New York Times Doubles Down on Pilot "Altercation"

On today's show, the New York Times doubles down on his biased coverage of the Thordan 9/11-style attack against Israel, keeping you informed and engaged.

Now more than ever, this is Sekulow. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments. For call, one eight hundred six eight four three one one zero. And now, your host, Logan Secular.

Look, I understand being careful and trying to keep your journalistic integrity in check. Because if we know anything, that is what the New York Times is known for. I'm Logan Sekulow. Welcome to the show. Phone lines are open for you at one eight hundred six eight four three one one zero, and I want to hear from you.

Of course, we are still talking about that thwarted attack yesterday. It happened mid-attack, by the way. The nine eleven style attack that being reported right now from extremist pilot, who from all we have seen now, we have some wild. Stuff to go over is this was sort of a known entity. This was going to be somebody who no one.

It seems like inside who knew him was all too shocked to hear he would try to pull off this kind of attack, which again opens up a whole new can of worms.

Now. Of course, in America and stateside, they're going to do whatever they can to really diminish the true impact that could have come from this terrorist attack. The New York Times yesterday we covered it, and of course, they got a lot of flak. They got a lot of flak because of a statement that they put out originally. That that said, breaking news: a plane flying from Dubai to Israel was diverted after an altercation between the pilot and co-pilot.

Israeli officials say.

Now hold on, we'll go. Let's go back to me. We'll come back to it.

So that was the original statement. By the time that this went up, most people knew what had happened. Sure. Confirmations need to be claimed. Yes, did all everything need to get checked out?

Yeah, but using the word altercation is like saying that it was a two-sided argument that you know went awry.

Something that would happen, you know, at a dining room table, or something that would happen on a sports teams. The two teams faced off against each other. There be some kind of altercation. No, this was one pilot brutally stabbing another one. Trying to take his life and then use his plane not only to take down the hundreds or hundred plus that were on board, but potentially use it as a weapon, killing hundreds if not thousands more.

But the New York Times did not frame it that way. They framed it again as an altercation.

Now they have, instead of correcting their statement, putting out some sort of statement about that, they have decided to double down. That is, as more information is coming out, very clearly. And their statement and their response was: Our headlines and live coverage contain all the facts that we're able to confirm as we confirm them. And then they decide to throw some shade at people like us. Unlike activists and partisans, we don't publish speculation or unverified information.

And then, of course, follow along as we update our reporting.

So again, throwing shade at anyone who is already calling this a terrorist attack. I don't know who else was calling it a terrorist attack. The people on board. I know the people that worked on the airline, the people that knew this pilot, the people in the Israeli government. Everyone was already labeling this an attempted terrorist attack, and now we go over to the Times of Israel, which put out a statement just a few moments ago, where they talked about how this specific pilot, again, was a known entity, underwent.

A radical indoctrination, and you could find again they they have reports of this. This is again from the Times of Israel of his social media posts, which talk specifically about killing Jewish people.

Now Israel is putting out some pretty strong statements right now. Fly Dubai flights have been suspended, temporarily suspended, as they're ramping up security checks now on the pilots. You know, you thought you had it.

Now, security's got to get even more so on the pilots. According to spokesperson for Benjamin Netanyahu's office, they said every pilot that's going to be flying into Israel, we're going to now know the pilot's identity, who they are, and do some type of security check ahead of time. Anyone that is going to be flying into Israel, I'd drop right now, is to do our best. Anyone who's ever flown in and out of Israel knows what that security situation like. It is sometimes uncomfortable, how intense it is.

I want to hear from you. One eight hundred six eight four thirty one ten. Again, the double down of the New York Times saying how dare those. Activists, how dare those partisans actually cover the news as it's happening? We'll be right back with more on Sekulow.

Don't go anywhere and support the work of the ACLU when you can at aclj. dot org. Look, it is purely a miracle that no one lost their life in this attack. I mean, there's no other way to describe it. It was a miraculous moment, and one that, if had been successful, we would have a much different tone as we would have yesterday and today's show, because we would have been dealing with a September 11th style attack.

Just a few days, I mean, October 1st right now, just a few days from the third anniversary of the October 7th attacks. We are in the middle of Jewish holidays right now. A lot of my friends are over there right now, so I ask you to say prayers for all the people in Israel as they are somewhat celebratory right now. As this could have been a much bigger disaster, but we now know, and again, this is another sort of window that we didn't know we needed to check in on, which is: Are we regularly checking out, and are people specifically in areas like Israel regularly checking out the pilots that are going in and out of their country? You'd think if you went through this kind of rigorous training, most people are not suicidal in nature.

Most people are not trying to do harm to themselves and then harm to others. But we know that that is a bit of the mo here. Even if it's been twenty five plus years since you've had a real successful version of this, but it was seconds away. They've reported that now, under a minute away from where the point of no return, where they would not have been able to. Right the wrongs and fix this after the nosedive of 14,000 feet in just a few moments.

But thankfully, they were able to get those pilots, both the one who was stabbed and the other one who then begged, by the way, to have his life taken by the crew, because again, he probably knew in that moment this was failed martyrdom in their eyes. Begged for his life to be taken.

So I'm kind of thankful that the crew and the Israeli passengers just decided to, you know, keep him pretty, rough him up a little bit. I think there was a lot of blood from what I could tell, but you know what? He survives. Maybe we can learn a little bit more about what goes on inside these minds, these minds that have been radicalized. I want you to hear from Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Bite one. As you know, the the attacker, the co-pilot who attacked the captain, is now being interrogated. But here's what we do know: First, we know that he underwent Islamist radical indoctrination. That appears to be something we're gathering from the information, his personal information. Yeah, I want to know from you if you're watching online.

You can throw this even in the chat. You can call into, but I want to know in the chat right now. Is this something you've ever questioned? Have you questioned when you get on an airplane whether the pilot who is there, not whether you think they were qualified or whether that you thought that that pilot. Was going to cause you harm was potentially working on a actual ray again.

This isn't the 9/11 hijackers who then killed the pilots. You're talking about pilots themselves. Have you thought? Has that gone through your mind? I'll be honest.

As someone who is not a great flyer, usually I put my trust in these pilots to do their amazing job of flying us to safety. And of course, very thankful for that. But now it's going to open up a whole other thing. And what about just travel to Israel? Israel in general.

I have not visited Israel in a number of years now, and I'll be honest, I've been wanting to get back aggressively since the October seventh attacks. We have our office there. We have people that go all the time. I have not gone. I've not been able to take my family.

I really wanted to take my son on his bar mitzvah year. He's now about turned fourteen. That's simply just not going to happen right now. And every time it feels like, and I feel for the tourism industry of Israel, I feel for the people of Israel because every time it feels like it's calming down, something like this happens. And whether that's in a missile attack, whether that's what's happened in the war with Iran, or now even these unknown, unthinkable questions of what happens when you are just in the air over Israeli airspace, or in a plane full of Israelis slash Jewish people, are there people who have been radicalized within our own country and in other countries who will do damage to just those passengers on board?

I want to know your thoughts on that. Phone lines are open. You can also hit me up in the chat one eight hundred six eight four three one ten one eight hundred six eight four three one one zero. Again, social media posts have been uncovered saying that this was no shock. People that worked in the airlines said we had hired someone who inevitably was very clear had terrorist intentions.

You know, a hijacker, religious extremist, again, who you know, we. I mean, that was the quote from the report. We hired a terrorist.

Now, that being said, you know, I think we have to be very careful with that because some of those languages could be very easily used against Christians and Jewish people, even some of the things that are traditions. But you do have to kind of get to the the crux of the situation here, and to the heart of the situation.

So we also have to be careful when you're dealing with this that you're not demonizing, you know, entire religious groups because can easily fall back on you because what you have traditions and customs that people don't think are normal. But do your traditions and customs involve the death of hundreds, if not thousands, of people simply because they believe differently than you? That is where we have to push back, and we also have to push back against our own. Press here in the United States, who were so quickly to want to call this something that it wasn't, to just say this was an altercation, a fight that broke out in a cockpit, and you know, thankfully, there were some heroic passengers that saved the day. That is not what happened here.

I never even heard of something like that really even happening. We've had, of course, incidents where a pilot has had some sort of mental breakdown and things have happened, sure. But when it comes to This kind of intentional attack. It is a very, very different time. And again, the New York Times decided we're going to double down on that and say, "How dare you go after us for calling it an altercation?" It was an altercation.

We didn't know any better. At the same time, every other. Not only mainstream news; a lot of them did in the mainstream news, but everyone, including governments, including all the investigators who are talking, making statements within hours of this happening, were saying otherwise. But you know, you can't trust the words of the Israeli government. That's essentially what they're trying to tell you.

That's like dealing with the Iranians, or it's dealing with someone else. We can't trust Benjamin Netanyahu is going to be straight with us, so we're just not even going to report it. We can't trust that Donald Trump is going to. Be honest with us when it comes to saying this was a terrorist attack. Who knows?

It's putting that seed of doubt into everyone.

Now I'm thankful that most of you see right through it. But there was even a Fox and Friends legal analysis this morning that said the double standard for Israel has never been more blatant. A pilot. Stabbed the captain and tried to crash a plane full of Israelis. The New York Times called it an altercation.

How quickly suspected terrorism gets sanitized when Israelis are the target, and that cannot be more true than right now. Look, it's me and you for the next half or next forty-five minutes. Rick Renell's going to be joining us a little bit later, and I want to hear from you.

So I want you to give me a call at one eight hundred six eight four thirty one ten. People are asking some questions. We have learned that currently fly Dubai flights. Have been suspended in that's going into Israel, so we know that's happened right now. And the Israelis are changing the security process in terms of scanning and making sure that the pilot they know who's coming in, including the pilots and the crew.

And I'm sure that some extent, of course, they know that some sort of manifest. But do they know the background? Do they know that you have a social media post from this pilot saying that he would like to kill Jewish people? And that is currently what's being reported by the Times of Israel. I mean, that is, you know, that the fact that you ever would feel comfortable saying something like that, and thinking you'd keep a job, and not only keeping a job, keeping a job that one of the big tasks is protecting human life.

I mean, again, when we all get on a flight, our lives are in the hands. Of those pilots, and there is an understanding that those pilots, not unlike a doctor or in a medical field, you know, sure they have to know the they got to know what they're doing because they have the lives of hundreds, if not thousands, of people in their hands. This is what happens, though, when you have some sort of radical indoctrination where your life is no longer important either. Maybe that was sort of a misunderstanding we've had for many years, which is certainly you wouldn't do this to yourself. Your own life is more important than that.

But we've known now so many times that that is not the case. I am going to continue updating you here. There's also some really interesting news out of Iran in terms of the midterm elections. And we're going to get to that coming up a little bit in the next segment, and certainly with Rick in the back half of the show, because. The Iranian government went from you know death to America to now being like oh well maybe we're not going to be able to accomplish that goal but maybe we can accomplish another more politically motivated call so we're going to call on Americans to do the right thing and vote a certain way and you won't be surprised which way they encourage you to vote but the fact that they think and maybe they do and maybe you could you interest they think that they have enough goodwill.

From the American people to help sway an election, and that's an interesting thing to think about as well. There are plenty of Iranian Americans. The ones I know don't care too much for the IRGC. They don't care too much about what happened to their country. Mean they care about it.

They don't care for it. Phone lines are open for you at one eight hundred six eight four thirty one ten. Three lines open right now. I will take a lot of calls throughout this hour. Again, it's just me and you, and Rick Grinnell is going to be joining us in the back half of the show.

But go ahead, give me a call at one eight hundred six eight four thirty one ten. And new report: If you're talking about anti-Semitism growing in New York City, well, the mighty mayor of New York has something to say about it. He's going to do it. He's going to fix the problem. He may use all the right words.

We know what the actions are. We'll be right back with more on Sekulow. Welcome back to Sekulow. Look, this segment will be the end of our first half hour. If you don't get us on your local station, you can find us broadcasting.

Even if you do. Better experience to see us. That's over on aclj.org, YouTube, Rumble, Facebook. We are broadcasting there live, twelve to one PM Eastern time, and then you can catch an archive immediately following.

So if you are listening to this later on a delay, you can always watch the second half of the show whenever you want, or the whole show. You can go back. You know it's available. It's podcast. It's available, and all all outlets wherever you get your podcast.

Again, phone lines are open for you at one eight hundred six eight four thirty one ten. Before we move on a bit from what happened in Israel. Again, of course, that flight. We're going to talk though a little about the mayor of New York here in just a moment. I do want you to hear a bit more from Prime Minister Netanyahu because there was a bit more when it talked about the nature of what was happening inside that cockpit to give you a bit more.

Of the surrounding of what was happening because we've seen video clips, but you know a lot of it is in Hebrew. Obviously, a lot of it is is a little bit harder to understand what's happening. You also had a group of people trying to keep children calm, so it's a different scenario. You see a lot of blood, but sometimes you know maybe it doesn't fully compute what was going on inside that cockpit. But Prime Minister Netanyahu was on Fox this morning.

A lot of what he's done before this was in Hebrew as well, so it was you know we'd have to be playing translated and all of that. But he was able to. In English, talk about this. Let's play bite five, talking about what was going on inside the cockpit in terms of the way the passengers and the crew then reacted to that pilot who had decided to take his own life and not his own life, took all the lives on that plane into his own hands. Bite five.

They subdued him. By the way, just to understand this, they they had to tie his hands.

So they used the cord of the earphones in the cockpit. I mean, talk about improvisation. Then they finally got these these plastic whatever you call you know cuffs that they have ties. But and and then he's lying there now. He's he's this attacker.

And he calls out to the to the air crew, "Kill me, kill me!" All right.

So it's clear he was suicidal. That's not a question. It was clear he was going to down that plane. It's not clear, but it looks very likely that he was going to down the plane. Yeah, I mean, t here is a lot of details that come in from that, but of course, the New York Times reported as a little scuffle.

They'll report it as a, you know, some little fight that broke out, you know, between the two pilots. No big deal, yeah, something that you deal with at schoolyard. We handled it. It's all good. Don't need to worry about it.

Just a little altercation, just an altercation, which includes the slitting of a throat of a pilot, who thankfully survived. I mean, the whole thing is an absolute miracle.

Now we take. The global fight against anti-Semitism to a much bigger scale beyond a singular flight. This one is pretty fascinating. This is coming out, of course, from New York City. The mayor of New York, who, as we know, has been not quite the good friend to Israel for sure, but also to the Jewish people.

Now, New York City, the biggest city outside of Israel. With the Jewish population, it's getting closer. As you see, a lot of moving to Miami and other places. And again, I love New York City. I lived there.

I'm there probably the most, other than being here locally in Orlando, Florida. I'm probably in New York City the most of anywhere I am throughout the year. I love it there. It's the greatest city, one of the greatest cities in the world. I think it needs to be thriving.

The Jewish community is one of the reasons I love being there. And if this was coming from any other mayor, I would be applauding the words that were coming out of his mouth.

Now, the tone, and just the doublespeak that you know is happening, I would love to sit down and talk with the mayor. If he'd love to come on this show, I would be happy to discuss it. I mean that genuinely, because I want, much like President Trump, I want to see a thriving New York City. I want to see a protected Jewish community in New York City, but I'm sorry, forgive me if these words feel a little too late, and as if he is just realizing that this is happening, that there is a rise in anti-Semitism, and he's deciding to now we're going to do something about it. You know, I've been in here a little while, almost a year.

I'm just now it's time for me to realize. Oh, feels like that anti-Semitism thing. Maybe it's a real deal. But again, we got to look at the heart of the matter. But let's hear from the mayor of New York City from just a few days ago, as they announced again their new campaign to combat anti-Semitism.

Bite two. Over the last year, I've met with Jewish New Yorkers across the five boroughs. I've met with them in their dining rooms, sat with them on the subway, and spoke to them in their schools. Time and again, I've heard the same thing: anti-Semitism is real. And it is growing here in New York City.

While our Jewish neighbors make up only 12 percent of the population, NYPD statistics show that anti-Semitic hate crimes account for more than half of all confirmed hate crimes. This is not only unacceptable; it's something we all have an obligation to change. And City Hall will lead the way. That is why today I am proud to announce the nation's first ever municipal strategy to combat antisemitism—a roadmap for how our administration will confront the scourge of antisemitism now and in the future.

So very emotional. You know, they only make up 12 percent. 12 percent, big big number, by the way. 12 percent of your population in New York City, and it's half of the hate crimes. Wow, we're so shocked.

None of us are shocked, Mayor. We've all lived through it. People have died. People have been attacked on the streets.

Some of them in front of your own mansion. I'm not surprised. And again, if these were the words coming out of any other mayor of any other city or any other government official, I would probably be praising it. And look, I'm not saying he's not a compelling speaker, and he doesn't feel like he's got the heart for it. But the actions speak louder than words.

So the actions that were actually suggested by the mayor, I don't know what they'll actually get done, other than funding some museums, doing things like that. What's he actually going to be doing on the streets? That's really what I want to know. That's why I want to talk to the mayor. If he'd love to top on, I'd be happy to have him on.

Let's hear bite four a little bit more information from the mayor. But our responsibility goes beyond protection. Jewish New Yorkers should feel cherished and celebrated in the most Jewish city in America. That's why we are investing millions in Jewish cultural centers and nonprofits, including two million dollars for the Queens Holocaust Memorial Garden and two point five million dollars towards Brooklyn Center for New Jewish Culture. While these efforts are aimed at protecting our Jewish neighbors, they will benefit all New Yorkers.

Our safety is bound up together. The Mishnah teaches us that anyone who sustains one soul, it is as though they have sustained an entire world. For generations, Jewish New Yorkers have sustained our city. Leonard Bernstein filled cavernous theaters with awe. Clara Lemlich won rights that protect workers to this day.

Kleinfeld Bridal dressed us for our most special days, and Katz's has fed us for more than a century. Today, we hold a responsibility to sustain and protect our Jewish neighbors. Responsibility that belongs to each of us—that is the work we are undertaking at City Hall, and I am asking every New Yorker to join us. Of course, not suspiciously, very intentionally, not listed in that is, of course, anything to do with Israeli New Yorkers—not just Jewish New Yorkers, which of course there are plenty. Israeli New Yorkers there are more probably so than anywhere else in the world, other than Israel.

I know many of them, but guess what else? And this is what you're not going to want to miss. At the same time, where is the First Lady of New York City? She's right now in residence, an artist in residence, at a luxury wellness retreat. And what do they openly call for?

What do you think? The full destruction of Israel. Not in some. The bizarre language they have to fight through. It says, "Abolish the apartheid state of Israel." On the social media places of currently where the mayor's wife is the artist in residence.

We got a whole another half hour coming up. This got to spark some thoughts. Give me a call: one eight hundred six eight four thirty one ten. Support the work of the ACLU at ACLU dot org. Don't go anywhere.

Less than a minute. Keeping you informed and engaged.

Now more than ever, this is Sekulow, and now your host Logan Sekulow. Welcome back to Sekulow. Phone lines are open for you at one eight hundred six eight four thirty one ten. Rick Grinnell is going to be joining us in the next segment. Again, the initial conversation we had as we started this show was about the New York Times doubling down on.

Maintaining that it was an altercation, we didn't know all the facts, and because we didn't know the facts, we weren't going to say it. We're no activists here at the New York Times. How dare you say we are activists? How dare you say that we may be biased? We're not like those others that jump to conclusions.

You know, when the prime minister of Israel and the people on board and the video footage that came out and the other people who were involved in the situation who worked for the airlines—they all said this was a terrorist attack. But you know that's not enough confirmation for us here at the world famous New York Times, and of course, the same time you have the mayor of New York putting out this multi-minute video about how we're going to be combating antisemitism because he's just shocked to learn. That half the hate crimes happening in New York City are against the Jewish people right now. And what could have inspired anything like that? What kind of rhetoric coming out of our own office could have been something that would cause this?

Who knows? But let's not talk about that. Let's put a few million dollars into a museum, and let's talk about Leonard Bernstein. I mean, that is the the.

So egregious. Let's talk about Katz's Delicatessen. They've been feeding New Yorkers for generations. Of course they have, but that's what you have to jump to. It's so disingenuous.

I would love to talk to the mayor about this. I would love the mayor to win me over on this and show me what they're doing. Because look, there is nothing I want more than a safer New York City for its Jewish community. Because it can be scary out there.

Now, thankfully, there's some pretty strong-willed Israeli-style New Yorkers who are very similar to those that took control of this aircraft.

So I don't feel like they're sitting there feeling like they're sitting ducks and that they're threatened. But we know it's happened. We know Jewish people have been targeted on the streets, killed in the streets.

So it's not like it's some theoretical. At the same time, his wife. Again, the First Lady of New York City is currently artist in residence at a retreat, a luxury Islamic wellness retreat that openly on their social media pages. And again, this coming from the Washington Free Beacon, but they put screenshots actively call for the destruction of Israel, celebrate terrorism.

So, what a good spiritual wellness gathering! Hopefully, you enjoy it there in Portugal. And again, this is a very high end event, a high end event where it costs you know thousands of dollars to attend, and also you get to deal with things like I don't know, say we have to abolish Israel completely, and that's not me being rhetorical. That is what it says on their social media posts. Probably much like this pilot, who called for the death of Jewish people and said he essentially dreamt of killing Jewish people.

Phone lines are open for you at one eight hundred six eight four thirty one ten. At the same time. The Iranians have decided to change up their rhetoric a little bit and say, you know what, we may not be able to beat America, so that whole death to America thing, we may need to shift that a little bit. But if we can't beat them in war, maybe we can win them over in their elections. And there seems to be a certain party that's a little more sympathetic to the IRGC.

They put out a pretty interesting statement. We're going to get to that in the next segment. We are going to take your phone calls as well at one eight hundred six eight four thirty one ten. Rick Grinnell is going to be joining us. You're not going to want to miss that.

We're going to talk about this for sure. Because I have a feeling Mr. Grinnell's got something to say about it. Phone lines, like I said, are open for you at one eight hundred six eight four thirty one ten. And I've hit you with a lot today, but I want you to give me a call.

And if you can support the work of the ACLJ, what a great time to do it. We just came out of September, and I'll be honest. September is usually a pretty quiet month. Fundraising efforts—we don't do a whole lot of pushes. You—you'll hear me do those other months of the year, but September—it really stood out.

We were able to break apart, go above what we normally do, because people like you decided to stand up. Whether it's for that homeschooler, the last you know couple days of the month in Nebraska, told he couldn't be a firefighter. Or whether it's these kind of conversations, what's going on in Israel, or our work in the UN during UN General Assembly week, the ACLJ team is always there, and we're only there because of you. It's never behind a paywall because of you, unlike the New York Times, which I can't even read half the articles without paying them. No thanks.

Welcome back to Sekulow. We do have two lines open for you: one eight hundred six eight four thirty one ten. Rick Grinnell's joining us right now, and Rick, this is a statement. I think it's very interesting to break down because usually we're used to you know Iranian officials, you know people protesting, screaming death to America. All of those the normal Iranian style.

However, this time they said, "You know what? I don't think that the whole death to America thing is going to work out for us because we have a pretty strong leader in President Trump who is out there. I don't know. We're we're in a pretty good conflict with him right now, and he's taking out a lot of our top leadership. What is the easiest path to fixing this?

Oh, we can just influence the voters of America to vote against President Trump and to vote for Democrats. That is a different tone than we've seen. Again, decide that." Usually, chants "Death to America" is now chanting. You know, if you're going to go out there and vote this November, we encourage you to vote against what's happening. And again, just the fact that the public messaging is now tying the Democrat vote with the IRGC.

Again, if you are an Iranian American, you are not so thrilled with the IRGC. Typically, I mean, this is a statement from the IRGC. You know, they they're talking about this. This is a letter obtained from the spokesperson. Person of the IRGC, 25-page letter, and then it says you're the one who will empower with your votes the government.

Allow it to do what it does. Although American politicians often win your votes through deception and false promises, as Trump did, you can change the makeup of the government. You apply the criteria for good leadership in choosing the people you vote into office.

Something you would think you'd see in a campaign email now coming from the IRGC. Let's break it down, Rick. What do you think about this? Look, I watch a lot of Big Brother on TV, and one thing that you learn from Big Brother when you go into the finals is that you want to sit with somebody that you can beat. You want a weak opponent.

This is like common sense in American reality shows, and it's common sense in foreign policy. People want weak opponents. When I was the ambassador to Germany, I heard over and over that they didn't like the tough policies of President Trump. NATO didn't love being asked to pay more. They would prefer to have leaders that are weak in America, because then they can ignore those people.

And so, what we're seeing now are are enemies around the world. Literally admitting that Donald Trump is beating them, Donald Trump is making life difficult for them, and they want them out.

So the Iranians now are just saying, "Give us back the simple." Leadership that that didn't in America that did not demand that we do certain things that certainly didn't cut off the Strait of Hormuz. You look at what's happening to the Iranian government, and they've been decimated, and now they're they're literally on on. You know the the barely breathing. They are on their deathbed because they are not getting enough money. From the oil revenue that they are so accustomed to, and so it's not surprising that they are now saying, "Vote against Trump." We need Democrats to come back in.

They love the Democrats' socialist party, that basically wants to constantly cut deals, and that's where the Iranians thrive—is when they can manipulate American leadership and American diplomats, and they can't do that with the Trump. Yeah, I mean, you've seen it now. We've talked about this a number of times, Rick. Is that it's not just Iran; it could be Russia and Ukraine. It could be any of these situations to where, yeah, they want.

The funding, and they want to be left alone to commit their atrocities in many different ways. And how dare we get involved in in this and have actually negotiations? It feels like this is always the pushback, and I think the American people need to look at that. If if Iran is saying to vote one way, if even Russia and Ukraine, if both of them were saying to vote one way, there is clearly a reason behind that, and it it is that, like you said, there was a much easier Reaction easier to work with when it came to kind of the lying down version of a Biden administration or whoever it may be, who would just sort of submit to whatever kind of chaos was happening and let them do what they needed to get done from their point of view. Look, I think Republicans need to be very clear right now that the Iranians want the Democrats to win, and we need to tell the American people: you can vote with the Iranian regime and elect these far-left Democrats because they prefer to have weaker leadership in America.

They are being very clear, Logan. They are being very clear. The IRGC. The Iranian government wants and is begging for the Democrats to come into control of Congress. Yeah, I think that it is an absurd piece of this whole story—the fact that you would have this—and look.

They're not unjustified. We have seen this wave happen with the Democrat Socialists. We're going to find out a lot more in just a few weeks, and then after that, things we're going to turn to the general election very quickly. I mean, Rick is someone who's who's been involved in all of this. You know that that machine is already rolling.

It's just a little quieter right now, waiting to get through the midterms. But we know we're two years out from a new President of the United States, and not only internationally but here domestically. That that part is already starting, and we're going to have to realize that in about six weeks, that all kicks off once again. You know, it was interesting. I think that we spoke about this last week, where Marco Rubio and President Trump came out, and Marco Rubio was was very blunt, and he said, "Look, I don't think that that our enemies understand what's going on in American politics.

They they think that these elections are somehow meaning that Donald Trump could lose power or would have to change government. That's how other systems work, but obviously, we Americans understand." That this is midterm elections just for Congress. This is nothing to do with Donald Trump. Other than it could be a lot harder if he's got some wacky leadership on the House or Senate side. But what what Marco was trying to say, what our Secretary of State was trying to say, is you need to understand our system.

You're going to deal with Donald Trump for. At least two and a half more years.

So, do not underestimate our system. He's here to stay. He's not going away, regardless of what happens in the elections. And I think that that kind of ties back into the situation in Iran. But you also know that we were talking about this at the beginning of the show that even the New York Times after that attempted terrorist attack and attempt is even the wrong word.

I mean it was just an unsuccessful terrorist attack, but it was it had ongoing at that point. It would happen. They were calling it you know a a conflict or you know some sort of a little fight, little scuffle that happened midair. Of course that they said the altercation between the two pilots. And they didn't double debt.

You know, they didn't back off of that. They doubled down and said, "Look, we didn't know all the facts, and we're not going to be like one of you guys, one of you partisan hacks that's just going to automatically assume that when the people on board the airline itself, the prime ministers of these countries, Saudi Arabia, is when they all say it's a terrorist attack, we're in the New York Times. We hold ourselves to a higher standard than all of you. But you know, the Iranian people, when they are the Iranian leadership, the RGC, sees that kind." Kind of thing. They go, oh, we can probably influence this.

We can be a part of this propaganda machine pretty easily. Yeah. Look, let's be clear. The New York Times did that when there were already very clear messages coming out that this was a terrorist attack. People were bloody, and people were fighting to save that.

And they they came out with that.

Now, look, we didn't know about this until after the plane landed.

So most of the information was already known when the New York Times came out and tried to literally dismiss this as. Just oh some sort of you know altercation over hot coffee or something. It really was outrageous that they didn't understand. They're not clear-eyed, and I think they hire people purposely for that. Yeah, when they make these statements, it's very clear.

But again, it projects some form of weakness, even if they don't have the influence they once had. Certainly by any means they do, but. You may not know that if you're the IRGC, you see the New York Times almost sticking up for for terrorists at this point, or at least trying to dismiss it. It's easy to go, oh yeah, we should tell people to vote for that side. Yeah, and we should be harder, right?

They're they're they're saying our message is getting out clearly. The New York Times is with us, so we have some running room to be even more belligerent and terrorist prone and support terrorism and do the things that we want to do, because the people like the New York Times understand our plight and they give us the benefit of the doubt. That's where I'm very concerned about the whole Democratic Socialist Party. We have to be very clear. Bill Maher, I think, did a very good job of reading from their manifesto, and and he's perplexed that there's any Democrats supporting these guys because he just is very clear.

This is communism, folks. What are you doing, flirting with this? And shame on all of our young people who somehow think that this is a good thing. Let me finish by saying the Independent Women's Forum has a very good ad out right now that goes at the Part of young people thinking that everything that's free is good. We should maybe link to that and show it's a it's a throwback.

Logan, you're gonna love it. It's a throwback to. To Michael J. Fox's great movie, going back in time. Of course, yeah, we'll take a look at that.

Yeah, thank you so much, Rick, for joining us today. Always interesting here inside. Look, I just saw you post on social. Also, a happy heavenly birthday to your mom.

Solid post that.

So, of course, to your whole family, our prayers are still with you guys. And again, thank you again for joining us. But we'll see if we can link to that. That being said, phone lines are open. I have three lines open.

I want to hear from you in this next segment.

So, if you have time to call, right now is a good time to be on the air with me. Thanks for joining me. We're gonna take all the calls we can.

So, if you are on hold, Greg, Brian, Marion, I am gonna get to you. If you haven't called in, I am gonna try to get to you still. One eight hundred six eight four three one one zero. One eight hundred six eight four thirty one ten. We'll be right back with more on Sekulow.

All right, time to hear from you, and we still have a little bit of time. You can call in one eight hundred six eight four three one ten, one eight hundred six eight four three one one zero. You got probably two, two minutes or so to call in and get yourself in line to potentially be on the air. I'm going to go in the order of what the calls came in. Brian, you've been on hold for a long time.

I appreciate it. Brian in Virginia, talking about the altercation in the sky. Go ahead. Cause I went to Woodbridge High School, so one day my my mom. Ryan, you there?

Oh yeah, we're having a different conversation, but hey, good to know what high school you went to. It's all right when you're talking about like the altercation in the cockpit, you know, being terrorism. Because I think it was like a it's a verbal altercation between mostly peaceful pilots. Exactly, Brian. That's what our team said—a fiery but mostly peaceful altercation in the sky.

I mean, that is again what that was from the CNN story. Remember when you saw legitimately fire burning and riots were happening on the streets, and they were saying it was mostly peaceful protest but fiery. It is the same kind of idea, Brian. And I appreciate you calling in, and I appreciate you waiting on hold.

Sorry we didn't get you for so long, but again, that is the egregious nature of the press in 2026, of course. Over the last decade, where things have been more and more partisan, that you can't say anything, you can't even report what's happening if it goes against your narrative.

So, there was no doubt, I think, in any of our minds what happened. That at least, at a minimum, was an attempted terrorist attack. That's at a minimum. As Rick said, we knew all of this pretty much as soon as it was being reported because all of this happened really in the the what unfolded following the the flight.

However, that wasn't good enough because if you say something good about just an Israeli, that may be too far for the New York Times. They want their audience to go. How dare you say something positive? That there was a miraculous moment where heroes stepped up. These were not the Netanyahu administration that you may disagree with.

These were regular citizens, human beings. Doesn't help your case, by the way, if you are an attempted terrorist and you got a plane full of Israelis that almost all of them have been members of the military. Many of them special forces. Many of them know how to throw down a little bit.

Okay, look, it is very different in Israel than you can imagine. Let's continue on. Let's go to Greg. Watch on the Salem News Channel in Tennessee. Go ahead.

Thanks for taking my call. I'll try to get through this concisely and quickly. I know you got lots of callers. No, no, no. Go ahead.

I just try to stay calm because I get so fired up about this stuff. But I told your screen caller, you know, to trust Islam is like putting lipstick on a pig. I mean, those people are—they have a—they worship a god that gives away virgins as door prizes and has a a stated law of lying and deception. And and we're supposed to trust those people. Don't go to Dearborn, Michigan, and have a draw Muhammad contest because you will be wasted.

You know, I mean, what was it in Texas a few years ago that had that contest, and and somebody pulled up and took them down. We ought to have those contests all over the country. It'll draw them out, Greg. But good, go ahead.

Sorry, they say follow the money. How many hotels? Gas stations and middle class businesses are owned in this country by Muslims and Hindus. You follow the money. Yeah, Greg, I'm only cutting you off for time here.

And also, look, I think we have to be very careful. I understand that you're frustrated. I understand that you're concerned. You see what's happening around the world, and some of this, like what's happening in the UK, and you can't help but jump to some of these conclusions. I do say that.

I know plenty of of Islamic people, Muslim people, who are good people, good citizens of the United States of America, great citizens of other countries. We've worked with some here. I mean, this I don't I don't want to paint with too broad of a brush. Here, I understand the frustration, but there is a radicalization nature. There is the difference between if you insult Christianity and you insult Judaism and you insult Islam.

What the ramifications could be, or more, more likely to be, you have a more a more tolerant group in Christians. You have a more tolerant group in the Jewish people. Not to say, by the way, that we don't have our own traditions that many would find to be peculiar or strange. Sure, they don't necessarily line up with a lot of those that you just listed. But we have to be careful.

That being said, it is okay for Israel to say now we are going to take a good look, because you know what? If it's Christians posting, I want to do X, Y, and Z to the Muslim population. I don't want them flying a plane either. Then I'm on. Or they want to do that to Christians, or they want to do it to Jewish people, or Hindu, or any race, religion, whatever it may be.

I think we do need to have a harder look when we hire here. I tell our crew to make sure we're checking social media to make sure that not only, of course, this person, but they don't not necessarily even have to align, but they certainly aren't going out there saying things like this, making incredible threats, dreaming of a day where they can commit mass murder. I think we need to probably have that in general. Look, we have a couple minutes here. I want to quickly.

I want to go to Mikey in Florida. Mikey, go ahead. How are you doing, brother? Good, good. Thank you for all you do.

I'm a retired lieutenant colonel from the Israeli army. I served 22 years in Israel, and I was the head sharp shooter of Israel for almost two decades. I moved to America about 10 years ago. And my wife and my children were all very strong Republicans. I'm a big Trump guy.

I've shot with his son. It's still hard for me to understand how there are Jews that some of them I grew up with that vote Democrat. When you have a party that is almost built on hating you and hating Israel, how do are there still Jews? And I'm definitely not one of them. I have an American flag and Israeli flag proudly in my front yard here in Florida.

And and we're always you know caring, so we're not really afraid of anybody. It's still it's still difficult for me to understand how there are still Jews who vote for Democrats.

So I just want to hear your thoughts. Yeah, Mikey. I mean, we're running out of time. Only about two minutes left. But I think that has been a common question that we've had for a lot of our friends and family.

Of course, originally they would say the Democrat voters were because of what they were coming from. A lot of them were you know obviously coming from extreme. Poverty and also extreme. I mean, obviously, we're talking about what went on with the Holocaust and what went on in Russia and Ukraine, those areas where they were run out. Sure, there was want for progressiveness, but that progressiveness has turned completely against them.

And I look like you said many of my friends, many of my family who vote Democrat, and there are moments where I go, I don't understand how this lines up. I understand you may disagree with some of the social issues, you may disagree with some of this, but it comes to your own safety. What's happening here? And again, it's been a common issue, and I think a lot of people like you, Mikey, end up in Florida because you go, you know what, I can't take it anymore, or this is where I'm going to end up and and you know build my family because it's a different world in Florida, as you know. Hey, Marion, um, usually we get to you.

I think we you can go to Marion real quick. Marion, you got like 15 seconds, and we got to run. We'll get you next time.

Okay, basically, I believe the fate of our nation is at stake right now because of Genesis twelve three. Any nation that blesses Israel shall be blessed, and any nation that curses Israel shall be cursed. And if we vote the Democrats in, I believe that we're going to curse our nation, and it could be the fate of our future. Marion, of course, appreciate your call. Always, thanks for being ACLJ supporter and champion.

Here, look, I think there's a lot of good. Options to who you can vote for and look, but there's also a lot of pushback right now within the within your own party within the Republicans as well.

So it's not like it used to be. Even maybe even two years ago or a year ago, where maybe if there was a you know twenty years ago, Israel was pretty standard. You were Democrat or Republican, you were in support of Israel. A few years ago, if you were a Democrat, it was a little bit blurrier.

Now, I think all bets are off. You got to be voting for the candidate. You got to be looking. You're not voting for party here at this point. You got to do some deep dives on who these people are associated with, who they align themselves with.

And that being said, support the work of the ACLJ because you know where we stand at aclj.org. We'll talk to you tomorrow.