Biden vs His Own Administration

This is Jay Sekulow. After President Biden's remarks in Europe, he's now at odds with his own administration. The issue, does Putin go? Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever.

This is Sekulow. For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power. We want to hear from you.

Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. To wage war or engage in aggression against Ukraine or anyone else. As you know, and as you've heard us say repeatedly, we do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia. And now your host, Jay Sekulow. That has created a lot of controversy. It's kind of Biden versus the Biden administration here, if you really look at this. Listen to what he actually said. For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power.

Okay, so that was at the very conclusion of a speech. Now immediately, within an hour, the White House official said the President's point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region. He was not discussing Putin's power in Russia or regime change. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, I think the President, the White House made the point last night that quite simply, President Putin cannot be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression against Ukraine or anyone else. Dmitry Peskov, the press spokesperson for the Kremlin said, this is a statement that is certainly alarming. We will continue to track the statement of the US President in the most attentive way. It's created quite a storm in Europe and it has required a lot of backtracking here.

And I say this is kind of Biden versus the Biden administration. I mean, the President obviously said something that was on it. He was there all day. He saw the Ukrainian refugees. He saw the kids. He saw people that have been injured. And the day before that, he was talking to soldiers. Now on the day before that, he said, you're going to know about the people of Ukraine when you go in there.

They had to walk that back because the military is not going in. And then this statement again, for God's sake, this man cannot remain in power. Now, I ain't going to ask you this question.

This is a really honest question. I want to see what our audience has to say about this at 1-800-684-3110. Is he right? Is he right?

This man Putin should not remain in power? 1-800-684-3110 because a lot of people under their breath were saying, oh, I can't believe Biden said that. But Andy, I got the sense that a lot of people are also saying he's right.

I think so, Jay. I think a lot of people say that he's right. The problem is a question of American leadership here and consistency in the administration. If the President is going to make a statement like that, and I think Presidents have to make statements, they can't just live on television prompters and monitors. They have a right to make statements.

But they need to make them in a circumspect fashion. And most important, they need to make them with the backing of their administration and with the backing, in this case, of our NATO allies. President Macron warned against escalation. That was his word after President Biden's statement. Secretary Blinken, as you pointed out, had to come out with a statement that explained this.

He didn't really mean anything like power change or he said empower to wage war and aggression. So, you know, you have to be consistent in the statements that you make and you have to show American leadership. And when you have walkbacks, when you have walkbacks, it makes the President of the United States look weak and that's the last thing we want to do, Jay. So my concern here is more the walkback than actually the statement.

I know that's going to be controversial. Because I think what Putin has done to Ukraine is, are war crimes. I'm not saying they can be adjudicated at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. I'm not convinced of that because of the jurisdictional issues.

But I think this was an unprovoked attack. And it's serious. 1-800-684-3110. Now, was that the right choice of words? And then you have the walkback.

As Andy said, that makes it look bad. We want your comments on this. 1-800-684-3110. Now, also later in the broadcast, we're going to be joined by Rick Grinnell. We're going to get his sense on this and a couple of other topics that are front and center globally right now, including what's going on in the Gulf States. And then also I want to make very, very clear here. We've got a lot of activity at the ACLJ in the next couple of days.

And we want to talk about that. Support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org. We'll take your calls at 800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. Back with more in a moment. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. Whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith, uncovering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy, and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress, the ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

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Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. Welcome back, everybody. The statement that the President made at the end of his speech in Warsaw, Poland was very direct, and it has created quite a stir. I'm going to play it for you again because it's the talk of the world right now, and we will get our expert analysis of it. Here's what he said. For God's sake, this man cannot remain power. Of course, he was talking about Vladimir Putin. Now, the question is the rollback took place from the White House immediately. Joining us now is Colonel Wes Smith.

And Colonel, you've got two problems here. One is Europe reacted negatively to the statement. I understand what I think the President was trying to say, quite frankly, and that this guy has wreaked havoc on innocent civilians and has targeted hospitals and maternity wards, so war crime kind of activity. I'm not saying there's an adjudication in the ICC, though, because of jurisdiction.

But then the walkback was immediate. White House officials say the President's point was Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors. Anthony Blinken, he should not be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression. But Peskov says from Russia, we're going to keep a really close eye on this to find out what the President actually meant. What do you think? Well, you know, it was an example, and this is my own personal opinion, of strong leadership from a President who usually is not strong, and he's very, very inconsistent.

He's all over the board. On the other hand, it gave Putin and the Russians, you know, a message that they're going to use to their advantage that, look, you know, he's trying to take down your elected leader and all this kind of stuff. He gave them a PR piece of equipment that they will use because of this. But on the other hand, President Biden, his strong suit is not leadership. You know, from the days of the French Revolution, there's a story of Auguste LeDroux-Roland, who was a leader in the French Revolution, and he was at his house and saw a crowd of people rushing by.

And his response was, quick, my sword, I am their leader and I must follow them. We get a lot of that with this White House. And you wonder who actually is in charge. But nowhere, and I mentioned to you this morning, I wrote a blog that went up today on our website, nowhere is leadership more important, more critical or the lack of it than at the Presidential level in the United States. And with Biden over the weekend, weak leadership generally was on full display. His words failed to inspire. At times, they lacked clarity and conviction, as you've been talking about already. And he equivocated first when asked about how he would respond to Vladimir Putin, and then he overstated how he would respond. So this kind of back and forth, inconsistent, you know, words and leadership does not provide comfort or security, a sense of security to us or to the world. My question is, do you think President Biden was right, though, that Putin needs to go?

I mean, there's a lot of geopolitical considerations on that. We'll take your calls at 1-800-684-3110, 1-800-684-3110. Bill's calling from Wyoming on Line 1. Bill, welcome to the broadcast.

You're on the air. And if you want to talk to us, 1-800-684-3110. Go ahead, Bill.

Yeah, thanks for taking my call. First of all, let me say something. Whatever Biden thinks of Putin, I mean, to me, that's up to him. But when you bring it out verbally like that, it sounds very aggressive. And I learned from a young age that anything you say is like squeezing a tube of toothpaste.

You really have a hard time pulling it back in. Well, they seem to be experts at getting it back in the tube, or at least trying, because they immediately went on their damage control mode. As I said, White House official officially said the President's point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region. He was not discussing Putin's power in Russia or regime change. Anthony Blinken, again, said he cannot be empowered to wage war or aggression against Ukraine.

But Peskov said, we are keeping a close eye on this. So part of the problem here is if the message from the United States was supposed to be, hey, Putin, you need to go. You're acting like Hitler here. You're going into these countries and destroying civilians.

You've got that kind of dilemma going here. If that's what he was trying to say, if that's what Biden was trying to say, then you wouldn't have the rollback. So the problem again is mixed messaging.

It's going to speak to the troops and say, when you go to Ukraine, you'll know what the people are dealing with there when these troops are supposedly not going to Ukraine. So that's part of the problem in all this, Andy, is not just the message, but then the retraction of the message or the reframing of the message. The inconsistency is what's the problem here. And it's a terrible inconsistency talking about responding in kind, talking about troops being there. And that was in context of chemical weapons. Chemical weapons, talking about the things that you don't really intend to say, but later you have to have them taken back by people who are your subordinates. This all shows a failure of leadership. And that's what the problem here is, a failure of leadership. You've got to be consistent in what you say. And as Wes pointed out in the French Revolution, and I love the analogy, the people are on the rampage.

They're fighting. I have to get my sword and follow them. And that's what the President is saying here. You're the leader of the free world. You've got to be careful what you say. Whether you mean it or not, you need to be consistent and your administration has to follow you, not walk you back. And last week you had the statement with the troops that when you get to Ukraine, inside Ukraine, you're going to know what we're fighting about.

That was sent the wrong signal. Then you had, and don't forget this one, sanctions deter, said the administration. Then Joe Biden says sanctions are never deterrent, are not deterrents.

And they had to roll all this back. So you have this blog on leadership up, Wes, but this is where the mixed message… And by the way, I'm not so sure Putin is wrong. I mean, Biden is wrong on the statements about Putin. Now he is the elected President of Russia.

So we don't go in toppling governments. That's not our general. But he's doing very dangerous things.

He is doing very dangerous things. I think the sentiment of 95% of the world is that Putin must go. The question is whether or not the President should have said it.

But in fact, I think it is a true statement. Ironically, Jay, and this is part of what I talk about in my piece on the website, strong leadership that's clear and consistent, consistency is important. That is the surest way to avoid war and conflict most of the time.

Our perception of weakness or that we're vacillating by our enemies actually invites aggression. To take a distinctive stand does not provoke a wider war in spite of the Biden administration's fear of provoking a wider war. We need consistency. We need conviction. We need clarity. And as I say in my article on the website, I plead with Mr. President, President Biden.

I did it personally in the website. Please lead us. We need a leader. The world needs a leader. Zelensky, in his address to our Congress, said, Mr. President, we need for you to be the leader of the world. And Zelensky has upped his rhetoric against the United States and against NATO.

How do you read that quickly, Wes? I think he's walking a very, very fine line. He appreciates what we've done. And yet he's trying to, as much as he can, without losing our support, exert pressure on us to do more.

And there are a lot of things we're not doing to support Ukraine that we can do without getting involved personally against Russia. Zach is calling from Tennessee. He's on Line 3. Hi, Zach. Hello. Hello.

Thanks for taking my call. I agree with President Trump far more than I did Joe Biden. But President Trump, they said he didn't understand that his words could move markets. As the President, I looked up the word gaffe.

It says social or diplomatic blunder. Why are we surprised at this point? Why do we keep calling it a gaffe? It's who he is.

Well, let me ask you this question. Do you think that the sentiment that Putin should go is right or wrong? Well, I think he should go, yes.

But let's not cover up the call it a gaffe. It's who Joe Biden is. He's been saying stupid things for years.

Well, no, this is OK. I mean, it was famously it was I think it was Bob Gates that said that, you know, Joe Biden's been on the wrong side of every foreign policy decision for the last 40 years. The problem is, as Wes was talking about, is the inconsistency in all of this. And that's what drives the confusion. And that's what creates the tumult here.

And that's why, you know, you make that statement and you are affecting markets and it affects people the way they perceive situations. Let's go to Tim in California. Line one. Hi, Tim. Thank you for taking my call. Once again, Joe Biden has shown he does not have any leadership skills at all.

He doesn't know what to do. You know what's interesting here? Even if he was correct with the sentiment, Wes, that was not the way to do it. No, absolutely not. And that was an add on tag online. It was.

It was. I prayed to Jesus that he will please stay on the teleprompter. Don't ad lib. But when he does, it usually does not have a good outcome. We need strong, decisive, clear leadership.

And unfortunately, we're not getting that at this point. And that's to the detriment not only of Americans who will always want our President to be a good leader. It's also impacting the entire world.

Heather on Facebook has an interesting comment. Said Putin does need to go, but he probably shouldn't have said it on that platform. The President seems to have no filter.

Well, that's exactly a correct statement. He doesn't realize the import of the statements that he makes in the position that he holds. He's the President of the strongest nation in the world, the biggest economy, the biggest military, the most influence.

I mean, English is spoken throughout the world because of the American cultural influences. We have a country that's great and that has tentacles that spread everywhere. When you make a statement as President of the United States, you need to think about what you say and the implications of that statement, not only for your own country, America first, in my opinion, but for your allies, what the NATO people are thinking behind you, what the nations of the world are thinking when you make that remark. And he doesn't have a filter. He makes and blurts out things that shows this remarkable lack of leadership.

But as you said in quoting Secretary Gates, Jay, he has been on the wrong side of foreign relations and diplomatic policy for 40 years. Why is he going to change now? We're going to discuss all of this and more coming up. We're going to get an update on major litigation cases in the ACLJ, not over the next six weeks, over the next few days.

You don't want to stay tuned for that. All of this happens because you support the work of the ACLJ. We're near the end of our month for the matching challenge.

We're a little bit behind for March. Go to ACLJ.org. That's ACLJ.org. Any amount you donate, we're getting a matching gift for. We encourage you to do that at ACLJ.org.

Back with more in just a moment. MUSIC We're 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. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad, whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith, uncovering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress. The ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

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

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

Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. We're going to get back to the global scene in just a minute, but we've got some really important work to discuss here. And if you're watching on any of our social media applications, let me encourage you if you're on them.

You should go to Rumble. And I'm going to say that because just about every other week now we have an incident with Facebook. And as has happened in the past too, we do get them resolved.

They remove these flags or they downgrade the flag or whatever they do to how they do this. But you know what? I don't have to worry about being censored over at Rumble. And there's a link to Rumble right here on this Facebook if you're on Facebook.

So I encourage you to head over there and tell your friends to go there too and share it with your friends. All right. We've got a lot of work going on domestically too here in the United States. And joining us right now is Senior Counsel for the ACLJ, Abby Sutherland, who's got multiple cases in court.

Let's start with what's the first one you – well, you've got a trial – we're not going to get into the details because this trial is like in 72 hours. You've got a major hearing coming up on a religion case. We do. And that's just in a few days. Yes. It's on Thursday afternoon. And you're not allowed to discuss it per the judge's order. That's right. So we're not going to discuss it. But it's a big religious use case.

Right. What we can say is that we are representing a religious nonprofit organization, which we do fairly often. ACLJ remains on the front lines in defending these organizations, which are regularly the target of discriminatory conduct and action, especially by government entities. So we'll be representing a religious organization on Thursday afternoon in court on a preliminary injunction hearing.

Okay. So we've got a preliminary injunction hearing. Then you've got another case that we can talk about because it's up to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and that covers kind of the southeastern United States, involving a group called Vision Warriors.

Tell us about that. So Vision Warriors is a religious nonprofit organization. It's a church and a ministry for individuals recovering from addiction.

An amazing ministry. And so they purchased a piece of property in Cherokee County, Georgia, did their due diligence in making sure that they would obtain zoning approval, that their use was permitted. And so based upon that reliance, they purchased the property. And then shortly thereafter, after neighborhood opposition, based upon the type of individuals that this ministry would be serving, the county began to take action to revoke their zoning certification. Now, is this the one or is it another one that you've got where they kept changing the zoning on the organization even though they initially complied? This is the one where they revoked the zoning certification. So they had the zoning certification initially. They did. Okay.

Listen to this, folks. So the ministry qualified under the existing zoning rules and regulations for the county. Then what happens? Then they move onto the property and then the county begins taking action against them, the first of which is to revoke the certification of zoning that was initially issued. Then the second action, they began to amend their zoning ordinances so that the two uses that would likely accurately describe our ministry under the current zoning ordinance, so that those would no longer be options for them as well.

So I want people to understand. They go in, they get the zoning, the zoning's fine. They go there and they open up and they start their ministry, which is really helping people that are in need. And it's a big piece of property and these are all over – there's places like this all over the country. And then they change the zoning. And then they change the zoning again to try to zone out the actual use upon which, Andy, they got their initial zoning in the first place.

That's right. There's an inconsistency, a glaring inconsistency on the part of the county in this. And I think it's really prompted by the fact that they don't – it's a political issue. The landowners and the people around just don't like the fact that there is this entity in their midst.

Well, it's been there forever. But this is the wrong thing that the district judge has done and we're appealing that, Jay, to the Eleventh Circuit United States Court of Appeals. And we expect a win in that case. But Abby is spearheading that and doing a fantastic job, let me say. Okay. So talking about spearheading it, let me clarify here for everybody so they know what's at stake. Could you imagine you operate your organization, your business even, whatever it is, and you meet the zoning requirements of the city. And you're operating your business or ministry, whatever it might be. And then all of a sudden the city says because they get some community pressure, not based on real complaints by the way, nobody complaining about the people there.

They have an unbelievably successful track record in what they do in recovery. But they then change the rule, then change the rule again to make sure that what you're doing cannot comply retroactively. Right. Is that what happened here?

That's exactly what happened here. When you take a look at the zoning ordinance, so it's a religious nonprofit organization. They hold worship services regularly on the property. And by the way, that's how this property had been used for 30 years prior. So they were not proposing a use that was any different than what had taken place on the property for 30 plus years. The only difference is that the individuals that this ministry would be serving were individuals recovering from addiction, which by the way, the ministries like this have excellent track records.

They serve the community. There's never an incident and there has not been with regards to this particular ministry on the property. So there's not been a situation where there's been complaints or people wandering over to other people's property and causing harm or damage. Exactly. No founded reasons for concern or complaint here.

Neighbors just don't like who the ministry serves. Yeah, well that's, you know, the cost of freedom is sometimes you're not going to like that. But you can't retroactively change rules and regulations. Now that case is going on and that is at the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. That's right.

The case you've got Thursday is before the District Court. That's right. And then there's another one, right? There's a third one?

There is. It's our prayer ban case. We've talked about it on several occasions. Oral argument is scheduled in that case on April 28th that morning. So all this is happening, folks, within basically a month, four weeks.

Go ahead. And here we represent the city of Ocala in Florida who allowed a prayer vigil to take place in response to a crime spree in their neighborhood. Area concern within the neighborhood of increased crime, a crime spree throughout the community or this portion of the community.

So what happens? What causes this great tumult? Well, some individuals in the community don't like the fact that the community is responding with prayer. And it was the community. It was not city officials. City officials allowed the event to take place. Chaplains attended the event and offered prayer as chaplains have for hundreds of years.

That's precisely what they do in times of crisis. And there were four individuals that opposed it and raised a lot of opposition in regards to how the community decided to gather and respond to this event. And it was over prayer vigil?

It was. And they demanded that the city shut the prayer vigil down. They argued that the city should not allow the prayer vigil to move forward. And what did the district court say? The district court said there were several claims, establishment clause primarily, the primary one and the one that we are appealing. They ruled against the prayer vigil. They did.

I mean, think about this, folks. In the year 2022, these are cases I argued in the 1980s and 40 years later, Andy, here we are again, because it's prayer. And they always think they can treat prayer differently. Well, they can't. Because prayer is protected activity under the First Amendment, so said Justice O'Connor. And I can give you a dozen cases, but go ahead.

No, that's true. Prayer is also protective activity under the law of God, in my opinion. The right to intercede and to pray to the Lord for guidance and for wisdom in doing things.

And that's what we do and what we have the right to do under our First Amendment and our Constitution. The district court was wrong and we've taken the district court up to the Eleventh Circuit. Again, we seem to be living in the Eleventh Circuit in the southeastern part of the United States. And as Abby said, that case is going to be argued in April in Montgomery, Alabama. And we hope that the Court of Appeals rectifies this horrible thing against prayer. Folks, you're seeing the activities here.

We're giving you analysis on a global situation because we have the experts here on our staff. We are in court, in federal court, in three major cases in just the next month. All because of your support for the American Center for Law and Justice. Let me encourage you to go to ACLJ.org. We're in a matching challenge campaign. What that means is if you donate $10 or $20 or whatever it might be, we get a matching gift for it.

So 10s, 20s, 20s, 40. ACLJ.org. ACLJ.org to have your gift matched. We encourage you to do that today as we get near the end of the month. And we've got a lot more ahead in the next half hour of this broadcast.

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.

ACLJ.org. We're going to talk about big tech and free speech. And when we talk about that, I suspect that there could be some censorship going on. So we're going to encourage you to go to Rumble then. But to get used to it now, it's right there. We pinned it on our comments so you could go right over there. It's easy to do.

I encourage you to do that. Because over at Rumble, I don't have to worry about us being censored. Talking about censorship. It may have been helpful for the President because there's been a few gaps over the last few days.

Let me set those back. The first major one on this trip overseas was if Vladimir Putin utilizes chemical weapons, President Biden said we will respond in kind. I think that was on Thursday. We will respond in kind. Do we have that?

Here it is. To clarify on chemical weapons, if chemical weapons were used in Ukraine, would that trigger a military response from NATO? It would trigger a response in kind.

Whether or not, you're asking whether NATO would cross, we'd make that decision at the time. Alright, so it would trigger a response in kind. So, Andy, what does that mean? Well, I mean, in simple grammar, if you mean in kind, it's in the same way. If you say chemical response and you say we're going to respond in kind, what other inference can you draw from that other than chemical weapons?

Tit for tat. I mean, it's so simple. And that, again, shows a failure of leadership and a failure to think before you talk. Then we had the gap when the President went into, and this is, you know, pointing this out, to talk to the troops about Ukraine and what's happening there. And he said this. And you're going to see when you're there, some time you've been there, you're going to see, you're going to see women, young people standing, standing in the middle of the front, in front of the tank, just saying, I'm not leaving. I'm holding my ground.

They're incredible. You're going to see when you're there. Now, the idea there was, of course, that the United States isn't going to commit troops to actually go into Ukraine, although we did have training troops there. However, the White House walked that one back. And then, of course, the latest of the gap, if you want to call it that, was the one about the President of Russia. That has real complications and has created quite a stir in Europe, as you can imagine. Here's what happened. For God's sake, this man cannot remain power.

Now, a lot of people share that sentiment, and we want your voice on that at 1-800-684-3110. But was that the way to say it? Well, the White House then pulled all that back. He said the President's point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors. We are not discussing a power change in Russia or regime change.

Anthony Blinken, President Putin cannot be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression against Ukraine or anyone else. Let's take a call. Israel's calling from Connecticut online. Six, Israel, welcome to the broadcaster on the air. Hey, thank you, guys, for taking my call.

Sure. Yeah, it doesn't matter what Biden says at any time. He always brings turmoil to the country. But nonetheless, I think he's right when he says, we've got to get that man out of power because he's really speaking to the man in the mirror. See, if Trump was President nowadays, this would have never have happened.

I don't think it would have happened either. But the fact of the matter is, Joe Biden was talking to Vladimir Putin, and that is what's created the political stir. Even if you think Vladimir Putin should go, is that the role of the United States or NATO to do that?

And the White House has made clear that's not. All right, coming up, we're going to be joined by former Director of National Intelligence and Ambassador to Germany, Rick Grenell. We'll ask him his thoughts on all of this. We'll take your calls at 1-800-684-3110.

What do you think of the situation with Vladimir Putin's, the comment from President Biden on Vladimir Putin? 1-800-684-3110. You think he was right, wrong?

Was it a mistake to make it even if you thought he was right? 1-800-684-3110. And what about the way they go quickly correcting? It's amazing to me the way they quickly correct everything.

They've got a machine. Support the work of the ACLJ also at ACLJ.org. That's ACLJ.org and a matching challenge campaign. Coming up next on the broadcast, we're going to be joined by our Senior Advisor on National Security, Rick Grenell.

Back with more in a moment. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. Whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith, uncovering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy, and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress, the ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

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

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Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. Welcome back to the broadcast, everyone. A big statement by Joe Biden, unintentional maybe.

It was certainly not scripted. Let me play it for you again. Then we're going to be asking Rick Grenell for his comments on this.

Let's go ahead. Here's Joe Biden. For God's sake, this man cannot remain power. All right, well, Rick, words have consequences. Elections have consequences.

Words have consequences. Even if you agreed with this guy not having this guy still in power, was that the place and was that the way to handle this? Look, right now we have a crisis in Ukraine and our focus should be on helping Ukraine. What Joe Biden just did was make the goal of defeating Russia. And that's a problem when it comes to, I would say, the incredible task of achieving that goal, as well as the fact that they are a nuclear power and have a permanent seat at the UN. And so I think that the analysis from people to say, look, if somehow showing the Russians and teaching them a lesson and showing them that they can't bully and somehow we push them back is a tangential benefit, great, because this bullying cannot continue to happen.

We certainly have seen them grab land and redesign the European borders under Obama and now under Biden. But I think the strategic mistake here, and let's be honest, the White House also thought it was a strategic mistake because they immediately jumped to try to correct it, is trying to say that our goal is somehow defeating Russia. This comes on the heel of another misstatement, Rick, and that is about chemical weapons use. So let's play that one. Let's play bite number.

I don't have the bite number, but let's go ahead. It's the reporter asking Joe Biden about chemical weapons. To clarify on chemical weapons, if chemical weapons were used in Ukraine, would that trigger a military response from NATO? It would trigger a response in kind, whether or not you're asking whether NATO would cross, we'd make that decision at the time. So again, when you think of in diplomatic terms, Rick, and you were a diplomat for many, many years, when you say a response in kind, it immediately triggers, well, if they're going to use chemical weapons, we're going to do the same.

Now, he says that they corrected that one, just like they corrected, well, he didn't mean troops in Ukraine, even though he said when you get to Ukraine. So you ask yourself, this is showing a weakness in American leadership here. If you would have rewinded us back to the summer of 2020, there were all sorts of warning signs that said that Joe Biden is somebody who is constantly inarticulate, makes mistakes and gaffs. And the media just chalked that up to old Uncle Joe, and we know that he says things that he shouldn't. But as President of the United States, all of his musings, all of his gaffs, if you will, all of his problems show weakness for the United States. They're strategically terrible for us. And so I think that as the spokesperson for the United States government, the senior spokesperson that Joe Biden is, as President of the United States, the leader of the free world, I think that he is really doing Americans a disservice when he is so prone to gaff after gaff. It makes us less safe and less secure.

Let me ask you this. Bob Gates famously said, Joe Biden's been wrong on every major foreign policy decision for 40 years. Now he's the President of the United States. He's not the vice President anymore. He's not just the senator of the Foreign Relations Committee head.

He is the President of the United States. This is the mixed messaging here, and the correcting is a daily thing. And we've got a real crisis in Ukraine, which is affecting all of Europe. And as you just said, when you got the head of state, the main communicator, if you will, of our government, our allies are nervous.

Yeah, they're very nervous. And actually, some in Germany have started correcting this and saying that this is not making Europe safe when Joe Biden is talking about going after Putin with regime change. Again, we need to emphasize that Russia is obviously the bad actor.

Putin is the bad actor here. And morally, we can look at the situation and be cheering for Ukraine, of course. But we have to think about what's best for the United States in these situations. And somehow articulating that Russia's defeat is our goal. Our goal is to help Ukraine. Our goal is to stop this war, to stop the violence. And we should be doing it peacefully and diplomatically. And yet that's not what's happening. I have to finish with this, Jay, and just say I'm struck with the admonishment that we always hear is be careful when you hire a senator to be President of the United States because they've never really been a chief executive officer. They don't know how to implement. They know how to go up and vote.

And 40 years of Joe Biden voting thinks that that's how you actually get things done is just with a one action, one and done type action. I want to take one phone call here. Let's take Tara calling from California on Line 1. You're on the air. Joining with Rick Renell. Go ahead, Tara. My comment is this.

Jesus tells us to love our enemies and to pray for those who despitefully use us. Now, there's been a lot of talk about whether Vladimir Putin is senile. Well, he's about seven and a half months older than I am. I don't I don't know that he's senile. So he may mean exactly what he says. And President Biden's comment about this man cannot be allowed to go on. That's not for speech.

That's a comment for his prayer closet. Well, I mean, you're right in this context. It that statement of President Biden's, you know, shook the halls of European parliaments rather dramatically in a very short period of time.

But you raised a very interesting point. I don't think, Rick, Vladimir Putin is insane. I mean, I think he's dangerous, diabolical, but he wants this is what he wants. He knew his problem is he didn't get what he wants when he got inside of Ukraine. Yeah, something happened. I think he recently flipped.

I don't know what it is. You see that close to death or seeing death or something, but he's reckless and a madman like a like a dog. I want to point out one thing that I think Tara said, which is really good.

And she really separated. What Tara was saying is, is there's a difference between our individual behaviour and when we are the leader of governments. And I actually believe that I say at the UN all the time is that people are equal, countries are not equal.

And we have to distinguish between what we do personally, what the Bible teaches us to do. Our values personally, one to one is much different than what how countries act. Countries actually go to war sometimes to protect their people. Countries do things that are different than what individuals do. Individuals can be nice and forgiving and full of grace. But I don't think that countries are going to act that same way. They have responsibilities. And so what Joe Biden did, I think, should have been kept to himself.

Could have been his personal opinion, could have been in his prayer closet, as Tara says. But acting as the President of the United States, it's reckless, dangerous. Europeans think that they're less safe and Americans are less safe. So we've got also coming up and Antony Blinken is going to be attending this historic Israeli-Arab summit amid the Iran deal tensions that are going on right now. Talk about that for a moment, Rick, because that whole event, that kind of summit between the Arab countries, Arab states and Israel would not have happened, I think, without your administration and the tremendous progress we made there. What do you expect from this?

Well, we certainly won't here. Thank you, Donald Trump. Thank you, Jared Kushner. Thank you, Mike Pompeo. Thank you, David Friedman, Avi Berkowitz. We're not going to hear any of that, but they should be thanking the Americans that worked hard on it.

I think that we also, it's for me, it's a lesson on the intelligence. Remember, the intelligence community told us we'd see World War Three if we moved our embassy to Jerusalem. Didn't happen.

Not true. I think the intelligence community missed what's happening in Russia, in Ukraine with Russia. The Ukrainians were much more ready to fight than what our intelligence community told us. They said that Russia would just roll right over. We've got a problem with the intelligence community. But in terms of what's happening in Israel right now, let's celebrate it.

It's fantastic. Anthony Blinken gets a small victory here. He gets to cut the ribbon on all the heavy work that the Trump administration did. But it's a good moment for the United States that this is happening, and it's certainly a great moment for Israel and its partners now in the region.

Arab country partners in the region. Who would have ever thought? Rick Grenell, thank you so much for your insight and for being part of the team here at the ACLJ. Folks, we're going into a break. We're going to be joined by Professor Harry Hutchison in just a moment. I think Colonel Smith's coming back as well. We're going to talk more about this whole Putin statement, a Russian statement about Putin going from Joe Biden.

I want your comments on this. 1-800-684-3110. You could call to get on the air.

We don't know what you think on that. Also, we'll take them via Facebook, certainly Rumble or YouTube, so you can get your comments in that way. 1-800-684-3110, or you can go put them up in the various social media platforms that are broadcasting this program right now. Share this with your friends. The statement was clear.

He said Putin's got to go. What does that actually mean? They've rolled it back. We'll talk about that, but also support the work of the American Center for Law and Justice, ACLJ.org.

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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 to the last segment of the broadcast. Everyone, it's been a quick hour.

We're taking your calls at 800-684-3110. What do you think of President Biden's statement when he said this? For God's sake, this man cannot remain power. That was in reference to Vladimir Putin. The President said that in Warsaw, Poland. The White House immediately walked it back, saying it doesn't mean he shouldn't be in power in Russia, but that he shouldn't be, quote, empowered to take action against neighboring countries like Ukraine.

Interesting, though, Peskov, Dmitry Peskov, who's in charge of the media for Russia, the Russian government, said we're watching this very, very carefully. We asked your thoughts on this at 1-800-684-3110. Let me go right to John in Nevada. John, you're on the air.

Hi. I'm a military retiree, and that statement is so dangerous. It's not your dangerous reference to Putin and Russia, but it puts our soldiers in danger in other regions.

Yeah, so let's talk about that for a moment. Harry, we haven't gotten your impression yet on the statement. What is your sense of the actual statement that was made about what appeared to be regime change at the time it was made? What was your sense?

Well, I thought this statement in particular, you could make it as long as you had arguments and facts and information to support it. And so the question becomes, did President Biden have full possession of all of the geopolitical consequences of his statement? Did President Biden have any information, for instance, on who would likely be Putin's successor?

Would he be better or worse? We got rid, for instance, of Saddam Hussein. Did that improve the geopolitical atmosphere in the Middle East? I think the answer is no. And so I think those are questions that need to be answered and answered quite clearly before you go off, apparently half cocked, and make a particular statement that your own administration walks back.

And they walked it back on multiple levels. Wes, the concern was, as the caller just said, what about the troops? Yeah, we need a President that we can trust who's consistent and clear. The troops especially need a commander in chief that they can trust who's clear in what he's saying. You know, because military power is a great thing. As you mentioned earlier in the broadcast, we're the strongest military in the world, the largest economy in the world. Military power and the perception that we have the will to use it is one of the best ways to avoid a war. But on the other hand, in the Army, we had a phrase we talked about. In the civilian war, you talk about consequences. We talked about second and third order effects of both your statements and your actions so that you can say something, and you have no idea the repercussions of that down the line in subtle but significant ways.

And this is so true for anyone who's the President of the United States. And the other thing, Jay, his gaffes over the weekend, they really detracted from the importance and the significance of what he was doing. This was a great and important trip to meet Europe's leaders, NATO's leaders, to come up with a united stance against Putin and Russia.

So important, and yet it's been diminished and put to the side because of this. Yeah, you know, I thought the NATO meeting, Andy, because we talk about the ministry of presence, I think Joe Biden made the right move by going to Europe for the NATO meeting. I thought that was the right ministry of presence.

Oh, yeah, absolutely. He needed to be there. He needed to be in Brussels for the NATO meeting with the other leaders and be there himself and not send a surrogate or a secondary and certainly not his vice President. And by being there and being present and being engaged and showing that America had an active part in that, which we do a very significant role, that was very important.

But unfortunately, his subsequent acts undid so much of the good that was done by him being present. And that started with the chemical weapon in kind thing. And then NATO said, we're not doing that. And then it started with sanctions don't work. And then his administration saying sanctions do work. And then, of course, you had, you know, U.S. troops. When you're in Ukraine, you'll see what we're talking about fight wise. And then, of course, you had the Putin one. Interesting comments coming in. Pamela on Facebook writes, can the Russian people vote for regime change?

Now, technically, Harry, technically they can. There are elections for the President and prime minister. But in reality, do you think those elections mean anything in this current environment in Russia?

No, I don't. In large part because Putin consistently wins at roughly I think it's 70 to 80 percent of the vote. Number two, some people who are disinclined to support Putin may see what Biden has said as a tack on Russian sovereignty and the ability of the Russian people to decide their own particular fate. But also, I think it's important to keep in mind that President Biden's statement was somewhat reckless in the sense that he exposes Western Europe to the consequences of his statements.

And one of the things that the Russians may indeed consider in the short run, even though they may indeed be short of cash, is to shut off natural gas to Western Europe. And so I think there are so many consequences attached to President Biden's statement. Many people question whether or not he's in full possession and full control of his own administration. That's the question.

There seems to be some serious tension because of the way they roll those things back. He didn't say, you know, Antony Blinken says what he meant was not empowered. We don't need to empower him. Not he should be taken out of power. That's not what he said.

He said taken out of power. Interesting comment, Candy said, so much focus on Biden's statements abroad. I feel like they are using them to distract from all the pain we're feeling economically at home. Absolutely.

I think that's correct. It's very important to keep in mind that inflation is now approaching a 70 year record. That gas prices are exploding. Natural gas prices are also going up. Fertilizer prices are going up.

Much of the fertilizer, much of the wheat comes from where? Ukraine and Russia. All of these things are basically reordering the domestic economy. And the Biden administration seems to lack the ability to do two things at once. In other words, help the American people while simultaneously projecting U.S. strength abroad. Andy, you look at the statements that are made and we're sending a very mixed signal to our allies as well. This is concerning to me, Jay, because we are sending a signal to our European allies and to the world that we do not have a consistent policy and a consistently focused and knowledgeable leader. The President has got to be the spokesman, the leader. He has to speak with a unitary voice like a unitary executive in the United States. The military has to support him. The diplomats have to support him and Europe has to support him. And he is not doing that.

He is not sending across that kind of message. And that that is very bad, very bad policy and a very bad face that the United States is putting on. Really quickly, really quick here, Wes, on the statement about Ukraine and troops.

How do you read that? I mean, they pulled that back very quickly. They pulled it back, I think and I hope it was a complete mistake by the President of the United States.

We do not want to go there. Decades of peace and stability in Europe, they're on the line. Lots on the line, folks. Support the work of the ACLJ.

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We'll see you then. 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.