Mamdani Booed Off Stage at Heated New York Event

On today's show, Mayor Mum Donny boot off stage at a heated New York event. Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110.

And now, your host, Logan Sekulow. Welcome to Sekulow. Let's open up the phone lines. I'm gonna wait for him to do it. Let's see.

Happy Friday. Happy Friday. They're still not open. Still not open. One day they're going to open up, Will.

There they are. 1-800-684-3110. Give me a call right now to be on the show. 1-800-684-3110. We made it to a Friday, as Will said.

It's August 7th. It's just me and Will for the next hour, which also means I want to hear from you. That's always the most important voice. Any of the topics. that we've been talking about the last couple of weeks.

Look. Open phones Friday, as Will likes to say. Why do you always keep throwing this on me? You actually said that to me today when I said we could do that. You said we could do Open Phones Friday.

Yeah. And I said that goes well all the time. Let's see. Let's see. Are you Team Will that Open Phones Friday will go very well?

Or are you Team Logan that's like, they're not going to call me? Yeah, they mainly, yeah. Mainly, it just makes me sad because I go open phones and then no one calls. They're having a phone line, but no one rings. It's an emo song.

We have two people calling already. Yeah, they're regulars. They were going to call regardless. That being said, let's get back to it because they always get mad when I don't talk about the topic right off the top here. Look.

Mayor of New York City, and I've been talking about this. And I said, you know what? I love the people of New York City. I love New York City. It's my favorite places in the entire world.

I lived there. I spent so much time there. I spent time the most there, probably second or third to my hometown.

So, hometown, Nashville. I'm either in Central Florida or I'm in New York City, probably the most.

So, I love it there. I also love the people. And I know that what you see in the news doesn't reflect all the people of New York City. I know when you hear the mayor of New York City going out make these crazy statements sometimes that that does not reflect the overall feeling. of a lot of New Yorkers.

And they made their voices very clear. Mayor Bomdani, he was out. Making A at a police event. An NYPD event on Staten Island, which you know anything about New York City, you know Staten Island is one of the places where they maybe are a bit more, I don't want to say conservative, but let's just say you're probably going to have a lot more friendly conversations there on Staten Island than you are politically on other places. Let's just look at the pure brass text of what happened in the last election.

The last election, you had Mayor Mondani coming in second by a hair. to Sliwa I mean, neck and neck with a couple thousand votes. And then you had what, a 60,000 swing? Yeah, it was 82,000 voted for Andrew Cuomo on Staten Island. 33,000 voted for Mandami.

And then Curtis Sleewa got 31,000, almost 32,000 votes. If there was a moment of where Andrew Cuomo would have had what they consider a monumental landslide, it would have been on Staten Island.

So when the mayor comes up At an NYPD event on Staten Island. to do just a short address. I wonder what is going to happen with the current state of New York City. Let's actually just see it in real time. Here you go, bite one.

Uh I mean you can't even hear what the mayor was saying in his short one-minute address being booed aggressively and obviously cursed out by the people in Staten Island who had a few choice words to say about the mayor. But remember, not saying that's good, look, that we should be up there causing a scene, but I just wanted a quick reminder. That when you see the news. To not forget that there are people in these states, whether that is in Wisconsin, whether that is in Michigan, whether that is in New York, whether that is in Southern California. Who not only disagree with what's going on, they're willing to stand up and make a, you know, say their, they say their peace, if you will.

I cannot imagine that that was very fun, or honestly, felt very secure for the mayor. You gotta give it to him I guess for going to make that statement knowing that he was walking into that kind of territory. What do you think? Give me a call: 1-800-684-3110. Phone lines are open today.

They're one eight hundred six eight four thirty one ten.

Well, you told people to open up the phone lines, and guess what happened? They're calling in, but you know what? Stay on hold if you're on hold. Look, I know it takes a second for our phone screener to go through all of you, so just be patient. We'll get to ya.

Again, phone lines are open at 1-800-68-4-30-110. Before we step right back into the Momdani situation, I do also want to let you know because, look, our ACLJ team, I got to love them.

Sometimes they send me some highlights of what we need to cover when we're talking about these uh Spe special drives, like right now we got this impact match. It's a lot of text here, everybody. I'm gonna be honest, this is a lot of text.

So, what I can tell you, I'll just summarize: ACLJ. Do real good things. ACLJ does real good things. We're helping people who need help. But I could go through it if you want to know about very specific proposals out of California things that we're working on right now.

We'll walk you through it. But it is part of our impact match that's happening right now. You guys have already made it a really historic couple days. Let's keep it going. If you like this show, If you like the legal work, if you like the fact that we do all this and we do it without a paywall, I need you to continue supporting.

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So, again, no paywalls on anything we do like that. It's pretty amazing.

So, thank you so much. Again, that's at aclj.org slash impact.

Well, well, just put a finger up like you said. No, I didn't. No, I just kind of stretched. Oh, I thought you were doing great. You had something to say.

Yeah. Well, I do. I've got lots to say because I just saw that clip in the previous segment of the mayor of New York getting booed off stage. Yeah. Let's go to Robert of Maryland.

You know what? He's always good. Classic collar well. One of the originals. Let's go ahead, Robert.

Go ahead. I appreciate it. Thank you.

Okay, now, let me kind of preface this before I ask the question. I heard the clip, right, about the mayor going to a police event in Staten Island. Right. And so he's getting booed, he's getting cussed out because they're bleeping it, right? Right.

And so based on that, based on how he Uh campaigned and now how he's governing. I know New York is very blue. I live in the blue state of Maryland. I know New York is very Democratic. Maryland's very Democratic.

As openly socialist as Mandani was, What are some of the reasons you believe he still ended up being elected mayor, particularly over Thomas Silwa, more so than I think? The former governor. Right. Right. Views on that?

Well, I think one, you look at Manhattan, which is the largest voter base of the five boroughs. It's very progressive, very far left. You think of even what we've seen prior to his election. You look at the encampments on Columbia's campus. You think about all of the things that happened in Manhattan, and that is a big, big portion of the voting base.

Staten Island, as we said, you know, it's much smaller. What were the numbers? When you add it up, It's not even 200,000 votes that were cast in Staten Island.

So, yeah, there are differences in the demographics in all of the boroughs, really. But specifically here. And once again, I don't think it was wrong for him to go to the National Night Out event. He is the mayor. Yeah, that's where he should be.

And these events, what is the National Night Out? I mean, this is an event that happens all over the country. It's the first Tuesday in August is when this happens. Many of you have probably attended them in your hometown. It's a community outreach between police departments and the community.

It's supposed to make it a place where people can interact with the police in a Positively, in a way that fosters a community and shows that, okay, police are here to help. Not to be the bad guy. When you campaigned, though, that way, and then you are the mayor and you show up at an event like that, I think it's to be expected that that's what's going to happen, especially when you think of the blue-collar nature of Staten Island. You think of, as Robert said, it is more of the Curtis Lewa kind of vibe, it is much more old school, blue-collar New York, more moderate, I'd say, but. Or maybe traditional diplomatic.

I think that's the way to say about it as Manhattan would be your downtown. And Staten Island would be your suburbs. I mean, I think that there are visuals on Staten Island you'd look at and you would not even understand you're in New York City. Right. So it's a much more comparable lifestyle to what maybe you're used to.

I'd love to live there. It's a cool place. That being said, It is a also, you have New York, to address Robert's question: how this gets elected in the first place. You have a very progressive city. You also have a city that always just feels like, one, it's very young.

There's a huge young population that comes in. You have Mayor, you have Zoran who comes in, who is a very gifted communicator. Very good at social media. You put him up against a two Old white men, let's just be honest. And you have a very progressive base that also is going to vote in a way that makes them feel good.

And they think it feel makes them feel good, by the way, to vote for the young hip Muslim candidate. I don't put that, I mean, that's why you see how much the Jewish community did support Muhammadi. It's a lot. Why? Because they're so progressive, they so want to fight back against the stigma that's been put on them.

That they're willing to even put their own lives at risk, I feel like often, to not feel like they are being some sort of, you know, being labeled in some sort of way as a conservative or even worse, as a racist or something like that, that they will fight so hard against it. that sometimes this is what happens. I think New York is one of those places. As of recently, Remember, before this Eric Adams. Mayor Giuliani, Michael Bloomberg.

These were not. young hip people. By any means. These were pretty strong, aggressive guys. Who came in and did the job.

I think what you have right now is what you have in a lot of places, which is a fight back against that from young people and old people who want to feel young.

Well, and I think also what we need to draw the contrast. If you saw the video in the break, it was talking about what's going on in Wisconsin. We saw this week that there was a primary that elected El Syed in Michigan to be the Democrat nominee for Senate. In Wisconsin, this coming Tuesday, we have a primary for governor in Wisconsin that has Francesca Hong, who is another DSA candidate, very progressive, has gotten a lot of attention recently. Because I think the DSA has been marching towards this, trying to notch new victories.

It's not just House seats anymore. It's trying to get U.S. Senate seats. It's also trying to get executive positions in states like the governor. What does she believe?

She believes not just in defunding the police, but abolishing the police. She has said previously that she supports defunding the police. As a first step to abolishing the police. And what have we seen happen? There was a police-involved shooting in Wisconsin.

In Madison, and they have taken over. They are doing the same playbook from 2020 after the George Floyd incident. And what have they done? Autonomous Zone No one can come in trying to keep the police out shutting down a portion of the city. They're acting like totalitarian socialists, where they're saying, you're not even allowed in unless we want you in.

The jokes are abound about them setting up borders and checkpoints. But then you look at what the gubernatorial candidate is saying. Did you say the jokes are? The joke, oh, not joke czar, the jokes are. I thought I would like to be CZAR.

You could be a joke czar. Yeah, that's not what the comments say. They say not funny, which may be perfect for it. No, that's why you're the best at being the joke czar. Yeah, if you're not funny, that's real good.

Kind of like the border czar. I'll never tell a joke. Never. It's like a police. I'm not going to visit the border.

That one's not funny.

So, but what did she say? It got so out of control from people fighting. in this autonomous zone that the police had to go in. Surprise, surprise. What did the gubernatorial candidate say?

I'm deeply, deeply disappointed that the situation ended with police intervention and arrests rather than the voluntary community-led resolution that so many of us had worked toward. That sounds like a joke. It sounds like a parody account because, yeah, no kidding. When there's autonomous zones with no law enforcement and a bunch of radical revolutionaries playing pretend, then what's going to happen? They're going to end up being fights and things that have to get settled by the police.

And, like, she plays this joke on herself.

However, There's a good chance she's going to be the nominee for the Democrats to be the next governor of a state. That is where we are.

So when you see the mayor. Going to this event in Staten Island and you see him getting booed. It doesn't tell us that, oh, the people are waking up. To me, it shows that, yeah, places like Staten Island understand what's going on. But Wisconsin, a place that will simultaneously.

Elect a Republican governor and a Democrat for Senate, and vice versa. It is a traditional purple state in that sense where they will split the ticket. They could very likely elect someone like this as their next governor. And that person has more power to do things like defund the police than a senator ever would. Hey, we got only a couple seconds left here.

We got a bunch of lines open now. 1-800-684-3110. Go ahead and give me a call. 1-800-684-3110. Support the work of the ACLJ during this impact match.

We are wrapping up this week. Let's help us in this week's strong. We also got some special video presentations we're going to run throughout this show just to let you know what's going on in the world of the ACLJ, some that you have loved, some that have gone viral. We'll talk about that coming up in just a minute. We got some really good ones that are rolling out next week, Will.

We should get excited about it. We'll see. All right, scan the QR code you see on the screen right now. Support the work of the ACLJ. We'll be back in just a minute.

Welcome back to Sekulow. We do have some phone lines open. We have a special video presentation we want to run as well in this segment. Phone lines, though, are open. I'd love for you to go ahead and get on hold: 1-800-684-3110.

Will, this is a video that we've read before, but it's really an important one people need to see.

Well, I think especially when we're talking about what's happened this week in Michigan, when you look at the Senate race and the socialism that's coming forward, just to remember that that is an ideology. That is very competitive in fighting with the foundations of our country and where our rights come from. It's completely different than how our founders envision. And so I thought it was important to play this video again as we see these candidates rising because it reminds us what we need to be focused on.

So let's go ahead and roll that for everyone. Our rights come from God, not from the Constitution, or legislation, or a petition or anywhere else. This isn't a fringe idea, it's a foundational belief put on paper 250 years ago in America's Declaration of Independence, endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. Jefferson wrote it. It is one of the most iconic, recognizable, and powerful sentences in the world.

So why then does it seem that so many people in America today don't agree with it, or at least don't understand it? The notion that rights don't come from laws and don't come from the government. But come from the Creator, that's what the Iranian government believes. It's a theocratic regime that bases its rule on Shia law. And targets Sunnis, Baha'is, Jews, Christians, and other religious minorities.

And they do it because they believe that they understand what natural rights are from their Creator. Those voices have seeked to distort the self-evident truth that we know so well that our founders boldly proclaim that the Declaration, that our rights do not derive from the government, they come from you, our Creator and Heavenly Father. Is this him putting God over the Declaration of Independence?

So the statement that Our rights do not come from our laws or our governments is extremely troubling. Politicians like Senator Kaine, who ran for vice President just 10 years ago, and journalist Katie Terr, who has a national news platform, probably wouldn't take such positions if their opinions were on the fringe of culture or unpopular. Because political discourse is, generally, a reflection of the values and beliefs of the culture it represents. But do people really believe our rights come from somewhere other than God? Just how popular is that viewpoint?

we decided to send our team to ask just that. Um, the Bill of Rights in the Constitution, I think just being a basic human should be where our rights come from. Our founding fathers. The people. I think the Constitution.

Beginning in England in the Magna Carta. That was a good start. The Constitution, the Bill of Rights. The history of people making mistakes and realizing what we need as a society. The law of the land, so I think it comes from the Constitution, you know, things of that nature.

So sure. That's a harsh reminder of how important it is to pass down the biblical values that are enshrined in our founding documents. the ACLJ still believes, no matter what culture may say, Our rights come only from our Creator. What the government does is ensures that the rights that we are endowed with by God are enforced. Meaning, we are human beings who are put on this earth and created by a higher power.

And whether you're a Christian or you're a Muslim or you're a Jew, it doesn't matter, right? God is the reason why we're here to exist on this earth to do good and to make our fellow man better. And I think that's very, very important. And our founders were very intentional about that, right? They wanted to make sure that everyone understood that our country was probably the first country in the history of earth to sort of reverse that and say that human beings have free will that is endowed to them by God.

And it is the government's job to make sure that it is creating a society where those rights are able to be expressed by every single one of the citizens. And when you look at sort of the ways in which our country is failing, I think a lot of it can be linked directly back to a straying from faith and a straying from the idea. Idea that being faithful and trusting that your life is in the hands of a higher power and trusting that our government was created under the auspices of the same higher power, it doesn't mean that I have to disrespect somebody for being an atheist. But it does mean that we have a government that was created to ensure that an atheist's rights are equal to that of a Christian or a Jew or of a Muslim. And so faithfulness doesn't know a specific creed, but our government was so smart to use the basis of the Christian faith in order to make sure that everyone's rights, particularly their rights to worship and their rights to speak, were always going to be protected at all costs.

I mean, there's a reason why it's our First Amendment, and the reason why it is our First Amendment is because it's the most important one for building a proper society. Every single word that you find in the Constitution and our founding documents can be applied to all the new technological changes and things that happen in society. But they all get back to those founding Christian principles that they said were the best way for a society to govern itself. And it doesn't mean you have to be Christian, like I said before, but it does mean that those guiding principles should be guiding all the decisions that are being made in every single legislature across this country. And I think that's what's so genius is it gives the kind of wiggle room for our laws to change, but for our founding principles to remain rock solid and to.

never change. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what we believe about the origins of our rights if we aren't willing to defend them. You see, if our rights indeed come from God and are recognized in our laws and constitution, then it's our responsibility to make sure they're exercised freely and enforced as written. Because history teaches us that our Constitution is only as powerful as the people and efforts to uphold it. It's why when a street preacher legally comes under attack in Chicago for practicing his First Amendment rights, the ACLJ jumps into action.

We aren't just defending that preacher. We're defending his right and ensuring it can be freely applied and exercised by all Americans. Otherwise, that God-given right is trampled and destroyed. At the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin famously called America a republic. If you can keep it.

Now, two and a half centuries later, the ACLJ remains dedicated to keeping our beautiful constitutional republic and all our rights as one nation. Under God. And as we show in that video, Logan, and at that ending that was so pertinent, I feel like, and so timely. Because as we look at what these candidates are trying to do, it is completely out of touch with The founding of this country, where our rights come from, and that's what is so devastating when you think about our constitutional framework. That's right.

We got a minute and a half left here. I want you to be a part of not only the ACLJ, but a part of this show today.

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So we kind of have one foot in the old school radio, one foot in new television, new streaming style.

So be a part of the show as well. We got three lines open right now at 1-800-68-430-1 today. If I do lose you here, though, I can't let you go without telling you this is the time. It's Friday. You're not going to hear from me for a couple days.

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All donations are matched and doubled by another ACLJ member or champion. Join us in our fight to defend the Constitution. And preserve religious liberty. I want you to be a part of the team or on the front lines engaging in these battles. We never bill a client and we never bill you to watch this show.

Nothing is behind a paywall when it comes to ACLJ, but that's just because you support us. That's at ACLJ.org. Second half hour starts in less than a minute. Um Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow.

And now, your host, Logan Sekulow. Second F Hour of Sekulow. Hope you're joining us live. If not, It's okay. We forgive you.

You can watch us later on archive, but I really would love you to join us live 12 to 1 p.m. Eastern time when we do this show. Will Haynes in studio today? We got nobody else, just a special video presentation coming up in the next segment. And of course, I want to hear from you.

We got a lot of calls coming in: 1-800-684-3110. I don't want to keep them on hold too long. I don't even know what time it is. Go to Jim in Hawaii online one. Jim, go ahead.

Well, aloha. Aloha. Aloha, aloha. I'd probably be one of the few conservatives in Hawaii. I'm a seventy two year old Vietnam Arab.

And I just want to say, you know, every generation seems to forget what freedom costs. It seems like Reagan said it himself, when you forget the cost of freedom, You gotta pay it again. And as a veteran, watching these things transpire, taking that people thinking that what's mine is mine and what's yours is mine doesn't work. It never has. you know, this concept that Yeah, that you're that we're gonna make uh you make everything the bo playing board even.

You know, if we played it like the left, we would restrict all opposition. We don't. Look, Jim, I want to tell you: number one, I appreciate you. I appreciate your service. Thank you so much to this country.

And I know that that means a lot. And I know in Hawaii, if you're up at 6:30 in the morning, either one or two things. Either you are one of our conservatives who call in, or you're up still, man, living the island town. Right, right.

So, you know, it could be one or the other. I feel like, Jim, you seem like a guy who's getting up, having his coffee, and listening to Dust, which I appreciate. But look, I think that that's true because even like in a state like Hawaii, as you said, The average person isn't falling for this. That's right. And once again, the.

The politics of the left used to be in like the Clinton era, it almost seemed like there was more of a tie-in with like the libertarians, of almost this laissez-faire, leave me alone, but sure, let's help people, let's do good, use the government for good. The censorship police was certainly on the other side. Right, right, yeah. I mean, and then you think of just how much it's changed, and I feel like the. The fact that a lot of this is coming out of middle America.

They are replicating their playbook from 2020, which what did it do? It sowed discord. It sowed questions about the structure of the established government. And that's what's so ironic to me, I think, is that when you have. Individuals like this candidate running for governor or the mayor in New York.

They they speak with a air of anti-government. Because they want to get rid of police, defund police. They want to get rid of the structures of society. But all of the things that they end up doing is taking from the citizens. They end up becoming the behemoth that a socialist government naturally has to become.

And so it's quite remarkable to listen to when you think about how they are framing it as being anti-government authority and all of these things. But their very platform is what creates authoritarian societies. Yeah. And hey, listen, in the next segment. I think it's going to be important.

You need to see the work the ACLJ is doing in a very different way. And you're talking about authoritarian issues. This video that we're going to run in the next segment has gone viral, so much so that it's been picked up by a lot of major news sources, been clipped out by tons of people. And our team put together an incredible really showcase of an event that happened a few years ago. But it's just now getting the attention.

As you know, a lot of the ACLJ work, because it's legal work, takes years. And it's unfortunate that's how our system works. In some ways, it's fortunate because you want to make sure the checks and balances are there. But I encourage you to call in because after that video, we're going to take as many calls as we can.

So 1-800-684-3110, 1-800-684-3110 to get your voice heard on the air today. But Will's right. I mean, you have these situations whether it's all over the world, by the way. The ACLJ team is working all over the world protecting religious freedom, religious liberties, which end up being some of those foundations, of course, of what we talk about that are American values. When you talk about American values, a lot of them come back to our basic values that were established, what?

Probably by a 2,000-plus-year-old belief system that we have all at least been influenced by.

So we'll make sure we protect that. We get back, we're going to hear from you, but also a special video coming up from our team here at the ACLJ. I'm going to encourage you to share this show and share those videos.

So, we've got a bunch of lines open at 1-800-684-3110. Get in line. Yeah. As I told you, yo, it's a Friday, and I wanted to give you some special video presentations of the ACLJ. This one is really interesting.

It's very unique. And like I said, it caught a bit of wildfire, which is great. Got a little viral on us, so much so our attorneys and this client showed up on Fox News a few days later, specifically because this video caught their attention. Our incredible team put this together. You talk about a pro-life work.

Sometimes that pro-life work, sure, it is specifically having to do with abortion laws.

Sometimes it has to do with pro-life pregnancy resource centers. And sometimes it is just simply kids who want to be able to speak about what they care about, or maybe. Wear a hat that says they're pro-life in an area of public consumption. And sometimes that's a bit too much. for people.

I want you to take a look at this special video presentation our team put together. Again, this is the work of the ACLJ. It goes from. The President of the United States. to our European center, to her offices in Jerusalem, to a kid wanting to wear a beanie At this missoti.

Take a look. I'm Jane Keeney. About four years ago, when I was a senior in high school, I got kicked out of the Smithsonian Museum for wearing a pro-life hat. The Smithsonian isn't just one museum. It's 21 of them, spread across the country and visited by nearly 30 million people every single year.

And it's not a private company. More than a billion dollars of its budget comes directly from the federal government. meaning it belongs, in a very real sense, to the American people. to all of us. But sometimes there is a question of whether an institution funded by our tax dollars can be trusted to treat every American, every student.

every family the same, no matter what they believe. In the winter of 2023, under the Biden administration, that trust is exactly what was tested. Anti-abortion activists gathered on the National Mall today for the annual March for Life. It was the first time the march has been held since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

My sister, myself, and then a couple other students from my school, Our Lady of the Rosary, were very much like passionate about the pro-life cause, and so we went up to DC. This was the first year where we actually were fighting in a post-Roe era. And so we were all super excited to go and be a part of this huge group of Christians and pro-life activists. It was packed. It was totally slammed.

There were so many students from so many different groups, and we weren't the only group that used neon beanies to identify each other. That's a pretty common thing that they do.

So we had these beanies that our group wore. We figured that was a good way to keep each other like, you can see each other in a crowd with this kind of like neon blue. Kept each other together in a group and we also got to say, hey, we're here for the March for Life by putting Rosary Pro-Life on the beanie. The day that we went to the Smithsonian, that was a little bit of like free time that we got kind of after the big programming of the March for Life.

So there were about a dozen of us in the Air and Space Museum, a couple more who were checking out other museums in the area. We initially walked through security. We were in a pretty big group, about a dozen students total wearing these pro-life beanies. We walked through security, we were told, oh, remove your hat for a second, you know, to get through the metal detector, whatnot. It sounded like kind of normal procedure, and then we were...

Put our hats back on, walked through the museum just fine, and then into a couple different areas. It was like the Wright Brothers area of the Air and Space Museum. We had a different security guard circle back to myself and my group while we were sitting kind of by the escalator figuring out what we wanted to do next. He walked up to us. Rubbed his hands together and said, Y'all are about to make my day.

Take the hats off. This is a neutral zone. You can't have that kind of inflammatory message on, or you need to leave. What is so egregious about what happened at the museum is that while these students were singled out and targeted, told to remove their hats because they said the words pro-life on them. People all around the museum were wearing other hats, many of which contained what you might consider to be political speech.

Like, we just wanted to look at the Air and Space Museum. We weren't even there to, we weren't protesting, we weren't doing anything, we were just walking around looking at the exhibits, enjoying our nation's capital. And we were made to feel like delinquents for having a Christian message on a piece of clothing. What set this case apart is one, this was the federal government, and they're actually tasked with protecting the rights of the Americans.

However, here they targeted Americans and engaged in illegal activity. Our parents, instead of saying, Oh, well, it's not a big deal, whatever, you got to see most of the museum, they were. Outraged. And so she posted a picture on social media. It went kind of viral of our beanies, our story, and the ACLJ helped us out and we started the fight.

At least one student from two separate groups reached out to the ACLJ. Indicating that this actually took place at two different federal buildings on the same day within hours of one another. That signaled to us that this was a coordinated attack. This was not a single mistake. We immediately filed lawsuits.

One lawsuit was filed against the National Air and Space Museum, one of the Smithsonians. We alleged the violation of the First Amendment, which guarantees protection of free speech. The second is the 14th Amendment, which guarantees equal treatment under the law. And the third claim alleged in the lawsuit was the violation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, or RIFRA, which restricts or prohibits the federal government from placing a substantial burden on religious exercise. And that is precisely what happened here.

They dragged this issue on for nearly three and a half years. That's kind of what the government does. They try to tire you out with the legal battle they want you to give up. Our lawsuit served several important purposes. The first is To create a record of what occurred so that In the future, there's no dispute.

This happened, it was a violation. I feel like the desire for answers and the desire for clarity of that situation and what really happened there and why they came after us like that, that was one thing that motivated me to keep through the fight. And so, the settlement agreement that we reached in this case, the Smithsonian will maintain a policy that ensures that their visitors are allowed to wear clothing and hats and other attire that contain religious and political speech and that they will not be targeted or singled out for that speech or discriminated against. We did get an apology and we were told that you know we could come back and that we would never have this problem again and that students who wear these hats will never be asked to leave. I will never let my speech be chilled by local, federal, any government official because it is absolutely my right as an American to express my speech in the way that I see fit, especially the pro-life message, which is one of the most, if not the most.

Important message in modern America. This lawsuit protects the rights of future Americans who Visit federal buildings every single day. If this thing ever happens again or anything like this ever happens again, ACLJ stands ready to address it immediately. and to protect the rights of American citizens. That video is available, by the way, to share on all our social pages.

I'll see if we can get it linked specifically because it has, like I said, had a bit of a viral life of its own. It's a very easy, shareable piece. I think most people watch it. Even if you're on the other side, you go, okay, I may not be a pro-life activist, but I do know that these kids were doing the right thing.

So it's one that's sort of easy to share, and I encourage you to do so. We've seen it go really well online. And again, thanks to our team for doing that. But again. When the ACLJ works You may think of it as either the big scale issues Dealing with the President of the United States, dealing with the world stage, the war in Israel, all the things that we deal with nationwide, worldwide.

And you may forget. about the fact that we are still actively every day. working with students Who are trying to have their rights protected?

Now, often a lot of those now, because a lot of it's settled law or has been for 20 years, you never know now what that could mean. can be handled with a demand letter or a letter from one of our team or a call from one of our ACLJ attorneys. but not always. And in those situations, we have a legal team that is top-notch ready to jump into action. And take care of business.

And that's what they did there with the Smithsonian.

Now, of course, it takes time. It takes years often to get final resolution. But that is where we ended up with that Smithsonian situation. It's where we're going to keep fighting for kids all over the country who, again, just 'cause they are children, just 'cause they are teenagers, doesn't mean they don't have the right to speak Their beliefs. And many of you may have seen that story covered on Laura Ingram's broadcast with both our attorney, Abigail Sutherland, and Jane Keeney, the client there, just last week, because of the great work the media team does.

Is that we can showcase this. We can show the work of the ACLJ in an important way that matters. But remember, it isn't just about those students when we do these cases. And when you give to the ACLJ, you aren't just giving to the organization. You are actually standing with Jane Keeney.

You are standing with those students. That needs help when their rights are being trampled by an oppressive government entity. And we are there to stand with them. And with that, we only got about 58 seconds here on this segment. The next segment, look, I'll be honest, we got quite a few phone lines open.

We took a lot of calls.

So we have four or five lines open. If you want to be on the show, You got about two minutes. Get yourself on home. Let's do this. Be a part of it.

Get your any questions you have for this week. We'll take them for the most part. 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110. Get your voice on the air this week.

This will be your last chance for the week. Again, we started this show talking about the mayor of New York getting booed off stage at the NYPD event in Staten Island, and we have now moved on to so many topics around the world.

So, again, as Will says, Open Phones Friday. Let's see if we can take some calls. Again, that is at 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110. Of course, support the work of the ACLJ, and Yam will tell you about how more to do so.

In the next segment. That is at aclj.org. Welcome back to Secula. We're going to take some phone calls. 1-800-684-3110.

Last chance to call in for the week. I'd love you to do so. If you're watching online, it's okay. Join us on the phone. Give me a call.

1-800-684-3110. Let's go to Sarah, who's calling in Wisconsin, watching on the Salem News channel. Great place to watch us live each and every day, by the way, on the Salem News channel. Go ahead, Sarah. Hi there, can you hear me?

We gotcha. We did hear you.

Okay, you guys were talking about our gubernatorial race. Yes. But no one has talked about the race for Attorney General. Josh Call has been allowing Michael Bloomberg. Tor put money into his packs and then send that money to Wisconsin.

In the form of paying for attorneys in our Department of Justice.

So, Sarah, let me, I want to speak to this because I think you raise a really good point that a lot of times people don't pay attention to the state attorneys general races. If you watch any of our broadcasts, Jordan talks about this all the time. We talk about this at the ACLJ all the time. You need to really pay attention to who's running for attorney general in your state. Or in a case like here in Tennessee, the governor appoints an attorney general, and so you have to pay attention to your gubernatorial race for that reason.

Because attorneys general in states have a lot of power. And what you're talking about specifically, and there was a lot of issue with this, where people thought that there was something improper about what Michael Bloomberg may be having improper influence over the Department of Justice in the state of Wisconsin. What happened was that the Attorney General hired out-of-state lawyers to assist with enforcement of state environmental regulations.

So he went and picked lawyers that were through a fellowship at NYU. that could be deputized as special assistant attorneys general. uh through this program and that program was funded by Michael Bloomberg. This is not an abnormal thing in this country. As a matter of fact, we at the ACLJ assist attorneys general, our great attorneys, because they are experts.

assist attorneys general around the country. With very similar things. We helped the Attorney General of Missouri most recently in this trial with Planned Parenthood. Our attorneys were doing depositions. They were doing the, they were at trial.

They were actually there, deputized by the state. They weren't being paid by the state. They were ACLJ attorneys that are there doing this work on behalf of ACLJ members, but deputized under the state.

So that isn't abnormal. I wouldn't say that the left-dalking point could be like, look, they got this radical pro-life group to come assist. That is something that happens because many times state attorneys general's offices have limited budgets, especially if there's a tension between the state legislature and the executive branch of the state, where they aren't getting all the money they need to hire the attorneys they need, or if it's specialized like that, they can contract out.

So I wouldn't say that's abnormal. Nor would I say it's it's something wrong with the system. That is how it works. We help, as I said, attorneys general around the country, West Virginia, North Dakota, Missouri. And the concept is that If there are more conservative aligned attorneys general, that is something we can do for more states.

But if they are not paid attention to A state like Wisconsin is very similar to a state like Kentucky, where you see sometimes a split. Between who is elected as attorney general and governor.

Sometimes you have a Republican in Kentucky that's attorney general, while your governor is a Democrat. And what do they do? They end up suing the governor all four years because they have different ideologies.

So I would be cautious to say when you look at that, that isn't something abnormal that happens in this country. And that's something that the ACLJ is proud as a part of our practice here. And when you support the ACLJ, you support us being able to make an impact in states, in individual states. But I think it's also a caution to remember to watch those types of races. Tell your friends, hey, let's really look at who is the attorney general.

What kind of lawyers would they be hiring as prosecutors? What kind of outside groups? Maybe just explain to them what an attorney general does with their state. I think there's probably a lot of people who'd have no idea, who have no idea the importance of a lot of these positions. And look, I understand that you're probably not that person.

You're listening to this show, you're keeping yourself very informed on what's going on in the world, but you may have friends and family who vote very casually. You guys say, Hey, we had our election here in Tennessee primary.

So, you know, um. Senator Blackburn was on this show a few weeks ago with you, Will, and she won pretty handily.

So we could say congratulations to her team for winning the nomination for the Republican Party. Right. Now, does that mean a guarantee that she'll be the governor? We will find out, but likely, you know, Tennessee is a pretty red state, so there's a good chance you'll see Senator Blackburn become the next governor of Tennessee. That being said, I want to go ahead and take some phone calls.

Let's go back to the phones. Marion, who, of course, is a champion. Marion online one. Go ahead. Okay.

Yeah, I just wanted to point out that, you know, since we live in the wealthiest nation in the world, What y'all are doing is very great because we know that we have rights and some of the things like those people wearing the beanies and everything, y'all went to bat for them. But I think y'all may be doing a greater good when you influence other countries where the people have no rights and they're oppressed. They can't afford attorneys. And you have an international impact when y'all give money for attorneys there to help the people that are being persecuted because they don't have the rights that we enjoy in America. Absolutely, Mary.

I mean, we have cases always involved in many different places, whether that is in Asia, whether that is what's going on in Pakistan. We have all over the world ACLJ attorneys or attorneys that they're attached to. Of course, then we have our work at the UN. We have the work that CC does internationally. We have the whole European.

I think people have to understand. We have a European Center for Law and Justice been operating for 25 years. It's an independent office. I mean, yes, it's supported financially by your donations through the ACLJ, but you're talking about. It's its own thing that's going on right now with its full staff that is working as we speak.

I mean, they may be going to bed soon because it's a time difference.

Well, and I think also to point that out, as some of you who've been watching for a long time have seen Greg Orr on this broadcast and other members of that team. And in our minds, you may think ECLJ, it's an ACLJ office. It may just be Americans over there running it. No, it is Europeans that understand the culture and the legal system that live there and have their entire lives that are there making an impact in Europe as well. Yeah, I mean, I understand.

There's a reason sometimes we don't have them on as regularly because one, I want to make sure that you understand the importance of it. I know it sometimes can get a little lost when we're talking about American news or politics or whatever is happening to understand the legal work over there. But also there's a language barrier there. And though Gregor and those team, they speak English, they're great. I understand on radio, sometimes it's a little bit harder to understand exactly what's going on there and the work they're doing.

Also, the religious freedom there is different, though they have a lot of Western-style freedoms in Europe. The conversations, the actual issues are a little different than the issues that are here. Like I said, a conservative in Europe or in the UK is very different than a conservative in America. Same thing as a Christian in the UK. I mean, we have same fundamental core beliefs.

But it may politically React a little differently.

So, we have a lot of that nuance that happens. Dan, I'm sorry I'm not gonna be able to get your call today. Try me on Monday. I'll do my best to get to you because I want to spend the last 50 seconds of this week to tell you it's an important time. I didn't get to read you all this that they put in front of me.

I'll write some of it. We're fighting to defend the Constitution, expose the deep state, protect our elections, and preserve religious liberties. And what happens during our Impact match will set the stage for the cases we take on and the people we can help. I encourage you though to go to aclj.org slash impact, have your gift doubled to support our work. Yesterday, the ACLJ was in court.

Asking a judge to order Chicago to hand over evidence. That refused to be date. The judges demanded the city stop messing around. We also have California just hit a deadline. our public records.

As for the Prop 39, Busy at the Supreme Court representing former President Trump attorney John Eastman. On Monday, we have a submission deadline. United Nations have the Nigerian genocide happening.

So much going on, all because of you at aclj.org. Yeah.