The ACLJ's Impact on Foreign Policy

Today on Sekulow we break down the ACLJ's impact on foreign policy. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulow. We want to hear from you.

Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. Hey, welcome to Sekulow. You know, one of the things we knew, when the Biden administration came into power, President Biden, we know elections have consequences. It was a mess of an election. But, you know, ultimately President Biden's there. And where the President is most powerful, where they have the most unchecked power, constitutionally and throughout the courts, through court precedent, is in the realm of foreign policy. And we knew that the Biden administration's foreign policy would not just be bad, but dangerous. Dangerous foreign policy, begging the Iranians, which so far they have not been successful in doing, but they're still trying, begging the Iranians to let the U.S. back into their bullet point JCPOA, the Iran nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

They're still begging that. No response to China on the fact that COVID-19 is likely their responsibility, whether it was negligence at a criminal level. I mean, that's what it would be in the U.S. law.

Even if it wasn't intentional, it would be so negligent that it would be like a criminal action, to the point where it may be intentional. I mean, look at the impact it's having on the world, our economy, and still these questions about what everything's going to be like next week, next day, and during the holidays. That has been tough on people as well. Of course, you look at the situation in the Middle East. They're against the fact that Jerusalem's been recognized as the capital of Israel. They've talked about trying to reopen a separate embassy in Israel just for Palestinians. And that was an embassy that's had a lot of problems because it was basically a pro-Palestinian U.S. outpost, which is not how any of our embassies should be. Now, we knew, again, whether it was Russian aggression, Chinese aggression, Taiwan, Ukraine, again, COVID, the Iranian nuclear situation. We knew that this administration was going to be a disaster.

They have proven that to be the case. Now, they've been pretty ineffective. But at the ACLJ, we took direct action by beefing up our team at the highest level. So we brought on former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

We brought on Rick Rinnell, former acting director of national intelligence and ambassador to Germany. We were able to bring both of them on because we were in a financial position to do so. So they are a part of our team. They are not just guests on our radio broadcast. And I always want to encourage people to think past just the hour they see us a day on air or watch us or listen to us.

They're not just coming on like guests of the broadcast. We are working with them behind the scenes. We're utilizing their expertise, their context, their knowledge in filings, in FOIA filings, for instance. We'll have them review to make sure we're not using the right language, taking it to the next level, if you will, at the ACLJ. But we were able to do that because even with COVID, even with the uncertainty surrounding the last election, people supported our work. They knew it was important to continue to support our work financially.

So I thank all of you who did because we were able to make those moves. In the new year, I want to take it to another level as well. We want to take it to that next level as well. But we can only do that with your financial support of the American Center for Law and Justice. So this broadcast today, we're going to dive into all the foreign policy work that the ACLJ and our international affiliates is directly engaged in and how we take it to a next level. You know, we talked about ACLJ more than ever, the campaign.

I think that continues on into 2022. And so your financial support allows us to not just, again, it is not just about bringing in Rick and Mike Pompeo. And again, I want to let you know, they are not just contributors to a radio broadcast.

It's a senior council position and a senior advisor position. But also the work that goes into that, too, through our team. We're allowed to, you know, there's more people that you don't see on the broadcast who support that additional work and expertise that we're able to bring in. So I encourage you, if you can, to support our work at ACLJ.org today. You can double the impact of your donation. We have a matching challenge the entire month of December.

It's a great time because you're doubling the impact of that. Do it today at ACLJ.org. And if you're listening to the broadcast, I think you'll be encouraged as well to support our work as you hear all of what we're able to directly engage in internationally on foreign policy because of your support of the American Center for Law and Justice.

We'll be right back on Secular. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad, whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith. I'm covering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress. The ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

For that, we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's Matching Challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support.

Take part in our Matching Challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at 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. Welcome back to Sekulow. We are going to start taking your calls next segment of the broadcast, 1-800-684-31, so you can start getting those in now. We are joined right now by former Secretary of State and Senior Counsel for Global Affairs at the ACLJ, Secretary Mike Pompeo. Secretary Pompeo, let me jump right off because we've got a lot of news going on today, but one of the kind of breaking news international item that came about yesterday is that Iran is going to rejoin the nuclear talks with the remaining members of the P5 plus one that put together this deal. The U.S. won't be directly involved. You said America will be less secure if we go back into this deal. Now that they're trying to move forward even maybe without the United States, my first question to you is what do you think the Biden administration does to get ahead of this? Because it seemed like to me the world is saying, well, and this kind of looking at how America's wielding its power around the world, say, well, we don't have to wait for the Americans anymore. We can move forward with a plan like this.

Secondhand, though, I'm also concerned about what we might be willing to give up just to get back into these discussions. Well, Jordan, it does appear that they're trying to move on when they tried to do that during the Trump administration. We put enormous sanctions on them. We made sure that the Chinese and the Russians couldn't trade with the Iranians either.

Right. Remember, the P5 is made up of three European countries, but also two true adversaries of the United States of America. We can stop them from moving forward without us. We have the capacity to control what takes place.

Second point is a more important one. I'm not sure this administration, even if they were at the table, they were sitting there would cut a deal that made any sense to the United States of America. They when they testified when Secretary Blinken testified in his hearing and others, they said we would do a deal, but it would be longer, stronger and better than the 2005 JCPOA. There is no chance the Iranians are reentering these discussions thinking they're going to end up with deeper commitments. Remember, Jordan, many of those commitments from 2015 have already expired, including the capacity for the Iranians to sell weapons systems, to go back into that same deal, which is what the Biden administration has told the world they're prepared to do.

Right. We will lift all sanctions if you'll just go back into the old deal. Most of the major provisions have expired and Iran will be on its path to a nuclear weapon in just a handful of years. This would be tragic for the Abraham Accords, tragic for the region and really bad for the United States of America.

Secretary Pompeo, it's Wesley Smith. You know, the thing I think about, too, as we as we go back to this, you know, we have this commitment, you know, we've had a commitment. They're not going to have a nuclear weapon. But how how do we address the issue? How are they going to unlearn what they've learned and the breakout time?

The centerpiece of the JCPOA, as flawed as it was, was that we kept them several years down the road from a breakout time to getting a nuclear weapon. Now, experts are saying the breakout time is down to a few months. So how do we go in and really address them unlearning what they've learned and increasing the breakout time?

Is that even possible? Well, you could absolutely increase the breakout time as for unlearning what they've learned. That's much more difficult to do. But make no mistake about it's not a matter of just having the knowledge. There are lots of PhD nuclear scientists that have the knowledge, but the ability to execute, the ability to manufacture, the ability to deliver the ability to all the components along the way and delivering a nuclear weapon that would wipe Israel off the face of the earth or or to come attack the United States of America is very different from just knowing how to do it.

And those things you can stop. The first thing one would want to do is to die them resources, to put real pressure on the regime, because in the end, it's true. If this regime decides they want to move towards a nuclear weapon, they may well just go ahead and proceed. But you have to make the cost of doing so so enormous that the people of Iran, the amazing people who live in that country who don't want this theocracy, who don't want these kleptocrats or these crazy religious extremists in charge of their country will have the capacity and the space to do what they need to do to make sure that Iran doesn't become a nuclear weapon state. And we've heard from Jake Sullivan and others that the lids off, you know, and I think some of that, to your point, Secretary Pompeo, you talked about is that some of these provisions that were the lid were already are already expiring anyway. So as this moves forward, is there a way for the United States, it's the sanctions, right? It's the kind of pressure to put on that regime because they're not talking that way.

The Biden team is not talking at all about sanctions. The question, I think the big question for them is whether or not they're going to unfreeze assets to get back to this deal. Sadly, Jordan, they're going to unfreeze assets. You can write it down.

You heard it here first or maybe second. In some sense, they've already done that. But when you have a sanctions regime but you fail to enforce it, it effectively is giving up the sanctions themselves. Today, China is importing massive quantities of crude oil from Iran. That did not happen on our watch. We never had perfection, but we had the number of barrels a day produced by the Iranians and paid in cash to the Iranians at very low levels.

Think several hundred thousand barrels a day versus several million barrels a day. This administration just hasn't taken that seriously. And I think that has not only provided money and resources to the Ayatollah and this horrible butcher, Ibrahim Raisi, that is now the President of Iran, but it's also made them aware that if they continue down a path towards a nuclear weapon, the United States will fold, simply acknowledge that they're a weapon state and try to manage the risk from there.

That is really dangerous. And I promise you, the Israeli leadership knows this. The Saudi leadership knows this.

The Emirati leadership knows this. And some group of them, I am confident, will do all they can to make sure that Iran never gets the nuclear capability they can deliver. I want to shift a little bit to China, first on these announcements about these new weapon systems. First it was a hypersonic tested weapon that we think happened back in August.

Then it was out that they've got a satellite that's got arms that can destroy our satellites. The idea that this is all being done and that the Biden team is just kind of talking about it, but like the nuclear, it's like they just kind of put their hands up and say, well, this is what we've got to deal with. But they don't really say, you know, there's no strength behind the words, Secretary Pompeo.

That's why I think that people are hoping to, at some point here, some kind of strength that we're not going to just sit by and allow all this to keep going on. You know, the language early in the administration on China was pretty good, but there's been no evidence that real actions will be taken that will support that. To your point, this administration has continued to let China grow and build its capabilities, not only in the military space, but what they're doing in cyber and in the space realm itself. We've seen this in the financial world as well. This administration has simply kowtowed.

I don't know if you saw it today. One of America's companies, Apple, took the Bible off its applications inside of China. This is the kind of appeasement from both the American private sector and from the Biden administration that will greenlight the Chinese Communist Party, continue to impose its tyranny all across the world.

We can't let this happen. The Trump administration refused to turn the other cheek. We stood up to the Chinese Communist Party bullies. I pray that this will become a bipartisan issue and this administration will get serious about protecting Americans from the very real threat from General Secretary Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party. What do you make of Taiwan's President confirming that there's some U.S. military on the ground there, whether they're in some kind of trading function?

Is that some sense of what we want to see out of the administration when it comes to putting the partisan politics aside just to throw national security for our allies, national security? Or is that normal that we've got troops there kind of trading and working with the Taiwanese? So I applaud both the Biden administration and the Taiwanese leadership for conducting this work that's been reported. If that's the case, I think that's the right approach. I think even providing more defensive capability, more defensive support as we are required to do under our promises to the people of Taiwan would make sense.

I'm confident the Taiwanese leadership would appreciate that and I know it'd be the right thing for the United States of America. Finally, you've got a new blog up at ACLJ.org. It talks about how we know that the National Institute of Health and Dr. Fauci did fund gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which they were on the record denying that they did. So what should happen next?

I mean, people are upset about it. We're hearing about all these other tests that we were funding as well. But what should happen next? What should happen next is when someone lies to the United States Congress, which it appears Dr. Fauci has done, bring him back in, let him clean it up and fix it and then correct and apologize for what he did for having lied to the American people. But goodness gracious, if he's lied, he should be prosecuted for those lies. And frankly, the administration shouldn't want anybody who's their senior face for how we're battling this continuing threat from the Wuhan virus. The senior face for this administration is someone now whose credibility is completely shot. That doesn't serve the American people well. He should be permitted to go into retirement and write yet another book. This is a person who has now deceived the American people consistently for coming on two years.

He has no role, no place to be in the United States government. This issue about taxpayer dollars going to this laboratory is a serious one. And both the American government and the leaders who acted on that need to be held accountable. Secretary Pompeo, as always, we appreciate you joining us with this insight. We just hit Iran, China, Taiwan, and also the gain of function research here in our own country. Talking about all these issues, we appreciate that. And again, check out Secretary Pompeo's new piece up at ACLJ.org on the very issue about the NIH, Dr. Fauci, and the gain of function research going on. So appreciate that, Secretary Pompeo. We come back, we're going to get more into Iran, what the Biden team is saying, and we're going to start taking your calls.

Two issues. Iran, the nuclear deal. How do you feel about the Biden team going into and handling this situation with Iran? Do you have confidence that they could actually do it? But I want to get your thoughts on it.

It's not just a joke. 1-800-684-3110. Second is the infrastructure package. Have you been activated to your members of Congress, the House, the Senate, because they are pushing for trying to get a vote today? We'll go to Thad Bennett, Washington, D.C., to get all those updates. But again, give us a call.

We want to have you on the air today at 1-800-684-3110. We'll be right back on Secular. We'll be right back on Secular. We'll be right back on Secular. We'll be right back on Secular.

Hey, welcome back to Secular. We're joined now by our Senior Counsel for Global Affairs, former Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo. Secretary Pompeo, thanks for joining us. We're after the holiday in Iran, right before the holiday. Let me ask you, because we're shifting topics for people here, because the IAEA has new evidence of Iranian nuclear activity.

They've obstructed investigators. You tweeted out on Friday that international inspectors confirmed Iran lied and continues to lie about its nukes. They never fully complied with the Obama nuke deal.

Why would Biden let his weak negotiators go to Vienna to cut a deal with the Ayatollah and his butcher, the newly elected President, Raisi? What did the IAEA find, and what does it tell you about the seriousness of these Iranian talks, because they're ongoing right now? Jordan, what the inspectors found, a fellow named Grossi who runs the IAEA, was a continuation of what we already knew, but probably worse in some ways. We've known for a long time that when John Kerry signed the nuke deal, the JCPOA, that the Iranians had lied about the history of their weapons program, their nuclear program.

That was a given. It was a wink and a nod from the Kerry administration. What had happened under our watch is that we put enough pressure on the Iranians that we forced them to begin to comply with what the IAEA needed to do. As they could see the new administration coming in now, they've essentially blocked the inspectors. What Grossi reported was that they've now found fissile material, nuclear isotopes of places that could not be consistent with what the previous deal they signed with. I do not understand how you consent your negotiating team into Vienna to negotiate a deal with the same people who lied to you about their nuclear program before. What will that piece of paper actually be worth, Jordan?

I would argue not very much. I want to follow that up, because the thing I don't understand here is that we all know that the Biden administration wants to be back in this deal with Iran, but they said they want verifiable facts. They want to make sure there's compliance. We know there's not compliance. There's never been compliance.

I made this statement before that when the United States pulled out, the Europeans were still in, but the Iranians never complied with this. So is this a deal to just get a deal? Is that what the administration's looking for here? And what does that do to the region?

Israel's already very concerned. Yeah, I think you've got it right. I think they want in so desperately that in spite of their statements that said we're going to get a longer, stronger deal, we're going to get a shorter, weaker deal, one that begins to expire literally within a handful of months.

It's it's explainable to me. They didn't comply with the full requirements. The first time Kerry team signed up the same guys, right? Malley, Ben Rhodes, the whole the whole gang didn't comply the first time with what they had promised.

There's no reason to think they will this time. And what you'll see is you'll see the other countries in the region, the Arab states, the Emiratis, the Saudis, the Kuwaitis, the Egyptians, all of these countries watching closely. And as Iran begins to develop its capability, a full on weapons program, not just a weapon, but a weapons program, they too will feel the need to proliferate to have the capacity to protect themselves from this theocratic, horrible regime. I mean, to me, what is there any deliverable here? Secretary Pompeo?

I mean, it's kind of follow up, but they go into these meetings, they put all this time, all this staff attention on it. But what's the deliverable for the US? We see all these Iranian demands. And all we know from the past is this puts them on a path towards a nuclear weapon, which they've been on now since they since they initially had the JCPOA.

Not only is there not a clear deliverable, there's there's no clear alternative, they haven't told the Iranians, well, this is what we'll do in the event that you don't sign it. At first, they came out and said, look, sanctions don't work. So we're not going to put sanctions in place.

We're going to let them proliferate, we're going to allow them to build out their missile program and their terror capability around the world. And then they said, well, if this doesn't work, we might put some sanctions in place. If you're the Iranians, you know that the sanctions are already essentially gone.

They're not being enforced. The Chinese are already purchasing Iranian crude oil. By the way, ironically, the same crude oil that President Biden is asking them to release from their Strategic Petroleum Reserve to save American gas prices. Right, Iranian oil to China now being released into the market to help America.

This is this is no one could make this stuff up. I don't know what their ultimate goal is. I think they just want to get a deal to preserve the legacy of President Obama's second term in the previous deal to say Trump bad Obama good. We got a deal. And any problems that happen will happen after President Biden has got in a year and a half or two.

You've got a new piece. Go ahead, which raises this point. So I'm just going to read the quote here. So Israeli Prime Minister Bennett has urged the world not to quote, given to Iran's nuclear blackmail.

That's exactly the words that he's using. That weight would have that message would have carried weight under your administration. Does it mean a thing to these negotiators or to President Biden? What Israel saying? In fact, the facts suggest that what our administration is doing is putting pressure on the Israelis to come out and support this crappy deal.

They're telling former Israeli leaders, hey, send out op-eds, send out statements, put pressure on Bennett, the prime minister, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett of Israel, put pressure on Prime Minister Bennett not to make a big deal out of this. In fact, just the opposite of what we would do. We would have acknowledged Israel's right to defend itself. Indeed, its duty. We would have supported them and said this administration is telling them, be quiet, be in your own place.

Don't don't bother. We've got bigger, grander Middle East strategic objectives that we're trying to achieve and essentially pressuring Israeli leadership to at least at least not squawk when this really, really weak deal gets struck. You know, I want to switch gears just for a moment here to China, because you've got a new piece up that went out over over on last week after the holiday at aclj.org so people could see it right on the home page from Secretary Pompeo. It says once again, Biden fails to stand up to China. The weakness again that we saw just remind people that summit that occurred between President Biden and President Xi was virtual, but it was their first, I guess, face to face since President Biden took office.

And it just again, it was another one of those things that we kind of walk away from with your hands up saying, what was that for? Jordan, they didn't articulate what they want to accomplish other than to say we want to talk for the sake of talking, there were no objectives that I could discern, or that they disclosed in their statements following the summit either. They, they, the administration wants to talk about well we welcome competition with China, I must say Xi Jinping, the leader of the Chinese Communist Party welcomes President Biden saying that he welcomes competition, I promise you that he sees a statement that says America competes with China as Chancellor the Chinese continue to walk all over us to steal our intellectual property to infiltrate our local systems politically here at home to deny us the ability to understand what's going on with this virus that according to the administration still running rampant around the world.

This is, this is a China that has chosen confrontation United States needs to do what the Trump administration did to wake up to this confrontation and to push back on China and every one of these whether it's cyber or military or commercial to stand up and defend and secure American freedom from the Chinese Communist Party onslaught. Secretary Pompeo thanks for joining us stay on the broadcast our Senior Counsel for Global Affairs at the ACLJ that new piece again is up right on the homepage of ACLJ.org. Thanks again Biden fails to stand up to China and let me just let you all know as we go into this break we're going to continue the discussion to on Twitter what's happened there with their CEO, stepping down we'll talk some of these Iran issues as well, brought out with some more folks from our team in the studio but let me just encourage you the reason why Mike Pompeo is on the team at the ACLJ as a Senior Counsel for Global Affairs is because your support for the ACLJ. We've been able to expand even in a time of uncertainty when there has been the pandemic and the issues like we've been able to grow as an organization to expand the work that we do, because of your financial support of the ACLJ. This month is a great time because you can double the impact of your donation to the ACLJ at ACLJ.org that's ACLJ.org again so like a $25 donation that is like $50 for us because a group of donors will match that.

That's the initial contribution that's at ACLJ.org. We'll be right back, second half hour coming up with Sekulow. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Keepin' you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulow.

And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. When the Biden Administration came into power, President Biden, we know elections have consequences, it was a mess of an election, but ultimately President Biden's there. And where the President is most powerful, where they have the most unchecked power constitutionally and throughout the courts, through court precedent, is in the realm of foreign policy. And we knew that the Biden Administration's foreign policy would not just be bad, but dangerous. Dangerous foreign policy, begging the Iranians, which so far they have not been successful in doing but they're still trying, begging the Iranians to let the U.S. back into their bullet point JCPOA, the Iran nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. They're still begging that. No response to China on the fact that COVID-19 is likely their responsibility, whether it was negligence at a criminal level, I mean that's what it would be in the U.S. law, even if it wasn't intentional, it would be so negligent that it would be like an intentional action, like a criminal action, to the point where it may be intentional.

I mean look at the impact it's having on the world, our economy, and still these questions about what everything's going to be like next week, next day, and during the holidays, that has been tough on people as well. Of course, you look at the situation in the Middle East, they're against the fact that Jerusalem's been recognized as the capital of Israel. They've talked about trying to reopen a separate embassy in Israel just for Palestinians, and that was an embassy that's had a lot of problems because it was basically a pro-Palestinian U.S. outpost, which is not how any of our embassies should be. Now we knew, again, whether it was Russian aggression, Chinese aggression, Taiwan, Ukraine, again, COVID, the Iranian nuclear situation, we knew that this administration was going to be a disaster. I want to take a few minutes here, Jordan, to thank our members around the country. We sat down and had our board meeting last week, and we do this end-of-the-year board meeting because it gives you a good sense of where you are, and we've had an incredible year, and we've been able to accomplish a lot. Our Now More Than Ever campaign included the hiring of Rick Grenell, the former director of national intelligence, member of the cabinet, President Trump, the former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, also a member of the cabinet for the previous administration, and they're part of the ACLJ's International team. We're going to announce in the months ahead some big moves internationally that will impact the United States as well, so we've got some really big plans for 2022.

I mean, significant expansion. It's like doubling down on Now More Than Ever, but I have to say this to our members. None of this happens without you, and I will tell you, like, we're not like a lot of organizations in that we don't have, you know, we get some, and we're appreciative of everything. We don't get regularly $10 million grants and million-dollar grants.

That's very rare for us. I mean, you could look at those over the course of our 20 years. I mean, our building in Washington was a large donation from a foundation. We'll never forget that.

That's been 20 years already. But it's because of people like you, lots of people like you, that make a difference. That was what we decided to do 35 or 40 years ago when we started, that it was going to be more of a, we now call grassroots model, but it was really going to be supported by everyday citizens, the people that wanted to protect religious freedom, religious liberty, and protect our freedom and liberty as American citizens. And we have been blessed beyond anything we could imagine. And we have facilities that we can't even, when I'm wearing these facilities, I still can't believe we're in these facilities, but that doesn't happen without you. But I just wanted to stop and say thank you from all of us.

There's just me and Jordan on the set today, but there's a lot of people working behind the scenes, as you know, and that, we don't have a camera back there, we should really get one, and around this entire office and our offices around the globe. Thank you. Without your support, it doesn't happen. And as we said, we're in a matching challenge campaign. We're in the last days of the month. Jordan's going to let you know how to do it.

It makes a big difference on how we can proceed ahead. Yeah, it's very easy to do. You go to ACLJ.org, that's ACLJ.org. Right on the homepage there, you can do it on your phone, you can do it on your tablet, you can do it on your computer. Very quick though, I mean, by the time we come back from this break, you could have easily made the donation, and you'll see matching challenge or donate, either one of those take you to the right page, put in your info, choose the amount you want to donate. You can also choose if you want to make it a recurring monthly donation. That will still be part of the match.

People ask that all the time, and that will be part of the match. So you go to ACLJ.org. This is a great time to support our work. As you said, we're grassroots. A $25 donation is a big deal for the ACLJ. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. Whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith, uncovering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy, and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress, the ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

For that, we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's matching challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support.

Take part in our matching challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at 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 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, 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.

Hey, welcome back to the broadcast, everyone. Taking your calls at 800-684-3110. So the IRS with a hearing, I testified at House Ways and Means just a couple of weeks ago with the $600 reporting requirement from your bank to the IRS. They said, oh, we'll move it to $10,000. Well, it's not really $10,000.

It's $10,000 cumulatively, which meant they moved it from $600 to $800. With no probable cause, with no suspicion that you've done something wrong, they're just going to have to, you know, banks are going to have to report this. By the way, the banking associations are not so happy about it, nor is our Senior Counsel for Global Affairs, Mike Pompeo. Because, Mike, you put out a tweet about yesterday, Joe Biden wants to weaponize the IRS in order to spy on your bank account, and that's precisely what he is trying to do.

It's great to be with you, Jay. You all day, CLJ, have been all over this for years. I witnessed it personally when I was a member of Congress now, six, seven years ago, I watched the IRS go after conservative groups.

This is more of the same. This is taking a tool of governmental power and using it in a way that is just immoral and deeply inconsistent with our Constitution. We got to stop what they're trying to do here. When you put those kinds of limits on, you're talking about 90 plus percent of Americans who have bank accounts will be subject to IRS scrutiny in ways that we'll be looking for political activity, that we'll be looking for the kinds of things that we do in our family life. It's just so, it's such a great risk to hand this to bureaucrats that we got to stop it, and now's the moment.

Mike, we had a caller just a few minutes ago from, I think it was Idaho, that is a rancher, and they said that their fuel bill for their diesel trucks, that they have the five trucks on their ranch, was about $600 a month, a little bit more, and if you add the parts to it. So she said, so they're going to be looking at my fuel bills and my equipment expenditures for my ranch without audit authority. There's no reason for an audit here. We're just going to have them look at it.

And you're right, we're going to, if this somehow gets through the Senate, which I can't imagine, but you know, you never know, we are going to fight back aggressively because there's no constitutional protection for any American citizen here, Mike. I mean, nothing. It's what you said in your opening comments. There's no prerequisite to this. This is ollie ollie oxen free. This is just, look, if you have a few spare moments, they can stare at just about anyone.

The fuel example is perfect. Someone who has a mortgage or rental property, you can imagine millions of Americans who will be subject to a random IRS auditor saying, I think I'm going to go take a look at Smith or Jones or Sally today. And you can be sure that that bureaucracy will be weaponized by the administration, this progressive and is looking for things that people are doing to protect their family, protect their religious freedom and take their basic fundamental rights seriously. I mean, you know, I think about the, in this case that was just handled where the, as soon as the Biden administration got in, they went right back to the targeting, putting in their determination letters.

You believe the word of God is a factor in your ministry and your organization. We think you're not entitled to taxes. I'm sad.

I mean, it's crazy. And no warrants. I mean, quickly, Andy, and then I've got, I want to pivot to Israel for a second here, but any, the lack of problem, Mike just brought this up. He's right. No constitutional protections at all whatsoever in this. No, there's none.

You just go in and snoop and start looking. Look, the constitution of the United States says that the people of the United States shall be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. And then the only time you, the government can stick their nose in our business is if there's probable cause to believe that criminal activity is a foot and they go to a magistrate or a judicial officer and get a warrant. Okay. That's what the constitution says.

The constitution has said that since 1789. Now we're in the world. Are we going here?

We're giving the internal revenue service, the scariest agency of the federal government, unfettered authority to aggregate everything you do in a year to $10,000 and then look at your lifestyle. Look where you donate, look where you give your money. That's not right. We're going to fight back on this. All right, Mike, you just came back from Israel. Of course, as secretary of state, what a tremendous job.

I just want to say that again. Thank you for all of us for the unbelievable changes that we saw in the Middle East. I was there for the opening of the embassy in Jerusalem.

You just got back. You got a great piece up at ACLJ.org called unwavering American support for Israel is key to Middle East peace. You just got back and a lot's changed since the last year with the new administration. What's your sense of how the Israelis are feeling about the relationship right now? Yeah, so as there are obviously outliers, but the vast majority of senior Israelis in government, in out of government, just ordinary people are very worried about the relationship with the United States and Israel. They watched Democrats refused to underwrite Iron Dome and then they flipped the next day, right? So a simple task of helping protect ordinary Israeli citizens and frankly, all the Americans who are in Israel every day protect themselves from Iranian rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. They watched within a couple weeks of this administration taking office. They watched the rockets, a fire from the Gaza Strip in the United States issued a press release saying, can't we all just get along?

Essentially, they ultimately came and said Israel had the right to protect itself, but it was tepid at best. They're very worried about this. And now they watched a special envoy, Rob Malley, sitting in Vienna talking about, well, maybe we just have to live with an Iranian leader, Ibrahim Raisi, a butcher. Maybe we just have to live with them having a nuclear weapon and they grow concerned and they recognize that they may well have to address these issues in a way that doesn't have the full throated support of the United States. That's just dangerous for the region and for the world.

It really is. And you know, I know that the current finance minister, Evadore Lieberman, Evad is what they call him there. Lieberman has been concerned about Iran. He's been concerned about Iran since 2013.

I remember having conversations with him about that. The Iranian threat, as you just mentioned, the kind of the acquiescence that the current administration is saying basically, well, they're going to probably get nuclear weapons and we have to live with it. The truth of the matter is Israel cannot live with it. No, Israel can't live with it. And it's not just the ability to use it, the risk that they'll actually use a nuclear weapon. It's the coercive power that comes alongside of that. And the Emiratis, the Saudis, the Bahrainis, the Egyptians, all of them would live under the threat of an Iranian regime that would say, if you don't do what we would like you to do, then we're going to use this tool. Now it'll be unacceptable. The Israelis will be forced to take action as they have done so many times before to defend their right, the Jewish homeland, and they'll have the right to do that.

They'll have the ability to effectuate it, I believe. But in the end, if they had American support, we could protect them from having to make those very difficult decisions and risk a real big conflict in the Middle East. America's relationship with Israel and the Abraham Accords combined isolated Iran and made the world more peaceful and more prosperous.

Yeah, you're absolutely right, and I really appreciate your efforts on that. I was thrilled with that. I was there when the Golan Heights Declaration was signed by President Trump.

It was an unbelievable day. Let me say this to our video team. If you could find the statement from John Kerry where he talked about Israel had to make a choice. They can't be both a Jewish state and a democratic state. I want to play that for our audience in a moment here.

We'll let me know when we have it. But, you know, you just were over there, and I go there a lot. We have an office in Jerusalem. And the fact of the matter is, this is the most democratic state in the region. It's the only place where you could practice religion freely. It's a civil society, liberal in the proper sense. It's the freedoms that are not recognized in most of the other neighbors, even though the neighbors are getting better. And I will say the neighbors are getting better on these issues. But people don't understand that Israel, the little land of Israel, is really the shining beacon of democracy.

There's no doubt about that. It has been since 1948. When I traveled this last trip, I had the chance to go visit Sheila, a famous biblical site, the site of the first temple. It reminds you of the power of the tribes and the Jewish people and the great things that they have done for that region for an awfully long time, long predating the state of Israel in the late 1940s. They still are a pillar of democracy and peace, of religious freedom. They're the model that we can only hope expands in the region. Let me play this bite from another Secretary of State, John Kerry, because I think this one sums up the vast differences and why we've got to really keep our eye on the situation in the Middle East. But here is a fundamental reality. If the choice is one state, Israel can either be Jewish or democratic, it cannot be both.

And it won't ever really be at peace. You know, this idea that you can't be a Jewish state and a democratic state is ridiculous. I find it personally, actually, Mike, offensive. Yeah, it's offensive. It's anti-Semitic. It's so deeply troubling.

This is the model that Secretary Kerry traveled the world carrying with him each place that he went. It has as the predicate, and you know the history here, Jay, it has as a predicate that Israel is an occupying force, that they are wrongly occupying this special holy land. That's just fundamentally untrue.

We talked about that a great deal. He is deeply anti-Zionist. It gets at the core, and it's not far from the things that you would hear people like AOC say. Right. It's not far from what you would hear the Squad say about the Jewish people and that they are somehow wrong to have their own rightful Jewish homeland in the state of Israel. We know that. We know the importance of Jerusalem. It's a city of peace. And then the Israelis have been in that place, in that special place, and Israel people have had the capacity to practice each and every faith. And that's important for people to keep in mind. They are not an occupying force in the state of Israel. Right. I appreciate it, Mike. Thanks for the update. Thanks for your insight on both the IRS situation and Israel.

I've got a book, by the way, folks, called Jerusalem that tracks all of the history of the Jewish existence in the state of Israel, which is now the state of Israel, but in that land of Israel. You can find that wherever you want to get books. You can find it there. Hey, if you're on hold right now, I know a lot of you have been on hold for a half hour plus. We're going to do it. The next segment, we're going to take as many of these calls as possible. Can we take some during this next break? Not during the break. I don't think we can pull that off, but we'll do it during the next segment and we'll get to you.

So stay on hold, make sure you're there and ready to go because we're getting through these as fast as we can to try to get as many of you on air as possible. So again, support the work of the ACLJ and thanks to obviously Mike Pompeo and the Great Voices and check out their great blogs and work at 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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Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Welcome back to Sekulow, talking about Chinese aggression and the aggressive steps we continue to see by China internationally, but also by their military and their military training. We're joined right now by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, our Senior Counsel for Global Affairs.

Secretary Pompeo, let's get right to it here. We've got images that have been uncovered out of a desert in China that's been used for military testing before of weapons. And what we see in these images are direct images of what is the outline of a U.S. aircraft carrier, as well as two U.S. destroyers that we would assume they are utilizing to figure out how they would attack via air.

You know, Jordan, some of this is propaganda. That is, the reason these images get out is they want to create this narrative. But it also demonstrates an incredible capability and an intent. And those are the things we need to stare at when we're trying to think about how to confront the Chinese Communist Party.

We need to make sure we understand that. And I hear folks say all the time, especially from the left and from the salons in Europe, that we don't want to go to war with China. Well, the best way to prevent a hot war with the Chinese Communist Party is to establish deterrence, to do the things you need to do to make sure that the Chinese Communist Party knows that it will be incredibly costly if they take actions that are adverse to the interests of the United States and of Europe and of the West. Capitals like Tokyo and Canberra need to do their part to establish in the minds of the Chinese Communist Party the resolve of the West to protect ourselves from Xi Jinping and his communist thugs. And would you add this to the fact of the aggression already they're showing towards Taiwan? I mean, with its actual aggression, the most aircraft we've ever seen in Taiwanese airspace.

One of the Taiwanese leaders confirmed that there were U.S. troops there on the ground training, which is not a bad thing. But it just seems like with everything, whether China's mocking us at the world stage, whether it's COVID-19, not allowing the World Health Organization back in or any other inspectors back in to try to figure everything out, how culpable they might have been, or even if it was negligence to the level of criminal negligence, but they're not allowing those inspectors in. And they've also taken aggressive steps, not just in target runs, but of our allies like Taiwan that we've got defense agreements with.

Jordan, this is very serious. It's why the administration that I served in began to confront them in ways that were material and important to convince Xi Jinping that he needed to change course. For 40 years, Jordan America turned the other cheek. We watched them steal our intellectual property. They were operating a massive spy ring from the Chinese Consulate in Houston.

I made the decision to close that down. President Trump supported that decision. We challenged the Chinese Communist Party in every venue, whether it was the stealing of our technology, the use of technology inside the United States to spy on the American people. We made clear our support for the people of Taiwan.

We worked for the freedom fighters in Hong Kong. Every place that Xi Jinping continued to move aggressively, the Trump administration responded. I think they see the weakness in the Biden administration. I think they saw what happened in Afghanistan. They see the Iranians now moving in the Middle East in ways they didn't dare do when President Trump and I were serving. And I think Xi Jinping may well believe that this is his window. This is his moment to actually execute on the vision he has for a one world.

And he'll begin with places like the islands of Taiwan. I read an article, I'm not sure which publication it was, but it was respected on international affairs. It was just talking about the idea that he's no longer showing up in a lot of these international events, the Chinese President. He used to feel the pressure to go and at least shake the hands and not to disturb the other leaders. But that was also a sign of how, you can look at that two ways. When a world leader doesn't leave their country, you can think, is that because it's too dangerous to leave their country or their power struggle?

But in his case, what they're saying is it's because it's a show of strength. I don't need to go actually shake your hands. I don't need to be in the same room with Joe Biden, President Biden or other world leaders.

I'm above that now. Jordan, it's hard to know. It could be either. It could actually be both that he feels threatened at home but emboldened abroad.

And those often go hand in hand. Jordan, you'll see leaders that use this external effort to bolster their political strength back home. The fact that he didn't show up in Glasgow for the work that was being done on climate change tells you exactly how China is going to behave with respect to carbon. They're going to pollute.

They're going to put carbon in the air. They don't give a darn what anybody else in the world does. They are they are using their economic might around the world to tell every country that America is in decline and America is weak. And you should stand with us versus the Americans because we're the strong horse. This is something that could cause our children to live in a society that looks much more like theirs than ours.

We cannot let this happen. America is plenty strong enough to push back against us. It just takes American resolve leadership force structure to understand that our military has to be strong and we have to develop the tools and weapons systems, both physical hardware and software to push back against them. I've not seen much evidence of that from this administration.

I pray that they begin to get this right. Final question for you, Secretary Pompeo, is just that is that it can seem overwhelming. We talk about this a lot when it comes to China. It's what would be the first two or three things that need to be done to to get them under some kind of back to either respecting the United States or at least feel like they can't do whatever they want globally or at home domestically.

I mean, what steps could be taken by even an administration like this to show those signals? I would start the place the Chinese Communist Party started on economic issues. I would use the power of the West India, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Europe, the United States. They make up three quarters of the world's GDP. I would begin to create ties amongst those nations that developed economic outcomes to put real pressure on the Chinese Communist Party. China is dependent on the world more than the world is dependent on China.

They have almost no internal capacity for energy production. For example, we can put real pressure on the Chinese Communist Party using our economic power and force them to conform to the world's standards. We must do that. And then we have to show true strength. Ronald Reagan knew this. President Trump knew this. We have to deliver the peace that we all want. The prosperity that we all want comes from American and Western strength and not through appeasement and some idea that somehow if you treat them nicely or you invite them to the right venues, the right international organizations, that somehow Xi Jinping will change his stripes.

That's just not in the cards. Secretary Pompeo, it's always great to have you on the team as our Senior Counsel for Global Affairs. Folks, this is again, this show in a nutshell, really, in one hour, and I've got a minute left to talk to you, but in one hour, we went from Albania live with Rick Grenell, the former Acting Director of National Intelligence, former Ambassador to Germany. Got into the issues with Soros there and also what the European Center for Law and Justice is doing to combat the Soros influence on international courts, specifically the International Court of Human Rights.

He did an excellent expose on that at the European Center for Law and Justice. Then we moved to a domestic case, core ACLJ case, a Christian realtor we're representing. I was told take that cross off your advertisements, your Christian realtor's association that has the cross in their symbol, and we're fighting that. They've got the oral okay that everything is good. We're just waiting for the written okay to say that that group was in the wrong, that our client was right, and to vindicate that and to declare victory there. We always wait till we get it in writing, the ACLJ.

But then we went to Secretary Pompeo, to the Chinese aggression by what they're doing militarily, internally, specifically targeting how to target a U.S. ship or a U.S. aircraft carrier or destroyer. And of course, in the midst of that, infrastructure as well, which we're going to get into more tomorrow with our Director of Government Affairs. Support the work of the ACLJ. We do all of this because of your financial support. Donate today, ACLJ. Buy the gift today online at ACLJ.org.