We got breaking news. Fox News Channel joins the boycott of the White House press pool. 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. Monday. I think I started too early there.
I don't even know if we got it. Hopefully, we made it on the air. I think we did. Hey, look at that. Good job, everybody.
Slogan Secular Will Hayes in Studio. Senior attorney here at the ACLJ, CeCe Howell is going to be joining us a little bit later. But of course, we're covering the breaking news that is happening right now as you have all of the major press organizations, including the Fox News channel, all linking arms and saying no to the White House press ban. Of course, this came out just the last few days. President Trump decided that there were certain institutions, certain media outlets that were no longer going to be invited to the press pool or be invited to White House events.
Now, you have a print, and again, this wasn't necessarily predicated on one specific instance or something that went wrong. What it seems like is President Trump just decided, I don't want to deal with these people anymore.
Now, of course, there's been big pushback on that, saying this is censoring, this is removing the free press that we have here in the United States of America. I want to hear from you, your thoughts as well. 1-800-684-3110. But again, this is a statement that came from President Trump. He said the White House is not instituting an assault on the free press, something which I cherish.
It is instituting an assault on the fake news, something that has grown like a cancer in our beloved United States of America. It is corrupt, purposeful, pervasive, fully coordinated, totally out of control. It's a threat to our national security and must be stopped now. Thank you for your attention to this matter, President Donald J. Trump.
That was from Truth Social.
So again, President Trump saying that's not what this is, but there's enough behind it in a very, very big week. I'll be honest, a week that you would like to get some press coverage on. This is not necessarily to me, or maybe you don't because maybe you don't like, you think that there's going to be answers that you don't want to have to answer to, as we have Xi Jinping coming to the White House. You have Benjamin Netanyahu. You have maybe some controversial things happening right now that could spur a very different conversation.
Again, I want to hear from you at 1-800-68-431-10. But well, top line, what I miss here. What we're looking at is first three news outlets that were banned from the White House premises. That is Politico, MS Now, and CNN. When asked about why on Friday, the President said, no reason.
It's a very simple ban. I don't want them in my office. I don't want them here. I would say the ban would go as far as you can go. Then you look at over the weekend as this developed, you see the news outlets that are in the TV pool, the TV press pool.
Now, that's a very important distinction between just anyone that has credentials to get in and go to press briefings. The TV pool are there. They share cost with one another. They take turns on covering different events. It's very expensive.
It is kind of the one layer. To reporting that it hasn't been democratized by YouTube or podcast because it takes crews, it takes camera ops, it takes expensive travel. And so NBC, Fox News, CNN, they would share the cost and they would rotate, but they also provide that to everyone so that it can be given to every other press benefits from that. The five that are the TV broadcast press people are standing in solidarity with CNN, MS Now, and Politico by saying, We're not covering any of your events, Mr. President, while this goes on.
CNN was supposed to be traveling with the President today. They were the designated TV pool media outlet as they traveled to New York for the UN General Assembly because President Trump is speaking there on tomorrow, on Tuesday.
So, what you're starting to see is the press stand together, including Fox News, and push back. At this blockade that the President gave to three hours. Looks like there has been talk of: hey, didn't Barack Obama do this? We'll break down what he did coming up in other segments in the show so you can learn that it's not new for a President to have some restrictions here.
However, this sweeping of a restriction, this is fairly new. And again, it's the People's House, but what do you think? I see a lot of comments coming in. Certainly more on the side of the President at this moment. But, you know, I think we need to talk about this.
I am all for independent journalists. I am all for independent outlets of media. And what happens when the mainstream media gets shut out from that conversation? Let's chat it out: 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110.
We'll be right back with more on Sekulow. It's our lighting up. We're going to take a lot of calls on this. Look, we got to pose the question: if this was Barack Obama, if this was Joe Biden, remember even the uproar on Joe Biden not inviting Elon Musk to the electric car summit? And you guys having a lot of issues with that, of course.
So you always do have to look at the shoe on the other foot here scenario. If what if it was Fox News and Friends being blocked out? of a Democrat President. Did you not like that Peter Doocy can push back? On the current press secretaries in the Democratic Party, that you had that voice in the room to at least cause them a little discomfort, if you will, and not just provide the same fluff questions, if you will, to them.
And I'm not saying that on the other side that happens, but we know that that certainly was the case. I do think there is some validity to that.
Now, again, when it comes to the legal side of this, we can also break that down. If a private business, if I didn't want certain people covering my private business and showing up into my offices, sure. You're not allowed to come in here and start interviewing me and grilling me on these things. I think there can be restrictions put on place, but this is, again, you're the President of the United States, somewhat you work for the people. And there needs to be some kind of freedom of the press, which is one of our top tiers here.
We do have to have some form of accountability.
Now, you may say that these are not the people who are telling the truth and are being honest.
So, how can they keep us accountable? That's fine. But maybe we need to make sure there are other outlets that are maybe even similar politically bent. That Can get the questions and the important questions. And again, both sides here.
We got to think beyond, you got two years left to President Trump. Do you want to set this precedent? I understand President Trump's frustration. I think the mainstream press in general is uh pretty bad. And they do some really poor reporting and they're creating clickbait nonsense.
And a lot of the times it is not for the betterment of society. It's not for the betterment of America. It is not to push back on things that are happening. It is simply to get clicks or to ask something inappropriate time to get a clip. You know, they're clip farming in these places.
I get that. I get the frustration. I can feel it in his bones saying, I don't want to deal with these people anymore.
So what does that look like? Though, what kind of precedent does it set? Let's chat that out.
So many of you have called in right now. We're going to take some calls. Will I know you got something for you? Yeah, I want to read this. This is from CBS News: this line: it says: For the first time ever, a Presidential administration is treating news reporting like a crime and a reporter like a criminal suspect.
That's not about Donald Trump. That's about President Barack Obama. And we called it out then. That was when the Obama administration were using tactics to try and get source material, trying to subpoena journalists, trying to spy on journalists, both James Rosen from Fox News and James Risen, who I believe was with the New York Times at the time, but more left-leaning journalists and more right-leaning journalists, if you want to look at the ideological spectrum. But that was from the Obama administration.
And we called it out that that was not a. A good precedent they were setting at the way they were going after the press.
Now, there were some legitimate concerns about the things that were being leaked that were going through those outlets, both Fox News and the New York Times, but it didn't necessarily mean that what the administration's response to go after the journalists was the right call because of the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press that we have enshrined in our First Amendment. When you look here, and you even see that CBS was saying, that precedent that they're treating news reporting like a crime. That was the Obama administration. Here, it's gotten to a point where President Trump is saying. I'm kicking them out because of purposefully negative stories.
If you're the President of the United States, yes. I will grant it. He probably has the most negative stories written about him of any President in history. Of any person, probably in history.
However, that is also part of the job. The press is going to be antagonistic towards you. They are going to go after you.
Now, sometimes you see some people get a pass, but you also see CBS was reporting on the brazen nature of what the Obama administration was doing. I think that's where we have to always be cautious and why we don't always agree with those of you that watch that sometimes things maybe aren't the smartest move.
Well, the Obama administration also, at one point, did try to get Fox News to be not allowed into a certain interview, and there were restrictions being put on Fox News during his tenure. The question is: do you go, because I see that in the chat a lot, but you go, okay, well, that was wrong, therefore this is right. I think that's where we get a little blurry. I do get it though. I wouldn't want them there either.
I'm just going to say it. What I want What I feel like is just made to create more divisiveness in this country. You know, these I don't listen to people say, why do they get better outlets? Or why do they get picked the others?
Well, they do have the largest sphere of influence, you could say. Maybe not MS Now, but you know, you can't say that CNN isn't one of the top places people turn to for news, even if the numbers are dwindling. And a lot of new media has been allowed in that press pool.
So I do have to give credit to President Trump for allowing in a lot of digital streaming, podcasts, those kind of things into that world, and it not just be the old school way, the old school approach.
However, They're not always the ones getting called on in those moments. They're not always the ones who are, look, I'll be honest, sometimes aggressive enough. to get their questions in there. And I do think we do need to have access to the White House. Because whether it is for the conservative side or the liberal side, you need to always make sure that, again, that this doesn't turn around.
Because what we know is if you say, well, Obama did it, well, that means whoever's going to do it next is going to do the same thing. And if it's someone who you don't agree with, You're essentially saying I'm cool with them having no press accountability and for them not having to answer for anything. Do you feel that way for real? Or do you just feel that way because right now it's on your side? I understand the frustration in the fake news side.
Trust me, we've been victims of it firsthand. I've seen that happen. I hate it. I hate the ways a lot of mainstream media has gone. Anyway, new media has gone to general.
That's why we try to present you a different show here. And this show I tell you, we always tell you. The truth. And look. Freedom of the press isn't necessarily this.
Freedom of the precious means you have the freedom to To talk about, make statements against your government, do these kinds of things, create this sort of situation. It doesn't mean you're going to have full access to the President of the United States at all times.
However, as Will said, when the idea is, I just pulled your press credentials because I felt like it today, I do think we need to look at that in a bigger scope. I do need to know we do need to take some calls.
Well, and I think we should as well. And one thing, too, when you start to look at it also, not just as a First Amendment issue, but when he is basically pointing out three. Outlets, and when there's a lot more that have negative headlines every single day, then it becomes arbitrary. Then does it viewpoint discrimination? There's a lot of other constitutional issues that are raised by the action when he's even admitting I'm tired of the negative headlines.
That in and of itself isn't what he calls, he says it's a threat to our national security. That I think is kind of a dangerous precedent to start to put out there when you are saying that it is in and of itself, Politico, MS Now, and CNN are a threat to our national security. That takes it into a different realm of just saying, I don't like the negative stories that are being printed about me. But let's go to Robert calling from Maryland online three. Robert, you're on Sekulow.
Yes, hi. I wanted to ask the question. I think you may have answered some of it, but. I think mainly President Trump is taking this action because, as you all said, he doesn't like the negative press. But is it the negative press to the point where it's gotten so bad that they write mostly everything negative about them, even more negative articles?
And say, for example, George Bush. George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, and even Nixon combined. To the point where they never print anything good about them. The other thing, here's what I wanted to ask.
does this present a constitutional problem? And if it does, for people that already don't like President Trump, either personally or politically, will they use this to say, here he is again, acting like a king? He's acting like a dictator. That's one of the two major criticisms we hear about Trump.
Well, and Robert, I think to that point, I do think a little bit that this could be looked at through the lens of the midterms as well, with negative press that he's complaining about. What does it see? We see a lot of people in the chat on YouTube and on Rumble that are happy with this move, that are saying, great, get rid of them. That, I think, could be a rallying moment. This is going, this is old school Trump going after the fake news.
I think, to your point, yes, they're going to continue to say this is authoritarian. This is another move that he's doing because he's a king. He doesn't like the stories. He has thin skin. These are all the same things.
All the same ink is going to be printed about this that they've been saying since 2016.
So I don't think anything new comes out of this. I do think that. We will see. I would not be surprised if you see a judge grant a preliminary injunction on this because it does raise constitutional questions.
Now, not just the First Amendment, but like we said, we talk about viewpoint discrimination, equal access, things of that nature. It's not the same as like a public school scenario, but because of the fact that he's pinpointing these and kind of saying it's for an arbitrary reason, I do think that they probably have a leg up in this lawsuit to maybe get a preliminary injunction. And then, what's that going to do? It's going to rally also President Trump's base more of like, look, another rogue judge that may not be so rogue in this case, but it is kind of a story made for the midterms to rally the base when there have been. A lot of negative press surrounding the President recently.
President Trump pushed for accountability within the press. Maybe he said this is the last they have, I've given him. A term and a half? To get things together and they haven't done it, maybe this is what you want. Let me know.
We're going to keep this conversation rolling into the next segment. 1-800-684-3110. Phone lines are completely jammed right now. Which is awesome, by the way. Thank you so much for calling.
But we're going to continue to take calls. I want to get your feedback and your thoughts. Again, we think about the short-term, long-term impact of a decision like this, where, again, you have Fox News linking arms with CNN and MS Now saying, you know what? If you're going to ban the liberal press outlets, we're not going to show up either. And this happens to be a pretty important week.
For the United States of America and President Trump's administration. We'll be right back. We're gonna take some cause and look. Does the little bit of me Say sure. They finally are getting what they deserve here.
They finally, after years and years of lying and lying and lying, and not just about, by the way. President Trump, just about anybody. Is there just that little inkling in me that goes, yeah, you know, that laughs it off and says, you got your press credentials removed, finally?
Some, you know, a little bit of a slap down to what's happening. Sure, there's a little bit of me that giggles to that. But I always have to go back to the global impact and the impact of what this looks like in the future and what we know is the fact, which is that the other side of this coin. Could be very bad.
Okay, it could be very bad. When you have a Democrat President, and I believe you will have a Democrat President in our lifetime. Likely that's going to happen, okay? Look at You know, if history tells us anything, that there will be someone down the road. And what does that look like if now.
The mainstream press. As much as I can't stand a lot of them.
Okay. The mainstream press is no longer allowed to be part of The press pool, and specifically not the mainstream press, the mainstream press that happened to be the ones that pushed back. on your claims. And look, do I think they're lying? Yes.
Do I think they have a lot of headlines that Are deceiving? 100%.
So, maybe that needs to be the more we need to push back on that. The American people need to push back on the way we interact with media, that we get out of our own echo chambers. Because you would never know what's happening if you don't intentionally. Get out of your interest algorithm. That being said, so many of you have called in.
A lot of you are ACLJ champions. And look, I understand. I'm with you in essence. Yeah. But you do have to look at sort of a bigger side of this.
Let's go to Cliff, ACLJ champion, line one. Go ahead, Cliff.
Okay, thanks. Listen, I'm going to get right to it because I want to hear much more other than myself, but I welcome What he had done. and with everybody piling on to go against the President, they're never going to stop even if they weren't around in the in the room there every day, press briefings or whatever, they're going to continue to downplay everything About America. Procrying out loud. I welcome it.
And it has the opportunity for all the other media outlets like Phalaem News and Rav and Newsmax and others To get out the real truth about what's going on. I'm not saying throw softball pitches to them because they don't. I mean, look what's going on in the world. But we need the truth to come out and not what what what one side has to poo poo on everything. And I'm thinking I don't disagree with you, Clef.
Here's one thing I I want to push back on just a little bit is remember how much you know, pushback we gave on the Biden administration for being so inaccessable. For President Biden to not be available, to be talking and to be making statements, and he would not address the press. I mean, how many did it was the hundreds of days it felt like would go by without us even really hearing from the President of the United States. And it was such a weird shock because that we were so used to the opposite with President Trump.
Now this has sort of happened again. And President Trump is probably the most press accessible President. in our lifetime where He's out there. He's talking to them. He's playing the playlist on Air Force One.
He is very accessible to the press.
So, I'm sure there is a relationship that is built there over time where you think not that these people are your friends, of course, they're not your friends, but that you would have some sort of rapport with them. And when you see even the ones who you feel like are gonna be fair to you, turn around and do stuff that's not fair. In the press? I understand feeling scorn from that. Again, I've been there, not as to the level of President Trump, but certainly been there.
So I get it. It's not that I don't see the vision here. And if you're looking at it from selfishly, I guess you'd say, I totally get it. If I'm thinking about it in a vacuum of the next two years, I totally get it if I'm President Trump. I don't want those people in my house, is what he pretty much said.
But again It's not really your house. And we have to keep that accountability there.
Well, and I think here's the other side of that as well: when we talk about access to other organizations, the President's given that. There are plenty of organizations that would have never even fathomed being press-credentialed at the White House that the President has brought in. That's good. We applaud that. The difference here is that when you start to look at like CNN specifically, that was targeted, they are a part of the press pool, right?
Now, the other four, a part of the five that are the TV press pool, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News, and CNN. ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox News have all said, we're not going to cover it.
So that then takes away access to the people because they don't have all five of those TV broadcast networks traveling with him. They rotate because there's only so much space on Air Force One. There's only also security reasons. You don't want to have a bunch of cameras. They let one take the feed and they share that responsibility, but they also share the costs.
If you were to look at people talk about like right-side broadcasting, I say like, well, let them fill in. They don't have the logistics or the capital or the framework to fill in that type of press pool role. There is a reason that it is only these five. It's because of the infrastructure they have, the cost of it. They're also willing to share that cost among these five, but give that as a service to everyone else.
That is something very valuable to this country. And as we said, the travel here, when you see those interviews on Air Force One, that's the press pool. That's why sometimes it is, you know, Peter Doocy. It's Caitlin Collins that are asking because they're rotating when they get onto Air Force One and they get that camera feed. That's also why you only ever see one angle on every network.
So there is something to look at here that then what if the future Presidents start to cut out one? I think all of the new media that has been giving a different angle, if it's a Democrat President, they're all gone. They're all kicked out of the White House immediately, day one. They say, no, these aren't legitimate, serious journalistic organizations.
So that's, you also have to look at that. They're already gone. Do you then want less access to future Presidents to be able to hold them accountable? I think the answer is no. We don't want less access to whoever is in the White House because it isn't going to be President Trump forever.
It's only two more years. Let's go to Jerry real quick in Rhode Island, who's a champion as well. Jerry, go ahead. I've heard it all, and I've heard both of it. And by the way, Will, is this a cost saving measure we're trying to protect the outlet?
Or are we talking about the neutrality and objectivity of the last Several years on the media, which has eroded. Most of us who've been listening for a long time know that.
Well, and Jerry, to that point as well, no one here is disagreeing that every single outlet has an agenda, that they are not neutral. That's a long time neutrality in American press has been something novel in the world that we've assumed that the American press is neutral. It's a mirage. It's not that way anywhere else in the world. You have conservative and liberal papers in the UK.
I don't think it was ever that way. Right. We only, we had so limited options. You may have thought Walter Cronkite was not giving you a bias. Our audience don't.
You know what I'm saying? They know the truth. But in general, someone was producing that. With a bias. The problem was there were three options.
Now there's an endless supply of media. You can see all the different sides. You're not just being force-fed one V version.
So the idea of a neutral media I mean, it sounds really utopian and nice. We all think differently. What's right and wrong is going to be very different for me and you than it is going to be for those who watch MS Now or CNN. And we have to live in a world where we all can get along, and that society exists. Phone lights are jammed.
Second half hour coming up. ACLJ.org haven't even been able to do any of our our promotion today. Help make an impact right now. We actually have Cece Heil joining us a little bit later in the show. We're gonna still try to get to her, but so many of you have called in.
I had to move that. But again, support the work of the ACLJ. Become a champion if you can at aclj.org/slash champions. Of course, you can get involved in many different ways just by going to the website. We'll be right back.
Keeping you informed and engaged.
Now more than ever. This is Secular. And now, your host, Logan Sekulow. Welcome to the second half hour of Sekulow. Phone lines are mostly jammed.
We got one line still open at 1-800-684-30110. If you're on hold, Bobby, Carol, Dan, Jamie, April, stay on hold. I'm going to get to you.
Now, it's going to take me a little bit of time here because we got to reset here this second half hour. Of course, we are talking about. The fact that President Trump decided, seemingly on a whim, which you know what, I do kind of like, to say, you know what? MS Now, CNN Those like'em. I don't want you here anymore.
I don't want you in my house. I don't want you to be part of this press pool. I don't want you part of this conversation. I'm sick of the lies. I'm sick of the fake news.
And the top line of that, I don't disagree with him. I feel like I would be doing the same thing. On the other hand, you do have to look at the implications of what it could lead to. And be careful, this doesn't set a precedent where even a liberal President then will block out all what you'd say quote-unquote conservative news is, especially if the mainstream ones. Which, again, you'll never hear me on here just praising mainstream media, but we do have to be careful in this.
You have Fox News linking arms saying, you know what? If CNN is good, if you're going to block CNN, you're going to block MS now. We're not showing up to your events either. Remember, this is a very important week, President of China. We've none Yahoo!
All these people are visiting America this week. UN General Assembly is happening. President Trump's supposed to be meeting with Mayor Montani. There's a lot of things that could be interesting press moments that you would like to see. I would like to see them.
That may get pretty much shut out. From our news outlets.
Well, and I think to that point as well, it's not like CNN or Politico or also MS Now are not going to have stories about that. It's not like they're not going to have coverage about that because they have been kept out. And to a lesser point, the Politico and MS Now point of that access, there's going to be plenty of others to fill a copy that they would be with that same bent. But even when it comes down to the press pool and the fact that the press pool is standing in solidarity with their other colleagues and saying we're not going to cover the President, I actually would like to see press pool coverage of going with the President, asking him questions. That's how we get that on Air Force One video, on the tarmac video.
That is the unfiltered President Trump that we all appreciate. That's what we get. That's a benefit of this administration is the access that we didn't get from President Biden. But he'll be meeting with Macron. Giving the UN General Assembly speech.
He's got bilateral meetings. He has the state visit from Xi Jinping. All of these things, if the press pool is not there, then you are only relying on thirdhand and unnamed sources of things that happen instead of getting press pool readouts.
So I think there is something to differentiate there of what. With the others standing in solidarity with their colleague CNN, one that shares the cost with them on this, you are potentially missing out.
Now, could this also be resolved by tonight? Yeah, a lot of times that is how the President operates: is okay, I'm changing, I'm going to do something here different. But even if it doesn't, Keep that in mind because we appreciate the transparency of the presidency and his willingness to go and talk to reporters that he knows hate him, but you also see how they fawn over him in real time when he's walking up to the microphone. And that we're not talking about the journalists per se that are writing the story. And it's sometimes the people that are gathering the news that everyone is writing the story about that we could be losing access to.
And that's not something I want under this administration, but I definitely don't want to lose access to the presidency when it's an antagonistic administration that is going to go after conservative media.
Now, listen, we got a full bank of calls. In the next segment, though, I'm going to ask you to stay on hold.
So, Bobby, Matthew, Carol, Dan, Jamie, April. We're going to take some calls in the next segment, but we're also going to be pivoting a little bit. Because, as much as this is a fun story to talk about, there is a very important work here of the ACLJ. Work that's life or death. It's not press coverage, it's not.
We should CNN have their press credentials pulled. It's not that. It's a real deal. persecution that's happening around the world. We need to talk about it.
Cece just returned from a trip to Armenia. We're gonna break down a lot of what's happening there. I don't want you to go anywhere. We will pivot back to this for the final segment. But if you really care about what's happening around the world, stay tuned for this next segment.
And there's going to be ways for you to get engaged as well.
So I'm gonna check the numbers. I'm calling you out. Don't go anywhere. You're gonna wanna listen to this. I need you to get involved in a way that is beyond.
Just commenting. We'll be right back with more on Sekulow. Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Sekulow.
We are going to keep talking about the Ban on certain press outlets. And again, then the boycott, the return from even outlets like Fox News saying we're leaking arms with CNN. And MSNBC or MSNOW sorry, excuse me. With MS Now. We're going to get to that.
We'll go back to it.
So stay on hold if you're on hold. We got one line open at 1-800-684-30-110. But Cece Heil, senior attorney here at the ACLJ, heading up our international affairs as well. Just got back from a trip to Armenia. And look, the work of the ACLJ goes well beyond us having these sort of commentary and chatting about these things that are important issues.
Not saying they're not important issues, but sometimes they're not life and death issues. But that's a little bit different on the international stage, but let's at least start it off with why were you in Armenia? What was happening? Yeah, so it was an interesting trip, save Armenia. Takes some really movers and shakers over there.
And so the ACLJ was invited. And Armenia, for those of you who don't know, the border. Around Armenia. To the south is Iran, to the west is Turkey, to the east is Azerbaijan, and to the north is Georgia.
So that is this little country. And another thing that's very interesting is Armenia was the very first Christian nation ever. In 301 AD, they became the first nation to ever accept Christianity. And that's a wonderful story in and of itself. Two years ago, and Armenia has been on the ACLJ's kind of.
List of countries that we care about. A couple years ago, even at the United Nations, we held a side event because of what was going on between Armenia and Azerbaijan. After they left the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan and Armenia were part of the Soviet Union-owned. The Soviet Union kind of Made it kind of strange.
So Armenia had an area called Artsakh or Nagorno-Karabakh that literally was surrounded by Azerbaijan and there was just this little corridor that connected the two. And back in 2023, Azerbaijan literally took that over and did an ethnic cleansing of all the Armenian Christians completely gone, 150,000 people that lived there gone. And so this has been on our radar and we have addressed this issue. What continues to be an issue, obviously that is still an issue of can they go back, even protecting the Christian heritage, the Armenian Christian heritage, because Azerbaijan has been destroying churches and cemeteries and their cross, their stone crosses that they have. In fact, just I think it was last week, Azerbaijan had a diplomatic group there, and they were saying that they were all all of this was Caucasian Albania, not Armenia.
So they're not only destroying it, but now they're trying to change history in itself. But there are still 19 prisoners that Azerbaijan is holding that they Took prison in 2023 when they cleared out Artsakh. And those prisoners have had their Christian tattoos burned off of them. They have not been allowed Bibles. They have been obviously tortured.
They are now, we are being told, are being forced to read the Quran and to bow to Allah.
So this is where the ACLJ once again gets involved because when you have people that have freedom of religion and belief. Violations happening. We want to make sure that they are protected and we want to hopefully get them out of that situation.
Well, and once again, one, you were able to go there, you were able to meet with government leaders there, and you can talk about that in a moment as well. But you start to look at especially the causes that become so popular. I mean, we talked last week about all the dust up when it came to concerts and McElmore and his Free Palestine speech. But you don't hear about the Armenian cause as much in the news. They are their own nation, but you see this encroachment from Azerbaijan.
You also know that the Ottomans tried to ethnically cleanse the Christian nation of Armenia. We know that they have been a target for genocide for thousands of years, that their Christianity made them a target. And still to this day, the fact that portions of their country are trying to be taken over, you're seeing things, as you mentioned, the burning off of tattoos, the changing of names, forcing to read the Quran. That is textbook global definition of a genocide, of trying to erase a culture. It's not just the killing of individuals, it is even the ones that live.
Taking away their entire culture from them. And when you start to look at these issues, that's why, one, you were able to be on the ground there. That's the resources that ACLJ has and the ability to go there and bring this news to the world, but also fight back when you see these things, these atrocities that are moving forward in places that you may not hear about. They're not going to make the headline on the news. Right.
And like you said, I was able to sit down and meet with the President there, you know, which that's not an opportunity that everyone gets to. And to be able to have a conversation and to see, you know, what can be done. And the same with the deputy foreign minister and the Catholicos.
So Armenia has its own. Um Church and the Catholicos is like the Pope.
So those were three high-level meetings that, you know, we got to speak one-on-one with them and find out what is going on, how we can help. And interestingly, as I was there, President Trump actually met with the Armenian church at the White House.
So this is an issue that is important. And the group that brought us over, Save Armenia, you know, a lot of times they would say, what a strange name, but Armenia does need to be saved. Just like you said, Will. They have been attacked and attacked and attacked over and over. And they have remained, and their Christian heritage has remained.
And even today, I think 90%, probably 8% of the people that live in Armenia would say they're Christians. And you don't find that in any other nation, not even in the United States, would you find a number like that? I think protecting those places is very important to our faith. It should be, because again, you're talking about historically where your faith is grounded. Like you said, one of the oldest, not the oldest churches comes out of Armenia or, you know, Coptics and those kind of Ancient, yes, ancient Christianity, which I think is incredibly important because, again, we can lose ourselves a little bit in the American Christian church and those where you do see, you know, sort of the modernization and all of it, and realize that no, we are not worshiping a God that is from, you know, the last 50 years, even though our church may appear very modern.
You know, these are ancient traditions that are being held. And like you said, people that are still in these nations. And we hear about Armenia every so often in the press. Maybe there's a celebrity that takes it, or System of a Down takes it. One of these people becomes their talking point.
But I don't think we have a real reckoning of what all of that means until you have a conversation with people who are. Lot of us Were Second, third generation, fourth generation Christians, maybe. Right. Not. 30 generations, you know, not 2,000 years of having your beliefs being so entrenched in you.
Yes, and it is amazing. I mean, you stand at one monastery and you're looking at Mount Aret, where, you know, Noah's Ark landed, and that used to be part of Armenia until Turkey took it over. And what you're talking about, the Ottoman Empire and that terrible, horrific genocide that happened.
So, yes, their faith is very important to them. And it is shameful when these places are taken over, like Azerbaijan, literally kicking out, you know. 150,000 Armenians that lived in Artsakh and totally just kick them out, give them like two days to leave, and now destroying all their heritage. That literally goes back to, like I said, 301 AD. Do we get involved in this?
How does the ACLJ get involved in it? Also, how can our supporters come from?
Well, so we will be sending a letter on the 19 prisoners, and we'll be sending that to obviously our President to engage because he is engaging on that. He's engaging in the peace talks with them. He has TRIP, which is the highway that has been kind of proposed there.
So he's engaged, and we want to just keep pushing that there are 19 prisoners that are still being held that need to be released. We will also engage with our European Center for Law and Justice, and we will push back against all this kind of rhetoric that Azerbaijan is pushing that Armenia didn't exist and that it was Albania and all that. We will push back on all of that.
Well, and I think also that point, Logan, that as this continues, this is UN General Assembly Week. I know the CC has got, she just got back over the weekend and is going right into General Assembly mode. We have oral interventions coming up this week. The UN, we have. All sorts of other filings that this work is very important.
So, when people support the work of the ACLJ, it's all that CC is doing: getting off a plane and going right back to work, as well as the fact that we had our international legal director not just writing letters here at home, going to Armenia, meeting with the President of Armenia and other government officials and religious leaders to really understand what's going on as well. The Ministry of Presence has always been important here at the ACLJ, actually being in the places. And I think this is just another example of that. That is what you support, that we're not just finding a cause and attaching ourselves to it. We understand it, we get to the bottom of it, and then we use our resources to then go and make a difference.
Yeah, I want to thank everyone who stuck around, by the way. I know a lot of you tuned in, not for this. You may be tuning in because you want to get riled up about the press ban and all that, and you want to talk that out. Look, we're going to do that in the next segment. I got six calls.
I'm gonna try to get to all of them. We'll go in the order they came in. If you're gonna hold longest, you'll get on first. But luck. This is the real important work.
Th this is all important. It's not that you know, it is but it's varying levels. When you have people who are being imprisoned, tortured, potentially killed for their faith. The ACLJ team has to be there. That's the real work of the ACLJ.
All this can be maybe the entertainment, the media, it's always very important. And I want you to get involved in this. This is what really matters. You can publish a champion today if you can ataclj.org slash champions. Cece's got a lot more coming up, as you said, because of the UN General Assembly this week.
You've got a lot of prayer also to happen because there's some big leaders coming to town. We need to make sure that hopefully Our influence is strong. Say a prayer for our team and for this country this week. We'll be right back with your calls and comments. Threw us off there, Tim.
I don't know when that was a breakdown for some reason. All right, let's uh. Move on. We got calls coming in.
So many calls. I want to take as many as I can. I got to look at the ones that have been to hold the longest, plus our champions. I'm going to jump first. I'm going to break my rule here because Dan's been holding for 45 minutes.
And it's Bobby. And it's Bobby. You get a lot of air time. Bobby, you'll be next. Dan, Texas, you're on the air.
Yes, I think Trump should let them in, CNN, Politico and MSNB, hee-haw, and let them in and just go to the Biden model of press conferences where he has a list of people. Pre-chosen with pre-scripted questions, and they can just read the pre-scripted. uh answers. And he can give CNN and political and um MSNB, whatever it is now. Uh Ice cream questions.
Yeah. Or go ahead. Oh, I s I was gonna say you should come in eating an ice cream. And if they complain, about that, but didn't complain about Biden, and I think that that demonstrates their hypocrisy. Look, Dan, 100%.
We know how soft the press was on the Biden administration. We know how much the Biden administration also lied and covered up things for President Biden when he was maybe having issues. There's a lot of things that we were really critical on. But you also had to have that door open to be critical on it. Peter Doocy was allowed to be in that room.
You know, I mean, and look, President Trump last time, who was it that was always like the antagonizer on CNN? Jim Acosta. Yeah. Eventually he got kicked out. Right.
I believe rightfully so, because that guy just became a joke that was going in there to try to bait the President. He wasn't actually trying to get real information out. He was going in there at a moment to just make himself the story. And yeah, I think those people, out of there. I have no interest in them being there.
If you're not actually there, even if you're trying to get press from your side of the political aisle, fine. But when you became the story, I was totally fine with him being banned. That being said, yeah, that's pretty fun. And there was a lot of that in the Biden administration, but we pushed back on it. I think that's what we're talking about.
We're pushing back on those things. Yeah, we had a YouTube comment that said no coverage is better than constant negative. It's not an eye for an eye. I disagree. I think the press is actually meant to be antagonistic to any administration.
We didn't like it. As they have been for 250 years. Right. We didn't like when the press was giving such a pass to the Biden administration. We don't want the press to just give a pass to President Trump.
And I think we should keep going.
Now we'll go to Bobby in New York. Bobby, go ahead. Hi guys, as Mohammed Ali used to say, you and Will Logan and Cece, you guys are the greatest. But I want to disagree with Logan a little bit, even though I love you guys. Everyone is.
I know we want an independent press, but if you look at MSNBC and CNN and Political, they're not really an independent press. But I'll move on to my next thing that I want to say. I'm very mad at Fox News because of what they've done. I feel they've gone too liberal, and what I hope will happen is that they will get blowback from the folks. And maybe I'm hoping they'll go back to the way they were because I know their current director.
Susan Scott seems to be.
Well, here's the thing, Bobby. I don't. I know that that's like the common thread, and the President has kind of piled on there as well. But I don't really see that being reality, that Fox has necessarily gone too liberal, as people are saying. They call them faux news now and everything.
In reality, if they have a headline that's reporting something that the President doesn't like, He's attacking them, and then everyone seems to jump on as well. That doesn't necessarily mean that they have gone liberal if they disagree with something. I mean, even the fact that we're having this discussion today, does that mean now? I know you'll probably say this about Logan, but does that mean that we have gone too far left that we're like having this discussion? That's what we're talking about here.
I think that to some degree, we also, as we keep saying, look two years from now. I think that that is the key: what will the world look like? And if you don't have any access, you don't have any information, and the opposition is able to isolate themselves, that is a real problem. All right, so many calls. I'm going to do my best.
April, Pennsylvania, you're up.
Well, hi guys. I think that the President is perfectly within his right to limit whoever comes to the press pool. It doesn't mean that they're not going to write about them. They can't go to the gaggles on the outside lawn or whatever that is. I just don't think they should have those elite seats if all they do is write divisive, fraudulent, negative, defamatory, outright lies, which is what they've done for the past ten years regarding this President.
And considering under President Biden, he removed four hundred and forty Individuals press condensed credentials with nobody at all even forming about it.
Well, April, we actually did push back pretty hard when President Biden did not one one, didn't show up, didn't answer things, blocked people, blocked a lot of those outlets. Again, I think that people do make it, but not like this. But I think also because President Trump did, you know, he's very accessible. He's become a very accessible man. He always was an accessible President.
You got to give it to him for that. But with that, it comes, I guess, some expectations and some consequences. I appreciate it, April, though. Thank you for calling. I'm just going to move on because I want to hear from everybody else.
Let's go to Matthew, D.C. Go ahead. A, what does Trump expect in his desire to be transparent and have all these press conferences to open the door to people who have nothing to do with him, want to hurt him? And you know, Trump gives the analogy at at his at his rallies about the snake, the person who carried the snake. You're going to get bit.
And he thinks he's going to use them to get his agenda out, Trump's agenda out, Trump's accomplishment. Which are good, but no, they're going to nitpick and Matthew, you brought that up. I mean, look, President Trump has taken interviews with people that I go, what is he doing? Why would he take a sit-down interview with some of these outlets knowing? I mean, some of them he storms up and gets out, and that, of course, makes a story as well.
He knows this is antagonizing. And look, I get being fed up with it. I actually agree with being fed up with it. But I think we have to look towards the future to see what the President could set, and that's the concern. Let's continue on.
I got two more calls in two minutes. I'm going to do it. Mario, go ahead. With Trump and the media, it's a love-hate relationship. And Logan, I love you, man.
I don't care what anybody says about you. Thank you, Mario. And yes, it is this sort of like, you know, push and pull. It's they're, you know, it's the odd couple, which is he loves the press in many ways. And you can tell he walks back, he needles them, he does these things, but also he can't.
Look, there is that sense of they will, let's just say, kiss up to the President of the United States in person, and then, of course, immediately turn on him. Here's what's also interesting, and you know, he knows what he's doing. This broadcast that we're having. Talking about this issue is one of the largest we've had in a while. Right?
Yes. If we had done it, people are paying attention to this and not. Cost of gas, not cost of living, which they had been attacking him on ahead of the midterms. That's a win for the President. Even if he loses in court over this, he's riling people up.
It's a win ahead of the midterms as people are focused on this, not other things. We got one minute. I want to get to Jeff. Jeff, go ahead. Yeah.
How are you doing, guys? My question is: you know, well, mainly my statement is that. President Trump I've supported for a very long time, even before he was President. And Can you guys hear me? Yeah, we gotcha.
Keep going. Um I I ha I have no the mentioned press I use very loosely. I mean, I think it's more commentary.
Now on both sides of whether it's CNN, Fox News or whatever. Only cutting you off because we have 40 seconds, but you're basically saying: does it make a difference that you see on these shows so much commentary, so much opinion journalism when it comes to legality? I don't believe so. Also, because the pool aren't the same as the people that you are seeing as a host of a show like Abby Phillip or someone like that. It's different people within an organization that has both opinion and news journalism as you go forward.
Alright, Jeff, if you want to call in tomorrow, we'll let you have more time. Call back earlier in the show, just let our phone screener know that. That's gonna be our show. You did get to all six calls, though. I did.
So, you know what? I deserve a treat. And that treat is you become an ACLJ champion. Go to ACLJ.org today. I'm Ted Me Champion.
Talk to you tomorrow.
