FINAL DEBATE ANALYSIS — Ric Grenell in Studio

This is Jay Sekulow, final debate analysis with our special guest, former Acting Director of National Intelligence, Rick Grenell. Live from Washington, D.C., Jay Sekulow Live. Phone lines are open for your questions right now. Call 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. And now, Chief Counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, Jay Sekulow. I think my favorite night of the evening, not during the debate itself, was turning on CNN and watching the meltdown. And I say that because when Joe Biden said that he will end oil and gas, I'm going to play a bite very early, and then we're going to go right to our team here. But let me play this bite. Let's play the oil and gas bite right now. Would you close down the oil industry? By the way, I would transition from the oil industry, yes.

I would transition. Oh, that's a big statement. That is a big statement. That's a big statement. Because I would stop.

Why would you do that? Because the oil industry pollutes significantly. So no oil and gas. So let me just talk to our audience for just one second in Pennsylvania and Texas and Ohio.

Might not be a good idea for that policy to be implemented for your industry, which is most of your industry, in those zones. It also would be horrible for the country since we're now, for the first time, energy independent. But that was, I think, the big, big time. There are a lot of other moments.

We'll get to it. Rick and Elle, our special advisor on foreign policy and national security issues, is with us in studio. Jordan, of course, is here. Rick, you were there. Give me the vibe in the room.

What were you seeing? Well, first of all, you guys are going to get me to move to Nashville if I have to keep coming. It's an amazing town.

I love being in here. It's like L.A. with none of the aggravation. Yeah.

Or New York with none of the aggravation. That's great. Yeah. You know, first of all, the room was incredibly cold. I don't know why they did that, but it was freezing.

I even saw the British ambassador to the United States, and she had a blanket on, literally brought a blanket. The room was not only cold physically, but I think chilly, just the tenor from the group that puts these debates together. It just isn't a great format, I don't think.

It's too staged in many ways. They're not debating enough. But I thought President Trump felt comfortable, and then he did a really good job of prosecuting what the Trump economy would look like compared to what the Biden economy looked like, which immediately gets into the oil and gas issue, because I do think you're right, this was a barnstorming moment. Yeah. But was that, did he plan on saying that, do you think, Jordan? Did he plan on saying I'm going to close fossil fuel? It was a response.

This is when I think Donald Trump is most effective. It was a response to his question. He said, would you close down the oil industry? That was not from Kristen Walker. That was from Donald Trump to Biden.

And Biden said, I would transition from the oil industry, yes. And then you hear Kristen Walker later on, kind of like exasperated as someone who's a Democrat, but did a pretty good job as a moderator. She said, why would you do that?

I think it's worth it. I mean, the way she said why would you do that was not like... It was like he was trying to save them. It was like, wait a minute, let's play it again. I think it's worth playing again because you're absolutely right. It does pick up an interesting side of this. Would you close down the oil industry?

It's far out of the way. I would transition from the oil industry, yes. I would transition. That's a big statement. That is a big statement.

That's a big statement. Because I would stop... Why would you do that? Because the oil industry pollutes significantly. That was like the teacher saying to the student, why would you do that?

Why would you do that? Well, here's why. Because the left part of his party is forcing that to go. Yeah.

I think that's what... I mean, it is... Well, don't forget that he also said that the last person that would leave the room after big decisions was Kamala Harris. He said, Joe Biden said, the last person that's going to leave the Oval Office is Kamala Harris.

And she's absolutely against this. So she's winning the day. So Jordan, here we are, 50 million people have voted.

So what does it mean? Listen, I think that you don't want to over-account. I think that those 50 million people already knew how they were going to vote. That's not what these debates are for, really. It's not for the people who already knew where they're going to vote. Now they have the ability to do that through early voting, mail-in voting, whatever. But there's still that group that waits until election day or very close to election day. And this was important to them.

I think it was important for people to see that different side of President Trump that didn't come out for either candidate in the first debate. This was the way you wanted to end with the debates. All right. We're going to be taking a break. When we come back, we'll take your calls at 1-800-684-3110.

If we get to them, we've actually got a lot of content to go through. Also support the work of the ACLJ. Go to ACLJ.org. Rick Scott posts up on these issues.

Jordan does, of course, as well. ACLJ.org. And while you're there, support the work of the ACLJ as we close the month out. So we appreciate that.

We'll be back with more in just a moment. The challenges facing Americans are substantial at a time when our values, our freedoms, our constitutional rights are under attack. It's more important than ever to stand with the American Center for Law and Justice. For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines protecting your freedoms, defending your rights in courts, in Congress, and in the public arena. And we have an exceptional track record of success.

But here's the bottom line. We could not do our work without your support. We remain committed to protecting your religious and constitutional freedoms.

That remains our top priority, especially now during these challenging times. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at ACLJ.org, where you can learn more about our life-changing work.

Become a member today. ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life.

Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. Hey, we're in the studio with Rick Grenell and Jordan and me, of course, and we are discussing the debate last night, which I think if you're being objective at all, WGN said did a poll and Insta poll, and I think it said 76% said that the President won the debate. Joe Biden had a rough night.

Let's just be honest. I mean, the first debate he did better. He did not do well last night. The format, the best thing that ever happened was the two minute muting of the microphone. I think that really made this a more engaged debate.

There was a lot of, of course, discussion on the coronavirus. Before we get into the specifics, I want to get a kind of a state of the race situation from Rick and Jordan. Rick, you've been out on the campaign trail. You've been all over the country. You know, we're 11 days out.

What's your sense of the race right now? So I'm on my way to Wisconsin. I'm going to spend two and a half days in Wisconsin. I just was in Minnesota for a day.

I spent two days in Michigan, a half a day in Ohio, and I'm usually in Pennsylvania. So I'm literally in the swing seats. And I have to tell you that the crowds are literally amazing crowds that Republicans would be proud of. Working class people, blacks, Hispanics, mothers. When you look at this crowd, there's no way that we can lose because the fact of the matter is it's a really broad working class coalition. Many of those people are Democrats. I talk to people constantly who say I didn't vote for him in 16, but I'm absolutely voting for him in 20. Or I reluctantly voted for him.

This time I'm walking over glass to vote for him. These are union guys. These are union women.

These are mothers. And I've never been more proud of the Republican Party to be broad-based working class. It's not the rich white party anymore.

Yeah. So we're 11 days out, Jordan. The polls, we went through them yesterday. It's pretty much exactly where it was with Hillary Clinton. And I think that's exactly where you want to be if you're Donald Trump. If you're Donald Trump and the state polls that matter are showing you at the same margins, whether it's Biden up at 0.6 or two points or you're up two points, you have the ability to run the table again with the electoral college. And I think that as much as they like to talk about whether Biden can stop him this way, this way, this way, that way, the truth is that there's only a couple paths for Joe Biden. And we'll know very early on, I think, in election night, so long as we get some counts in, some states called, if places like Florida and North Carolina and you move up to Pennsylvania, and if those delays in the way they're counting voting don't impact the call of the race, I think we could be in that same situation, which is weird to say now looking at the past few weeks because I don't think I would have said this three or four weeks ago, but you could be in that same situation where everybody's looking at their camera, everybody you see on TV is doing that, and Pennsylvania gets called for Donald Trump, and you realize that's it, and it's going to be some kind of wave across the country, and there's not a real path for Biden.

And I can actually see that forming. Then you hear from people like Rick who are seeing it on the ground, the energy on the ground, and who is going to show up, not just these first group of 50 million that obviously made up their mind early on, but who's going to show up when early voting ends, and it's actually election day. Because that I think is the group that's going to be the group that pushes this one way or the other. The consensus is that there's not a lot of undecideds. The consensus is who's going to get out to vote. Is that your sense?

Yeah, for sure. And what I think is the reason is that we have very long election processes, right? We've been watching this for three and a half years.

I've been living it for three and a half years. Well, so have you. And so I think that we're at the point where people know, they've seen Joe Biden 47 years, he's been on the stage, and he's trying to make the appeal that in year 48, he's going to do something new and different. And then you've got Donald Trump who is well known to the American people. His record is well known.

So I agree. I don't think there's many people on the fence. And I ask actually, I'm one of those people who don't think that there are a lot of undecideds anyway. I think there are people who know which way they're going to vote, but they're reluctant to say or reluctant to pull that trigger. But they know when they walk into the voting booth, which way they're going. Yeah, I think what we're waiting to see now is, so we have the early voting states, then we had the mail-in. So I think with early voting, what we're seeing is the in-person early voting is favoring Republicans, and the mail-in voting is favoring Democrats, kind of a flip from usual.

Because the Democrats are telling everybody that you're going to get COVID and die if you go outside. Yeah. But there's a shift even amongst blue state secretaries of states, and they're saying, look, the mail-in voting, this is about it. You don't want to be the one that's postmarked on election day.

No. We cannot promise you how that vote's going to turn out, where the postal service is going to go. So will those voters, who they've told you're going to die if you go and vote, actually show up and vote? Or is that going to be the great downfall of the Biden campaign and of the Democrats and of the left is that if you go and show up and you've got to wait two hours on election day, you're putting your life in jeopardy.

How does that impact minority voters? They're suppressing votes. Yeah. I mean, they're suppressing their own votes, which is interesting.

Yeah. No, I think, look, I'm handling a lot of the election litigation with a whole team of lawyers. It's not a one-person show, that's for sure.

But you're right. I mean, in a very real way, they're suppressing the other votes. It's going to be interesting to see what happens. I think they're going to be able to call it that night. I just have the sense that they're going to be able to call it that night. I think the margins, because everybody's looking for the Bush versus Gore moment. Is there going to be the one case of the Supreme Court that decides the election? I don't see that. Now, I see a lot of, can you count ballots, you know, three years from now that come in? Can you count them four days later? There's going to be those. We're having those now. But you have to have significant, it has to be unbelievably close for that to make a difference.

Look, let's go out on a limb. I actually believe that Florida and Ohio will be called early. Yes. I think Florida and Ohio will both be called by 10 o'clock one way or the other. I think that's right.

I think that Donald Trump is in good shape. You're going to have states like Pennsylvania where Jay, you know, this legal fight and this messiness in Pennsylvania is going to cause us to have delayed results. But we will be getting results that night.

So the media is going to play the, well, we don't have all these mailing, we're not going to call it, but you're going to have an idea what the margins look like. Yeah. And then you can go in and look at the counties and say, okay, if we've got all of the Philly counties pretty much done, they can't find the votes in the other places. Remember in 2016, we won Pennsylvania because all of the red counties went blood red. Right. Right. Well, and I think my guess is, and again, it's just a guess, is that that's what's going to happen this time. Having said that, we've got a case right now in Pennsylvania that we were not able to get a stay on.

John Roberts joined with the three liberal members of the court. Now that whole case is going to go up on what's called the merits. I think we have a better success on the merits. We'll see, but there's a number of these we've won some already.

Just going to see how it goes. I mean, you don't want the, the, to ignore the courts here because some of these could be closed, but I get the sense, I don't know, I could be wrong, that the gaps will be big enough. Let's listen to another Biden comment. His theme was he's going to be the President for all America. Not red states, not blue states, but then listen to this statement.

And I don't look at this in terms of the way he does. Blue states and red states, they're all the United States. And look at the states that are having such a spike in the coronavirus.

They're the red states. Okay. Okay. All right. Let me- Does he know that he said that? I don't think so.

I want to read it. I don't look at this in terms of what he does, referring to the President, blue states and red states. They're all the United States. And look, the states that are having such a spike in the coronavirus, they're the red states that he doesn't look at. But this shows you that he had these kind of couple of memorized lines and just could not move with the flow.

I think the American people see through this. Yeah, for sure. I mean, he, in the room, I could see that he was struggling a little bit. He was getting weaker. He had a couple of moments that he was rocking and I was like, ooh, he's going to fall. He'd hold tighter to the podium.

He literally was very weak. And how about that, glancing at the watch? I knew it, yeah.

The famous H.W. moment. Yeah. And by the way, when I was in the room, he looked at the watch and he almost did one of those like, I can't quite focus on it and stared at it a little bit too long. And I think what was going through his mind is, holy cow, I got a lot more time and I'm struggling here. And then it's uninterrupted, hurt Joe Biden not because he couldn't go, because having Joe Biden go for two minutes is how you get statements like that. And then you get into real debate where he does actually have to answer questions from Donald Trump himself and got in the oil trouble there.

There's red states, blue states thing. It went on. I do honestly think that the, then when he gets into these flat out denials, we could get into next segment, flat out denials on foreign money. That fracking? Yeah, on fracking, especially. So you get oil and fracking and what, you know, he said, put the video up, put the video up.

Well, of course, the Trump campaign had the video up. We're going to play it for people immediately while the debate was still going on of him three or four times during this, this campaign season saying he wants to end fracking. You want to play that now? I think we'll play that next segment next time.

All right, we'll do the next segment. I will say this, that, and I don't think we have time to play it in this segment, but I also want to talk about the racial relations issue because when you look at what the President has done and people try to ignore things like prison reform, sentencing reform. Money to historically black colleges. Saved the historically black colleges. The money that was going to inner city urban needs directly without all the government bureaucracy. Ben Carson's. What he's done at HUD, he's completely revolutionized the Housing and Urban Development Office. You look at that and you say, my goodness, and we'll get into that when we come back from the break.

And then Joe Biden has been there for 47 years and one of his claims to fame is the 1994 crimes act, which put more black males in jail than anything in U S history. We'll be back in just a few moments. We'll take your calls and we're not going to take your calls. Cause we're going to stay on the substance of this.

We'll be back in a minute. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected. Is there any hope for that culture to survive? And that's exactly what you were saying when you stand with the American center for law and justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called mission life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, playing Parenthood's role in the abortion industry and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life request your free copy of mission life today, online at ACLJ.org slash gift, the challenges facing Americans are substantial at a time when our values, our freedoms, our constitutional rights are under attack. It's more important than ever to stand with the American center for law and justice for decades. Now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines, protecting your freedoms, defending your rights in courts, in Congress and in the public arena.

And we have an exceptional track record of success, but here's the bottom line. We could not do our work without your support. We remain committed to protecting your religious and constitutional freedoms. That remains our top priority, especially now during these challenging times, the American center for law and justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at ACLJ.org, where you can learn more about our life-changing work, become a member today, ACLJ.org.

Welcome back to the broadcast everybody. The race issue came up. That was one of the topics. You look at the President's done with historically black colleges, which were in desperate financial shape.

He revolutionized them. You look at the prison reform issue, sentencing reform. Joe Biden had been in office for 47 years. His claim to fame is the 1994 crime bill, which has statistically has put more African-American young men, black men in prison than any other legislation in U S history.

Put them in prison. And again, the President comes out in and says, you know, I gotta, we gotta make some changes here. And he got applauded from the left for a lot of these changes, but the President hit it head on as Joe Biden tried to make the President as an xenophobic racist. He'd also, by the way, denied that he said when he closed down air travel from China, that it was xenophobic and Joe Biden said, no, that's not true.

They could run that ad too, but listen to one on race. Why didn't you do it in the eight years, a short time ago, why didn't you do it? You just said, I'm going to do that.

I'm going to do this. You put tens of thousands of mostly black young men in prison. Now you're saying you're going to get, you're going to undo that. Why didn't you get it done? You had eight years with Obama. You know why, Joe? Because you're all talk and no action. All right. Vice President Biden. And then we're going to move on to the next section. We had a Republican Congress.

That's the answer. Well, you got to talk, you got to talk him into it. You got to talk him into it. We're going to move on to our next section. Like I did with criminal justice reform.

I had to talk Democrats into it. There you go. Brilliant. Yeah. That was one of the best comments. Go ahead. You know, here's the thing.

Let's, let's, let's be honest about this. The, the 1994 crime bill meant that, you know, that was 26 years ago. If you know someone, some young African American kid who was put in prison and who's been in prison for 10, 15, 20 years sometimes for these minor offenses, they could still be in prison because of Joe Biden. So, in 1994, everything changed where immediately you were putting young black kids in prison for decades for minor offenses. If you're listening to this and you know of somebody whose family was affected by this and they may still be in prison or their lives were ruined for being in prison 15, 20 years for something minor, this is Joe Biden's fault. And what Donald Trump's point was, Joe, if you knew it was bad, which you're now saying it was a mistake in 1994, you had eight years to fix it from 2008 to 2016 and you still didn't fix it. And many of them were left in prison for another eight years.

Yeah. No, this is, this is part of the problem. Well, and then he also, I think the President pivoted towards this excuse by Joe Biden. Why couldn't you and Obama, I mean, that you were this transformative presidency.

You couldn't do anything for African-American males who were overly incarcerated? Oh, well, Republicans were in charge of Congress. And then of course, President Trump goes right back and said, well, Democrats were in control of the house and we still got criminal justice reform through.

If you actually dedicate the time to it and you are willing to, again, maybe get 80 or 90 percent of what you want done, you can get it done. It just wasn't even a priority for President Obama or Joe Biden. And then for them to come back and call him a racist and xenophobic, it just doubles down on one, Joe Biden has not been an effective politician. Some people could spend 47 years in Congress and have a long history of things that they've done. They may not even be the most high profile people, but they've been, they've been part of massive legislation when you can only point to that crime bill that he's part of and the super predators and all of that. And then even in office as vice President, when he's the outlying guy who said, no, we shouldn't go after Osama bin Laden in the room. He's the one guy with the worst foreign policy advice in the room. So even under the Obama administration, they didn't want to listen to Joe Biden either for, for advice on policy.

You know, what's interesting on that was he also picked Kamala Harris as his running mate. Now, as a prosecutor, she put thousands of black males in prison and always sought maximum sentencing. So this idea that the left plays is like, we're the compassionate ones. Well, you know, the conservatives are the one that got prison reform done. We've got the, uh, release programs put in place. We had the diversion programs for drugs put in place for drug addiction. Some of the things Joe was one of the ones he's talking, we need to have drug courts. No, you don't.

You need to have a, a ability to say, you know what, we're going to divert this from the criminal justice system and get these people help. So just know what your listen carefully to what you see. You heard it last night. That'd be the last time you're now, do you want to get into fracking now? I do.

I do. Can I make one more point on this? This is why we've seen a total explosion of the support for Donald Trump from black voices for Trump. You, you see black males coming out for Donald Trump in record numbers.

And when you talk to them, they say, look, I've known this guy and he is with us and he is really working hard for us. So it's really amazing that, that the support is coming around for Trump because of the African American community, the black community has been very entrepreneurial, especially under this President because the regulation, we also, they small, the backbone of the American economy, which is small businesses, there are a lot of African American owned black owned small businesses. So, you know, look, it becomes pocketbook issues at the end of the day. What is impacting my family, my kids, and they're worried about that too.

Yeah. And it's, you know, so you go from oil, the amount of jobs that would take, you talk about that the opportunity is for, for African Americans, small businesses, and then think about the fracking issue. This is another huge employment issue for battle in battleground state specifically.

It just so happens to be Pennsylvania, Ohio, the list goes on. Take a listen to this exchange because Joe Biden called for it last night. He said, show me the video where I said, I want to ban fracking. Take a listen.

Bite 97. I never said I oppose fracking. You said it on tape. I did show the tape, put it on your website.

I'll put it on. Would there be any place for fossil fuels, including coal and fracking in a Biden administration? No, we would, we would work it out. We would make sure it's eliminated. What about stopping fracking and stopping pipeline infrastructure? Exactly. No, no fracking.

You got to transition away. You're going to ban fracking all across America right now, right? I would love to.

I'd love to too. I'd love to make sure we don't use any oil or gas. I guarantee, I guarantee we're going to end fossil fuel.

Okay. This is such a political thing. Unbelievable politics. Yes, but this was like, if you're the Trump campaign, this was like manna from heaven falling onto the ground because the man said, I'm going to close the oil and gas industry. He talks about fossil fuels. It goes way beyond just the fracking capabilities.

It is fossil fuels. This is the problem of Washington, DC. These politicians will say anything in a moment like that. And they forget that we have Google. They forget that we have the internet and, and it's an outright lie. The rest of us outside of Washington, we say, that's a lie.

I actually watched that and said he lost the, I think he just lost Pennsylvania. And most of the media, they just won't cover it because they know how dangerous that is for Joe Biden, that statement. So they're not going to want to highlight that at all throughout on the mainstream media.

But the Trump campaign will, local media will, radio will, people are going to hear that message over and over. I want to end oil. I want to end fracking.

I want to end all, all of the fossil fuels and any lied about it. But I mean, final question. So Rick, you're, you're going to be traveling across the country.

And in this kind of final minute we've got you today, as you are traveling around the country, what are you looking for specifically and for people out there listening? Look, I think the Republican party has to expand to working class. It has to show that we are a broad coalition. I don't know what the Republican party does after Donald Trump, because he has dramatically changed this. When you look at all of his rallies, all of the work that the surrogates are doing, when people come out, these are working class Americans.

These, this is a different type of party. And I think Donald Trump is winning because he's expanded the tent. Yeah. I think significantly expanded the tent and outside of stereotypical demographics, like the Hispanic community, like the black community.

And he just, I think this has been a, I think you saw a huge day yesterday. All right. We got a lot more when we come back.

We'll be back in a moment. For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines, protecting your freedoms, defending your rights in courts, in Congress, and in the public arena. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at ACLJ.org, where you can learn more about our life-changing work.

Become a member today. ACLJ.org. Live from Washington, D.C., Jay Sekulow Live.

And now, Chief Counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, Jay Sekulow. Hi, everybody. Welcome back to the broadcast. We just had on Rick Grenell, where we were discussing with Jordan the, kind of the fallout, if you will, or the analysis of the debate. I want to go now beyond the debate, because we are literally a week and a half from the election for the presidency of the United States. So I've got our director of policy, Harry Hutchison, here, our senior counsel, Andy O'Connell, who we'll be joined a little bit later with by our senior advisor on foreign policy and Middle East affairs, and that is Wes Smith.

But I want to start with Andy. Debates are done. We are literally 11 days from the election, putting all of the ads away, putting all of them, I'm asking you the same question, Harry, putting the ads aside, and just looking at where the candidates are right now. What is your sense? My sense is that the President of the United States is going to be reelected. I have a distinct feeling that the population of the United States supports him, supports his foreign policies, certainly. The advances that have been made in the Middle East are tremendous.

The peace that we have achieved between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, the other countries in the Middle East that we are going to achieve, the comeback in the economy, the COVID farce that the Democrat has said is the result of the President of the United States, which is ridiculous to say that the President has been the person who is responsible for coronavirus when he sent ships to New York and to California to aid that and when he stopped the travel from the European countries early on, as early as he could and was prudent, the fact that he has shown leadership, the fact that he has shown initiative, the fact that he has shown that he can lead, that he is the only one really who's got the business acumen to bring the economy back, the opening up of the economy. All these factors together militate in favor of a person with his strength of character and the advancement that he has shown on all the issues. That is my prediction.

That is my hope, my sincere desire. Darrell Bock Yeah, so what's interesting, though, of course, Harry, is the polls are dead even. I mean, if you look at the battleground polls, we did this earlier in the week.

Joe Biden is exactly where Hillary Clinton was. The end result in 2016, of course, was that the President was elected, President of the United States, but some of these states were very close margins. So putting, again, kind of looking at it right now, I don't think anybody should presume that this is a done deal even 10 days out.

Harry Jaffa I think that is correct. But I also think that the American people are tuning out the mainstream media narrative, which is about 100% anti-Trump. And so I think the President, President Trump, will be reelected in part because there will be a wave of Americans who will come out. On the other hand, I think it's equally true that the American people are becoming more and more aware of the Biden agenda. And the Biden agenda will threaten the economy, will threaten Medicare, and will threaten Social Security.

Imagine Joe Biden as President, where the marginal tax rates in some states, when you add in the state income tax rate, will approach 66% of income. And so I think a significant number of Americans will recognize this makes no sense. I also think many Americans believe that Joe Biden will continue to promote, if you will, disruption and also protests that are disrupting many of America's major cities.

And so I think at the end of the day, the American people will return to elect President Trump, because they will see him as the safer, more stable choice. John Defterios We also saw, Andy, very quickly here, Amy Barrett come out of the Judiciary Committee. She will be on the bench.

It could be as early as Monday or Tuesday. Harry Jaffa Yeah, the Democrats boycotted the Judiciary Committee, therefore permitting a unanimous referral out of the committee of this eminently qualified judge of the Seventh Circuit to be on the Supreme Court. She will be an excellent, excellent member of the court, will be collegial, will be fair minded, and will do what the law says and what the Constitution provides specifically. John Defterios All right, we're gonna get more into this coming back from the break. Also, your support of the ACLJ keeps this broadcast on the air. In fact, will keep us on the air election night.

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Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. Hey, welcome back to the broadcast, everyone. It would be great to have Rick Grinnell joining us in the first half of the program. Let me say this.

We're joined by Harry Hutchison, our Director of Policy, Senior Counsel, Andy O'Connell. Wes Smith will be joining us in a little bit, but I want to start this one with you, Harry, and that is on the economy. So the economy was really doing great.

I mean, probably the best in our lifetime. And then the coronavirus hits. President shuts down the economy as a safety precaution, as a way to crush the impact of this virus. But there's been repercussions. I mean, we've had a couple of rounds of stimulus.

We've got another one maybe coming. We do have high unemployment right now, not as high as it was. It's come down a lot. Stock market's actually dropped significantly than Roe's, so it's been more stable than many would have thought. But I think we'd be naive if we don't think the economy's part of this election, maybe the number one issue in this election.

I think that is correct. And I also think you are so right to focus on the economy, which is basically the result of a knock-on effect, if you will, of the coronavirus pandemic. But I also think that the American people are good at remembering what happened in 2018 and 2019, when the unemployment rate in the United States fell to 3.5%. And that was the result of a major tax reduction for individuals and corporations. In addition, President Trump deregulated the economy.

Hence, if you look at African-American unemployment and Hispanic unemployment, they reached record lows under President Trump. So President Trump has delivered economic growth for all Americans. And one of the things to keep in mind is that Democrats prefer to deliver economic growth for their cronies. And so if you now turn our attention, for instance, to the alternative, which is Joe Biden, Joe Biden wants to increase taxes between $2 and $3 trillion over the next decade, but that won't pay for all of the initiatives that Joe Biden seeks to fund.

And guess what? Those initiatives will craft benefits for elite cronies of Joe Biden. So I think the American people have a clear and unmistakable choice between the cronyism of Joe Biden and economic growth for all Americans from New York to California, from Michigan to Florida, and from Pennsylvania to Oregon.

Let me ask you this, Andy, because you and I have talked about this a lot, and I agree with everything Harry said, by the way, 100%. But I want to bring up this issue of what I think is an issue, and that is the tilt toward socialism. Joe Biden says, well, I'm the Democratic nominee, I'm the Democratic party. But the fact of the matter is the base of his party has shifted significantly left, and the vocal base of his party is as left as frankly I can ever remember.

I don't remember it more left. I thought there was going to be a significant turning point, Jay, when Obama was elected President. I thought, this is it, socialism has come to America. And to a great extent, it almost did. But then came President Trump, and we returned to the high level of capitalism, investments, economic growth, reduction in unemployment, all of which were due to the President's initiatives. And suddenly we are now facing ourselves with a real clear choice.

You're either going to continue the idea of the use of money to make wealth for all people, capitalism, the classic idea of capitalism as we understand it. And that's not an evil. That's not a bad.

That is a good. That is what has advanced societies through the ages. Read The Wealth of Nations, and you'll understand that that is what has advanced society. You have a choice between that, and you have a choice between regressing into socialism on the European and the Russian models before the revolution in Russia. Why did they abandon it?

Because it was good? No. They abandoned it because it took away personal initiative, and that is the last thing in the world that we want to see happen in the United States. I don't want a socialist country. Most people don't want a socialist country.

I want a country where I work, where I keep my wealth, where the poor, the unemployed are taken care of, where things like that are done because we need that as a matter of faith and as a matter of Christian charity. Yes, I think that's an important thing to do, but it's not an important thing to confiscate wealth, and we are on a path definitely with Biden of socialism. Look, I'm Greek.

I'm going to take an example of the Trojan horse. Biden is a weakling. He is a weak person. We are now coming in with him. You're bringing in a plethora of people on the left like Sandy Cortez, like the people who deal with her and who are part of her ilk, and those are the ones that he's going to be turning to.

Why? Because those are the ones who are going to have put him in office. He's not going to be the moderate that he paints himself to be.

He's not a moderate. He's going to be beholden to those people who put him in, and those are the lefties. So, Harry, following up on that, because I think this is a real issue, and I think it's a real issue for the American people, and that is this. When you look at the trajectory of where the left is going and you look at it as to economic policy itself, whether it's healthcare, whether it's regulation, whether it's big business, the risk factor for the American experience as we know it is significant.

Absolutely. So what Joe Biden offers is something that I would call Orwellian socialism. Basically, he wants to take away Americans freedom. Joe Biden, just like Michigan's Governor Whitmer, wants to use the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to shut down churches, to shut down small businesses, and to make all Americans dependent on government handouts except the elites. Notice one thing in this particular election. Wall Street, Goldman Sachs, the big tech companies, they are all supporting Joe Biden.

And why are they doing that? Because they recognize that they can profit from a Joe Biden presidency. Meantime, people who live in flyover country will bear the burden of the Joe Biden economy. And so I think the American people at the end of the day will reject Joe Biden's version of Orwellian socialism.

Let me ask a follow-up question. If Joe Biden was in office, in other words, if in just a week and a few days, he wins, what would you see as the first major economic move they would make? Would it be taxes? Would it be expanding their Obamacare plan to make it universal health care?

Where do you think it goes? Well, I think the first thing they may do is to attempt to pack the United States Supreme Court because they recognize that a lot of the initiatives that they support could be blocked by a conservative judiciary. And so they might seek to pack the United States Supreme Court.

That's number one. Then number two, they would turn their attention to controlling the economy, but keep in mind their control of the economy would basically control the economy for middle and upper middle class Americans. For the super wealthy, they would provide carve out deals, particularly with respect to the Green New Deal, which Joe Biden fully supports.

It's on his own website. And the Green New Deal is very much like Obama's support for quote unquote solar energy, which was a massive, massive failure. Now I want to go to the court packing issue because we just had come out of the Judiciary Committee, Amy Coney Barrett. Amy Coney Barrett has now been through the Judiciary Committee. There was a protest vote, if you would call it, the Democrats boycotting the vote.

But she's going to the floor on Monday, could be approved Monday, certainly no later than Tuesday. That's not court packing. That's filling a vacancy, Andy. Andy, explain what court packing is, what FDR tried to do. You're the historian. Yes. Court packing was a plan that was, and by the way, Joe Biden called it boneheaded.

That's what he said that it was. It was a time during the Great Depression when President Roosevelt was proposing all these progressive policies where we began the national toboggan ride to bankruptcy. And even though my grandparents thought FDR was the savior of the country, we have to be realist in the retrospective history and realize that that is not in fact the case. The President decided, well, the Congress is rejecting all my plans to do this and that with the economy, the takeover of the economy by the government, which is what it was. And so he decided, well, I'll tell you, the Supreme Court is ruling that all my plans are unconstitutional. I'll just add some more justices. I'll just add, there's nothing that says I can't add 15 justices to the Supreme Court. In other words, take the judicial branch of government and politicize it. Make it a branch of the legislative branch of government. And President Roosevelt, for all the good things that he did and the leadership that he did during World War II, and I respect that very much, and the leadership that he showed tried to pack the court by adding justices that followed his progressive ideas. Joe Biden is going to do, and the Democrats, if elected, are going to do the same thing. The independence of the Supreme Court is going to be compromised.

You're going to have justices on there who are political hacks. That is wrong. All right, we come back from the break. You think Andy's got a strong opinion on that, by the way? He doesn't like court packing. Either do I.

Either does Eric. When I come back, we're going to be talking about foreign policy because that's another issue. Folks, we're 11 days away from the election. We're going to keep you posted on all this. Don't forget, support the work of the ACLJ. You could do that at ACLJ.org.

That's ACLJ.org. We're going to be back in just a moment getting into foreign policy discussions with Wes Smith. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. Thank you.

Hey, welcome back. Last segment of the broadcast, Wes Smith is joining us, retired colonel, United States Army, as one of our senior advisors on military, fair, and foreign policy. Let's go right to the foreign policy issue because very different views on foreign policy.

I'm going to talk to Andy about what happened in Jerusalem, in Israel. That was a big event, but let's talk about the foreign policy differences. And you also have a post on the website dealing with Iran, but let's start with the general foreign policy differentials, Wes, and then we can work into the Iran situation. There could not be a more stark contrast, you know, between Joe Biden and the President as far as foreign policy goes. President Trump has been criticized for holding our allies and our adversaries accountable, but that's what an effective good President wants to do.

You mentioned Iran. The chief foreign policy issues for whoever is elected President will be China and Russia and the Middle East, Iran, and the President can rightfully point to some of his successes there. But you know, one of the things that I think rings so hollow and it's directly related to foreign policy is Joe Biden's promise that he is going to return to normalcy, whatever that is.

But in light of his evasiveness on answering questions, and of course we have the backdrop of the whole Hunter Biden issue. We have, you know, his push to, to re-sign the Iran nuclear deal, the JCPOA. And by the way, that part, the Iran arms embargo, it expired last Sunday. The reason that it expired was whenever they were working on the JCPOA, the Obama Biden administration promised the Iranians that they would not re-institute the arms embargo if they would simply sign the JCPOA.

It was put there to sweeten the deal for the Iranian mullahs. And so you look at all of this and most Americans, they vote based on not only their pocketbooks, the economics of it, but also foreign policy. And all of this is making, I think the electorate very uneasy and an uneasy electorate, electorate tends to be risk averse.

They would rather stay with what they know as opposed to something they don't know. And so I think changing administrations is a risk, especially as it impacts the economy and foreign policy. And I think the American people as each day goes by Jay, more and more, they're leaning towards staying with the President they know because of issues like Iran, China, Russia.

What would be the most dynamic differential in the first say 120 days? Joe Biden has promised that he would immediately reenter the Iran nuclear deal. That would be the biggest thing right there. I think the other thing, the Obama Biden administration, they were very anti-Israel. President Trump's Middle East plan that involves Israel making peace and normalizing relations with other Arab countries is what's bringing peace to the Middle East. Once the Biden administration, if they were to be elected, starts drawing back from Israel again, that will make all of the Gulf States and the other Arab nations completely uneasy. They want to be able to depend on the United States to be their ally in this. They're signing on to normalizing relationships with Israel because of Trump's policy. So I think those two things reentering the JCPOA and then backing away from Israel will be very, very damaging to all of our foreign policy. It will give our adversaries encouragement. It will give our allies a sense of betrayal and uneasiness.

And I think those two things would happen almost immediately. Interestingly, Andy, that Wes brings up the situation with Israel. We were in Jerusalem when the official recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel was made by the United States. The statements from a lot of the pundits was, and a lot of the Democratic operatives and Democratic policymakers was, this is going to further isolate Israel. This is going to cause more destabilization in the Middle East. But it's been exactly the opposite. Exactly the opposite.

Exactly the opposite. You know, no other President had the guts to do what they said they were going to do, and that is move the embassy of the United States from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The President of the United States, Donald Trump, said that is what the United States policy is.

Presidents have threatened to do it. I'm going to do it. I did it. And he got a good deal on the land too, he said. He got a very good deal in taking the land that we now have the embassy on and converting it and making it an embassy of the United States. I was privileged to be there.

You were too. And the reaction of the Democrats was, this is it. We all have no credibility with the Arab countries. They're going to hate us. They're going to despise us. There's going to be wars. There's going to be uprisings. That's the opposite happen.

Why? Because it was what the Middle East understands, Jay, the show of force. They understand that and they respect that, and they're scared of the President because they know he is a forceful, dynamic person who won't put up with any garbage.

And consequently what? The UAE has now made peace with Israel and these other countries and who are falling into line shortly. I think the other countries are going to do the same thing, but it's because the United States has shown force. You don't go like President Obama did to the king of Saudi Arabia and bow down before him. That is considered by the Middle East, if you read any history, to be a sign of humility and subservience. This President has the respect of the Middle East because he showed force and that's what they understand. West, we had the Abraham Accords that were signed and more countries lining up, UAE, it would completely counter the narrative of the Palestinian Authority and Joe Biden's advisors who would have never done this. Oh, absolutely. It's like Bill Gates said, the former Secretary of Defense or Bob Gates, he said that Joe Biden has been wrong on every major foreign policy since he's been in Washington DC for 47 years.

And that is true. The Arab States, they realize that the real threat to their safety, security, to their survival is Iran and to a lesser extent, Turkey. They also realize Israel is not a threat. And so as we are bringing peace between Israel and those nations, it is the best promise of peace in the Middle East in my lifetime. And all of that, you look at Joe Biden's statements, his policies, you look at the Democrat Party, of which he's really not in charge of them. He's following the left leaders. People forget, Wes, that under President Obama, where the US was a safe veto to protect Israel, he reversed that, especially near the end of his term.

Yes, absolutely. And Joe Biden wants to go back to those same ideas, those same policies. It will spell disaster for foreign policy writ large, but especially for the Middle East. Yeah, I think people tend to forget what was going on at the end of that administration.

So when you look at foreign policy, you can't look at it in a vacuum. What you saw, is this a fair statement, Wes? What you saw 12 years ago now is what you're gonna see again.

Absolutely. Same people. And Joe Biden has essentially said as much, same people, the same old policies that have not worked for decades will go back to that. And Jay, frankly, we can't afford to do that.

And I think, I hope that the American people are savvier than that and they will realize they do not want to go back to that. This question for you and that as a military, we only got a minute and a half left here. Military under President Obama versus, so I would say it this way, military under the Trump-Pence administration versus the Obama-Biden administration. Differential?

Absolutely. By the time President Obama left office after eight years, the military was depleted. Half of our United States Air Force fighter jets were not flyable. The Marine Corps had lost half of their billets for their fighter pilots.

The Navy was down to the low lowest number of ships since World War II. President Trump has literally taken each of those things and reversed them and rebuilt the military. Well, the debates are over. The analysis will continue, but the vote is in your hands. So in the next 11 days, if you're voting now, I mean, I think it's probably close to 75 million people have voted by now, maybe more. So this election is well underway.

And in just 11 days, the American people will decide as our constitution mandates, who the next Commander in Chief of the United States will be. I will encourage you to do this. We never tell you who to vote for, but I will encourage you to vote your conscience and make sure you exercise your right to vote, your constitutional obligation that exists there. That's going to do it for our broadcast today. Don't forget to support the work of the ACLJ and keep this broadcast on the air. And we're going to be with you election night, nine o'clock Eastern time, ACLJ.org, right here on Facebook and Periscope. For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines, protecting your freedoms, defending your rights in courts, in Congress, and in the public arena. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at ACLJ.org, where you can learn more about our life changing work. Become a member today, ACLJ.org.