Today on Sekulow, President Obama enters the midterm campaign to try and save an election. 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. Welcome to Sekulow. Will Haynes here, joined in studio by Jordan Sekulow, and we're going to be talking about the midterms as we are now four weeks exactly until Election Day.
Now we know for much of the country, every day is Election Day heading up until November third, when the official Election Day happens. Much of the country has early voting starting already. Much of it will within the next week or so. Join those that have already started.
So what we'll start to see is really every day will be this final push for the midterm elections.
Now, a lot of doom and gloom out there for the GOP. You know, races that aren't expected to be competitive all of a sudden are. We're going to break all of that down. But in a surprising move last night, it was announced that former President Barack Obama. Will be going to Michigan on October 24th to campaign for Abdul Al Sayed.
This is an interesting move in the context of all the negative news stories we're hearing about how poorly Republican candidates are doing, how conservatives are going to get thumped in this election. When you have a state like Michigan, where President Trump did win in the 2024 election cycle. You start to look at this. He said, "Why, if Mike Rogers and all these states are going to do so poorly, is the former President, like the top campaigner for the Democrats, is the former President Barack Obama? He doesn't." Have to go to places that often because he can send a tweet or do an ad, but will be in person in Michigan.
Jordan, what does this tell you with this news that we hear out last night? It tells me that they believe they have a chance in Michigan, but that it's not done.
So, throw out all the polls. You would not send Barack Obama there if you thought you were ten points down in the race. You wouldn't send Barack Obama there if you thought you were ten points up in the race.
So, what does it mean to send? A former President who's very popular and actually a little bit more popular. It's strange to say this, but as we look in the years, with more mainstream voters in Michigan who might be more put off by the more leftist, socialist-leaning, even Islamic kind of talk that has come out of Al Sayed to bring. Barack Obama into kind of bring in the moderate Democrats and maybe independent voters, but it tells me right off the bat that this is winnable by Mike Rogers. It's winnable for Republicans.
We have good Republicans on the ballot there, statewide for governor. Been with John James. He's been down here and where we are, and and he's been in Congress, of course.
So you add that with Mike Rogers, you would not be sending Barack Obama to Michigan unless you believed he needed to be there, and he doesn't need. To be there. If again, you can't win. Or if you're winning, if it looks like you're going to cruise to victory, it's a waste of his time.
So to me, that says this is a very a race that you don't need to give up on, but a race that Republicans need to engage in more. I also think that it is kind of a firewall for for conservatives at keeping the majority in the Senate. But you're also saying we're going to go through some of these polls of both Michigan as well as other states that have become, in some cases, shockingly close, where. Traditionally a very bright red state, you're seeing some some nervous polling and also some money being spent to try and stave off someone coming in and taking the seat and flipping it blue. But when you look at this with Michigan, the real clear politics average, which is like the average of the most recent polls, has Elsayed at 47.8 percent and Mike Rogers at 44.2 percent.
El Syyed was polling way ahead of Haley Stevens in the primary, in just won by the skin of his teeth.
So, I think, yeah, if you are the El Syyed campaign, being only. Three and a half points up is a very, very questionable place to be at this point in time. But, folks, I want to hear from you. Do you believe the polls? Do you believe the doom and gloom you're hearing, or is this this Obama move kind of a tell that maybe the Democrats are on the defense as well?
Give us a call: one eight hundred six eight four three one one zero. We'd love to talk to you on air. We have a lot more analysis coming up, and don't forget to support the work of the ACLJ. And we'll talk some. About our election integrity issues as well that we fight for here coming up, but we'll talk to you right after this break.
Welcome back to Sekulow. We're talking about the midterm elections. We're giving some analysis here as we are exactly four weeks to election day, November third. That Tuesday will be the election day.
Now, as we know in America, it's no longer election day; it's election months, as they keep adding time to when you can early vote, when you can mail in vote. For no reason at all, so that that's where we're at. We're four weeks out, and you're starting to see. Really, this is when it counts. Even I feel like our campaigning in this country is still a little behind the times because it really should have been all of September is when it counts.
Now that elections start, real ballot casting a month out in some places, so you start to see. Though this last month is the final push. The sprint to the finish line, as they say, and you're seeing some interesting moves. As polls look very dire for conservatives in this country at this moment, and you have forecasters saying, you know, there's a 73 percent chance of Democratic control of the Senate. It's almost a foregone conclusion, like 92 percent for the House.
But Jordan, they are very bullish on Democrats taking the Senate this cycle. You are seeing interesting polls pop up in places like Maine, where where Susan Collins always seems to be able to close. But it clearly is a place where they're having to spend money as Troy Jackson leads her there. Alaska. Dan Sullivan, the incumbent, is you know facing a tough challenge, and in behind in polls to Mary Patola, you have James Talarico with a lead in poll in theory over Ken Paxton.
We've also seen that kind of narrative though with Ted Cruz and Beto O'Rourke before, but then some more shocking places like Kansas and Nebraska that are starting to see the. The senators that are incumbents there, yeah. Are losing in polling or very close in polling to the Democrat challengers. It's fair to be nervous when you start seeing President Trump was campaigning in Nebraska, and that's not a place that he would typically have to campaign for any any of the statewide or races. Maybe if there was some specific kind of issue that was somehow arising, but to bring in someone of of kind of his power in a state that has been very red, I think since the late nineties.
1960s is and these are we're talking incumbents, you know, and so well-known names.
Now, it's I will say there you've got it's interesting, and we talked about this during the break. It's a Republican and an independent who are really going at it. You know, Pete Ricketts, the Republican, and Dan Osborne running as an independent.
So we have noticed and we've seen these independents pop up really in Alaska. Dan Sullivan versus the Democrat. I think if you if it was not ranked choice voting where. Four people on the ballot for your general election. I don't know that the race would be this close because the other three people.
Dan Sullivan's on there as a Republican. Then he's got the Democrat Petola. Then he has a guy with his name, right? Who read who ran as a Republican has never gotten involved in politics before. But so he's he's also Dan Sullivan, and we'll have and is a Republican.
And then it was going to be another Democrat in the. Fourth position, that Democrat on the final hour of the final day, you could take your name off the ballot, drop out of the race, did, and it automatically moves up the fifth place person, who is a Republican, always who always runs, has never won anything before.
So, so think about it this way: in a four-person Ranked choice voting on election now general election Alaska, there are three Republicans right and only one Democrat.
So if you're a Democrat, there's only one place for you to vote. If you're a Republican and you don't really get educated on okay exactly who I need to support here, you have three options that can get very confusing for voters. Even and so what I think you have to do in Alaska is say this is a population where we can afford to basically contact every single Republican voter in the state. And make sure they understand who they need to be voting for, so it's not confusing with the ranked choice voting and and where they should go in, how they should do it. But I mean, imagine that you're getting three Republicans splitting up votes versus one Democrat.
There's only one place to go if you're a Democrat. They don't need any education. Right. You just if you're a Democrat voter, you know you're going to vote Democrat. You would just send them into the polls.
And but if you're Republican, you send them to the polls, and you don't know the names. You're you're starting to get confused. There and again, they've tried to do something to, to to separate the two Sullivans, which is insane. But then again, you add on this this also ran.
So the Democrats have been very creative in supporting independents and in utilizing political systems that were changed sometimes to help Republican incumbents. In the past, in Alaska, to to their own advantage, and Alaska being a state with a smaller population, has some of the most interesting political gamesmanship of maybe any state in the nation. When you talk about even the ranked choice voting was adopted there a while back, and it did tend to favor the Republicans. Exactly, Lisa Murkowski.
Now you're starting to see it backfire as the Democrats in the state. It's not a state where the Democrat Party. Decided to just roll over. They were like, "Okay, let's learn the game." And they've clearly now there. Even the New York Times, when talking about the second Dan Sullivan, they said we sent a reporter out to try and decide if this person is legit or if this is someone put up by Democrats to cause chaos and to take the election.
And the New York Times response was. We can't say for certain either way, which tells you all you need to know that a a reporter at the New York Times could not decisively say no. This guy's really just running, and just so happens to have the name Dan Sullivan. That tells you everything you need to know. But you're looking at places like Michigan, which I think is one of the more interesting races that that a lot of people maybe aren't focused on because you don't you don't sit around unless you're really into politics.
Unless you're watching this show or things of that nature, and think about senators from other states, and right here you're looking at an open seat as Gary Peters is retiring. You have Abdul Al Sayed, who was crushing it in the primary, came very close to losing that primary to Haley Stevens, and a lot of that had to do with his associations. Yes, Hassan Piker, who now he just refers to as a streamer from California when they were best buddies on the entire primary campaign. He he hasn't spoken his name to my knowledge since the end of those primaries. And Mike Rogers, who was a longtime congressman.
Very hawkish, very strong defense-minded individual in the House of Representatives, led committees. Was was a leader. Say also, if if you thought that that that the Trump vote was hurting for his influence was hurting, someone who can certainly dis himself.
So he he was a he's been in the Republican politics and and been there for the Michigan for the people he represents in his in the district, but also he got to as you said, will the national level in the House of Especially on issues of national security, but Michigan, interesting, was one of those states where I think President Trump is still is one of the reasons why we kind of got over the the lip with when it came to independent blue collar voters.
So when you put in somebody who, again, I think in most election years after a win like that, you would say this person should have a much easier path. The the fact that you're kind of playing this game was do you do you bring Donald Trump and how do you do that effectively? Maybe do it with John. James is Mike Rogers on stage. These are all things again that are going to have to be calculated as we speak.
Because if there's not already early voting going on or requesting your your your ballot in your state, it's going on at least in the next week and a half or two.
So you know, like like you said, well, every day you kind of kind of campaign as if people are making their decision today, and then you have to wake up again and start that over. Like, okay, what's going on today? I need the message today because once people do have the ability to go walk. In and cast their vote. What may have been interesting to them a month ago is not necessarily what's driving them today.
And it's not that you you don't necessarily have between now and election day on the third of November. To tell your whole story, your whole story needs to be out now.
Well, and I think that's why it's interesting. Your ideas that you have, Abdul Al Sayed, making the announcement—it very smart. Like you, you can't take away from Abdul Al Sayed. He's been a very smart politician. You can tell he has mimicked the Obama tone in the way he talks.
But getting a double dip at this, as knowing people are starting to to to play out and plan, they didn't do this as a surprise. Barack Obama's here. Yeah. He did a announce and twenty, you know. Eighteen days from now, he will be speaking.
That is very strategic. That people know they're like, oh, good.
So if you're making your decision early, you're like, well, I know Barack Obama is going to be there speaking. And then later on, in places like Detroit, where he has struggled, and that's where Haley Stevens did really well. You are that very, very strategic, and you got to hand it to the man. I would say also in Texas, we're starting to see the polls get much closer, and I think this is the. Other side of this in big states, people really don't start paying attention because again, you could say you're in Houston, oh, Talarico's got an event there.
You're in Dallas, and Pax has got an event there. There's big cities all over the state as a huge so, like everywhere you go, you might not be even that engaged yet. Even if you're definitely going to vote in the midterms, this is when you start getting engaged. And so, if we start seeing more polls tighten up like this, that benefit Republicans again, it means that Republicans have a chance. A lot of the media was writing off.
Wanted you to write off a month ago, so that you don't send in donations, so you don't show up and vote, so that you don't get activated.
So you think there's no path to victory. Look at these current polls, and they're all within the margin of error. Right. So that means every one of these races we've talked about is within the margin of victory, folks. When we come back, we'll be joined by our director of government affairs in Washington D.C., Mark Kelly.
We'll break down some of the House side, which is very interesting as well, but. Support the work of the ACLJ. We'll also talk a little bit about all the election integrity initiatives we have here at the ACLJ. If you can support us today, do so at aclj.org. Welcome back to Sekulow.
Will Haynes here, joined by Jordan Sekulow in studio, as well as the ACLJ Director of Government Affairs, Mark Kelly, who's joining us from our DC studio. Mark, thanks for joining us. I know you're you're watching all of this very closely as we head now just four weeks until the midterms. But one thing that you were talking with our producers about before the show was how we. We need to be watching Florida on election night; that it can be an early bellwether for how those races won, how they they contrast with how they were polled, as well as what the margins of victory either way are.
As we look ahead for the rest of the evening, so I wanted to kind of get your thoughts and what you were thinking with that as we look ahead to how to even consume the the media and the coverage on midterm night.
Well, thanks, Will. I think one good thing about Florida is they're a model for the nation in how they run their elections and count their votes. And I anticipate we'll see most of the results from Florida by nine PM Eastern, so the rest of the country is going to know even before a lot of the polls close how the races are going. And Florida is one of those places where. They did some redistricting, and there are three or four seats that are going to be in play.
Seats that Republicans in that state targeted for defeat by Democrats, and we're going to know just how the the races are playing out in those really tough toss-up races pretty early. And then you'll move up the East Coast. You have a couple races in North Carolina. In Virginia, in New York, and so when you start seeing those races come in, you'll have a good good idea of how the night's going to go. Jordan, I think that's one fascinating way to start to consume election night.
But also, when you think about, I love that he says, you know, Florida is the model for the election because that is one state that had an election anomaly, and you know what they did? They made their elections better. I wish more states would follow suit of of what Florida went through in two thousand, and actually, like, hey, we can we can become a model for the country instead of the butt of every joke. Yeah, exactly. And Mark, I mean.
You look at those again. You see redistricting.
So you got three or four seats there. You talked about Virginia House races that can be similar. A lot of these again, they get they get more local attention.
Sometimes they don't get as much national attention. But but how much of it can you kind of extrapolate and say, okay, let's look at what's going on in their state statewide, and then are a lot of these House races kind of reflecting what we're seeing at the statewide level, which is polls that are not necessarily showing Republicans running away with But at least that what we've seen in the last week, and I think that's just because more and more people are starting to engage. That actually will be early that that will be voting in the midterms, which is a smaller group of people. Even that group is just figuring out, you know, who's running, and yes, it's October, but it's early October, and so you're kind of you got the kids back to school, you finish summer, okay, now who's running, and they're starting to pay more attention, and you start to see polls that show that races that looked like they were a lot tougher for Republicans. Get you know within the margin of error now.
Yeah, that's exactly right. People do start paying attention. I mean, in Virginia, early voting started about a week ago, so there are votes being cast there. But in addition, I think what happens is you see polls that are all over the place. You get through the summer into Labor Day poll.
You see one poll that shows Democrats leading by eleven or twelve points nationally, and another one that shows them up by three. What happens is these polls tend to consolidate as the closer you get to election day. That's people paying attention. Polls. Getting better results and seeing more accurately what the the electorate's going to look like.
So if you look at the big picture, kind of the national generic ballot, those tend to get pretty close to right when you get closer to election. And a lot of that is voters are answering the polls; they're they're being truthful. You know, based on early voting results, how many people are going to show up?
So I think. As we get closer to the election, we'll get a better sense for where this is going. If you remember, in two thousand and twenty-two, there was supposed to be a red wave. All the pollsters were predicting Republicans were going to gain fifteen, twenty, twenty-five seats, and they won nine, and a few of those were by you know a whisker.
So, while every midterm election since nineteen ninety-four, except for one in two thousand two, has gone the way of the party that's not in the White House. You know, it's not a foregone conclusion that Democrats are going to run away. They're actually starting in more of a deficit this time. The there are 22 Democrats sitting in seats that Donald Trump won. There are eight Republicans sitting in seats that Kamala Harris won.
So we're just in a in an environment where Republicans have a money advantage. We have a bit of a redistricting advantage if if you're a Republican. It's going to be an interesting election night, I think. When it's all said and done, I was going to say there's one kind of X factor. I feel like that is different this year, and that is the the effect of the DSA.
We know that in many House races, it's going to be a foregone conclusion that the DSA candidate that won the primary is going to win the general election. You look in New York; that I don't see a Republican upset. Happening in these deep blue districts, that in their primary picked a a DSA candidate, but then you start to look in places like Michigan, where that was kind of the the entire primary season was focused on establishment versus DSA. You had El Sayed who was supposed to run away with it, and then Haley Stevens nearly took it from him. But now, you what what do we look at in races like that?
Is there any way to kind of divine Where the the the body politic is when it comes to the DSA in some of these races on on the the midterm election day. Yeah, the the Democrats as a party were able to avoid a lot of DSA candidates winning primaries in in the closer races. There are a couple exceptions, most notably probably is in Michigan where William Lawrence upset the the favored candidate. Actually, they ran two candidates in that race and ended up he he split them and won the primary. He's running against Tom Barrett in a district that Donald Trump only won by one percent, and everybody.
Rates at a toss-up, and so in a race, you would think in an environment that favors the Democrats that the Democrat candidate would be comfortably or at least leaning ahead in that race. Um, that race is just too close to call, and and Tom Barrett's a very effective politician. He's got a very good chance to win that race.
So they avoided a lot of those. There's a couple other aligned candidates in general election races. I believe the candidate in California 22 against David Valada. And maybe one in Montana in the first district of Montana are kind of DSA endorsed, but not necessarily their candidates. But otherwise, we're going to get them out of these deep blue districts, and that's something.
If the Democrats do take a majority in the House, they're going to have to deal with because it's probably not going to be a huge majority, and they're going to have those folks. Joining the likes of Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar and and AOC and making Hakeem Jeffries' life miserable if he is in the majority. You did mention that race in Michigan. I believe that's the Michigan seventh district. Are there any specific districts that people should be watching?
Because there's so many House races that obviously you can't. But are there a few that are people should be watching to kind of see what the temperature is in this election? Yeah, I mentioned you kind of go up the East Coast. You have Castor in Florida; she's running against a very good Republican there. She's in a in a Trump plus three district.
If that race, which was redistricted to favor Republicans, goes Republicans' way, that's a good sign for the night. You've got Virginia's second district, which is Virginia Beach area. That's one to watch. New York in Mike Lawler; those are probably three. On the East Coast, which people will see the results early and can get a good sense for how things are going.
Mark, thank you so much for joining us and for all that insight. And we'll have you back on as we get closer to this election day. And it's one of these critical midterm elections where you you've seen a lot of attention on it, and and we know that many times that does go the way of the party that is not in power at the time. But that's why people vote. Because it's never a foregone conclusion.
Thank you for that. Also, at the ACLJ, we ensure that every legal vote counts. We have work in California, in at the U.S. Supreme Court on major voter ID cases, as well as Maryland. Support our work at aclj.org.
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. Welcome to Sekulow second half hour of the broadcast. I'm Will Haynes, joined in studio by Jordan Sekulow. We've been talking about the midterms, and coming up in the next segment, we're going to have a live report from Jerusalem with the ACLJ's Director of ACLJ Jerusalem, Jeff Balaban, who we'll be talking about tomorrow.
Is is it marks the third year of of the morning of October seventh and everything that has transpired from that. And you see, even the threat that Israel remains under and the United States remains under from terrorists from Iran, from the Iranian proxies. Even just last week, as we saw, a heightened alert around a U.S. airbase that ended up having the United States pull their bombers from that airbase in the United Kingdom, as well as that hijacked attack where brave Israelis were able to take out the hijacker. Who was a pilot on that flight?
So we'll talk about that in the next segment, but I think we should go to Deborah from Pennsylvania in this segment as we talk about the midterms. And if you want to talk about the midterms, you want to talk about the things you're seeing, the way you think it's going to go, your concerns, what what makes you think that it could be better than than the doom and gloom is going to be. Call me at one eight hundred six eight four three one one zero one eight hundred six eight four thirty one ten. But Deborah from Pennsylvania, you're on Sekulow. Oh, thank you.
Um, I wanted to say I'm I'm from outside of Philadelphia, and can you hear me? We got you. Go ahead.
Okay. Um, I'm from outside of Philadelphia, and I was watching the Eagles game on Sunday, um, on our local channel. Um, it's a Fox channel, and there were at least three or four advertisements for Tele Rico, and maybe one for Paxton, and my husband's just sitting. They're like, huh? And I said, "Why are they advertising Texas?
You know, for Texas people running in Philadelphia?" Yeah, Deborah. And while that was on a local affiliate, sometimes those ads are bought that are attached to the game, not necessarily attached to the affiliate stations, like the local slots. There will be local ads that run, but sometimes with the national broadcast, it will be attached.
So that's in every market. Other reasons could be. It's interesting. I don't know that this would be the Paxton choice to fundraise and. Philadelphia, but sometimes a candidate that needs money, needs national dollars to pour into their state race, will advertise Jordan nationally.
They'll do national campaign buys just to be able to get in front of and outside of Philadelphia and in Philadelphia. There's probably a a donor base to Democrats that would want to give to try and flip Texas. There's a good chance that that Deborah is why that happened as well. But all sorts of ways. Can buy ads now.
Most of your advertising you're going to spend in state if you're a statewide candidate, or even try to make it more localized if you are a house candidate running in a district. But if you are running in a state as big as Texas, you're getting national attention in all these races. One because it's been a long time for Democrats to have looked like they're going to have any success. Though we've seen a couple races where they were predicted to get close, and they end up being they they they did not even Really get past like the nine, nine thirty, ten o'clock at night time frame before the race was called.
So beaten pretty, pretty badly. Here, I think again, it can be. It's a fundraising ploy. Also, and again, the way people we we set it, I bet it's football games, and who's playing? You know, who's playing?
And and can we get some donations? Can I keep my name idea up so that that continues to put into your mind as a voter that I I am doing great? And not to say because no one wants to say it's. Inevitable that they will win, but they do want you. If you're on the other side of the aisle, to feel like, where's my guy?
You know, why are why why am I only seeing it for? Like you said, why am I only seeing Talerico ads? And and again, so there's a lot of mind games there. There's fundraising there. It's also not hurting the Democrats in Pennsylvania.
Because that's a strong blue state, so that's not taking away from any votes or money that they would need to utilize. There's also not a Senate race going on in Pennsylvania this cycle. Exactly. Also, anecdotally, that family members contact me and said that pre-roll ad before this broadcast has been for James Talarico.
So they are on a YouTube platform where you can target way down to even the location. They're just trying to hit political content.
So from around. The country to raise that money, folks. We'll be back with Jeff Balaban in Jerusalem when we come back from this break. Support the work at aclj.org. Welcome back to Sekulow.
We're joined now by ACLJ Jerusalem's director Jeff Balaban. Jeff, tomorrow marks the third year. As we still, I know for many in Israel, is still a period of mourning, and and everything they will never recover from. Just as the United States still has the It still gets you the the somberness of 9 11. This October 7th being Israel's 9 11 will never get easier, but it's still so fresh.
It's only three years since that horrific attack. And what we see was even last week, terrorist trying to do the the thing that they've been trying to do against Israel for millennia. But that is is strike fear into Jews and to kill them as as much as they can. And so I just wanted to go to you. You're in Jerusalem.
You'll be there for for services for events tomorrow that mark that day. But just what. What is kind of the the sense as you're back in Jerusalem, with all of this so fresh? Not just from October seventh, but from what we saw last week, where if it were not for brave Israelis, we would have seen more terror and more death and more destruction at the hands of Islamic jihadists. Thanks.
That's a lot to unpack, and as usual in Israel, things are just. Very, very intense. I mean, there's a tremendous amount of pride. There's. I was talking to a driver today.
We're on the way someplace, and he was talking about what happened in the air. And how much pride he has, and he said, "You know, I'm not a religious person, but it's impossible not to understand that God's behind everything." Because in Israel, when they say religious, they mean fully observant of all the Jewish laws. But pretty much everyone here is a believer, and it was it's been said many times that you know, in order to be rational in Israel, you have to believe in miracles, just because of things that happen, and that that's so miraculous what took place there. There's a lot of pride that was Israeli citizens who were able to, you know, force their way in and and save the pilot and who was terribly injured and obviously the fact that it landed successfully that was wonderful news. But yeah, this is is an ongoing problem.
Last time we discussed this on air, we pointed out that ACLJ has been involved in similar related problems of people with these beliefs, these jihadi beliefs, and death to the people they disagree with that are getting jobs as Doctors and pharmacists and nurses in America and in Europe, and saying openly that they want to use their positions to harm patients that they view as evil: Zionists, Jews, Christians. And so, this is an ongoing problem. And obviously, we're all for freedom of religion in the ACLU. What do we do when there's a religion that has so many adherents that that see a point to it that somehow link to violence against individuals who they disagree with? This is an ongoing problem.
But here in Israel, there's overall a sense of relief and pride and and prayer, prayerful thanks to God for the result of that, and also pride in not just pride, but people are talking today. Would you ever fly anything other than El Al to come in and out of Israel? Just because there's a sense that Israeli security is is somewhat better. But listen, everything changed on October seventh because Israel. You know, every day I like to say that Americans need to recognize that every day is October sixth.
Every day is September tenth. We have, unfortunately, a tremendous jihadi problem in America, and we see what they're willing to do, and and we need to recognize the lesson we all need to take. It's not just what happened to Israel. It's that we can't let it happen in America. There are people who want it to happen in America.
And so that's just one. You know, it's a lot to unpack, but that's that's one sense here again. There's a sense of tremendous gratitude and thanks and relief, and there's also a sense of you know, Israel focuses on October seventh on two different days. It's October seventh because it's an iconic day, but for Israel. It was Simchat Torah, the rejoicing of the Torah that took place on, and that was just this past, just a couple days ago, and so there.
It's a double whammy. the the the The sense of it, on a Jewish sense, is that that anniversary took place already on Simchat Torah, the day of rejoicing, which was which was turned to the day of horror and mourning. On the other hand, there's over a thousand pastors from 117 countries who are here now for what's called the Friends of Zion Ambassador Summit, and it started today. In the Mount of Olives, the Old City, City of David, and tomorrow they're mounting a 24-hour global prayer event from the Western Wall to pray for the peace of Israel, pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
Well, and I think one, I think everyone should be praying also for those pastors that are there, because once again, that's an advertised event, and we know that jihadis like to make a statement, whether it be holidays, as you mentioned that that that is lost on so many people, especially in in the West. That that October seventh was just a random day they picked, and there was a music festival, and and they're evil people, but no, they're they're they're evil goes another layer, and they always pick. Significant days, so that they can cause terror in perpetuity.
So that that your holiday, whether it be a holiday of mourning or whether it be a holiday of triumph or celebration. There's always that reminder in your head that this is what we did to you on your holiday. That's why Christmas market attacks are picked by jihadis in Europe, or other things of that nature, is because they want to darken your your holiest days, your holidays. And so I think that that can't be lost either on the audience. That when we talk about even October 7th, they pick those dates for a reason.
There's a reason there was a Yam Kipper war, is because of the holiday and the significance, and their entire mindset is to try and not just kill, but to also strike fear and terror in perpetuity. But you bring up that America is still a target. We we saw also what happened in in the United Kingdom last week. Where now the U.S. has pulled all of our bombers off of a base?
Why? Because in the United Kingdom we did not believe that our military and our and our weaponry and our hardware was safe enough to remain in in Great Britain in the United Kingdom. It goes back to that problem of not just assimilation that we see that issue in the U.K., but anywhere. You talked about the doctor that that the ACLJ was involved with many years ago that was literally saying. Things like I, I would let Jews die on the table.
I would not give them medicine, and that fortunately that individual lost their license to practice medicine. But even in United States Airlines, there are pilots that have praised what has happened on things such as October seventh. That you think about also the Hamas members that were. You in employees, you in teachers. This is a such a depraved ideology that they find people that that are in positions that can cause and inflict more damage.
That we cannot let this these moments that we mark and and remember and grieve go by without also remembering the tactics that are still in use and will continue to be in use, and the vigilance that is required of us all. Yeah, and I mean another piece of I think fairly breaking news is that the defense minister here in Israel, Israel Katz, told the cabinet that the IDF is now preparing for a war potentially with the Palestinian Authority, including what they call a guns turn scenario, where the Palestinian Authority security forces, which does cooperate against the Hamas and other anti-Pa terrorists in the Palestinian Authority territory, guns turn that they they've been trained. By the West, some some a little bit by Israel, and they're afraid that they may turn and join and attack the Jews who live in Judea and Samaria and possibly beyond that also, and so they don't want to have another October seventh. That is a much bigger border; it's with tremendous strategic depth, and so that's a real concern. And so Israel, simultaneously, is is going through a season of rejoicing and gratitude and thanks, but also live.
With very somber realities and preparing for somber, and remember this heroism that we see and and these things we've all read about in the last two three years or watched with with the beeper operation, the incredible stuff, you know, and and and the war being fought. I mean, it's still it's the Israeli citizens fighting the war. This is a citizen army that's trying to defend their families, and there is almost nothing. There is almost no family. There may be no family not touched very directly by losses here, and so it's it's.
There's a lot going on here, but I have to say, across it all, it's such. A sense of resilience and faith and gratitude and pride to be in the land of Israel to be the Jews reborn in you know in our ancient homeland. It's it's something really extraordinary. And to people who haven't been to Israel, I'm not in the tourism board, but yeah, we have to pray for those pastors and make sure they're safe. But there's a reason that so many come back again and again and again because being in the land of Israel, it's just if you have any sense of the Bible at all, it's life changing.
Well, Jeff, as always, when you're there, I encourage our our To pray for Jeff's safety as well as everyone's safety, but also it is a blessing that that we are able to have ACLJ Jerusalem. We're able to be on the ground. We're able to connect with that. But we we will have Jeff back on probably tomorrow to to also discuss other things that are going on in Israel around October seventh. But I want to thank you for joining us today and bringing a lot of that up, and even the fact that we we talked about last week with Jeff about the the.
European nations that are passing laws to make it illegal for their citizens to purchase things that are made by Jews in Judea and Samaria.
So, if there was a guns turned situation, those countries are not coming to the aid of those Jews that are going to be in a very precarious situation. To say it lightly, so pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Pray for our team. Pray for those that go to Israel to to experience the the life changing effects of just being in the Holy Land. But support Jeff in the work that we do here at the ACLJ by going to aclj dot org and contributing.
It's it's not a major match month or a thing like that, but you, the audience, is what. Continues this this very very necessary and important work. Go to aclj.org today and give. Welcome back to Sekulow. Final segment of the broadcast.
If you want to join us on air and talk to us, like Ann and Marissa, who are about to be on air, go ahead and call us one eight hundred six eight four three one one zero. We're going to go straight to Ann from Pennsylvania, calling about the midterms. As we cycle back to that topic, Ann, you're on Sekulow. Ann, can you hear me? We'll put in.
I'm sorry. Oh, you're all good. Go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you, guys. Thank you for taking my phone call. As usual, I just have a couple of things to say. And first and foremost, I think this is why it's important to show Trump at his rallies because we complain about the midterms in so many ways.
We we are just very wary of what could happen, and we're having this sense of fear mongering and ongoing. But my feeling. Is we are absolutely going to win the midterms. Yet I want to trust and continue verifying.
Now I do know that there are things that are being implemented, like the Justice Department deploying 1,000 federal monitors to poll.
Okay, I don't know if that's still had that that's been fought against, and but I do know that the status of that was, I guess, as of August, and also the Supreme Court ruled that President Trump's executive order. Tightening the rules around mail-in voting can be implemented by midterms, which the Democrats fought against. They said it was unfair and it infringes on their authority to administer elections and so on and so forth. But there are so many other things that are going on, as far as you know, implementing strict laws around Dominion and and and these online servers. But there are tons of things that I'm not even talking about.
There are so many positive things that have been taking place to make sure that the midterms are actually going to be safe. Forget about the Save Act. Even if that was implemented, my personal opinion, it would not have done much. But guys, want to say thank you for bringing this subject up. All the court cases that you're winning in regards to election fraud and preventing it from happening.
I just want to thank you and God bless you all.
Well, Anne, thank you so much for calling. And and yeah, there the Trump administration has done a lot of things to secure the elections even further. But also remember, President Trump. Trump and Republicans won in 2024, so it's not as if this system is rigged and no one can win. As as the unfortunate mood online sometimes wants to get you there, is that no?
It's still important to vote. It's still important to support the candidates that you believe in. That we are not a failed state. This is not the end of democracy, as we've heard so many times. Midterm elections.
There are already always enough registered voters. For either candidate to win, you just have to get them to vote.
So, because you're not going to get giant turnout numbers, we know that you might get increased turnouts in different races in different states, but those numbers usually are not going to be anywhere close to what you'd see in a Presidential race or if there was, uh, yeah, Presidential candidate on a ballot.
So, because of that, in states where Democrats Might outnumber Republicans. Republicans might outnumber Democrats. It's not really about that in the statewide race or the district. It's about whether or not who gets the most people out to vote. Who gets the most early votes that they get banked already in.
So you can already say I've already got those, and we know we've got this many votes going into election day because usually that early voting some place that goes right up to election day. Other places like it'll stop like a week before, a few days before, but. I can tell every one of these candidates right now. And they all know this on both sides of the aisle, and so do the pollsters, and so do people telling you that certainly this isn't this is what's going to happen a month out, which no one can tell you that is that there are enough votes out there on both sides of the aisle for the Republican to win or for the Democrat to win, sometimes for an independent, not always for the independent, but but certainly for Republicans. It doesn't matter if you're in a red state or a blue state.
If you're running a House race, it's more about Your district, and again, it's which candidate is more exciting. Who has the resources to get their name out there, to visit the people they need to visit with, to do to to make a good impression on people. If they're new candidates, or if there's someone that they have elected before, make sure that they are representing the people of their state or district in a way that they support. But so again, not there's none of these races. You you can you look at and say, well, We just don't have the votes to win there.
That's just not true at midterms, right? And once again, I think midterms are are a unique phenomenon because they are a truly a psychological experiment. When you have a Presidential election, and obviously every member of the House of Representatives is on the ballot during a Presidential election, they're also every two years, every single member of the U.S. House of Representatives has to run for a reelection.
So, in a Presidential election, it's national. It is coalescing. It gets people to fall into factions very easily because you have two people that are are in a national election that everyone is going to the polls to vote for one or the other. And yes, obviously there's the third parties, and but generally speaking, it is those two factions then are competing, and so it trickles down from the top. In the midterms, the most Energized voting base is always going to be the person that lost two years ago, because they're still frustrated.
They don't like the way the country's been going because they voted against it two years ago.
So they're the ones more eager to get up, get in their car, drive to the poll, and vote. Those that won can sometimes be disenfranchised. They thought, "Eh, not everything I've wanted to get done has gotten done," or some of these policy decisions. And they're still sometimes like, "Well, we did our job. We we voted for our candidate and our party two years ago." So that's the psychology of the midterms.
Those that are energized are always going to be the party that's not in power, and that's why, as as Mark Kelly, our director of government affairs, said earlier, that only once I think it was two thousand two, he said, was in modern history has it not flipped. At least one chamber of of Congress to the other party, and that is where we start to see what happens here.
So to to Anne, who's very excited and thinks it's actually going to be a big victory and pushback, that isn't historically what happens, and the reason is the psychology behind it. But it also, Jordan, to your point, doesn't have to be. No, it doesn't have to be. I think that, and again, we we you have other outlets that can tell you the truth that like. We're just pointing out for you.
There's not a race that we've talked about today that that either candidate, if they get the right resources and get their voters out, they can't win. I mean, so it's easier for some in some states to do so. Certainly, some states are easier for Republicans.
Some districts are going to be easier for Democrats.
Some states easier for Democrats, but. When you know you are not going to get sixty, seventy percent of people interested, you are probably looking at you know twenty, thirty, forty percent at the highest levels of voter engagement. You've got enough registered Republicans statewide, and in most of these states, to to win.
Now, again. There are a handful of states. You could say it's a much bigger road. It's much tougher. But but you really again, if you can get the resources, you get your voters out.
Everyone has a chance. And I think again, we don't want to let. Voters be, I think, depress the vote, and in a sense, so that you don't show up, so you say it's not worth it. I don't need to spend. Whether it's early voting that takes you know minutes, or if you wait till election day and it might take forty five minutes or half hour, maybe it's raining outside or it's got colder that day or what something came up with you, that that it's not worth finding the time to get your vote in.
That's that's how the other side wins elections. That's where we talk about who's got the excitement level, where the people are willing to go the extra mile to cast their vote. That's who will win these. And I think Jordan, to your point about there is always enough votes. What what proves that?
The fact that former President Obama is having to go to Michigan to campaign for someone who is leading in the polls. Right. So I think that tells you what their internals are showing is exactly what Jordan is telling you right now.
So pay attention. We'll keep breaking it down as we go. Only four weeks left to the midterms, but support the work of the ACLJ as we have important legal work right now protecting the sanctity of the U.S. elections. We'll talk to you tomorrow.
