BREAKING: Iran Goes Silent

We got breaking news Iran goes silent on negotiations. Yeah. 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's Monday, June 1st. Welcome to June, everybody.

You know, every time we come on this show, I feel like we're going to say, last week it was, it feels like we're there. There's going to be a deal. A deal is happening. Are you going to like the deal? You're not going to like the deal.

And of course, today we come to you with different news, and that is that Iran has decided they are going to stop negotiations with the U.S. and vows to completely block the strait of Hormuz. Jordan's in studio, Will's in studio. We got Christy Compagnone joining us later and Jeff Balabon from ACLJ Jerusalem.

So it's going to be a very, very busy show, but there'll still be time for you to call in at 1-800-684-3110. I want to hear from you. 1-800-684-3110. Will kick it to you.

So what is this big update? That's right.

So as you mentioned on Friday, the President was holding a meeting with the national security team at the White House to decide, according to him, whether or not he would accept the agreement that both the U.S. negotiators and the Iranian negotiators had come to. And what we see now is that the The President had said, I want some stronger language in here. There are a few things I'm not ready to sign off on.

So his decision was to not accept it where it was at. Once again, that goes back to the discussion and what we had the callers call in on on Friday. Do you think the President will make a deal? Do you think he will only do what's in the best interest of the American people? It appears he did not think that that deal was something he should sign off on at this point.

Now, what we see today. From this morning, from Iranian state media, that the Iranian negotiators will stop exchanging messages with the US through the intermediaries, effectively shutting down any further negotiations. They are also saying that Iran will move to fully close the Strait of Hormuz as a response to this. And they're saying this is in retaliation for ongoing ceasefire violations.

Now what are some of those ceasefire violations?

Well, some of it is, I don't know, the Iranians launching ballistic missiles at our troops on bases in Kuwait and the United States shooting that down. They are blaming the United States saying we are violating the ceasefire when we knock their missiles out of the sky. I don't think that's quite a ceasefire violation by the United States. I don't think it's what they are saying. I think we know that they are the ones violating it.

They're also trying to blame Israel with some of the ongoing retaliation. Israel is still getting hit by Hezbollah. What are they doing? They're striking back. They're taking out the launch sites.

They also have a deal with the Lebanese at this point for the first time in history.

So, Jordan, all of this just seems like Iranian leadership trying to wiggle their way out of what was probably going to be a very tough agreement on their end. There's another threat that we have to talk about here, which I think on its own would be an act of war, even if the Strait of Hormuz is open. They now would also close, and they're saying they will close the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.

Now, where is that? That's the strait that Israel uses. to the Red Sea. But who else uses that? Saudi Arabia.

Jordan as well.

So when they say they're punishing Zionist supporters, they're not just saying we're going to come after the United States. They're coming after the Gulf states now directly, as well as Israel, which I think. Long term. Could actually glue that coalition together even more so because now Israel, the Saudis, the Jordanians, other countries in Northeast Africa have a reason to come against Iran. Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Well, and to that point as well, Jordan, that's when President Trump said last week, hey, Expansion of the Abraham Accord should be on the table at this point with Saudi Arabia and all these countries.

When you see a move like this, Iran is only making the case for the President on that point. And I'm seeing a lot of comments coming in saying, What about this? It feels like President Trump every day has said the deal is done, and here's where we've ended up. What do you think about that? This is just more negotiation.

Do you feel okay with being sort of in the middle of it? 1-800-684-3110. Let's hear from you. What are your thoughts on this? And as well, we are going to have a big update.

In our case with Massachusetts for the Proto-Life Pregnancy Resource Centers, that's coming up a little bit later. We're going to head over to ACLJ Jerusalem with Jeff Balabon, so make sure you stay tuned for that. Between all of those, we're going to hear from you 1-800-684-3110. I know it feels a bit like each show. We go back and forth on this topic.

Well, that's just simply where we are. We also. I have a new petition available right now, and I want you to read it, be a part of it. We'll get into more details on what it is when we get back at aclj.org slash sign S I G N or scan the QR code you see on the screen. Welcome back to Sekulow.

A lot of you are just joining us right now, so we'll give you a bit of an update of what's happening in Iran as Iran has decided. Essentially, to halt negotiations and say they're going to completely vow, or U.S. is going to completely how's that working? Who's blocking what right now in the straight of our moves? I feel like we're going back and forth.

We're saying we're blocking. They're saying they're blocking. All blocks are leading to full blockage.

Well, once again, we have the naval blockade, which we are imposing against the Iranian and any of the Iranian interest. At the same time, they had started to let traffic go through to some degree. Remember, we did also catch them trying to drop more mines in. They're trying to get back to the market. That was like three days ago.

It feels like they're saying that they're going to block traffic fully again. Iran is that correct. That's what I'm clarifying. Our blockade against them still continues. It was going to relieve if they had.

Gone through this negotiation process and come to an agreement, that was going to be one of our points: that we would remove that naval blockade.

However, what we're seeing now is that Iran is trying to go back and say, okay, well, now we're going to block it again.

So, still a contentious point there, obviously, and will remain so throughout the rest of this. I think this is another interesting point to bring up at this time. We see that. The negotiations are ongoing. People always ask: who are they even negotiating with?

How can you trust that? There's reports coming out of Iran now that the President of Iran just yesterday. has submitted his resignation letter To the Ayatollah.

Okay, this is another thing we got to clarify.

Okay, so who is the President? Vera, not necessarily by name. In terms of power structure, because you think of President as we think of President, President top dog. We're talking about the President that kind of reports to. The supreme leader.

No, it's like a king and a prime minister. There's the supreme leader, which is the supreme leader. Like, I mean, the name says it all. He's in charge of everything. The teen invader.

Right. Then you have the guardian council, which is made up of clerics that help enforce what the supreme leader wants, but it is a secretive body that doesn't really do a ton publicly, but it exists there. But then you do have a government structure. The Ayatollah himself isn't going through the day-to-day business of the Islamic Republic, right?

So there's a President. There's also a parliament. There's a legislative body that will write rules.

Sometimes at the direction of the Ayatollah, they will make legislation. They go through the formalities of a government. And the President is in charge of the executive of the country.

So that guy was just like, what did she point though at your rod? The Ayatollah okays or Nixes if you want to run for President. Right. So you can't even run for President. Unless they approve it.

They approve it, which basically they approve one guy, they kick out the other person, their guy wins. But he's saying, you know, what's the point? I think he might just be trying to keep himself alive at this point. That's what I said. Because we're going to be a target.

Well, and he's even saying, once again, in this reported resignation letter that the Ayatollah, if he's conscious, would have to approve or deny. You can't just quit in Iran. But it also says that his country right now is that the IRGC has too much power. They have taken control of national affairs and decision making. That goes back to what we've been saying, Jordan, that all of these negotiations are not necessarily with the members of parliament that are speaking out and trying to say things.

It's not with the President. It's with the IRGC because, regardless, if there's an Ayatollah in name only, there is. Is an IRGC that is very much in charge of everything right now. Yes, and now they're flexing. And so, all the people who always said in the past: you guys are wrong, the IRGC is just a small part of Iran.

You now have from the Iranian President himself. There's no need for a President. There's no need probably for their legislature. There's no need for any of this because even when Ayatollah we think is still potentially in a coma and may not have even survived, that's not clear yet. Really, just let the IRGC handle everything because they got a gun to his head as well, which is do as we say, or that's it.

So I don't know. I think this is his move to say, kind of try to wash his hands clean of this. The truth is, though, he joined this team, he's part of this team, and he should be subject to whatever the rest of the team is subject to. As the world, including the Gulf states, I think, after they, if they try to make this move in Yemen using the Houthi rebels to block ports in Saudi Arabia, and Israel and Jordan and And Eritrea. I mean, and places where we have a huge base, Djibouti.

It's our only base in Africa is right there.

So that is a very provocative act. And one, again, look at their vessels. Look at our vessels. They're not going to be able to last very long if we go and launch again because we could take all those vessels out with probably one plane. I think what also is interesting here is when you look at the calls for things like regime change in Iran, something that we've been very advocates for, if you will, not necessarily how to get to that, but what we want is that a new leadership in Iran.

We want no longer it to be the Islamic Republic of Iran, but to return freedom to the people and the Persian people. When you start having these reports, which of course the Iranians are going to try to deny, they're going to try to spend because they don't want the world to look at them as so fractured. But when you start to have the government structures, because they still have to operate a country for 90 million people, even in the middle of war. Even if they don't do it very well, as we've seen their economy crater, that is when you start to see glimmers of hope that the people could break through. When you're seeing the the government structure And the IRGC Have this daylight between them about who's really calling the shots and a lot of argument instead of having the supreme leader making sure everyone plays nice.

That does potentially open up some daylight for the people of Iran to take their country back. I'm not saying it's going to happen, not saying it's even imminent, but that is what you kind of look for and some of the signs that you hope for in one of these regimes starting to topple. Phone lines are open for you. I want to hear from you. We're going to take a call here in a second.

1-800-684-3110. There's a few segments we're going to be able to take calls today, but we're also going to be packed with guests.

So make sure if you want to call in, go ahead and get online. 1-800-684-3110. Let's go to Ronald in South Carolina. Go ahead, Ronald. Yes, thanks for taking my call.

Yes, as President Trump said that they're tough negotiators, but I also have heard some time back that somewhere in their writings they said that Islam, if you are weaker than your enemy, Then you agree to everything they say, just lie your way through. And when you become as strong or stronger than your enemies, then you can come back and take them over.

Well, Ronald, without even diving into what the Quran says or doesn't say about this, here's what we know historically. Look at the kind of threats. that the Ayatollah would make even on social media. That were always filled with lies. They were always filled with bloviating, and you know, we will slap you down harder, and here is why, and this is what we're going to do, and then stuff wouldn't happen.

Or, you know, there was always, or lying about the way they were treating their own people. This was not uncommon.

So, are they a trustworthy group of people because of a religious text, or are they not trustworthy because they are also a dictatorship with a horrible regime? You know, I'm not sure which Trumps which. But I can at least say that, sure, in terms of negotiating truthfully. They are low on the list.

Well, that's what we've even discussed last week: is that I don't believe that we would just blindly agree to some sort of deal with the whoever the regime in Iran is now, like the Obama administration did, with the very weak protocols that got to oversee any sort of nuclear enrichment. No, I think that it would be a stronger deal that had real teeth to it, that they can't it doesn't matter if they're lying because they have to show their work. But You're talking about Takia. It's a principle that people have gone over. Here's what I'll also say about that.

They don't even need a religious text, as you're saying. Also, it's not like politicians in America need a religious text to lie to the American people or any other dictatorship. When you have people in power, they're going to tell half-truths, they're going to spin truths, they're going to tell outright lies to get what is best for them, especially when they are operating in a posture like this, Jordan, where they're basically. Everyone was so weary about any deals with Iran, even negotiating with Iran, because they're lying. Under the JPOA, they didn't allow the IAEA, so they didn't allow the UN's body to oversee atomic weapons and the whole development.

They would say, oh, you can see this building, you can see this building, but we're not letting you in. We'll give us a month's notice and we'll let you in. No cameras. Remember, they were supposed to put cameras in? Those cameras, again, were in non-military installations.

So Iran admitted right there. This was back under the Obama administration that. Half of their nuclear program is in military bases. Right. Is a military base.

You're not developing nuclear research for medical use at your military base.

So even the international community, which always calls us, let's make peace with Iran, let's hold hands with Iran at the United Nations, even their own inspectors know that Iran doesn't allow the UN in. To see what's going on, so they could certify that as an independent third party. Yeah, and I think we need to restate also when they're talking about, because we only briefly brought this up in the first segment. When they're talking about blocking, you said they're also blocking a strait that is for the Red Sea. Yes.

And I think that is a very different story as well. It goes right by Djibouti. That's one of our. The only. Permanent U.S.

base in Africa. Right. Yemen, so that's the Houthi rebels that would likely be trying to carry this out. They fired on us, they fired on Saudi. Jordan And of course, Israel as well, which is a big port for Israel.

It's not their main port. Their main port is still Haifa, which. Iran attacked. Yeah. But this would be port number two.

Yeah, we'll talk about that when we get back. Also, we get back for a big update in the world of the ACLJ. If you're calling in about Iran, stay tuned. We're not going anywhere. We're not going to move off this topic for too long, but we are going to take a little brief break here and tell you about some of the incredible work the ACLJ is doing.

Christy Cabione is going to be joining us, one of our attorneys, and you're not going to want to miss that. Of course, be a part of the ACLJ today by signing the petition at aclj.org/slash sign. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Sekulow. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-68-430-110 over the next few segments.

We're going to take some of those calls. And also, we're going to head to ACLJ Jerusalem with Jeff Balaba. But now we are joined by one of our attorneys out of right now in Washington, D.C., Christy Capanone. We have an update, Will, and I think you can help set this up. This, of course, has to do with our case in Massachusetts.

And again, if you're tuning in because you want to hear about Iran, don't worry. We're going to get back to that. But I think it's always important to discuss the work of the ACLJ, especially when we have some big news coming up. That's right.

And this is the Your Options Medical versus Massachusetts and Wren case that we've talked about for quite a while here. This is where the state of Massachusetts was targeting pro-life pregnancy resource centers with an attack campaign, an ad campaign across the state, trying to call them deceptive, saying don't trust them. And we filed a lawsuit in Massachusetts to end this, essentially. We have That goes for a very long time because we got to refile, we got to amend our complaint, and all to have a judge say, agree with the state and the Commonwealth saying. This is dismissed.

They granted the motion to dismiss. We are now, Christy, today filing an appeal at the Court of Appeals. Tell us what this action will do. Exactly.

So we had the district court dismiss our case.

So we're starting afresh in a new court, the Circuit Court of Appeals. And here, setting the stage on what this is, you have pregnancy resource centers who are simply giving free health care to women so that they don't perform abortions. And they also have abortion pill reversal options for these women, all free. And the state has now come and done this entire campaign to silence them, to chill them. This campaign isn't being done against Planned Parenthood.

Planned Parenthood's not being investigated. They're not putting out, you know, these statements saying that Planned Parenthood is doing something wrong, but they have already stated that the PRCs are particularly trying to lie to you about what their services are and what they can do. And so we just on principle, we can't let that stand. And so we are filing our brief at the appellate court, and we're arguing that the state cannot chill the viewpoint. Of our client.

Our client, a Christian organization who is simply speaking out about other options, that women have choices. And the state can't just choose to silence their speech because they don't like what they're saying. And so that is what our brief is arguing here. And hopefully, that this circuit court will take this up and really take it seriously. And, Christy, one of the issues here, and what makes this important also for the audience to watch, is that we, one, we've been talking about this a while.

We knew that the trial court, the lower court, was the hardest hurdle because of where it is. It's in Massachusetts. We knew that going to district court was likely going to require appeals.

So we're not surprised by that. You always want to fight to win at those lower courts, but we also were prepared. because this is where we're at now. But what's also interesting about this, and even more so than just this case, is that we said from the beginning we know this is going to be the abortion industry and Blue State game plan. They're going to go around, they're going to try to use the government to silence the speech of those trying to offer an alternative to abortion, that are trying to show people that life is a real choice.

When you look at this now, because of the timeline of how long we've been fighting it. There is a potential that this type of case Could be prime for the Supreme Court because of some other decisions. Can you give us a little bit of insight into one, we can either win at the district court or not, but There seems to be even more intrigue surrounding this as we move forward. It's You're exactly right. If we win at the circuit court, that's great.

We'll go back and actually bring this to trial. But if we lose, there's still another chance here because this is the first circuit that we're in. But the second circuit, which includes New York, just held in December. A very similar set of facts was indeed chilling the speech of these PRCs. And so this case is Nifla v.

James. And Attorney General James had been coming after and bringing enforcement actions against these PRCs for very similar. similar things that our own adoptor is under investigation for. And so they brought an injunction and it went up to the second circuit. And in December, the second circuit said, yes, we do believe that this is chilling your speech.

And so we're going to give you an injunction to stop New York from bringing these kind of enforcement actions against you. And so that right there means that in the second circuit, we have a different decision from what the first circuit might decide.

So if the first circuit says, nope, there is not a chilling of your speech here. Then we can go on to the Supreme Court. And the Supreme Court hears very often cases when there is a circuit court split, meaning one court is holding one way on a set of facts and a question of law, and another court is holding the other way, and it needs the Supreme Court to come in as the final decision maker to decide the question of whether this is chilling the PRC's speech or not. And, Jordan, this is core ACLJ work. It's why we have some of the greatest attorneys in the country working on things like this, also, knowing.

When we go into a case like this, that the potential, especially when you're in a contested area that doesn't really agree with your value system, like in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts here, but we know that we have to fight it all over the country. And if you get a split decision like this, It's it's we are uniquely positioned to keep fighting this all the way to the Supreme Court. Absolutely. In fact, that's what the Supreme Court is looking for, especially in cases that involve core constitutional rights. Because we can't have this set of states under the Second Circuit say this does impact your constitutional rights, and the First Circuit, just north of the Second Circuit, the Northeast, say this has no bearing on your constitutional rights.

So, again, that is where the court is almost, it doesn't force their hand, as Christy said, they don't have to take those. But when you've got a clear constitutional interpretation issue going on, that's where the Supreme Court is important to come in and clarify for all the states because this is in federal court because it involves federal issues that the Supreme Court has jurisdiction over. That's right.

And Christy, thank you so much for that update. We'll keep everyone updated as this moves forward. But we filed today. We will see their response due in, it looks like July 1st.

So just a little over a month, or exactly a month from now, it's hard to believe it's June. And then we will reply to their response July 22nd.

So we'll keep people updated, but thank you for that update, Christy. All right, and with that. That's going to wrap up our first half hour of the show.

Now, some of you don't get the second half hour on your local terrestrial radio stations. You should be watching this anyway. It's a great, full, interactive experience. We watch over on ACLJ.org or YouTube, Rumble, Facebook. We always stream live there from noon to 1 p.m.

Eastern Time. Of course, you can find it in Archive. Have you got your podcast on the ACLJ app, whatever it may be. And I encourage you right now to call in because we will be taking calls in the next segment and then the final segment as well.

So there's three segments coming up. In the first one, we're going to take your calls. The last one, we're going to take your calls. In the middle, we're going to be joined by Jeff Balabana, ACLJ Jerusalem. If you do have any updates or you want any updates of what's going on in Israel, feel free to call in and ask those questions too.

I can take it during the segment with Jeff. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. Again, 1-800-684-3110. There is a petition right now on our website. And if you had gone earlier, we actually just switched it over to a pro-life petition right now, specifically about what we're doing in Massachusetts.

So you heard that update from Christy.

Now, I want you to get involved. We need you. They are trying to silence pro-life advocates. With these politically motivated attacks, but you can be a part of it, be a part of the next generation of pro-life leaders. Go to aclj.org/slash sign.

About 24,000 of you have signed so far. 23,000, actually, I'm not going to over-inflate my numbers. 23,000. Help us get to 50,000. That'd be great.

You can do that at aclj.org. And while you're there, you can support the work as well. Check out all the incredible free content that we have available on the website. And even if you need legal help, we're there as well. Second half hour coming up after this very, very short break.

There's less than a minute, so don't go anywhere. And call in if you can, 1-800-68-4-30-110. We'll be right back. Mm. Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever.

This is Sekulow. And now, your host, Logan Secula. Second half hour, Secula. Welcome to the show. We got a lot to cover.

We're going to head over to ACLJ Jerusalem with Jeff Balabon in the next segment. But between now and then, I want to hear from you with that big update in Iran. Iran announcing they are stopping negotiations, they are having their own blockade. saying we're going to block the straight over moves and we're going to block even more to keep the Red Sea now. From being accessed, there's a lot more to cover about that.

We do have a question and comment coming in. This is from an ACLJ champion. When an ACLJ champion calls in, by the way, I bump him to the front. You may say, What's a champion? Champions, those who are essentially members, people that decide to subscribe, to donate every month automatically, recurring donors.

And we really appreciate them. They created a great baseline, a little perk I offer. If you tell the phone screener, I bump you up to the front. Eric, Pennsylvania. And by the way, there's another Eric in South Carolina.

Eric in South Carolina. You stay on hold. I'll get to you. But Eric in Pennsylvania is first. Go ahead.

Do you believe that Iran has the military capacity to close those straits? I don't think they do.

So I think The military capacity to close the strait, maybe not. The ability to effectively close it, I do believe they have. And here's what that means: when you have vessels that are primarily for commerce, they are just shipping container ships, they don't have defensive capabilities like a naval vessel.

So, could our Navy still go through the Strait of Hormuz? Absolutely. Could a tanker with just barrels and barrels of oils go through? Maybe. Maybe they could successfully get through, but it's the threat.

of them being responsible for the loss of the cargo. The insurance companies are saying, we will not insure your vessel that is trying to go through the Strait of Hormuz right now. The only thing they have to do is go out there with their fast boats, their sea cruisers. Imagine just a 25 to 50-foot boat that looks like something that could be a commercial vehicle, a recreational vehicle, that they have mines on the front that they push into the water. or their one-way attack drones.

They don't have to have a ton of military capability to effectively cause a threat, which tells then the shipping companies, we're not risking it. Because we don't have things to shoot down a one-way drone or to find these mines if they are there.

So they're just going to stay put. And that is how they do it. It is the threat of the potential loss of economic revenue. That the shipping companies aren't willing to risk because they don't have the capacity to shoot down a one-way drone that can then cripple or sink or completely damage their cargo trying to traverse the strait.

So, that I think. The military capacity, yes, they don't have the Navy. They don't have their ships sitting there. Blocking directly the Strait of Hormuz, but it is the threat of the things they still have that could cause this problem. I think we actually should flip over and now take the other Eric.

We got two minutes here. Eric at South Carolina, who has kind of a follow-up to that.

So let's take him. Eric, go ahead. Hey, thank you. McCall. I I I'm I'm not a Who listed?

I'm sorry? Nope, go ahead. Obviously, you have a lot of people who are planning strategy. My question is. Why does the U.

S. government, the military, focus right now exclusively on The uh I R G And they're all every single type of military Establishment or base or any of their infrastructure exclusively because it seems as though. The government is trying to do some cooperation and the problem is the IRG.

So Yeah, I mean, why don't we have been doing more against the IRGC than any previous administration in history? We took out Suleimani. That was under the previous. Trump administration.

So 45. And then we had, of course, the Biden gap. In this military action, we've taken out the next two leaders they appointed at the IRGC. As well as the IRGC Navy commander.

So, you're looking at the US. Really, when you go into a conflict with Iran, most of that conflict that's happening. Is with the IRGC because they are in control, as the President of Iran has now let the world know clearly. No more debate about that. It's a religious theocracy that wants a nuclear weapon to end the world and bring about the end times.

And guess what? The President and these other quote-unquote elected folks in Iran. Have no power whatsoever. That's right.

And look, phone lines are open for you. I want to hear from you. We actually just cleared out the line.

So 1-800-684-301-10, Jeff Balabon, ACLJ Jerusalem. It's coming up next, but we're going to keep taking your calls. Right back on Sekulow. Welcome back to Sekulow. We are now joined by Jeff Balvon, head of ACLJ Jerusalem.

And look, you know, there's always a lot of discourse and conversations going on about Israel, and there always has been. And you may be wondering how a lot of this gets started. How does it feel like there is always this conversation headed towards be it Benjamin Netanyahu or the Israeli government? It feels like there's always been some kind of spin that comes out of whether the Middle East, whether it comes out of our own media, and you may be going, how does that happen? How does the origins of this happen?

Even when Israel is one of our allies, one of our biggest allies, and you have a leader who has been fairly popular again, I always want to say, The broad brush that gets painted about Israel and Israelis is as if Benjamin Netanyahu, who represents 100% of the people there, is absurd. Because if you've been there, it's not unlike America, a very politically divided nation.

Now, again, it may be a little bit different, and it is different there, especially right now, than it is in normal times.

However, you may be wondering where the origin comes from. And what we've learned before is there is a certain playbook that gets used, and it gets used well. By our own government. That's right.

This goes back to actually the U.S. We uncovered here at the ACLJ some election interference some time ago. And it wasn't Russia and President Trump. It was actually the Obama administration paying Mahmoud Abbas's son. To try and interfere with the reelection of B.B.

Netanyahu. That was back during the Obama years. But, Jeff, we're now seeing this report from Judiciary Committee staff in the House, so Jim Jordan's committee, that was tasked with looking into the Biden-Harris administration's funding of anti-Netanyahu NGOs using. The U.S. Agency for International Development, also known as.

USAID, something that has been very contentious, and I wonder why the left loved it so much. It's because it was their slush fund to do their global interference in the governments they didn't like. But tell us a little bit about what this Judiciary Committee investigation is looking into. And and some of the uh impact that it could have. Sure.

So again, this is one of the ways in which ACLJ really serves a function that helps America from around the world. But also, the web is impossible to untangle in this world where we're all super connected, and America is the most important country in the world. And Israel is one of our most, if not our most important allies.

So it turns out that a couple of years ago, we discovered at ACLJ Jerusalem, we discovered evidence of American tax dollars being. Wired through NGOs to end up stirring up protest and unrest in Israel. It was a major issue, which, according to Israeli intelligence, many of the people that they were interrogating after the October 7th war acknowledged that the dissent, the internal strife in the country, the protests, the anguish over issues like judicial reform and others. told sent a message to Israel's enemies that now is the time to attack. And we discovered that a lot of that was coming actually from American tax dollars, also from other countries being used to gin up these protests and these hostilities in the streets.

Well, we brought this to the attention of the Judiciary Committee and they launched an investigation. And last year they came out with one report which showed that close to a billion dollars, several hundred million dollars that they were able to trace came from the Biden administration, either directly or through various entities like NGOs and nonprofits to fund up these kinds of protests. This follow-up report, which just came out over the weekend, I think was dated May 29th, now seems to establish that this is not just, it's much more than smoke. There's fire. There seems to be a broader pattern, a deeper pattern.

The report is talking about funding up organizations that are terrorist organizations or ties to terrorist organizations that are promoting terrorist ideals, that are promoting dissent against Israel around the world and within Israel. And so this work seems to be taking on not just life, but Its own, but you know, thank God the House Judiciary Committee is dedicated to really digging in deep to what we found, and they're finding more and more. And once again, when you look at how outraged the political left was when things like Doge started looking into, okay, where are American taxpayer dollars being wasted? fraudulently taken or abused. What was the number one target that seemed to get all of the left up in arms?

It was. USAID. That is the mechanism that the Obama administration and the Biden administration used. To play policy games around the world, but it had real dire consequences that we see in places like Israel. As you mentioned, when you start funding these NGO networks abroad, when our taxpayer dollars are funding nonprofits in Israel, in other places around the world, it's not always going, well, it may be for them, it's not always going for the stated purpose that you would see on the government bylines.

But it and Reality though, we know they are using these funds to wreak havoc around the world, and that's what was happening in Israel. Look, this is the playbook. We saw them do it against our President here with all the stories of outside other countries getting and interfering with elections and somehow coordinating with the Trump campaign, which ended up being obviously false. In actuality, they were revealing their own playbook. That's what they do.

They fund up ways to damage countries, including ours here in America, to damage the elected officials and to bring questions and to try to draw dissent. But they've exported that now specifically to Israel in vast amounts. And the judiciary community keeps on digging in. But this is really, it's collapsing stable democracies. It's creating resentment and hostility internally.

It's a playbook that we see here in America, and they've exported it to Israel.

Well, and once again, when you start to see also all the chaos that you see on college campuses, when you see. nonprofits that have interesting ties to other places, or even commentators that start to say all the same thing at the exact same time, and it happens to be pushing back against either an American ally or even the American administration. It goes back to that playbook. It is the sowing of chaos around the world to get certain policy goals forward. And those are the policy goals that go against our very values as a country.

And when we say we are going to keep looking and investigating into more places that the taxpayer dollars are being wasted in funding things like this, we won't stop. But we know that this is a campaign. It isn't just happening in Israel. It's happening here. And it is very effective because we've seen how quickly.

Even people that were on the ideological spectrum that we are on, the conservative side, how quickly they are even convinced of opposite narratives. And I wanted to chime in with that, Jeff. Obviously, over the weekend, you had the big supporting of Israel parade that happened in New York City. I did watch some video clips. Didn't get a lot of coverage on maybe the mainstream media, but of course on my social media, there's a lot of people posting about it.

And of course, one of the big news stories, not that he would have been necessarily welcomed with open arms to begin with, was that Mayor Mamdami decided to be the first mayor really in history since this has been happening to not attend this parade. Again, that's not necessarily a shocker. Again, I don't know if necessarily he would have been really been a great person to be the Grand Marshal there at that parade. Yeah, I think pretty much people were simultaneously antagonized and we leave. No one really wanted him there.

But it just, he's making it very clear. And the problem, and again, this is something we discuss all the time here, is what we call the Overton window. What's politically appropriate in this course? And it used to be, it was, well, you know, of course we support Israel. They're our great ally, but we have issues with the government.

And that's moved all the way to, yeah, no, we just hate Israel. And that's just a moment away from yeah, we just hate Jews. And it's all coming together on the left, and we see it emerging a little bit on the right. And we're trying to fight back against that. But what the importance of this report is, is when Our tax dollars are weaponized by the US government in what the Judiciary Committee is now saying they're seeing a real pattern, a broad and deep pattern, to fund this up.

Yeah, it's more than just we have an emerging political class that is hostile to Israel's values and America's values. It's that they're really sort of exporting this revolutionary idea, this arch-leftist red-green alliance idea around the world using our tax dollars. Could you imagine, number one, the ACLJ or any of our international efforts getting taxpayer-funded grants to the tune of $100 million, $200 million? Right. And one of these reports, $545 million moving.

That's half a billion dollars right there. No, it's just Planned Parenthood. And if you're anti-Israel, that you got that under both, not just the Biden administration. This was also uncovered under the Obama administration.

So they have been playing games like this using, quote, NGOs around the world. And let me tell you something: as an NGO recognized by the UN, we stand with maybe two or three others. That don't take this complete, as Jeff just said, anti-Israel position, but especially want to influence trying to influence their elections. And then part two of this, I think that's also just very important to understand: the actors involved. These are the same actors.

When you look at the Mandami, they're no longer hiding. Their hatred. Of the Jewish state of Israel. They no longer hide that. They're not going to, most of the time, even if you didn't want them there, they were going to show up because they understood that would be a political point, too.

You can't call me someone who's anti-Israel.

Now they want to be called that. Yeah, exactly. It's a moment of pride, if you will. Thanks, Jeff, for joining us. We appreciate it.

Of course, we always like to hear updates of what's going on in Israel and what's going on. We need to get you in talking more about that as well. Phone lines are open for you, by the way. We got three lines open. If you want to be on the air today, it's a great time to call in.

We'll take as many calls as we can in the next segment. 1-800-684-31. One zero, and you can sign that petition right now at aclj.org. There's other petitions as well, by the way, and one of them is involving Israel.

So, if you want to get involved, great way to do it is just go to aclj.org. All the different petitions are available, all the different ways to engage with us are there. And remember, none of it. is with a price tag attached to it. If you want to support the work financially, fantastic, we'd love to have it.

But again, all of it is without a paywall at todayclj.org. Be a part today. We'll be right back with your calls and comments coming right up. Yeah. Last segment of the day, I want to hear from you 18066-431.

Just a funny thing, I was looking at our YouTube channel and I looked at you. There's ads that pop up surrounding it. And one of them today, you may see it.

So look, be careful when you see ads pop up. If you want to support the work of the ACLJ, make sure you do it through our website or through our app at ACLJ.org. Yeah, do it that way. Because I just got prompted to give money to James Tallarico on the bottom of my head or bottom of the ACLJ YouTube channel.

So it's like, you like this video? Would you like to give $50, $100,000 to James Tallarico's campaign? It also shows you, though, who they're targeting, when they are targeting, who could give to these political candidates. And we know he's been running very faith-heavy. But we also know what that means.

So be careful. Quotes though, Logan. Faithful. Quotes, the way he talks. Right.

And again. I told you last week, and you hated it. I don't question whether he thinks of himself as a Christian or his own religious beliefs. They don't necessarily align with ours, but I don't, you know, I'm not going to go in there and slam someone's faith. But we know that he has been running on that pretty hardcore, and now we see that actually in our ads, which is pretty wild to see.

Phone lines are open. I think we should take some calls, though. Jordan, it's on. He's heavily cringe to me. I was traveling last week and watched watching more of his stuff, especially after the primary.

And I was looking at, like, every time he would go on these very liberal podcasts, so he'd have to play to them. That's where you really want to watch these guys. What are they like when they're talking to their base? And he has made just some, I'm not even going to say anything, it was some of the most disturbing. Bizarre.

And it just outright kind of creepy. Statements about children. I'll leave it at that. About children this weekend on podcasts. I saw that.

I mean, it is just, again, I don't mind that he's kind of wasting their their Whoever's wasting their campaign dollars, it tells you the algorithm might not be 100% working, but also trying to confuse voters. That's a lot of his play is trying to look like the conservative guy's got the hair, he's got the tie, he comes off more formal, and trying to capitalize on, say, see the Republican Party's divided in Texas. Again, We don't Our Fred Sitter Cruz had, I think it was the most expensive until this race.

So the most expensive races that we've seen in the country have been Texas, if you don't count the Presidential races.

Well, and to some degree also, it does seem that the left really wants to win in Texas. They really want to. They're going to spend a lot of money. And I say keep letting them. Because what they're doing is they.

They find what they think is an appealing candidate to conservatives, but it shows you how out of touch they are with conservatives when they think that James Tallarico, like in an image, maybe you could say this guy looks like a conservative guy. Why? Because he's a white male. But then when you start to listen, that you don't agree with anything that he's saying. There's nothing.

Centrist about the things that James Tallarico says, but they're going to keep targeting conservatives with ads. They're going to spend that money. And to some degree, I say let them continue to do that because I think it's going to be a wasted effort once again. All right, let's take a phone call. Let's go to Marion, who's calling from Texas, actually.

It's ACLJ champion. Marion, go ahead. Yes, thank you for taking my call. First of all, I hope people will let Trump be Trump. You know, the decisions he's made around the world, he's stopped all these world wars and things like that, and now they question every little thing that he does.

In fact, if the liberals and the Democrats would support him, no telling what he could have accomplished by now. That's my comment. And I do have a question. I was wondering if y'all have any idea of anyone that Trump might be able to support as a leader that would confront the regime and fight them. And this leader, if he was given weapons, if he could get it in the hands of the right people so that the people being brutalized, that would all end and the regime would be overthrown.

So that's my question. And I'll be quiet. Sure.

Thank you, Marion. I don't doubt there are people.

However, President Trump has kind of said, I'm staying out of that. Yeah. And once again, there are several outside groups that have a lot of support from different people in Washington because there has been this kind of leadership in exile for generations now that there are different groups that have friends in America that would be kind of vying for that. But I don't know if any of them have like the military style leadership that you would need. You would need some sort of separatist group inside Iraq.

On to arm to be able to do that. But as you said, President Trump has kind of stayed away from that at this point and is letting this play out on his terms. Another interesting thing that you brought up, Marion, about People you saying let Trump be Trump and do that. The the Interesting place we're at now with the American media. And our producer Allie brought this up this morning.

She listened to, and blame her for this, but the New York Times daily podcast on the way into work today. And they did a whole show. titled Inside Trump's Mad Dash to Renovate Washington. And their whole thing, they just kept complaining about there's construction everywhere. They're building things.

And then they were complaining about: oh, well, at first he wanted the reflecting pool to be this color, but then he changed it. And we don't know how much that's going to cost to change the color. And it's like, well, the reason it was changed is that he originally said, I want it to be this color blue. And he listened to people that said, actually, to get the right reflection, you want this other color.

So he said, okay, and I'm going to brand it American flag blue. But just they get so caught up. In these wasted minutiae, yeah. And that they're going to. They're people getting paid with great salaries to sit here and complain about the bottom of the reflecting pool.

That is such a. A crazy place to live in. Which, by the way, again, if you were just to simply do these things and it wasn't a President Trump, no one would have ever said anything because. Those monuments Those buildings As we know, as people who have lived there off and on for our entire lives, are constantly in refurb because they have to be. They are not.

New buildings, they need some love, and we know that's been an issue. Look, the Kennedy Center thing was crazy. You had a judge essentially say, Not only do you cannot rename it, which okay, look, you can maybe come up with a reason for that. He said, You can't even reverb it, you can't shut it down for two years. How dare they shut this thing down?

And everyone we know who has worked there, and I'm not talking about people that are on the right or the left here, I'm talking about performers that I'm friendly with, have said this thing is like a rat-infested mess that needs to be reverbed. Uh, it's not shocking. A lot of these old theaters that have been around for decades need that kind of love, but of course, because the President's name is on it and because he was involved in it, they're going to try to shut it down. And here's what's also ridiculous, right? When we see, even looking at this report that we talked about in the last segment with Jeff Balabon about how much money.

They are just throwing willy-nilly at these NGOs to effect a regime change in our ally countries. But all of a sudden, right, yeah, they're not doing a great job of it. They're just wasting your money. But then you say, oh, you're going to clean up a place to make it look like a capital? How dare you spend a dollar on America's capital?

That's what gets me so frustrated: they're going to sue you over cleaning up our capital. Putting some new carpet in. But let's slide as many billions as we can to fight. Losing battles overseas. Yeah, again, because I think, honestly, the Kidney Center, as he's talked about, was falling apart, and it is.

I mean, we've been there, we've done conferences there. If you go into the main rooms, it needs to be recarpented. That's expensive carpet. It's a gigantic facility. Again, built up, and you could keep.

the historical parts of it, kind of the feel of the look. Of when it was built, but still like cleanup so everything's not unraveled, the chairs aren't all stained, and people weren't coming. That was the other main point. They were putting only bizarre stuff out. And so, guess what?

When you don't put the nutcracker on during Christmas, you're losing a lot of money. And so they brought it back. Shows were going out to the suburbs. That's what was happening. People didn't want to go into Washington, D.C., also because of safety.

There's a lot of things that were happening there. But look, that's going to do it for today's show. I appreciate you joining us. Look, if you want to be part of the ACLJ, great day to do it. We have a petition up right now.

That's an easy way to just start your journey with us. Sign a petition, get kind of involved, get on the email list, start the conversation. You can be part of the ACLJ family by going to aclj.org, sign that petition today, or just look at the incredible content that we provide for you for absolutely no cost. And of course, that is because people like you also support financially. But nothing's behind a paywall.

It's all available there for you at aclj.org.