Biden Makes Stunning Admission About Controlling COVID-19

This is Logan Sekulow.

President Biden makes stunning admission about controlling COVID-19. 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, Logan Sekulow. Welcome to Sekulow. This is Logan Sekulow joining you right now live. If you are watching on social media, make sure to share, like, comment, do all the good things. If you want to call in 1-800-684-3110, we'd love to take a call again.

We are live today on Sekulow. We are discussing, as I said, and in the title, maybe a shocking admission from not just the Biden administration, from Joe Biden himself, President Biden, in conversation about how to help in the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Something that obviously in the last few weeks, I've seen a massive uptick. We have people here, people who worked here, who have been, I mean, we're down some people because of either exposures or positive cases.

I'm sure you know people or you yourself or you have loved ones who are currently going through this current wave of COVID. And we don't want to de-emphasize the real serious threat of that. However, when we asked, they asked President Biden how the federal government was going to step in to provide the solution, a solution that he claimed all time he was running, that when they got into office that they would fix. The first thing they do is fix this crisis. What did he have to say? Let's hear from President Biden.

Bite one. There is no federal solution. This gets solved at a state level.

I'm looking at Governor Sununu on the board here. He talks about that a lot. And it ultimately gets down to where the rubber meets the road.

And that's where the patient is in need of help or preventing the need for help. Yeah. And that is from President Biden himself. So let's just take the one part.

There is no federal solution. We are joined remotely by Andy Economo. We are also joined by Than Bennett.

Will Haynes in the studio with me as well. Let's go to Andy first. Andy, we only have a couple minutes, but so essentially now you have President Biden saying what we've all been saying, which is this needs to be handled on a state, city, county, you know, on a small scale, smaller government level, something we've all been saying that's what should have been happening for years. Well, Logan, the first thing that I would say as a lawyer representing a client, that if I was the government in OSHA, I would be appalled at what my client just said, because my client just pulled my case out from under me by simply saying this is not a federal government solution problem. This is something that should be handled by the states, which is exactly what we have been saying. So he is like a lawyer's nightmare to have made a statement like that to the public with respect to the OSHA position and the federal government's position in power grabbing this thing. Yep.

There is no federal solution and they really are committed in 40 seconds. And I got to wrap up for this segment. We'll be right back though, to talk about this at length. Do you think this is look, the Joe Biden of the last 30 and 40 years does not look like the Joe Biden of this current presidency. Is this Joe Biden's truth seeking out, coming out of what he wants to actually say, what he believes, which is very contradictory to what the current state of the more super progressive Democrat party stands for. Yeah, Logan, I think it might've been a Freudian slip. I think it might've been what he used to believe at his core, but here's the problem with that. And this is going to be stating the obvious, but Logan, obviously his actions are dramatically different from those words. I mean, this, this mandate that's coming out of OSHA that, you know, I'm sure won't be withdrawn, even though if there's no federal solution, it would be, it's about as onerous and intrusive from the federal level as it could possibly be.

So Logan, I think he might be right. That might be what he once upon a time believed, but it is not what his administration has been implementing. And it's at the Supreme Court as we speak.

Yeah, in the Supreme Court in a couple of weeks. And Will, to clarify this, this was coming at a specific speech to the governors, right? It was a Zoom call with governors across the country. There were both Republicans and Democrats on the call. And Joe Biden wasn't forced to make this statement.

Joe Biden made this statement on his own, saying there is no federal solution to this. So we're going to get into that more as the broadcast continues. Hey, I've got a question for you. Call in.

Do you agree with President Joe Biden that there is no federal solution to the COVID-19 crisis? Give us a call. 1-800-684-3110.

Maybe one of the first times you've agreed with him. That's okay. I'd love to hear from you.

I want to know your thoughts in general, not just on that question. Give us a call. 1-800-684-3110.

Rick Grenell is going to join us later in the show. Go to ACLJ.org to support our work as we head towards the end of the year. We'll be right back. 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.

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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.

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Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. Welcome back to Sekulow. Again, we're talking about the comment made maybe offhand, like you said, Will, not even necessarily prompt, not even a question that was even being raised, but a statement made by President Joe Biden yesterday as he made a, what do you call it, Will?

A Zoom call, but like a conference with all of the governors or some of the top governors in the country to explain the current situation. Obviously we've seen a massive rise over the last couple of weeks in a COVID-19 confirmed cases with the current variant and with the holidays. And look, I don't want to be blind to that. We can see it. We can see it in your workforce. You can see it out in public. You most likely know someone who's currently sick or quarantined or something like that.

We're seeing it everywhere. I did want to clarify something. Some comments have come in because they've said, well, are you saying that the other members who are usually on this show, my dad, my brother, those people are quarantined?

No, I want to make sure they're clear. They're just doing something else. They have other things they need to get to today. I'm just, I was always scheduled to be a co or to be hosting today. So I wanted to clarify that for those watching and those that may be concerned, nothing to be concerned about completely different matters happening with that. However, related to this, we have been saying for years, and we are going to the Supreme Court, Will, in just a couple of weeks.

No, not even a week. A week from Friday is the oral argument. Our reply brief is due next Monday. So less than a week from today, the ACLJ will be filing a reply brief to the government on this very mandate. Federal solution to the COVID-19 crisis, something that we have been saying actively is not the way to handle this. And you know it because you've seen how your state and local government has handled it.

Some better, some worse, some have been too cautious, some not cautious enough. If you have, you know, your thoughts on this, what I really would do if you're, if you're watching on Facebook, I want you to share that to make sure more people get into their feeds. So click that share button right now. Get it on everyone else's newsfeed.

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We're going to talk about even some stuff going on more in Afghanistan with the Taliban. And as we've said before, any donation you make in the month of December to the ACLJ, you get a download code. And I have a download code. You get a link.

It's really easy in your receipt. There's a link to watch the entire new 10 part over four hour series, Revenge of the Taliban, interviewing some of the top names. And look, I think personally, these are a lot of the names. If you, if they're not familiar with them already, obviously you have people on our Arc staff like Wes Smith or Rick Grenell or Mike Pompeo. But you also have Tulsi Gabbard.

You also have a lot of different political figures and people who I truly believe in the next four, eight, 12 years, 20 years even will be your next Presidential candidates. So if you want to start hearing from them now, I think with Revenge of the Taliban is a great place to start. However, we're still talking about, Will, what's going on with the mandate. Maybe we need to back it up and maybe I could pitch it to Andy just for a minute here to explain what our case is because I think people hear mandates. They've heard the vaccine mandate. This isn't a vaccine mandate. We're talking about at the Supreme Court, the employer mandate that it's an undue burden on the employer. Over a hundred employees starting next week, if you have over a hundred employees, if you have staff that is unvaccinated, they will have to test and be masked and you're going to have to somehow, not necessarily provide it as the employer, but you're going to have to implement it. And personally, as a business that we are very pro-vaccine, we think that that is maybe going a little too far and it seems like President Biden may believe that himself quietly. Yeah, you're right, Logan.

Then you've said it exactly correctly. This is going to be a tremendous burden on businesses and employers. And it's also going to create a problem for employees who are not vaccinated, who have to be tested periodically under this OSHA regulation, which I believe is an unconstitutional regulation because right now the testing facilities are completely overcrowded.

You can't even get to them. So there's impossibility of performance. And there's a lot to be said for allowing the states to take over these actions with respect to COVID. And I think, as I said earlier, the real problem here is what the President has said. If I was the attorney for OSHA, if I was representing the government, I would say, oh my God, Mr. President, what have you said? The governor should be handling this.

There is no federal solution. What have you done to my case in the Supreme Court of the United States where we have, where the other side has asked that there be a state put in place in this and has really been arguing that this is a state engineer, that this should be a state manufactured solution with the governors. Mr. President, what have you done to my case by making this statement? I think, as our producer said before we started the show, the Wall Street Journal editorial board said that today. Essentially, the President of the United States has undercut his own case by saying that there is no federal solution.

And during the campaign, Logan, you will remember the President, current President put it all on President Trump. You have caused all these deaths. I'm going to cure it in the eight months, nine months that I take office, it's going to be cured and everything is going to be taken care of.

Well, guess what? It's not. And so it's not the federal government that has done anything.

The federal government has interfered and is continuing to interfere in something that is a state solution issue. We're seeing sweeping changes now over the last couple of days. You know, we had pre-omnicron, we had the lockdown of, you couldn't have international travel from Africa and for countries that maybe before they thought maybe it got here.

Obviously, it did get here well before likely that ever happened. Those policies are being lifted. The quarantine process, which we've all kind of known the 10 days was 14 days and it's 10 days, now down to just five days if you're asymptomatic and then five days in a mask. And I think some of that's because we know, and that's not just by the way, it came out a couple of days ago for people working in the medical field as of yesterday afternoon, that is everybody. If you are vaccinated, if you are vaccinated, I believe test positive and you test positive, you're vaccinated, it's just a moving target.

But now it's five days, then five days out of quarantine, but with a mask, things are changing rapidly when it seems like things are going crazy. We do know obviously heading into this employer mandate, one of those big things is tests. We know tests have become increasingly difficult to get. And actually we have a clip from Dr. Anthony Fauci, who I'm sure a lot of you love, on bite number two about this situation. And it's going to be a big problem if we're all as employers, including our organization and many other organizations, having to implement these new changes if the availability of masks and the availability of tests is not readily available in your stores or at doctors. If it's every week they have to do this, it's going to be a concern and you question somebody like Dr. Fauci and hey, maybe they're being honest here. Let's take a listen. We already are in a situation where, quite frankly, we don't have enough tests at this particular point in time to get everybody uniformly have the availability of testing.

That will change considerably as we get into January. Well, right now, you just keep trying. Jim, you can't do the impossible. If you can't find it, you can't find it.

You just keep trying and doing your best. Well, and Logan, two things you've said, including playing this bite, play into a lot of the argument we're making about the overburdensome nature of the employer mandate. One is that if Dr. Fauci and everyone is saying, if you can't get these tests out, you just got to keep trying, that's going to be extremely disruptive to the workplace in January when people that are not vaccinated are required to have a negative test to go into the workplace. But on top of that, you also brought up the CDC's moving target on quarantine. Part of their rationale was not that the science shows that you only actually need five days. They even said in their rationale is that it would be better if we could do 10, but it's just going to be so disruptive to the economy, to the workplace that we're going to move it to five.

It's still probably going to be okay. But that also plays into the rationale. This is overburdensome when the regulations and the dictates that are coming down from the federal government are overbroad. And then you read into the statement from the President saying that this is not a federal solution.

This is going to be at the state level. And this is what the Wall Street Journal's editorial board had to say about that. They said, if this is the way Mr. Biden is going, then he should notify the Supreme Court that he plans to have OSHA withdraw its overbroad vaccine mandate. That would be consistent with his message Monday on the lack of, quote, a federal solution. And it might also save Mr. Biden from a high court smackdown. Yeah, I mean, a lot of people are saying that there's a lot of issues are coming. We've got a minute and a half in this segment. I just want to say, look, we're I think there's always an issue when you start doing these kind of massive rollouts and changes specifically around a new year.

Where, yes, in theory, that sounds nice. January, you know, January 4th right back at it. You just had a lot of offices and a lot of facilities closed for weeks. A lot of them close over the over Christmas holiday. It's just what happens for a lot of smaller businesses. You have manufacturing slow down even around then.

You have trucking slow down around then. You have then coming in February, which like it or not, I'm not sure where a lot of these tests are made. You have Chinese New Year that comes out, which even if it's not the exact kit, you're talking about a lot of probably the pieces that put everything together, probably coming out of factories in China. Chinese New Year, if you ever worked in manufacturing, by the way, shuts down everything for weeks. It's not like a three day process.

You're talking about weeks, almost a month where everything gets shut down. So this idea that January was a great idea or even near the holidays, a big problem and a big part of the rollout issue, even if this even happened a month ago, two months ago, I don't think you've been seeing the issues that you're having right now. When it comes to this mandate, obviously we have issues with the mandate, but with the big problem, which will be implementation and hopefully we'll see what the court has to say about that. Support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org.

If you want to give us a call, and then we've got a few people on the line, 1-800-684-3110. We'll play that clip again when we get back. And also Rick Grenell joining us a bit later in the show to talk about a lot 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, Planned 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. 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. Welcome back to Sekulow, heading into the new year. Obviously, a lot of changes are coming, including President Biden's employer mandate, which we've been talking about, obviously going to the Supreme Court, a federal move to completely alter probably your workplace and how things can roll. But let's hear from, if you haven't been listening, let's hear from Joe Biden again, President Biden just from yesterday, meeting with the governors, you know, I don't know, smaller governments, meeting with the governors of the states. Here's what he said about a federal solution to the COVID-19 crisis. There is no federal solution. This gets solved at a state level. It's solved at the state level, something that we've heard the exact opposite for for the last few years. Well, especially coming from Joe Biden, President Biden and his administration, that this would be solved at the federal level.

They went after states like Florida, Texas and others that have taken their own precautionary steps. Some that you agree with, some that you don't. Truthfully, I think there have been both on from there. There have been people, there's been things that done in California and things that done in Florida that disagreed with.

So I think that everyone has their own opinions. But again, when you would start admitting that there is no federal solution, it's solved at the state level. I mean, does he think no one's listening when, Andy, we are headed towards a Supreme Court case in a week almost on this type of situation? And does this change the landscape of that case when you have the President saying these kind of things?

Yes, Logan, it absolutely does. Let's not be naive. Supreme Court justices, appellate court justices read newspapers. They listen to the media.

They hear what people have to say. The President of the United States who is leading the charge for a federal solution to this has just said there is no federal solution. The solution lies with the states. As I said, this is a lawyer's nightmare if I was representing OSHA. What he ought to do is what the Wall Street Journal recommended.

Direct OSHA to withdraw the employer mandate and let this thing be handled by the states. Because the President has said, as he did throughout the campaign, there is a way I'm going to handle this on the federal level. Well, guess what? You haven't done it. You're not going to do it.

You just said you're not going to do it. You've just said there's no federal solution. Why don't you stop this in its tracks so that you are not, as the Wall Street Journal said, smacked down by the Supreme Court? Well, and I think that this, if you look at the bigger picture, goes to the issues we saw with the Afghanistan withdrawal, with the border crisis, the chaos that's created by the federal government under President Biden, projecting that they know what's going on, but are doing the complete opposite behind the scenes. And it's just, it's breeding chaos across the country. And they had so much fun projecting that they were going to be strong, the federal government was going to do a completely different approach than President Trump, even under the situation of testing, which we're all now concerned about it being more chaotic for the workplace. But this is what President Biden said back in March of 2020 when campaigning against President Trump about the very testing issue. Let's play that bite. Look, we knew this was coming.

We knew this was coming back as far as January. They didn't even begin to prepare the testing kits. I mean, this is something that's kind of elementary. We talked about testing kits. We're now going to get them. Well, look, I don't want to talk down the possibility of us being able to do this well. So the President then, back in 2020, was saying there wasn't enough testing. We needed to focus on testing. Now we're hearing that they're going to try to deliver 500 million testing kits, which will go for two days, people will get one test. Like, that's not a ton. There was a plan delivered to the President in October by experts that we need to ramp up testing ahead of the holidays.

And to do that, we're going to provide over 700 million tests a month. So they're trying to get ahead of it. And what did the White House and the administration do? They turned down that plan. And now they're trying to play catch-up and make it look like they're in control. But they're turning down the solutions that they were trying to say would be solutions back in 2020.

I think a lot of the changes, a lot of the examples, it's a constantly moving target. They're trusting people who maybe they shouldn't be or they're taking advice from people they shouldn't be taking advice from. I have a big problem with this current issue with the COVID-19 crisis because it's a lot of people on both sides, but a lot of people acting like they have the answers and pretending that they're scientists and pretending that they're doctors. And I think you even have that in the administrations because it's OK every once in a while. You know, we had an interview with Tulsi Gabbard on Revenge of the Taliban, which is available now if you make any donation. And she talked about how what a lot of us really want from our politicians right now is just for them to be honest and just to be truthful. And it is OK to say, we don't know. This is an uncertainty. There are problems that are happening around this world that are not solvable in a political stump speech. And that's OK. We have to be able to get to that point. Problem is, we're looking towards these leaders for a definitive 100 percent clarity and answers.

And they give you one and it ends up having to be something they have to backtrack a few months later. And that is a big problem that we're going to have in Washington, D.C., you have in politics over the next decades. And what I hope is that my generation, who are now in their 30s and 40s, say enough. We just want people who are at least honest with themselves, because when you have President Biden going out there and saying things like there's no federal solution. But then a year ago or two years ago campaigning say there will be I will be the one who takes the bring creates the federal solution. And currently there is a vaccine mandate. Our employer mandate at Supreme Court right now because of the federal solution that I put in.

But now I'm saying there's not. This is where the problem lies. Let's take a phone call. Let's go to Tim, who is calling in California. Tim, you're on the air. Thank you for taking my call.

Here's my question. What do we have to do to get Biden out of the way of handling the coronavirus? He's making it worse.

Look, I think what I just said, Tim, is still what I agree with, which is a lot of people saying a lot of things that they don't know the answers to. So he is the President. There's not a lot that can be done about the fact that he is the President.

What you would hope is that they put in a team, Will, who could at least be honest with people. Well, and to some degree, I think part of the problem is that the President, as we've seen on almost every policy issue, Joe Biden is not the Joe Biden that was the senator. The Joe Biden that was the senator was still a Democrat, still liberal in policies, but more moderate. And he's been listening to the far left wing of his party since he was a candidate. To stay in office.

To become the President. And that's why he is now the President, is because of the far left wing, and he's still listening to the entire team of aides and people underneath him and cabinet members that are more left wing than he is. And he is letting them take the charge on things. But then he has moments of clarity when he's speaking with the governors and says things like there's no federal solution, which he probably philosophically agrees with, maybe to some degree.

But he's still listening to all the people that he's put in these positions, which are much more far left, big government, centralized control than even he is, which is saying quite a lot. Hey, we've got one minute left in this segment. Some of you are listening on radio, on terrestrial radio.

For those who do, some of you don't get the full hour. So right now you'll probably lose us. If you don't want to lose us. We've got a whole other half hour coming up and Rick Grinnell joining us in the next segment or two segments from now, just a little bit within the next half hour.

He'll be on. We're going to keep this discussion going. We're also going to talk about the media landscape. We're also going to talk about happening in Afghanistan right now and how the UN is maybe about to just unleash some funds to, I don't know, our friendly neighbors, the Taliban. So we're going to talk about that coming up in the next half hour.

But you can only get that for a lot of you. Some stations keep the full hour. Online, live right now. That's at ACLJ.org, on Facebook Broadcasting Live, also on YouTube and also on Rumble.

You can find us on those sources right now, live for the next half hour. Also, I encourage you, give us a call 1-800-684-3110. And if you do lose us for the rest of the show, appreciate you tuning in, support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org. Every donation comes with a link right now to watch our brand new 10 part, four hour series, Revenge of the Taliban, ACLJ.org.

At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. 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. 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. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulow.

And now your host, Logan Sekulow. Welcome to Sekulow. For those just joining us, we are talking about President Biden's stunning admission that there's no federal solution to the COVID-19 crisis. Something we've been saying for years, saying this needs to be at the state level, at the city level, at the council level, at the...anywhere. Small decisions need to be made for districts.

If you're in North Dakota, it should be a lot different than if you are in New York City. But there are these massive federal mandates that are coming, but President Biden maybe is even backtracking them himself, which maybe has impact on the Supreme Court case that's coming next week. Let's hear from Joe Biden.

For those who have not heard, bite one. There is no federal solution. This gets solved at the state level. That's right, gets solved at the state level. Let's hop to a phone call, and we have a few minutes on this. Next segment, Rick Grenell is joining us, and at the end of the show, the final segment of this half hour, we're going to take as many calls as we possibly can. So you give me a call at 1-800-684-3110. As I said in the first half hour, is this the first time you've agreed with President Biden maybe that this is not a federal level, so there is no federal solution?

I think a lot of us feel that way, and it feels like it should be treated on a state by state, or maybe, like I said, county by county or city by city basis. Give us a call, 1-800-684-3110. Hey, we're still in the holiday spirit. Be kind to our phone screener. I would appreciate that. I think he would appreciate me saying that. Be kind, you know, because if you're not, you're not going to get on the air.

That's just the truth. 1-800-684-3110. You want to go to Kevin? Yeah, let's go to Kevin in Tennessee on Line 1. Kevin, you're on Sekulow.

Hello, good to hear from you. My opinion is that the federal government has a part, but that was pretty much taken care of under the Trump administration. They put into action everything we needed to get the vaccines and the PPE and the ventilators and all those things and mobilized everything that they possibly could.

And that's what the federal government needed to do. But now we're at a level where the individual states need to take this thing to the next level and do what they need to do. And the reason is there's so much difference between the state of New York and the state of Tennessee. And even in the state of Tennessee, you know, in Nashville they need to have certain things taking place. In a little center town, Tennessee, where I live, you know, we're all six feet apart.

Yeah, Kevin, I think that we all kind of agree with you. Look, in New York, the state of New York, massively different if you live in upstate New York or if you live in New York City. This can't even be handled on the state by state because that's not how it's structured. You're right.

In Tennessee, in the state of Tennessee, there's like five major cities in the state of Tennessee, whether that's Nashville, Memphis, Chattanooga, Knoxville, huge areas. And then there's areas you go 20 miles outside of there and there's nothing for 100 miles. You know, that's just the truth of most places. So I agree with you.

But also, I think you're right. We did step in. The federal government did step in, got the vaccine rollout where nationwide you can get it readily available for free anywhere to get your vaccine. You have that sort of situation happening again. I can at least agree with President Biden, the fact that he said, look, I side a bit of a relief that we're seeing, not necessarily those following this. When President Biden said just a week ago, this is not going to be March 2020 in the terms of lockdowns, the terms of everything closing up, because I'll be honest. I had that like fear that was upon me when everything started to shut down.

Look, we've seen it, though. We've seen massive New Year's cancellations for events and for parties. And, you know, whether that's what's going on in New York and they've shrunk down Times Square to 15,000 people or Mass Square Garden at Fish.

And that's canceling and Atlanta's big New Year's Eve are canceling. We're seeing that over and over. So even though the President said that, that's not necessarily the case. But at least we know, as he said on the phone call, that we have already seen steps be put in place over the last year. You can give a lot of credit to the Trump administration for Operation Warp Speed.

You can give them a lot of credit for ramping up a lot of the things here. But that's not going to stop what's going to happen over the next six weeks, which is regardless of how Supreme Court case goes, we're only a few days away from that employer mandate going into effect and it's going to disrupt a lot of people. And look, there's people in our offices that are unvaccinated because they can't, not because they don't want to, because their doctors, because they've had other previous medical conditions or their family does, that is very legitimate. These are not, you know, you know, out there.

These are real reasons that they can't get vaccinated. So we have to put a burden on them to handle this when there are five hour waits to get tested. There's so much going on. If you want to give us a call, 1-800-684-3110. Again, we're going to take as many calls as we can in the second and third segment.

Rick, we're now coming up next. 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'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 Secular. We are joined by Rick Grenell, Senior Advisor for National Security and Foreign Policy here at the ACLJ. And we're going to change topics a little bit here, Rick, because we've been discussing for the last 30 minutes or so, President Biden's shocking admission that there's no federal solution to the COVID-19 crisis, that maybe needs to go back to the governors, to the states, maybe needs to go back to the cities and to the local counties and all those things. But, you know, beyond that, we're going to move on a little bit because this is something we've been talking about the last few months with you and including in our new series, Revenge of the Taliban, which you're the first episode on, if you want to go watch that. There is a lot happening right now still when it comes to the Taliban, Afghanistan.

We made that documentary series in preparation, knowing new stuff would come out. And I think this is one of those important times that we have to take a look at what's happening, because the U.N., as may be expected, as someone who is very familiar with the U.N. yourself, is proposed paying, what is this, nearly $6 million to the Taliban? Maybe we need to need to explain this a little bit.

I don't know if I can explain it, but let me give it a try. Look, I've spent eight years at the U.N., and the U.N. only works when there's U.S. leadership. And we need U.S. leadership now to make clear that the U.N. and the U.S. and other Western allies have declared that the Taliban is a terrorist organization.

Now, that seems pretty basic. It seems like something that we should all be able to agree then that you don't fund terrorists. But because the Taliban is now in charge of the Afghan government, the U.N. agencies that are in Afghanistan feel compelled to pay the people that need to keep them safe, meaning the Afghanistan government, which is now the Taliban government. And so, in essence, what the U.N. is failing to do is recognize that by paying the government, they're actually paying the very people that could be attacking them. And so this is one of the problems that I've always had at the U.N., is that kind of practical, real-world experience doesn't permeate into the U.N.

It becomes kind of this simplistic, idealistic place where the real world goes out the door. And that's why we have committees where, if you're a human rights abuser, you actually sit on the Human Rights Committee. And that's why the Iranians have been in charge of the Disarmament Committee.

And others who abuse women and don't give women equal rights are on the Women's Committee. I mean, this is one of these things that doesn't make sense to the average person, and it certainly didn't make sense to me after being there eight years, is that the U.N. does a terrible job of living up to their own standards because they're unwilling to make really basic decisions to say countries are not equal, this country is wrong, and they want everybody to just get along and hug it out. Another layer to this, which I find somewhat ironic, is that the Interior Ministry, which would be in charge of the security, would be the receiver of these funds. And the chief of the Interior Ministry is under U.N. sanctions, also under U.S. sanctions and wanted by the FBI. But so the U.N. would be paying to a government agency who's run by someone sanctioned by them nearly $6 million.

Are they going to end up penalizing themselves for their breaking of their own sanctions? It seems like you're in bizarro world with this. Well, you make too much sense. That's your problem.

You're trying to make much sense. But let me make a jump here, and let's remind our listeners and our viewers of two other examples where this is happening around the world. We've got Hezbollah as a part of the government in Lebanon, and there's a big healthy debate right now of what do we do? Do we fund a government that's in coalition with Hezbollah in Lebanon?

I think the answer is no. I think we've got to take a very strong stance on not funding terrorism. But look at the Palestinian Authority, who also has in their coalition government Hamas, which is a terrorist organization. And so the U.N. funds the Palestinian Authority and they overlook Hamas and they try to work with them. The U.N. funds the Lebanese government and overlooks the fact that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization. And now we see them moving in the same direction when it comes to the Taliban and Afghanistan. I think that the U.S. government needs to be very clear. And it's a tough situation because when you say no money to the Palestinian Authority because you're in a coalition government with terrorists, and you say it to Lebanon and you say it to Afghanistan, you should hold the line. But you should also know that you've got truth and the American way on your side.

We should not be funding terrorists. And by the way, there's a federal law that says we're not supposed to do it. So, you know, we're going to Congress actually act.

Yeah. And Rick, it's one of those things where people you say, you know, we need to be out there and fighting for this in the American way. And when it feels like the American way isn't being upheld, you have organizations like ours, the ACLJ, who can mobilize a U.N. task force to go in and see what steps can be made. I think it's easy for our listeners and for me as well to be very isolated when it comes to the world and say, OK, we have enough of our problems in America. I don't even have the brain space to handle whether the U.N. is doling out millions of dollars to the Taliban when we have so much going on here at home. But I think it is important and maybe you can shed light on to someone who, again, has been there, why it's important to have organizations like the ACLJ who have these U.N. task force, who have people like you who have been there and have worked on these massive issues when the American government sometimes doesn't feel like they're pulling their weight.

Jordan, it's such a good reminder because I think you can get overwhelmed with all of the problems and you could chalk it up. And I think it's wrong, but you could chalk it up to say, well, the U.N. is a mess. We know it's a mess and let's not engage.

And that is absolutely the wrong thing to do. And I'm so thankful that ACLJ has a U.N. office, has a voice at the U.N. I heard them when I was there. I see their power and I'm so proud now to be a part of it. But the reality is, is that when you fund the ACLJ, you help fund programs that are sticking up for Western values at the U.N. And let me just say, this is so important and it doesn't just fall on deaf ears. When we raise it at the U.N., it has an impact. And so people need to really feel proud that they're a part of the ACLJ, that they're giving to be able to have this voice at the U.N. in Europe.

I can't say how important it is. We've got to have people who get off the couch, stop complaining, get involved in their world. We no longer live in a society where you just get to listen and say, oh, that's bad or that's good. You have to do something. You have to help us. Yes, we appreciate that. Appreciate those words, Rick. And hey, if you want to give us a call in the next segment, I'm going to take as many calls as I can as we head towards the end of the year. It's really important that you support the work of the ACLJ. Also, that we hear your voice, though, and what you feel is important going into 2022. We'd love to hear from you. 1-800-684-3110. So call, stay on hold. We'll get to you in the next segment.

And Rick, we just have a couple of minutes left here. But I was curious because we've had you as a part of this broadcast for the whole year and back into some of 2020. But it's really been impactful for our audience to hear your expertise and analysis on what's going on in the world, especially as we've seen such big issues like the withdrawal from Afghanistan, even the border crisis, China's aggression. I'm curious what your thoughts are as we're just days away from a new year, what some of the large national security issues and threats that we're going to be facing in the new year that we'll probably be talking to you with for days to come.

Well, first of all, I have to say, Will, that it matters. These issues matter to us domestically. We're not living in a bubble. It's not a world away anymore. It's not like you can say, oh, that's terrible over there, but it doesn't impact me here. It does impact us, whether it's our tax dollars or the fact that we're fighting against a Biden administration that gives voice, that gives aid and comfort to some of these very weak policies that are coming home. And so I would say watch China. The rise of China is a really big issue. Watch what's happening in Ukraine. I've said it on this broadcast before, and I really believe, and it's probably as we go into 2022 going to be a theme, is that the Biden administration's love of consensus, their love of the applause from the crowd, from the Europeans, is a real problem. It's a problem for us in Ukraine because I'm hearing now from American diplomats in Europe that the Biden policy is stay with Europe, be close to Europe, don't have any light in between our policy on Ukraine. Now that's a problem because Europe and America, we don't share the same threat assessment. We don't share the same criteria when it comes to how to protect our people. Look no further than Iran, the issue.

The Europeans are not threatened by Iran. We are. So watch the consensus and the need for applause from Biden. I think that's a great analysis.

We've been talking about that in general, even the applause when he contradicts himself. You can give us a call if you have a comment right now, and I want to thank Rick for joining us today and also this year in the last 24 months. How long it's been, Rick? Feels like it's been a heck of a couple of years, but we appreciate you being on this show.

And without the support of you, the ACLJ, none of this could happen. This show, having people like Rick and amazing guests also on the show couldn't happen. Things like our new series, Revenge of the Taliban, 10-part series. Rick's one of Rick's the first episode. Right now, Rick, I'll tell you, you have the most views. On our series right now, you go to ACLJ.org.

Any donation will be in your receipt how to watch it exclusively in the month of December. 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. 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. Welcome back. Last segment of the day on Sekulow. If you want to give us a call, this is a great time. Look, we're going to try to take as many calls as we can.

We've got some lines open. So if you have a question or comment related to the topics we've brought up today, or just in general, give us a call 1-800-684-3110. We can talk about the work of the ACLJ. We can talk about President Biden backtracking and saying there's no federal solution to COVID-19 crisis.

We can talk about Afghanistan, the Taliban, and our new series Revenge of the Taliban. We can talk about all of that or more. Whatever you want to do. If you want to call in, you want to say Happy New Year. I don't care. Give us a call. I'd love to hear from you.

This will be a casual segment. 1-800-684-3110. That's 1-800-684-3110. It's a great time to call if you're listening right now.

Do you agree with President Biden that there's no federal solution? Let's go ahead and take some calls. Some of you guys have been on hold for a long time. Let's go first to John who's calling in Maryland. John, you're on the air.

Hello. If vaccinated and unvaccinated people can get and transmit COVID, then why doesn't the employer testing mandate apply to all employees? Well, I think that's a question a lot of people have asked. John, truthfully, if I'm just being honest and looking at the data and the research, and look, I try to do a lot of research as much as I can as the rest of us. Not pretend to be a scientist, not pretend to be a doctor, but still do your own research. Look, I mean, it's pretty standard now that we know that vaccines, whether you can still, obviously, a lot of people are contracting COVID, it's pretty mild. That it does work in the sense of keeping you, for the most part, a large, large percentile out of the hospital and particularly out of life-threatening issues, or at least short-term life-threatening issues. So we know that that's the truth. I mean, you could say whatever you want. We know you can have problems with the vaccine, but you can know that at least the data says that.

The data does say you get the vaccine, likely you're going to have a milder case if you get COVID. Now you bring up if, well, we don't think the federal government should be mandating any of these things. So whether it's sort of splitting hairs in that situation, because you say, you know, why isn't everyone? Well, it should be, we believe it should be up to the employer to make that decision, not the federal government. So I understand your point of view. I disagree, but I also don't agree with the entire scenario that there should be a federal employer mandate to put in burden.

Now, obviously the burden would become much, look, I'll be honest. I mean, I probably, of our employees even, I hear locally, it's probably 20% or less that are unvaccinated. And that's just the truth of the matter. So you're talking about a handful of people in an office setting opposed to the incredible financial burden of it being hundreds and hundreds of people. Now, that being said, I don't agree with there being this mandate in general.

So whether you think it, I don't like, I certainly don't like the idea of, well, you said this, it should be everyone. No, it should be up to the employer to make that decision. Well, and to John's point as well, that's part of the reason why there are so many lawsuits against the OSHA mandate is because there are, even when we see the CDC constantly moving the goalpost on what is and what isn't appropriate quarantine time, when you have things like that, that the federal government has not done a good job of being consistent. And he's pointing out what could be an inconsistency that maybe some are making an argument of that in their lawsuits. Logan and I aren't the attorneys on this show, so we're not going to give as far as a deep legal analysis of that argument. It's an interesting point he raises, but also that OSHA themselves were arguing months ago that they couldn't do this type of thing.

Now they are doing this type of thing. And then you have the President saying that there's no federal solution. So I think John does raise an interesting point when it comes to the fact of, as far as the mandate goes, that there do seem to be inconsistencies with the way that the federal government is handling this, and including the way that the mandate to the employers of either a vaccine or testing is applied to their workforce, and the way that it pits the employer against the employee because of the split burdens. The employee has the burden of either getting vaccinated or providing the test, of which is, as we're hearing from Dr. Fauci, as we're hearing from everyone, almost impossible right now to consistently get. To play sort of the advocate for this in the sense of, well, the concept of the employer mandate is to keep hospitalizations and deaths down. So the idea is, yes, it pits your job up against your own health and safety. So that's what the government would be arguing for their mandate. Well, the concept isn't about whether people get COVID or not get COVID. It's does this keep people out of the hospital and dying?

And I think the answer to that question is, yeah, the vaccine largely does. But that doesn't mean that should be the law. The law doesn't necessarily support that argument. However, I could see if I had to be advocating for that side, that's what I would say. It's not about this or that. It's not about your actually, it's not actually about your office. It's about a deadly disease that currently you have a large percentage of the people are not taking the, what would be considered the life-saving vaccine.

So I can see their point of view, whether you agree with it or not, and I do not agree with the employee mandate, but I think that's the point of view. Let's go ahead and take another call. Let's go to Mike who's calling on Line 2. Mike, welcome.

Hey, Logan. Thanks for taking the call. Proud supporter of you guys for years. Appreciate all that you do.

Appreciate you calling. My comment with the President saying all that he has said about there being no federal solution for the pandemic, it just kind of reconfirms once again that it's really not him that's in charge. He's really beholden to the socialist leftlings at his party, and he's really not able to govern according to his real true beliefs. I think to some degree there is some truth in that because whenever President Biden is speaking off the cuff, or there's many times when they've, he says even, I'm going to get in trouble for going to this question.

Or if I don't do this, go through this list of reporters, I'm going to get in trouble. It's pointed out often, but yes, it's because he does have many staff members and many cabinet members and everything that are crafting the position and policy of the administration. And this isn't necessarily abnormal when it comes to a Presidential administration. There are lots of players underneath the President himself who are helping craft the policy and create that policy. The difference is, is that President Biden has so many people that are much more far left than he is, that are creating and crafting and putting forward these policies, that when he does speak off the cuff, off of the prepared statements, his own personal ideology is much more moderated, not conservative, but moderated than the people that he has employed. So it does still end up on his lap though, that he is the one who put these people in the positions to craft these policies.

So he may not necessarily believe in them, but he empowered the people to be crafting this from the beginning. Yeah, and look, he was one of the founders of the Hyde Amendment. We know obviously he's flip flopped on a lot of that only in the last few years. And look, this happens, this happens when any President becomes the President, all of a sudden they start appealing to the fringe of their parties because they know that's probably who's going to keep them in office. It's a sad state of affairs.

Look, we got one minute left. I want to thank all of you for supporting the work of the ACLJ. Again, I do believe that there is a time and place for politics, and I believe there are certain things that should not be politicized. And some of it is like what Joe Biden said today, not necessarily the health and safety of our country and our people should not necessarily, not necessarily should not be politicized. It's unfortunate we live in a day where that is the case. So I hate that. I hate that heading into a new year where I see I see the divide. Look, I'm looking at your comments. I'm reading them.

I'm seeing how you feel. But truth be told, we need to look beyond the politics of the situation. As of right now, there are people in the ACLJ staff who are going to be working throughout the New Year holiday in preparation for this mandate case. And we can use your support, especially in the month of December, always the most important month for all nonprofits. So we can use your support. That is at ACLJ.org. And any donation gets a special exclusive link to watch our brand new 4-hour, 10-part series Revenge of the Taliban.

Talk to you tomorrow. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. 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. 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.