HUGE Win Against Gov't Overreach

This is Logan Sekulow, a huge win against government overreach. 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. I'm also joined by my brother, Jordan, who is in our Washington, D.C. office. We're going to get an update from D.C. and how things are going there. But we wanted to start the day off.

First, I'm going to ask you, if you're watching on social media, go ahead and share, like, subscribe, do all you need to do to make sure people see this in their feeds, because we do have some breaking news. And that is, as of last week, you may remember, we did a show specifically talking about the IRS's new plan to invoke facial recognition to verify your identity. You'd have to go on to get onto your online portal. You would have to have taken a selfie and then later scanned your face.

To make sure you can access them, giving them a lot of database of facial recognition. We said that that was novereach, so did a lot of people, and the IRS has backed down, removed this as something. So this is a big win for those of us who fought against this last week.

So give yourself a pat on the back, congratulate, because, Jordan, this is big news. Whenever you can beat the IRS, it's always a good day. It is, and people sometimes get concerned about taking on the IRS or expressing opposition to the IRS, but it's an organization that has taken the IRS to court on behalf of individual grassroots activists and beaten the IRS. I think people realize now that that kind of untouchableness of the IRS is gone. So when they try to do something that is so outside the norm, I mean, of all government agencies, they were going to use a private company to have your facial recognition for your tax returns, for your tax documents. Understand the slippery slope that creates in our country.

But you know what happened, Logan? Americans stood up and said no. We said no through the ACLJ, and people, this is one of those issues, I think, to remind people, there's not a lot that people agree on politically these days, but when the American people, they did agree on this.

Both right and left said, this is wrong, and guess what happens? A big victory against the IRS without having to go to court. Well, it's the truth we all know, which is that no one trusts the IRS with their information or has a lot of problem with, look, this is coming from the IRS commissioner, Charles Reddick, who made a statement yesterday, said everyone should feel comfortable with how their personal information is secured, and we are quickly pursuing short-term options that do not involve facial recognition. So pretty much admitting that they know we don't trust them with that kind of information. And this is an agency we don't believe can even self-correct. They're throwing out all these different options. Oh, we're going to use facial recognition. Remember they also asked, they said they needed 87,000 new people and 80 million new dollars in a budget.

That was in Build Back Better. And the American people said, no, you don't deserve that as an agency. The tax code should be simplified. We shouldn't use technology to make it easier to file your taxes. We don't need to be using facial recognition through the IRS. It is still likely one of the most, if not the number one most feared government agency of all.

And for them to have that kind of data on you, like there's some kind of security, like they're the CIA, that's just un-American, it's wrong, and that database would be ripe for abuse. People realized it, and the IRS is back down. A lot of you are probably getting your tax information ready right now, getting your 1099s, getting everything settled. Tell us what you think.

I want to hear from you. We're going to take some calls later on when we join by Rick Grenell, but we're going to take some calls from you directly. 1-800-684-3110, your thoughts on this, not only this big win for all of us, like Jordan said, a bipartisan support happened because you stood up and said, no, you weren't going to let the IRS have this kind of information, but also your thoughts on the IRS in general and the upcoming tax season. Would you like to see a reform in the IRS?

Would you like to see an abolishment and a recreation of the IRS and what it is now? Because people look at this, they get concerned. As you said, people, we know we've had people who've done petitions and that where you say, Hey, I don't want to put my name on this because you're concerned of who's going to get it. And that shouldn't be the way, Jordan, we only have 40 seconds. It shouldn't be the way we have to fear our government agencies.

Absolutely not. They work for you. These are supposed to be agencies that work for you.

I know the people I'm talking to right now. They do everything possible to follow the gigantic tax code. They try to follow the rules and pay their correct taxes. And the agency is supposed to help you.

You shouldn't be, you shouldn't be afraid of them. Law abiding citizens. And yet they are, and we are because we've seen the abuse.

We've seen the targeting and this facial recognition would have been a step too far. Support our work at ACLJ.org. I'm in our DC office today. We need your financial support. The challenges facing Americans are substantial at a time when our values, our freedoms, our constitutional rights are under attack. It's more important than ever to stand with the American Center for Law and Justice. For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines protecting your freedoms, defending your rights in courts, in Congress, and in the public arena. And we have an exceptional track record of success.

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

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

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

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

Welcome back to secular. We are talking about the breaking news that's happening essentially that the IRS has abandoned their plan after much outcry, including a large percentage of our listener base and obviously us as a show and as an organization with the ACLJ saying that this was going too far. That the IRS was not going to be able allowed to take your facial biometric information.

I store it at a third party and us just go, that's fine. That's how we're going to access our tax information when needed. But no, we won that Jordan and you are in our office in Washington, DC. And I want to give people a bit of an update. You know, we obviously have fan on pretty much every day from DC, but you're up there right now to kind of get things straight, see how things are going as we know it's still a weird time in Washington. Yeah, it's still things are not back to normal in Washington DC in the sense of how things used to operate, which was more face to face, but we are expanding.

That's why I'm here today. And I think people actually see me out of the studio more often, or at least more regularly because we're expanding our work at the ACLJ in Washington, DC, specifically two fronts on Capitol Hill to expand our government affairs efforts. And we already got our team here. It's not like these are new things, but we're expanding that work, but we're also expanding our diplomatic work. So working with, of course we do our work at the UN and a lot of that's flown through Geneva and then sometimes New York in the consulates there.

But remember Washington, DC, we have all of the major embassies right here from every country in the world. We're going to start engaging their staff as well, because we talk about some of these international issues. I know Logan, you've got Rick Renell coming up in later on in the broadcast. So we've got these experts at that level. What I want to make sure is that embassies from around the world and their staffs know, just like our audience knows, that Rick Renell is part of the ACLJ team. So whether that's bringing a group of embassy staffers or their ambassadors over to the ACLJ, hosting them with Rick, with Secretary Pompeo, because making it clear, like we've made clear over the last year to our audience and to our supporters that these are people on our team, let's now let the world know that the ACLJ, because of your financial support, has these kind of individuals. Of course, to do that, you've got to have more staff.

The staff, Logan, who's not always on radio, who we don't usually, people don't get to see. And that's why I'm here today, is I'm actually interviewing people in Washington, DC to expand our work. Yeah, I think that is a big part of what's going to happen here in 2021.

You know, last year we had the More Than Ever campaign and we are working on what the 2021, 2022, I'm sorry, 2022, 2023 campaign looks like. And a large part of it is what Jordan was talking about, expanding into things. You think of the ACLJ and the work we do as being in the courtroom, but it has gone well beyond that.

Sometimes the next case we take will not necessarily always be in the courtroom. It could be for, again, the hearts and minds of people. It could be in DC, like Jordan said.

It could be internationally. We are always looking at different ways to expand and get the message out there and make sure that people can hear it. Like Jordan said, he's there right now interviewing people to expand our portfolio and what we do, if you will, as an organization.

Because we know there's more than just one lane. Look, we come here to talk to you every day on social media, on the radio, if you've been listening over 25 years on the radio. And we've been one of the leaders in innovation to make sure we are getting our message out there.

And we're not going to let that slide by. We were the first people ever to even broadcast on Facebook Live. When they initially started, day one, we were there.

That is how we do things here. We make sure we stay current. I wish you could see the staff that we have here making sure that we are up to date on everything that we're doing and we are actually evolving and moving forward.

Jordan, with DC, that being just a big force. We've got our DC staff, other than Capitol Hill congressional staff, who they're able to bring their staff in. We're one of the few offices in the entire city operating.

And I want our supporters to know that. They're not just work from home. And there's a difference when you're actually physically in a place and your team is able to physically be there. Now, we're set up where we're able to do that. Some of these big corporations, their corporate offices aren't set up for that yet in DC. But our presence right on Capitol Hill through this whole pandemic has been consistent. I think we may have had the two weeks.

That was about it. And so I think for our audience who might not have seen us in this chair as much, they see Than every day in this chair. But to understand that behind Than there's an entire team and that we are going to expand that team and take this time where things may be a little different in Washington, maybe a little bit quieter on the streets, where there are people to implement, to take the relationships we've built and the team we've built with people like Rick and Mike Pompeo, these experts, and to utilize them to the full extent. They're happy to do it, but it takes, again, people on the back end. Of course, that takes people's financial support. We're able to, Logan, bring on Rick Rinnell and Mike Pompeo to our team because of their financial support.

But to maximize what they're able to do for the ECLJ. Also, people understand that behind the scenes is more than they could even probably imagine to get all these points from A to B, especially in the time period we're living in now. And I think that it speaks volumes that if you go right on Capitol Hill right now, we're one of the few places that's fully operational.

Our Princeton Heritage Foundation, I will say, the other office down the street, I mean, really, it's only a couple of us who are here. Yeah, and you can see that with wins like today, as we said, a big win against government overreach. This wasn't something we had to take to court. This was something we were able to work with our team in D.C., work with senators, work with congressmen, work with, honestly, the American people who got to speak out because we brought this to light. A lot of places we're not even covering. A lot of them haven't even covered the fact that there was this big win against the IRS.

But we're able to show these and bring this to light unlike any other broadcast out there because we are much more than an hour a day on social media or an hour a day on radio. You spoke up. You got answers from senators from both sides. I mean, this is a senator from Ron Wyden put out a statement that said, I've long argued that Americans should not have to sacrifice their privacy for security.

This is a Democrat from Oregon. The government can treat Americans with respect and dignity while protecting against fraud and identity theft. So you have these statements. We can work actually a little bit. There are a few things there that you can still, because of our work in Washington, D.C., and around the world, you can still work in a bipartisan manner on very few things, but on things like this.

Yeah, and I think that it underscores our efforts. You know, I mean, people obviously know that we're on the right, and that's part of the ACLJ, and we're not afraid of those positions at all and champion those positions. But issues do come around where the right and left, if they're being honest.

They may not like agreeing and speaking to each other about it, but they've got such the same privacy constitutional issues. And it used to be this way in a lot of free speech cases. Didn't matter what the speech was. People believed in free speech in America. That's not the case anymore, unfortunately. The left only believes in their speech.

But on this issue, Logan, when it comes to—it had the perfect storm. It was the IRS. People don't trust them.

Doesn't matter what your politics are. And a facial recognition third-party company like the IRS is in a position to manage a giant corporate third-party big tech company at a time when people have had enough with a lot of big tech companies. Yeah, in a moment, yeah, you said where people are pushing back against it. This is also a moment where you said free speech has become a big conversation piece.

All of these things are sort of snowballing where you do have this moment in time where people are pushing back and saying no, and they are answering. Look, you and I have both set up organizations and companies and LLCs and corporations with the IRS because you have to do it that way. Just simply sometimes to get something like your employer identification number, your EIN, something that should take 30 seconds.

Let's say there's a hiccup in that. I had a hiccup happen where our name, corporate name, was a little too close to another corporate name, so they had to do a double verification. That was a 90-day process, and I had to fax that information.

You know what I did? I dissolved that company, renamed it something else, and launched it and restarted because I wasn't going to spend 90 days over fax. They're going from that to then saying, okay, we know the fax thing. Maybe we're a bit behind the times with the faxing, but now let's just jump to facial recognition.

Right. They haven't figured out scanning or email. They're still talking about the idea too, and it's an idea I like, but they don't even talk about it as a digital postcard. But they talk about maybe if you could file your taxes on a postcard, simplify it.

It's still very much the mail. But look, I will say too, the other part of the reason why I'm going to be here more and kind of kicking these things back into gear, we're going to be launching a new initiative. I'm not ready to announce it today, but it took a year. Now, we're a big organization, so to do that through new entities that are still connected is a more complex situation.

Again, there's a bigger team behind the few of us that you see on radio. We've been working on it for a year, mostly for that side of things. And again, that's so that we follow all of the rules. We should be treated like they do work for us because we're following all of their complicated rules, checking all of their boxes, because we want to follow the rules. I'm not trying to skirt the IRS, but we have all these legal experts to do that. Most people don't.

It still took you a year to figure it out, still working on it. I mean, that's just the truth, and it's a weird part about this, is that most people want to pay their taxes. They want to do the right thing. I mean, they may not want to pay their taxes, but they will pay their taxes.

They will abide by what the government is requiring. But if you make it this complicated where we all have to hire people out to figure out something that is mandatory, that we have to do, and everyone gets stressed. Look, I think you and I, everyone knows, as soon as you get everything that's confirmed, and maybe you get your tax return, you breathe a sigh of relief. But then sometimes you don't.

Sometimes you get that letter in the mail saying, you know, you miscalculated something by 30 cents. It is time for a complete reform of the IRS. It is time for us to spread our wings of the ACLJ and to do a lot more great work, whether that's in Washington, D.C., or around the world, and we have a great initiative coming. So just know, it's just a tease, but there is a lot more about to happen here in 2022. We can't wait to share so much more with you, but you can do that already by supporting the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org. Jordan's got to get back to work in D.C., so thank you for joining us.

Later in the show, we'll be joined by Rick Grenell. We're going to keep this conversation going. If you have a question or comment, give me a call right now at 1-800-684-3110.

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, 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. This is Logan Sekulow. Later in the show, Rick Rinnell is going to be joining us. And to give you a bit of, if you're just now joining us, I want to give you a little update on what we're talking about here.

What was it, Will? Just about a week, two weeks ago, something like that, we were on the air discussing the IRS's new plan for you to be able to log into your account to access your tax information. You're going to have to provide, first take a selfie, and then from then on provide a facial recognition test.

So since you'll be logging in with your face. So I don't know if you know this, a lot of people don't really care for that kind of thing, and they don't trust the IRS for numerous reasons that they've had over the last, I mean, look, calls are coming in over the last, you know, I don't know, their entire life. They've had concerns with the IRS.

As my brother said, it shouldn't be something we even have to worry about. As law abiding Americans, you should be able to not stress out when the IRS calls you, but it is one of those moments that you do not like and no one likes. Well, enough of you spoke up.

Enough of our listeners. Hey, even enough senators on both sides of the aisle, Democrats and Republicans, one of those few things said, this is too far. Sorry, IRS, we're all about innovation and change, but maybe you need to be looking at your tax code. Maybe you need to look at your filing, the way you have to handle things, the way you treat the American citizens before you get to just unilaterally take, through a third party, by the way, take their biometric information. And enough of you said it, that the IRS actually had to respond. And here's what they said. This is from the IRS commissioner, Charles Rennick, said in a statement yesterday, everyone should feel comfortable with how their personal information is secured, and we are quickly pursuing short-term options that do not involve facial recognition.

So in short-term, that means no facial recognition. Who knows long-term, we'll see what happens. But I think that's a, you know, a lot of times they say this and it dies down. You never hear anyone, you know, bring it up again, or at least until there's another, you know, until there's another administration and someone else running the IRS.

It's just simply what happens. And with that, you know, at the ACLJ, we are always expanding what we're doing. You heard my brother, he's in Washington, D.C. right now, and mainly what he's doing is interviewing people to move a brand new project forward. And it's what one of my goals is here at the organization for 2022.

You see a very different side of our organization when you watch and listen. You may think of it as this, you know, legal outfit that we are all lawyers. We're all sitting there, I'm not a lawyer.

My brother is a lawyer. And if you're watching right now, you see that there are people in various walks of life that are here who all believe in certain freedoms and liberties and certain topics that we bring up here each and every day. And those are pretty broad. And with that, I'd love to see the organization grow. And I'd love to see even the organization get broader in terms of how we reach people with this message. It doesn't always have to be in the courtroom. It will be. We have an incredible legal staff.

They ain't going anywhere. But we also know there's ways to reach people. We wouldn't be on Facebook Live right now. We wouldn't be on YouTube Live streaming right now.

We wouldn't be on terrestrial radio, for all that matter, for the last 25 years. And it wasn't for the fact that we know there are people out there who are listening who are maybe not going to get this information anywhere else. And maybe there's a new way to win over, like I said, the hearts and minds of people for these causes. Because if you don't win over the American people, you're not going to win these cases long term. And when I say cases, I mean that in the global sense. Just like this in the IRS.

Why? Because we've done a pretty darn good job. And so have a lot of people out there saying, there's one organization out there, there's one department that we don't necessarily put our full faith in, and that's the one you have to deal with, the one you're scared of when you shouldn't, and that's the IRS. So much so, we push back hard enough, not go into court. We push back hard enough to where you get a win within a week, or two weeks, where facial recognition is gone. It's not even on the table right now. And we need these kind of things to happen.

And why don't you trust the IRS? I don't know. Go watch one of our movies.

That's right. ACLJ has our own film studio, ACLJ Films, which does documentaries. And look, I plan on expanding that majorly.

We do documentaries each and every year, series and feature-length documentaries. The one we did a couple of years ago is called Targeting Us. It was about targeting of conservative and Christian groups. By who? The IRS.

This isn't a, you know, theory. This is undisputable fact that this is what happened. So if you don't think people trust the IRS, they have a pretty darn good reason not to.

It's because a lot of them have been subjugated to targeting by the IRS. You can watch that for free on ACLJfilms.com. We did our own series last year on Afghanistan. It was exclusively available to people who donated in the month of December.

It's going to be rolling out to the general public here over the next couple of weeks. And that is our Revenge of the Taliban, which was a series about, in almost real time, the failures of the Biden administration with the withdrawal from Afghanistan. And we interviewed some top leaders. And here's what I always like to say about this organization that I think is different than just about everyone. Which is if you hear it from me, you hear it from my brother, you hear it from my dad or any of our panel, really the three of us who kind of lead the organization. You know that what we're telling you is how we feel. That it is 100% true what we believe is coming out of our mouths. There are times that you don't like it. I see the comments. There are some times where you feel that you disagree with our position.

You know what? I think that's what the American people want. I think what they really want is people that they can at least believe are telling them the truth from their point of view.

Or at least telling them how they believe and they know they actually believe it. Not partisan hacks, not people who are just lying by a party line. That is not the way we do things here. And I'm very proud of the organization for doing that. We've taken on humanitarian causes and we take on the IRS.

How many other people are doing that? How many people are going overseas to fight for the safety and the rights of Christians and pastors in the Middle East who are getting imprisoned or in Turkey or wherever and then are also here protecting you against the IRS? Not very many organizations.

I'd say no other organization. And we're going to expand that aggressively this year. And we can do that with your support at ACLJ.org. And I thank you all for putting in your comments. I see a lot of them coming in on social media.

So if you have any comments, please put them on Facebook, put them on YouTube. We're going to pull some of those and take some of those as well. But I do want to take some phone calls heading into our next segment. Again, later on in the show, we've got Rick Grenell. Let's take this call.

And if you agree, disagree, whatever it is, I want to hear from you in this next half hour. 1-800-684-3110. Let's go to Tim in California here on the air. Thank you for taking my call. How can we totally reconstruct the IRS?

Look, this has been, Tim, thank you for calling. That has been a discussion point that we've gone over multiple times. There are ways you can reconstruct the IRS to just get rid of it, start over. You should watch our films about the IRS. There's two actually we've done in the last decade. Tax invasion and like you said, targeting us.

Both of those are available on ACLJ films. Sure, some of the content now is years old. You have something like tax invasion, which was made less than, I mean, probably around 10 years ago. It had some leading people in it at that time, Rand Paul, those kinds of people that were in it that were talking about it. But it talks a lot about kind of the entire process of how we can reshape the IRS. We can reshape Herman Cain in it. It's a really interesting piece.

That's on ACLJfilms.com. Can we do it? I think it can be done, but you're going to have to have the right people. And truth be told, I was talking to my friend last night, Americans, we get a little set in our ways. And yeah, sure, we don't want to jump to facial recognition, but there are times when you look at what we could be doing. And just because it is the way and it has been the way for the last 150, 250 years, doesn't necessarily mean with modern technology and the way we communicate that everything has to say exactly the same. There are ways we can progress in that sense that protects actually more people, that makes life easier. But that's not always the case because it's very hard to do it.

It's very hard to restructure. Look, we've seen the Supreme Court under attack with the potential of packing the court, adding justices. And look, thankfully, there's been pushback. So sometimes you don't want to always progress forward. You need to say, hey, we've had a standard that's worked pretty well for a while, but there are certain things. I think we can at least start the discussion on what it would look like to have a new IRS.

But you're going to have to have leaders who have some guts and are going to take some major action. If you don't get the second half hour of Sekulow on your local radio station, we're broadcasting live right now on YouTube and on Facebook. And every day at noon Eastern, we're broadcasting live.

So if you don't catch us live, your catch is prerecorded later on. You can find us every day, Monday through Friday, noon Eastern on aclj.org, on Facebook, on YouTube. Make sure you like, support, do all of that right now at aclj.org.

Right back with the second half hour of Sekulow with Rick Grenell. 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, Logan Sekulow.

Welcome back to Sekulow. To reset the broadcast, we were talking about a major win that came out of the IRS just yesterday. You may have remembered, last week on this broadcast, we were saying the IRS planned to implement facial recognition technology, biometric technology, for you to just be able to log in and get your tax information on their website. Well, enough of you had an outcry from conservatives, liberals, Republicans, Democrats that said, you know what, maybe there's not a lot we can agree on right now, whether you're a conservative or you're a liberal. One thing we can agree on, which is a sad state of affairs, folks, to be honest, is that you don't trust the IRS with this much information and this much control. They were going to use a third party. It was going to get rough, but the IRS listened to ACLJ members, listened to their friends in the Senate on both the Republican and Democrat side and said, you know what, maybe we went a little too far.

Let's pump the brakes. No facial recognition, no biometric technology right now. We're going to figure out a more secure way that doesn't involve our taxpayers having to take a selfie, upload it, and now scan their face every time they want to access their tax information.

Maybe there are some other options out there because, look, I mean, there are very few. I mean, sure, unlock your phone. A lot of people have that. I mean, that facial recognition technology, most of that, I believe, is stored actually internally. But even that, I know people have some concern about. That's not the IRS. That's not your tax information. So there is a big move from the IRS to abandon this, and that couldn't be done without people like you who stood up to the IRS once again and said no.

And there are a lot of comments. There's Pearson on YouTube who said the IRS tried to use a third party private contractor and got caught again. Did that third party raise any legal issues for the IRS? I mean, we thought so, that there were certainly going to be some legal ramifications that could come based on who had access to your data.

They certainly needed to be almost auditing, if you will, of that company to make sure they could even securely keep this information. But regardless, it's not happening. So that's great.

That's a big win. Terry on Facebook said, is it possible for the IRS to be totally abolished and go to a flat tax model? That has been a conversation that we've had here, or at least simplify the tax code to where you can actually figure it out yourself without having to worry, stress, pull your hair out. That is where technology, to me, that's one of those things. Almost every transaction you make, other than what you're doing in cash, and we can all say that has become very minimal at this point, specifically in the last couple of years. Almost every transaction you made is digitally trackable. Just look at how you pay for things, credit cards. Are we at the point where we still need to be by hand filling out physical tax information, even filing digitally, the way we do to self-report, to make sure all our T's are crossed? When all the information is there, it exists. But we have to now, typically, a lot of people try to figure out themselves, use a service that's maybe a cheaper service that messes up a good portion of the time.

Or you have to pay expensive service fees to people who professionally handle your taxes. Sometimes that's wrong. That happened multiple times. Where they mess it up.

Professionals, the guys you pay your big top dollars to, make sure your taxes are set. How many issues have we all had with that still? Tons. Tons. And in the last few years, even more so. So there's a lot of those kind of comments and we are waiting on a lot of information that's going to be coming out with this.

But mainly you have to look at it and be happy that there was at least a win and take your wins when you can. This is a good one. This was a good one for Americans to stand up and say enough. Look, there are a lot of controversial things happening right now in the world. There are Republicans and Democrats fighting.

There are people against free speech, people for free speech right now. But we can all at least rest in the fact that none of us trust the IRS. So that's good. That's something to always, if we can't unite under anything else, it will be that we don't trust the IRS.

And frankly, most people are scared. So you fought back and you won. Good for you.

Congratulations. Now we've got to move on. We've got to move on to more issues that are happening around the world. The next segment will be joined by Rick Grenell.

We're going to talk about the new chancellor in Germany, why you should care and what that means for the future safety and security of our country. I do want to hear from you and I will be taking your phone calls on the IRS or heck, so many other matters if you want to talk about it. 1-800-684-3110. That's 1-800-684-3110. Support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org.

Hey, follow me on Instagram at LoganSecula. The challenges facing Americans are substantial at a time when our values, our freedoms, our constitutional rights are under attack. It's more important than ever to stand with the American Center for Law and Justice. For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines protecting your freedoms, defending your rights in courts, in Congress and in the public arena.

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

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

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

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

Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. Welcome back to Secula. We are joined by Rick Grenell, Senior Advisor for National Security and Foreign Policy. But before we get to him, let's hear from our President, Joe Biden, and we'll get Rick's thoughts after that.

So let's hear from him. If Russia invades, that means tanks or troops crossing the border of Ukraine again. Then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it. How will you do that exactly since the project and control of the project is within Germany's control?

We will, I promise you, we'll be able to do it. So there you go. A sort of remarkable statement yesterday coming out of President Biden after his meeting with the new German chancellor. And he declared, we'll bring it into the Nord Stream pipeline too if Russia invades Ukraine. I just want to get your feedback on that, Rick. Your thoughts, do you think the Russians believe him?

And also just your thoughts on that kind of statement in general being made. And as always, when a pushback is made, how are you going to do this? The answer is what seemingly is always right now, which is trust us, we'll just do it. Yeah, I mean, first of all, let's remember that Putin has Google. He can see the history of what this administration and what the Obama-Biden administration did. You know, this is another red line, Jordan. This is another red line like we're going to do something very strong if you invade and take Crimea. Or there's a red line in Syria if Assad uses chemical weapons on his people. I mean, look, the reality is, is that the Obama-Biden democratic machine, which I would argue the current crop of Biden appointees are really Obama three.

That whole team has a long history of making threats and never following through on those threats. So I don't believe that Putin believes what Joe Biden is saying. I don't believe that the Europeans believe what Joe Biden is saying.

And I don't even think Democrats in Congress believe Joe Biden. It does seem that we present a lot of these situations, like you said, that Putin has Google. And almost as if the Russians or any of, you know, China, everyone, like they don't have access to what we're saying publicly.

It's a really weird, almost like we're living in the 40s where it's like, you know, we'll talk about what's happening here with the old newsreels. But, you know, they're not going to ever see that because how is this still our communications where you're almost giving away so much information that it becomes the threat, like you said, almost dissolves. And the pipeline specifically has been such a weird situation where almost the Biden administration has switched places on the way they viewed it.

You said before you weren't a fan of it, then they put it in there and now it's the thing they may pull out. We may pull out the pipeline. Since Biden has taken office, took office, you've been against the pipeline. But what do you think has changed now for the Biden point of view? Look, I think Washington, D.C., led by Joe Biden of 40 years, is trapped into this idea that we just say the same things, which is like, oh, if you invade, then we're really going to get serious. And it's a it's a situation where Washington is stuck into only military options. I'm really disgusted to see the State Department pushed aside. We need a better State Department. We need diplomats with muscle. We need people who are creative, who can sit across the table and use all of the tools of the U.S. government instead of just sending in U.S. troops. You know, Donald Trump taught us that we have a whole bunch of other tools to use rather than just the drum beats of war. And I'm concerned that Joe Biden has not understood that he hasn't learned that lesson from the Iraq and Afghanistan war days.

I mean, he has shoved the State Department aside. We could solve this. Quickly, by putting sanctions on Nord Stream 2. But we don't. And what we're saying instead is if you start a war, Russia, then we'll have to go to that really big diplomatic stick, which is getting rid of your pipeline.

Why not do it now? We see what what Putin is doing and trying to disintegrate the NATO forces and NATO unity. And he's doing a good job. Rick, this kind of goes to a more global issue, which is that the Democrats and liberals have kind of painted conservatives as sort of warmongers over the last 20 years. When really we saw what happened under President Trump, there were no major wars at all, except for we took out ISIS. Positive things happened. But right before that, we were dealing with chaos in the Obama administration. And now we're back to dealing with this chaos. We have to be able to change the narrative because it currently does not make any sense. Sure, during maybe the early Bush years, you could say that, but we were also under attack in 9-11.

The world went upside down. But that's not the case anymore. But somehow that gets to still be a point of view that they get to push when clearly the warmongering that's happening is not coming from the conservatives. Yeah, and I would argue that the warmongering and the lack of creativity when it comes to crisis and problem solving is really a product of Washington, D.C. If you've been in Washington, D.C. a long time, whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, you immediately go just to the idea of a war and using the Pentagon and boots on the ground. I mean, we've asked our soldiers to actually do what diplomats are supposed to be doing, winning hearts and minds and trying to negotiate when you're trying to avoid a war, so you negotiate in peace or at least before a war starts. And so I think that what the solution is, is that we send outsiders to Washington. Again, this is not Republican versus Democrat. This is Washington, D.C. versus the rest of America.

Yeah, and I'm 100% in favor of that. As someone who's spent, like my brother's there, Jordan's there in Washington, D.C. right now. I don't envy him. I've spent plenty of time in Washington. Not my favorite place in the world, not because I'm not beautiful, not because people are, but it's just the worst of the worst sometimes. And you can feel it and you know it's true. And I'm sorry people, I'm not trying to offend people who are listening in Washington, D.C.

I'm not talking about you. I'm talking about the infrastructure and how things work. And it's just a seedy place to be.

And it can give you really dark, dark feelings when you're there because of how rough it can get. But there are important reasons why we're there, obviously. There's important reasons why we're expanding. Rick brought up changing the hearts and minds of people. That is something that in 2022, that's part of my plan here at the organization, DACLJ, is to take things beyond the courtroom. The courtroom is great and we have to be there.

And Rick, you know we have to be there. But there are ways that we can reach people like never before. And we need to start showcasing our message in very different ways. And we are expanding and growing what that means. And we'll be able to share more with you, the audience, sooner than later. Because there are some big developments happening, how we're going to impact Washington, D.C., but also how we're going to try to impact not just our country, but around the world.

And Rick, there is something that happened. Obviously, there's been some change in Germany. There's a new Chancellor in Germany. You would know as the former Ambassador to Germany.

This is just my general thoughts. I'm just curious, what's your general take on this new Chancellor and the press conference that happened with Joe Biden? Well, Logan, if we had to pick a socialist, if we were forced to pick a socialist, we would pick Olaf Scholz. He's the best of the socialists in Germany. And so I would say that he's a straight shooter.

I know him. He cares about budget issues. He was previously the finance minister. So he's going to look at spending and making sure that there's a Germany-first economic model.

That's his kind of focus. So I think we've got to watch the Germans as they continue to peel away from the EU. They want a foreign policy that's more like Switzerland, where they're friends with everybody and they can sell cars to everybody. They don't share the same threat assessment that we do. For instance, they don't really think of Iran as a threat.

It took a lot of work to get them to understand that they had to outlaw Hezbollah. And I think that what we've seen over the last decade is a very comfortable Germany, where they have a budget surplus and they're trying to be friends with everyone and they have moved away from the Western alliance. And I really believe that, and I know it's a strong statement, but my experience in Germany is that they have moved away from the transatlantic alliance, from a Western-facing transatlantic alliance. They are not a very good EU member. They don't listen to the rest of the EU. They think about Germany first. Remember, they're not paying their NATO obligations of 2% of their GDP, and they're the largest economy in all of Europe. And at the same time, they have 50,000 American troops protecting them. I've been in a meeting where President Trump looked at Chancellor Merkel and said, you know what, I don't blame you.

I don't blame you for not paying your NATO obligations, not paying all that money, because why would you if the United States is going to continue to protect you? It's a smart move, but he also said, you can't blame me for trying to stop. Yeah, absolutely. And look, I think that kind of analysis, I've said this to you, Rick, I've said this to our audience over and over again, you're not going to get that anywhere else. If you want to know why these things are important, I think it's very easy for us to kind of shut off the rest of the world and not understand why something like a new chancellor in Germany matters.

Well, you just found out why it did from a person who's a former ambassador to Germany, the United States. Where else are you going to get that except for on this broadcast in this kind of analysis? So now you can take that information and share it with your friends. That's something that is invaluable. Thank you, Rick, for your time. We're going to be back. I want to take your phone calls at 1-800-684-3110. Support the work of the ACLJ directly at ACLJ.org.

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. We're going to show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, the 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 Secular. We're going to be taking your questions or comments. I'll be honest, I got a few open lines right now. If you want to hear your voice on the air, you would express your thoughts or your celebration or even your concern with the IRS heading into tax season. I want to hear from you. 1-800-684-3110.

If you have questions on the topics that Rick brought up or on any topics ACLJ related, I'm happy to take them. That's 1-800-684-3110. Be kind to your phone screener. That's all I ask.

Be kind to your phone screener and maybe you'll make it on the air. Don't curse. If you curse, you don't get on the air. Simple as that. There's some simple rules. That's one of them. That's the big one. Just don't say anything to your phone screener you wouldn't say on the air. So appreciate that. Give us a call.

1-800-684-3110. A lot of comments are coming in. Some are related to what Rick spoke about. Some are related to the IRS. I did see also people just commenting in general.

They're just tuning in. They want to know what it was because our headline, if you will, and our topic was a little broad. We said there's a big win against government overreach. Well, to explain that a little bit further, if you don't know what it is, the IRS just a week or so ago, a week or two ago maybe, and we covered it on the show, said to log into your account starting later this year, you're going to have to take a selfie. If you created a new account, I believe you had to do it already. Take a selfie, and with that, they were going to essentially map your face using biometric data, and that's the way you're going to log in from now on to your IRS account. Maybe some of us in the listenership and listener base pushed back on that pretty hard. Maybe some congressmen and senator from Republicans and Democrats said, hey, IRS, you can't go from the stone ages working on fax machines and dial-up internet and dot matrix printers to then jumping forward to biometric facial technology.

It's not going to happen. We don't trust you because, I don't know, you've targeted groups because of just their names or because of their activity that you didn't like because they were conservatives or because they were Christians. Maybe the IRS has given people real reason to have concern because of how many jumps and how many things they pull and loopholes that happen to try to get your taxes settled when you're just an honest, taxpaying citizen, but you can't do it yourself.

You have to pay a third party who then is going to work on it and then often is going to fail, and you're going to get hit with a bill that you weren't expecting. That's the kind of thing that the people are not going to put up with anymore, and we have to have some reform there, but with that, that is certainly not going to be where the organization stops. We're not going to say, yeah, just take our biometric data, run it through a third-party entity. We hope everything goes well. So much so we pushed back so hard here at the ACLJ and in Washington, DC that the commissioner of the IRS, Charles Redding made a statement yesterday saying everyone should feel comfortable with how their personal information is secured, and we are quickly pursuing short-term options that do not involve facial recognition. So a big win. There are a lot of calls now coming in. I appreciate it. Let's go to Greg who's calling in California online too. Greg, you're on the air.

Yes. My concern is that China and Russia are going to join and make an alliance and that they're going to bowl over all the other countries in the world by infiltrating their infrastructure, their food source, et cetera, et cetera, and before they know it, Germany and maybe France, Italy, they're going to go, oh, my God, now we're part of this mess and communism is here. Yeah, that is a real concern. I think a lot of people share that, Greg, and there are things that we can do. That's why we have people like Greg Grinnell on staff to advise and give us thoughts on how we can, you know, and we have the European Center for Law and Justice, the ACLJ. We have those organizations in place worldwide because there are these moments of crisis where you see the world is starting to sort of crumble around you. You see how Europe is being treated, what's happening overseas, and you know, like you said, that it's just going to eventually get to us. And that is where you have to push back. That's where you have to be engaged and find out what's going on around the world.

You can't just be isolated. Sure, you can support America and America being your number one concern. And sure, there are issues like the IRS that we have to make sure we're pushing back against, but we can't be blind to what's happening around the world. And like you said, if there is, you know, it's kind of the situation with the Olympics right now. I think a lot of people, the ratings are in the tank. I think a lot of people are just choosing to almost forget it's happening.

And some of them, not by boycott, not by saying, I'm choosing not to. It's almost you want to disassociate yourself. It's why a lot of us go home, we don't watch the news. You watch Dancing with the Stars, and there's nothing wrong with that because you put up with so much crap throughout the day, you just can't take it anymore.

And what we have to make sure we keep engaged. That's why we are developing brand new ways to reach people with our message that are totally different than what we've done in the past. Because we know there's only so much you can tolerate. It's why news media is 20, 30, 40% down than what it was just a year or two years ago. Sure, some of that has to do with election year. Some of it has to do with the fact that, you know, President Trump was a much more polarizing and engaging figure on both sides.

The ratings went up because either you loved him or you hated him. Or some people in the middle, but you couldn't help but tune in. Now, people have fatigue. We can't let that fatigue set in.

You can't let fatigue set in where you aren't engaged in what's happening. You have to find alternative sources and alternative ways to still get your message across. And I appreciate you calling in with that comment. A lot of people are commenting. A lot of people are calling in.

Joe on Facebook, we already took that one. Reena on Facebook said, I wish Biden would open up our pipelines and shut Russia's down instead of doing it the other way around. Look, I think a lot of people have some real concerns. You are finally seeing, you are finally seeing the cost of gas and those issues, whether they're related or not, finally get to people where they realize like it's going beyond even the normal Democrat inflation kind of years where you're like, oh, now it's up to $3.

Oh, well, now it's $4. A lot of us have never seen that. If you don't live in the West Coast, or maybe you're not buying gas gouging, you know, or a price gouging gas station by an airport, a lot of us haven't seen $4 or $5 per gallon. A lot of us haven't been maxing out and having to run two or three transactions. You are seeing that happen. You are seeing your hard left friends say, look, I'm a hard left Democrat, but this administration is failing every chance that they can't succeed. You are seeing voices in the middle finally standing up, whether it's a Bill Maher or even a Tulsi Gabbard, you're seeing these voices start to get real traction once again, because that was what a Democrat was just a handful of years ago. And that has shifted so dramatically. You see the situation like in Georgia with the Stacey Abrams, which we were going to get into, we have time to get into where you saw that photo of all the kids in the masks, and she is the only one sitting there at this reading in Decatur, Georgia, where I grew up.

Sitting there reading to these kids, maskless, taking photos, smiling, and all these kids, you know, in masks. We see the hypocrisy. Both sides see the hypocrisy now. It's just when they're going to wake up.

And hopefully it's sooner than later. We have some calls coming in, but we only have a minute left in our broadcast. So I want to say first a thank you to Dave and Randy and Barbara who all called in when I asked them to please call back tomorrow early in the show.

And I'll make sure you're first in line because I do appreciate you calling in when I asked, we just ran out of time. For those who are still watching and still listening, support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org. Follow all of us on social media. That includes the ACLJ accounts, Jay Sekulow, Jordan Sekulow. If you want to have a little more fun, follow Logan Sekulow.

It's a little bit more of a chill experience. If you're looking for that break, follow me at Logan Sekulow. We talk about a lot of entertainment news, what's happening in pop culture. We do the Whoopi Goldberg stuff, anti-Semitism.

We cover a lot of that over on my social media, and there will be so much more coming. Again, thank you for your support of the organization, the ACLJ. This is a big win.

Take it. Now move on. We got to move on to the next battle and the next case, if you will.

And with that, this is where we say goodbye for the day. We'll be back tomorrow. Again, if you're listening taped or you're listening on our podcast feed, we do this live each and every weekday at noon Eastern. So make sure you join us live on ACLJ.org and all your favorite social media platforms on YouTube and on Rumble.

They're in the news a lot. We're on Rumble. Find us there.

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