We got breaking news Vice President Vance flags billions in Fraud Probe. Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Secular. 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. It is a Thursday. We're back. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110.
That's 1-800-684-3110. Have your voice heard on the air today. We want to hear from you. We're going to go over some interesting topics today. We've got a packed show filled with my buddy Will Haynes joining me right here.
Mike Pompeo, Rick Grinnell. And of course, you.
So give me a call at 1-800-684-64. 3110 be a part of the show today. We're covering a breaking news item that came out. It's pretty interesting. A lot of you have asked.
About The fight to end fraud. And to expose fraud that was going on around the country. Of course, we remember what happened in Minnesota, and we knew that there was stuff happening even into California. And it feels like that maybe went away. But again, that is the.
problem with the news cycle. Because if you actually were able to do some digging, you would find out. That Vice President Vance has a task force that he's been leading and they have uncovered Billions upon billions of dollars in potential fraudulent businesses happening within America. That's right. And I think this is very important to bring to our audience because we know, we see that people will even call in and ask, hey, I mean, I know the Iran thing is going on and that is a big deal.
And we will cover some of that today. There's some interesting developments there as well. But what happened to all the fraud? Where are the arrests? Where is it going?
And we remember that the President tasked the vice President at the State of the Union with this new fraud task force.
Now, they put it together, they started work, and there's a new report that this task force has flagged nearly $6.3 billion in government contracts going to potentially fraudulent businesses. They have sent out letters to nearly 400 businesses. that have contracts with the government. that are suspicious. These quote businesses have 30 days to respond to show proof of existence in many cases that it even is a real business, but also with a location and almost show your work.
It also goes to show that how quickly you could find. 400 businesses in nearly 6.3 billion. We're not that far away from that creation of this task force. They're already identifying it, already getting to work, and we're going to see what comes of this.
Now, Once again, legal system takes a while. One, you can cancel a contract pretty quickly if it's a fraudulent business. But then it will take time for the Department of Justice to build a case, to bring cases if there are people that are guilty of fraud and need to be charged with that. But I like what we're seeing here. Yeah, there's also reports that over $180 billion.
Was lost in the state of California due to some very interesting programs that essentially. Maybe good-hearted in nature. Were helpful if you were someone who was maybe voting on that side of it, saying, Hey, if you're taking care of someone who needs special attention or care at home with your mom, whatever it may be, your grandmother, you would take. taking care of people who need help. There would be some financial assistance.
The big problem with a lot of that was that it was very self-regulated, which meant what? A lot of people. Sadly. decided to It essentially abused the government system. upwards of $100 billion.
We'll get into that and more. Coming up here in the next segment, I want you to be a part of the show, though, when you are hearing about this. Are you happy to see fraud now being uncovered? Or do you feel like this needs to be a top news story? Are you rather focused on Iran?
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We'll be right back. Welcome back to Sekulow. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. Just check it out. All the people who are just tuning in right now.
We are covering a very interesting news item today. You know, it's a little bit of a break from the war in Iran. We are going to give you some updates on what's going on in Iran a little bit later in the broadcast. But this has to do with the ongoing fight against fraud, something that I know a lot of you care a lot about, and it has become a bit quiet over time. We know the President put in place a special task force, J.D.
Vance in charge, and then honestly, haven't heard a whole lot. Hadn't heard a whole lot, mainly because we've, rightfully so, been very distracted by what's been going on on the world stage. But that doesn't mean that the administration and those in power are not at work. And we are seeing hundreds of billions of dollars being uncovered in fraud across the country, including in the state of California. Where again, programs that probably were made were conceptualized, let's say.
to do good end up being taken advantage of by the wrong people, And then you have massive fraud because there's no oversight. There's no one actually checking in. Very similar, honestly, to what happened in Wisconsin, where there were Minnesota, where there was a, you know, obviously the thought process of, oh, we should fund child care services. Again, probably from a noble thought to start with, but when you had no oversight. the rampant abuse gets out of control.
That's right. And what we're looking here is two different stories that kind of came out both around the same time that are different but related.
So the first was that this task force that was created by the President, announced at the State of the Union, but just not even quite a month ago. Has gone by since the executive order that created this task force, led by the vice President, to seek out and eliminate fraud, is uncovered $6.3 billion in potential fraud already in less than a month. They've sent out letters to these businesses that have these contracts that they believe could be fraudulent. And they have 30 days to prove to the task force that they have a physical address and that they are legitimate, that they exist, and that this contract is not just fraudulent grift on the American taxpayer. At the same time, There's this new report out of the Manhattan Institute.
It's a think tank out of New York. Focuses a lot on like city policy and American policy. It's not a foreign policy think tank as much as it is focusing on how to develop from a conservative perspective America. And this is a very interesting piece authored by Chris Ruffo of the City Journal. That's the Manhattan Institute's publication.
It comes out quarterly. And these are normally well-researched, more think-tanky style articles, not as much like the quick hit that you'd get on a news site. And it has done an expose. That is claiming that California has lost. At least A hundred and eighty billion dollars due to fraud.
Under the Gavin Newsom governorship. And it centers on three main sources: Medi-Cal fraud, which is the state Medicaid program, unemployment fraud, and general welfare fraud. $180 billion in one state. On top of that, you see what has been uncovered in Minnesota. You see what in less than a month.
The new task force has been able to find as potential fraud in just contracts with the government. It goes back to that the left never wanted Doge to happen. And they were so upset about it. And they were saying, you can't start looking into these programs. You can't start looking into where the money is going under these bureaucracies.
Let's just be honest, they partially won. You know, Doge, though, still exists in theory. It does not exist as it once did in the early days of the administration. But they were able to go and venue shop courts, get judges to put a hold on it. Say, no, you can't start canceling contracts.
You can't start reining in waste, fraud, and abuse. But yet, Even though that Doge mission that first started... Was derailed in some ways. You see that this is still something this administration cares about. And clearly, the American people do as well.
So I'm very much excited that this new task force is going forward because it also seems so easy. To uncover it when you start looking into where this money's going, where these contracts are headed. And we knew it, we knew it existed. But when you're talking about one state, $180 billion. In this report, they're saying that is the GDP.
That was lost to fraud of New Zealand, of an entire country. The GDP equivalent was lost to fraudsters. That is your money, especially when you're talking about Medi-Cal fraud. Because that isn't just the Californians that are paying taxes. That is every American that is paying taxes to the federal government.
Medicare dollars are sent to the state to administer that program, and it is being robbed of the American people. It's going to be very tough. To give any sort of consequences to this because California was not doing a good job of staying on top of it.
So, if they didn't need to provide records of this kind of fraud, who knows if anyone could be held accountable in terms of the people, individual people, we have a question about that coming in. Let's go ahead and take it. Alan, Oregon, you're on the air. Hi, guys. I appreciate what you're talking about today.
I'm a retired math teacher and One of the things that I found out uh early on in my 30-year teaching career is that Students will cheat if they're allowed to cheat. The ability to stop the money. you're talking about fraud. That's one of three issues I wanted to talk about. The ab merely the ability to stop the money going out the door from the FedGov Thorough government.
Is going to stop the ability of these people to cheat in large. You can. You can adjudicate and try to try to Bring them to justice if they've done it in the past, but stopping them from doing it in the future is it would be my first initial concern. And Alan, I think that's an interesting point you bring up. But like I said, with something like the California situation, where a lot of people are being essentially paid to stay home with a family member who was in need.
That was the concept. To then prove that that wasn't happening in a way. Is probably easier said than done because they didn't seem to have the proper checks and balances for actually if this was going on. Likely, this was something you applied for or accepted or not. And then.
Probably very little oversight.
Well, and I think on many levels, that's why it is so important with everything going on. We focus on a lot of things here at the ACLJ. We decide daily. It may not even be the top news story, but sometimes we need to bring it to you. We know you care about it.
We know you want to hear about it. But as Alan brought up, it's not just trying the individuals. If the Department of Justice can bring a fraud case against individuals or a scheme that they find, they will. And I have confidence in that. That is the part of what this task force will be doing, making recommendations to the Department of Justice, criminal referrals, things of that nature.
But on top of that, These stories like we see from the Manhattan Institute. Putting this out there. Because we know that a lot of the major fraud programs happen in liberal-run states because they are liberal with the way that they allocate the taxpayer dollars. They don't have as many checks and balances. They don't want oversight.
They want the bureaucracy to be running things. And when you see how bad it gets in some places, you can't stop talking about it. This is a time when Gavin Newsom is trying to make a national name for himself. Will he be able to explain away this story? Or will people see that and be like, huh?
If your state... lost $180 billion under you as governor. What what would happen to the nation? If your policies that you did in California were implemented nationwide, we already have a problem.
So I think it also takes waking people up and holding their elected representatives accountable. for the spending that's going on. And this is a left and right issue. This is something that the American people care about. It is something that helped President Trump get elected.
Was getting rid of waste, fraud, and abuse.
So just because the news cycle moves on doesn't mean that you have to. And doesn't mean that you can't talk to your representatives, talk to your friends and family in the community and say, This is what's going on. I want answers from my leaders, what they are doing about this. Because if they just care about more pet programs and more billions of dollars going to places that are not traceable or unaccountable, they maybe shouldn't be my elected representative anymore. In the next segment, we are going to pivot just a little bit.
But if you want to call in about this, this is a good time to do it. We are going to take calls throughout the show today because we do have a packed show with guests, you know, our guest commentary by Mike Pompeo, by Rick Grinnell. And in between those times, we'll have time for you. That's at 1-800-684-3110. That's if you want to call in about this topic.
We're also going to move in the next segment to discuss with Secretary Pompeo, amongst many other things. You have another J.D. Vance situation where J.D. Vance has now been tasked to lead the U.S. delegation at peace talks.
With Iran in Islamabad, we're going to go through that coming up in the next segment. What that looks like, what that process is. If you have questions or comments related to that as well, hit them in the chat or give me a call. Four lines open: 1-800-684-3110. One person wanted me to say four out of six.
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Go to ACLJ.org. Welcome back to Sekulow. Secretary Pompeo, Michael Peyo is joining us right now, a person who's been a great Really, a member of the ACLJ team and a great person to always get updates and commentary of what's going on in the news, what's going on in the world, in a way that really very few broadcasts can get into in long form. And we're always appreciative to have Secretary Pompeo. A lot's been going on right now, obviously, with the war in Iran.
Now you have Vice President JD Vance, who has been really assigned to lead what is going to be now a negotiation. With Iran, could happen in Islamabad. We know that we have a very fragile ceasefire right now, and that's even a bit. Uh blurry even in itself. We also know, Secretary Pompeo, that you've dealt with at least a version of this regime before.
You have seen what they're capable of, and also, I guess, maybe the level of honesty that may come in and out of this. And we've had our discussions here about how much you can trust these kinds of negotiations. Over the last few days, has anything changed from your point of view? And I guess how? We go out.
and negotiate with a current you know, Iranian government. Yes, this is a tough problem. I don't think my view has changed terribly. What will be most interesting, I think, is to see who shows up for the other side. Which leader raises his head and says, yes, I'm the leader.
I run this country. I can deliver on the promises that I'm about to make to you. I can actually do a deal. That will be step one for Vice President Vance and Mr. Kushner, Mr.
Witcoff, to figure out, like, do we have a legitimate representative of all of Iran sitting across the table from us? And then, second, and I think they would all know that, and I know President Trump knows it too. This is not about trust. This is about verifying, about watching, observing what's actually happening on the ground. You talked about the ceasefire.
It doesn't look like much of a ceasefire to me. You know, President Trump said we can't have a ceasefire until the strait is open. Reporting to me suggests that the strait is not open today. You can't have free transit. And there's no way the Iranians are going to get to collect a toll, right?
Allowing the Iranians to collect a toll would be not terribly different than delivering pallets of cash, something President Trump has talked about for years and years and years. And so I think the task before the group that's headed to Islamabad is very difficult, but also important. It's important that we show up with a legitimate offer that says, if you're prepared to do the things that we demanded, the very reason that we conducted Operation Epic Fury, and you're up for the game of saying, nope, the regime is fundamentally changed. Whether the players have changed or not, the regime itself is changed. If they're prepared to actually do that, which I'm skeptical of, but if they are, then we can get a great outcome for the people of Iran, importantly, a great outcome for the Gulf of Arab nations, and a really important outcome for the United States of America as well.
One thing that I'm kind of curious your take on, one, we've been cautious and skeptical of any sort of negotiations even leading up to this. And now we know that it is a different type of negotiation after you have conducted such an aggressive military campaign against them. The Ayatollah is no longer there. But even in this ceasefire that we've gotten to, as we call it that, we'll still refer to it as that. We already see that Iran is up to their old tricks of moving the goalpost.
It was originally a ceasefire between the United States and Israel and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Then Iran's like, well, no, you have to stop bombing our proxy as well. And once again, they move the goalposts. They make extra demands.
So even there. Their negotiating tactics have not changed. Even if the people have, they have not changed. And I think it goes back to your question of verifying, not just verifying a deal if one were to come out, but verifying they can even make a deal. And if they make a deal, other opportunistic IRGC members don't all of a sudden stage an internal coup and take them out because they want power.
I think. The caution is different, but is still very much real of. Can can this happen? No, you've got it exactly right. The irony is that for years they said we don't have anything to do with Hezbollah.
And now they're claiming no, a deal with us is of course it's a deal in Lebanon as well. Anyway, unsurprising that they're trying to extend their reach. Also unsurprising that they're already negotiating in the press. They're very adept in the way they use social media. We saw this during all of Operation Epic Fury and indeed following Operation Midnight Hammer.
They close off the internet to their own citizens and then they try to propagandize around the world. No, the challenge you've identified is very real. The first task for the Vice President and for his colleagues will be to determine if they have a counterparty that actually can control the decisions of the Islamic Republic of Iran. That is not a small thing. When you step up in Iran today and say, I'm going to meet with the Americans, it's entirely possible you get killed by your own team, or the risk to you that you will be killed by us in the aftermath of a failed negotiation is very real.
So they have a tough problem on their side to show up with a legitimate negotiating partner. But look, we'll see. We'll know in relatively short order. And the thing that gives me great confidence is that President Trump has been down this road. He's done lots of deals.
He knows the nature, the intrinsic nature of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He knows these are, what did he call them, evil? I won't use the word. Anyway, he used harsh language to describe them as crazy people. That is true.
And he is trying to figure out how it is you can get an arrangement with these crazy people that reduces risk to our military, but gets the outcomes that he set out as the American objectives before we entered Operation Epic Fury. And something you said actually brought up a question that I wanted to ask you. You mentioned how advanced they are in their use of social media and propaganda around the world. We've known that they've been good at this for a very long time, even the way that they, actors out of Iran, may have propped up Hamas and propagandized the world with things surrounding October 7th or other Israel actions. I don't think I've ever seen to this level how.
Quickly, you've seen Iranian propaganda seep into mainstream voices in the United States. And we've seen it far and wide on both sides of the aisle. I just wanted to get your opinion. As someone who has served as both CIA director and secretary of state, two positions that really have to be aware of that intelligence issue that can happen when your enemy is able to infiltrate the minds of the people. What's your take on it, and how can we fight back against that?
Now this is really important. This has happened in a way that I don't think we've seen quite as quick and as deep in ever in recorded history. I think the nature of social media today permits that. But you have seen folks that just have an absolute hatred for Donald Trump. Make statements that are deeply un-American.
And that presents a real risk to our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines. That propaganda has infiltrated into places that you wouldn't have expected. You're right. Both in the liberal left and then in pockets of the so-called conservative right that just didn't grasp it. These are evildoers that for 47 years got away with it.
And finally, a President said the risk is too great. And we're gonna go take this on and confront it. It's not inexpensive, it's not without risk, but I, President Trump, am gonna do that. And yet they have tried to thwart his very effort to keep us safe at every turn using Iranian propaganda. Look, the Iranians believe that they're winning this in their own little.
Oddball way. They're not winning. The United States has the capacity to do the necessary to keep the American people safe. And this negotiation is part of that effort. And I'm very confident that President Trump will not leave this halfway done.
Secretary Pompeo, thank you so much. I hate to cut you off. We're just running out of hard break here, but I really appreciate all of your guidance in this. Look, there's also great articles from Secretary Pompeo on ACLJ.org, which is where you can catch the second half hour of the broadcast there, YouTube, Rumble, however you get your podcast. We are available right there.
We'll be right back in just under a minute. Keeping you informed and engaged.
Now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now, your host, Logan Sekulow. Welcome to the second half hour of Sekulow for your Thursday. We're going to have a back, a packed second half of the show.
Rick Rinnell is going to be joining us. I want to take your calls and comments as well to reset a little bit. We were just discussing with Secretary Mike Pompeo the current negotiations that are going to be happening with Iran that Vice President Vance will be leading in Islamabad. We discussed that at length. If you want to go back and listen to that, you can.
We're also talking about, again, J.D. Vance's task force to root out. Fraud and how there has been new information that has come out from that. A lot of people have called in. I just want to jump and take one of these calls.
Let's go to Russell real quick, North Carolina. You're on the air. Hi, thanks for taking my call. I'd like to know what you guys think. Is there anything that can be done?
This Judge Nancy Brazal of the US District Court of Minnesota just tried two fraudsters for defrauding the Feed Our Future program. Not one meal was served. They got millions of dollars. One of them was sentenced to one year in prison. One of them was sentenced to six months in prison.
That doesn't sound like much of a sentence to me. I mean, I'll do six months for $3 million.
Well, once again, Russell, that I mean, the whole issue that we've been talking about is how widespread. And once again, the sentences that we've seen out of a lot of places, whether it be for fraud in this case, or whether it be for violent crime in other cities, it's gotten to a point. That it has become dangerous for the American people. And once again, as you said, if you are defrauding the government and the taxpayer of millions of dollars, and that's he's right. Judge gave one of the individuals who was admitted to stealing $5.6 million, only got six months in jail.
That seems It looked ridiculous. Exactly. We know how this goes.
So, how to your point, how are you going to show that this is a deterrent to fraud?
Now, I assume there's restitution in that as well, that you have to pay back the money, which they may have already spent. But, yes, how is that a deterrent? I also think. This is a little bit fascinating to me as well, because we just got notice from the Supreme Court that our cert petition in the Calvary Chapel case, that is where the government of California is still trying to collect $1.2 million from Calvary Chapel in COVID fines. It's been distributed for conference on 424.
So April 24th, the Supreme Court will decide if they want to take the case or not.
Now, there's several different ways it could go, but that is what it means to be distributed for conference. They are still trying. In 2026, to collect $1.2 million from Calvary Chapel. But meanwhile, That there's this report that there was $180 billion in fraud under Medi-Cal, unemployment, and general welfare fraud under Gavin Newsome. How hard did they try to hunt down fraudsters under that regime to the tune of $180 billion?
I guarantee you, not as hard as they're trying to collect $1.2 million from Calvary Chapel because they're fighting that all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States. We know how that goes. Of course, we're going to take your calls continually throughout the next half hour as you are on this show today. And I wanted to take a minute. Let's put that QR code up on the screen.
We only got about a minute left in this segment.
Next up, we got Rick Rinnell joining us. And Rick is going to, obviously, we're talking about California. There's no one better than Rick Rinnell, who is someone out there who's actively trying to save the state of California, always. And again, one of our biggest states in terms of support. And I always want to make sure everyone knows who listens and watches in California that we are behind you.
Same with our friends in New York. Or any of these places. We don't, you're right off a city or a state in the country because of some sort of political disagreement. That's insane. But Right now, the ACLJ in that fight to defend all of America Needs your help.
Because sometimes it's it's like what Will said, a church that needs help because the state's coming after them. Or maybe it's us representing Israel on the UN stage. There is so much that the ACLJ is doing. None of it is small. Even when it feels like it may involve just an individual, it has worldwide global implications always.
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Rick Grinnell joining us in the next segment. Welcome back to Sekulow. Joining us now is Rick Grinnell. Rick, there's two stories we've been kind of following today, and both kind of are centered around the Vice President of the United States. The first one I want to talk about here is that his fraud task force has uncovered billions of potential fraud in government contracts.
This is what the President tasked him with doing at the State of the Union. But at the same time, there's a report out of the Manhattan Institute. That California, surprise, surprise, and we have our California correspondent on today as well, that they've lost up to $180 billion due to fraud under the governorship of Gavin Newsom. Will he find a way to make this go away? Or is this story going to continue to haunt him as he tries to spread his brand around the United States?
Well, this is certainly a byproduct of the fact that he wants to be President because the reality is, is the California media have never been able to hold Democrats to account. Remember, California is a one party town. Sacramento has a supermajority. They don't even need to listen to conservatives. The LA Times, the Sacramento B.
All sorts of Of media outlets in California are afraid to hold Gavin to account. This is why we haven't had. the media putting attention on the massive fraud that's going on from the one party controlling the state. They cover for each other like you just take the homelessness issue. Billions and billions have gone into the homelessness issue.
People who run homeless organizations in Los Angeles County make a million dollars as the executive director. They haven't impacted homelessness at all. But the reason they get to do it is because they then contribute some of that money that they get. back to the politicians who vote for the homelessness policies. It's literal corruption.
And so we need the national media to concentrate on this. They're beginning to do it. but it's only because Gavin wants to run for President. His strategic mistake was putting himself outside of Sacramento and putting themselves up for scrutiny with people who are not in California.
Well, Rick, it seems like in California, you know, and like I said in the last segment, which is, you know, we're not the kind of organization or even just commentary here where we start writing off cities and states, whether that's New York City, whether that's Los Angeles, whether that's anywhere in this country, because we're all Americans. And we also know there's huge supporters of the work that we do all over the country. And California is one of the biggest places. It actually is probably what you could, many considered the birthplace of the work even we do here, whether the organization necessarily wasn't founded here, but where people originally came from to support the work that we're doing here.
So we have a lot of affinity for that area of the country. You are seeing, and maybe you can give us a bit of an update there, when you do have these moments where fraud is being exposed, where J.D. Vance is out there and his team is exposing what's going on with Gavin Newsom. You also finally have, and poll numbers have been started to show, that even within California, even within Los Angeles, you have something like Spencer Pratt's run right now, where you're actually seeing a higher percentage.
Now of voters that could, again, an uphill battle, but could actually see some real change in Los Angeles. Look, California has forty million people. And it's the largest state in the United States. Los Angeles County is the largest county in the United States. We have more Republicans.
in California than in any other state. The fact of the matter is, is that there's just more Democrats. And so we have a big problem on voter registration. But let me just give you a little bit of the power of Republicans in California. Most Senate candidates across the country will come to California to raise money.
They treat us like an ATM machine. They come, they collect their money, they go home to Ohio, to North Carolina, to Tennessee. And then they bash California when they're running for office. But they're collecting money from Republicans. What I've spent the last couple of years of doing through my organization, Fix California, is getting our donors to invest in Sacramento and in California.
We are beating the Democrats now every single month on voter registration. The problem is, is we're so far behind, it's going to take us years to catch up. And so I'm spending through the Fix California initiative $50,000 a month to register conservatives in California. We are going to make a difference. It's just going to take us three or four years more.
We've been doing it for three years, but the hole has been huge. But the support from conservatives, wealthy conservatives, is absolutely worth engaging California because we are the majority of money and people in the Republican Party when it comes to national politics. Rick, I want to pivot here a little bit now as we talk about kind of the other big news item that the Vice President is at the center of, and this is that he will be leading the delegation for negotiations in Islamabad this Saturday. This is just announced that it will be the Vice President himself that is going to lead these negotiations. Steve Witkoff, as well as Jared Kushner, will also be there.
As the world is watching and he leads these peace talks, do you think that he's the right man for the job at this very critical moment? Look, JD Vance is a great negotiator. He is someone who understands Fundamentally, the Donald Trump movement. He fundamentally understands America first. And he knows our base of what people really want to see.
I think that JD is the perfect person to negotiate here. He's going to bring a real sense of America first Elevate the diplomatic push. People know when JD Vance is speaking, he's speaking for President Trump. And so I hate to put too much pressure on him, but we need a deal. We need to stop the war.
We need to make sure that America is protected, that we don't have a regime in Iran that is constantly killing Americans and threatening our national security. The stakes are very high, but I think JD and Steve Witkoff And Jared Kushner are a great team to be able to do it. Speaking of those stakes, Rick. When you have a negotiation with someone that's let's just say as untrustworthy. As Iran, you do start going, how do we confidently enter any kind of Deal.
with an organization or with a government like this when you know That you're dealing with people who have historically been for decades and decades. And I'm talking about the government, obviously, of Iran. have been untrustworthy, to say the least. Mm-hmm. Logan, what you just hit on is I think the exact diplomatic challenge.
of when you're in a diplomatic situation, the person on the other side has to have credibility and be able to get the deal done. And so without going into too much detail, what I would say is don't assume that the person on the other side of the table is somebody that we just are only dealing with and believe has all the power. We're not that stupid. Gotcha. I think that was an interesting point because that is sort of the issue that I think even a lot of the American people have is, you know, we've been told how they operate well and how things go.
And then you're kind of, okay, well, now we're going to be sitting across the table from them. Obviously, it's okay to have diplomacy. It's okay to have these conversations, but you're talking about a deal, a deal that would end a war conflict or some sort of battle like this or have real global implications. It becomes a little blurrier. That's right.
And Rick, once again, as we look to this, I think we are all hopeful that a peaceful situation remains. But we also know that the United States is not afraid to resume hostilities if needed. if this regime is not someone that can be trusted or they can't get to a deal. Look, I think we have a lot of leverage. The United States of America has a lot of leverage.
Economic sanctions, we have a lot of allies and friends in the region. I think that you've got to think strategically about the diplomatic maneuvering to put the pressure on the other side to understand what's at stake for them. It's not just believing them, but it's spreading it out because There's one group that hasn't spoken yet, which is extremely powerful, and that's the people of Iran have not taken to the streets yet because it's dangerous. Just wait until the people of Iran, who understand the weakness of their leadership right now, wait until they have their word. Rick, thanks so much for joining us today.
Really appreciate you hopping on three days in a row, maybe a record. It's always great to hear from you, though. Thank you so much. And speaking of who we want to hear from now in the next segment, I want to hear from you. That's right.
We got two lines still open out of six. See, I did that well. I said out of six. I like that you're giving people.
Well, because people thought it two lines out of 100, or is it two lines out of three? 100 lines would be quite a lot if you said we got a full bank, folks. I mean, it would take some time. Right. You're never getting on here statistically.
No. But there's six lines. Four are full right now. Two open up or two are open right now. Aaron, Mike, Ruth, Martha, stay on hold.
We're going to get to you in the next segment. We'll try to get to some more as well at 1-800-684-30110. And he said, Logan, I'm not in the mood to call in right now.
Well, maybe you'd be in the mood, though, to support this show, support the media work, support the legal work. Great way to do it right now because it's the double, the difference drive at aclj.org. You have heard about all the critical work we've been going through. Maybe if we have time, we can even get into more detail. If not, we'll do it tomorrow.
But you can be the difference today. Make a tax-deductible gift right now. and have that pledge unlocked and ready. because the ACLJ donors are ready. to double your impact right now, today.
Last segment of the day, we made it here, folks. I want you to be on the show today. We got one line open. We'll do our best to get to just about everybody who is on hold right now. You know, we typically go to champions first.
Let me say you get bumped to the front. That's someone that supports the work of the ACLJ on a monthly basis. That's still going to happen. But I know you had to hold on still for a while because we hadn't taken many calls today. Mike in Minnesota online to ACLJ champion.
Thank you for holding. You're on the air. Well, thanks for the opportunity. the I think one of the problems that we have in our country is we just don't have punishment for crimes. And particularly, the higher you get up In our government, the less chance you are of being uh punished.
And this has got to change. For example, you need to create the punishment to stop the crime.
Now for example, let's say you got these Somalians that are stealing billions of dollars What do we do? We buy their ticket home, and they can build their mansions overseas with all the money they've founded with. Yeah. Yeah, Mike, hey, we're gonna have some sound difficulties here. I think there is that.
Look, I think this has been an issue that America has dealt with, and it's beyond any sort of specific group or people or issues when it comes to these fraud: is what the accountability actually looks like. Whether that is punishment through the judicial system. Or whether it's the situation that's happening in California where you go, well, these people were more abusing. A law, they sure they were breaking the law. You'd say they were not doing, they were create, they were conducting fraud.
However, it was fraud that was so easily abused that. I don't want to say you can't blame them. Of course, you can, but it is, you know, you put this government program out there and you decided to not have oversight. Right. And to that point as well, that the programs that are created with such loose oversight or bureaucratic oversight that is not really able to police this, that in and of itself, creating a bad program isn't a crime.
So it's not like the politicians who created this are criminally liable for creating a terrible program. What they should be is politically liable. And for so long. We've seen in the United States politicians that have continued their programs, and as Rick even said, Part of the problem is that the people who take advantage of these programs that live very well off of even the homeless charities, there's no. crime there.
They are just abusing the system. They haven't necessarily violated the law, but they're putting money back in the politicians' campaigns because they are scratching each other's back in this scenario. That is part of the problem. It has to come down to the will of the people to want things like Doge, to want things like this oversight, and to actually not go the way so many people on the right have. That's almost this American nihilism where you don't care anymore.
You just get out of it. No, it should engage you more that you can be a part of the solution. Very careful when you're looking at the midterms. I mean, when you're deciding who you're going to vote for there, look who is talking about this issue. Who is talking about waste, fraud, and abuse?
And start to actually research your candidates and see if they have a position on this, even. Because when it's not top story of the news, They may not. You may need to push back. Get that answer from them. Let's keep going.
Ruth is calling an Oregon. Line three. Ruth, go ahead. Hi, I'm glad you're show. I just on one of the reports fraud because we were talking about that.
Um on my husband's Medicare statement, uh he was Um charge. $1,500 free time. And I called Medicare and they told me they would investigate They did nothing. I heard nothing, so I called back again, and they told me that if If they found anything, they would credit my statement. They let you know, Ruth.
I think this is, again. An ongoing problem with any kind of consequences to these scenarios. And look, we've all been there in terms of some kind of situation where you feel like you're barking up a tree that's never going to ever respond.
Well, and once again, when it became so easy for fraud to happen. Even if there are people that want to track down that fraud, if it is so abundant. It is hard to track it all down. And so, I mean, I feel like, Ruth, unfortunately, you are probably not the anomaly here. This is probably something that is pretty pervasive within the system.
Yep. Speaking of which, let's go to Martha in Florida. Martha, line four, you're on the air. Yes, I am a longtime champion. I forgot to tell the screener that.
My fault. It's okay. I would have had you just opt a few minutes early, but it's all right. Yes. But one of the reasons why we have so much fraud is because we don't have enough conservatives in positions of authority.
I want to know why the Republicans are preventing Trump from making recess appointments When the Congress is not in session for 10 days or longer, like now, he could fill hundreds of executive branch positions. and even federal judicial positions but they come in, they hold these pro forma sessions That prevents the 10-day timer from completing, they show up, they gavel in, and they make short speeches, and then they adjourn. Why? Yeah, politics, a what, a what? Yeah, I mean, Martha, there's a lot to unpack there.
We only have about two minutes and 50 seconds left in the entire show. I will say that a lot of the. The logistics of Congress have come under scrutiny a lot more recently, whether it be this, whether it be the Save Act, and the way that there are others that have wanted to do away with some of the tradition and rules of the loopholes that maybe keep things going. I will say, and once again, this isn't one that I have dug into a ton, but we were happy to take the call. I will say that many times there are also the flip side of it: if you want to be able to maintain that check over the next party when they are putting people through, if you do away with something pretty quickly, then it becomes an issue for you later.
So it's kind of a having that foresight of what could come later. Hey, thank you so much, Martha, for calling. And thanks to Aaron and James. Unfortunately, I am not going to be able to get to your calls today. I really appreciate both of you calling.
We just don't have the airtime for it.
So I appreciate it. Thankfully, you held the lease. I'll be honest, of everyone who's on hold, everyone else who had over half an hour. We got to him. Aaron was on hold though for 17 minutes, so I appreciate it.
We'll get to you, though. Call back tomorrow early in the show, and I'll make sure that you get put up. With that being said, I want you to take this next minute. 'Cause none of this show happens, none of our legal work happens, nothing. Without you.
I appreciate each and every one of you that call, each and every one of you that comment. Whether you're a financial supporter or not, I just appreciate that you're part of the family part of the show. Because I love the conversation. I love seeing it in the chat. I love seeing this going all over the world.
And we were talking about just yesterday with one of our team members of We're very innovative in the space very early on, as one of the first organizations to have what was a terrestrial radio platform like this. Then that terrestrial radio platform was able to move into satellite radio. Then that satellite radio platform was able to move into a television show. That television show was then able to come live streaming. And here we are now talking to the world.
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