On today's show, House Republicans flip on President Trump on the war in Iran. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever. This is Sekulow. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110.
And now your host, Logan Secular. You're at 1-800. 684-3110, 1-800-684-3110. Covering the news of the day and some really interesting ACLJ work. If you have children, I think this is something you need to stay attuned to what's going on in the world.
And this is something that we're getting involved in. I think we should. It's going to be an interesting one.
So that we're going to cover that coming up in just a little bit. Jordan's in studio. Will, obviously in studio. We're going to have a good show, 1-800-684-3110 later on. Ben Sisney from the ACLJ in Washington, D.C.
is going to be joining us, one of our attorneys here. But we are covering the news that happened where you may have seen the headline. We're going to break it down what it actually means. When you had Republicans in a bipartisan effort, if you will, vote to end the war in Iran. You may have seen that as sort of, I guess you'd say a ceremonial vote in some way, Will, because there's not a lot really that can get done.
Well, we'll see what happens when it gets to the Senate and what kind of language goes there. But it's also not overwhelming enough that it would override a Presidential veto. It is still something that would have to go to the President's desk. And it's not like all of Congress has decided to turn on the President and say, oh, we're done with this war. Here's the headlines, though, you're seeing.
And so we thought it'd be interesting to break it down and tell you what really is going on. Because this is NBC News. House votes to rebuke Trump over war with Iran. And it is technically correct, right? They did pass a symbolic war powers resolution over the objections.
to uh the the war in Iran. But it's only four Republicans that broke with the party that went over there. And you can kind of expect one of them, Thomas Massey, that broke with Republicans, decided to vote with Democrats to rebuke him. He has been very vocal about his opposition. And it's all the way out.
So he has no way out. The other four members of that four is Tom Barrett from Michigan, Warren Davidson from Ohio, and Brian Fitzpatrick from Pennsylvania, someone who's been antagonistic to the President on many issues as well.
So the press is going to run with us and make everyone think the House has turned against the President. It's this rebuke of the President. And yes, it is on paper. It is that. But I think, Jordan, even where I want to take this conversation even broader is how important the midterms are.
Because they are also going to use anything the House does, even if it's a rebuke of the President, as a propaganda piece in the media to try and make the world think that even his own party has turned against him. Yeah, when it's Thomas Massey, and you know, we know Warren Davidson, I know him from Ohio, he's very conservative, not quite a Massey figure, but thinks he has that view that. If you're going to war, you need a resolution. I mean, that's just his constitutional reviews. He's an attorney, and I believe maybe even a former judge.
So that's kind of like his view of an originalist kind of saying. Why did we get around from that? And I can respect that. I disagree with that based off of history that we've allowed President after President to do this. But the key is these headlines are ridiculous.
NPR saying the House passes Warzpower resolution in this bipartisan vote. It sounds like the entire House of Representatives. And then you read the small print and you do the math will and you talk about four Republicans, two of which actually three of the four who vote against the President regularly. Yeah, and some of them that, like I just said, like Massey, who are upset, angry. This is probably one of the rare times he's voted outside the party on an important vote.
He's pretty much been with the President. Yes, I mean, and look, there is a lot of conversation around the war in Iran. We understand that. How united the Republican Party is. In supporting President Trump, because even in election year, it was all 100% of Democrats vote?
All that were there. Yeah, because we always get these goofy numbers during election years. Because many of them like to skip. Uh votes that are kind of meaningless, but Could be used against them in media. All right, listen, we want to hear from you.
What do you think about this? Of course, the war in Iran ongoing. We do know there also was a ceasefire called between Israel and Lebanon, which was an interesting move. We can talk about what that means. And of course, President Trump was even asked, What does a ceasefire look like?
And his ceasefire was like less shooting. You know, it's one of the comedians who said, You know, there's like a ceasefire war. It's a war could be called ceasefire at this point. As we know, in the Middle East, things are always a little bit more heated. Welcome back to Sekulow.
We're covering a couple topics right now. We are covering the war in Iran as the Congress voted to end the war in Iran.
So, guess what, folks? The war is over.
Well, right? The war has ended because Congress stepped in. Four Republicans, Thomas Massey and some interesting characters decided we're going to make this a bipartisan effort in the war in Iran.
Well, that's not how it works. We're now going to see what the next step is as it goes to Senate. But look, you did have four Republicans vote on paper saying that we should end the war in Iran. And look, I know by watching you guys, there's plenty of you who feel that way as well. Same time.
Pressure in Israel and America, as we know, there was that very heated conversation allegedly by President Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu. President Trump confirmed those were the words that were said. As we know, that's kind of how the President operates. Uh that then led to A ceasefire, a bigger ceasefire, which could lead to really a much less of an issue in Lebanon.
Well, and when you look at this vote, one, I think it's also interesting.
Okay, the Democrats finally got. enough Republicans to join them to pass this. They've been trying to do this for a while. But at the end of the day, it is in a ceasefire right now because of the negotiations that are ongoing. Yes, the military is responding to attacks and missiles and things, but they are currently in the stage of negotiation.
And they would never say that, oh, if Iran fires a ballistic missile towards a U.S. vessel, no matter where it is in the world, you can't shoot it now. Yeah, I think we actually have never addressed this, which there was a lot of controversy around the... holy days, whether it was the Jewish holy days, the Christian holy days, or the Muslim holy days, about the sites, the religious sites being closed during that time. They're reopened, by the way.
Israel is kind of back in business, if you will.
So that whole narrative of, you know, they were controlling Christians from... Look, what did that prove? That proved that all of that was actually true. They were trying to protect people. And here, when they hit a ceasefire about a month ago, they reopened all those holy sites, which again had not been open, but.
Did you see that in the press? No, you didn't see that covered anyway. I actually had to go look. I looked it up last night.
Well, and once again, you see for a vast majority of the Middle East, things are kind of back to normal as far as their day-to-day lives, except for places like Kuwait, that their main airport terminal got struck by both missiles and drone fire. You can see the video. Actually, people were in the airport that were killed. There were 60 injured.
So, once again, I know people that are in Kuwait that are having to deal with the issues of that surrounding the airport travel when it comes to the fact the main terminal at their international airport was struck in the middle of Kuwait. But when you look at all of this, And you look at what the Democrats do. They are clearly trying to do this as a posturing thing. They finally got it across the finish line here in the midterm year. They are trying to make it a midterms issue.
They're also trying to show that they can stand up to the President. They are going to run on this regardless of the outcome. At the same time, it is kind of like: okay, we are in the middle of these negotiations and ceasefire. Right. Do they really want If they, well, I mean, take the politics aside, do they really want?
There to be no leverage over the Iranians in these negotiations. That's kind of what pushing this at this time means. It also goes to show you they don't believe that this is actually going to have any effect. It shows that they know it's symbolic. They know that doing this is going to give them the headlines and the attack ads they need for the midterms, but they know it's not really going to put any real limitations on the President at this point.
Right. I mean, this is, again, this is a political vote. And the truth is, we're at the midst of settling this. I mean, the President isn't trying to provoke Iran, or and he's he said, listen. If, and I think the Lebanese example is perfect, how great would this be?
That Hezbollah is out of southern Lebanon and is no longer a threat, not to just the cities and towns like Sfat and others that are right on the border there, but also for Haifa. which was in range and their their oil and the uh all the shipping. That was in range for Hezbollah very easily.
Now, Iran could hit Aifa with ICBMs, but when you had a paramilitary force that could use much cheaper weapons to do so, I mean, the missiles always rained down in the north. It's been a lot like you talked about. I mean, it was impossible to keep some places open because of the amount of incoming.
So, this is really what I'd like to say. It's up to the Lebanese. Government. to say we're going to allow Lebanese military and our forces to get into direct conflict with Hezbollah.
So are they willing to risk Lebanese lives? To stop Hezbollah from continuing to fire on Israel. And I think we should read from this statement because this is a joint statement of the United States of America, the Republic of Lebanon, and the state of Israel on the latest high-level trilateral meeting. Which I think that actually shows, remember, when we're trying to differentiate the way that Israel responds to different countries or different governments, it's not unilaterally the same. Where you're dealing with Lebanon is not the same as dealing with Hamas.
It's not the same as dealing with Iran. These are different nations, some of them funded, controlled by the same entities, but it is different.
Now, the fact that even Hezbollah, within their own government, have people within the parliament of Lebanon, it makes it more difficult. And historically, Has made it more difficult because Hezbollah had a lot of control over the government. For a while, they de facto controlled the entire country of Lebanon through the political arm as well as the southern portion of the country. But even the fact that we are now, as this joint statement notes, It was the fourth high-level trilateral meeting between the U.S., Lebanon, and Israel. That in and of itself in modern history is historic.
Because of the tension that Lebanon had internally.
So the fact they're even talking with Israel is a historic thing. But You listen to this. It says, as a result of the U.S.-led negotiations, Israel and Lebanon agreed to the implementation of a ceasefire. The ceasefire is contingent on the complete cessation of Hezbollah fire and the evacuation of all Hezbollah operatives. From the South Latani sector.
So, right there. The governments are joining together. But they are also putting the pressure on Hezbollah, which is one of Iran, at this point, Iran's probably strongest remaining proxy. The Houthis have kind of stayed out of things. Yeah, the Houthis are not nearly as organized as Hezbollah.
Plus, they also are trying to govern and take over Yemen, which has not completely worked out for them.
So the Houthis is one issue. But really, I mean, Hezbollah has been a long-term issue. If we want a ceasefire, that means the Lebanese military. has to go in enforce that Hezbollah evacuation. I don't know if we've had any statements yet from Hezbollah.
I don't know if they've commented yet. We need to check. I doubt so yet, but I mean, it's got to be coming. And so, they're going to play a game of chicken, I have a feeling, which is Lebanese military, you know, we're better than you. We're better paramilitary force.
You're going to come to the cities we built. That we built for warfare so that when Israel had to do a land invasion, it was basically like walking into a booby trap on every corner. It's an empty city. We've all seen it that have been to northern Israel. And the question is: are the Lebanese people going to clear out these evil.
Uh Lebanese. Terrorist group, which would be great for their country because there are a lot of people that would love to visit Beirut if they knew that half of the city wasn't controlled by a terrorist organization. Because Beirut used to be the Paris of the Mediterranean, is what it was referred to as such a beautiful place. A lot of Europeans would travel there. Europeans still go.
And it would be wonderful to get back to that. But when you also hear some of this other language, Israel and Lebanon reaffirm they have no hostile intent toward one another and committed to continuing direct negotiations to build confidence, resolve all outstanding issues, and work toward a comprehensive agreement between the two countries. I mean, this is Abraham Accords with Lebanon. This is a very big deal beyond the Iran deal. This is a deal to take the Dizbola in a, again, another Uh Sunni Muslim country, I mean this is huge.
Uh but it only works. If the Lebanese do their job. I don't want to keep confusing people because it's tough. It's tough to be able to do that. The reason why, and we weren't talking about this a lot, the IDF was right outside Beirut.
They're about to take Beirut. In just the last few days. The Paris of the Middle East was about to be taken over by the Israelis for the second time in their history. They've held for this ceasefire, but now the Lebanese have to risk their lives. To do something that they should have done 25 years ago, which is rid their country of this proxy from Iran who can't keep a leader in more than 24 hours before they meet with some certain death.
We know with Iran, even when there was uprising, it's easier said than done in terms of getting these people out of power. Hezbollah versus the Lebanese military, the Lebanese military would be taking significant casualties. Yeah.
So it's whether they decide this is the time. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-68-430-110. I do want to let you know in the next segment, you're not going to miss this. If you're a parent or a grandparent, my kids are gamers. Jordan's kids, all you know, video games have taken over our culture as it should since we were little kids, but things have changed rapidly and we are actually getting involved pretty directly in a very interesting way.
So if you or your kids are playing a lot of these games that have chat functions and features, you're not going to want to miss this next segment. It's really interesting how we're getting involved.
So stay tuned for that. With that being said, I do also want you to get involved with the ACLJ today. When you hear about this next thing that we're doing here, in the next segment, I'm just teasing you, right? You're going to say, How can I get involved?
Well, you can become an ACLJ champion. I want you to do that right now. At a donation level of any kind, we designate you as an ACLJ champion. If you give on a monthly recurring basis, just opt in when you're making your donation or go directly to aclj.org/slash champions. You can do that today.
Again, become an ACLJ champion if you can. There's a lot of great free content available. Nothing's behind a paywall, but it's only because people like you support the work of the ACLJ. We can go through even some of the list of things that we are getting to other than this big issue coming up in the next segment. We'll break that down coming up.
But we do want to hear from you once again: 1-800-68-430-110. If you're on YouTube right now, let me know where you're watching from. Love to see you out in comments and hit that thumbs up. Appreciate it. Appreciate it, Will.
That's right. It was very crystal clear. Welcome back to Sekulow. We are joined by Ben Sisney and ACLJ attorney out of the Washington DC office. Door and I'll let you set this up because this is a very interesting one.
Again, if you're a parent or a grandparent, you're going to want to listen to this as your kids likely are like many of ours. Are gamers and love video games and love all the different things that come with it, but some of the stuff that comes with it is not necessarily positive. We always want to make sure you're paying attention to what your kids are playing and getting involved in. We know there's always been controversy that has come out of the game Roblox, it has been a huge deal. Obviously, it's become a massively successful game.
I think it's always in the top three games for players and largely. Uh aimed at children. But there's been some controversy, a lot of different controversies. But this one, the ACLJ, is getting involved in directly, Jordan. Yeah, that's right.
So just about, I think it was a month ago, Ben might correct me, but time is flying right now, especially when you hit summer with kids. And listen, folks, I'll say this right now: we're talking about Roblox. A lot of your kids use it. I'm not trying to shame anybody because all three of mine do too. And we're constantly trying to balance the thing of they've, you know, their friends get to join them and play, and it's kind of a learning game and a building game.
Yeah, but it's also a little bit of a Wild West, which is what any kind of new web program is. And just about a month ago, Ben, we had hosted some families, including the family that signed on publicly here, who have had children that were victims killed in school shootings. And when they saw this, they wanted to do something about it. And when we were working with them, we said, well, we think we need to go to these companies directly, potentially work with the government as well. But as Will said, as Logan said too, Ben, if we can get the companies to do the right thing, we don't have to worry about government censorship or overreach in what is still a kind of wild, wild west in itself, which is the changing internet all the time and gaming platforms that kids' ability to use it.
But, Ben, tell us people what it was like to have those families there. I know I joined them by Carl. conference call and then to now take this on. Yeah, it's weighty, Jordan. It's heavy.
And I know that no one over there needs me to tell you that. This is about as serious of the subject matter as it gets. And when you're talking about children's safety and of all places, schools. And again, we're all parents, and so we have that extra layer of understanding. It is a powerful opportunity.
Of course, we don't get to do that and be there and have those meetings and work on these things, advancing. Um uh uh Justice and truth, and also protection, we can have both. And to advance these things, I mean, you know, we have regular cases and we file lawsuits and represent plaintiffs in all kinds of situations, but not every one of those is a case where you file a lawsuit. And this is a good example of the other kind of work that we do, particularly around here in Washington, D.C. and on the Hill, and using the opportunity we have.
To speak into these things and to stand for truth, to stand for parental rights. You know, because you got to understand, too, and for our audience, is a lot of the knee-jerk reaction here is: well, oh, the First Amendment, and you should be able to do what you want, and all that kind of stuff. And that's great. And I have a libertarian streak, I can appreciate that. At the same time, Uh A lot of these platforms had either whether intentionally or not, it's not mine to say, but they went around parents.
And we stand strongly and always have here at the ACLJ for parental rights and parental Protecting and all of that. And these platforms were presenting a threat to that. And to have the opportunity to work with and to represent parents. Of a child who was who was shot and survived miraculously. uh in in that that shooting in August uh in Minnesota.
Um And to be able to link arms with them to proclaim this message, to demand sunlight and accountability, and how do we make sure this doesn't happen again is among the greatest honors. Ben, let's not bear the lead here, too, because I think there is a very specific thing that we're getting involved in. Because we know, as you said, that these tech companies, as much as they provide good for a lot of people, They make it very difficult for parents to have control.
Well, we even know that, but we're getting involved in a very specific way with Roblox. That's right. And people can read this also up at aclj.org. There's a new article, and it's titled ACLJ Joins Clients Whose Daughter Was a School Shooting Survivor in Condemning Roblox simulation game depicting Sandy Hook-style attack. There was a game within the game that allowed individuals to participate in a first-person.
Shooter-style simulation depicting the Sandy Hook massacre. School shooting simulates. And you're a school school shooter. What we're doing here, and this is, once again, this goes into the protection of sometimes you don't need the government, but you need people to do the right thing. And we can go and represent these families.
Roblox did take that game down. But what we want is more information. We want to understand how many people were able to access that. What protections going forward are they going to put in place? And this helps everyone.
It helps the game continue. It helps families understand and feel confident. But Ben, it also helps. Keep the conservative ideals alive of not needing the government censorship if you call on these companies to do the right thing. That's absolutely right.
And to go back to the principle that our founders articulated, our system and our freedoms and everything about us really only lasts as long as there's a basic morality of the people. And we can look around and see where we are today, but we still do have a basic morality, I believe, and we need to feature that and foster that. Here's an example of that: if you don't need the government to do something if people do the right thing on their own. Hmm. For companies to hear from parents, particularly parents of victims of survivors of the kind of violence being depicted in this platform, I think combined with our voice and I think this is going to make an impact.
And that's the plan. That's the whole point. uh yeah freedom and liberty is i i to protect it you have to you have to do the right thing voluntarily or else the government just gets bigger and bigger so let's talk about what we're actually doing here because i think people need to have an understanding first Yeah, we're going to Roblox Corporate. Roblox is its own independent company. Gigantic.
By the way, you're talking about, if you're not familiar with it, we're talking about millions and millions of players each and every day. I would be shocked if it's not even well above that, one of the top-rated video games. And again, a lot of it's user-generated content. You're building this content.
So I do want to make sure it's clear. Roblox themselves did not go in there and say, let's build a school shooter. But what they did was allow it still to somehow get into the platform.
So what we were asking is, how long did it take? For you to remove it? What was the impetus for you to remove it? Did you just find out? Did you have people?
And how in the future are you going to stop these things from being able to exist for so long that it became a story in the news? I mean, so it existed long enough to be a story. Then they get copied.
So it's a different way to find it. You can find it by, you know, again, codes and things like that.
So is that done? Is it really still off the platform? And then what can you do in the future? Yeah, let's see if you do it in the future. 20 years, by the way, this company exists.
Not like Roblox is a brand new company trying to learn what to do here. They've been around for decades at this point. But I do think what's interesting is why, maybe we only got a minute left here. Why, though, would someone like Roblox, I'll kick this to anyone. Why would someone like Roblox want to respond and be involved in it?
Like, why if it's not, if it's not a lawyer is bringing is bringing them, talking to our friends in Congress with witnesses like families whose daughters were shot or killed. and then coming to the Congress and saying, you know what, you need to hold a hearing on this and subpoena. The CEO of Roblox. Would you like that? Or she or she likes that to talk about why they don't stop, why they don't try and stop school shooting content on their platform.
So they have this path, and there is a second path. That's why the ACLJ government affairs team exists as well. It keeps the attention on it. It lets it not be just swept under the rug. It keeps the attention on it.
Uh, and keep sideballs on it. Just think of these luganeers hearing this right now. Hey, Ben, yep, run out of time here. We'll be right back. Second half hour, Sekulow coming right up.
Don't go anywhere. Join us on aclj.org. 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, Will's in Studio, Jordan's in studio, and we're going to hear from you for the rest of this show: 1-800-6-84-30-110. If you just heard our first half hour, we covered the war in Iran. We covered on the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire, and how the ACLJ is getting involved with some families who were involved in school shootings, tragically. but have questions about the use of the video game Roblox to allow a school shooter simulation. And how we are going to be representing these parents and these families to talk to these companies.
Again, As Jordan said, we're not shaming these video game companies. All of our kids play video games. I play video games. We're a gamer family. If anyone was born in the 80s, you've pretty much had video games part of your life.
So we're not going to be, you know, going after, but we are going to want some questions answered. Because when you're able to build a school shooter simulation, it becomes a little bit more serious, and when that makes it through for a certain amount of time, even if the game. takes it down at some point. There should be better protections for your kids. I've actually seen this as a problem with all.
Digital tech devices, where it feels like when you want any kind of parental supervision, they make it incredibly hard, even when you know. These companies could make it easy because they don't want to do it. They want your kid to be able, mainly, they want your money. They want to be able to click charge a credit card without a parent saying anything, but they're going to make it increasingly harder and harder and more mainly just annoying to the point where you give up. Because your kid wants to play a video game and you have to put some trust in your kid.
And again, when you have a game like Roblox, you're talking about a game that is marketed to all ages, including very, very young. This is not a teen game. This is not, if you looked at the visuals of it, I'm not sure what the actual official rating is on Roblox. I have to look at that. It may be teen rated, but we know that primarily the players are of all ages with these kinds of video games.
Well, and once again, as we talked about, and we'll continue on, and you can call about this topic or also the Iran vote, 1-800-684-3110. But this is something that. I think for too long, there have been members on the conservative side of the aisle that look at something and be like, how, you know, because we don't want. Government to just start legislating and passing laws, and we're very pro First Amendment. That because of that, we can't get involved in these topics.
But you can. And when you have an organization like the ACLJ that we have, that carries weight to it, when you start to have these discussions with very large companies and say, look, Let's do something about this. Care about this so that. You don't start losing your rights. Because if you do the appropriate thing here, when you have a game that as you said, is marketed across the board.
Eventually, with live chat functions, exactly. Eventually, you're going to have Congress want to start writing laws about it.
So, if you aren't doing the right thing, at some point, It's out of our hands. But when you have something as egregious as this, too, and it's one thing that they can say, look, we took it down, nothing to see here. That's where we're wanting cooperation. We want to have an investigation and say, hey, we want information about this. Companies get very weird because, on the one hand, they want everybody to say, oh, you're great because.
You did take it down.
Okay, no. People saw it, found out about it, and then you took it down. In Roblox, there's ways. Again, we're talking more as the parents to you all because we're not the ones playing Roblox. It's kids.
And my kids do. And we have it heavily monitored. They have private servers there. You can block contact from other people.
So it's not a chat function. And we kind of make sure they're always around us when they're playing that game because we know there's still people want to try to interact. On the other hand, they never want to tell you what they did to. to mitigate the issue. And I think that helps significantly.
For a company like Roblox. You don't have to show us all of your, you know, it doesn't have to be a hostile thing. Don't show us all your secrets. Just say, this is what we're doing. This is what's worked.
This is how it got through. This is why we think we'll prevent this from going through. How can you stop this in the future? Because it's another tool to stop inspiring those who are thinking about carrying out such a heinous act. Phone lights are open for you at 1-800-64.
3110-1800-684-3110 to have your voice heard on the air today. We're also going to continue this conversation, as Will said, about the war in Iran. We're going to continue the conversation about the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, and so much more. We'll be right back with more on Sekulow. Welcome back to Secula.
We got a couple lines open. We're going to start taking some calls really right now, but give me a call. If you want to go ahead and get on hold, we'll take a lot of calls over the next two segments. 1-800-684-3110. If it's busy, keep calling.
We'll make sure we can get to as many of you as we can.
Some of you have been on hold for a very long time. Let's go ahead and take some of those. Richards watching on the ACLJ app in California. Go ahead. Hi, you know what?
You know, I just thank God for your show. And you guys tell them the truth, you know, and You're not being political, you're just telling the whole truth. I watched so many other news outlets and If you weigh the truth, You know If you work what you're saying against some of the other people, they're editing out the truth or not even either they're editing it out or not saying it. Richard, I've said this for a long time, and that is this show is very different. Because you're right.
We do tell you the truth. We're not just giving you our opinions. We will tell you our opinions, but we're also going to give you the reality. And we're going to give you the reality of whether a vote's going to go a certain way or not going to go a certain way or whether we think something can happen or not happen, whether something is constitutional or not, whether you like it or not. That is what makes this show different.
It's what makes the ACLJ different because we are grounded in the legal side of this. And we can kind of touch on that too, is we can't come out there, nor would we come out there and just try to get your clicks, try to get you to just watch to watch. No, we want to make sure you are fully informed.
So when you have these conversations and when you see what's actually happening in the world, whether it's in the news, the courtroom, or in the media side, That we're telling you honestly. And look, I know I ruffle feathers. I see people in the comments who just vehemently disagree with me and they don't want to. And it's not like I'm sitting here wanting to just be a contrarian. We're just being honest.
Well, and I think to that point as well, and Richard, thank you so much for your call. What also sets us apart, not just the telling of the truth, is that we can take action, is that we have the ACLJ, the organization that is very successful in courts all the way up to the Supreme Court. I mean, right now we have two pending cases that we discussed yesterday or two days ago at the Supreme Court. But then you also look at what we're talking about. We're talking about CNN for precisely not telling the truth.
Right, exactly. But then you also look at this issue that we brought up today about Roblox. And one, we've taken more time because it is such a issue that, one, you don't hear a lot of conservative organizations talking about doing something like this. Two, you have to get really creative. to support the type of clients that we have taken in this case.
To do something right, do something good, seek justice, but in a way that also aligns with the Constitution. It's normally something you may hear about an organization going after a video game company or trying to work with a video game company over school violence because that's been at the center of that discussion since it started happening, since video games were a thing. The early 80s. But normally it's groups on the left that just want Congress to legislate video games away or legislate guns away. And it takes creativity as something like the ACLJ to do seriously, Jordan, to take on an issue like this in a unique and creative way.
So these families that we're working with on this initiative who have been part of school shootings, either losing one of their children or in the case of this client, she was shot but survived, thankfully. But again, you know, they've gone through this. They went through a school shooting. And they came to us. Because they don't agree that it's about the second restrictions on your right to own a gun in the Second Amendment.
They don't think that that hasn't stopped crime. All those things have shown to fail. They think it's a security lapse on multiple levels, locally. In their community, Especially in smaller communities where they'll say, oh, this person was on the radar.
Well, this was probably the only person on your radar in cities this smaller towns this small. And then, second, how do you go after those who are inspiring? These school shoes who are making it where they think it's cool, like a video game, and worth giving their life for in most cases, to carry out these heinous attacks that they'll somehow be celebrated by these sick communities online. That is where these parents think we should be starting when it comes to preventing these in the future. Not by taking away anybody's Second Amendment rights, but by going to those who are inspiring.
These young people to carry out such heinous attacks. It's very emotional to deal with the work with these families, but it's also exciting that they are committed to this long term and it's not just trying to look for some short-term fix. Ban this kind of gun, ban this kind of weapon. That's not going to stop it in the future. There's always another gun.
There's always another weapon. It's how do you, these individuals, how do you, what do you do on the psychological level? We're looking at all of that full scale with these families. This is just part one.
Well, and as well, and I encourage everyone, if you're interested in learning more specifics about this, go to aclj.org. It's under the news section. It may even be when you go there, the top story that you may read. But if you click the news tab, it's going to be up there very at the top. But it says: ACLJ joins clients whose daughter was a school shooting survivor in condemning Roblox simulation game depicting Sandy Hook-style attack.
And I think also, remember what that was: the Annunciation Catholic Church in school. was at the first day of school. Last school year. 2025 of August. It's been less than a year.
And yet how far from that time of all the things that have happened in our world. We feel like we've gone for that. It doesn't feel that long ago for those parents, I guarantee you. because it is something they are living with and now Taking action on every single day, and two children were killed in that attack. At 26 others were injured.
And that was someone targeting them as they were in there. back to school chapel. They were in their back-to-school mass, and someone was shooting inside. The the uh the place of worship. It wasn't just an attack on children.
It was an attack on faith. And these parents are strong and know in their convictions that, hey, something can be done. And it can be done in a way that is still in conjunction with and supports and supported by the constitutional freedoms that we have. And so it does take a unique organization like the ACLJ to make an impact in issues like these. We've seen as well real-time evidence of this working.
The pornographic industry. uh in many states, including our our state here, has has been blocked out because they are unwilling to do age verification.
So Tennessee is not saying you can't have this content and these are other states that participate.
So some of this is state laws. They're saying if you are going to do it, you have to implement some real age verification. And those companies have said no, which tells you a lot about who they know is watching their material. Uh who and and really and that that is illegal. For them to be showing minors any material like that, and yet they will not do age verification to get back up.
So they're willing to give up access to an entire state rather than do age verification. Phone lines are open for you. I do want to hear from you. 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110.
If you want to have your voice here, we'll talk about this topic. We can continue talking about Iran. We continue to talk about Israel and so much more. Again, phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. Let's actually take a phone call.
Let's go to Michael, who's calling in Florida online three. Michael, go ahead. How you, Phil? Good. I wanted to say mainly, I've got a lot of you know, I haven't been wrong once in fifty years in history.
But uh I want to say how lucky the average American uh uh uh should be to be in America. from Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Lincoln. up until this time, and they should be so grateful that the war war that Iran started for I phoned Fox, my children phoned Fox for me thirty years ago and they said they were going to go into Iraq, Iraq, Iraq, Iraq. I said, if you're going they said, Mike from Florida, where should we go next? I said, well, if you're going anywhere, it should be Iran because they're the biggest perpetrators of terror in the world.
But people don't realize that the this type of regime that has been ruling Iran for the last twenty seven years, they wouldn't hesitate if they had an atomic bomb to drop it on New York, New Jersey, Washington, God forbid, anywhere. That's their style. They would do it.
So, for Trump to try and take out the idea of them ever having a nuclear weapon is incredibly important. And everybody should be very grateful for him doing this, whatever they think, whatever the purpose. Unfortunately, a lot of people's minds, as you sort of touched on now, are mixed up like from the time of Lenin and Stalin and Mao Qipong in China, and Stalin in people get. I met a very nice guy in London in nineteen sixty six. Very intelligent sky friendly.
Good sense of humor. And he said to me, You have to admit, Stalin's the greatest man in the world. At that stage, they really worked out that he killed tens of thousands of these people. And say he says, I'm a mutton. I said, You can't still believe that.
He said, Don't believe the propaganda. I said, I'm believing the propaganda. You know what I'm saying? It's people get, I don't know how they get through to their brains, like it, but if you keep keeping it.
Well, Michael, I'm only cutting off because running out of time. I think that the truth is that you've seen it worldwide and for decades and decades. I do think the American principle is a little bit different because you don't see it as clearly, maybe, as when you are so close to the action of as Europe, Europe was for so many decades, especially when they were dealing with Russia and the USSR at the time.
Well, and once again, as even President Trump said, he admitted that he had strong words for Bibi Netanyahu in that phone call. Why? Because his entire goal is to eliminate the nuclear program. And Israel has a different prerogative to some degree because they do have that neighbor to the north, Lebanon, that it has Hezbollah right there. But now we're even seeing progress there.
We don't even ask the question of, you know, why is nuke capability that big of a deal? I don't think it's just because they want it for fun, they want it just. to have it. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. We're going to take as many calls as we can in the next segment.
Look, the ACLJ is involved in so many issues. You've heard about a lot of them today. I want you to be involved as well. Go to ACLJ.org, become a champion if you can. We'll be right back with more on Sekulow taking your calls and comments coming right up.
All right, last segment of the day. We made it here, folks. Tomorrow's Friday, so you know we're we're building towards that. Phone lines are a couple of them are open. 1-800-684-3110.
Let's go ahead and kick it off with some phone calls. We're going to talk about all the topics really we covered today. We want you to get involved as well. The ACLJ, we have an option for you to be an ACLJ champion. If you don't know what that is, that is people who give on a monthly basis through a recurring gift.
It's the only way, really, we can take on a lot of the robust efforts that we get to do each and every day. Whether that's the media side, again, if you could just see how many people work on this show, I think you'd be surprised. And how many people work on our media side, making sure those clips go up and everything that you see through the media, plus all of the legal work that the ACLJ team is doing across the globe. Again, that's not just here at the ACLJ, that's the ECLJ. The European Center that's also the ACLJ Jerusalem.
There's so many ways the ACLJ is involved worldwide, but let's kick off with a phone call. Let's go to TJ in Texas. On line two, kicking us back to what we were talking about earlier with the vote to end the war that came from Congress. TJ, go ahead. Yeah, I would just like to say Whatever Congress is up to, forget them right now.
Trump needs to finish what he started. We're neck deep. in this Iron thing. Reagan had a chance to finish it, didn't do it. The Bushes had a chance, didn't do it.
Obama fed it. And Trump needs to just finish it and help the Iranians Get back to Pre-1979, if that's what they want.
Well, uh to that point as well, uh the President right now is in these negotiations. Uh and what is his goal of these negotiations? His stated goal is to ensure that Iran never has a nuclear weapon. We know that under the Obama deal, they were cheating. They were enriching uranium.
And what else were they doing? They were developing the ballistic missiles to hit Europe, to hit the United States assets around the globe. That's what they were doing. They use that time to build up and get stronger, and they use sanctions relief to do it. What these talks are supposed to be is the polar opposite of that, to be something that is strong, that there are actual ways that you can check on this, and that it ensures the safety of the American people.
That's what President Trump's stated goal is.
Now, We here would prefer a free Iran led by the Persian people and it restored to greatness. I was very hopeful that we were headed towards that. But when you also start to see things like the President of Iran earlier this week, there reports that he submitted his letter of resignation to the Ayatollah, and now they're trying to deny it. But that the internal discord, that is where you see an opening that naturally could lead to an overthrow of the government. If a bubble up happens where they just have this unsettling, maybe that could still happen.
I know that not all hope is lost. That little bit of the piece, the piece that I was really excited about, to be honest, that maybe we would have a very free Iran, it doesn't seem to be right now in the cards, but you're right. Maybe there is still hope that the people. Can do what they need to do. And then we also have the same situation, very similar, I guess, in some ways, in a lesser sense, of what's going on in Lebanon.
And we can discuss that coming up because we've got calls coming in about that. Let's go to Ray, who's calling in Pennsylvania on line three. Ray, go ahead. Yes, good afternoon. I just wanted to say that I think enough is enough now.
We've seen this play over and over and over again throughout the years from Yasser Arafat on forward, giving up Israel, giving up land for peace. No peace has ever come. It's now time for the so-called negotiations to come to a complete stop and just go in, take out the regime and put a new regime in there in Iran, take back Gaza, get rid of Hamas, get rid of Hezbollah, and put this to an end. Because if not, you and I and everyone else are going to be talking about this 10 years from now. I don't think that's from now.
Yeah, I don't really discount what you have to say. That I feel like this is something we are going to have to be dealing with the rest of our lives. You have a President, though, who obviously knows what public reaction was to what happened in Iraq also, though. And I do think they're weighing that.
Well, and here's also the tale of different wars, if you will. The regime change in Iraq.
Well, the regime change in Iraq initially was very tumultuous. It gave Iran an opening to actually use. Use Iran-backed Shia militias to kind of take over much of Iraq.
Now, Iraq is fairly stable. Let's say we don't ever talk about it. Exactly. Iraq, now, now it took 20 years. It has stabilized to a degree.
Now, I wouldn't say it's the crown jewel of the Middle East by any degree, but it has gotten to a better place than it was even during the height of the war when Iran had a lot of influence there. I think also, then you look at Afghanistan. Do we want to have a permanent presence where as soon as we leave? The government falls back in the hands of the people that we spent 20 years fighting. That's the other angle.
That's not good either. I think when you look at what's happening in Lebanon, this is what gives me a lot of hope, right? Because you're seeing the Iranian proxy that has had so much power over the Lebanese government. And a government that wasn't friendly to Israel to begin with all of a sudden start to change their tune. And now they're talking peace with Israel.
And now they're talking about pushing out Hezbollah. That to me is what gives me hope that something similar, it would need to be natural. It would need to be the people wanting to push out the radicals and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard to be able to get to a better place. But I don't think the models that we've seen before are the way to do it. Yeah, I think that's the issue is that in the past, we have not been successful as the United States with regime change.
And World War II, even an example of where we ended up with the Berlin Wall. I mean, so we're good at winning wars. But we, again, kind of trying to do it without letting the people on the ground. And we also have to decide who are the people on the ground that you'd actually want. We always call for, and I think it's way too soon in these places, for immediate elections.
Let's become a democracy now, a democratic republic, in a place that's never experienced democracy in people's lives. You go from either kings to dictators, military juntas, things like that. Why do we say that we're the country that came in to liberate the people? We now are going to say there's free and fair elections, and we think that Iran is going to play free and fair in a place like Iraq.
So I think, again, we need to start, if we're going to these conflicts, to take down regimes, we need leadership that we're going to put in place and say, you get 10 years. You get 15 years before you ever have to hold an election. We're going to be hovering right over you that if you don't follow this transition to democracy, we have no problem in taking you out as well. That's a good point. Let's take a quick call.
Jennifer, we only have a few minutes left. I'm sorry, but go ahead. That's okay. I've got an appointment. Totally agree with TJ.
Trump needs to take this all the way. Just want to talk a little bit about Roblox and similar systems. I work with primary school age children, and I have been for the last thirty years. And I have seen the decline. It's terrifying to me what I see.
We have kids that are six, seven and eight years old that are walking into the public schools with energy drinks. and Huggy Wuggy, which is a horror character. But they turn him they turn him they turn Huggy Wuggy into a nice little plush creature, right? And so these kids a lot of these kids parents are just parents who were out there they were being Promiscuous. They never had the intention of becoming parents.
It just kind of happened because of their promiscuity. Jennifer, I don't want to. I'm sorry. We only have one minute left here. You have 10 seconds.
Go ahead. So we've got to quit calling this, we've got to quit calling parenting helicopter parenting. That's not what it is. That is parenting. And so we've got to, oh, the public schools will not say anything to the parents about this.
They will not say, hey, research shows, hey, you might consider changing this or modifying that because research shows nobody in the public schools will touch it. Yeah, Jennifer, look, I'm only cutting you off because really we're out of time. But I don't disagree with a lot of what you said. I think some of it has to do with parents getting involved in what their kids are watching and jesting. We've had the huggy-wuggy situation even in my family where my kids, especially when they're younger, would come back and tell me about this.
And I was like, you know, horrified of what was going on and some of these things.
Now, look, again, the way to stop a lot of this or to change it or have more accountability, sometimes it is also busy parents. It's just the fact that your kid has a device. We're living in a different age. No one has ever lived in an age like we're living right now.
So remember, parents are just getting used to this as much as kids are. If you have a kid who is in their teens, likely You remember the internet coming into your household.
Okay, remember, we're not that far away from all of that. Let's give a little grace to them and let's have accountability with the companies. Talk to you tomorrow.
