Manchin & Schumer Mislead Americans With Infrastructure Circus

Today on Sekulow, now it's clear Senator Manchin and Senator Schumer misled Americans with this infrastructure circus. We'll talk about that more today with Mike Pompeo and Rick Renaud. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulow. What is going on? All these people publicly said they didn't know what Manchin's number was. Well Chuck Schumer knew it. What's been happening? It feels like they're making it seem like breaking news when this has been sitting out there for two months. We want to hear from you.

Share and post your comments. Or call 1-800-684-3110. Joe Manchin himself even mentioned one trillion to one and a half trillion as being in the neighborhood of numbers he'd be okay with about two and a half weeks ago when he was speaking on a Sunday show. So it does sort of reiterate this idea why was President Biden behind closed doors simply asking for what the top line would be when it appears clear that they knew what the number was.

And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. The document I've got in my hands from July 28th, signed by Joe Manchin and Chuck Schumer, and it's what Joe Manchin will agree to with infrastructure. And so this whole game that we've seen for weeks on Capitol Hill, but this idea that we don't really know, well Joe Manchin, that number kind of came out. And this gets very specific into what he'd be okay with, what he's not okay with when things like fossil tax credits, doesn't want those repealed.

If you're going to do any clean energy tax credits, got to keep the fossil fuel tax credits. I mean what are progressives going to say to this? You heard Chuck Todd, the media, the left in the media, they're not happy about this because they didn't get the scoop.

They didn't figure this out. This has been a game that has been played. Now the question is does the game backfire? Because you've got enough progressives in the House to sink this and not move this forward in a way that can pass the U.S. Senate.

But what we now know is this has been a game played on the American people. I mean this whole back and forth for the last week of can they do this? Will they get this vote? Joe Manchin and Chuck Schumer agree that until today, you're not even going to actually debate the issue. Yeah, so I'm holding my hand. We'll put it up on the screen for those watching on television. So this is the signed agreement. By the way, these senators have worked together for decades, but they had to put this in writing. I'm going to ask Stan in a minute why in the world did that happen. So the $3.5 trillion is $1.5 trillion.

That's the real number. It does have tax increases, by the way, marginal tax increases. What's interesting here is the left is going to go ballistic because this isn't the deal they wanted, Stan. No, not at all, Jay. In fact, the fighting continues as we speak. Let me start by answering the question you asked. Why did they have to sign this memo, Jay? It's because none of them trust each other. Literally nobody inside that caucus trusts each other right now to get this over the line.

Jordan called it a game. I think that's the right phrase to use. It's Washington, D.C., at its worst. And the one other thing I would layer in at the start of this conversation, Jay, it was right about this time, just a little bit after July 28th, early August, where we said on this program, look for a distraction. Look for them to change the topic from Afghanistan. Jay, Jordan, they had a deal in their hands, and yet in the meantime, they let their party fight over the details.

Why? In my view, they let them fight because it was a change of topic and they would take any change of topic possible. Listen to the last paragraph, Andy.

Comment on this. Senator Manchin does not guarantee that he will vote for the final reconciliation legislation if it exceeds the conditions outlined in this agreement signed, Joe Manchin and Charles Schumer. Well, that tells you that they don't trust each other. And what amazes me is two senators who, you said, have known each other for decades and who are of the same party and the same political persuasion and the same mentality, trust each other so much that they can't do it on a handshake or a word.

They've got to sit down and write a lengthy, look at this document, a lengthy one-page type document in which they go into great detail, starting with top line $1.5 trillion and ending with a statement. And even if all these things go through, Senator Manchin does not guarantee he will vote for the final reconciliation legislation if it exceeds the conditions and outline the agreement. And they both have to sign it.

I mean, this is like a contract, a formal agreement that you have to sign because you don't trust the other person to do what you promised to do. Which shows how Washington, D.C. has deteriorated into just a disaster where even internal party politics don't work anymore. And the Democrats were always the best at internal party politics, able to keep people in line, able to keep people on the same page, even coming from different political positions.

Have the progressive left that pressure Schumer so much in New York with AOC and also in the House pushed him over the line? That's the question. In courts, in Congress and in the public arena. And we have an exceptional track record of success.

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I want you to think about this. All the things you didn't focus on, all the things that weren't focused on in Washington D.C., all the things that they didn't focus on in the media because of this infrastructure deal, debt ceiling discussion. So you had the generals testifying, got some attention, but this kept distracting the media. I want you to listen to Chuck Todd because this idea that publicly it was, we just don't know where Joe Manchin is. Can we get this vote? I mean, just leading people on and on with it.

Take a listen to Bite 3. What is going on? All these people publicly said they didn't know what Manchin's number was.

Well, Chuck Schumer knew it. What's been happening? It feels like they're making it seem like breaking news when this has been sitting out there for two months.

Let me tell you what's going on. It's called Washington D.C. distraction. Repeat, Washington D.C. distraction.

That's what's going on here. You had the debacle in the Afghanistan withdrawal with Americans still left behind. You had the generals saying that they told the President the exact opposite of what the President said they said. The President said that no general told him to keep troops on the ground, and then the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the senior military officers said, Andy, no, the exact opposite. We think you should have kept troops on the ground. So in the interim, then you've got this reconciliation bill floating around, and it's already a done deal.

That's right. It's a done deal as of at least the day that it was – Except the left hates it. Well, the left hates it.

I don't like it either. No, certainly not. I mean, when I see some of these other conditions – Tax increases, capital gains rates raised just to wait and hurt the economy. Corporate tax rate goes up to 25 percent. The domestic minimum corporate tax, 15 percent. The top rate on ordinary income goes up 2.6 percent to 39.6.

And the capital gains tax rate goes up to 28 percent, Jay. So all these things were known to Schumer. So this shows the mistrust among the Senate Democrats themselves. But as you said, and I think it bears repeating and emphasizing, all this stuff is a distraction from the debacle of our withdrawal in Afghanistan, from the General Milley situation with respect to we've got to make sure we know what the media is thinking, what is going on at the border, the fact that thousands and thousands of people were kept under a bridge at the border, that we have no porous borders, and even President Obama who says we're a nation state and we should have borders and that keeping an open border is not sustainable. All these things that the liberal democratic left has maintained have been set aside and we've been given this secret document.

Now it's exposed that we knew what the number that Manchin was going for was. Well, Jordan, welcome to October 1st. It's now Negotiation Day. Yes, so I guess we're going to put it all in. Here it is, October 1, start negotiating.

There's some non-starters in here, though. I mean, I go to say I've been in Washington DC. I cannot imagine on the left that they're going to keep fossil fuel tax credits, that they are going to, the tax increase is only 2% for most things, for the top line ordinary income.

Cap gains rate, 8% increase. But again, it doesn't seem like this is where the party is either. This might be where Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin are, but it's certainly not where the House is. Well, as of right now, Jordan, they can't come to an agreement in either chamber on this bill or the bipartisan one. You're right, some of those things are not going to be tolerated by the Squad. I imagine there are probably things on the other side of the ledger that maybe Manchin can't convince Kyrsten Sinema to go along with, so I don't know where they're going to land on this, Jordan. But I would tell you a couple of things.

First of all, you're 100% correct. There's no coincidence that it was last night that this document came out, because today is the day that Leader Schumer promised Joe Manchin he could start debate. But think about this, Jordan. This thing is detailed. This is like a CVS receipt, so they've been negotiating about these topics that the left really- Except you don't get the free coupons at the end.

Go ahead, then. True, but behind the scenes, how betrayed would you feel if you're AOC and the Squad, that Leader Schumer cut a deal with Joe Manchin, and meanwhile, you look at this document, Jordan, these are the very things they've been fighting about in public for the last few weeks, and the leader of their party didn't tell them he already cut a deal on it. You know, Will Haines brought up a good point of producer. He said, you know what, this chaos is just part of a reflection of everything they've done since they've gotten office in January. And that's really true. I don't know if we have the bite pulled where AOC says, you know, we played this during the break, which Joe Manchin are we dealing with? I mean, take a listen to this.

This is coming from AOC. Senator Joe Manchin said $1.5 trillion is his number. Is that sufficient for the both of you? For what year?

I mean, here's the thing is that there's a lot of games being played with this number. So this was what Senator Manchin was saying two months ago. And so the question that we have is, is which senator are we negotiating with? Is this June Manchin? Is it September Manchin?

Is it August Manchin? Will December Manchin be a different, you know, will this be a different senator? I think there may be a little wake-up call to these young members of the House as they, they're not, they negotiate with, they negotiate with these guys. Right. Joe Manchin doesn't care about somehow, he said it, they want more of them, they need to elect more of them. He doesn't even talk to them by name. And that is, listen, that's not that unusual in Washington. It's not a put down. It's just like there's 435 of you. There's 100 of us.

I am one of two who can sink everything. So, you know, she can call him names, June Man, you know, all this different, but the idea is that she's not bothering him. She is no threat to Joe Manchin. She's a threat to Chuck Schumer.

She's a threat politically to Chuck Schumer in New York and by getting the legislation passed to Nancy Pelosi. This is not a Republican problem. This is, it's interesting to watch because we're starting to see Democrats starting to deal with a little bit more of what it means to have a bigger tent, a party. And when you start encouraging these far leftists and you say, oh, it's great to have them. Well, you may think it's great to have when you have a 15 vote majority, but it's not great to have them when you've got to get every one of their votes to pass anything through. And the Republican party has dealt with this a long time. It's a much broader party with people on foreigns of spectrums, especially in the US Senate.

So I think that this idea that this game that they were playing, why the Biden team allowed this, I think they thought this helped at least distract from Afghanistan, it at least distracted from the border. And, you know, honestly, I mean, these are not easy things for people to follow. What people can follow is, is the government going to shut down or not? Are the checks going to go out or not? Things like social security. This very detailed one pager, very Washington DC one pager. I mean, it's not, people can read it, understand what it means, but it's very much Washington talk.

It's all, you know, this, it's a lot of corporate tax credits and things like that. A hundred percent, Jordan, I would tell you a couple of things. First of all, there's conclusive proof today that July 28th, Joe Manchin is the same as October 1st, Joe Manchin. So look, I just think he outmaneuvered AOC in the squad on this one. But you're right.

Now, I will tell you this. The continuing resolution to fund the government was passed with Republican votes last night in the House and the Senate. So the government's not going to shut down.

But Jordan, to your point, the American people are following things that are critical to them. And by the way, one of them is the fact that Democrats have put the increase of the debt ceiling in jeopardy. And look, it is on them because they pushed us into this reconciliation posture where they didn't want Republicans in the room. So now they're trying to figure out how to raise the debt limit while passing a bipartisan bill, while passing this reconciliation. Jordan, this fight is among the Democrat Party. They're going to have to figure their way out of it. It is a fight among Democrats.

There's no doubt about that. But when you look at the legislation, and Senator Manchin is trying to ignore and kind of play off the hard left and ignore them. But they're raising taxes in here, folks. This is not what conservatives would think is a good bill.

I want to be clear on that, Andy. This, as you said, increases marginal tax rates, capital gain tax rates, and significantly, I mean, you're raising the capital gains rate from 20% to 28%. That affects a lot of Americans. Well, the first thing that I focused on was not only just that Manchin said the top rate I'm going to go to, top line is $1.5 trillion. I immediately, just being a citizen of the United States and a taxpayer, went to the tax aspects of it.

How is it going to affect individual human beings? The corporate tax rate, 25%. The minimum domestic tax, 15%. And then the raise, the top rate on ordinary income to 39.6% from what it is now, Jay, which is an increase of, I believe, 2% of what it is at the present time. And then the one that really catches you is the capital gains tax rate. Which affects a lot of people.

A lot of people goes up 8%. This is what they've sat down and concocted in the deal. So this is no great deal for conservatives. I mean, this is not the way conservatives believe you have economic growth.

No, that's right. I mean, so this, again, this is the moderate approach. But West Virginia keeps electing Joe Manchin. Yeah, they do keep electing. He brings back pork to the state. Listen, I don't think he's very reflective of where most people are there, except for the fact that he's an institution there. He's not going to be replaced by another Democrat. He's not going to be replaced by someone like him. When he goes, that will be the end of the Manchin era. But the question now is, as long as he's in this position, he's not going anywhere. He's the strongest person. He's probably the most influential senator in the United States Senate right now.

Yeah, that's right. It used to be maybe he could get Manchin's vote. That would be good for Republicans. Maybe he could get a little bipartisan work.

Now it's literally, it will not pass without his vote. And I think that they're going to start looking to others. I mean, the budget issue is you're not going to get the Murkowski's and Collins on 3.5 trillion spending. They're still fiscal conservatives. So they're not going there on this.

So they can't look the other way. Come back. We're going to shift a little bit.

Rick Grenell is going to be joining us. There's a lot happening around the world, like we were talking about, that we're being distracted from and not paying attention to because of these kinds of things. 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, 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 second. We're going to connect with Rick Grinnell in just a minute and talk about what's happening in North Korea, specifically all around the world, because you've got all these international issues that are causing a lot of trouble. They're not getting focused. They're not getting the attention that they would deserve. I think even the generals testifying this week honestly didn't get the same attention. It would usually get but for these budget issues and is the government going to shut down and they pass through and the government's not going to shut down.

So I mean, all these issues that get put into the back pages of the news. I think Rick is joining us now. Rick, right off the top, we've got North Korea back. They've now launched for the second time this week anti-aircraft missiles. And to me, it just underscores one, we can talk about the North Korea issue and how that's been unraveling since this administration came into office, the Trump administration left. But two, the idea that the world and these bad actors are flexing their muscles right now.

Yeah, they're testing this Biden administration. And let's be very clear, there is a difference between a threat of military action and a credible threat of military action. And that's what we're seeing now, not only with North Korea, but Iran.

I would put Venezuela into that category. There are a whole bunch of bad actors who are looking at what happened in Afghanistan. The fact that the Biden administration is proud that it got only 90% of the Americans out, that there was not a good response as the Taliban recalibrated. And they're seeing, hey, look, this is an administration that gave the Russians a pipeline that is doing nothing about the buildup of 100,000 troops on the border of Ukraine.

And so Kim Jong-un looks at the messaging here and says, I should start testing. This is very dangerous for Americans. You mentioned, Rick, just now Iran. And I want to talk about that for a moment because I've always been concerned about the Chinese-Iranian-Russian-Syrian relationship as it relates to Iran. And it seems to me that as long as the United States is staying at a table, it doesn't have to be the table, but a table negotiating with Iran, under these circumstances, it's showing a sign of weakness. And with North Korea flexing its muscles and rattling their sabers, it seems like to me, we're in a situation where, you know, despite the administration's attempt to try to say, oh, the United States back in foreign policy, we've destroyed our relationship with the French.

It just seems to be much, much worse. You know, we've talked about this in the past, but the Biden administration and our secretary of state, Anthony Blinken, talk a lot about diplomacy being back. And the reality is that they like consensus. They want the rest of the world to be pleased with them. They want the rest of the world to sign off on their policy.

And so it becomes the lowest common denominator of policy. This is the danger of sitting down with Iran is when we ask other countries who do not share the same threat assessment as we do to somehow come up with a joint policy on Iran. It's a real bad sign for the United States and for Israel.

Ambassador Grenell, I want to ask you something. You said something that I think that's really interesting, and that is that the current administration likes consensus. And especially I wrote down that you said the world, they want the world to be pleased with them. In other words, we want to make the we the United States want the world to be happy with us and pleased with us and content with us. And doesn't that put our security and our future at risk when all we're looking out to do is to and I'm going to use the word appease the world and make the world happy? There's no question about that because, you know, you can use the word appease and I think it's appropriate because what you're really doing is having consensus meeting in the middle, possibly, or at least giving up on your America First policy. The opposite of America First is consensus. And while consensus sounds like a great term, it sounds like we're all going to hug it out. I can tell you I spent eight years at the UN, every country there, 193 countries, every country fights for themselves.

When they negotiate, it's Germany first, it's France first, it's the UK first, it's whoever on the Security Council negotiating, they put themselves first when trying to come up with consensus. You know, Rick, the politics of this is going on right now, too. I mean, we have we had the general testify this week that we had that we've got this budget issues. But the Biden team, they don't seem to be really engaging on this. It's not like we so we get the report about North Korea, but it's in the back of the news. We get the we it's almost hard to figure out what's going on in the world, because it's crisis to crisis. And I think now they're starting to use, especially like the Washington style crisis of a budget negotiation and infrastructure talks.

If they can, if people can focus on that, and maybe they're bored, they get bored, and that's not so interesting, instead of focusing on on these issues that really are important. I think you hit there, Jordan, they're using distraction politics right now to create some space. And let's also be honest, they're feeling the heat and panicking, but they don't even have the mainstream media breathing down their neck. They just know that the world is in crisis, that things are not going well, and they're not getting the positive press from the places where they used to. So this is a, you know, the Democratic Party, the progressives, they're not used to having scrutiny from the media. We conservatives are. We can go and take the hits and keep on moving forward when we know the policy is right.

The Democrats, they really have the opposite problem, thin skin. You mean, you and I and Jordan were used to taking hits? I think that might be true.

Like four years of clobber is more like it. But you know what, we stood it. Here's the thing that I'm finding interesting, though, geopolitically, and that is I think this instability, this is my view, Rick, the instability that this creates for the rest of the world and for countries that are in the developmental process that are relying on foreign aid. It's got to be disconcerting to them to see this kind of instability.

There's no question about it. I mean, I even see I would go so far as to say that the Europeans are feeling like, wait a minute, this is a wreck over in the United States, whether it's France or Germany, you know, traditional Europe. And of course, the Balkans, Eastern Europe, they're just flabbergasted. They cannot believe that America is in this position. The Middle East, of course, prefers Trump. Let's be honest.

No question. Last question here because we're running out of time, but you were the ambassador to Germany, the German election. What's your read on the situation? Don't count the Christian Democrats out yet. The socialists came on top. They're going to have to hobble together a coalition government, which means the only way that it works is the FDP, which is the libertarians, think of the Rand Paul types, are going to have to join with the socialists.

I don't see that happening, but maybe they're desperate to get into the government and they will do it. Time will tell. All right. Thanks, Rick. We appreciate it.

It's a huge shift there because Angela Merkel and her party have been in power since long as everybody can basically remember and through multiple Presidential administrations. You know, it's a great thing that we're able to get this kind of expertise to all of our viewers around. We're going to switch topics again because guess who's coming up in the next half hour? You just had the former director of national intelligence. You're going to have the former secretary of state, both on our team.

So Mike Pompeo will be joining us coming up. Hey, I want to say something about your support for the ACLJ in September. I'm just going to say one word that describes it. Phenomenal. Thank you.

It was not a matching challenge month for us. You would have thought it was. I appreciate it. We all appreciate it. The people you see and don't see around the globe appreciate your support of the ACLJ. So again, a huge thank you from all of us coming up is going to be former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo. We're going to get into some other international issues, talk to some domestic issues as well.

Back with more in just 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. Keeping you informed and engaged. Now more than ever, this is Sekulow. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow.

Hope you share this with your friends and family. Secretary Pompeo is going to be joining us next time with the broadcast. He's got a new piece up at ACLJ.org on the importance of the Iron Dome.

We're getting into that. More in the Middle East, more with Afghanistan, the Taliban as well. And also talking about some of the issues at our own borders. So you don't want to miss Mike Pompeo coming up next.

Let me just reset this. This is the headline from The Hill right now out of Washington, D.C. The Democratic Civil War Hits New Heights. I love hearing that kind of a headline as a conservative. I just want to believe it.

I don't often. Because they seem to always clobber it, kind of put it together at the end of the day. And that makes me nervous to get too excited about the Civil War when the Civil War is a handful of progressives. I mean, there's not many in the House that share AOC or Cory Bushes or Rashida Tlaib's view. And that's why they're known as a squad. They're that small with inside 435 members. But these votes are so on the line right now.

They are big enough to seek things. They have it in the past. The question is, will they actually take action to do this or will AOC pull another? Remember when she ended up changing her vote on the Israel Iron Dome funding? We'll talk about Mike Pompeo. She changed her vote from no to present for politics. They are still politicians in the day. She's a politician. She didn't want her no vote to stick there. She's got to run to New York. So I like the idea that they're fighting.

But I don't ever trust. Do you believe it's a real fight? I think that there's a real fight among some.

I just don't know if it's very broad. I feel like if they could take out their four or five progressives in the House, they'd easily pass this. And then they'd get the Manchin and Sinema votes on a $1.5 trillion, which is huge. Has Senator Sinema said anything on this? She just left, you see. That's the latest report. What does that mean? I mean, death is Friday. Okay. So she left. But that means they're not negotiating through the weekend.

They're not working. So what Jordan's talking about is there's a document that's signed between Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin, Senator Manchin. And it said, look, basically it says there's no $3.5 trillion deal here. It's going to be a $1.5 trillion deal, which will include increased taxes, including capital gain taxes. And this is the framework of what we're going to do.

And then Manchin signs it by saying, if there's a dollar more than this, basically that doesn't mean I'm going to sign it. So the progressives of the Democratic Party are feeling like they've been outmaneuvered. Conservatives are saying, ah, this was a political distraction from everything else. It was a political distraction.

It was a distraction from, and we've said this, the debacle and the withdrawal from Afghanistan, what has happened with the generals versus the President, what is happening at the border, which we cannot discount, which is a distraction from the safety of the United States, people coming in, not COVID tested, criminals, aliens of all sorts who are infiltrating the United States, given court dates to reappear, which we know they're not going to heed. They're not going to come back at a specific court date. Even Americans are on bond, don't come back on specific court dates.

But someone from Haiti who's come in or from Chile or Guatemala or whatever is going to come back on a court date. So we're going to just distract from all this and do and play this other game, which they knew had already been signed, sealed and delivered on July 28th when Senator Manchin said, I'm not going over $1.5 trillion and here's the tax increases that I agreed to. Why didn't you say that? Why do you have us wait the whole month of August and all of September? Today is October 1st when you've already had a deal because you wanted to distract the focus of attention and the dialogue and what we were doing from the reality of what you find to be the case of the Democratic Party, which is chaos.

Sorry. All right, folks, we come back. Mike Pompeo is going to be joining us live. Share this with your friends and family.

If you're watching the broadcast on the various places, you get your comments in as well. We can get some of those questions answered for you. And again, a big thank you. Now, Secretary Pompeo's new piece is up at ACLJ.org. It's titled The United States Must Stand By Its Commitments to Assist Israel's Iron Dome. That's just up at ACLJ.org.

He'll be joining us when we come back from the break. And again, thank you for your support of the ACLJ. If you go to ACLJ.org, you can see really the breadth of all the work that we are doing at the ACLJ.

And I encourage you to do that if you're a new listener or someone who listens every single day. We'll be back with Mike Pompeo. 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.

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Alright, welcome back to Sec Hill. We are joined now by our Senior Counsel for Global Affairs, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Secretary Pompeo, I want to get right to it.

You've got a new piece up at ACLJ.org. People can check out called the quote, the United States must stand by its commitments to assist Israel's Iron Dome. We saw last week, we talked about it, the extreme left tried to strip the funding from the spending bill for the Iron Dome because it's a joint US and Israel program. The creation of the Iron Dome was a joint US and Israel program. Forced Congress, they ultimately did it.

It wasn't a hard vote, but they had to do a standalone separate bill to fund it. I just want for you to have that opportunity to explain to people the importance of the Iron Dome, the importance of the alliance that it puts between the US and Israel, because it's not just something we send money to. It's something we develop together. Jordan, it's certainly true. Iron Dome was a project that the United States and Israel worked on together for a long time.

It was a joint effort because the mission was joint. The mission was to perfect civilians inside of Israel. That would include Americans who travel to Israel. We have millions who do that every year and to protect them from tax from the rockets that have come out of Gaza for too long. The Iranian weaponry that comes out of Gaza has killed so many people.

Not only has it killed its intended victims, civilians inside of Israel, but folks inside of Gaza as well. Last week when we were watching the progressive element of the Democrat Party take control of the party and strip out funding for this important project, a project that was about peace and stability. You know this, Jordan, when you have deterrence in that way, there's less likely to be an offensive action to suggest that the problem of the Democrat Party inside of their own organization with their continuing efforts to defend and protect their alliance between the United States and Israel is weak and getting weaker. And the Democrat leadership needs to take control of this.

This is something that has been bipartisan for decades and decades and must remain so. You know, Mike, I have, and Jordan has too, unfortunately, I have experienced incoming rockets on the border of Israel and Gaza. I was in a meeting with, actually, with both Bibi Netanyahu and then Shimon Peres, who was the President of Israel, and we were in an underground command center. And in came the rockets.

Jordan was outside with some of her other lawyers when the rockets were landing. So, you know, we've seen the importance of an Iron Dome and there was no Iron Dome them, but we've seen the importance of it. But isn't it ironic, Mike, that the, you know, there's this talk of aid going possibly to the Taliban, to foreign aid, while we're at the same time, we've got members of Congress voting no to funding the Iron Dome. I mean, the dichotomy there is unbelievable. There is an edge of the Democrat Party, Jen, you and I have talked about this as anti-Semitic, the same time we're abandoning Afghanistan, the same time we're sitting at the table in Vienna negotiating with the Iranians, the country with the capability and intent of the destruction of Israel, right? There's a little Satan there, and then ultimately this sucks to the United States. They now have Democrats who won't support the simple notion that we'll take an American and U.S. Israeli system and allow the Israelis to protect themselves from the threats from Iran and the threats from bad actors around the world. It was mind-boggling. And then to see them flip and everybody vote for it, say nothing to see here, folks, is hypocritical to the nth degree. Secretary, Jay Sekulow and I and our colleague Stuart Roth spent many weeks in the Middle East negotiating bilateral and trilateral cords with respect to the enthronement of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem several years ago, the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

And we know that it's a very difficult task to try to bring together what is a nine-faceted situation. When you were Secretary of State, we saw so much advancement with the Abraham Accords, which I think was a tremendous achievement. Is the left threatening all that progress with the moves that they are making now that are affecting the Middle East? I don't think there's any doubt that some on the left are trying to undermine it. Others are more passive and just they won't mention the words Abraham and Accords consecutively and don't want to acknowledge that good things can happen or good things in fact did happen in the Trump administration.

So there's a little bit of that. I think it's either envy or frankly disdain for the work that we did. I think in the end the Abraham Accords survived because it makes sense for the people of the Emirates and Bahrain and Sudan and Morocco to recognize Israel. But expansion of that, we were working diligently to continue to expand peace and prosperity and to isolate Iran even further.

That is very unlikely to happen because this party has decided that Iran is a stabilizing force and a force for good in the Middle East. We know that's not true, but once America no longer is prepared to defend Israel protected in the way that we did, it's very difficult for other nations to acknowledge Israel's right to exist. We talked about the importance of diplomacy and the importance of putting together these diplomatic deals. One of the things we've focused on this week and now we know, we saw the horrific images at our border with the Haitian migrants, but we now know the Panamanian government has said there's 60,000 more on the way.

And we understood the importance. It was surprising, shocking I think to the Washington establishment what the Trump administration, what you were able to do in negotiating with the countries to our southern border and whether that's against Central America, whether it's the Remain in Mexico policy. These ideas though that if we don't negotiate, if we don't provide incentives, these countries will let us know, hey, these people are coming, but they're not doing anything.

They don't really have the incentives or the, I guess the reason to, they're not going to do it on their own good will, to house these people or resettle them within the region that they already exist. But that was done under the Trump administration. We didn't have to, we figured out a new way to deal with our allies and the countries at our southern border so that we can deal with these migrant waves. And the Biden team, they just, it's like the Abraham Accords, they just abandoned the whole idea. You have to believe at some point that President Biden has not just accepted that the open borders caucus of his party is going to control how they treat our southern border, drugs, fentanyl at levels we've not seen before crossing across our border. We saw with the 15 Haitians, Secretary Mayorkas didn't know how many, but he knew that they'd all been released inside the United States. And now we see that the Panamanians had told us this was going to happen and we took no action to preserve and secure America.

It's truly remarkable. We had a roadmap just as we had a plan for Afghanistan, just as we understood how to protect and defend the relationship between the United States and Israel and we're doing it. We had a plan for delivering a secure southern border.

They walked in, they ripped it up and you can see the calamity. There will be more kids killed from drugs as a result of this. There'll be more migrants who are raped and tortured by the cartels. It's bad for American security.

These policies make no sense for the American people and I hope the administration will come to see that some of the work that we did actually delivered really good outcomes and they shouldn't be afraid to acknowledge that and continue them. Mike, we did a multi-year project at the ACL, Jamie. It spanned almost five years and that was drafting model legislation to be utilized by all 50 states regarding sex trafficking because it's such a huge issue. And what a lot of people do not realize is that our southern border is very much a port of entry for sex trafficking. And the age of these young girls is, I mean, my goodness, it's horrifying.

12, 13 years old. And the laws were really focusing on arresting the girls for prostitution rather than stopping the sex traffickers and we were able to switch that. And a lot of states actually adopted that legislation and what people don't understand is when you were in office, the discussions about a strong border also was eliminating the possibilities or at least reducing the possibilities of sex trafficking. This is a really important point. That border permits these cartels to abuse these women in ways that are just absolutely horrific. You know the corridor. You've worked on this issue.

I worked on it as well. That I-35 corridor comes up through my hometown of Wichita, Kansas and these girls become essentially human slaves. We need to corral that. We need to contain it. It's not just the fact that we have illegal immigrants.

That's certainly enough. It breaks our law. But it is the human tragedy that follows from those decisions that is just so heartbreaking. And Romain in Mexico was working. This administration came in and just ignorantly tore it up.

It is unexplainable to me. Now Micah, we really appreciate your comments on this and appreciate all your help. I remember working with you on Congress on some of these issues.

It seems like a long time ago. But these were multi-year projects and we appreciate it very much. Thanks, Secretary Pompeo. This idea is all diplomatic. Whether you're talking about the border situation, the Abraham Accords, we are able to solve this not through conflict but through diplomacy in a new way of looking at things. Just saying, hey, maybe we can incentivize Mexico. Maybe we can incentivize Panama. Maybe we can incentivize other countries in the Northern Triangle.

North American, Central American, South American countries to work with us. We're the country that economically is much more blessed. But we can use those economic resources so that we're not dealing with 60,000 people that really have no way of resettling with the United States in a positive way. But these countries, maybe we can build up programming.

Maybe they can utilize. And we provided those incentives and it stopped. But then they pulled all those policies because it was about climate change, not about diplomatic negotiations.

Direct with the countries who are also dealing with these massive waves of migrants. You see how effective diplomacy can be when you're willing to utilize it and willing to go against the grain of Washington, D.C. We'll be right back on Secular. We have a very 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, the 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. 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 Sekulow. We're talking about now, so how is this moving? The budget is not moving.

I want to go right back to Thad Bennett in this because all week people come up with a deal, will there be something? They're going home for the weekend. We saw that Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema's head out. So they're not going to be negotiating, at least not the ones whose votes matter, Thad. It doesn't mean they're going to be negotiating all weekend, 20 hours a day. Yeah, there's not even a possibility of a vote on that bigger reconciliation package this weekend.

I think you probably reported a couple of segments ago that Kyrsten Sinema has actually left town. I mean, that's a vote. Obviously, they have to have every vote on that bill, Jordan. Now, you're going to probably have listeners that are going to see on the news continued negotiations on the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Jordan, Speaker Pelosi continues to say that she wants to have a vote on that today. Of course, she originally promised a vote by Monday and then sort of hedged on that and said, well, I'm just going to start debate on Monday and then promised a vote on that yesterday. And then, Jordan, get this. You talked about how all of this is a game.

How is this for the latest card that is played in the game? The current session day, which is Friday, October 1st, it will go down in the Federal Register as the legislative day of Thursday, September 30th. They never actually gaveled out last night so they could continue their legislative day. So technically, right now, as the House is in session debating the bipartisan infrastructure bill, it's Thursday, September 30th, Jordan. Only in Washington would Friday, October 1st be Thursday, September 30th. I mean, that is so classic Washington, D.C. I want to move for a moment here to emphasis at the United Nations because while all of this is going on, our European Center for Law and Justice was hard at work making another intervention on another matter.

Jordan, you did one last week. We were back again this week at the Human Rights Council. This time, we had our lawyers from France. That's right, and the situation in Myanmar. So, I mean, really, this will show you kind of the global reach of our European office and the work at the U.N. is that it's not just in the kind of hot-button foreign policy countries that come up a lot in the United States, whether that's in the Middle East, whether that's in North Korea type. But also these countries are also experiencing significant turbulence politically, like Myanmar, and a situation on the ground there with coups and the government falling, but also Christian persecution. And we want to always take these opportunities to highlight, again, the individuals that are getting caught up in these movements and these instability and violence, and then persecuted because of their religious faith, because they're part of religious minority groups. Take a listen or watch as Christophe from our team at the ECLJ delivers this to the U.N. Give the floor to the European Center for Law and Justice.

Thank you, Madam President. As High Commissioner for Human Rights Mrs. Bashley recently stated, within Myanmar is a human rights catastrophe that shows no sign of abating. Over 8,000 of individuals, including children, have been arrested since the coup, with over 4,700 remaining in detention. Most are held without any form of due process and lack access to legal counsel or even the ability to communicate with their families.

That is pastor Reverend Tien Yang San of Chin State is one such individual. On September 16th, Reverend San, who was recovering from COVID, was arrested by approximately 20 plainclothes armed men who had three military vehicles with them. The army confiscated money and five cell phones from his family. Underground sources indicate that Reverend San is still in detention, may have been tortured, and has been sentenced to seven years imprisonment for unknown reasons. On September 18th, the Myanmar army burned down 19 houses in an attack on civilians in Chin State.

During that attack, the military shot and killed a Baptist pastor and then stole his cell phone, watch, and cut off his finger to steal his wedding ring. These arbitrary arrests and human rights abuses must end. We urgently call for the immediate release of Pastor San and for justice for the ongoing death and devastation caused by the Myanmar army. We request that this council be more fully engaged in the process to hold Myanmar accountable.

I thank you. Yeah, I'm going to say something. I mean, this shows you the global reach of the European Center for Law and Justice, the American Center for Law and Justice, our offices literally around the globe in Jerusalem. Of course, you've had reports from there before, so that goes on without saying, but again, your support of the ACLJ makes a difference.

Let me say something on a personal note here, totally changing topics. It was announced today that a very good friend of ours and one of the founders of the American Center for Law and Justice, Dr. Pat Robertson, has officially retired from hosting the 700 Club with CBN, which he has done for 60 years. He's been a broadcaster for over 60 years. The final, the 60th year episode was today, and Dr. Robertson announced that his son Gordon will be running the 700, will be taking over the 700 Club daily duties. But I just want to say, from behalf of all of us who've worked so closely with Pat, and still do work closely with Pat, that we are thrilled with the reach and impact of the Christian Broadcasting Network, Operation Blessing, of course, American Center for Law and Justice, Regent University. It's an amazing thing when you see what God's done through Dr. Robertson. He's also going to spend the rest of his time teaching, which I think, I remember talking about that with him years ago when he was 85. He said, maybe it's time for me to start teaching, which he didn't do now until he was 91. But he shares a lot of wisdom and been through a lot. He's a brilliant businessman, a lot to offer these students. And Jordan, you're a graduate of that university, and that university has come a long way in just 40 years. It's really incredible.

Yeah, that's right. I mean, so much insight into the global operations that they've launched. So you've got the broadcasting angle, you have the global missions work, and things like Operation Blessing, and so much more. And also the political work, diving right in, not being afraid of politics, but instead embracing it, running for President of the United States. What he really put him on the map to a new audience nationally. It made a big impact when he ran politically, don't you think? Because he launched the Christian Coalition and the really evangelicals for the first time kind of say, hey, if we gather together, this is kind of an assumption now.

I mean, really, we take a lot of this for granted. But it's like, hey, if we put our votes together, we can pick who the congressman is, we can pick who the senator is, we can pick who the governor is. And does that mean you're going to win every race? No, but it means that you can have the influence and the really, some would call it, especially some of the Republican Party that are more moderate, I mean, took over the Republican Party. Evangelical Christians to this day, even with the kind of libertarian move that's happened, I think that's a move that's happened with inside the evangelical church as well.

So it's traction. I think that idea of not being afraid to engage, not being afraid of taking the punches, the hits, being criticized, standing up for what you believe in. And also, kind of how he's evolved on issues, too.

Talked about that before. I think that's interesting, too. When you are 90 years old and you broadcast every single day, certainly you're going to be experiencing a lot that most of us won't be able to even understand what that would be like. To broadcast like that, to speak to all those different kinds of issues, whether they were moral issues, faith issues, political issues, foreign policy issues. And I think the legacy that's left over is gigantic, and the amount of people that were impacted by it is untold.

You can't really put a number, I can't put a number on it. So again, our thank you to Pat and to all the folks at CBN, and we do nothing but pray for and wish for the best as this transition takes place. It's been in the works for a long time. I mean, Pat's a planner, so Gordon's not new to the TV camera. And it's, to me, fascinating to see now Pat so engaged at the teaching level at 91 years old is a great thing. Well, that does it for our broadcast today. We hope you have a great weekend. Your support of the ACLJ has been critical. You know how to do that ACLJ daughter, but sign up for our social media platforms as well.

I think it's really, really important for you to do that and to stay engaged. Have a great weekend, really great weekend. And again, to Pat Robertson from all of us here at the ACLJ, thank you for incredible ministry that still continues today. 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.