This just in: Whistleblower sends mass email exposing alleged Letitia James corruption, and it's the third anniversary of the October 7th attacks. 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 Sekulow. Welcome to Sekulow. I'm back. It's Logan Sekulow.
Will Haynes in studio, and phone lines are open for you at one eight hundred six eight four thirty one ten. Another interesting. Guess you'd say discovery, if you will, and the Alicia James investigation issues. We're going to get into it in just a moment, and later on in the show, of course, it is the third anniversary of the October seventh attacks in Israel, so we're going to discuss that with Jeff Balaban from ACLJ Jerusalem. We also have Rick Cornell joining us.
So again, it's going to be a packed show. We're going to kind of be doing a few different topics today. Of course, honoring the memory of those people that were lost, and talking about what the future holds in that whole situation that is still. Going obviously between Israel and and in Gaza, and though we are in the middle of what you'd say is a quote unquote ceasefire, we also have a message from the mayor of New York City that I'm sure is going to make you all thrilled. Phone lines are open for you at one eight hundred six eight four three one one zero.
That's one eight hundred six eight four thirty one ten. Let's kick it to the current news of the day.
Well, of course, again I have to always state this: we are live because sometimes it feels like these situations never go away. And here we are once again talking about Latisha James. That's right. And if you'll remember, we broke this down for you back in August. That there was a whistleblower within the office of Latisha James in the Attorney General's office that was sent a department wide, a Department of Justice wide email calling out alleged corruption of Latisha James.
Now we just had quotes from that back in August, but we sent. Of state FOIA request immediately, and folks, we got the email. We got it yesterday evening, as well as 78 other pages. And now it gives one a little bit more context to some of the quotes that we were able to read, but as well as other things that are in it, like the back and forth between this alleged whistleblower and Letitia James' office, including allegations of her sending detectives to follow him and bang on his door. And harass him as he says he has evidence of corruption within the New York Attorney General's office when it comes to prosecuting political enemies.
And he also says she's only doing this because she's trying to get reelected this November. We're going to break it all down for you. But one, you got to hand it to the FOIA department within the State Attorney General's office in New York for actually handing this stuff over because it doesn't make them look very good. Committing to it, so we're going to get that broken down for you.
Some of that we can read for you.
Some of it, maybe not safe for radio. You know, got to make sure. Do we blur that out on the email when we put on the screenshot? We did just for. I'm just making sure.
You know, you know, making sure all of our because we we air this on the Salem News Channel. Got to make sure that we did. We put a little. We're good.
Okay, just making sure. We had to do our own redaction. One is ours. What is our redaction due to some language that was being used in these government emails? Phone lines are open for you.
As I said, one eight hundred six eight four three Thirty one ten. We'll be taking calls and questions about this. We're going to break it down a lot more in the next segment, and then of course we are going to spend a good portion of our today's show talking about really the third anniversary of the October seventh attacks and what that means right now. And we're going to be joined by Jeff Balaban at ACLJ Jerusalem. And again, there's a reason we have an ACLJ Jerusalem.
We're going to break all of that and tell you really what we've been working on for the last few years and what the future is going to hold. And look, it's it's a tough time. It's it's rough out there. I have to say, if you're in the Jewish community, and we have the mayor of New York City, who again, just a what a week ago decided to launch his, you know, Council Against Antisemitism, puts out a statement today that could do what? Certainly rile up a certain base, and a base that is not too kind to the Jewish people.
We're going to discuss that a little bit later. And once again, the ACLU, we're also at the biggest fights for freedom and liberty right now. You know, you heard about this whistleblower. We're going to dive into that a lot more. We're defending Israel.
We're doing so much. We need your help to support the work of the ACLJ. Become a champion today if you can. That's at aclj.org/champions. That's where you can sign up to become a monthly supporter of the organization.
It's a great way to engage with what we're doing here and give monthly. That again is at aclj.org. We're going to continue on the show, taking your calls and comments when we get back. Don't go anywhere. Short, short breaks, and we'll be right back.
Welcome back to Sekulow.
Some phone lines are open for you. One eight hundred six eight four thirty one ten. Look, I think we actually. I just looked at Robert from Maryland's call. I think it's probably good to take this because.
All of these topics, I feel like we can kind of start morphing in your brain. Whether you hear Letitia James, a Jack Smith, whoever it may be, they all start combining, and we kind of get lost in the shuffle here.
So let's take Robert from Maryland, long-time caller. Robert, go ahead. Yeah, I wanted to ask if the both of you could kind of jog and refresh my memory about Attorney General Letitia James. She is the New York State Attorney General. In addition to what you just shared about she only wanted to pursue prosecutions in order to get reelected, is she also involved in some things with the sitting President, President Donald John Trump, in terms of trying to pursue some type of lawsuit or corruption case against him?
That's my question about Latisha James. The second question, real quick, is about where is are the Israeli Defense Forces right now, in terms of Destroying Hamas, obliterating them, crushing them. I mean, absolutely decimating them politically and militarily. Where are they, Robert? The second part we're going to get into a little bit later in the show.
So stay next. Stay tuned.
Next segment, we're also be joined by Jeff Balaban coming up in the next segment. I'll ask him that specifically of where we are currently in the situation in Gaza and how Hamas is currently operating or lack of operating. Don't go anywhere for that. Let's just start at the beginning here. I do think we have to slow it down a little bit.
Maybe give people a little bit of a refresh. Because when you hear something like a former prosecutor in the New York Attorney General's office send an email to a state attorney general, Letitia James, you know on Monday, what does this all tie into? And of course, we're talking about Letitia James. We are taking a bit of time travel, right? To just a few years ago.
Well, and I think a lot of this is interesting in light of what I'm about to read to you from this FOIA production that we received from the New York State Attorney General's Office because Robert. Remember the civil fraud case was the Letitia James case. There was the Alvin Bragg case. There was the Jack Smith cases. There's all these cases that went forward.
But the Letitia James civil fraud case was the one where she accused Donald Trump of inflating the value of property to get loans. And even though all the banks said, hey, there was no problem with these loans; these were within normal, you know, disputed values, we were giving him the the loan. Anyways, it was paid back. There was no victim here, is what even the banks testified to. Leticia James still was able to get a five hundred million dollar judgment against the President that was later overturned.
Deeming it unconstitutional, the penalty.
So that entire circus that was put on by Letitia James ended up not doing anything really for the people of New York if she was going after a criminal enterprise as she alleged with this civil suit. But when you read what this whistleblower is saying, Robert. He one goes into that. This was from the original email he sent to the entire Department of Justice in New York Attorney General's office. That they conveniently started deleting from people's email boxes.
It says while the elected New York Attorney General uses significant taxpayer dollars, public taxpayer dollars, to target convenient public enemies, there are countless examples of her taking absolutely no action against rampant nonprofit homeless shelter fraud. Medicaid fraud and anti-Semitic crimes in and around synagogues, to name just a few, abandoned areas of this office's law enforcement agenda. Tish is prioritizing political theater and getting reelected in November over actually improving the quality of life for New Yorkers. Let's restate who this is from. This is from an Assistant Attorney General with the in the Investor Protection Bureau who was tasked with, as he said, going after.
Entities like Truth Social, Trump himself, Hewlett Packard, who had just gotten a DOJ-approved merger. Right. All of these things he said were political theater and just political targeting to benefit herself. Yeah, I just wanted to make sure you had at least an understanding of what we're talking about here because it is a lot of Trump targeting, right? But also, it's though it's all coming out right now.
It's not necessarily things that are happening right now.
So again, it gets a little blurry.
Well, to this person, these allegations are that even beyond. What happened with that civil fraud, Letitia James's office, including the her her underlings, who was this person's direct boss, were directing them to go after things like True Social, after President Trump and all his allies. And here's you had someone blowing the whistle saying, "I'm not doing this anymore." And by the way, kind of, I'm out, and you should kind of go out with us. And they there's it's interesting because you see his whole personnel file in this, which they were doing on purpose to try and I think tarnish the. Replication of this individual, but what it also does kind of reinforce how he felt about what was going on in that department.
But here is an interesting one because he he did reply, and t here is a lot of back and forth that we received through our work here at the ACLJ. And by the way, also they told us t here is more coming. We're going to get more production December fourth from this very FOIA case. But he writes back to the attorney general after this back and forth with some of the also HR people in the office. I am in receipt of your September eighteenth letter, that's just a few weeks back, threatening me with professional discipline as well as civil and/or criminal action.
And your subsequent September thirtieth letter providing a deadline of five p.m. today, which was this past Monday, so just a few days ago, we have fresh content from this production for me to confirm my destruction of your quote confidential and/or privileged information. You have also commissioned your quote protection detailed detectives to repeatedly hound me by banging on my front door. Attached is one of the business cards of one of them left in my door after their latest intrusion. I understand you might be fearful of what I might do with what you refer to as confidential and privileged materials ahead of an important election.
These documents are simply evidence, and your threats will not compel me to destroy such evidence if any. Carrying out your threats by bringing this into a legal forum will make this information public. He also goes on to say, and this is what's fascinating: that even if you maintain Trump is a quote career criminal and a fitting target. You have failed to recover a single cent from him. You are either running a corrupt Stalinist politics of "quote show me the man, I'll show you the crime" end quote, or you are wholly ineffective at recovering any money for New Yorkers from such criminal activity.
Either way, you are not fit to serve as the Attorney General of New York. New Yorkers deserve better. No need to mass delete my email. Email this time, and then he resent the original email. I mean, one good for him, got courage.
Two doubling down. They the New York State Attorney General's office gave us these emails that were correspondence between the two. But he is clearly upset with the New York Attorney General's office. Redacted, right? A couple little things here and there.
You know, sometimes you get the superiors, but that's been reported elsewhere. We know who those individuals are. They, you got to hand it to them for being forthcoming. All right, let's let's take a call about. Let's go to Bob in Florida.
Bob, line two. Go ahead, guys. Uncle Ben Parker said, "Spider-Man's uncle. Great power requires great responsibility." Latisha James. Can't handle that type of power, and let's be really honest: she wasn't going after Trump because she wanted Trump.
She was going after Trump because she wanted to move from Attorney General to a higher office. She wanted to win, essentially, and that's a lot of what this individual is saying: is that you are neglecting your duties to the people that elected you by not one taking things seriously, like rampant nonprofit homeless shelter fraud, Medicaid fraud, anti-Semitic crimes in and around synagogues. He's pointing out the issues that actually we point out on this broadcast all the time, local ish. You have an attorney general of New York that should be getting involved in, but in course instead you are having it pushed forward with a process that could result. By the way, in like when you look at this.
As Will said, it takes some bravery and some guts to do this over and over again. Knowing, by the way, there is a good chance when you are using these emails and these email addresses that they will become public. They are public information. It takes us time sometimes to get them to be released, but this person clearly knew and is pretty much stating, "Keep on going, because all this is is building essentially my case, and you know, inevitably, there will be organizations." Like ours, there'll be shows like ours that we'll get to uncover the truth.
Well, and that—that is one thing here as well, because yes, did this individual send information from within his office that probably violates ethical and legal rules outside to an external email address that he is then able to maintain? That's what they're saying. Hey, you—you shouldn't have done this. Yeah, he probably did violate rules, but he also knows that he says the best part of having, we'll say, a lot of money. Yeah, he put it a lot more colorfully.
Money is. Being able to tell the truth without fear of consequences.
So here we go. We know he has so much money.
Well, I mean, when you read, there's some interesting things in there about. I'll tell you later. Tell me in the break. It's interesting. I think he does have a lot of money, though.
Okay, good for him. In the next segment, we are going to shift topics a little bit to a different tone. Here, of course, it is the third anniversary. Of the October seventh attacks in Israel, we are going to be joined by Jeff Balaban, head of ACLJ Jerusalem, to discuss not only where we've been, but where things are headed for Israel, for the Jewish people, for Christian people, how things actually are on the ground in Israel right now. Three years after these horrendous attacks, and of course, what instigated one of the biggest conflicts in modern history in terms of Israel being involved, and of course, that even.
Bled into what's happening in Iran. Let's discuss it. We get back. I would love to hear your questions or comments on this as well at one eight hundred six eight four three one one zero one eight hundred six eight four thirty one ten. We'll be right back.
We are waiting to connect with Jeff Balaban, ACLJ Jerusalem. As you can imagine, sometimes connections don't go as planned when we're calling the Middle East, specifically even during times of these are middle of Jewish holidays. And also, obviously, things are being very monitored and very secure right now.
So, if we don't get to Jeff, my apologies, but we are going to keep working at that. But I would love to hear your thoughts. You know, we are three years removed from the October seventh attacks. I said it. When this happened originally, that you would have a few weeks where Israel was not the bad guy, where Israel was not seen as the villain in this situation, and then the tide would turn.
You'd start with a Bono and you two coming out saying they support Israel, they stand with Israel, and then you know the months would roll on, and then all of a sudden you have those same celebrities going, okay, well I think this has gone too far, and then then you all of a sudden have the more conservative organizations backing off their support of Israel, and sometimes it feels very lonely to be out there. Look, I'm not saying I condone everything that the government. Of Israel has done over the last three years, or ever, I would say the same about the United States government, whether that is a Trump administration or a Biden administration. There are very few times in this country where I feel like that I am being fully represented. One hundred percent is not the way things go.
But when you start talking about who and who was not the aggressor on October seventh, is when things very rapidly change. And I want to hear your thoughts because there are statements being made today. Of course, it is not that popular. I've seen. Maybe one post today outside of, I'd say, my normal Jewish sphere of internet, where you have some of the influencers that are involved in Zionism, Israel, and so on, posting, of course, about it.
But I've maybe seen one or two other people throughout the day who've said, "Hey, we got to remember this day is a real tragic one. Is thousand plus people were killed, hundred or hundreds were kidnapped from the music festival, Nova Music Festival, of course, from kibbutzes and from all these areas. Innocent people, by the way, people that were not involved. In any kind of war, but you haven't changed to be military. It's acting like it's some sort of military combat.
It's. We're joined by Jeff Balaban right now. I know who's who's talking to us. Connection may be rough. Everyone who's watching right now, but just know that we wanted to hear from Jeff.
Jeff, obviously a somber day, but one that we have not moved on from even three years later. It's true. I mean, I'm here in Israel at attending a conference that's run by an organization founded by and run by literally tens of thousands of Israeli military commanders and security officials, and it is. At the same time, painful but uplifting. It's about resilience.
It's about the spirit of the people, and the numbers they're talking about, the anecdotes they're talking about, the the younger generation, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen-year-olds preparing to join the army now. More and more are dedicating themselves to going to combat units. They recognize that it's literally life and death, but it's also true that more and more they're dedicating themselves to faith and to family and It's extremely emotional here, but it's not a sense of failure. It's a sense of tragedy turning into victory, and and ultimately a sense of Jewish destiny. Yeah, Jeff, it's really upsetting.
That we have seen how things have changed, but I'm glad to hear that there are people who feel that way in Israel. It's always good to understand to try to have an understanding of what the tone is there because we are getting force fed, you know, propaganda continually. And again, the the propaganda machine does a pretty good job. And of course, we can turn to the mayor of New York City, which we always will. And look, who launched his you know fight against anti semitism council last week?
Used a lot of good words. Of course, avoided the words Israel, avoided any of that connection, and then today put out his statement, his tribute, if you will, to this, marking the day of the third year since the October seventh attack. And do we have that statement? Yeah. And this is what the mayor said.
He said, "This day is profoundly painful for so many New Yorkers. It marks three years since the horrific war crimes of October seventh. On that day, Hamas killed more than eleven hundred Israelis and abducted two hundred fifty one other." We grieve alongside many friends and neighbors who still carry that unthinkable loss. Then he dedicates a paragraph twice as long to everything Israel has done. After October seventh, and then Jeff has this line: Three years later, we must refuse to accept a world in which occupation and apartheid continue, where war crimes are met with impunity, and our federal government continues its complicity with every arms shipment.
The mayor of New York completely. Flipped October seventh on the day on this day that we are still mourning, as he says, and causes it makes it about Israel and basically says it's time to move on from Hamas and focus on those war crimes that have been met with what he calls impunity. Yeah, and uses all of those buzzwords, Jeff, again, genocide, all of that within this statement to then make it feel like they were in the middle of a military conflict. Of course, there's always. Been conflict between the situation, but as if this was not the catalyst to this war, that this was just somehow midway through.
You know, they had a bigger attack, a bigger incursion, and now it's led to this. It's not that shocking, but it can be upsetting.
Well, in my view, this isn't even mere gaslighting, which would be evil enough and painful enough. He's taken the opportunity of October seventh, a day which exists in raw pain for all of us. And he uses it to intentionally incite more violence against Jews all over the world because that's what's happening. These lies, these absolute blood libels of genocide and and war crimes and occupation and apartheid, which are they're absolutely false, he's using them because he sees that this is causing Jews around the world to be attacked, around the world to be killed. And that's why he's doing it.
He's using it to incite violence in a continued act of genocide that he and his ilk have been attempting honestly for decades. And Jeff, I think even there as well, it's it's going to be lost on some people. But even in that first segment section of his statement, calling it a a war crime that was committed by Hamas, it it it does so many things rhetorically. It equates it is a state to state conflict of the Hamas Israel conflict.
So gives credibility to Hamas. It also takes that. And says, you know, Hamas was fighting a legitimate war and went too far here on October seventh, as well as gives them the pass by saying they have been punished because Israel is the one who has not been punished yet for their war crimes. Let's be clear, and it's terrible to say things like this because people, but people called it a lie when it's true, and we live in a world really where media is pushing pure evil as truth. Here's the truth: They burnt babies alive in ovens.
They rape and tortured people, mutilated them most horrible way. And I won't go into more detail, but that's that day. And everyone here knows it. Everyone here feels it. And Jews around the world know it and feel it.
And those who support us and actually pay attention to the truth know it and feel it. And And since then, it was it was the announcement. October seventh, three years ago, was just the announcement that it's open season on Jews everywhere. And we have, unfortunately, now take it back to the things we normally deal with here, which is law and policy and even politics. These things are being embedded into law and policy and politics and media, and it is completely reminiscent of what happened before the last great attempt to genocide against the Jews, and that's really what's happening here.
And yes, well, I agree with you. He he has this really carefully crafted statement that is malevolent on on every level.
Well, Jeff, I appreciate you joining us today. I know it's tough, not only because of the day, but also very busy in your schedule at that conference. There, again, joining us live from Jerusalem, Jeff Balaban, head of ACLJ Jerusalem. Understandably, when this thirty-three years in now, why it's so important that our team exists there, and you can be a part of that as well. Help support it today at aclj.org.
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If you can't give financially, that's totally fine. But if you can and you like this content, you like that we have the best of the best, you like that we have an office in Jerusalem, Washington D.C., around the world, you like the ECLJ, all the work that we do for persecuted people around the world, I'm going to ask you to support. But also, we got a second half hour coming up. You can find us live broadcasting on aclj dot org and archived.
However, you get your podcast, we'll be right back. Second half hour. Don't go anywhere. Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow.
And now your host, Logan Sekulow. Welcome back to the second half hour of Sekulow.
So again, thirty more minutes left, and phone lines are open for you at one eight hundred six eight four thirty one ten. Handling a couple different topics today, and we have Rick Cornell joining us in the next segment, so you're not going to want to miss that. We are talking about the third anniversary of October seventh attacks. Of course, happening right now, as people in Israel are mourning, people around the world are mourning, the Jewish community is mourning, but there are also those celebrating. There are also those that are saying.
Yes, this was deserved. There are also people who are saying, you know, really the worst things you can about Jewish people, about the Israeli people, and again, you can have a disagreement with how a government may be running things, but you cannot take back take back what happened again. On October seventh, right now there's a UCLA student group holding an anti-Israel march, and that's happening today, right now on October again on October seventh. You you do this whenever you want. You know, I'm all for you be able to protest, free speech.
You know, go out and do what you want to do. But when you essentially are stomping on the graves of people, I am not a fan. I would not be a fan of this against any sort of people. Whether that is, I mean, that minority group, whether that is a Jewish group, whatever it may be, or look, again, it'd be no different than happening on September 11th here, and I would feel disturbed and disgusted by it. What do you think?
One eight hundred six eight four thirty one ten one eight hundred six eight four three one one zero. We're gonna take as many calls as we can. Specifically in the next segment, we'll have Rick. But after that, we're gonna take all the calls we can today. And then we're also giving an update on this Latisha James situation.
If you're just tuning in, that's right. I mean, yeah, you were mentioning that student protest that they were just showing on TV, and it was it kind of shook me. The way they were dancing about and and like a holiday, yeah, it was really quite disturbing to see. And when you pair that with the words that were so carefully crafted by the mayor of New York, he's savvy. We know that he's a savvy politician, but you'd think that he would be savvy enough.
Not to utilize this day to further his agenda, you think he would let this day pass? He wouldn't make the extended statement that effectively says Hamas has already been punished. Move on from that. Grieve your loss, but still focus your targets on Israel. It's all done with incredible intention.
I mean, I think that's sort of the problem. You can't ever write any of this off as some kind of accident or the way he's wording it, because the first paragraph could have been you could. Left it alone. At that, it's been a little vague. Not been something that we approve of.
But of course, we kind of know where he stands and his positions on this. Nothing's really that shocking. But to double down on this day is just trying to win political brownie points. It's just trying to get that UCLA base that's currently going to hold a vigil for the loss of life from Palestinian people today. And look again, I'm not pushing back on the fact that there have been a lot of loss of life.
The last three years, and I hate it. I hate that I haven't been able to visit and felt comfortable visiting these places that I love, or taking my family to the places that I love in Israel. Because again, I'm not sure of my safety and safety of my family.
Now I know a lot of a lot of brave souls out there do, and I commend them. And I hope to be one of you sooner than later. But I can't say that on these holidays, when you have the thwarted 9/11-style attack that was about to crash a plane into Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, taking potentially the lives of thousands, happening what a week ago? Was it even a week ago? No, it was not even a week ago.
And how quickly we move on, because why? It's like shooting rockets into Israel. It's like shooting missiles into Israel that don't land for some reason.
Well, the Israelis are strong. They knocked him out of the sky. Oh, the Israelis were strong. They took over a plane that was being hijacked.
So we get them. You know, oh, that was good that that terrorist attack didn't happen. But we always move on from the fact that a terrorist attack was happening, and three years ago it was successful, and a thousand plus people were murdered. And hundreds were kidnapped, and then what played out? Trying to get the hostages free.
Years, all of the stuff through the Biden administration, and then of course through the early days of the Trump administration. Around two, able to right some of those wrongs, and then of course there was. A ceasefire and all of those situations that have happened and it's calmed down some over there, but it doesn't matter because Israel can never do the right thing according to the media and according to now public perception. But the ACLJ team is here. We'll continue fighting.
We'll continue supporting. We get back here from Rick Grinnell, and then we're going to shift some gears as well. One eight hundred six eight four thirty one ten. I want to hear from you. We'll be right back.
Welcome back to Secular. Rick Reynolds joining us right now. Rick, obviously, a lot of attention today on the October seventh attack, including which has been three years, including even protests that are involved in your neck of the woods right now. UCLA is holding some memorial protest against Israel and against the Jewish people, and this is happening right now. Of course, the third anniversary of a mass murder where a.
Thousand plus people were murdered, hundreds were kidnapped, and of course, you even have the mayor of New York City putting out his statement, which is shockingly not so pleasant to read. Maybe the first paragraph, if you waited, you didn't click the "Read More" button, you'd be like, "Okay, well, that's fine, that's a normal kind of thing a mayor would say." But of course, it gets into all of the talking points that are winning him brownie points, I guess, with his own people and with these younger voter base that has turned so aggressively. And again, I've said this many times: it is not about Supporting a government in Israel, a specific administration, we know they are very politically diverse. They're just like we are here, but it has gone so far beyond that. And to see sort of the dancing on the graves three years later is a pretty exhausting moment.
Yeah. Look, I think most of us can see very clearly when someone is trying to criticize a leader like Netanyahu, or whether or not someone has gone beyond that and just blanketly criticizes Israel or Jews, and and that's where we've got to call it out and say that's unacceptable. Look, we're not trying to stop anyone's First Amendment rights. You have a First Amendment right to hate Jewish. People, if that's what you want, but I also think that you need to face the consequences of being a racist, a bigot, someone who just hates people.
But it it is very clear that it is not just a criticism of Netanyahu. If it was a criticism of the leader of Israel, then you would be saying Bibi Netanyahu's policy on X, Y, or Z. Is wrong, and you would go after the policy, and you may even go after Netanyahu's leadership. I think all of that is totally acceptable. What I don't want to see is someone like a young person go so far as talking about this being a genocide, talking about when Israel is trying to defend itself.
That somehow that that that crosses the line. I think we need to. Have a healthy debate about the policies, but you have to be very careful to not make this about the larger issue of Israel or Jewish people simply because you disagree with Bibi Netanyahu's policy. And we were referencing this statement from the mayor of New York earlier, where we, there's no doubt he's a very crafty politician. He's very savvy.
He understands that words have meaning and uses those words to to get a deeper message across in what you may see on the face of of the statement. And even here, he refers to. He says it marks three years since the horrific war crimes of October seventh. And I feel like that may be lost on a lot of people of just referring to them as war crimes versus terrorism, and there is a difference. The the equivocation that these are two states warring, Hamas versus Israel, and that Hamas went too far on October seventh, some commanders went too far, gives a backhanded way of giving legitimacy to the struggle of Hamas.
What Hamas is claiming and wanting legitimacy. I think that is such. It was such a shocking thing to read to me that I think may get lost in a lot of places. But even just calling it war crimes instead of terrorism completely shifts the narrative and is devoid of reality, in my opinion. About on October seventh, war crimes—it's completely unacceptable, and it shows exactly who he is.
Today is a day to to recognize the fact that people went to a music festival. And terrorists came in to kill them to make some sort of a larger point. That is unacceptable. Hard stop. We shouldn't be able to to on October seventh, especially.
We shouldn't go into any other issue other than to talk about the victims who went to a music festival who were targeted by terrorists and who were killed horrific ways. By terrorists, this is terrorism. This is one of the ugliest episodes in in our world since I've been alive, and I find it to be unacceptable the way that the New York City mayor talks about these issues. He he, using the word war crimes on a day like today is is truly offensive. And at the same time, you know, he announced this last week, and I think this has become.
A common thread in terms of people trying to, I guess, win again, win points with their own side, but also try to be like, no, I'm not like that. Is last week he announces his, you know, anti-Semitism council, and again, I want to give, just like President Trump when he was meeting with him, I want to give the guy a benefit of the doubt every time. I want to say, you know what, he's he's an effective speaker, he's a good speaker. I hope he can represent. I love New York City.
I want it to be thriving, but it just seems like every time, it is unlike a lot of politicians, where instead of kind of casually putting it in a gray area, decides to take very definitive stances on this topic, and he has to know that sadly, that is, I guess, winning him yeah positive poll numbers. Look. Let's state the obvious. He needs anti-Semitism advisors. He needs advisors who are going to tell him to say stop.
Don't use this language to educate him. I view this as a group of people that are. Educated and experts on the signs of anti-Semitism and other hate, and they are advising him. This is not about the public. The public is much more well aware than he is.
He needs these advisors, and so I would say to anyone who is serving on this committee that he created: your job is to educate the mayor who has terrible instincts and terrible words.
Well, and I I think at some degree there was someone that at least. Showed him facts, things that we've said that that we've been told by the left, by the media, are not real. He says in the the commission report, the the strategy release that says the numbers are indisputable. Jewish New Yorkers make up only 12 percent of our population, yet they are victims of roughly half of all reported hate crimes. That is not unique to New York City.
Disproportionate levels of hate crimes targeting Jewish people have been reported in cities across the world. That sounds like something that would be in an ACLU blog post, reminding people of what happens around the world when we say there is anti-Semitic violence happening in cities in New York. In L.A. across the world, that it is real. It's documented by law enforcement.
This isn't a a facade or something that we make up or or some sort of weird thing. This is reality. But at the same time, this is that's from the letter he signed at the beginning of the strategy to combat anti-Semitism. Just like a week old, right? It was.
It was last Tuesday that this came out. You'd think. Obviously, it's he didn't write that, and who knows if he wrote the the post on X. But there is a conflict within his office that needs to be resolved because this statement, compared with what is today saying that you know Hamas is the war crime, but America we're still funding bombs to Israel. Those two don't mesh.
You can't have these two statements without. There's not even nuance here.
Well, let me let me be a little cynical here for a second because I've watched Mamdani and I I see his words and I see what he does. If someone else had used the phrase "reported hate crimes," I would say, "Okay, great, they're trying to use factual information." But he is a lightning rod on this issue, and he used that word because he wanted to be able to say that there is an over-reporting. I see it very. Clearly, he's trying to say to his base: these are people that are reporting in higher numbers, and so the wink, wink here is that other people should start reporting their hate crimes. I just the wink, wink is anti-Semitism motives.
Yep. Yeah. I mean, again, that's what I'm saying. It's like, as we put in asterisks, by hate crimes or by reported hate crimes, it's a very, it's a very New York Times thing to do. Let's just be honest.
It's a very, you know, there was a mostly peaceful hijacking last week, right? You know, I remember that when that happened, you know, a week ago. You know, again, we quickly forget. We quickly move on from those things. It's, it's the news cycle.
If there wasn't a massive tragedy, like, of course, what was happened in Israel last week, where that hijacking was stopped and thwarted. It's just like I said. Just like when missiles are thwarted, it goes well. They clearly they can handle themselves. Even if there are ongoing terror attacks, they just happen to be able to stop them.
Yeah, what we need from Mom Danni, let's be very clear. We need a moment where he comes out and he says, "You know, I've used bad words. I've used phrases that are not good. I I've been educated on the facts, and I now see things differently." If he comes out and says that, then I think we can give the benefit of the doubt. But taken in whole, what he has done is so destructive.
His words are so destructive. I think. That he needs to go on a very long education process, and hopefully this committee is going to start that process for him.
Well, thank you, Rick, so much for joining us. Look, when we get back, I want to hear from you. We do have like three lines open right now one eight hundred six eight four thirty one ten. Try to get your voice heard on the air today. I'd love to hear whether it's about again.
Looking at the third year since the October seventh attacks, what this future could hold, and we can go back to the Letitia James conversation as well. If you'd like to talk about that or any of the topics that we have covered over the last few days, again, phone lines are open at one eight hundred six eight four thirty one ten. Don't want to call in, but you like what you see here? Help us out. Go to aclj dot org.
Share the content. Donate if you can. Become a champion if you really want to. That's someone that gives on a monthly basis. Of course, you can cancel anytime.
We'll be right back with more on Sekulow. All right, here we made it. One eight hundred six eight four three one ten. Still got a few lines open. One eight hundred six eight four three one one zero.
Want to take some calls. Mostly right now are to do with the anniversary of the October seventh attack in Israel. Of course, that has created. Maybe some of the biggest controversies that we can imagine, even in our own country, over the last three years, and the biggest threats to not just Israelis, not just to Israeli government officials, but of course to the Jewish people at large. Let's go though to Howie in Florida, watching on the Salem News Channel.
Another great place to watch this show each and every day. Go ahead, Howie. Yeah, hi there. I'm going to upgrade my membership and and to honor the October seventh, the victims to champion today. Thank you, and you guys are doing a great job.
I really appreciate it. My main reason for calling is why hasn't anybody been called out for the lack of security and the fact that this October seventh thing could happen? I thought Israel was more wary of that, and apparently this border was porous. And hardly supported.
So why hasn't anybody in Israel been, you know, taken down and said, "Hey, how did this happen? Who's responsible?" You know. Why was it happening at all? Sure, Howie. I think those are reasonable questions, and I also think those are questions that are being asked.
Right? They're not necessarily being reported on American news media. That there are people going, "Hey, what was the security breakdown here to where this can happen?" Now, if you have an overwhelming military force on a music festival, that are paragliding in, you got to remember that. I mean, that's what was happening here. There are certain things that I mean they probably were not even capable of understanding.
How much obviously Iran would play into the expenses that would go into this level of attack? All of the video devices recording all of this—you got to remember everything that went into it.
So you're right that of course Israel is known for their security, and there have been plenty of times throughout the years where there have been you know holes in those security, as there have been in America. It's a very small country. I'm not saying you shouldn't ask those questions, but it it it does bring a tinge of of question. To me, because there are a lot of people who are saying that, and then quickly moving that to they wanted it to happen, Netanyahu. Said or he decided not to follow the threat, much like they do with George W.
Bush and 9/11. Both of which I think are or is 9/11 or is 9/11 even one step? Saying that you know they had the reports, they knew it was coming, and they didn't do anything about it. I don't believe that. I don't think that is true.
But I do think you can ask these questions reasonably without it turning into conspiracy. And I think we have to be careful on that. That it's not just being used to essentially dog whistle a certain group of people. Do I think? Those questions should be answered.
Absolutely. Do I think some of them probably already have, and we're not even that briefed on it? Sure. I'm sure after three years they have been.
Well, and I think as well, one, you you actually do. If you search for it, there are groups that call for it inside the government that are looking into it.
So there is things that are being looked into. Remember, even the 9/11 Commission took a while even to to put it out. Whether or not you believe the 9/11 Commission, that's going to probably get me in hot water with some of the people on YouTube, but. When you look at these things, also, what is sometimes the most rational answer?
Sometimes pride of a government gets in the way. When you believe that you have the best security apparatus in the world, and for the most part, you do.
Sometimes that's when you start to miss things, and I think that happens here in the United States often. I think that happens in places like Israel. They had relative calm. Because of of the strength of things like the Iron Dome, all the traditional ways that Hamas would attack them, they felt they had them contained. But also, what happened?
Well, I don't know. The Biden administration started to ease sanctions on Iran. They started to do things that allowed the great benefactor of Hamas to start to coordinate more with them. And so there are these issues that are global in proportion. But I think, yeah, I think a lot of times when some massive security failure happens like this, and it is on something you never expect, a lot of times it is almost the pride of the government in thinking that we are.
The best at this, they can't get us. We feel like we're untouchable, and for many years they had been in Israel.
So I think that's a big part of it as well. That you could say even happens here at home very often. Yeah, a lot of you are calling in right now. We'll try to get to some of these. Let's continue on.
Thanks, Howie, for calling. Thank you for upgrading to becoming an ACLU champion. Know how much that means to us. Greg's calling from New York, who is a champion. Go ahead, Greg.
I'm going to be quick. God bless the Jewish people and Israel and. Everybody around the world like that. No, that, but the Americans too. But we need to wake up as Americans.
I want to disagree quickly with Brunell. The fact that Mandami needs to be educated now. Number one, Mandami doesn't care. He's very well educated, very well aware of what he's saying. The fact is, it's whether you care or not.
He doesn't care. There's many politicians. On his side, especially the new ones that don't care. Why would you vote? I was amazed when Obama got in back then, and the amount of Jewish people that were down in Florida—they're just misinformed.
And the dangerous thing is, ignorance is not bliss; it's dangerous. God bless you guys for what you're doing. I mean, look. I think you're saying very interesting time, even in American politics. You see a lot of the sort of celebrity left that was pro-Israel or has retained their pro-Israel ship, now endorsing Republican candidates for governor.
Deborah Messing do that yesterday.
Someone who, again, has not been too kind to us historically, by the way, has said some not because they're specifically, yeah, specifically engaged with some of the content we've done here on Sekulow. But that was multiple years ago now, and I'm willing to say some eyes have been opened the last few years. And those eyes have been open to the reality of what we're all dealing with, and especially if you're dealing with, if you have a, I don't know, background that may suggest some sort of Jewish heritage, you've seen it happen to yourself firsthand. And of course, there are some on the other side saying, "Well, yeah." Then you have those who are Jewish who who try to distance themselves from what goes on in Israel, and I understand some of that as well because it honestly plays into self preservation in a way that I think can be cowardice, but a way that is not necessarily. Unique to this matter, I'll say that that is something that happened many times throughout the generations and different cultures and different people, not just the Jewish people.
Let's take one more call, real quick. Let's go to Martha, who's calling, watching on aclj dot org. Go ahead. Hi, thanks for taking my call. I just the largest drop is thought in my head as I was listening today that you know I think the Jewish population is second.
Most concentrated in the world in New York City, and God rules in the affairs of men. Did God allow Mamdani to be elected in order to help drive the Jews out of New York, where they're you know very wealthy and comfortable, back to Israel? And then knowing that Latisha James won't protect them. Is it to wake them up to the fact that they've been voting Democrat mostly, you know, for ages? Yeah, that they're not on their side.
I'm only cutting you off for time. Um. Look, I don't want to judge the theological significance of what you're asking here in terms of did God allow what caused what and what does that scenario look like? Look, you could go back even years ago when this started to bubble up. You saw a large portion of the Jewish community leave New York City, a lot of them for South Florida, as you saw sort of maybe a a more conservative wake up call, especially in the Orthodox community.
Now that being said, I don't abandon ship. On these cities, I think are important, and whether it's the anti-Semitism that's currently coming out of, I think you know, one of the greatest cities in the world, New York City, or whether that is the chaos that is Los Angeles, San Francisco, I love these areas. I love the people there. I got family in all of them. We got to support them.
We got to stand up and be voices for them. You can't just abandon ship and say we're done here. We're going to cut off this area of the country. That's not how America works. I think it's important to call people out when they have to be called out, but also support the.
Just like you may have a problem with certain military governments around the world, we also support the people, the innocent people, the bystanders. That could be in New York City, that could be in Russia and Ukraine, that could be in Israel and Gaza. You gotta support the people. And with that, that's gonna wrap up today's show. I know it's a heavy one, and I appreciate it.
So many of you joined us. If you're brand new, I ask you to hit that subscribe button. If you're watching on YouTube or however you are, Rumble, whatever it may be. Because you can join us each and every day, Monday through Friday, live from twelve to one p.m. Eastern time, and of course archived to however else you get your podcast.
Talk to you tomorrow.
