Impending War? Biden Orders More U.S. Troops To Europe

Today on Sekulow, is Europe facing impending war? Biden orders more U.S. troops to Europe. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulow. As part of this commitment and to be prepared for a range of contingencies, the United States will soon move additional forces to Romania, Poland, and Germany. We want to hear from you.

Share and post your comments. Recall 1-800-684-3-110. I want to be very clear about something. These are not permanent moves. They are moves designed to respond to the current security environment. Moreover, these forces are not going to fight in Ukraine. They are going to ensure the robust defense of our NATO allies.

And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. So here we go, while the rest of the world continues to say, let's stop, let's tamp down this talk of impending doom in Ukraine as negotiations continue with Russia, between the U.S. and other European countries, the Biden administration continues to signal war. As we've talked about, you know, with that phone call that was disputed between President Biden and the President of Ukraine last week, where people said to, you know, release the transcript because they were talking about Kiev being sacked, that the country would be basically not just invaded by Russia, but be taken over by Russia.

And now we have these moves. Now they sound, I mean, anytime that U.S. troops are deployed in a sense of potential combat or conflict, I think is a better word to use. It's concerning to Americans, especially when Afghanistan was a disaster and we lost additional U.S. troops in that withdrawal. And by the way, the rest of the world, when they report on Afghanistan, they consider it a loss, a military loss for the United States.

So we could talk about what was done positively in Afghanistan, like ultimately tracking down bin Laden throughout his network, but that ultimately we lost that conflict. So people are not really just rushing in to send troops in for conflict when the administration announces these kinds of troop numbers. But again, it doesn't really explain, okay, they're going to go to Poland, they're going to go to Romania. Why are they going there when the conflict is in Ukraine? We think we're going to scare off Russia who has over 100,000 troops on the Ukrainian border with 8,000 troops. So you've got, the President has ordered 3,000 U.S. troops to Europe on top of the 8,500 of theirs. So you've got 11,500 troops. Roughly 2,000 of those troops will come from Fort Bragg in North Carolina.

They'll be sent to Poland and Germany. As Jordan said, these are NATO allies. So the question that raises is, do we really think that NATO needs this increased military presence? And NATO itself, Colonel Smith, has not in fact activated their troops, the NATO troops, which are about 40,000.

Right. There's a 40,000 multinational force, the NATO response force, which has not been activated. Our troops that are being sent are being sent under U.S. orders. NATO has not requested them. I think what he's trying to do, it's a show of force.

It's questionable to me whether or not it's an appropriate time to have this kind of a show of force. But I think the other thing that's going on in the administration's minds, Germany is such a weak NATO ally and the countries in the eastern side of Europe, that many of them used to be in the Soviet bloc, they are much more pro-U.S. and very anti-Russia. So I think he's sending the troops to Romania and Poland in order to sort of create more unity with our eastern NATO members, trying to cover up and compensate for the fact that Germany is such an unreliable ally. But Putin is not going to invade a NATO country. So having more troops there serves absolutely no purpose. And as a military guy, my question is, they say, never pull a gun unless you're planning on shooting someone. You don't send combat troops anywhere unless you intend to use them in a combat role.

And he's obviously not. I have a really quick question for Thanh. And that is, I know there's been a lot of talk among both bipartisan Republicans and Democrats about this. What's the latest on that? I think the question that they're asking on both sides, there's going to be a mixed reaction overall, Jay, but the question they're asking on both sides is, why weren't early aggressive sanctions tried first before you put U.S. boots on the ground in harm's way? Yeah.

I mean, this is the question. I'll go to Thanh too, because there is talk that there is bipartisan move here that we can actually see some agreement in Congress on sanctions. But one of those was already stopped. It was the Nord Stream 2 sanctions.

So when we come back, we'll talk about that as well. Edward, take your phone calls. This is, again, U.S. troops being moved, not in a direct harm's way, but again, we're talking about the bill at 1-800-684-3110. The challenges facing Americans are substantial at a time when our values, our freedoms, our constitutional rights are under attack. It's more important than ever to stand with the American Center for Law and Justice. For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines protecting your freedoms, defending your rights in courts, in Congress, and in the public arena. And we have an exceptional track record of success.

But here's the bottom line. We could not do our work without your support. We remain committed to protecting your religious and constitutional freedoms. That remains our top priority, especially now during these challenging times. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side.

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Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. With all this, you know, and I'd like to get your thoughts on this folks, 1-800-684-3110. I just want this explained. I mean, I don't know if I like the explanation or not, but I think that all these moves and we cut war, war, war. Why 8,000?

Why an additional 3,000? What does that really... That's not sending a huge message to a Putin who's put 100,000 troops on the borders. And why can't we get NATO to come together?

Because that does send the message. That's what really scares Putin. At least that's the boogeyman he's using. He uses NATO as the boogeyman. Whether or not he's really afraid of NATO, I think he... Look at NATO right now.

I don't think he's probably afraid of it. They can't come to an agreement on how to react to him. Right. So if you could get NATO to come together, I think that would be a win by the Biden team. By the way, I think a diplomatic failure so far has been the fact that NATO is not together. And we saw that division within NATO even two weeks ago when it was discussed.

And he'd said that there were differing agreements. And the fact that NATO has not moved up its troops. Now, what's the significance? Satellite intelligence is saying that there's been, Wes, a move on military training grounds. They're now just 150 miles from the Ukraine border. You'd said early on that... And that also satellite images are showing that troop tents and shelters for personnel have been seen at virtually every deployment location in Belarus, Crimea, and Western Russia. So either he is rattling a saber to scare everybody, or he's gonna do something here. And he's meeting with Chairman Xi of the Chinese government, the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party. All this is happening.

And what is the significance of that? And is it winter enough for those troops to come in? You said the munitions to move over and the armaments to move over, it has to be frozen. Right.

Yeah. The ground needs to be frozen. He has heavy self-propelled artillery and tanks and troop carriers that are armored. You have to have frozen ground to move. It's winter there.

The ground is beginning to freeze over. I think this is a matter, and this is why I think he meets with President Xi, it's a matter of strategic timing and strategic cooperation. I still think there is a real possibility that after the Olympics are over, and Putin going to the Olympics, by the way, after that is over and a couple more weeks roll by and the ground continues to freeze solid, I think there's a distinct possibility that we will see Taiwan invaded at the same time that Putin moves into Ukraine, because they believe that that divided front and those twin crises will render NATO and the United States incapable of reacting properly. And then that would be a gigantic foreign policy failure for the Biden administration, that they were not to prevent, if that were to happen, if Wes is right, they were not to prevent either one. Be catastrophic, Jay. I mean, nature abhors a vacuum, but authoritarian leaders love it.

And that would be an example of two of them taking advantage of it. And Jay, it goes back to the conversation about, you're going to have a mixed reaction from Washington DC about whether or not US troops are the right move. But Jay, I think there's going to be a consistent thread of concern among them that you can't have US troops moving without NATO participation because it speaks to all of those issues that Wes raised. You've got to send a clear message to Vladimir Putin that the world speaks together on this.

Right now, Jay, you've got a mixed message from the United States and it leads to that mixed message from the rest of the world. I want to go to the phones, 1-800-684-3110. If you want to talk to us on air, that's 1-800-684-3110. Tim calling from California online. Hey, Tim.

Thank you for taking my call. Here's my question. What should the Biden administration do to stop the upcoming war? Because there is going to be war. So Dan, it has to be serious sanctions. And I wanted to point out because as you pointed out, Democrats prevented sanctions on Nord Stream 2.

So we haven't sent the message to the world that we're ready to cut off Russian gas, that we have the power to do that as the United States because it would put Germany in such a difficult economic spot. But there needs to be buy-in on that by Congress. There are moves too that Congress can make to try and send a message to the Biden team.

This is what we want to do. Jordan, this was a huge miss on behalf of the administration. I mean, there were plenty of tools in their tool belt already. They could have enforced a lot of sanctions, most of them economically based. But Jordan, about two weeks ago, the sanctions that you're talking about that had bipartisan support in the United States Senate, they were sponsored by Senator Cruz, but they had the support of a number of Democrats. Ultimately, they only got to 55 votes. But I can tell you, Jordan, initially the support was somewhere in the 70s in the United States Senate. Now, why did those sanctions not pass when they came to the floor of the Senate? This is going to sound shocking, but this is just the truth. They didn't pass because Vladimir Putin and President Biden asked the Senate not to pass them.

That's the truth. President Zelensky was in favor of those sanctions. They had support somewhere in the 70s in the United States Senate. But at the end of the day, on the same day that President Biden came to the Hill to tell Democrats he wanted to do away with the filibuster, he got more than 40 Democrats to filibuster a sanction bill on Nord Stream 2. So I want to ask you folks, do you agree, this is Admiral Kirby, he's the Department of Defense spokesperson, this morning when he was announcing this troop deployment, Byte 19, I just said, do you even agree with this?

Take a listen. These movements are unmistakable signals to the world that we stand ready to reassure our NATO allies and to turn and defend against any aggression. I mean, Wes, shouldn't our NATO allies be reassuring us right now? Why are we reassuring them when it's in their backyard and they have not yet called up their forces? I think that the parts of NATO that we're trying to reassure are the eastern parts, especially those four countries that used to be part of the Soviet Union, like Romania and Poland. We're reassuring them because on the other side of NATO, allies like Germany are weak and vacillating. We can't even get Germany to agree to not buy gas and oil from Russia. So I think Putin's goal is to create disunity in NATO.

We're trying to create unity, but we're having a difficult time with that. But Putin's goal is to create disunity and so far he's achieving that goal. The other thing is you have to know that Vladimir Putin, he does want to invade Ukraine. He wants to increase Russian borders. He wants to create a larger Russian sphere of influence. And the thing, Jay, you asked me about what did these troop movements by Russia indicate. I think the most significant part, in addition to the fact that the troops are building up along the borders with Ukraine on three sides, we now know that he is putting field hospitals and his blood and plasma supplies near those same borders. You don't send a field hospital and blood and plasma if it's a training exercise.

You do that if you're expecting combat. I think he will invade Ukraine at some point. So the problem here for the United States and for the rest of the world, and certainly for Eastern Europe, but all of Europe, is this is going to have devastating economic consequences. So if the Russians invade Ukraine and the Chinese invade Taiwan, and they do this either simultaneously, which could happen, or very close in proximity, it will send a triggering effect of economic panic because you don't have a unified Europe on this. This happened early on in World War II, when the French lost quickly, were overrun by the Nazis, and you had the United States having to get in the war basically because England was going to fail.

It's fascinating to read Winston Churchill's, he's got a five-volume set book dealing with World War II, and I'm in the third volume right now, and it's his communications with Roosevelt. And it's desperate. I mean, and the problem you've got now is the appetite for conflict is low. Thus, saber rattling, you've got to be very careful of what you're asking for here. So I think economic sanctions are one thing, but beyond economic sanctions, we're not going to put American troops in harm's way in a conflict between Russia and Ukraine. I mean, practically, I just don't see the country willing to do that.

It hasn't been explained. So all these moves, we're going to try to scare off Vladimir Putin. How are we doing that with 3,000 troops?

I mean, we move those kinds of troops around. Again, I get that there's some message sitting here, but without the threat of, we talk about sanctions. No one has ever, they keep saying it's the most devastating sanctions in history.

No one's explained what those are, Wes. I mean, we don't even know what that means. Well, and they need to be preemptive. Sanctions after he's invaded Ukraine and they control Kiev, the capital, it's a little late for that. As we saw in Crimea, we put sanctions after he invaded Crimea.

He's still there. So there needs to be preemptive sanctions to get his attention. We need to know that this will not stand. But on the other hand, Jordan, he's not going to invade a NATO country.

No, I don't think so. And so putting our troops there, it may be showing the flag, it is not a deterrent to Vladimir Putin. And NATO, like you said, NATO hasn't called up its troops. Now we're going to change topics coming up in the next segment because there's a domestic case at the Supreme Court in the United States involving schools, coaches, and prayer. And our friend Kelly Shackelford from First Liberty is going to be on to talk about that. We're following an amicus brief.

His firm has got the case. We'll talk about that. Then the back half hour, we're going to get into developments with Whitby Goldberg and ABC.

Also the situation with that Amnesty International report even got strong condemnation from the Biden administration. So we're going to talk about that when we come back from the break. But we want to encourage you to support the work of the American Center for Law and Justice. All these issues we're talking about we're engaged in because of your support of the ACLJ. So let me encourage you to go to ACLJ.org and support the work of the American Center for Law and Justice. And everybody should be engaging with our social media platforms as well.

That's right. A lot of ways to engage with us and stay up to speed with all the work that we're doing at the ACLJ. That's ACLJ.org and I encourage you to be active in our social media sharing this broadcast with your friends and family. As you know, every day different topics, different focus with great analysis. Rick Renell is going to be joining us the second half hour of the broadcast to just discuss. I said let's try and get Rick on to discuss. Does this troop movement mean anything or is it still really about the pipeline? That if Russia has Nord Stream 2 and that's not touched and they're not really willing to stop that, then what other sanctions would even work and are 3,000 troops going to mean anything to Russia?

Talk about Rick Renell with that as well. Support our 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.

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. The challenges facing Americans are substantial at a time when our values, our freedoms, our constitutional rights are under attack. It's more important than ever to stand with the American Center for Law and Justice. For decades now the ACLJ has been on the front lines protecting your freedoms, defending your rights in courts, in congress and in the public arena and we have an exceptional track record of success. But here's the bottom line, we could not do our work without your support. We remain committed to protecting your religious and constitutional freedoms.

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

Welcome back to Sekulow. There is a case, it's going to be at the U.S. Supreme Court and it's, you know, the court case is prayer, it's the football game, the football coach gets fired out of Washington State. First Liberty, which is firstliberty.org, to find out more about the case to see, you know, some of the story about the coach, that's there at firstliberty.org.

We're joined now by the head of First Liberty, Kelly Shackelford. So Kelly, you know, I'm looking at the case and I say it's like deja vu all over again, as the coach used to say. We've got a situation, I think it's important to put the facts in context. I mean, we did the prayer at the football game in Santa Fe, Texas and the Supreme Court said, well, you know, it couldn't be led by the student because they were using the PA system, but if the students themselves wanted to say whatever prayer they wanted to say in unison, they could do that. So you had that kind of fallout from that case. Tell us about the facts of this one, because this one's been around a long time. It has.

This is, we're almost up to seven years of battle here. This one's really unique in that what happened is, Coach Kennedy came out of being a Marine for about 20 years and, you know, he watched the movie before he went to coach his first game and was at Facing the Giants about Christians and coaching and it just convicted him. And he made a pledge to God that after every game, he would go by himself to the center of the field when everybody's talking and he would just go down to a knee for 15, 20 seconds and say a silent prayer, thanking God for the privilege of coaching these young men. And that's what he did for seven years until the school came to him and said, if you do that again, we're going to fire you. I want to back up a second here, Kelly, because, okay, so a coach goes to the center of the football field, gets on a knee, says a 15 second prayer. I mean, silent prayer, not asking students to be involved.

Did this himself, okay. Did somebody, were the parents actually complaining or is this the village atheist coming and bringing the lawsuit? The parent, one of the parents went to the superintendent and said, hey, it's really cool what your coach is doing. And he said, what do you mean? And they opened an investigation. So the parent was saying it was a great thing and then the school decides to investigate.

That's exactly right. And that's, and the coach Kennedy was like, he knew if he goes to a knee, he's probably not going to get the, and he loved these kids. So it was really tough for him, but he said, you know, I fought in the Marines for our freedoms and what kind of example am I if I, if I back down as soon as there's something to take away my freedoms in front of these kids.

So he stood his ground and been through, you know, he hadn't met a coach now for six and a half years because of what they've done to him. You know, these kind of cases, Kelly, I mean, people, I think they're listening right now that they are just, I want you to go back cause seven years, seven years over silent prayer. Now, ultimately we've got the U S Supreme court has taken the case. There will be a final decision on this, but it just shows how people's lives can be.

I mean, I don't know if his life's ruined. I don't know if it goes that far. You can turn it upside down, but upside down over something that someone thought was good. And then you have these school districts, which is very hot. You know, it's a hot topic right now is these school districts that don't really reflect the parents. Well, and I'll tell you though, the thing that's unique, you know, Jay was talking about when we've worked together on past cases at the Supreme court, the thing that's really unique about this case, which really makes it, what was bad can turn out to be a great thing is that there's never been a case at the Supreme court on the rights of coaches or teachers with regard to their faith in the Supreme court.

We've never had that sort of free exercise case. This is going to set precedent. That's going to help every teacher, every coach, really everybody who works for the government because their argument in this case is if you work for the government and you do something religious that someone can see they can fire you. Which is interesting because in Tinker, the famous Tinker versus Des Moines cases, which is where this famous line that Kelly and I probably cited, you know, a thousand times, it says, and we always cited it for students don't surrender the rights of freedom of speech at the schoolhouse gate. But this quote actually says neither students nor teachers surrender their rights of freedom of speech at the schoolhouse gate. Now the question is going to be here, Kelly, I mean, you got a 6-3 majority court on a religion case.

I feel really optimistic. The question will be, is the establishment clause lemon test, that three-part test that's still like a ghoul in the late night horror show quoting the late justice Scalia keeps raising its head in these cases, is that front and center here? Is that part of this? Well, it's even worse. They're arguing that not only because of an establishment clause violation, they're arguing that even their fear, if it's not true of an establishment cause violation, justifies them taking away somebody's religious freedom and their free speech. Say that again for the American people. Let's hear that. Let's just tell you how bad this has gotten. You would think they would say, okay, yeah, you've got a right to free speech, but if you violate the establishment clause, somehow we're going to allow that to trump your free speech. In this case, they've said the fact that we're scared there might be an establishment cause violation, even if it's not there, is enough for us to justify taking away your religious freedom and your free speech.

Yeah, I was going to say, so Kelly, let's talk about a timing here. So we're going to be filing an amicus brief on your behalf at the American Center for Law and Justice. When are you filing your merits brief? We're filing it this month.

It's due by the end of this month. We're probably going to file it a few days early so that we have a little time. This is so compressed because we're going to file, the other side is going to file a response, amicus are going to file, and then we've got to have a chance to file a reply. And this argument is going to be in April. Oh, so it is going to make the April term. I was going to ask you if it, so it's barely making the term, but it's going to make it. It is. And so it doesn't probably come down at the end of June with all the other big cases. So this is going to be quite a blockbuster term.

I mean, I think it's way up there. I think it's a huge case. I think it's, you know, a chance to be precedent setting.

And I think with the 6-3 Supreme Court, those were election and consequences, I feel, you know, I never, never counted before it's done, but I feel very, very good about it. If you want to get information about Kelly's organization, we've done a lot of work with First Liberty over the year, and Kelly and I have been friends for probably 30 years. We've done cases together at the Supreme Court. We encourage you to support their work, but also get information. First Liberty, is it firstliberty.org, Kelly?

Firstliberty.org. They can even send a note to Coach Kennedy and encourage him. How about that? You could do that. That'd be great. All right. Well, Kelly, we appreciate you coming on the broadcast. Thanks so much. And we'll keep you up, you know, keep you in prayer, but we'll also be looking forward to working with you and getting this brief in at the end of the month. Yeah, I think to underscore that too, it's firstliberty.org. This is going to be another case like Dobbs, like the abortion case.

It's going to come out in early summer. Oh, this is going to be a monumental term. I mean, this is a Supreme Court term that is just a blockbuster. What I think is going to be interesting is, whoever the nominee is for the left is, they're going to have some different questions this time around because depending on when they go forward, which would likely be after these cases, I mean, you get different questions about Roe, different questions about religious liberty.

I mean, because this could be a case that shifts everything on religious liberty. Yeah. So the decisions that- For the government employees, like you said.

Yeah. The decisions that are coming, Dobbs, I mean, we have this because we represent Governor Noem. So we know that with the case we have at the Eighth Circuit, there may be some other legislation coming. So with all of those cases, and those cases will be decided, including the one involving Coach Kennedy, the question really becomes, and this is why I find this really interesting. The question becomes at that point, what do they ask the justices or the nominee?

In other words, what is the nominee asked about that very question and about Roe versus Wade, about all of these things? And I think that's where it's going to be fascinating. Yeah. And it's going to be, again, this is all coming up in a matter of months. So this, it's going to be quite the term to watch. Obviously you've been able to hear these cases be presented over the last few years because of the COVID protocols.

The courts will have a live transmission of cases. We will have these decisions early this summer. Now, folks, remember coming up second half hour, ABC's taken action on Whoopi Goldberg. The US has responded to this Amnesty International report claiming that Israel is an apartheid state, calling itself a Jewish state alone, makes it an apartheid state. So the US government, the Biden administration has responded. Rick Grenell is going to be joining us to talk about, does this matter to Putin?

What would matter to Putin? Why are we the ones saying it's imminent war, but the rest of the world is not? Get to all that second half hour coming up. For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines, protecting your freedoms, defending your rights in courts, in Congress and in the public arena. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at ACLJ.org, where you can learn more about our life changing work. Become a member today, ACLJ.org. Keeping you informed and engaged. Now more than ever, this is Sekulow.

And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. We're talking about yesterday, this kind of move to always delegitimize Jews in the world. And so it was Whoopi Goldberg, the latest celebrity who was trying to say, well, the Holocaust wasn't about race, Jews aren't a race.

Somehow it's different than being black or it's different than other groups. And again, she then had a chance to go on late night TV. And explain it away. Explain it away and say she's just messed up. She doubled down. Well, ABC has responded now. At a statement on Tuesday night, the President of ABC News, Kim Godwin, said that Whoopi Goldberg is going to be suspended for two weeks for quote her wrong and hurtful comments. They've asked her to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments and the entire ABC News stands in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues, friends, family, communities. My question, I think the bigger question, does Whoopi Goldberg ever come back after something where she had two opportunities once on her show, once on the show a few hours later, to get educated and make the right comment and refuse to do so? She refused to do so. I'm not into the cancel culture.

You're not either. But look, here's what's happened. These are people with big financial contracts. So if people don't want to watch them anymore because they made racist comments.

That's becomes a business decision. And I think what ABC is doing, quite frankly, and it's been on all the networks, have been covering this now, is they're going to evaluate in the next two weeks. And they're going to see, was these statements so irresponsible, so ignorant, so misinformed, so hurtful, that her recovery on that broadcast would not be well received. And I think the problem is that Whoopi Goldberg, and this is what I, it's just so hard for me to believe that she would double down on this, which she'll lack of understanding of the horror of the Holocaust. And then when Colbert, who's not exactly a conservative by any stretch of the imagination, try to give her two opportunities to get out of it, she's going to get out of it. She just couldn't do it. And she wouldn't do it. So I think there was no choice.

And I want to play for, we've got time. This is Stephen Colbert, trying to get her to explain it away. Listen to this. Have you, have you come to understand that the Nazis saw it as race? Because they might, like asking the Nazis, they would say, yes, it's a racial issue. Well, see, this is what's interesting to me because the Nazis lied. It wasn't. It wasn't. They, they had issues with ethnicity, not with race, because most of the Nazis were white people.

And most of the people they were attacking were white people. So to me, I'm thinking, how can you, how can you say it's about race if you are fighting each other? This is the stupidest and most ridiculous.

I don't even know why we're having this discussion. I mean, I, let me just say this. You know what? If that's what you really think, you don't deserve a platform like this because here's what you said. You said it was a question of ethnicity.

That's what she said. They had issues with ethnic differences, not with race, but the Jews, the Jews were viewed as a race by the Nazis. Okay.

And the Nazis lied is her answer. I mean, this is, this is, this is so absurd. What is the bigger point? The bigger point is that we have groups. Yeah.

We're going to get into this the last segment of the broadcast groups, like international human rights watch and the modern Democrat party. I'm saying it's apartheid. Yes. It's apartheid. So when you say that someone's apartheid state, they're like Nazis. Right. And they're class systematically oppressing people because of their race.

Right. That's what apartheid government means. So, you know, while we, by the way, we go celebrate the Olympics in China while they're committing actual genocide, the closest thing to the Holocaust.

The only thing I would ever compare to is genocides, which is what that Holocaust was, uh, on a large, huge mega scale. The Chinese are engaged in and we're going to celebrating Olympics twice. They've done it in the last. And by the way, Putin will be there.

Biden won't. No, I think there's a signal. We don't want to necessarily be there, but there's an Alliance forming between two mega powers. And if they come together, they are the superpower. And when they, if they join up, if they really are in agreement, that's a question, but because they're, they are at each other's backyards at some points and they do have mutual issues with North Korea that they have to deal with also, but you, you combine those two and the fact that us businesses and even athletics, you know, like the NBA, um, and Disney is willing to, you know, censor things and, and, uh, movies based off of what the Chinese government would like. Um, again, it's just, it, it, it is, there are major issues to discuss. We come back here and talk to Rick Cornell about this troop buildup.

What does that mean? The challenges facing Americans are substantial at a time when our values, our freedoms, our constitutional rights are under attack. It's more important than ever to stand with the American center for law and justice for decades. Now the ACLJ has been on the front lines, protecting your freedoms, defending your rights in courts, in Congress, and in the public arena.

And we have an exceptional track record of success, but here's the bottom line. We could not do our work without your support. We remain committed to protecting your religious and constitutional freedoms. That remains our top priority, especially now during these challenging times, the American center for law and justice is on your side.

If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at ACLJ.org, where you can learn more about our life-changing work, become a member today, ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected.

Is there any hope for that culture to survive? And that's exactly what you were saying. When you stand with the American center for law and justice to defend the right to life, we've created a free powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn. It's called mission life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, 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. Welcome back to Seculars. We said we would get back into this troop buildup. What does this mean? Because we've got the state department announcing it this morning about the troops and Rick Rinnell is joining us, our senior advisor for national security and foreign policy.

I simply wanted to get Rick on to comment. Let me play the soundbite for you again. This is Admiral Kirby, the department of defense spokesperson announcing it this morning.

Take a listen. As part of this commitment and to be prepared for a range of contingencies, the United States will soon move additional forces to Romania, Poland, and Germany. I want to be very clear about something. These are not permanent moves. They are moves designed to respond to the current security environment. Moreover, these forces are not going to fight in Ukraine. They are going to ensure the robust defense of our NATO allies.

So Rick, I go right to this question. And so did every reporter in that room, but I like your response is every reporter asks, why are we going when NATO has not been stood up yet and NATO has not yet. So we're doing this for NATO. I mean, 3000 troops right now is not a match for the hundred thousand on the border. So, and he's saying they're not going to fight in Ukraine, but what is it, what is this doing? Or is it just, is it just some kind of action by the administration to look like they're doing something because they keep beating the wardrobe when the rest of the world says stop. They're moving troops into Eastern and Central Europe. Think about that. We are pushing diplomacy aside.

Let me, let me say one fact. The US ambassador to NATO is a state department employee. The NATO team reports to the state department. Yes, they coordinate with the Pentagon, but it is a diplomatic post.

It is used to further diplomacy. What I don't understand is why all of Washington is pushing aside the state department and beating a drum towards troops on the ground. Look, we're trapped into this whole process in Washington, DC, where every time there's a crisis, we put forward military, Pentagon, boots on the ground options.

We have dismissed the state department. We've allowed our diplomats to be very weak. When a diplomat is strong and tough and uses diplomacy with muscle, they're mocked as being undiplomatic. And I would argue that our diplomats are what makes, ensures that we don't have war. You need to have diplomacy with muscle in order to get things done.

I'll finish with this. Why in the world do we not have sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline? The pipeline is not up and running. You want to change the Russian behavior, sanction their money pit and their influence.

And that is the pipeline. You know, Rick, I mentioned this the other day when we were on, I mentioned it a couple of times, and that is Benjamin Disraeli, the famed prime minister of Great Britain, in dealing with Russia, used the phrase diplomacy is war. That acts of diplomacy with power behind it can in fact be war because you're getting a desired change. The question here is, and this is what I'm trying to wrestle with.

I know Colonel Smith is having trouble. We're all trying to wrestle with this, is that there does not seem to be a plan in place. And it seems like the rest of Europe is saying to the United States, we don't want you to do this.

Why are you doing this? NATO hasn't stood up its troops. The Germans, as you said, and you were the ambassador to Germany, they don't want any part of this. And they're one of the biggest NATO partners.

So what's the point of what we're doing here? It is typical of Joe Biden and the Washington creatures where when there's a crisis, the only thing they can think of is sending US troops. Look what our US troops have done over the last 20 years. They've literally been feeding children. They have gone into schools.

They're trying to win hearts and minds. That's not the purpose of our military. However, what we've done is we've shoved diplomats aside. We have a whole bunch of State Department career foreign service officers who don't know how to negotiate, who are afraid to go into danger posts. I would say that what we need to do is literally redo the State Department. Try to force change in Washington, D.C. so that when there is a crisis, let's try all the forms of diplomacy. Let's use trade.

Let's use commerce. Let's use sanctions. Let's use NATO. Let's use the UN. The UN is not great.

It's not perfect. But when there is a US leadership, you might be able to get something done. And so I just think that we've shoved Blinken and Wendy Sherman aside because they obviously are super weak and even Biden doesn't rely on them. And all we do is just come up with more war options. You know, Rick, without preemptive sanctions before he invades Ukraine and without sanctioning the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and getting Germany to stand with the other European nations, which wants to stand against Russia, without those two things, is there any deterrence for Putin to invade and take over Ukraine?

It's such a great question. I mean, deterrence is about strength and changing the behavior of the other side. So the Russians clearly have a green light when they were given Nord Stream 2 pipeline. The Germans aren't paying their NATO obligation. They're stopping Estonia from bringing hardware in. They're undermining NATO at every turn.

We allow them to do it. Joe Biden is trapped into thinking that the Germans are all of Europe. He can't think about Poland or Italy or other countries within the EU that want to do something different.

The European Parliament was against Nord Stream 2. And yet Joe Biden stands up and says, well, I'm doing what Europe wants. That's not what Europe wants. It's what Germany wants.

It's what the current government in Germany wants. I think that the reality is that every American needs to understand is that Nord Stream 2 pipeline is not up and running yet. And yet there are no sanctions on it. And the Biden administration and the Democrats all worked hard to make sure that the sanctions wouldn't be implemented. I want to go to Than Bennett, our director of governmental affairs in Washington, because then Rick's point is that the real sanctions have not been put in place, the preemptive sanctions here. What is the sense in Washington on the Hill right now about this?

Rick's absolutely correct on this, Jay. I mean, there was a full toolbox for the administration to engage in sanctions, but then they had another opportunity. They could have said, look, we didn't want to engage in sanctions, but the United States Senate forced us.

Those sanctions that Rick is talking about, we've referenced them several times, but the American people just have to understand what happened. They were on the floor of the Senate three weeks ago under the sponsorship of Ted Cruz, and they had the support to pass. They had bipartisan support to pass. And Jay, the reason they didn't pass is because the White House, President Biden and President Putin team together to say to Senate Democrats, filibuster those sanctions so that they don't pass because we don't want to have to deal with them.

We don't have to sign them. Jay, I actually don't think that that bill was probably necessary to begin the preemptive sanctions, but it certainly was a way for the United States Senate to sort of force the President's hand. They didn't do it.

They stood down and they stood down because of President Biden and President Putin. We talked about ways to prevent this, but Rick, I mean, the Biden administration just seems like this is a done deal. This is happening. There's an invasion going on. It's going to happen at some point. And every day they're doing some other move to signal that. And you said, and not really talking about the diplomatic side.

Is there still a way out of this? I mean, it seems like Russia hasn't fully committed to a hundred percent doing this and they're still waiting to see, but I still get very nervous that they're not explaining to the American people what the real purposes are. I mean, and also that why NATO can't be stood up here if that's the real concern. Yeah, first NATO should be utilized.

You don't need to draw back. We just had four years of Trump where you put America first and you ask our allies to do more. Now, Joe Biden rushes in to have America do, you know, the first option and not utilize NATO. Look, let's remember that when Joe Biden had his call with Zelensky, with President Zelensky of the Ukraine, Joe Biden said specifically that Ukraine should not expect any more sanctions on Russia, nor any more help with hardware, military hardware, unless Russia invades. President Zelensky of Ukraine responded to Joe Biden and said, this is a disaster problem.

It's the worst of both worlds. Yeah, that you're not going to, that you're not going to respond unless Russia invades. So none of this, so, and then we're sending troops over. I mean, the truth is we're, Wes, there's not going to be a military.

Rick, thanks for joining us. I heard you cut out a little bit there, but yeah. Without preemptive sanctions before he invades, we have nothing to put on the table to stop him. The 3,000 troops in Romania are not doing that. No, but 3,000 troops in Romania will help Romania, but the Russians aren't going to attack Romania.

The Chinese are going to go into, probably, I hope this doesn't happen, they're going to go into Taiwan. Post Olympics. Yeah, post Olympics. You know what, even there, I've wondered, you know, there are some people talking, there's some discussions going on in some of the think tanks in Washington that this may all go on during the Olympics.

Because you can't, because it's very hard, no military actions then. Right. I mean, you got, you got the entire world's athletes in our, including American athletes. I mean, think about this, we are allowing a country to host Olympics and telling our, telling our athletes, yeah, second time in the year, you know, telling our athletes, don't bring your actual cell phone, just get a temporary one because it will be completely hacked. All of your data will be hacked and utilized by the Chinese.

Isn't that alone? Tell you who you're dealing with there. Not alone alone, they're committing genocide against their Muslim population, which the left doesn't like to talk about because they're all on the Chinese payroll. But it's the fact that also that you can't even bring your cell phone there because they'll steal your data to take, to use that for their economic gain. And this is a country relying to host an Olympic games for the second time in a row, instead of with, and also they're responsible for COVID. Put that all together.

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

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

Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. The challenges facing Americans are substantial. At a time when our values, our freedoms, our constitutional rights are under attack, it's more important than ever to stand with the American Center for Law and Justice. For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines, protecting your freedoms, defending your rights, in courts, in Congress, and in the public arena.

And we have an exceptional track record of success. But here's the bottom line, we could not do our work without your support. We remain committed to protecting your religious and constitutional freedoms.

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

Become a member today. ACLJ.org. So we discussed it yesterday on the broadcast, the outrage expressed by, of course, the ACLJ, that you had Amnesty International issue this long report that Israel, since its founding, has a refuge for Jewish people after the Holocaust. So this all ties together with all these discussions that are ongoing right now.

How do you delegitimize Jews, basically? You say that the Holocaust wasn't about their race, which is Whoopi Goldberg, which I think is bye-bye Whoopi Goldberg, but we'll see if she ever comes back to ABC. Because, you know, these involve their contracts and whether or not people want to watch them. It's not about cancel culture.

This is about just the people who want to tune in to hear her weighing in on anything, which she's so ridiculous and absurd it won't even make her own correction when given the opportunity. But then you've got these groups. These are huge organizations, Amnesty International. They run like they're the UN themselves. They got secretary-generals. They have people all over the world monitoring. And even Israel said, you know, they do all this good work. And sometimes we'll actually work alongside with some of their reporting, but they cannot get over Israel.

No, they can't. And now they've come out with a report that because Israel was founded as a Jewish state, that alone makes it an apartheid state. So its founding as a refuge for Jews after the Holocaust in 1947, that makes it...

So even before it was official, that makes it an apartheid state. Now, what we saw was the two responses. One, a quick response from the Biden US ambassador to Israel. On Twitter, he responded to the report and said, come on, this is absurd. This is not language that we have used and will not use. I mean, it was not the... It was a... Tepid response. He called it absurd. I like that. The second part I don't like so much, which is this is not... That's not language you use. We use other language. But then I have to say the State Department, through its spokesman, said that the US does not generally comment on reports by these outside groups, but this is good.

This was a good move. It rejects the view that Israel's actions constitute apartheid. That is very, very important. And that's what he said.

I said, I think that it's important as the world's only Jewish state that the Jewish people must not be denied their right to self-determination, and we must ensure there isn't a double standard being applied. That was from the State Department under the Biden administration. They got that one right. And here's Ned Price. He was speaking to it in a press briefing, too. He went on to explain by 21. We reject the view that Israel's actions constitute apartheid.

The department's own reports have never used such terminology. We are committed to promoting respect for human rights in Israel and the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. We have an enduring partnership with Israel, and we discuss a wide range of issues with our Israeli counterparts, including those related to human rights. Yeah, I mean, I wish they were – There are no more human rights in the Middle East than would exist in the State of Israel.

Yeah, and I wish they would just be honest. I don't even – I get that they're committed to promoting respect. That's wonderful in Israel. But even saying and the West Bank and Gaza, that's not Israel's fault. That's Hamas' fault. That's the people's fault there. They decided to elect a terrorist group to run them, okay?

So I don't have to feel bad for those people. I mean, there are individuals there you can assist, but the mass population's still behind that terrorist group. And in the West Bank, they allow 80-year-old autocrats to steal all their resources. And they get paid off to be martyrs.

Remember that. So should we even be having a discussion? No, about Israel should not be included with the West Bank and Gaza Strip other than the fact that it's part of its reality geographically. But, I mean, they are – these are bad actors in both of those territories. Well, they're partners of Hamas.

In one. And then the other is, again, they just steal money from the UN and all these international groups. And the Arab world has had enough of them. The Arab world has said enough. And the goal states, hey, we can do business with Israel. That's the best economy. And they've got a real economy such as based off oil, such as based off this resource, but technology and all this.

And now there's flights back and forth there. They've said, we're not going to buy into this John Kerry State Department diplomat view that we can't move on if we don't solve this issue because they elect terrorists to be their leaders. Right. Well, I appreciate Ned Price saying that they want to ensure, the United States want to ensure that there's not a double standard applied with Israel. But how are they going to ensure that? Because there is a double standard. I'll give you one example of it. In this Amnesty International report, they glossed over the fact that Hamas has been firing thousands of rockets into Israel at civilians. But they went at great length in the same report to accuse Israel of criminal acts by their response to the rockets fired into Israel from Hamas.

That's just one example of a double standard. We've been dealing with these reports then and with these groups for decades. And we have countered them when we think they're wrong.

And we've countered them successfully at the United Nations. But I want to make a fact statement and get you to respond on the diplomatic side. The fact statement is there is not a more liberal democracy in the region, in the Middle East region than the state, the Jewish state of Israel. Because every minority group there that you can conceive of is given constitutional, at least statutory, they don't really have a constitution, but they're statutory. The law is, they call it basic law. The basic law protects everyone, including representation in the Knesset, which is the parliament, including religious freedom. Try to be a Christian in Israel.

Pretty straightforward. Try to be a Christian in the Gaza Strip. Not so good. We have personal experience on that. We represented a family that's husband who operated the Palestinian Bible Society bookstore was killed in broad daylight. So we know what this is really about. So Amnesty International conveniently ignores that reality.

Ben? Well, there's also not a better friend to the United States in the region than Israel. And there's not a country in the world that is under more withering attack at the United Nations.

And that's why, look, I agree with Wes. I agree with what you said, Jay. The statement from Ned Price is a good response to this report coming out. But look, I quite honestly, Jay, I expect a lot more from our ambassador to Israel and our ambassador to the United Nations.

We need to see a statement that says something like, okay, the statement from Ned Price is good. And here's our action item. When the state of Israel comes under withering attack the next time at the United Nations, I, we, the United States will be first in line to defend her against those baseless accusations. Jay, there's not a more powerful country in the world and there's not a country that is more deserving of our support than Israel. The people that are tasked, that have the duty of carrying out the US policy, Jay, they need to tell us what they're going to do, not just say the report is wrong. Yeah. I mean, this, again, folks, there is a response.

I like the fact that there's one. And what they actually say they're going to do, I'm not going to play the whole bite right now, is they actually said in this, as they continue the US Ambassador to Israel, long-term interests of Israel to treat the Palestinian people with that respect and dignity. That is not the problem, State Department. It's not how the Israelis are treating them. It's how their leaders treat them. And you just call out a people group who elect terrorists and say, you know what, maybe they're not great people. Maybe as a whole, these are not great people. They're not over trying to overthrow Hamas. There's no move to do that on a mass scale. There are individuals that we don't like, we've represented them before, but on a mass scale, there's no move to overthrow Hamas.

There's widespread support for them. That's why the rest of the Arab world said enough. We're not dealing with these terrorists.

We're not going to keep dealing with terrorists who are not good actors on the world stage. And then when it comes to the West Bank, no one wants to send money there anymore. It's all just going into the coffers of a few people. It's why the people remain. Again, it's why things, the way of living doesn't improve. Is that because they don't get billions of dollars? They do.

It's because that gets siphoned off by corrupt bureaucrats. It's also why we at the American Center for Law and Justice have an office in Jerusalem, so we can be fully engaged on these issues on a national level. And that work is going to increase in the years ahead, in the months ahead, so you want to stay tuned for that. I want to encourage you to support the work of the ACLJ at the end of this broadcast. This broadcast comes to you every day, and we're able to produce it because of your support, as well as all of our team around the country and around the globe. ACLJ.org. That's ACLJ.org. It's a great way to stay engaged and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Rumble, and all the other social media platforms that we're on again. And again, support us at ACLJ.org.

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