“CURSED:" Democrats Turn On Each Other

Today on Sekulow, Democrats turn on each other as one Democrat Congressman even calls their retreat cursed. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulow. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. Hey, welcome to Sekulow. We are taking your calls.

1-800-684-3110. We don't say that lightly. It's Democrats, House Democrats who use that language specifically. One of Nancy Pelosi's top appropriators was caught so off guard by the big spending bill that ultimately did pass last night, mostly bipartisan. But they were totally caught off guard by how the COVID funding, how that was going to be used, and they were actually going to claw back money from states that had not used that money and reallocated. That, of course, upset Democrats.

They like to spend more money. So a vote that was scheduled at 10 a.m. yesterday did not finish until 10 p.m. And it was all because of – remember, it's the House controlled by Democrats – Democrat disarray, it led that Congressman to say that they then went to their Democrat retreat, which they almost had to cancel. It's in Philly. And he said that the retreat is cursed. That's a direct quote from Congressman Mark Pocan. He is a member of the House Appropriations Committee, and he had no idea that the pandemic money and the negotiations with GOP lawmakers would be money that was clawed back and then reallocated. So that was one of Nancy Pelosi's top spending people, the people that put together the spending bill caught off guard. Nancy Pelosi herself, not happy. Now, this is – again, folks, you've got to put this all into context.

This is a party trying to figure out how to be competitive, is there any way to hold the House or at least make the losses less severe, with 243 days out from the midterm election in November. Take a listen to Nancy Pelosi. I didn't get what I wanted in the bill.

You're telling Noah about the flood. I didn't get what I wanted in the bill. So I said to my members, yeah, that's a negotiation, and that's the way it is. And look at what is in the bill and what it does for America's working families, what it does for Ukraine, what it does that so much needs to be done as opposed to what you don't like about the bill.

This is what I want to ask you folks to call in today, 1-800-684-3110. One, I think when you're leading into a midterm election where you've got momentum on the conservative side, you don't take anything for granted. But do you believe that the Democrat Party is in disarray because you've got the far left, you've got the Green New Deal Democrats, you have her appropriators being caught off guard calling their retreat cursed, which means that must not be a real fun place to be. And usually that would be a place where everybody was pretty much on the same team, at least, so you could come together, have some disagreement, have some debate, but you wouldn't call it cursed.

That's what she called it, cursed. It was almost as if her caucus was destroyed by this vote. They love spending money. So even on a spending bill, they couldn't figure it out, so they had to cut all the COVID spending out. Who would have thought Democrats would have been in a position where they were cutting money from a spending bill? Now, they're going to try to do it separately.

That's a real uphill challenge. I want to take your calls on this. You know in your states and where the races are, do you believe the Democrats are in disarray leading into the midterm elections?

And what are your thoughts on the conservative movement, the Republican Party coming together in these races as well? 1-800-684-3110. So we're going to talk a lot of politics today, 1-800-684-3110. We're going to get into this vote because this is against a trillion dollars of spending. More with Than Bennett, our Director of Government Affairs. We're also going to be joined today by Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee. She'll give us an update too on Ukraine, Russia, energy independence, what's moving there in the U.S. Senate. So a great show for you today, getting into some politics. We want to take your phone calls on these political matters too. Has Nancy Pelosi lost control of her caucus when they have to actually cut spending out?

Let me repeat, it's Democrats cutting spending from a spending bill because they can't agree on how much they want to spend. 1-800-684-3110. If you're watching on Facebook, if you're watching on YouTube or Rumble, remember we encourage you if you're on Facebook, head over to Rumble. We won't be censored there by calling these Democrats potentially cursed. We won't be taken down. We'll be able to freely talk and take your phone calls at 1-800-684-3110.

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

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

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

Take part in our matching challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, 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.

And welcome back to Secular. We are taking your phone calls at 1-800-684-3110. That's 1-800-684-3110. The Democrats, are they a cursed party leading into the midterm elections? Well, one of their own members of Congress who is a lead appropriator. This was supposed to be the big spending bill. They were finally not going to just pass these continuous resolutions, which was the Trump spending bills. They passed their own Democrat spending bill. It was very embarrassing considering that the vote was scheduled for 10 a.m. yesterday. It took until 10 p.m. and they had to cut out all of their beloved COVID relief funding because they didn't like the way it was set up. So you had Congressman Mark Pocan, who is an appropriator himself, he's on the House Appropriations Committee, Pelosi puts him there, said he was totally left in the dark. He was spearheading this bill.

Totally left in the dark. And then said the retreat, which they almost had to cancel in Philly, but they ultimately I guess made it too, said the retreat is cursed. So that gives you a little insight, not being a Democrat, about what's going on, how fun it is to be at that retreat.

Let me go right to Than Bennett, our Director of Government Affairs, then we'll take your phone calls as well throughout the broadcast at 1-800-684-3110. Do you believe the Democrats are in this kind of disarray? And Than, this was an example. Nancy Pelosi pulled the 2 a.m. move, put the bill up, but hey, we don't really need to read it.

Trust us, vote for it. Didn't go that way. Well, they were certainly in total disarray yesterday, Jordan. I mean, this is something that just does not happen when the same party controls every seat at the table, as is the case right now and was the case on this bill yesterday, Jordan.

You're right. Speaker Pelosi put out this language at 2 a.m. yesterday morning. Jordan, more than 2,700 pages long, spends $1.5 trillion, at least 400 earmarks by the latest count inside the bill. And yet members were only given those overnight hours to read the bill. But Jordan, it wasn't Republicans in the end that caused this problem.

The vote for the rule, Jordan, think about this. It was already open on the floor of the House before Speaker Pelosi realized that she had a problem inside her own party. And I'll just tell you, I told you before the broadcast, there are reports out that there were 10 or 15 Democrats that were upset with this COVID provision. Jordan, I can tell you it was more like 80. There were more like 80, maybe even as many as 100 Democrats from more than 30 states that were upset about this.

And let me just very quickly explain this. This was a White House request for $16 billion in COVID relief funding, and they were going to offset it by pulling back money that had not been spent from previous COVID stimulus bills. Governors from blue states, Jordan, and House Democrats objected to that to the point that they were going to take this bill down. So they had to keep that rule vote open for hours and hours and hours. They had to pull that COVID funding out of the bill. They had to go back to the rules committee, write a new bill, and put it back on the floor in two separate votes, Jordan, to finally get it through just absolute chaos. And Speaker Pelosi can say anything she wants, blame it on Senate Republicans. There were no Senate Republicans involved in this. This was 80 to 100 of her members that would not pass her bill.

You know, I mean, what is interesting to me here, Thanh, is that you had that pushback, as you said. So instead of, now I want to ask you this, why didn't they just double the money up? Because we're talking about Democrats here and Democrat votes that could have gotten this through. Why would they not just double the money up? What happened inside that caucus where they had to just cut it out completely because they hate cutting spending?

That's a great question, Jordan. I mean, if you had the votes of all your members, that's exactly what you could have done because Republicans could not have stopped it. Now, they might have had an issue when it went to the Republican Senate in that scenario, but I'm not sure about that. I think the honest answer to your question is why they didn't cut it is they knew that they were going to need some Republican votes to get the final package over the line.

And look, while I hate how this bill came together and I think there's a lot of garbage in there, there is some stuff in there that Republicans wanted. They wanted funding for Ukraine. They wanted defense dollars. They wanted some parity in spending that they got inside the bill.

But the short political answer to why they didn't just throw a little bit more money at these 30 states that were going to lose some covid relief in there is Jordan. They could not keep all of their votes together. They had to put a bipartisan bill across the table. And again, I mean, I think it just kind of points to how little control the White House and the speaker have over their own party because this was White House requested covid money.

And the offsets that caused a problem inside the party, Jordan, those offsets were the ones the White House wanted as well. Again, folks, we're 243 days from the midterm elections. They're doing what they can to salvage Democrat seats in the House and try to I don't even know if they're trying to keep control of the House anymore, but at least they see this wave coming.

They're hoping that something would do to blunt it. What I ask you, 1-800-684-3110 is, do you believe the red wave is coming? It feels like we're going to talk inflation because the highest numbers we've seen in decades in the next segment of the broadcast. We're going to talk to Senator Marsha Blackburn later in the broadcast about what's going on overseas, but also our own energy issue here in the United States, the gas prices and what we're going through. 1-800-684-3110, are we looking towards a political massacre and rejection of this Democrat party, which appears to be, whether or not they're running that way or not, you know, once they get to Washington as Democrats, they're being controlled by the far left of their party. And it seems like the far left of their party is where the growth is.

It's not where anything mainstream is anymore. 1-800-684-3110 for you to weigh in on the broadcast today. Let's go to Sharon in Pennsylvania online too. Hey, Sharon.

Hi. I just wanted to make a comment that you guys were just talking about. I think it's how ironic and rich that Nancy feels that she didn't get what she wanted.

Yeah. I mean, so as speaker, she now claimed we played that bite. We can play again one more time because I think it's important you reference it, Sharon. This is not the usual from Nancy Pelosi. I didn't get what I wanted in the bill.

You're telling Noah about the flood. I didn't get what I wanted in the bill. So I said to my members, yeah, that's a negotiation and that's the way it is.

And look at what is in the bill and what it does for America's working families, what it does for Ukraine, what it does that so much needs to be done as opposed to what you don't like about the bill. But then I think what's interesting there is what she told to her members that the debate and the compromise was not with Republicans. This is happening inside the Democrat party, which just gives you insight into her slipping control and her leadership slipping control and influence. Jordan, there were only three seats at that table. One belong to Speaker Pelosi, one belong to Leader Schumer and the other belong to President Biden. They didn't even have seats in the room for the appropriators from their own conference.

And the bites that you've been playing in this broadcast demonstrate that, Jordan. I mean, typically the Appropriations Committee would be allowed to draft the language and then the speaker of that party would do everything he or she could to keep the votes together. The appropriators were not in the room.

The caller is exactly right. You had eight overnight hours to somehow try to absorb one point five trillion dollars in over twenty seven hundred pages of spending. Jordan, nobody, including Speaker Pelosi, knew what was in that final package. And ultimately it was her own members that brought it down. And Jordan, one other point I'd point out to you, you know, they were putting this Ukraine funding that had near unanimous support to send Ukraine dollars out the door. They were putting it in this bill to try to carry the rest of the spending over the line. And Jordan, I think even that backfired on them a little bit, because what did they not do inside that bill? They did not unleash American energy sources. So essentially they said to their members and they said to Republican members, we're not going to buy Russian energy.

We're going to replace it with Venezuela and Iran and Saudi Arabia, but we will not explore domestically. Jordan, that is not something that ended up having the support in a sweeping manner and even inside her own conference that she expected it would. Even the mainstream media calling her out on this, take a listen to this reporter, because they're saying in her response, listen to Nancy Pelosi, you'll hear the word that we, you know, we've got to negotiate with, you know, with our Republican colleagues. Bite 19. Just to follow up on the omnibus, you're blaming Republicans for the delay in a situation with the COVID relief, but you didn't have votes within your own party.

Do you regret pushing this text out in the middle of the night? No, no, no, no. That's the way it is. Let's get, let's grow up about this. Okay. We're in a legislative process. We have a deadline for keeping government open.

We have a lively negotiation. It has to be bipartisan. We want it to be bipartisan, but in the Senate you need 60 votes.

I mean, that's true in the Senate. And if you look at the vote fan, there were some Republicans, I think about there's 17 or so no votes. There were some Republicans in there for principal voted no on different issues, mostly on energy independence.

They didn't like just giving money to Ukraine without and cutting off the Russian oil and gas without opening American energy independence. But again, it likely has the votes in the Senate. The problem was not, I mean, Nancy Pelosi is not one who ever says we've got to get Republicans on board.

She's she hasn't legislated that way at all while they've been in the majority. Here's what's so ironic about what the speaker just said here, Jordan, this COVID money that became the problem. This is actually the biggest hurdle in the bill to getting the bill through the United States Senate in the first place. So the fact that she would blame that on not being able to get to 60 is exactly backwards.

And let me let me take it one step further, Jordan. Now this COVID language, now that it's been pulled out, they're going to try to move it separately. Do you think that that language COVID just alone is going to have an easier or harder time getting to 60 votes in the United States Senate? Now, what she said is exactly backwards. This was language that the White House wanted and that Democrats wanted. And quite frankly, that Republicans opposed.

And she's now increased the threshold for getting it passed. Folks, we're going to be right back getting into the inflation issue and all this, how this all affects you. And I want to take your calls on that as well.

One eight hundred six eight four thirty one. Tim, we're seeing the steepest price gains for gasoline, fuel, oil price surges for items like airfare, but also fruits and vegetables. How is this inflation impacting your family? I want to give you a voice on that so people hear the stories, how it affects real people, not just politicians in Washington, D.C. One eight hundred six eight four thirty one.

Tim to talk to us on air. 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. Play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life. Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad, whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith. I'm covering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress. The ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

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

A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support. Take part in our Matching Challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family.

Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Welcome back to Secular. My question now to you, this inflation, which we just got new reports on, it's impacting everybody. It's not just the gas pump. It's even fruits and vegetables. It's meat. It's fuel. It's airline prices and industries that were trying to come out of COVID and be competitive again, and now they get hit with these kind of numbers.

So I want to ask you this. How is inflation affecting you? Because you can talk about it all day in cable news, about the numbers, about the stock market, but what about actual people? And we're talking to people in every state around the country. How is it affecting you? Are you making different decisions? Are you planning differently because the gas prices keep going up, because the prices at the grocery store keep going up?

Are you not spending on, not going on vacation or trying to even have to change jobs, we've heard from people, because their commutes might be too long, the gas prices are just cutting too much into their wages. 1-800-684-3110 to talk to us on here. That's 1-800-684-3110. I want to play this, very important to kind of set the stage for this debate. Rick Santelli on CNBC.

Take a listen, Byte 6. And of course this inflation news is going to be tough for the administration. Nothing, Joe, nothing has been more politicized than inflation.

Just let's harken back to all the things we've been through. First it was transitory, then inflation is good. Then we went to corporate greed, now we're at Putin. So I want to go to Harry Hutchinson, our director of policy.

I mean, Harry, I think Rick Santelli laid it out. First it's just, it's temporary. Then it's, oh, it's actually a good thing for our economy post-COVID. And then it's the liberal talking point of this is just corporate greed, hiking up prices because there's demand. Now it's, hey, your gas prices are high because we had to cut off Russian oil gas because of Putin. So we've heard four different explanations. The only constant through this is that Joe Biden has been President since all of this began.

I think that is precisely correct. So it's important to keep in mind that the CPI, the consumer price index, rose at 0.8% in February and year over year rose by almost 8%, the steepest rise since 1982. Core inflation over the past three months rose at a rate of 7%, while total inflation rose at 8.4%. And so now we have this narrative coming from the Biden administration that inflation is transitory, that inflation is good, that inflation is caused by greed, and now it's finally caused by Putin. We have one constant, as you correctly point out, we have an infant in the White House who doesn't understand either economics or foreign policy. Keep in mind that the invasion in Ukraine happened on Biden's watch.

And troops were massing on the border of Ukraine since March of last year. The President of the United States refuses to take responsibility, and in effect, he has declared war on the American people. He has allowed energy prices to skyrocket, food prices to skyrocket, and what has he done?

Nothing. You know, I want to take Nan's call. This was a call about when we were talking about the politics of the spending bill. We're also taking your calls, too, on how this inflation, because you hear these numbers.

But what I want to hear is from people who this is actually impacting, because again, it's different than just hearing the statistics when you actually start hearing how it's affecting other Americans, and it can affect you differently even depending on what kind of job you have or where you live in the country. 1-800-684-3110 to talk to us on air. Nan's in South Carolina on Line 1. Hey, Nan.

Hi. I was harkening back to your earlier discussion, and I was wondering where the assertion that 80 to 100 representatives in the House or Democrats were against this bill. So what happened was and what we ultimately know is that's, Nan, why the COVID relief was cut. So there were not enough votes, and there was a revolt on the Democrat side. So ultimately, they got most of those votes because they cut all of the COVID relief.

Remember what Nan said. They didn't like the idea, and no one told them that the COVID relief that the White House requested was like $14 billion or $15 billion was primarily going to come from taking the money back from states who hadn't used COVID funding they'd already received. Democrat governors went crazy. Democrat members of Congress went crazy.

So ultimately, we know that it was a major revolt because they actually cut spending, something they rarely do on the Democrat Party side. I want to go to Denise in Pennsylvania to call in about inflation. Hey, Denise, welcome to Sekulow. You're on the air. Hi, Jordan.

I just want to say thanks for being so educational and sensitive to your program on a regular basis. I just wanted to say today that the prices have affected the consumer. I'm a single parent. I'm in sales. I'm responsible to drive my own car throughout my territory. Gas prices this week have went from spending $100 a week.

As of yesterday, Wednesday, I was already at $100. The food prices, the prices for airfare, everything that you mentioned, it's affecting each and every one of us to the extent that I'm kind of like, what are we supposed to do? Yeah, well, this is the thing. I mean, Harry, to this point, when everything starts, when it's not just gas, but it's everything you buy, and it's the essentials of life, the essentials of beginning to work, which is gas, the essentials of life, food at the grocery store, being able to feed your family. These are working people. It's even tougher, I think, for people who are retired, who are on these kind of fixed incomes planned out. But again, Harry, this is where the politics of inflation, it's not just numbers. This really starts impacting how people vote.

Absolutely, and voters like the caller will have to make very tough decisions. Do I put gas in the car or do I buy food for my children? Food prices in certain categories in the United States have been rising on an annualized basis of almost 21%. And the bad news is they are likely to go up at an even faster rate over the next six months or so.

Why is that? Because fertilizer prices are rising at about 300%. And so fertilizer is essential for growing crops. In addition to that, of course, we have the conflict in the Ukraine.

Ukraine is the source of a large percentage of the world's grain. And so we should expect future price increases that will outpace what we've experienced so far. So that is the bad news. And of course, the Biden administration is prepared to do nothing about it.

It continues to blame, for instance, energy price increases on oil companies or Putin. You know, I want to go right back to the phones. Actually, let's do that when we come back from the break. So Bill, I'll get to you. We come back from the break.

Again, phone lines are busy at 1-800-684-3110. Coming up, second half hour, Senator Marsha Blackburn, U.S. Senator from Tennessee. We'll be talking about these issues, about the economy here, how Ukraine, Russia, and also by cutting off Russian gas and oil, but not unleashing the American power.

But instead going to dictators and Ayatollahs. So we're talking to Senator Blackburn about that. She's on the Armed Services Committee in the U.S. Senate. And of course, this is a matching challenge month. It is a critical month for the work of the American Center for Law and Justice.

This broadcast is just a small part of all the work that we do and all the attorneys and the cases and the government affairs work in the offices around the world. It's a great time to donate to the ACLJ because you double the impact of your donation. We have a group of donors that will match all the donations that come in through the month of March. Donate today. Support the work of the ACLJ by donating today at ACLJ.org. That's ACLJ.org.

We'll be right back. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's matching challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20. A $50 gift becomes $100. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family.

Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Keepin' you informed and engaged. Now more than ever, this is Sekulow.

And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. All right, we're going to get into gas prices. We're going to get into American energy independence in this half hour of the broadcast. We're also talking inflation, how it's impacting you.

And in the next segment, we're going to be joined live by Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee to talk about all these issues as well. I want to go to the phones, though, right away as we talk about Democrats in disarray, inflation at the highest number since I was born in 1982. We haven't seen a rise like this over 12 months. Notice there, over 12 months, not over two weeks, not over three weeks since the Russian invasion, but over 12 months.

What's the constant there? Who has been the President of the United States? Joe Biden. Right to the phones we go. Bill in Washington State Online 6. Hey, Bill.

Hey, thanks for taking my call. I just wanted to let you know how it's impacting my life and my business. I have a landscape maintenance business, and I've been in business 37 years.

And I was a business major, so I kind of understand numbers. Just when Trump was in office, I was saving $500 a month to gas two years ago. Now I'm paying $500 more a month.

And where does it stop? And then employees wages since the COVID stimulus, you know, relief bill. My wages used to be between $15 and $22 an hour.

Now they've gone up to $20 to $28 an hour just to keep guys. So when you want to talk about impacting people, and then just to break even, you got to work more hours. And, you know, when you get older, that's a little tougher to do. So it's really impacted myself. And so I personally go to work, go home, go to church. You see, I mean, it's impacting. And then that, of course, because you're not spending on other items, and that impacts other people's jobs and other people's pocketbook because you're feeling, okay, this is the time to kind of hunker down. Only spend what I've got to spend.

Don't spend extra. And I think that, you know, everybody, that's why I like taking these callers, folks, because you hear about it in cable news. You might hear about it on radio shows. You need to hear exactly how it's affecting other Americans. And it could be affecting you differently than another American based on where you live and what kind of job you have. But everybody's paying more at the pump.

Everybody's paying more at the grocery store. Let's go to Martha in Indiana online too. Hey, Martha.

Hi, thank you so much for taking my call. Our story is, well, basically started at Christmas time when my whole family got COVID. But my husband especially got a lot of complications. He was in the hospital for five days with blood clots. And they discovered also a 4.9 centimeter aneurysm, aortic aneurysm. They said I almost lost him.

And I'm thankful I didn't. But he was off work for two months. Just last week was his first full week back at his job. And they're saying he may have to have surgery on that aneurysm. And he'll have to be off work for another three months post surgery.

And then all this inflation hit us. So that's what we're dealing with. So you had the family hit by COVID. And you get hit by these tough medical situations.

And we're praying for you, praying for your husband. And then on top of that, like you said, you're in the midst of all that and he's not able to work and you're trying to figure out what benefits you might get while you're there. The benefits are not rising to the same level that the inflation is and not even close. So again, folks, it impacts you whether or not it's business as usual. And it even impacts you at a much more extreme level when you deal with something unexpected like a medical emergency that you're dealing with. It keeps a breadwinner from being able to go out and continue to work for their family. So you see across the spectrum, serious effects and impacts. And then how that person impacts the other person and the other person.

But I like you all hearing real stories from real people. Now coming up next, Senator Marsha Blackburn. We're going to get into this with her. She's called for an Operation Warp Speed when it comes to American energy and dependence.

I'm going to ask her, how do we get there? How can we do that? And what will it take? We also, again, I encourage you to support the work of the ACLJ. If you're financially able to this month, you can double the impact of your donation. It's a critical month for us at the ACLJ. Donate online at ACLJ.org.

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

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

Take part in our Matching Challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, 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.

Welcome back to Secular. We're joined by a great friend of ours at the American Center for Law and Justice, U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn.

And Senator Blackburn, I appreciate you being on. I know it's a really busy time in Washington, D.C. and for members of Congress specifically and the Senate, you're on the Armed Services Committee. So we'll get to some Ukraine rush in a minute, but all of this kind of intertwines right now. But I want to ask you first, because you called for a, quote, Operation Warp Speed to get America back on track to energy independence. Can you explain to our audience how we could get there? I know they want to get there, but explain to people how we could get there.

Well, the American people want to get there, Jordan, but the administration, the Biden administration does not seem to want to get there. But remember what President Trump did with Operation Warp Speed and vaccines. He got federal agencies. He got the pharmaceutical companies together. And he said, OK, how do we jump these hurdles and get a vaccine to market within months, not years? And so everybody rolled up their sleeves. They got to work. They assessed the problem and they ended up solving the problem.

And because of that, a vaccine made it to market in nine months. When it comes to energy, the same thing should happen. Biden should call together the federal agencies, the private sector, the oil and gas and electricity companies and say, OK, how do we get the cost of transportation fuels down? How do we get the cost of home heating fuels down? How do we get the cost of a kilowatt hour of electricity down so that the American people can afford to drive their cars and heat and cool their homes and do their jobs and get the cost of groceries down?

We're at record high inflation at this point. And the way you do that is to look at the oil companies and you say, what oil fields have capped wells? What can we open back up? Where can we be drilling in ANWR? How can we re-implement the Keystone Pipeline? What about federal lands?

What about leases? What about stopping flaring natural gas and getting it into the supply chain? Those are the questions that this administration needs to be asking. How do you get rules and regulations out of the way so that it is less costly to generate electric power? How do you allow expansion of nuclear power, which is the most cost effective way to generate power?

We're the United States of America. We can solve this issue. But you have to get regulatory relief and you have to challenge these companies to step forward and see, when you look at the energy sector, what do they want? They need certainty. They need to know if they get leases and they go in and they start exploring, that once they find oil, they are going to be able to pump that oil out of the ground and get it to the refinery.

If they are finding that the refining capacity is not enough, then you need to get regulatory relief and be able to actually build or expand refineries or refining capacity. Instead, what we've seen, Senator Blackburn, is a blame game. They're blaming everything but their policies, the Democrats and Biden, everything else they blame. First, it was transitory inflation, then it's COVID, and next it was, of course, Russia now is the big, you blame Putin for rising gas prices. Not that it doesn't have an impact on rising gas and oil prices when you cut off Russian oil and gas, but they want to go to the Ayatollah. They want to go to the Venezuelan dictator instead of getting America back to energy independence. Is the only thing preventing us from getting there Democrat policies?

Bad policies have stopped a lot of things that would have made the lives of Americans easier. When you look at the fact that they are trying to buy oil, right now we are importing 670,000 barrels of oil a day. When Donald Trump left office, we were energy independent and the price of a gallon of gas was $2.34.

That was the national average. Now, they're wanting gas from Russia, they're wanting oil coming out of Iran, they're wanting it coming out of Venezuela. If we finish the Keystone Pipeline, and Jordan, your listeners in Oklahoma know that pipeline is finished all the way from Cushing, Oklahoma to the Gulf.

It is that northern piece that is partially finished. Finish it. I guarantee you, you could finish that pipeline faster than you could go increase enough electric power generation to meet the needs of an all-electric fleet. We know that's going to take us at least a decade if we're able to do it by then. So this is just common sense. You said something I think is the most important point to this, which is that even if we get them to point one on unleashing some of this ability to drill, ability to finish the pipeline, because you have to get the company pulled out, you got to get a new company back in to finish it. They would do it if they trust, as you said, that they're going to actually be able to finish the job and be able to make some profit off of actually pumping oil. That it's not just some short-term political move by Biden if they were to go there. They've got to be able to trust the administration that they are going to be able to continue to use these new leases and to open up those capped wells.

That's right. Certainty is needed, and for the Biden administration and all of the leftist environmentalists who have made climate and climate change their religion and God, they have got for the national security of this country. They have got to stand down and let common sense prevail. Senator Blackburn, one final question for you on Ukraine and Russia, the situation with the vice President over there, the jets issue. What is your take on this where we keep hearing that NATO is very unified? It seemed that that was an aspect where NATO was not unified. Well, one of the things that we know is the phone call that we did with President Zelensky on Saturday. His number one ask was a no-fly zone. NATO has said no to the no-fly zone, but there had been agreement that they would allow, Poland would allow Ukraine to use their MiG-29s, which Ukrainian pilots are able to fly. They have a few pilots who can fly A-10s that are here in the U.S. Those planes should be made available to the Ukrainian army so that they can defend themselves.

And as of now, they will not be unfortunately made available. Senator Blackburn, as always, I know you've got to run, and we appreciate you taking time out of what is a very busy time for our U.S. senators, especially those who are working hard for the American people like you. Thank you, Senator Blackburn, for joining us.

Thank you. All right, folks, again, we've got a couple minutes here. I can get to some of your calls, too, on inflation, 1-800-684-3110, but I think Senator Blackburn just laid it all out there for you. You've got to get it back open, but you can't – even just that would be a political talking point if – and there is no trust right now – if you're going to restart Keystone, you get a company back in there, they've got to trust that, yeah, when they finish it, the oil is going to be able to flow. And you're not going to cut them back off in six months and say, oh, because of the Green New Deal Democrats. So you see – but it's a – we have brought this problem on ourself.

We say elections have consequences, leadership has consequences, and who's in the White House has serious consequences. Let me go back to the phones. Let's go to Doug in Florida online for – hey, Doug, welcome to Sekulow. Thank you very much for taking my call. I appreciate it.

Thank you. I just wanted to make a quick comment, sir. I don't think that this is all due to the ineptness of the President. I think it's a lot more nefarious than that. And the reason I say that is if you just – if you sit back and look at what he's done, he started out attacking the economy almost first day by shutting down the pipelines, knowing – I mean, any advisor that was worth his solve would tell him, hey, listen, this is going to destroy gas prices, increase inflation, and it seems pretty purposefully done. No, I think you're right. Doug, I think you're absolutely right.

I think if you heard from Senator Blackburn, he is – one, he's – I think the ineptness comes from how beholden he is to the part of his party that is so obsessed that she said they worship this Green New Deal. So they think punish people at the pump. Now, that doesn't cover all the other inflation, by the way. But punish people at the pump, and you heard from Mayor Pete earlier on say, well, then people need to just go buy an electric car. Like everybody can just go buy a $7,200 vehicle, which, by the way, you can't even get right now.

You'd have to be able to order. So as Senator Blackburn said, we're at least a decade away from those fleets being able to transfer over. We need oil and gas. We rely on it. Whether you're a hardcore environmentalist who wants all electric vehicles or not, we aren't there yet, and people have got to continue to be able to do their job.

If you ever want them to buy an electric vehicle, you'd better make sure they have an income right now and they're able to save. But, folks, again, I think the caller's right. It's not about ineptness. It's about policy, bad policies, and being beholden to a radical left element in the party, which seems to be no longer just a faction, but the main voice within the Democrat Party. Support our work at ACLJ.org.

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Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Welcome back to Sekulow. We are taking your phone calls, too, on inflation. I want to get to some of those and then a little bit on what Senator Blackburn was talking about when it comes to this issue where it looked like Poland was going to be transferring the jets. She supported the idea of getting these jets to Ukraine. There was a question about how that would exactly work, but the U.S. just came out and said no. Listen, I think there were a couple of things at play there.

I think these European countries, unfortunately, weren't willing to do it on their own, so they wanted to go through a U.S. air base and then make the U.S. a nuclear power responsible to Russia for getting them in. There's more to lay out there, but I do want to get your calls on inflation as well. You've been holding on the phone. Darlene in Virginia on Line 3 and also on fuel costs.

Hey, Darlene, welcome to Sekulow. Thank you. I just want to know what can the average person American do to expedite this Keystone Pipeline thing?

Okay, so I think it's this. Elect Republicans, Democrats have shown right now they're bought off by the Green New Deal idea. Even the head of Tesla, Elon Musk, who makes money off selling Americans around the world electric cars, said this is a crisis, so even though it would hurt my business, we need to pump more oil and gas. We need more oil and gas in, and we need to unleash America's power, even though it hurts his business. So one, vote Republican. Two, keep this pressure up on Biden. We need to keep the pressure up, especially because they are facing a midterm election wave.

So I think that, again, that is what you can do. Let me go back to the phones. Jay in Michigan on Line 2. Hey, Jay. Hi there. How are you? Good.

Thanks for taking my call. Now, I was a fireman EMT for 22 years, worked in the ER. I'm a disability now. I get $1,500 a month.

I put $150 in my gas tank. By the way, I only qualify for $20 in food stamps because I make too much money now. Well, Jay, this is the issue, and Andy, this is the issue. So you got people who are on fixed incomes, who are injured on the job. Inflation hits them hard right from the get-go, and they've been dealing with it for a year. It's just hitting a tipping point where now even working Americans and middle-class Americans who are still part of the workforce are really starting to feel it at the grocery store and especially the pump. And the President of the United States says it's going to get worse. That's the response that I heard President Biden say the other day while boarding the helicopter or the plane or whatever. He yells out, and it's going to get worse. That's not an answer to the American people.

It's going to get worse. The answer to the American people is become energy independent as you were under President Trump. Do what Jordan said. Vote Republican if you want to get these Democrats out who are committed to this Green New Deal and these leftist ideas. Drill in the United States. Make friends with Pennsylvania, not with Venezuela. Open the Keystone Pipeline. Do the things that we were doing before and so that you don't have to go and fill up your tank for $150 and $200, because let me tell you, friends, it's going to get to that level pretty quickly. Let me take Monty's call.

Then we're going to get into some of this issue with NATO is supposed to be so united, except for every time they're about to make a decision, it ends up not going forward. I'll say that, but let me go to Monty first in California. Hey, Monty. Thanks for taking my call. So I have a small business in Southern California in Santa Barbara.

I have air conditioning. I have five trucks. So each truck has to be filled up each week. And you know, that's getting to be quite a bit of concern financially.

I bet. McDonald's employees or Panda Express make 17 bucks an hour to start. That, I can't get anybody to work because people are making more money sitting around at home. The cost of equipment and the availability of equipment is, yeah, you can't even get it. And then Buttigieg says, you know, get an electric car.

It's like Mary Antoinette saying, let them eat cake. I know. I mean, first of all, for your business where you need special kinds of trucks and vans, they don't even exist yet, really.

I mean, that doesn't exist. They're just coming out with some of the first trucks and they're on the smaller side. They're not really for a business like yours. And they're very expensive. They're very expensive. It'd be a huge cost. But, you know, Andy, again, you see from somebody who's from a middle class, a small business owner, somebody who's on fixed income, it is impacting everybody. It's all these issues combined. And the one constant supply chain, the cost, the inflation, the kind of inability to predict what's going on in Europe and what our strategy even is there to stop this war in Ukraine, it's costing everybody.

Well, it is costing everybody. And, you know, you think that, as I heard KT McFarland say something yesterday that really impressed me, do you think when you plug the socket in the wall to energize your car, to do what you have to do to get the car rigged up for the electric car, do you think that comes from nowhere? Where do you think that energy comes from? Where do you think that that's generated from?

It's generated from fossil fuels and hydrocarbons. And that's what we are not realizing. Meanwhile, people are slammed up against the wall, paying enormous amounts of money to fill their car, trying to buy food at enormously inflated prices, trying to buy. And by the way, do you know, in eight weeks, the planning season begins in the grain belt of the former Soviet Union? That's the Ukraine. Do you think in eight weeks they're going to be planting wheat in the Ukraine?

I don't think so, Jordan. No, and now in this issue with, you know, we keep hearing how united NATO is, how united yet NATO is. It doesn't seem that way because we had a NATO country, NATO ally Poland say, okay, we'll provide the jets. Ukraine's asking if you can't do a no-fly zone, at least provide us jets.

I think we're getting a whole debate about that. But if NATO was so united before they would have announced that and how they wanted to go about it, which was going through the U.S. airbase in Germany, Ramstein, the U.S. said no. So these are public disputes happening. They're not getting it done internally so that they look united, whether or not they disagree. You can have private disagreements, but when you do so publicly, you're doing exactly what Putin wants. You look like you're not a united front, and I don't know why politicians keep claiming it is. Take a listen to John Kirby yesterday when he was asked about the U.S. decision. We do not support the transfer of additional fighter aircraft to the Ukrainian Air Force at this time and therefore have no desire to see them in our custody either.

Let me walk you through the reasons for this. First, we believe the best way to support Ukrainian defense is by providing them the weapons and the systems that they need most to defeat Russian aggression, in particular anti-armor and air defense. Secondly, the Ukrainian Air Force currently has several squadrons of fully mission-capable aircraft. And finally, the intelligence community has assessed that the transfer of MiG-29s to Ukraine may be mistaken as escalatory and could result in significant Russian reaction that might increase the prospects of a military escalation with NATO. But a NATO country wanted to do this.

And then Vice President Harris, she's over in Poland right now. How could she make this comment when John Kirby just said, no, we disagree with you. We are not on the same page. You are not delivering those MiGs. We don't want them. I mean, he literally said, we don't want them in our possession.

Take a listen to Vice President Harris by 15. I want to be very clear. The United States and Poland are united in what we have done and are prepared to do to help Ukraine and the people of Ukraine. Putin and everybody in the world knows this. You don't have to be a genius that actions speak louder than words, Andy. These actions show that we're not united because we are saying no to Poland instead of having that discussion privately so that she could make a statement like that, honestly.

Right. Why make the statement in public that directly contradicts what the polls are going to do? The message it sends to the Putin and to the world is NATO is fractured.

That's what Putin wanted. All right, folks, we'll have more for you tomorrow on the broadcast. Go to ACLJ.org. Support our work. It's a critical month to donate at ACLJ.org.

Talk to you tomorrow. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's Matching Challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20. A $50 gift becomes $100. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org.