HOUSE VOTES TO INDEFINITELY BAN RUSSIAN OIL

Today on Sekulow, the House votes to indefinitely ban Russian oil.

What will President Biden do? We're joined by Congressman Kevin Brady. 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 phone calls to 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. In the next segment of the broadcast, we're going to be joined by Congressman Kevin Brady. He is one of the lead sponsors on one of our pieces in court, in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals now, in a case. Remember a year ago, the Democrats tried to put through legislation that said if you accept any of the COVID relief funds at the state level, you can't do anything that would affect revenue negatively. That means cutting taxes.

And we won that at the District Court. We represent over 60 members of Congress in the Senate and the House. Congressman Brady has been a lead on that. But there is also big news because the Congress, what the House now has voted, the Senate has voted, will go to President Biden, has voted to indefinitely suspend the US purchase of Russian energy. That, you know, oil and gas and other, anything involving the minerals.

So the question now is, what does Joe Biden do? We're kind of the lone country out there in the world right now. Certainly, Europe has refused to, they said they're trying to get there, but the US has been, you know, kind of by themselves.

We've been by ourselves out there on this issue. No, it's very true. And part of that is because Europe is so dependent upon their, the flow of natural gas and oil from Russia. Now, what's interesting to me in all of this is that you had, this is very unusual for Washington, D.C. right now. You had a vote in the Senate that was 100 to nothing. And the vote in the House of Representatives on the bill suspending Russia's preferential trade status was 420 to 3. And the bill banning Russia energy imports passed 413 to 9. This is unprecedented in current political environment in Washington, D.C., which shows you that the Congress is viewing the situation with Russia very seriously.

Yeah, that's right. I mean, so you're talking about a situation, again, you don't see this kind of bipartisan support on any kind of legislation. We're going to talk about it with Congressman Brady.

We're also going to talk about the court case as well and just this bigger picture. So I want to take your phone calls to it, 1-800-684-3110, because you think about this, this affects every one of us in every state and at locality, because this was an attempt by the Democrats to sneak a bill in so that you could not have a tax cut in your state if you accepted these funds. And again, the district court said, no, this is not something the federal government cannot restrict states' abilities to govern and how they would govern. So again, I know that some of you might be in blue states where a tax cut seems maybe far off, but other people, other folks who are in red states, you know, that's pretty common.

I mean, let's ask our audience this question. Would a 2% tax cut in your state, your state income taxes help you or a significant reduction on maybe or an increase in child income credits on your state tax returns? Because the federal government came in and said, here's the money, but here's the string. States, we don't want you lowering taxes and they don't want you lowering taxes when we were in the middle of the pandemic. So that tells you what the policy was. Of course, federal legislation can have strings attached, but this one really tied the hands of the states. Wait, I was thinking about the tax cuts that we've seen that have been effective to help ease the burden on inflation with gas.

Well, I was wondering, like on the gas tax, some of the states are saying we're going to reduce our gas tax. Yeah, that would be banned. Would that be a violation of this?

Yes. See, this is the problem. This is the overreach. You've got to be creative as a state to assist you. And this, remember, a year ago, they weren't planning on that kind of inflation number.

It was getting up there, but it was not at the level it is now when it comes to gas. So if you're going to vote to say no Russian oil and gas and you've cut off Russian, our ability to be energy independent, so you've done those two things. And then you're still trying to restrict the state's ability to ease the burden on its citizens if it so chooses. That's not forcing them to do that. If they so choose, you can understand why. But the Biden administration is fighting this out.

They didn't accept the loss of the district court. They're fighting it out at the 11th Circuit. We're representing the members of Congress. Congressman Brady will be joining us in the next segment of the broadcast. 1-800-684-31. Tim, we want to take your calls as well, so get those calls in now.

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

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

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

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

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

Welcome back to Secular. We're taking your phone calls at 1-800-684-3110. That's 1-800-684-3110. We're joined now by Congressman Kevin Brady of Texas. Congressman Brady's been a lead on one of our briefs we've now filed at the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

But we want to start first. Congressman Brady, I appreciate you joining us on Secular with this congressional move. We don't see it often these days where you've got this kind of bipartisan move.

413 to 9 was the vote in the House, 100 to 0 in the Senate. And it was for Congress to suspend all normal trade relations with Russia and ban importation of its oil and gas indefinitely. So, Congressman, I want to ask you this first. You've got this bipartisan support. Is there any question about whether President Biden will actually sign this into law? Yeah, so Jay, I think you will sign into law, but I think you made an important part here. Look, so the good news is with these two bills, we've targeted 100% of what Russia sells into the U.S. Oil and energy is about 60%. The special trade relationship that we revoked was the rest of it. So I think this is going to do some damage. Certainly we're not going to be contributing to funding that war.

I think that's important. But you need to know, Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate came together more than six weeks together on this. President Biden fought this tooth and nail, both banning Russian energy purchases as well as lifting that special trade status. Only when he saw that we had more than 400 votes did he reverse course and sign an executive order on oil and now supporting the trade status revocation.

So, yes, he's going to sign it. But my frustration, I think, in much of us with the war is, you know, how reluctant he's been to engage in a meaningful way to support Ukraine. You know, I was I was listening last night to some commentary and I was looking at some articles that have been posted on this, Congressman. And the thing that it's I think hit me the most here is not only the reluctance of the administration to eventually get to the point where, in your case, you've got wide, really wide bipartisan support for both pieces of legislation, but the indecision, the critical indecision that's taking place in the situation with Russia and Ukraine. And I'm trying for the life of me to figure out what is so difficult for them to do here. They've got all these supposed, you know, bureaucratic experts.

You've got the State Department. And yet they're acting as if they have no idea how to proceed forward on this. No, it is, Jay, I think it's because they don't, you know, they have a built in bias here that the best thing that can happen here is a negotiated surrender, that it's inevitable. You know, their job is to support Ukraine. But but they know the outcome. Well, but the rest of the world has changed their belief here.

You know, the rest of the world is is all in for a Ukrainian victory here. And this White House just and State Department, as you know, the diplomats just aren't buying this. And so that's why I think not only are the actions slow and modest, but the delivery of these weapons and what this funding is actually buying.

You know, we see the announcements every week, but we're not seeing the weaponry on the ground in Ukraine. And I know it is a frustration for President Zelensky, but I think it is, frankly, for both parties in Congress. You know, Congressman Brady, this idea, too, is that I think that the American people at this point, we want to do everything possible to end the conflict. It's whatever we can do to influence to an end to this conflict sooner rather than later.

But it is a question because we see I want to go to one of our brief as well. You know, we saw the Biden administration a year ago tell the American people, you know, we're going to provide you this covid relief. But by the way, we can't you can't cut taxes.

You can't cut anything that would cut revenue. And now a year later, we're looking at these gas prices. So we're talking about oil and gas already. You're a lead on our brief. And we're now at the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. We won this at the district court, but the Biden administration is still fighting. And we were talking about it just the first segment of our broadcast. The idea that there are states like your state, I know a Texas is looking at doing this where we are, is looking at providing relief through taking some of those taxes off gas. So that again, there's some relief from the inflation we've seen. And yet this would prevent that. And the Biden administration still in court fighting this issue.

Yeah, it is one. Thanks for your leadership on this and so many issues really important to Texans and conservatives. So thank you, first and foremost. But secondly, look, this is the administration that has had a rung from the get go. And I think that nearly two trillion dollar march covid stimulus as they sold it, but had very little do with covid. And the only thing it stimulated was raging inflation for the past year and the worst in 40 years is, frankly, they don't know how to lead this country.

They have no policies that actually strengthen this, you know, that strengthen families or the economy in any meaningful way. And I think every step they've made and thankfully you've been helping challenge this or leading the challenge on this. You know, we've had to step forward to try to course correct everything for them.

You know, Congressman, I want to follow up on that. And it ties also into the legislation that you led with ending the importation of Russia, oil act and the spending, suspending the normal trade relations with Russia and Belarus. You're looking I'm looking at the situation now, and this is what I'm wondering. And we go back to the situation with Russia and Ukraine. What's the end game here? I mean, what's the exit?

What's the off ramp? How does this matter get resolved so that we don't continue to have, which I'm calling a war in Eastern Europe? Yeah. So I think the answer is, you know, when Ukraine is in a position of strength in negotiations. I think there is a settlement that still defends their sovereignty and is a settlement that still retains their independence. But but that only happens, Jay, if they are prevailing on the field of battle, which is why every country in the free world ought to be figuring out a way to deliver the weaponry they need. Again, no one's looking to to to trigger a third world war. I know no one in Congress who has that interest. But the way this is settled in in a freedom loving way is for us to be helping Ukraine win on the field of battle.

Congressman, based on what you know, and obviously not a scene to violate any any competences or security issues. Can Ukraine repel Russia and at least keep a significant portion of their country? Yes.

Yes, absolutely. And you've seen this with with very little help from the outside world. You've seen remarkable wins there and they forced Russia to change their entire outlook and maybe their entire end game here in Ukraine. And they're doing that on a wing and a prayer. You know, just imagine the strength to have will actually deliver the weaponry and the help that they deserve. The intelligence as well to help them here. So with the ending importation of the Russian oil act, I want our audience to understand exactly what does this do?

Yes. So it immediately ends purchases of Russian oil and all forms of energy. Again, that's about 60 percent of what they sell in the United States. It's about eight percent of what we buy on the energy front.

So you've got to replace that with our belief. American made energy. But the administration is looking to Canada, Venezuela, Iran to try to replace that. The truth matter is we we are far less energy independent now under President Biden than we were under President Trump.

And so, you know, we sort of got ourselves into this pickle because of horrible policies from the White House. So, yeah, it's going to help stop any funding there. But secondly, I think, you know, revoking special trade relations focuses on those things Russia sells to us. And it's it is chemicals like in fertilizer. It's wood products.

It is food, obviously, and foodstuffs areas like that. And so I think we're going to be able to do some more economic damage to them. And Congressman Brady, the idea, too, I think Americans can be proud of what Congress has done here by by leading the world. I mean, the rest of the world not ready to take this action, not willing to take this action. Our European allies not willing to do this. They say they're working towards it, but they would cripple their economies right now. But the United States, when they're watching these horrible images and they want to say, what can we do? We are. This is this is a major action by preventing at least some of that money from going to that Russian war machine.

It is in. And I think that the important thing is that Congress moved immediately after President Zelensky spoke to us. And it was one I've been in Congress 26 years for a lot of remarks to Congress.

And this, I think, was one of the most moving we among the most moving that we've seen. And Republicans, Democrats immediately went toward that weekend. We negotiated these two sanctions on Russia, again, with the White House pushing back every step of the way. But, you know, you wonder if leadership like a President wants can make a difference. I can tell you, on these two bills, it absolutely motivated and inspired us. Thank you, Congressman. We really appreciate your leadership on this. Thanks for working with us on that brief to the 11th Circuit. We look forward to having you back on. Thank you, sir. Take care, Jay. Congressman Kevin Brady of Texas.

Great to have him on the broadcast again. He's the lead sponsor put together by the members of Congress on our brief, 64 total. That includes 11 U.S. senators, 53 members of Congress. If you want to talk to us there, too, 1-800-684-3110.

Imagine this, the Biden administration is still fighting your state's ability to lower taxes, including those taxes on gas, while inflation has got gas, you know, over four or five dollars a gallon. 1-800-684-3110. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, the play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life. Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. 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. It's great to have Congressman Kevin Brady join us and talk about the oil issue, but tying directly to that, we're now at the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Blog up at ACLJ.org if you're on our email list.

You'll see this as well over the weekend. But I want to spend some time on it because we represent 64 members of Congress here, 11 U.S. Senators, 53 members of the House. Senator Crapo from Idaho and Senator Scott from South Carolina are our lead in the Senate.

Congressman Banks and then Congressman Brady, who just joined us, are our lead in the House of Representatives. This involves states. We've had a number of states filing a lawsuit against the Biden administration because of this congressional play.

And I want to go to Thandman because this happened a year ago. We won at the district court level. It's now at the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. The Biden administration is still fighting for this idea that they can limit the ability so states can receive these funds, but they could not do anything that would lessen revenue. And I say it that way because that means not just tax cuts, but tax credits incentivizing, even on like school choice initiatives, in the middle of a pandemic while we're starting to see gas taxes.

Right? That's probably the most recent example, something that maybe a year ago they weren't even thinking about, but they're still fighting for. There are blue states considering doing moves like this. Jordan, this really is one of the most draconian measures that I've seen move through the Congress in recent years. I mean, remember, this was in the middle of a COVID stimulus bill, that the whole point of passing these dollars, Jordan, was supposed to ease the burden on the American people. If you're going to tell states that take this money, that it's supposed to be intended to ease their citizens' economic situation, that you then can't pass any tax measures that reduce revenue, Jordan, that is going to have the opposite effect. You're absolutely right.

I mean, pick your issue. You can take school choice, you can take business incentives, you can take anything that touches the tax code, and if it reduces revenue to the state level, that would be prohibited under this legislation. The reach of it is just enormous. And by the way, Jordan, you mentioned Tim Scott. That's one of the biggest reasons that he's one of our co-leads on this, because he is trying to expand school choice across America.

We've worked very closely with him on that. This would stop all of those measures. And Jordan, I'll just throw one other thing in here that's probably going to bother listeners a little bit, but this extends all the way through when? It extends through the next Presidential election 2024.

Jordan, if that's not a political motivation, I just don't know what is. I've got this question, because when you look at it from a policy perspective here, now, we've won. I mean, so far we've won in court.

We challenged this, representing members of Congress, and the district court ruled in our favor it's not the 11th Circuit. But you're in the middle of a pandemic, you had an economic downturn, you want to stimulate the economy, that's the whole idea. And from a policy perspective, to tie federal funds into, if you do reduce taxes states, you don't get the money. It seems to be totally nonsensical. I would agree that it is nonsensical, but it is entirely consistent with the Biden administration roadmap. Basically, the Biden administration has created nothing less than a bridge to incompetence. So this is a policy issue, but it's also a constitutional issue.

Rather than ease the burden on states because of the impact of COVID, the Biden administration seeks to impose a crushing burden on states in terms of either raising taxes, or alternatively, they can't simply lower taxes in order to incentivize their populace to do things that would perhaps improve the economy in their states. And so I think our members are prepared to stand strongly with the HCLJ in advancing this particular litigation. So far we've received a favorable response from the district court, and I now look forward to the 11th Circuit Court's opinion. Ultimately, the Biden administration, I believe, is prepared to take this to the United States Supreme Court.

I was just about to say that. I think we're going to succeed at the 11th Circuit, but I don't think that's going to be the end of this case. And I want our audience to understand this. This affects every one of you. Not every state's doing this, but a lot of states are coming up with creative ways to reduce the tax burden during an inflationary cycle and a cycle when you have a downturn in the economy. And the state's governors and the legislatures are trying to be creative. And Washington is saying, no, you don't get the COVID funds, which they needed, and do this. So here's the problem. It impacts you. Now let me ask you this. Would $650 or something like that in your checking account make a difference for you right now?

Call us at 1-800-684-3110, 800-684-3110. The reason I come up with numbers like that is if there was a gas tax holiday for just 90 days, for people that drive, that could be the amount of money they're talking about. It's really serious. What I can also say re-incitivizes people who are in the delivery industry, people who are in the driving industry, and more and more we rely on all of those services. And when gas was at $1.80 or $2 a gallon, those services made sense.

There were a lot of people. Now if you check a lot of these delivery apps right now at kind of high points in the evening, there's no one available. And the reason why there's no one available is because it's not worth doing the job anymore. So Uber and all these services, Postmates and deliveries, I'm not trying to promote any of them, I'm just saying all of those services that we were used to, the reason why they're not there is not because people don't want to work. But you talk to these folks and they're not even making money.

So it's not worth doing the job. So then, Than, what comes out of Washington on this? I mean, at the end of the day, this is a battle between Congress, the states, and the White House. Well, unfortunately, Jay, what comes out of Washington right now on this is something like this, tying even the hands of states who would try to do this. You talked about the gas tax, Jay. I mean, in the state of California, just the state portion of that is more than 50 cents.

So if California came to their senses and said, we're going to give a break for 50 cents for every gallon of gas, this measure would prohibit that. I'm just being straightforward with you, Jay. I don't see anything coming out of this Congress or this administration to address it.

And let me give you one more data point. You said you think this is going to the Supreme Court, Jay? I do, too, because both rulings went against the administration on this at the district level.

What did they do? They appealed it to the Levitt Circuit. No, no, they're going to take it up, which breaks the question of how do you think we do at the Supreme Court? Well, I think we prevail in part because what the Biden administration is trying to do is to stretch the Constitution to accommodate one thing and one thing only, enhancing the size and growth of the federal government and shrinking the power of state government.

And that is contrary to the policy initiative embedded in the Constitution, which seeks to strengthen federalism, that is state power. So at the end of the day, I think we prevail before the United States Supreme Court. I know it's always tricky to predict, but I think we should prevail in this case.

Folks, I want you to support the work of the ACLJ. I mean, think about this one case which affects your property tax, income tax, business tax, gas tax. I mean, real issues right now. Maybe even a year ago when we filed this, we couldn't predict exactly that we'd have a war in Ukraine.

I mean, there were toxins and issues, but you didn't know and how that would affect your gas and how it would affect gas prices and inflation levels and numbers. So we filed this, but we're not just filing as ACLJ. We're filing on behalf of 64 members of Congress, 11 U.S. senators, 53 members of the House of Representatives, and we're winning these cases. Now, we are able to represent those members of Congress because of the trust we've built as the ACLJ. As a legal organization, they know they can trust the work we're going to do. They want to stand with us. They want to stand with you, our supporters. And you can support the work of the ACLJ right now. We have a matching challenge. Donate to ACLJ.org and you double the impact of your donation. So it's a great time.

I know people are stretched. I only want you to do this if you're financially able to do it. But if you are, that $20 that you donate to ACLJ.org is like $40 for us right now. 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.

ACLJ.org. Tense to the media doesn't report on other things that are happening until they become much bigger. But what we know is that when you start seeing these actions in Israel, over the last month, you've seen 14 people killed by terrorism. ISIS.

Dozens more. Some say they're inspired by ISIS, others by the Palestinian Islamic movement, others by Hamas. But we're seeing an uptick in violence, specifically focused in. Again, Palestinian terror once again inside Israel. This is not troops. These aren't soldiers inside the territories because of conflict. These are active terror groups. Most of these cases, they're either opening fire or stabbing. But people are being killed. This is something that was not happening in Israel the last decade. There's also a lot of political flux right now in Israel. So we'll get into that next segment of the broadcast. I do want to take some calls on this inflation issue because we're fighting back on the Biden administration for everybody so that your state can get creative in ways to help you out during this time.

Which doesn't seem like it's coming to an end anytime soon. So we have to, again, get creative to give people the relief they need so we continue commerce and continue work and continue getting things reopened in our country. 1-800-684-31. Let's go to Katie in Ohio on Line 1. Hey, Katie. Hi, how are you? Great.

I'm calling in because I think it's just a shame what we're all going through. I can't even afford to sell my car. I know.

It's $100 to sell my car. Yeah. We're in states, Katie, too, where we don't have the worst taxes.

Yeah, so you're calling from Ohio, you're probably like we are here, I don't think. But go ahead, Katie. And, you know, the cost is the cost of everything, the cost of food, missing food off the shelf, things that are, you know, that shouldn't be missing. You know, the fact that, like I told somebody earlier, you know, I took a 70-year-old woman that was living on the street who lost everything, brought her into the house, and, you know, not that I could afford to, but we did, and she's finally got her own place.

Yeah. You know, it's just been one thing after another. You know, it's like the hits, and I don't like calling them hits, but it's like the issues keep on coming, and the modest and creative, because these are not huge tax cuts, but relieving some of the burden on gas taxes, maybe even on gross. I could see states, because some states have talked about this, suspending tax, sales taxes on food purchases and necessary pharmaceuticals. Yeah, there's going to be short-term relief. I mean, none of this is long-term, but it allows them to be creative in the way that helps the people in their state. Like Katie said, that's probably about $5 a gallon is what I'm guessing, because about 20 gallons in an SUV and those kind of size cars. That's about where we are here.

Other states are getting $140, $150 for that same vehicle, because of the amount of tax on the gas on top of the inflated prices. And again, what she said too about the shelves in the United States of America, the fact that that's happening again. This is the second time.

Two years ago, during the pandemic. Things kind of came back, but I mean, this is again, I don't use this to say woo, woo, because a cat food is not like a big deal, but the fact it's not there. It's not getting there. These normal kind of basic things that used to be able to walk in and buy as much as you wanted, or you could get it from Amazon. You're now getting alerts from Amazon saying, we don't have it this month. We don't have basics. And that did, when you start not having basics and you want to be able to feed your pet, feed your kids. You start mass buying when you see it so that the next person comes into the store and there's nothing on the shelf.

Or the store has to start limiting what they put out. I think what has to happen here is, and we talked to Tham Bennett and Congressman Brady earlier in the broadcast, that Congress is going to have to take some initiative and they're going to have to push back on the President. Now they did push back on the President with these two pieces of legislation involving Russia, because believe me, even though he's signing it, trust me, he did not want to go there.

This is not where he wanted to be, but he had to go there because Congress was united. So you know what we need? The Republicans and Democrats to work together to protect the American people and don't have the Biden administration challenging us at the 11th Circuit while we're trying to win benefits for your families. And I say that collectively, every family is affected by this, and that's what we're doing at the ACLJ at the 11th Circuit and I suspect we'll be doing the same at the Supreme Court.

We're taking your calls at 1-800-684-3110, 800-684-3110. Don't forget to spurt the work of the ACLJ. ACLJ.org, matching challenge campaign, ACLJ.org. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. Whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith, uncovering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy, and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress, the ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

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

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

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

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

Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. One of the deadliest periods in the country in several years, not because of COVID, but because of terrorism, this is in Israel. Shooting on April 7th, just yesterday, it's the fourth lethal attack in Israel just since March 22nd. What's different, too, about some of these attacks is the use of firearms, which means there's more planning involved.

It's tougher to get a weapon like that, of course. But also, again, last night, it was three people killed at a bar in Tel Aviv on a Thursday evening. Just random. Yeah, a shooter comes up. There was a manhunt. They ultimately did kill the terrorists in this situation. Some are saying that they have been captured. They're inspired by ISIS, others by groups like Hamas or Palestinian terror groups in general. But again, this increase that we've seen in just two and a half weeks, 14 people now killed, dozens of more injured in these attacks. And the question is why.

Now, there's a couple of things we can point out. It is Ramadan. You also have Passover and Easter converging at a similar time.

So that always puts tensions higher. But usually that's in cities like Jerusalem. We're seeing this in Tel Aviv.

Well, they're trying to go after the cap. In going after Tel Aviv, they're trying to go more up to the financial center of Israel, more of the where a lot of people live. I mean, Tel Aviv is a big populous.

Jeff Balmon, senior counselor for the ACLJ, heads up for work in Jerusalem. Jeff, what's your read on this? It's interesting to me that and concerning that this comes at a time when the government itself over there is not stable, to say the least. Well, the government over there is, let's say, not stable.

But guess what? The government over here isn't very stable either. And that's totally contributing to this.

And when I say it's not stable, I mean, in terms of its messaging. But it says what it does in terms of our relationship, our support for the state of Israel has been very, very grim. They use positive words saying they support Israel.

They make nice noises. But it's become clear that they're also rewarding the terrorists. They're rewarding the Palestinian Authority, even though the Palestinian Authority continues to pay for sway, continues to pay for terrorists. And it's actually there are elements in the party, in the Democrats Party, which may play into this that are trying to mainstream even Hamas. And, of course, it all means that it's Israel's fault. And so, yes, it's a little bit becoming open season on Israel and the Jews again. Yep.

So, Colonel Smith, you evaluate these situations for us as military analysts. They've, you know, they've used bulldozers before when they've been on construction sites. There was the knifing attacks, which include attacks on Americans in Israel. This time it's firearms.

Right. And part of what's going on, Hamas is encouraging this, if not directly directing it. Because the last time they attacked Israel from the Gaza Strip, they were decimated pretty much.

They're still rebuilding. They have actually come on record as encouraging other Palestinians and Israeli Arabs and others to do their work for them. And they've actually told them to launch these kinds of attacks. That's part of what's happening. But there is, as Jeff mentioned, there's a line of convergence here, Jay, weakness invites aggression. You've got a government, for example, in America that is tacitly supporting Palestinians.

Yes. Maybe not so tacitly. And they're tepidly supporting Israel. And think about this, Hamas, I was doing some research this morning. Their weapons, their direct hands-on training, their technology, and their intel comes from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iran. And what are we doing? We're getting ready to take them off the terror watch list.

Yeah, I know. Iran is the biggest, largest sponsor of, state sponsor and exporter of terrorism in the world. What's interesting to me in this, if you look at the Jerusalem Post headlines, Hamas is looking for battles with Israel away from Gaza. Jordan, you and I have been to the border at Gaza during a conflict, but now they're taking it from those border zones, which are more prepared to handle it, to the streets of Tel Aviv.

Yeah, after a time where it's very quiet. COVID, I mean, Israel is still not really reopened to tourists, and the way that we saw Israel, just like the way we are in our own country, where we're just kind of waking back up to normal life, where people are out on the streets en masse. And the moment they were, so the moment Israelis, just like we are going back more and more to larger events, the moment they were, these terrorists have been preparing. And I think it is, there is also the lack of US leadership, the lack of support, and not just the idea that there's not support. Remember, this is a Biden administration handing out money to groups to say, go and do a report to undermine Israel.

Well, that's exactly right. Jeff, I was going to talk to you about this. You just returned from our offices in Jerusalem just a couple of weeks back.

I know you're about to head over there again. What was your assessment on the, when you're talking to the leaders you were talking to, both in government and NGOs and out in the territories, what were you hearing? Look, there's great concern that support from this administration is not what it was. And it is, they're very much in flux. There's concern and the right to be concerned that even the Palestinian Authority did not deserve the treatment that it's gotten because the Palestinian Authority has been sponsoring, literally paying for terrorists. But now it looks as though even Hamas, which was universally regarded as a terror organization across the board by American politicians, that there's a move for Hamas to try to normalize itself and become the official public voice for the Palestinians, which would mean negotiations with Hamas. And that's tremendously concerning.

Yeah, I mean, I think when you look at this entire issue, and Wes, we talked about this a lot, the tone is important, the way the administration presents itself. I think they look at Afghanistan, they look at these terror groups, look at how the U.S. has responded or lack of response. They know that the world's attention is somewhere else right now.

It's in Eastern Europe. And with another debate about Nazis and all of this coming back up again. So they know that these terror attacks won't be front page news.

Absolutely. And they take advantage of that. Plus, you have an administration here in the United States that is actively, as we speak, negotiating with Iran on renewing the JCPO and the Iran nuclear deal, giving them billions of dollars if it goes through, allowing them perhaps to take the Revolutionary Guard Corps off the terror list. All of these things together, what happened in Afghanistan, our total response on our own southern border, this perception of weakness, and it's an accurate perception, invites all the bad actors around the world to act malevolently because they are convinced they can get by with it right now. We went through four years when there was so little terrorism in the world because of a strong administration here and in Israel, and that is not the case today. You know, Jeff, I'm looking at the backgrounds of the recent attacks.

This isn't all of them. But three of the attackers have been Arab citizens of Israel. So they were citizens of the State of Israel who were believed to support the Islamic State. Then you had two gunmen in Tel Aviv, were Palestinians from the Jenin area in the northern part of the West Bank. One of them, the shooter in Tel Aviv, had no history of militant activity. The gunmen in B'nai Brak had previously served 30 months in Israeli jail for conspiracy to commit manslaughter. So you look at this kind of variety of people with no experience in terrorism, at least that's known of, and then these others that, you know, have already served 30 days or 30 months in prison for terrorism activities. It tells me, this is what it tells me, that the message of the terrorists, they are targeting a broader base of support to acquire the actual terrorists themselves. Jeff?

I think that's right. And you asked what it was like, what it's like on the streets of Israel as well as meeting with Israeli leaders. And what's interesting is that I spent a lot of time, as you know, in Judea and Samaria because we do a lot of work there. And what's interesting is the actual encounters between Jews and Arabs, between me and Arabs, is very positive overall. So this is actually fomenting because when they're living under Israeli sovereignty, there's actually, or in Israeli control, it's actually a good life for them. But now that Israel is looking like it's in bad odor in Washington, D.C., and now there's support not only for what we're saying about Iran as a leader of terrorism, but essentially guaranteeing them nuclear weapons.

And you know that the Obama-Biden administration actually tried to prevent Israel, did prevent Israel from going after Iran's nuclear program more aggressively. So there seems to be now an incentive to actually become militant, an incentive that wasn't there before. And so people who would otherwise maybe get along are now being incentivized to not get along.

It's becoming a sign of pride to be violent against Jews. Do you see, Wes, a link between our failed foreign policies and this increase in terrorism? And now you're about to, you could see the government in Israel actually fall. Oh, absolutely. There is a nexus between what's going on in the United States and Washington, D.C., what's going on in Vienna regarding Iran, and what is going on in Israel.

So you've got, folks, what Wes is saying, what Jeff is saying, too, is you've got to tie all this together. You can't, Jordan, look at this in a vacuum and say, well, it's just one incident. It's not, it's everything. It's a lousy pullout in Afghanistan. It's a war in Eastern Europe. It's indecision on parts of the United States. And when we're funding, you know, research against Israel from the State Department, it sends a very mixed message.

Then we're cutting a deal with the Iranians, which the whole Gulf region, including Israel, says we don't want you to do. All of that together is producing then terror on the streets, which harms the individual Israeli citizen. Yeah, and it was at a time, remember, this is, as they take advantage of all those situations, everything you just listed, plus the fact that people are just starting to go back out. And Tel Aviv is a lot like Miami. It's a beach city, huge, lots of people on the street. They've been, they've not been on the street the last couple of years.

Israel, you see, like, smaller countries like this, too. They've been very careful about COVID because, you know, that kind of spread when you're only a population of 7 million can be really detrimental. But the moment people are back on the streets, these terrorists are now functioning, and I think for us, because we get a little bit, unfortunately, used to gun violence in the U.S., that is not common in these other countries. It's hard to get a firearm. So if you're getting the firearm, it's a planned attack.

It's much more planned than a knife. And the loss of life and the amount of injuries is because of a more lethal weapon. So you see this increase.

This is only a couple, two and a half weeks. And you're starting to see, again, the political uncertainty in Israel and the fact that the U.S. government doesn't have Israel's back. So this is a serious situation. We've got our office there, another reason to support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

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If you want to be part of the show, I'd call right now, 1-800-684-3110. This came in from Pearson on YouTube. It's kind of a broader discussion we've been talking about since we had Congressman Brady on in the first half hour. And she writes, remember those four years when Trump did not get us into a major conflict?

Not anymore. And it does seem like, I mean, we talk about Ukraine, and we talked about with Congressman Brady, we're having to take the lead in the world. I mean, and yes, you could say even the U.S. has dragged its feet on some of these items, but no other countries say we're not going to buy Russian oil and gas.

Nope. No one else has really, yeah, they've seized some guys' yachts. Okay, but that's not impacting the Russian war machine. It's the $35 billion a month that they can guarantee right now they're selling to Europe. Yeah, so what's interesting about this to me is that with all the talk of Europe and all the NATO press conferences, the reality is the Europeans are not doing much, let's be honest. And they are taking in refugees, I will say that, and that's been a good thing. The refugee situation is horrific. I think it's 5.2 million people have left Ukraine.

So they're depopulating Ukraine, which is one of the goals of the Russians. But at the same time, and I think this is important for people to recognize, we have to get an understanding globally of what really is at play here, and it's a very difficult balance for the United States. So, you know, we've been critical of the Biden administration, but there's not easy answers on a lot of these things. Let's be realistic. But one thing there is an easy answer on, and I'm going to go back to what we talked about in the beginning of the broadcast, give economic relief to the American people. That would be an easy one. That they tie up. Now, eventually it passes, but you waste all those months in litigation, three months now in litigation, and still litigating because they don't want to give the American people the break that the American people actually need. And that's what makes no sense.

So you can focus on other things. We've got calls coming, we should take them. Yeah, we're talking about Iran in the last part of the broadcast. Tim caught in from Ohio, online one. Hey, Tim.

Hi, thanks for taking my call. You mentioned the JCPOA, and my question has to do, does this not fall under the, is it not considered a treaty? And if so, would it not fall under the jurisdiction of Senate approval?

And what can the Senate do about the implementation of this or restricting it? No, it's not a treaty. And the Senate declared that it wasn't a treaty.

So the Senate doesn't have to approve it. And what they could do is they could have this ability to, this was a decade ago or seven years ago when the deal went into place. Remember, this deal, I want to remind everybody, every time we talk about it, the deal they're talking about hoping to get back into is only three more years. So I mean, the idea that we put Iran, when Jeff talked about putting Iran on this path to a nuclear weapon, which we've talked about for the last seven years of this 10 years deal, the US pulled out. But no, it is two pages of bullet points that no one signed.

And it's really just a mechanism to get cash to Iran, remove sanctions from Iran, but it is not a treaty. The Senate has this ability. There's a question right now if they could do it. There's not enough votes likely, but they could vote to deny. But the question, they already voted to support it seven years ago. Do they have to even have that vote again? I'm not sure.

And would the vote pass? No. You know, it's interesting. We haven't heard a lot about it in the last couple of weeks. No, I think Russia has scuttled a lot of it.

I think so. Russia was in there negotiating too, believe it or not, as the mediator, which is insane when you think about it. But the other thing you had is you had leaders, Dan Shapiro, one of the leaders that called the Israel Whisperer, that was involved in the process, and he's out. So I think the thing may be falling apart. I think some of the reason you're not hearing about it is because there's chaos. What's happening in Israel right now on the streets of Tel Aviv is, frankly, that's export from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard and Iran. We did a whole documentary on it. It was called The Export. And that's what it was about. You should watch that on ACLJ Films.

It's available for free. It really is eye-opening. We had the leading experts in the world on this.

Iran is the leading exporter of terrorism in the globe. Yeah, I mean, to me, I think when you look at these big issues, and we're talking about them on our broadcast, you look at this week on the show. I want to go through just this week on the show. We talked about the border, the way the states could engage against rescinding Title 42. Two of the top-ranking members of the House of Representatives have been on the broadcast this week. But they're not just on as guests. They're on it because we represent them in court, we represent them in cases. You had Steve Scalise, then today Kevin Brady.

We talk about all the issues, whether it's the free speech issues we talked about with Rick earlier in the week. Ukraine and Russia. The UN Human Rights Commission. Our work at the UN Human Rights Council. Our work in Jerusalem. We just did that.

All of that is actual work. So when we talk about all of these issues which are in the news, for us and for you who support the ACLJ, that is not just talking to talk. Our broadcast has never been about talking to talk. We've tried to continually make the broadcast more about something that even if you just tuned in for five minutes, from that five minutes you can take something away that's different than talking heads on cable news or three-minute discussions. You know, one of the things we sat down at the beginning of the year, we always evaluate at night, and we said to our team, and we had a big meeting with our production team and our folks that are on our broadcasts and said, when you speak, have something that you say that when it's over with, our listener says, I didn't realize that or that I've never thought about it that way.

And that's what we're trying to do each and every day in this broadcast. So we bring you our expert analysis. We bring you our expert team.

What you see is a really nice studio and cameras and lighting. What you don't see behind the screen is six or eight people managing this broadcast for an hour to get it on the air. And then another group of people that are helping put content together as well. And then the social media department that gets us out into bites so we can get it on social media platforms all over the country. Some of our pieces end up in the top 10 of Facebook shares.

I mean, we know that. Even with the difficulty we've had dealing with free speech was Facebook. Remember the other day I was preempting every word I said and saying, by the way, Facebook censors, I'm reading from page such and such of the brief of the United States Department of Justice under the Biden administration. Here's what they actually said.

It was on the Durham matter. And that tells us that what it shows is our ability to get a message out. And then you hear from Thand Bennett and we're taking direct action in Capitol Hill or you just had on Jeff Balaban who's heading right back to our office in Jerusalem.

So, you know, understand the scope and nature of what's happening. And we are in our matching challenge campaign. I'll be honest with you, we're behind. March, we missed our target. We missed our target.

We hit a realistic goal, I would say, but we missed our target. We always have an expansion target. And we've got some major expansion issues coming up. So we need to be expanding, not just hitting an existing target. So this is where you come in.

And I'm going to emphasize what Jordan said. This is only if you're able to do this. If you're not in the financial position to do it, please don't. Pray for the ACLJ. Pray for our team. Encourage others. Side petitions, share the broadcast. Side petitions, share, you know, engage on our social media.

I know everybody can't afford it with the price of gas and food and fuel and everything else. But if you can, we really would appreciate your support for the ACLJ. We're in a matching challenge month.

March and April are matching challenge months. Jordan's going to let you know how to do it, folks. I'd love to end the week on a positive note there. Yeah, I mean, I think it's just a time when, again, it's more and more difficult to get out your message on even the social media platforms. We were going to talk about getting to it today, but Elon Musk is having to ask him anything with the Twitter staff. They're so mad that he bought shares and invested in their company because he wants to open it back up to being a free speech platform.

And now he owns almost 10 percent of the company as the largest shareholder. So I'm hoping that we are going to see this kind of rebirth of free speech and free discussion. And everybody's not just labeled an enemy of the state if you take a different position, which is currently how it feels right now. If you're not in line with the government's position, you're an enemy. Or if I don't agree with you, we become enemies on an issue. And that's not the case. We're all Americans. We should have free, robust debates. Support the work that we're doing to ensure that ACLJ.org. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org.