually Zionist because they support Israel's right to exist in safety and security. And I think that's the heart of it as well: is that when it is brought even too much into a theological discussion, you can lose sight of the fact that. That when they say they don't like Zionism, what they are saying is they don't believe Israel has a right to exist.
And if you can boil it down to that for people, and you look at that, you can be a Christian and be a part of a citizen of Israel. You can be a Muslim and be an Arab and be a part and a citizen of Israel. You can hold public office. You can vote. That they it's completely against what I feel like most of these people that are posting this terrible stuff online, this anti-Semitic tropes.
even realize about the country. I think that there's both arguments can be made. I think you look at a biblical historical significance of the state of Israel. And by the way, and I mean that, I attach that to a modern state of Israel, just to say a homeland for the Jewish people that happens to be there where Jesus walked. I think that There's nothing wrong with tying.
the biblical significance to that. But you are right. You can also remove that and say, as someone who is secular, someone who may not be religious, that there is also. The right for them to be there. And again, they've also been there now for decades.
You're talking about displacing people that have been there for decades. And like you said, you can be there at any religion, however, you want to be. The elections are not unlike here, where they go back and forth politically, whether they're more liberal or more conservative.
Now, look, a liberal and a conservative mean different things in Israel than they do here. It's not like everything lines up perfectly. It is a different world. It's still the Middle East. It's a Middle East with Western values to an extent, but it's still essentially the Middle East.
But we're talking about um really disturbing claims that come out of that. Conversation Claims that are Only grounded. Only grounded in hatred. Only grounded In checking someone's blood to see if we have DNA testing, we can look back to see. And he kept saying Abram's descendants, which I think is also telling as well.
People aren't really calling that one out as much. You know, it's a little strange. Just saying. Just saying. I'm just asking questions.
We do have some calls today, but unfortunately, we're not going to be able to get you. You just got called in the last five minutes. You should have called in earlier. I would have taken you, but unfortunately, we only have a minute and a half left on the broadcast. I wish we could have gotten to Julianne as well because she didn't like us, yeah.
Well, I mean, she didn't agree with what we were saying. She doesn't like having you. She really doesn't like you.
Well, she said I'm twisting everything Newsom said.
So. She didn't like what we said. Yeah, that's fine. Call back tomorrow, though. We'll get to it.
Yeah, we'll get to Julianne and Jane tomorrow if you call in tomorrow. Once in New York, hopefully you're doing all right. We only got a minute and 25 seconds left. I'm going to tell you right now, the one thing I want to ask you to do: if you're brand new, hit that subscribe button. If you are a supporter of the ACLJ financially, fantastic.
There's another way you can get involved. That's sign the petition today. There are these pro-life pregnancy resource centers in the America. They're in America and they need your help. Because look, the courts don't want to help us, but we're going to keep fighting.
Don't be dismayed by Massachusetts throwing out this lawsuit because it's not over yet. Because people like you support the ACLJ, we have put it on appeal, and we will do that as far as it needs to go because we know we're right and that history will be on our side in this, and you can be on our side as well. I want you to sign the petition. Today, aclj.org/slash sign, or scan the QR code that you see on the screen if you're watching. If you don't watch us, by the way, you should be watching us.
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With that. Pray for us, pray for our team.
So we continue the fight. good fight as much as we can. We'll be back tomorrow. We're here all week. Happy anniversary to my wife, by the way.
I'm gonna say that on air.
So that's good. Happy anniversary, 18 years. Go to aclj.org. I'll talk to you tomorrow on Sekulow.
