Biden Losing Grip on Border

Today on Sekulow, is Biden losing his grip on the southern border? Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulow. Well, there's going to be an appeal by the Justice Department because as a matter of principle, we want to be able to be in a position where if in fact it is strongly concluded by the scientists that we need Title 42, that we'd be able to do that. We want to hear from you.

Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. But there has been no decision on extending Title 42. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. It expires May 23rd, so you have to make a decision pretty soon, President Biden, but I think he is losing the grip on this issue with his own party, not just Republicans who are united in the efforts who say you either keep Title 42 or you have the next plan in place if you're going to have this drop. Democrats echoing the same message.

And now it's new Democrats. We're not just seeing it from Sinema and Kelly out of Arizona and Joe Manchin. Senator Gary Peters, a Democrat from Michigan, he chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, and he says, unless we have a well thought out plan, I think it's something that should be revisited and perhaps delayed Title 42. I'm going to defer judgment on that until I give the administration opportunity to articulate what the plan is. What you just heard from President Biden is they don't have a plan yet. They are still debating. And, you know, unfortunately, instead of just moving forward, because we know they don't have a backup to Title 42 yet. We know they don't have a next policy in place that would, again, give the Border Patrol and ICE agents the power they need because of the surging numbers at the border.

Yeah. So here's what's interesting. Senator Mark Kelly, Democrat of Arizona, says right now this administration does not have a plan, as you said, and to be honest, it's going to be a crisis on top of crisis. Democrat Tim Ryan said the administration's decision to roll back Title 42 is wrong and reckless. These are Democrats reporting here. Susie Lee, a Democratic Congresswoman from Nevada, until the administration can demonstrate that there is a plan in place to handle a surge in migration at the border in a humane, safe, and orderly way, I can't support the decision to end Title 42. Sharice David, I'm concerned that the administration is moving too quickly on this.

These are all Democrats. The administration currently, this is from Elaine Luria, Democrat from Virginia, the administration currently does not have a plan. How many times do you want to hear the administration does not have a plan before you realize the administration doesn't have a plan and that the problem here is going to be a humanity crisis at the border that is going to be unprecedented, what we're going to see.

It's going to be a disaster. Yeah, well, we've already seen the March numbers, the highest numbers in the entire Biden administration, they were 221,000 encounters. Let me take you back to March of 2020, the Trump administration, 37,000 encounters. It's still a lot. Yeah, but nothing like 220,000. We talked about invasion of Russia, of Ukraine.

I use those numbers. There are not that many Russian troops in Ukraine. There are more people per month coming in to the United States of America.

So it puts a huge burden on our legal system, on cities and towns, on law enforcement and states are fed up. But now we're starting to see Democrats as well. They do not trust that Joe Biden has got a handle on this.

He doesn't. And that this administration can figure it out. And it's not now. It's just a Republican talking point. There's agreement, which is a big deal in Washington, D.C., agreement in Washington, D.C., that this administration needs to let it continue, let Title 42 continue and then explain to not just Republicans, but Democrats and Americans what they're going to do if they ultimately do rescind Title 42 because they believe the pandemic is over.

But they don't really believe the pandemic is over because surprise, surprise, two days later, they're going to try to force you back into mask on airplanes. Even Georgia Democrat Senator Ralph Warnock, I mean, you're talking about liberal, says he believes in protecting the humanity of migrants on the border. But before this policy is rescinded, the administration should present a plan for how it will ensure border security. So now all of a sudden, every Democrat, including the most liberal Democrats, are talking about what? Security at the border. Guess what?

We had that under the previous administration, but they are so set on undoing everything that the previous administration did, even when it works, that that's what they do. By the way, coming up next, CNN Plus. Bye bye. I do need to say my friend Sean Hannity, longest talk show on cable news in history. Today is his anniversary date on that.

25 years. 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 Planned Parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life.

Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. INTRO President Biden is announcing a new aid package to Ukraine. It's kind of similar to the previous package, about 800 million additional arms. We can get into that later. We got Rick Grenell and Mike Pompeo joining us the second half hour of the broadcast. So we get into some more of those issues. We also saw, by the way, I want to make it clear to everybody right now that the Biden administration has filed notice of appeal in the mask mandate case for travel. So they are not giving up on that. Now, that was set to expire May 3rd, but they want the power to continue to reimpose it.

So while people tossed their masks and thought this battle was over, it is not yet over. They will be in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, and they are now signaling that they would fight this all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court because they believe that this is going to happen. They will be in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, and they are now signaling that they would fight this all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court because they believe the CDC does have the power to issue these mandates, even though the judge here, when this came first before a judge, for the first year of this, this was done by companies. There was no federal mask mandate. Companies decided to do it. TSA decided to do it for their employees. Airports decided to do it on their own as an independent entity. And then the federal government came in a year ago and said, we're going to mandate it when the airlines thought it was time to start lifting it, start loosening it, because of the filtration system they have, the list goes on. The CDC is really more of like a surface cleaner.

I've touched in the studio here. It's about taking care of buildings and making sure it's the right ventilation, cleaning system. The list goes on. What it's not supposed to be about is you.

And the mask doesn't clean. And that's what the judge's reasoning was. So they're going to fight back to say, no, the CDC, they want the power. Whether they extend it, we don't know yet.

We're not going to be rescinded because there's no plan in place. Our Colonel Wes Smith has written an article about this. And Wes, you talk about the moral issues surrounding the border situation as well as national security. I think that should concern us.

But the fact that the Biden administration refuses to take this seriously, and they're not taking it seriously, and refuses to take action just on those two issues alone should raise alarm bells, national security, and then the moral humanitarian issue with sex trafficking in particular. About over 200,000 people were apprehended at the border, 2 million last year. They project another 2 million for this calendar year.

But think about this, Jay. The border patrol agents say that if Title 42 goes away, they will be facing 18 to 20,000 immigrants a day crossing illegally. That translates to over 500,000 a month and multiple millions in a year. I want the American people to understand what we're talking about here. And I've got a lot of compassion on the immigration issue, and I'm the grandson of immigrants. So I think we have to fix the immigration system.

It's totally broken. We're not shipping back 30 million people that are now here that came in, maybe not legally, but that are here. But this is creating a humanitarian crisis at the border. This is where you end up with real human tragedy. This is where the largest number of human sex trafficking comes from, and we know it's usually women under 18.

And it affects, as we've said on this program so many times, every single community in the United States, just not the border states. So when you've got all of the Republicans saying this should not be lifted, now leading Democrats coming out very strongly, and not just the ones that are like Sinema or Joe Manchin that are more moderate in tone, but some of the most liberal. I mean, Senator Warnock from Georgia is a very liberal Democrat, and he's saying we're going to have a humanitarian crisis at the border.

Jordan? Yeah, I think to see that from him, this is, again, you're not just seeing the Sinemas, the Kellys. He is up, again, for election. So there might be some politics at play there, of course, but this is a very liberal US Senator, Raphael Warnock.

Very liberal. And the fact that he is even willing to put that statement out, and if it's because of politics alone, even so against where he usually would be politically, that the issue, I think they realize, big picture, you can't have 221,000 people being encountered by our government. The judicial system cannot handle that. The detainment system does not, so they just let people back out. And again, you're talking about an increase in our population of over a million people over a year.

People who are here illegally, not paying taxes, they're not in the system, and oftentimes are here because of criminal enterprises like human trafficking. Like some kind of communication devices? Yes. Because that's not going to work. But, Wes, I want to talk about, you said the humanitarian crisis on this, because you're also a pastor. And this is going to create a huge humanitarian crisis for a lot of people, a lot of young people, a lot of women and kids.

Yes. I did some research just this week about human trafficking and its sex trafficking in particular. 99% of those who are victims of sex traffickers are women and young girls. But the average age, and by the way, 20,000 to 30,000 young people a year are introduced into the sex trade in the United States alone. 20,000 to 30,000 young people a year. That's cumulative then. Yes, but the average age is 15.

Some are younger, but the average age is 15. That alone should make the Biden administration take this seriously. Because inadvertently, I don't think they think about this, but inadvertently they are facilitating sex trafficking. You know, we did a comprehensive legal analysis. It was a multiyear project that the ACLJ engaged in with a group called Shared Hope, which set model legislation for all 50 states.

And many of those states adopted the legislation, by the way. But putting all the immigration issues aside, the drug influence, the drugs coming over, and the sex trafficking frankly should be enough to say stop. Keep 42 in place until we figure this mess out.

Let me take a listen. This is the Vice President of the Border Patrol Union. He was on Fox News. He's talking about these very issues. This is not about the economic issues and people, oh, we need to open our borders because people have bad economic situations. But he's talking about the crime and the human toll this takes on these migrants who are sold a bill of goods and are being abused by these traffickers and coyotes by Ford. A three-year-old little girl who was completely abandoned by smugglers.

This was in Santa Teresa, New Mexico. That little girl had no parents, no guardians with her, and thankfully those agents were there to save her and keep her safe. And the VP of the Border Patrol Union says that issue, those abandoned kids, is becoming a major, major problem.

Take a listen. It's continuing to happen because, again, there is no consequences for individuals coming across our borders. In America, where you can't even leave a dog inside a car with the windows rolled up, yet individuals are allowed to turn over their children to drug smugglers, human smugglers, sex traffickers. And at the end are facing zero consequences for it.

This is a tragedy against humanity and against young women. And, of course, the drug impact of this has been felt by every family. And, Wes, when I look at the situation and try to get, you know, kind of a sense of where the proportionality of this, describe again the numbers of people we're talking about coming in each day according to the Border Patrol if 42 is lifted. Yeah, they're thinking 18 to 20,000 a day. Right now we average between 8 and 10,000.

It will double the amount, which means instead of 200,000 people a month, which we're averaging now, it will be closer to a half million people, 500,000 people a month, which goes from 2 million a year to multiple millions every year. And they're not going to be able to be processed, Jordan. I mean, we know that from past experience.

It just doesn't happen. The immigration court, Jay, has a 1.5 million case backlog. We do have a call.

I think we should take it. Yeah. Sharon in Kansas online, too. Hey, Sharon, welcome to Secular. You're on the air. Hello, guys.

Thank you so much for what you do. I have a question. Didn't the court rule on the Remain in Mexico policy that that was supposed to be being enforced? And if it was, why isn't something being done about that? Well, I mean, there's – the administration has to – whether it's constitutional or not is one thing. Whether the administration decides they want to enforce that policy is something else.

So right now the determination is not whether it's constitutional or not. It's whether the – what policy the administration wants to have. And when you go through the list of senators and congressmen that are Democrats, this is – it's a consistent theme. Senator Peters, unless we have a well-thought-out plan. Mark Kelly, right now the administration does not have a plan. Tim Ryan, these are all Democrats. The administration's decision to roll back Title 42 is wrong and reckless.

Susie Lee from – this is – she's a Democrat from Nevada. Until the administration can demonstrate that there is a plan in place to handle the surge, I'm concerned the administration is moving too quickly and doesn't have a plan. Sharice Davids, this is the problem. This is the problem. Well, there's a case set up too. It's the Supreme Court. Now, it's about whether or not they removed it the right way. Texas filed a lawsuit saying you can't just rescind these policies. There's a procedure you have to go through.

It's the same thing happening with Title 42 as well. This is on Remain in Mexico as well. So that is an oral argument set up just for next week, April 26. So we're watching that closely. We're talking about – we're going to update too. We're in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today out in California in a case on pro-life activism. And we're going to have Ed White join us for an update there. It shows you the dedication we have to protecting not just the life of the unborn but to those who fight and those who are part of the activist world because that's part of the pro-abortion movement is to shut them down.

Talk about that when we come back. 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.

Welcome back to Sekulow. It's important to point out, too, when we talk about our work at the American Center for Law and Justice on life, and especially because people focus in on the cases, the cases about a case out of Mississippi, the Dobbs case at the Supreme Court, the case we're doing out of South Dakota on informed consent, more about actually protecting the life of the unborn, protecting the women who are thinking about these decisions. As well, out of South Dakota, that informed case where we represent Governor Noem and the state there in that case. But we also do a lot of work to protect pro-life activists and pro-life speech. And what we've warned you about is that in the blue states, especially if the Dobbs case is a successful case and we're able to go throughout pro-life states and put in similar laws, a lot of states are already doing those similar laws at 15 weeks abortion bans after 15 weeks. But we know that in blue states, even in cities, in blue cities, there is this idea to go after the pro-life activists, to put them basically into financial ruin, silence them, shut them up, put gag orders on them, not allow them to just have the freedom of speech in our country, to talk and to expose what they believe and what we believe is the murder of innocent children. And we're doing one of those cases right now.

And for a long time, this shows the dedication of our work when we represent a client. In this case, not a state, not a law, but an individual. But as Jordan said, this is when it shows that we don't just defend life, but we defend those that defend life. The case is called Planned Parenthood Federation of America versus Troy Newman. Joining us on the phone is a senior attorney that is in charge of this case, Ed White, the former assistant U.S. attorney as well in his previous career. Ed, let's talk about this case because it's being argued today.

What's at stake? What's at stake is future investigations by pro-life activists of Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry. So this is a case that has been going on for at least seven years now. This is the undercover investigation of Planned Parenthood abortion doctors. You've probably seen the videos where the woman was negotiating the sale of body parts and said she wanted a Lamborghini out of the deal.

This is that case. This caused a lot of change in the country. There were investigations. There was the funding of Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood did here, suing in San Francisco, was able to achieve a judgment against these pro-life advocates of multiple millions of dollars, something like $16 million, counting attorneys fees, and a permanent injunction to stop them from doing what they were doing.

And that's what's at stake. It is silencing the pro-life movement and trying to prevent any other pro-lifer in the near future from ever even thinking about doing this because what was exposed to Planned Parenthood showed the horrific practices of Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry in a daily activity throughout this country. I actually made one appearance in this case in U.S. District Court in San Francisco when this first started and we started talking about the free speech implications because, Jordan, there are serious, very serious free speech implications here.

I think the reason why the Dobbs case is where it is right now and why we saw the states willing to go and fight this battle out again was because of these videos. No longer was it just us saying that, again, the science, the technology that we have to see this life forming in the womb and that this is a murder of an innocent child. But then we had the nastiness of the abortionists and their industry and what it showed is their industry, their conferences, that it is a business.

And that's what the exposure here was that you're dealing with. It's like a big business and it's all about money and they are so callous to the human life that they would say, even jokingly, I want a Lamborghini out of these aborted baby's body parts. Correct, because for them it's not really life.

It is a commodity. They are making money off of something. I think they are beyond thinking that it's life. To them it's just an object. And it is amazing to talk to these people and to see the callousness in their eyes, in their speech, when all I'm thinking about as a father of five children is you are ripping apart a child, an innocent child, and torturing this child, and I do not know how you can live with yourself. And to them it's like, hey, you know, I'll sell you this heart for so many dollars, I'll sell you this, I'll sell you that.

Well, they were talking about how they had to change the way in which they did the procedures in order to preserve the body parts, Ed, if you remember. So this is violating law. Which is violating law. But here's the danger of this case, and this is why it's so important, that's why we, again, it's not just defending life at the ACLJ, it's defending those who defend life.

And by the way, we've been doing that for almost 40 years. But this case in particular has really serious implications because I think what Jordan said is absolutely correct. The impetus for a lot of these actions on the state laws that we saw come in place came in in a post videos from the Center for Medical Progress and others.

Now our client was one of the board members. But they are trying to really hammer these individuals and silence them, Ed, once and for all. Exactly. Exactly. That is the achievement here.

Yes. So they are trying to prevent, there are still videotapes that are under seal by the court, they're trying to prevent those other videotapes from seeing the light of day. They are also trying to destroy, personally, financially, the pro-life advocates who did the work here, and to send a message to anyone else, don't even try doing this. At the same time, even though they said that these videos were manipulated, highly edited, do you remember that line they were using? At the trial, they admitted that the words spoken on the videotapes were the actual words spoken.

So they admitted that this is not an edited tape. What you were seeing on these videotapes that are public, that is what happened. And I agree with both of you that the shock and awe of these videotapes caused politicians to wake up, the American citizens to wake up, to realize this is what goes on every day in this country.

It is horrific, it needs to stop, we need to shine a floodlight on this so people see what is going on, and this has to end. And I think that was a great thing from this investigation. Remember the Gosnell trial, the abortion industry was under a big spotlight and it was not good for them. And so since then, they've taken their billion dollars of resources to try and shut everybody up. And let me tell you, we win that Dobbs case, they're going to try to shut everybody up again. In a way you cannot even imagine. There's a lot of allies in places like San Francisco, the federal court, basically if you look at the coast and you look at the deeply blue states, they use city councils, they use county commissions, they use state government.

They don't just focus on the federal government. Ed, we appreciate your comments on this, let us know how the hearing goes. It's today, correct? This afternoon? Yes, in about a half hour.

Alright, well let us know how it goes, we'll have a follow up on an update on the broadcast tomorrow. Let me say this folks, this is seven years of litigation, can you imagine the man hours on this? Legal time put into this? I will tell you this, this is defending those who speak up for life, and we have been doing that since the 1980s. But this case is now at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which means the next stop on this case is the Supreme Court of the United States. We are in a matching challenge at the ACLJ.

George is going to tell you how to do this. Your support of the ACLJ right now is absolutely critical. It's one of the most important things we do, is standing up for life, and you can be part of our team helping us to do just that. Yeah folks, we have a matching challenge right now, if you're financially able to, and I know some people are in a tough situation right now, because of the current state of the economy. But if you're in a good situation, this is a great time to donate, because you can double the impact of your donation, your support for the ACLJ. That's at ACLJ.org, be part of our matching challenge, double the impact of your donation. $25 donation, like $50 for the ACLJ at ACLJ.org.

Rick Grenell and Mike Pompeo coming up next in the second half hour. 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. I'm talking about freedom. I'm talking about freedom.

We will fight for the right to live in freedom. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulow. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow.

I'd like to say it this way. What happens when you hire Chris Wallace? Your network is done in three weeks. CNN Plus is over. Their highest star, highest paid star, was Chris Wallace, who left Fox News, and I don't think they were particularly upset about him leaving Fox News, to CNN Plus, to a streaming service on a network that was already not getting good ratings. So how many people were going to subscribe? Well, it was under 10,000 at some point. That was including CNN staff getting free subscriptions. Then they said there may be 100,000. What we know is there weren't 100,000 because it shut down. They are in the process now.

Guys were just talking about it yesterday. We were traveling, Dad, and they are shutting the service down. The new owners of CNN are winding this down.

It's done. So Chris Wallace, they're all freaking out. I think, again, who really wants to watch him? You think about the market for people. You can understand why there's an MSNBC market. Because they get out there and they're actually trying to convince and support a liberal ideology. So if you're a liberal, you say, I want to go to them because they're helping me make my argument. You go to Fox News, you get the news of the day, and then it goes to opinion broadcasting where you get a conservative viewpoint so you can make your argument. Then you go to CNN, and one, it's very liberal, but they dump on everybody. They're just snarky and nasty. And Chris Wallace was like the face of that.

I think one of the worst offenders of that whole team. Except you probably never saw him on CNN because it never really got off the ground. And it's done. Here's what they said.

Warner Brothers Discoveries decided to shut down CNN Plus, the streaming service that had been intended to bring CNN into the digital future, just a week after its splashy debut. It's interesting to me. Like you said, I've been on all these networks a lot. They're the worst. Difficult. When I say difficult, I know he's no longer on the network. I happened to get along fine on air with Chris Cuomo. But I had interchanged with Don Lemon. That was ridiculous. Insulting, actually. I would say this about CNN.

I've talked to a lot of people who do a lot of media like we do. And they would say it this way. The interview would go like three questions fine, like an Anderson Cooper type.

The fourth question would be a personal attack. They would randomly personally attack you. And you realize that's the snark. They act like the news or some reporter that no one watches in the country is better than the person they're asking the questions about who's the expert.

And they always hit you with some snark. And I think the American people just start shutting it off. Both sides of the aisle.

It neither appeals to liberals or conservatives. They spike occasionally because of their international capabilities. So when the war starts in Ukraine, they obviously have more reporters out in the field than anybody. But that does not translate to long-term success in the cable news world. If you've turned it on in the night right now, you get random people, people you've never really seen before who are hosting primetime shows.

It's either very boring or very snarky. You know, I'll never forget when I was on with – I think it was Anderson Cooper. Like you said, it started out fine and then they had – I think it was Phil Mudd. Yeah, someone else comes in.

And they have him play the spoiler. And he asked me – we were talking about the Mueller investigation and whether the President should give testimony or anybody should give testimony. Phil Mudd made this comment. I said, you wouldn't bring your client in to do this in front of these people. Then you find out he's not a lawyer. I mean it's – this was – and then I'll never forget a handoff that Don Lemon did to – from Chris Cuomo to Don Lemon where Don Lemon made some snarky comment about me and I'm really nasty. After you're asked to be – after they're begging you to be on – begged you to be on their network, begged you to be on their network, and then they would do that. And then Chris Cuomo, to his credit, said I'd hire J-Sec.

He was my lawyer today. But they would beg you to come on the network and then they would do that. Yeah, it was always – that's their issue. It wasn't just like a liberal conservative exchange on the issues, the back and forth.

That's one thing. No, you could respect that and have it, the conversation. It was always a personal slide and attack. Every time I've been on – even I've been on for persecuted Christians, the first four questions would be great. The fifth question was attack on the ACLJ.

I mean it was like, why am I here? I'm talking to nobody on this broadcast. And evidently at CNN Plus you will be talking to nobody because it's over.

Hopefully – I don't think many of the people watching our broadcasts are listening right now paid for that service, so – but don't worry, even if you did, you shouldn't be charged next month. All right, we've got Rick Renell coming up. 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, Planned Parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life.

Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. All right, welcome back to Sec Hill. We're joined right now by our Senior Advisor for National Security and Foreign Policy, Rick Riddell.

Rick, a few topics I want to hit today right off the bat. So we just got the news too on CNN Plus folding. We were talking about our own experiences on CNN and this idea that, you know, the one thing on MSNBC, at least you know what you're getting. On Fox News, you know what you're getting. And then on CNN, what you're getting is mostly a lot of pretty boring and then a lot of snark. Usually personal attacks. It wasn't about issues so much. It wasn't like have a debate, conservative, liberal, come on.

You can still, you know, be polite, even if it's a tough debate. It would always be like something they'd slip in that was personal. And then they bring on, you know, Chris Wallace to this team, like people are going to pay extra for a guy that they didn't want to watch anymore on cable news. And now we've gotten the breaking news alert that it's folded. What do you think the impact is for the media?

You know, it's really remarkable. I saw somebody on Twitter and I retweeted it say it turns out that people don't want to pay for something that they don't want for free. And CNN Plus should have realized this a long time ago that their ratings are in the tank. When you have the opportunity to watch CNN's content for free, you're not doing it.

So why would they think that people want to pay for content that they're clearly avoiding when it's free? So this is just the typical big tech Washington, New York corridor mentality that they know what's best. Remember that everybody at CNN and all of these mainstream cable and network news organizations, they're all based in New York City. All of the people are New York City types, all of their workers, their senior vice Presidents.

They really miss the rest of America so much. And that's why there's such a chasm between the media that are dominated in Washington, D.C. and New York City and the rest of America. But I think the CNN Plus thing is going to be a very big wake up call to start listening to your viewers and what do they want in order to move forward and expand. One more thing on this, Rick, and that is my view is, and I've been doing media a long time, I know you have too, is when something fails so significantly like this did, where out of the gate it just folds, it should be sending a message, like you said, to all the media that people are consuming their information differently. I mean, you think about all the platforms we're broadcasting on terrestrial radio, satellite radio, all of the different media platforms, Rumble to Facebook to YouTube to others, Instagram. You look at all of that and you say, okay, the world is changing. The problem is, like you said, the big tech control, though, is such a big deal because we deal with a battle almost every week now where we're flagged for something, which eventually goes, by the way, in our favor, where they say no, you were right. And some of it was like we were giving legal analysis and reading the legal document.

But the big tech control of this is acting as a big brother sensor. That's part of the problem here. It's a darn good thing that ACLJ has the best lawyers and the most courageous leaders because we do get attacked all the time and we know how to fight back.

And so if you're listening to us, I think you've got to be very proud of the fact that you don't have wimps here. We're not going to back down from the fight. But the same people who looked at the CNN Plus launch and ratings and said, you know, we should pull the plug, should probably look and make the same decision at many of the CNN shows because let's face it, the CNN shows have tanked in their ratings.

They're at the lowest ever. Sometimes they're coming in fourth place in some of these shows. It's embarrassing, but they're not making the same decisions yet. And I think that it is a signal for the rest of CNN that you might have new leaders who want to make better decisions about supply and demand.

They get obsessed. And one of those things they've been obsessed with is the mask and things like that, the kind of virtue signaling through their reporters, through their clients. And finally, they kind of started lifting that. But now I want to turn to this, Rick, which is we're seeing the Biden administration. They now decided after two days, no, they didn't want they don't want to give up the power just in case they ever want to again through the CDC, which is all the judges.

You used the wrong agency to do this. So now we've seen an appeal after America celebrated. And instead of just going along with that celebration and backing down because it was going to expire on May 3rd anyways. Nope, they're going to fight it out in federal court.

Yeah, let's be clear. The Biden administration and Democrats are really moving to have a mask mandate again. And any Democrat who is not speaking out against this is really a part of the mask mandate team. And so I'm thinking of people like Mark Kelly in Arizona. I'm thinking of Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada. Their silence on this means that they are supportive of the Biden administration wanting us to mask up.

You live in Nevada, if you live in Arizona and you live in some of these swing states, where are these Democrats? Why are they not pushing back? It's because they want to mandate masks on public transportation. It's outrageous.

I took a flight last night. People were celebrating the fact that that were not asked up. You know, it's interesting to me the whole politicization of this whole thing. I mean, you had President Biden say, well, if you want to wear a mask, wear a mask. And by the way, it's a free country.

If you do want to wear a mask, wear a mask. We don't care. But then the idea here that the airline industry said, hey, look, you know, we really don't need you to do that.

I mean, if you want to, it's fine. But we don't need you to do that because we've spent, you know, who knows how much money on filtration systems like we did here. You know, when COVID first hit here, Rick, I think you were here once when we had talked about this. We, because obviously we're in studio spaces, so it's closed in spaces, we put in really, I could hear them in the background, elaborate filtering systems to protect our staff. I didn't need the government to tell me to do this. Jordan and I didn't say, and Logan say, oh, let's see what the government makes us do. We said, okay, what is the best system we can put in place to protect our team? That's what we said. And that's what we did. Yeah, I mean, I think that this, again, it just goes to the airlines did this on their own for the entire time until about a year ago.

When the government decided they wanted to step in and support it. And we thought, you know, for a couple of days, maybe because of the midterm elections coming up and issues like that, maybe they'd let this one go. It's like they can't let the mask mandates go. It's like, Rick, they just don't want, I was just in New York yesterday.

You start a full change. You see that there's no more show your papers. There's no more mask mandates there, you know, restaurants and in businesses, unless the business wants to decide to do that. And there's a lot more people out because of it. And that's not a red city.

It's a very blue city. And still people, they feel like, okay, these restrictions are off, tourists are back, but they don't want to give this power up. No, they love the power. And let's remember that we still have all these phony plexiglass systems where, you know, you're behind a plexiglass. And how many times are you behind one of these things? And the person at the cash register literally leans around the plexiglass. We all know the plexiglass is like a phony thing. And so everyone's avoiding it doesn't work. Remember that the airlines were never shut down through the height of COVID. We kept airlines going because what we said is they have the best filtration system. You're totally protected.

So it just goes common sense way to think if they have the best filtration system and they don't shut during COVID, they should be the first ones to lose the mask. So more aid with switching topics here is going to Ukraine, $800 million more and more munitions. What's your sense of where we are right now in this whole situation, Rick? Look, I have to be blunt.

Your heart breaks when you see this. You want to help. We have this organization called the United Nations where we spend billions of dollars. Where's the U.N.? The organizations that are designed to come forward in crises like humanitarian crises are not stepping up.

And so Americans are once again personally writing checks. I do think that the lesson here is that we have to be able to sell weaponry to countries before we have to give it away to them when they actually need it in a crisis. Years ago, we should have been selling to Ukraine, might have avoided war. We should have never had a emphasis on helping the Germans build Nord Stream 2 pipeline. We should have kept the Trump sanctions on the Russian pipeline.

Remember, the Democrats dropped those sanctions and quickly created this Russian offense. You know, I wonder, Rick, as these things unfold, of course, it's hard, like you said, the whole thing's heartbreaking. But I want to say this, as you know, we're in a matching challenge campaign here at the ACLJ, and we're about 10 percent behind of where we want to be. We closed the gap actually a little bit.

We were a little bit further behind. But you know from your experience in government also the work of the ACLJ on the global scale. I think if you just take a moment and talk about that to our donors to encourage them, those that are able. I know people are struggling right now, so we're not going to focus on that, but people that are able to support the work of the ACLJ.

Yeah, look, when you talk about national security and you talk about action in the courts, all of these things that we know are important issues. ACLJ is at the front. I spent eight years at the UN and not many organizations will do the work to get accredited at the UN in order to do the fights. And ACLJ is there.

It takes a long time to do these detailed issues. What I love about ACLJ is we don't try to do everything. We try to do a couple of things really well and dig deep. So if you care about lawsuits, if you care about legal challenges, ACLJ is your organization.

If you care about national security and global issues and doing the fights that we need to in multilateral organizations, ACLJ is where you need to go. So I just hope people recognize that if you care about this content, give it some dollars. We appreciate that. Thanks, Rick.

And as always, great insight on such a variety of issues. Folks, support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org. And that's also how we have Rick. That's how Rick is on.

Mike Pompeo is going to be joining us next segment of the broadcast. That's how we're able to say join our team, guys, and they join because of your support, 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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Welcome back to Secular. We're joined now by our Senior Counsel for Global Affairs, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. And Secretary Pompeo, I want to jump right into Title 42.

We saw the President this morning. He was giving a speech on Ukraine aid, but he got asked about Title 42, which is set to expire May 23rd. And for the first time since really the White House has been saying that they're going to let this basically expire, he took a step back and said they haven't made a decision on Title 42 yet. And we're seeing a growing list of Democrats. Yes, they're up for reelection, Secretary Pompeo, but they're also, these are not all moderates.

These are not all like the cinemas of the world. We're starting to see Raphael Warnock in Georgia start calling for Title 42 to stay in place until there is another policy ready. We saw the highest numbers in the entire Biden administration, 221,000 encounters just last month. Do you think the Biden administration is finally figuring out they can't just let this policy go?

Jordan, I think they're hearing that from everywhere. You talked about Senator Warnock. You talked about Senator Sinema. But they're hearing it from constituents all across the country that this will, the lifting of Title 42 with no other plan, right? If you want to lift Title 42, fair enough, but you have to have a plan.

You have to ever made in Mexico. You have to have you have to give the CBP the resources and money. You've got to build the wall.

You have to do the things that secure our southern border. And I think they can say that this will be a calamity. It'll be a calamity for America to be calamity for them politically. I was in I was in Pennsylvania and West Virginia yesterday and I can't tell you how many families I heard from that have been impacted by this. Families that have had loved ones that have encountered folks who came across the border illegally that committed crimes, families that are now being truly impacted by fentanyl in ways that we've seen happen with meth. We've seen happen with opioids. This is serious business.

And I know I don't know what to make of what President Biden said this morning, but they cannot lift Title 42 absent a plan to actually secure another border, protect our sovereignty. You know, Mike, you mentioned the fentanyl situation that's affecting every family and almost touching every family or directly or indirectly in America. I mean, it is it is out of control.

I would we've all experienced this. And I mean, I was playing golf with some friends of mine in Florida last week. And one of the folks I was playing with, same thing as a child in the fentanyl thing is just a disaster. And it just coming in through that border. And we know it. I want to turn for a moment, if we can, to the situation on persecution, which is something the ACLJ and our European Center for Law and Justice and our affiliates around the globe have been working on for a long time. Easter and Passover and Easter's over, of course, Passover ends on Saturday.

My family, we celebrate both. You wrote up for ACLJ.org a piece reminding us that we celebrate to remember those around who don't have the freedom to celebrate, which is really the story also, of course, of Passover. As you view it now, I've always taken a concern. And you've said this long time ago when you first came on this broadcast, the countries that are the most free protect religious freedom.

Those that do not are less free. What's your sense of where we are globally right now? I regret, Jay, that this administration hasn't put the energy and emphasis on allowing people, in fact, putting pressure on governments to allow all of the people to practice right here. This this holy season at Easter this past weekend, Passover continues Ramadan, too, for the Muslims. We want people to be able to practice their faith everywhere. And the Trump administration, we worked tirelessly to help Christians in northern Iraq and in Nigeria to help Catholics have more religious freedom in China, all across the world, because we knew it mattered to the soul and to human dignity.

But importantly, as a secretary of state, it made America more secure to these nations that permitted religious practice inside their own countries were less likely to present a real risk to the United States of America as well. You know, we know right now, Secretary Pompeo, there's a lot of focus on Russia, but China, the persecution there and Russia is kind of an interesting space. I wouldn't say that it's a totally religiously free country under Putin. And it's certainly you see what they're doing Ukraine and they use religion as a justification for their war.

There's issues there. But China is committing a genocide against Muslims. And I feel like the only people ever talk about it are it's the conservatives in our country and a lot of corporate America doesn't want to acknowledge it. But our government has acknowledged it. Your State Department acknowledged it and the current administration does acknowledge it.

But it just doesn't get a lot of talk. And here we are, we're standing up for the persecuted Muslims in China and everyone else looks the other way. Yeah. It's remarkable, Jordan, to watch the work you all have done at ACLJ, right?

This organization that I'm proud to be part of now. This is this is not about a particular faith, but about the central understanding of humanity and the capacity to practice one's faith. And it is it is heartbreaking to see too few nations put this as a priority to watch the Biden administration not listed as a priority to watch our biggest companies in the world attack America. And allow the kinds of religious practices that are taking place in China today, the tearing down of house churches, allowing the Catholics to practice only if those bishops could be selected by the Chinese Communist Party. These are these are tyrannical authoritarian impositions on religious freedom.

And it seems that American business wants to just turn the other way. You know, it's so ironic in the Middle East, one of the countries that gives the most breath for religious freedom and it hosts three of the major religions of the world, of course, is Israel. And because there's a Arab Muslim population, there's a Christian population, of course, a Jewish population. But yet we're seeing an increased violence just in the last couple of really weeks from jihadists, some claiming to be ISIS in Israel. What's your sense there? And how do you view that? I mean, I know you work very tirelessly on realignments in the Middle East and with Israel and Israel's government right now is kind of barely hanging on before they may have to go to elections or new leadership. What's your sense? I mean, Benjamin Netanyahu could be back as prime minister, they're saying.

Where do you see things right now? So the government is in a very precarious position. The thing that it held this government together when it was formed originally was just their collective desire to make sure that Benjamin Netanyahu wasn't the prime minister.

So it was very contentious. It's a remarkable nation. You're right, you have Arabs in the government, you have Muslims in the government. People talk about it being an apartheid nation or an occupying nation.

It is the most religiously free nation in that entire part of the world. I worry deeply about what's taking place today. These terror attacks out of the West Bank and out of Gaza forced the Israelis to do the right thing to defend their own people. But the risk of this escalating, especially around the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Temple Mount, these are things that present real risk, not only to the people that are living there in Israel, but the people of the entire region. We built out the Abraham Accords for a reason. I pray that those nations that took such bold steps will continue to expand their relationship with Israel and we won't go backwards.

The lead story on the Jerusalem Post right now is Temple Mount tensions further emboldened Hamas, so this is what's going on. Mike, we appreciate it as always. Mr. Secretary, thanks for being part of the team. Thank you for your insight. Folks, I want to say this again. We have an office also, guess where?

Jerusalem. That's the reach of the ACLJ and our affiliates around the world. None of it happens. This broadcast doesn't happen. The information that we give you doesn't happen.

The ability to have Mike Pompeo and Rick Grenell as part of our team does not, as well as our other people that you see and don't see. It doesn't happen without your support to the ACLJ. We're in the last week here of our matching challenge campaign. I want to encourage you to support our work. Any amount you donate to the ACLJ, Jordan, we're going to get a matching gift for. Support the work of the ACLJ. ACLJ.org. You can double the impact of your donation. That's ACLJ.org. It's a great time to donate if you can.

There's like a $50 donation right now. You make it online at ACLJ.org. That is like $100 for us at the ACLJ because that will trigger the match from a group of donors that say we'll match all the donations in the month of April. It's really important. These are months that we really are able to base the continued work and the future development of our work. Support it at ACLJ.org.

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