Today on Sekulow, we have breaking news. Time runs out for Iran as President Trump weighs more strikes. 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. Welcome to Sekulow. Will Haynes here, joined in the studio by Jordan Sekulow and Logan Sekulow will be joining us momentarily as well. But we've got some breaking news, as we said in the tease.
If you heard it, the United States has been trading fire with Iran overnight. This comes after the Iranians brought down an Apache helicopter over the Strait of Hormuz. The report is that it was an Iranian drone that didn't explode, and we are thankful for that, but lodged in the helicopter. Both of the members of the Army, it was an Army helicopter, were able to get out of the helicopter safely. They were rescued by a Navy drone boat.
All of this sounds like a movie when you hear it. But they were rescued by a Navy drone boat. The United States struck Iran about 20 sites overnight. The Iranians then responded by firing at the bases in Bahrain, in Jordan, and in Kuwait. As a retaliation to our retaliation.
So the back and forth is starting to pick back up. We have a post from President Trump on Truth Social that says: Iran's military is a complete and total mess. Much of it, like their Navy and Air Force, doesn't even exist anymore. They have been completely defeated. Iran is all talk-no action.
The bully of the Middle East is dead. They've taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them.
Now they will have to pay the price. And he just moments ago. As he's signing a bill in the Oval Office, he had this to say, folks, bringing it to you just moments ago, bite five. I wanna make sure I quoted correctly. You said that now they will have to pay the price.
What did you mean by that?
Well, we're gonna be attacking them, attacking them very hard. You're resuming bombing? Yeah, well, we are. Based on a helicopter, I guess we have the right to do that. You know, they shut down a very.
Very incredible, actually an incredible machine. And at first they said they didn't do it, then they admitted they did it. It's sort of easy 'cause we have the we have the bomb. We actually have the bomb. Got very lucky that bomb didn't explode.
That bomb was lodged in the helicopter, it didn't explode. It was on fire, but it didn't explode. Those two guys, they knew how to fly, but they got very lucky. And uh then we had the unmanned boat. going very, very fast, at speeds that you wouldn't want to go.
That's why it's unmanned, I guess, because nobody can go in that, but they rescued.
So both people are, fortunately the pilots are okay. Jordan, we see this. We see the back and forth. We hear now a lot of people have been calling for the President to finish the job. It seems like we may be close to that, as we are thankful that our members of the military were okay.
But once again, this is a ceasefire, and they got hit by a drone that fortunately did not explode. Right. I want to address, we get back to this whole media narrative that somehow Netanyahu, with the Prime Minister of Israel, and President Trump are in some kind of tift over who said what when. Because when you actually put together the timeline of what happened very early, I think it was 5 a.m., was the first broadcast out of Jerusalem by an American news source. And so, again, I'll be able to walk you through why this was not what the news is trying to create.
There's not this massive gulf. Uh that is dividing both Uh the IDF. course and the other countries who are looking to harm us.
So again, 1-800-684-3. 3110. If you want to talk to us on air, that's 1-800-684-3110. And well, I know there's a lot to get done, too. That's right.
And we have Rick Rinnell joining us later in the broadcast. Logan actually will be stepping in. I see him in the control room. He will be stepping in for the next segment.
So stick around. Go ahead and hit the like button. Get this out to as many people as possible. And call us if you want to speak to us on air. Do you think?
That this back and forth is foreshadowing of what is to come. That this ceasefire is done and that the United States will take decisive action against Iran. I want to hear from you 1-800-684-3110 and support the work of the ACLJ by going to aclj.org. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Sekulow.
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Sorry about that. You know, dropping your kids off.
Sometimes they got camp in the summer. Things get delayed. We were about an hour from here.
So, you know, things got a little pushback. But at the same time, President Trump, just now making a lot of statements saying we're going to hit hard Iran again today. I mean, I think the idea of a ceasefire is long gone. The idea of coming up with a deal even seems to be gone. What I see here when I read these words carefully, these are words.
I know you like to say President Trump. He talks in these simple terms. What he did was he used the Iranian regime's kind of language and turned it on him. I'll just give you that example. Not just the defeated part.
Let's start with the bully. The bully of the Middle East is dead. They've taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them.
Now they will have to pay the price. Mm-hmm. I mean right there If you put that into Farsi, It would sound like it was coming from a religious cleric or the military. Yeah, it feels like, yeah, Middle Eastern war. I mean, this is about as strong as you can say before troops are on the ground.
Well, and once again, I think what you're seeing as well is that it's one thing to say that the scuffle between Israel hitting Hezbollah and Iran saying that violates the ceasefire in the back and forth. That's one thing. It is different. When a United States Army helicopter is patrolling the Strait of Hormuz and they shoot a drone at it.
Now, we are very thankful that that bomb did not explode, the explosive within it. I think we need to clarify that. And I know we do talked a little bit about the first segment, but I was listening to this because we were even discussing before. We heard downed helicopter. I think when you hear downed helicopter, sadly, you automatically assume loss of life, a lot of things happen.
Helicopters are a cumbersome technology. Even if they are a great technology, they aerodynamically should not be able to fly. But thankfully, that's not what happened. Like you said, a drone with a bomb, I guess?
So it's these one-way attack drones, the kamikaze drones, as they call them, that was launched by Iran. They have targeting. It went to a spot. It tried to hit a U.S. helicopter.
It became lodged in the helicopter, in the warhead on it. The device did not explode.
So, we are very thankful because that would have been a different scenario. That would have been potentially talking about loss of life by two pilots of this helicopter in this Apache. Fortunately, it did not go off. They were able to evacuate the helicopter and went down into the Strait of Hormuz and were then picked up. By a Navy drone boat.
This is an unmanned boat that is able to go and pick them up. One, it's a lot safer by not sending then a vessel to do search and rescue, but also they were able to get there quicker. Yeah, President Trump was just saying that it's going at a speed that would be unsafe for humans to be on. Which I want to see this footage. I know.
I want to see the footage of this boat. Yeah. Wow.
So that's what they were just saying. Once they pick them up, obviously they adjust that speed. But to get to them is a very quick. And you realize now that issue, I didn't go back to Venezuela. And you think about the boats we were busting there.
That was what they had were still manned, but they work closely with Iran. Those I wouldn't imagine next is drug cartels utilizing that technology so that you can't ever capture who's behind it, which makes them, allows them to keep producing. The other part to this, and Will broke it down, you know, about that TIFF, Logan. The mainstream media loves going at this. He called Netanyahu said, don't respond.
I think the timing was wrong on that. And I think you could tell it out. from President Trump's remarks. I think they did have a conversation about, you know, if it's something small, let's not, you know, don't fire back.
So what happens? Hezbollah fires first. Not Israel. Hezbollah fires first, And then Israel responds to Hezbollah. They had no intention then of going into Iran.
They had to defend their northern border from an attack. And yet, while that's ongoing, Iran launches ICBMs at Israel.
So if you woke up this morning or you were up a little later last night, you saw CNN and others break in to say the missiles are falling on Jerusalem again. But these were all defensive acts. By Israel. None of this was offensive. And I think, again, we have to reframe the technological side of all of this because I think it's very easy for us to jump to even wartime when a lot of us grew up, the war on terror era, where you start thinking about those visuals.
Tech has improved so much and has changed so much. Again, we're talking about, like, when you said a drone boat, I'm like, what does that even mean? Because a drone to me is in air, but you're like, okay, it's a radio-controlled boat. But now he's saying, oh, well, it's going at a speed that's unlike anything you like. All of a sudden, your visuals of what.
Wartime is completely different.
Well, and once again, when you think about it, you know, we were still, the war in the Middle East and Afghanistan just wrapped up, unfortunately, in the way it did under the Biden administration. Five years ago. But that was still an ongoing situation. When you see just a few years in between that, What is our technology? It's like, did we have that?
And the Biden administration was just afraid to really destroy the Taliban? Because you think about even the Maduro raid. And you hear about the discombobulator. You think about the things that we have and can do with these drone boats, with the one-way drones that we reverse engineered from Iran, that we used in this conflict. What was the strategy of our US military under the previous administration that we had to have such a disastrous pullout of that conflict?
Now, I want to hear this. This is from President Trump, Byte Six. And I want to contrast this with what a U.S. senator just put up this morning on X.
So let's go ahead and play Byte Six for everyone. No, no, I've been uh working with Iran for And upper months. And They should sign their deal. It's a good deal. It doesn't give them the right to have a nuclear weapon.
In fact, it totally prohibits them from ever having a nuclear weapon. And it was just tap, tap, tap. I don't know what they're doing.
So They then shot out a uh shot at our helicopter. Very expensive helicopter, by the way, but much more importantly, the two men. Fortunately, they're okay. But an amazing rescue. If you ever get a clip, you won't believe the rescue, how cool it was.
The equipment we have. Look, we have the strongest military in the world. One, I do also love that he is so impressed by our military. The same as us, right? It's like, if you see it, it's the coolest thing you'll ever see.
It's classified at the moment. But we look at this, and it sounds in that that President Trump is almost resigned to the fact that the negotiations that he gave plenty of time for and received a lot of criticism from both the right and the left for having negotiations to try to end this, it sounds like he thinks those are over. That you know, we gave them a chance. They're not going to take it. They're stringing us along.
Here's what Chris Murphy said. Democrat from Connecticut this morning. Good morning. This is your daily reminder that the President has lost total control of the Iran war and thus has lost interest. He now only obsesses over his ballroom and schemes to profit off the Presidency while gas and grocery prices soar.
These messages, which I assume the senator didn't write this himself, this probably is his staffers or interns, but which senator was it again? Chris Murphy from Connecticut. But just the fact that it's so devoid of where anything was. He posted this today after overnight there were strikes on Iran because they shot down a helicopter. They only want to push a political narrative.
It also shows you they actually don't take this war that seriously because they're just going to keep making political messages about it. If they really were concerned about it becoming World War III or a forever war, they wouldn't be so blase with these statements that they'll put up. That are saying like, well, he only obsesses over his ballroom, which isn't even in the conversation today. Then why do you call these members of the DOD and others to testify? If you think this is uh total loss and the war and the President doesn't care about it anymore, and if that's true, then what are you doing with these congressional hearings about Iran?
Why are you trying to grab our soldier? You, Senator, just said no purpose to it.
So, what would happen though next time if uh A member of our military, like a general, did not want to show up in light of the statements. Are they going to put them in prison? I mean, think about those kind of questions. A lot of this material right now, I don't think any of it could be done publicly. It'd have to all be behind closed doors.
And you don't do that to members of our military while there's an ongoing conflict. All right. Hey, with that, I want you to call in. I want you to give us your thoughts on this. As we have seen now, you know, the talks, I feel like the last few weeks have all been about heading towards peace, headed towards a peace agreement.
But things have changed rapidly in the last 24 hours, where now it feels like, though he's saying, you know, the deal is still available to them. It all but feels off the table at this point as of right now. How do you feel about that as the American people? Look, we know a lot of people who support President Trump do not support this war in Iran. We know a lot of people feel that this is not what you voted for.
How do you feel right now? Give us, you know, a bit of an idea. I'd love you to call in. You can also tell us in the chat, but let me let me know. 1-800-684-3110.
In the next segment, we're actually going to take quite a few calls about this.
So if you want to be on the air, it's a good time to do it. You may not be on hold all that long. Greg will take you first coming up in the next segment. But again, phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. And look.
The work of the ACLJ continues, including our work overseas, by the way. When you hear about wars like this, you hear about, look, we've worked actively in countries like Iran. We obviously work actively in Israel. We are involved really unlike any other organization in these war zones. To make sure that your voice is being heard, that your rights are being protected worldwide.
That what you believe in is being stood up for. And we do that. By having what we call ACLJ champions, people that give on a monthly recurring donation. You can do that, it's really easy. You can opt in.
Just go to aclj.org/slash champions. We can only stay in the fight with all the champions who stand behind us. And look, it is only a small percentage of those that give. A lot of you give one time and look, God bless you. I appreciate that.
But those of you that can't, We encourage you to become a champion, be part of our group here, and every month your donation will be automatically deducted. With that being said, you obviously can cancel at any time. Partner with us today at aclj.org slash champions, taking your calls when we get back. Welcome. Back to Sekulow.
Look, President Trump's been making a lot of statements this morning, so I want to make sure you have the latest. This is a, we're going to kick things off with some sound from President Trump, and then we're going to take your phone call. A lot of you are calling in right now. Give us a second because our phone screener is doing some double duty right now, making sure we get the sound for President Trump and also that we get to your calls.
So stay on hold if you're on hold. But let's start off with President Trump. This was just moments ago about the situation unfolding in Iran right now as we are hitting back pretty strongly as we speak.
So we'll see what happens. But we hit him hard yesterday and We're going to hit them again hard today in case you miss it, in case you don't turn on your television set. And we'll see what happens with the deal. We were really close to a deal, but they keep tapping us along, they keep playing us the suckers because you know what? They dealt with some very stupid Presidents.
Of course, President Trump is only the way he can say it. But look, we are at a point where President Trump, you could say for weeks, has been calling for essentially a peace deal, getting frustrated with. The Netanyahu administration in Israel for doing some fighting back during these ceasefire times, but then you look and you see what happens. Again, we all knew that trusting this regime was never going to be really in the cards, but now here we are. I want to take phone calls right off the bat.
Let's go to Greg in Tennessee online one. Greg, go ahead. Good morning, fellas. Thank you for taking my call. My analogy of Trump and Iran And it's And I think a lot of people would agree with me.
And by the way, I am a 100% Trump. Christian conservative. But I would say he's making me think of a parent that counts to three before they discipline their child. And to use his uh MMA analogy, it's like watching a prize fight. The first This fight with Iran, the first few rounds, there were some haymakers thrown.
But now we're seeing jab, jab, jab, jab. And he sounds like Iran. Talking to itself. You know, there's jabs. Nothing but jabs.
We need to get back to haymakers. Yeah, Greg. Go ahead.
Well, my second point, I just wanted to throw a sidebar in. I went out to eat for dinner last night, drove fifteen miles, had a friend that drove thirty five miles to meet me for dinner. The restaurant on a Tuesday night in a small city in Jackson was packed. It was so hard. If our economy is so bad, why are people on a two now?
You know, Friday and Saturday night are typical go out to dinner nice. But Tuesday night, I could hardly get a seat. I waited for a half hour for my friends to get there, and it was packed. And like I said, if the country's in such bad shape, how are we maintaining this level of opulence?
Well, I think, Greg, there. There's a lot to unpack there. Thank you for calling in. I like the parent analogy, even though some people may, on both sides of it, not like that he has that style, that he will hit them hard and then say, hey, now let's negotiate. It's kind of the opposite of Teddy Roosevelt, you know, speak softly and carry a big stick.
He hit them very hard first with the stick, and now he still talks tough the entire time. But you go back to even the economy.
Now, Every headline you're looking at is trying to make you think that it is completely unlivable in this country. And there are people that are struggling. There have been people that have been struggling for a long time. Since even 2020, when our economy hit what was the pandemic, global pandemic that shut down the economy, it has been a long road to rebuild from that. And then you had the four years under the Biden administration where you were seeing inflation numbers at 9% year over year.
That takes a long time to recover from when prices jump that high. And then, even when they're like, oh, look, they came down. There was a headline today about inflation because it has ticked up some. There is a target inflation number around 2%, 2.5%. It is the last number was around 4%.
That is higher than they want. obviously. They were like the largest inflation in three years. What was the largest inflation in three years when it was 4%? That was it coming down from 9%.
So yes, while that has ticked up, and that will affect prices at grocery store, that will affect things like gas. When you think about where we were. Where you talk about this, Greg, that people are going out on a Tuesday night. There were people making a decision whether or not they could even eat under the Biden administration because egg prices were eight, nine, ten dollars for a dozen. There is, go to the grocery store, you can buy eggs again.
Yeah. I mean, that is one thing that people aren't talking about. This is not a situation that we have an economic crisis on our hands. I also think, Greg. You're lucky, we're lucky.
We live in a state like Tennessee. Very cheap. And you live in a very red state that has some controls over a lot of these different things. I think you go and you see what gas prices are other places. You see what some of the prices, the inflations are in other cities, some of the major cities.
Now, of course, you can go to New York City and see, okay, well, it was $20,000 to go, you know, to sit in the nosebleeds of the Knicks game. You know, are people really hurting? I mean, that's obviously not the normal person who's going to those things. There are a lot of issues that come out. But when you start at the beginning of this, you talk about the parent counting to three with Iran, and it seems like now they're tap, tap, tap.
I'd say taking down one of our helicopters, you know, doesn't feel like a tap. No. Yes. It doesn't feel like an annoyance. That feels like an act of war.
That is an act of war.
So we were in a ceasefire.
So an act of war does not have to be necessary that we've made that declaration of war. But this is a certain kind of act that then allows under international law For you to hit back as a nation. When they target your military or your place, even workplaces, you can then retaliate under the UN's. international law. Look, I wanted to take calls on people who believe in different versions of what is right or wrong in terms of the war in Iran.
So I want to go to Patricia, North Carolina, who's listening on the radio. Patricia, go ahead. You there, Patricia? All right, let's put her back on hold. We'll see if we can get to her a little bit later.
In the meantime, then let's go to Florence in New York. A little bit different, a little swerve here. Florence, go ahead. I'm going to say good morning, good afternoon, whatever it is, but it's a good one. All right.
All right, listen. I'm driving. I'm in my car. I have no notes.
So I'm just gonna go at it. I prefer it that way. First of all, let's go to that gentleman who just called about Donald Trump being a parent or whatever. People have to understand something about what President Donald Trump is doing with Iran. When Iran started slaughtering and murdering 30,000 people in the streets because they wanted their freedom, they wanted a regime change, we did not draw first blood.
This is basically like a humanitarian effort for Donald Trump to go in there and do what he was doing and is still doing. Like a President, like a good President, like a military President, he does not need to let anybody know what chess game he's about to play, what move he's about to move. Do I believe he's about to do something? Yes. Is he about to put them in check, mate?
Yes. That's what I believe. That's what's in my heart.
Next, I want to address Chris Murphy, that hack. He should be ashamed of himself, and any person, whether you're a Democrat, Republican, or an Independent. If you were in the military, you already know what's going on. And to speak against the commander-in-chief, whether you agree, disagree or not, to me, this is a humanitarian effort going in to have a regime change, the same way he's doing with Cuba, same way he's doing with Venezuela. We don't have to have boots on the ground.
There's a way to talk to people to get these things done. You know, I think local people like that. There's a big question, which is which you saw how supportive she is of the President. There is that one caveat. The boots on the ground.
And at some point, if this Iran, Iran escalates, President Trump said yesterday and the day before yesterday, it will be us. Going in to move that uranium out. He's like, we may be able to do it with the UN and their scientists, but we are going to go in and do it.
So, right there, there will be boots on the ground at some point under the current strategy. Yeah, we were even talking about what that even looks like of getting uranium out, even the idea of what it is, what it looks like, how it's done. I'd say, Florence, thank you for calling. You're welcome on this show anytime. No notes needed.
You didn't need anything. You know, just call back, tell them you're one of our favorites. Put you up. Fantastic. I appreciate it.
Hey, phone lines are open for you.
So we're heading to the second half hour. If you lose us here, don't. Join us on aclj.org, on YouTube, on Rubble. You can find the show whether we're live, 12 to 1 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday, or archived later on, however you get your podcast.
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Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now, your host, Logan Sekulow. Welcome back to Sekulow, second half hour of the show. Here we are, folks.
Phone lines are lighting up. We've got a couple open: 1-800-684-3110. Will Haynes in studio, Jordan Sekulow in studio, Rick Rinnell joining us in the next segment. Phone lines again are open for you at 1-800-684-3110, talking about what feels like the relaunch of the war in Iran after. A drone took down one of our helicopters.
Now, I do want to say to make sure it's clear, because I don't feel like it actually was very clear, that no loss of life. We were able to rescue both the pilots that were involved in this helicopter crash. Again, it was hit by an Iranian drone. The bomb did not detonate. We were able to actually capture the bomb.
And at the same time, we were able to send out what they call a drone boat, which is essentially a remote-controlled boat that goes very, very fast and picked up these soldiers and got them out of harm's way. This is, though, a big escalation. In the war in Iran. And look, I know that for a lot of you, you feel one way or the other about the war in Iran. Even if you're a conservative, even if you're a President Trump supporter, you may have voted.
For President Trump, because look, he was the candidate that ran on no new wars, wasn't going to be starting wars, that wasn't what he was going to do. And look, now we're multiple months into a war. Of course, he said this is nothing compared to Vietnam, nothing compared to the war on terror and all that. And look, that's true. But again, you may feel a little disappointed.
In President Trump making that decision, I want to hear from you one way or the other. 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110. I think for the mass majority of the people, actually, in the comments and the calls, they don't feel that way.
So, that could be a social media construct that pretends to not understand. That's what I was talking about before: is like timelines don't matter in those social media contexts, it is not there. There's not footnotes to this, footnotes to that, or revisions. But I want to take Patricia's call online for a supportive of our country, but has some questions about all the wars that are going on. Patricia, welcome to the show.
You're on the air. Hi, thank you, and good afternoon, but thank you for having me. Um As I said before, I'm all for our country protecting our country's interests. And I'm all for protecting our military. I have three brothers that went through the military.
And therefore, I'm concerned as much about the war in our country as I am about the war coming at our country through other means for other reasons. And what I mean by that is the cybersecurity that's being breached all the time. It's about the identity theft that's taking place and it's rampant. And our local government doesn't seem to know what to do about it, and they don't assert themselves to do anything about it. And so therefore, it's as a senior I feel constantly victimized every day because people are listening in and on my phone calls.
They're capturing my information. They're trying to use my information against me to try to take it. I 100% hear what you're saying. And I think, one, that is kind of one of the other reasons why Iran is such a threat to the United States. When you inundate people with the spam that we get, with the junk that we get, that it's tied to exactly what you care about, you then, if you're not thinking twice about it being spam, you start thinking, why am I getting this?
Like, why am I getting this pro, anti-Israel message? In my inbox, and what's going on here. And again, we can explain to that how that process works, likely, and all of that. But I do think it speaks to a larger point of. We want to protect, help protect the world.
Now, she was talking about four wars. I'm not sure what four wars, in addition to this, she was referring to, because front and stage, this is the most significant. She might also meant Russia-Ukraine, but we're really just providing assets there, not boots on the ground. I've got a great point as well about cybersecurity. Most of the cybersecurity threats that happen against individuals come from overseas.
Places like Russia. Places like Iran. They use cybersecurity threats against Americans or identity theft. To steal to get money to fund their terrorism. They have illicit networks that do this.
So even when you talk about this front of a different war, it's not necessarily that much different than combating them for their kinetic threats. Their cyber threats are just as dangerous as well. That's right. Hey, phone lines are completely jammed right now. They may open up at 1-800-68-430-110.
The next segment, Rick Rinnell's going to be joining us. We're going to talk about that main Senate race. We're going to talk about Graham Plattner. You've heard all these words.
Now he won. What does it look like? We're going to talk a little bit about that and a little bit of World Cup controversy. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Sekulow.
We're joined now by Rick Grinnell. Rick, we've been talking politics with you the last few times you've been on here. We'll have some Iran chatter as well as things have kind of heated back up over them downing an Apache helicopter. But last night we saw the Democrats in Maine. Nominate To be the next U.S.
Senator if he can beat Susan Collins, the longtime Republican from Maine. An individual who has a very humble background, is an oyster farmer and veteran, but also has a Nazi tattoo, has horrible things you can't say on the radio, which we're not just online for you folks that are watching us. We also are on terrestrial radio and satellite radio, things you can't say legally. This is a problematic person, and yet he was able to beat. A popular governor For this seat, as As a nobody with all this baggage, what do you make of this, Rick?
Well, look, first of all, let's start from the fact that Maine is different, right? There's a lot of states that are very different than a traditional Republican state or a swing state. And w I'm a Republican that that thinks, you know, we We need to be able to have people that can win in different states, even if it's a blue state. A light blue state or a purple state. And so we shouldn't be so.
Uh Surest. to say that you've got to have a complete Uh 100%. voting friend in order to have a friend. I don't think like that. I guess maybe because I live in California, I'm a little more realistic.
I think Susan Collins makes the Republican Party better. I think she is thoughtful, judicious. I've really gotten to know her, and I like her very much. And she is a great representative for Maine. A lot of people in Maine.
are free thinkers into they want common sense. And I think that Susan Collins always is thoughtful. And not only is she effective for Maine, but I think she's really making the Republican Party better with her ideas.
Now, you take who her opponent is at this point. And once again, this is something that. I love the way you described Maine. Maine is a great state. I visited there.
I love it. But when you start to think about what's going on and the fact that the Democrats now have nominated someone to try and unseat her.
Someone who is a free thinker. This is someone that is it is shocking that, with all the baggage they have at this point, was able to run away with a nomination for the DNC to become a U.S. Senator. What are your thoughts on that?
Well, I think part of the reason why is that. The main Democrats have become, like the rest of America, way more left. Than normal. It's not your father's Democratic Party anymore. And so they went looking for someone who could, in their minds, bring home the mailboat, which they have lost over the years.
men have just abandoned the the Democratic Party. And in doing so, I think they proved that they just went too far left. This guy is out of the mainstream. He's not someone that is going to go over well in Maine or any swing state. I think he would struggle in New York.
I think he would struggle in California. He, I don't understand what his appeal is. I think early on they wanted a vet. They wanted a guy who was unequivocally male. And then We had Since then, revelations that have really exposed him for being a total fraud.
And I think that's the troublesome recipe right now is that he's not even consistently what they wanted in the beginning, but they were stuck with him. And I think they'll drag down a lot of Democrats Rick, I was going to ask you that next because, again, we are seeing the kind of grassroots Democrats and liberals keep putting forward out of the mainstream for Democrats candidates that in the past, maybe even a decade ago, would have had no shot at all, would not have even made it through a runoff, probably wouldn't have had more than 1% or 2% if any allegations like this came to light before people started voting. But again, Rick, is this kind of like, you know, the... The people Decided, you know what, it's not just about winning for us anymore. We want to only win with the most liberal candidate we can get through the primary process.
Well, I also think I think those are great points, Jordan. And I think one of the other issues they have is is just the issue of their governor, right? She, Jan Mills, was trying to Be somebody who wanted to take the Senate seat after her governorship, but she was so unsuccessful. That the big personality in the Democratic Party, the governor, the sitting governor. was losing support because she just couldn't govern very well.
And so they just really had to look for an alternative. But the traditional Democrats still want her. because she's been around for a long time. And I think, to be honest, if they would have gone with the governor in Maine, the race would have been over fast because. Dennett has such a terrible record of policy.
that the people of Maine would have rejected that fast. They already know her failures. Rick, I did want to change topics here a little bit because, you know, the nation is starting to get ready for the World Cup. Very excited. This weekend.
That's right. And at my alma mater yesterday in Auburn University, they had the Argentinian team face off against Iceland, the last preparation match. Very cool to see imagery out of that. Never thought in a million years a small town in Lee County, Alabama would have what looked almost 90,000 people fit in the stadium. It looked 90% full for that.
But you're starting to see, obviously, everything's politics. Rashida Tlaib put this out. From the very start, this World Cup has been consumed by controversy. And now the Trump administration is putting its racism on full display. Omar Artan of Somalia, Africa's top referee, was denied entry despite his diplomatic visa.
Meanwhile, the entire Iranian team is being forced to commute from Mexico for every Match, it's a disgrace. Which is a host country. That's right. Mexico being a host country as well. One major part of this when you're going to call someone like a racist or xenophobic.
President Trump and his team agreed to a World Cup that would not just be held in the United States of America, but that would be held in the North Americas.
So you got, again, Canada, the United States, and Mexico. And like that idiotic writing she wrote in saying, you know, they're having to drive from Mexico. No, there are training grounds in Mexico. There's games in Mexico. They're spread out all over the country.
These guys fly all the time. And so, again, they. They just missed the truth. But going back to the most of their audience isn't going to think like that. They're not going to read it that closely and they're going to just think, yeah, Donald Trump racist.
Donald Trump's the first President I know of who's allowed a major sporting event to occur in two other additional countries. Yeah, I mean, this is Rick. But at the same moment, it's not like just because the World Cup is here that all of a sudden our guard needs to be down in terms of vetting who's coming in, especially when they're coming in from countries that, I don't know, we're in active military conflict with, like Iran.
Well, look, I don't like Rashida Talib's anti Mexican stance. I mean, I think the Mexican people have contributed a lot to America. Mexican Americans are part of our fabric. Mexico is an ally that we respect. And to somehow diss Mexico that they're not capable of hosting, they are a host here.
And Roshida Tolede should not be so anti-Latin, anti-Hispanic, and anti-Mexican. This is clearly what her agenda is. Pretty xenophobic, if you ask me, Rick, that she would put something like this on X. Yeah, she's proud of it. She's proud to be, you know, but you know, what she doesn't understand is.
how hardworking the Mexican people are and how they deserve to be a part of FIFA. Yeah, exactly. And the Iran game is looking the first game is in Los Angeles.
So they'll be playing in they will be traveling into the United States. There are a lot of those teams they get here and half the team doesn't go home. They want to stay, right? I mean, you know, so well, especially for Tehran. I mean, we're going to be hosting the Iranians here, and we have the biggest Iranian American community outside of Tehran.
And I think this whole city is going to Really tried to say to these individuals: leave your country, get out now. And I think we will see some deportation. Yeah, they've had to put in specific rules on what flag that's going to be waved because, you know, a lot of Iranians in Los Angeles wave the previous flag, the Shaw's flag, and they're like, we can't allow that into the World Cup because obviously there is what to not escalate things when you're already, it's already soccer.
So there's already a high escalation of tension. The World Cup, obviously, a big deal for people outside of this country more than it is here.
Now we're finally seeing that change a little bit. Ticket prices at least certainly say that. Phone lines are over for you, Rick. Thanks for joining us today. We appreciate it.
We don't have many lines open, but we will take a ton of calls in the next segment. And I want you to join us in this fight as well. Become an ACLJ champion today. Throw up that QR code. There you go.
Game that QR code. Go to aclj.org/slash champions if not. become a ongoing supporter. of the ACLJ, we would appreciate it right now. Again, phone lines are open, 1-800-684-600.
31101-800-684-3110 to be on the air. But if you feel so moved right now, great time to become a ACLJ supporter and make it monthly at aclj.org/slash champions, your calls and comments when we get back. All right, phone lines are pretty much full. There's one open. You can try, but a lot of these people hold for a long time, and I'll make sure we get to as many as we can.
Talking a lot about Iran, the current war situation. Let's just kick it off. Let's go to Ann, Pennsylvania. Go ahead, Ann. Hey guys, it's always a pleasure and an honor to be on your amazing show.
I want to quickly just make a couple of points, is that okay? Absolutely.
So for 47 years we've had pure unadulterated abuses on the Iranian people and Presidents and the press have been affirming this and demanding action time and time again. What Trump is saying in a nutshell when he insisted today when he was questioned about Iran. Either you abide by the peace treaty or not, or else This is what he's saying, bottom line. Trump also emphasized today that the regime has been changed, but now, if you will, a different animal to deal with is there. And to the doubt.
Here's what we have to learn. And I think this is you made some good points, but I want to jump in here so people kind of understand. It's this was a ceasefire. It wasn't a full treaty.
So, a ceasefire is an early step before you come up with some kind of treaty. And all a ceasefire is, is basically, we don't shoot on you, you don't shoot on us and our assets. They violated that. Iran violated that. And then through Hezbollah first, Israel then responds.
But I would say, again, that is why I think President Trump's ex-moment, or whatever we could call it. is was exactly on point for how it'll be translated in Farsi. Which is you've had the time, now it's over, and it's going to be worse than you ever can uh imagine.
Well, and before we get to another call, I do want to make a point. What Anne was saying, how long this has been going on and how much the people have suffered under this authoritarian regime. When you look at what's popular movements in our country on college campuses and things, whenever there's some authoritarian regime that is going after their people mercilessly, normally you have like college campuses rising up. I think back when I was in college, even like the genocide in Sudan, that's a worthy cause of when people are being wiped out. Uh that that people speak out about it.
What you have not seen as a popular movement. Is that for Iran, even though it's been going on for 47 years? And you see, even this year, 30,000 of their own people at least killed by the regime for speaking out against it. Why isn't it happening? I think, and this is a theory from me, why that is, is because the roots of the Iranian revolution was Marxist.
That's how they got the academics in Iran to turn on the Shah. It was from the Marxist movement that went there and was then co-opted by the theocratic death cult that is the Iranian regime. I want to try to get some more calls. Send me a bell hole for a while. Let's go to Karen in California on YouTube.
Go ahead, Karen. Hi. Hey, go ahead. I just want to say thank you. Thank you.
Thank you for having me.
So I'm from California. And I Um 100% Trump supporter. I've been a Trump supporter since twenty sixteen, and there are actually a lot more of us in California. Than people realize. Yeah, absolutely.
And. Don't get me started on the whole. Yeah. Governor Race. That's fine.
Yeah, yeah, that that's the total flaw. But Trump knows what he's doing. I have one hundred percent faith in what Trump is doing. He has given them an ultimatum. over and over.
And he's trying to work with them And they're not listening. They're not going to listen. They're not going to change. And it's going to get to the point, unfortunately, where we are going to have to take action against Iran. Yeah, I mean I think Karen we're there.
I mean I don't want to cut you off but I think we're we've crossed that point. And someone who has spent significant time with President Trump and we weren't always talking about impeachment or Mueller and we talk about kind of the bigger things war at That first time is about kind of getting out of Kuwait, those kind of getting Afghanistan while also kind of promoting this peace that was just coming together under the first 45 of these Gulf states. We're now seeing that alliance pay off, which I think is really key as well. But I go to where President Trump is, he is a tough talker. But he is always trying to prevent full-scale war because he does care so deeply about the American people and the soldiers who volunteer to fight.
So if there's a deal still to be had, he'd be making it right now as we speak so that we don't have to put more armed forces in harm's way. I think Lori on line five has a very interesting kind of counterbalance to that as well, but also kind of agreeing, but also about the people, the people in Iran. Go ahead, Laurie. Hi, thanks for having me. I am a champion.
I forgot to tell your screener, and thank you guys for all you do. Thank you so much for being a champion. We appreciate it. All right. Well, look, I'm watching other news that you're not seeing on the on our news.
Students are protesting in Iran. You've got paid soldiers eating potatoes. The Immortal Guards are in there. You have some citizens that are armed and others that are making videos begging to be armed. I just think Trump is trying to take his time so that the system could collapse.
And that takes time. And also, you've got a ton of insighting going on. We don't hear all of this, but. There it's falling apart, and he's just trying to give it some time to let that happen, is what I believe. Laurie, I mean, I would maybe hope that that's a theory.
You know, it's a theory and not a bad one. Yeah, that you he's got to cut, he's gotten down to the last level of rhetoric you can use to say how serious I am about doing this. He can't send out a message like that. And if Iran fires back sometime today, or if they already have And not begin to carry out what he threatened in the post. Because if he doesn't, then people are going to start saying that's bloviating.
We can ignore these and just go about our day continued to attack U.S. and Israeli resources near us.
Well, and I think we should go to Matthew calling from Idaho, but also to that point, Jordan, it's that if people aren't familiar with this strategy from the President as far as and his leaders in the military and Pete Hegseth, it's because that's not the way that the United States has fought these conflicts over the past decades, during our lifetime. And you know what hasn't been working too great the way it's been done in the past.
So blah, blah, blah, blah. We can't keep doing it the same way we've always done it. Let's go to Matthew online too. You there, Matthew? Ah, we don't matthew.
Quickly, we've only got like a minute left. Thank God for President Trump. Thank God the pilots are safe. I'm 100 behind our President. Iranians have little dog syndrome.
They don't know when they've been beat. They don't tell the truth. The only thing they have integrity in is in dying.
So maybe Trump will help them with that one. All right. In the same way, let's go to Ray real quick. I think his call will be a good one to wrap up. I think it's probably similar.
Ray, go ahead. Yeah, I'm just going to say that if we don't take care of this now, and when I say take care of it, I mean taking out Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. This has all been a waste, a waste of the last two months. There is no deal, never will be a deal. The only deal that needs to be done is to take Iran out.
And just expose them for who they are. Blow up their capital, blow up whatever we need to blow up, bridges, whatever it is.
Well, to that point, I think this is why the President and the strategy and Pete Hagseth, it's so hard to pin down because he's not making you happy who wants it to go quicker. And then you have on the other side Chris Murphy, who's saying the President's lost total control and has lost interest. I don't think that is true from Chris Murphy. And I think actually the strategy, it has only been two months. And this is a regime that's been entrenched for 47 years.
I think we can afford a couple more months to see how this plays out with a little bit of a different tactic than we've seen before. All right, that's gonna do it for today's show. We appreciate everyone who's joined us today. Look. Every new battle the ACLJ has needs your support, and it's on the world stage.
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