BREAKING: Biden Tests Positive for COVID

This is Jay Sekulow. We've got breaking news.

The President tests positive for COVID. 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, Jay Sekulow. Hey everybody, there's breaking news and we've got a lot to talk about on today's broadcast.

So I want to start with offering our prayers for the President who has been diagnosed with COVID. So this is obviously breaking news. All the networks are covering it, which they have to. He's going to be working from the White House. It appears that the symptoms right now are minimal.

And he's on plexibil, which is the antiviral drug. Yeah, I think a lot of people, obviously this is breaking news. Everyone is covering it right now. So we figured we had to come on here as well. So we're not going to focus exclusively on this today.

We have a great show lined up with some really incredible content from all over the world. But we didn't want to start off with this breaking news. Again, it's kind of taken over the news media coverage this morning, which is that President Biden has tested positive for COVID. We know there's a large uptick in COVID around the world. Yeah, so it's not shocking in some ways that after he was in Israel, Saudi Arabia, and then of course back in the United States.

And there's, you know, there's so much protecting you can do. I mean, he's the President of the United States. He's going to be meeting with people.

That's part of the document. I think it's okay to ask some questions, which is, you know, he's in his 80s. Obviously it's a concern with any age, but that's obviously in sort of one of the higher risk demographic is what this kind of process looks like. I think beyond just President Biden has COVID opens up a lot of questions for the American people. So yeah, a lot of networks have covered this already saying, okay, well what does that look like if the President has to, you know, when do powers have to switch?

When do things have to happen? Because that happens temporarily from time to time throughout presidencies. We have continuity in government procedures and laws in place. So there's not, you're never going to have a gap in a President. That's why we have vice Presidents. There are times where Presidents have, when they've gone under surgery, have temporarily transferred power to the vice President and the vice President is in the role of President. So that tells the world we're a stable country. It tells our institutions it's a stable environment.

He's nowhere near that from what we're gathering. And again, our wishes and look, put the politics aside on this. As the President of the United States, you may disagree with every policy he has, you don't wish anybody harm. Look, President Trump had COVID, now President Biden has COVID. Most of us unfortunately have had experience with COVID. I mean, I had a death in my own family.

My brother passed away from COVID of a year ago, almost next week. So look, we want to pray for the recovery, but there is a process in place so you have a continuity of government. The framers were very wise and that's why you have a vice President, by the way. You know, they always say the vice President's one step away from what's the most important job of the vice President? Being prepared to be President. Even if it's temporarily. So we have a continuity in government procedure in place. It's there to protect our institutions and our constitutional republic. And that's the way it works, even in a time like this.

Yeah, nowhere near that at this point. We'll continue coverage if necessary, but we are going to move on in the next few segments. The next segment, we're going to discuss what's going on in terms of it, although you probably heard the border and the planes and the buses that are coming into these big liberal cities.

And guess what? You have a city like New York and you have a state like New York in these areas that now all of a sudden their tune is changing when thousands and thousands of people are showing up and they have nothing for them to do or nowhere for them to go. Any economy is going to be joining us in the next segment, but look, New York Mayor Adams said they are proud to be a sanctuary city.

And now he's saying that was like a year ago. Now he's saying we can't do this. Where are their institutions or social network is overrun. They can't meet the demand. They're asking for federal government help. How come the media doesn't jump on New York when they ask for help? But when Texas or Arizona asked for help, it's a constitutional crisis.

We're not going to help them. Yes, we're going to discuss the political politics on that one. Yep. We're going to talk about that. You'll hear clips from the mayor himself.

We're also going to have on the economy next time at West Smith. Later on, Rick Grenell and Jeff Balaban both coming from Israel. Big reports from Israel today. So it'll be pretty interesting to hear the rest of the show. So make sure you stay tuned. If you're watching on social media, share this broadcast with your friends.

That's how people see it. That's how more people get the information is if you share. So if you're watching right now on Facebook, click that share button right now as we go into a quick break and we will be right back. In the meantime, support the work of the ACLJ.

You can do that by going to ACLJ.org. We are in the middle of our matching challenge right now. That means if you give a donation, all donations are effectively doubled right now at ACLJ.org. We'll be right back. Hey, welcome back to the broadcast everyone. So New York advertised itself. I hate to say, is that the right word? I guess it is promoted itself.

Yeah. Bragged about. Bragged about being a sanctuary city that they wanted. People that were coming into the country illegally were welcomed in Manhattan.

Welcomed in New York. Yeah. We have clips on it, right? We have clips. They talked about that. We'll play some of those in a little bit here where they specifically said. Let's play one. Yeah. We have one coming up.

I think we have one from just this week that has become a burden after they set all that up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they were welcoming. They were going to be the sanctuary city. We welcome these aliens to our shore kind of approach.

And then the reality hit. And the reality is, and we have said this on this broadcast for a long time now, that whether you're living in Texas or Arizona or California border states or whether you're in Manhattan or Atlanta or a town in Mississippi, this situation with an unregulated, unprotected border is wreaking havoc. And now, Andy, the mayor of New York is saying it's wreaking havoc on their social service systems.

Well, that's not a surprising result. You're a sanctuary city. You're welcoming the world, documented and undocumented. That's a very altruistic and wonderful concept and idea to have. Come one, come all, come to New York, we'll take care of you. But then the reality sets in about taking care of you. When you get them, first you've got to house them. You've got to clothe them. You've got to feed them.

You've got to treat them for medical illnesses, both psychological illnesses and physical illnesses. And they're human beings. And you've got to do it with dignity.

Even if they're here illegally, they're human beings. You've got to do it with dignity. And they just can't do it. That's the problem.

That's exactly right, Jay. I'm not saying to deny it, but the burden that is on there is finally being realized by the mayor. I'm not saying don't give people medical help when they need it.

Of course we do that. But then don't campaign on a platform of come one, come all, this is a sanctuary city. And finally, you see the reality between politicking and campaigning and governing. It's a different world altogether. And Mayor Adams has now finally realized this as the other people and the mayors and other city councilors are seeing in other parts of the United States.

It's not an easy thing to welcome and at the same time to treat and to take care of. Let's compare and contrast the mayor, Mayor Adams. This was just about 10 months ago back in October. He put out a tweet.

Let's get it up on the screen. It says we should protect our immigrants period. Yes, New York will remain a sanctuary city under an Adams administration. And that again was from October 20th of 2021. So not all that long ago, about 10 months ago.

And then let's hear from the mayor. When was this? Yesterday?

Yesterday. This was the mayor yesterday. This is a real burden on New Yorkers as we're trying to do the right thing. We already, as I stated, we already have an overburdened shelter system.

So now we're talking about, as you stated, food, clothing, school. A lot of people are commenting about this because you see Mayor Adams saying, wait, now we're overwhelmed. There's too much going on. We have an overburdened shelter system. We know the homeless crisis throughout the country has skyrocketed. If you've been to any major city, it is a mess currently.

But you brought up a point. A lot of times people when these situations happen, there are some states who need populace. Yeah, so normally, this is what's so unusual about this. So first they were trying to blame Texas and Arizona for sending these folks to New York City. Both Texas and Arizona said that's not true. In fact, there's video of aircraft coming into New York from the federal government moving these folks there. Normally you bring a populace that you've allowed into the country legally or illegally. You bring them to less populated areas where there's a need for labor.

There's a better capability of taking care of people. They picked New York. The federal government did this. That's because New York said we're going to be this welcoming culture. But when you've got the mayor of New York City, Mayor Adams, saying that he's now asked the federal government to provide aid to support the city as migrants continue to pour in. Pour in is what he's saying, Andy. Not trickle in, pour in. This is a policy failure that's now impacting Manhattan and Brooklyn and Queens.

That's right, Jay. It is a policy failure. And that's the difference between politicking on one platform and actually governing in the realities of the situation. He says it's an undue burden. And I also noted in his statement that he talks about our clients. We have to serve our clients. I guess he means the populace of New York that is there plus those that are coming in. And he's treating them as clients.

Well, that's a good thing to do. But as you said, we don't want anyone to starve or freeze or be sweltering in the heat in this summer of heat that we have. But at the same time, we have to be realistic about it. And we can't go running to the federal government every time and start asking for money and aid because we are undue burden. We should think about what we say in our political statements and think about what the realities of governing really mean. You know, it's interesting that a spokesperson for Governor Abbott, remember they blamed Texas for sending these people to New York, said that the state has only bused migrants to Washington, D.C., and only if they wanted to go there.

And he said that's been about 5,100 people. Then the quote is, if these Democratic mayors are now that concerned about having migrants in their cities, they should call on President Biden to do his job and secure the border instead of attacking Texas with baseless political accusations. The same could be said of Arizona.

They didn't send anybody there either. But this is the way it's being politicized now. And these are human beings that are in this situation. Some of them are brought in there by these cartels.

And this is serious stuff. But now you've got Manhattan, which has got enough problems as it is, quite frankly, having to deal with this, Logan, on top of it. Yeah, they have a lot of problems right now. And unfortunately, they were probably hit the hardest with the COVID crisis.

And they were hit. If you go to Manhattan right now, you'll see storefronts that have just been vacated. And it just feels otherworldly as someone who's lived there to visit there right now. Thankfully, things are maybe starting to turn. Things are starting to come back a little bit stronger in New York. But we brought on to Revenge of the Taliban, a special I hosted back last year during the Afghanistan crisis when there was a refugee situation where people were coming in. As you remember, those big pictures of people were running to planes to get to America. And you did have someone like James Lankford from Oklahoma said, we bring in thousands, we want thousands of people to come in. Not tens of thousands, a hundred thousand, but we'll take two or three thousand, whatever it was, because we've seen in Oklahoma, as we've done this regularly, as we've brought in this, they've inevitably become thriving members of our community.

They create business, they bring in money, and it becomes a good part in a state like Oklahoma that does need it. Then you have New York, which feels like the opposite. I'm going to plague Mayor Adam's statement about the system failures that they're having right now, because this shows you how real this is. Now, New York advertised sanctuary city where everybody's welcome.

That sounds great until you actually have to do it. So what we're saying, our system is always already overburdened, in fact. These states are sending people to New York without any communication or coordination, in fact. Correct. That is not correct. So the first thing he said is a fact. They're overburdened and their system failure says fact. Then he says, these states are sending people to New York without any communication or coordination. That's not true. So that's the federal government has sent people to New York, but not the states. So let's get the facts right. And then at the same time, and we'll save this one for I think the next segment. You've got the head of Homeland Security saying how secure the border is. Should we play it now?

Sure, why not? Yeah. This is why this policy is making no sense.

Take a listen. Is the border safe now? I was watching a news channel and they were talking about an invasion was happening and I got a little concerned. Look, the border is secure. We are working to make the border more secure.

That has been a historic challenge. The border, Andy, is not secure. They stopped building a wall, which was a fence to protect our border. They deescalated what the agents can do on the border.

Catch and release is one of them. So this idea, I don't know what world the secretary of Homeland Security is living in, but it's not the real one. It's not the world of reality is absolutely correct. Listen, walls work. Jay, you and I have been to Jerusalem.

I have been there seven times on missions for the ACLJ. There is a wall. The wall works.

It brought peace to the region largely as a result of the wall. There are, of course, instances where that piece erupts. That is inevitable. But we had a wall going under President Trump that was working. President Biden stops it.

He then starts up portions of it again. The catch and release idea. Ridiculous. These people are not going to come back for immigration hearings. Right.

Of course not. You have people that audience laughing. You hear them laughing at this when there are thousands and a quarter a million people that are coming through the border every month during the extreme heat and all the stuff that's happening right now. It really does feel a little less humanitarian than maybe the left likes to betray themselves when you're laughing about a secure border or you're laughing about people who are suffering, trying to even the people who are escaping. You talk about humanizing it. It's really dehumanizing when they start laughing at them. You're absolutely right. You have to treat these people like human beings. Because they are. Even if they're here illegally.

And of course the mayor can't fulfill the societal functions that are necessary. But why are we shocked? Alright, we've got more on this coming up. Talk to us on air.

1-800-684-3110. Back with more in a moment. Welcome back to Secula. We are covering the breaking news that President Biden has tested positive for COVID-19. We know that he is being treated with mild symptoms right now. So I know that some of you are seeing the title. We covered it a lot in the very beginning of the show.

A lot of you are just joining us right now. If you're watching on social media, you've seen that breaking news happen. I want to make sure that you know that we have covered it.

Currently, there's not a whole lot of information to give other than… But you asked a really good question earlier. Yeah, other than he is currently experiencing some symptoms and is recovering areas and the pathway hopefully to recovering. So we'll see what happens here. Yeah, you mentioned in the beginning, because people were asking that, and then some of the networks were covering, well, what is the continuity of government if somebody gets really… He's nowhere near that situation. But look, we have a continuity in government. That's why you have a vice President, and they contemporarily transfer power, and they do it formally. But it doesn't appear that the President is anywhere near that.

We hope and pray for a speedy recovery. Again, you put your politics aside when people are sick. But it's a question that I think is valid. I think it's a valid question, people have not really lived through it, although there's a whole generation that hasn't, or multiple generations now that haven't lived through anything happening to a sitting President, really, that was incapacitating, other than for moments or minutes. So the questions start to arise.

Sure. But like I said, there's a continuity of government, and there's no indication that we're anywhere near that. That's why you have vice Presidents.

They go even beyond that. It goes into the Speaker of the House, and then goes to the Secretary of State. I mean, there's a whole process here. All right, Wes Smith is joining us. Andy is with us remotely. And I want to ask a border question before we get into the situation with China, which is another one that, folks, we talked about it yesterday with Mike Pompeo. This is really serious stuff. On the border, Wes, you have the Homeland Security Secretary saying, hey, the border's secure. But the border's not secure.

Absolutely. It is a complete, obvious break from reality by virtually everyone. When he says that, even people on the left roll their eyes a bit, and it is not secure. And that directly impacts another security, and that is national security, as we talked about during our meeting before radio today. In the last four years, there were 30 people apprehended who were on the terrorist watch list. In this fiscal year, there have already been 56 apprehended, and we don't know about the ones that get away.

Okay, so I want to repeat that, because this is a big number. So in the last four years, we've caught at the border, which is still significant, 30 people that are already on. So there's already been a designation that they're on the terror watch list.

This year alone, and we are not over this year, 56 people have been apprehended on the terror watch list. This is not just a border security issue, which of course it is, but it is a national security issue, Andy, as well. 56 individuals designated on the terror watch list got into the United States. Like we say, we're trying to get into the United States.

We have no idea how many got through that we'll never see. Well, Jay, given that reality, the undeniable reality that the terror watch list, basically, the people have infiltrated has doubled from 30 to 56, how in the world can Secretary Mayorkas get up in front of the world and say that the border is secure? The border is not secure. There is no mechanism that is in place to seal off the border of the United States, in the southwestern part of the United States, from California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, it's not happening. And that's, they're infiltrating in other areas as well, not just in the southwestern part of the United States, they're coming in through other areas.

Our border is porous, it is like a sieve and is letting in not only people who are sick and ill and who are terrorists, but also who have COVID, who have all sorts of illnesses, drug traffickers, drug dealers, human traffickers, human smugglers and so forth, and nothing is being done effectively to prevent it by this administration. No, I think they're not dealing with this in a real way. So that has a consequence. The bad policy is a bad policy consequence. Now let's talk about China. So Wes, President Biden is scheduled, and I'm sure he still will do it, assuming he stays okay, to have a real conversation with the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, Chairman Xi. But he's also at the same time, and we talked about this on yesterday's broadcast, the President has cast doubt on the Pelosi trip to Taiwan, which Mike Pompeo was on, former Secretary of State said, we should show our support for our ally. There's no way that another government should be able to tell a third ranking member of our government that they can't go. I think we should hear from the President himself when asked about this. We have a clip here.

Let's go to Byte 12. President, do you think it's a good idea for Speaker Pelosi to travel to Taiwan this summer? Well, I think that the military thinks it's not a good idea right now, but I don't know what the status of it is. So Wes, you're Colonel Smith, so the military doesn't think it's a good idea right now? The President doesn't know. And he doesn't know. It's obvious he does not know.

You said it. I've got an article coming up on our website soon called Biden muddles his way through the Middle East. And it talks about how his statements, both prepared and off the cuff, do not match his policies and actions frequently. The same thing is going on with Taiwan and China.

I'll give you some examples of that. You know, there's a lot of tension over Taiwan. But while this is going on, President Biden is considering lifting the tariffs that we have on China and Chinese product, even though they protect U.S. companies and U.S. workers. He's thinking about lifting the tariffs. But while he's thinking about lifting the tariffs, he is also launching an investigation into Chinese buying controlling stock in U.S. companies and also trying to dominate certain sectors like the semiconductor sector.

So that's the opposite of the other. Meanwhile, he has expressed frustration that China is not now living up to its existing commitments with our trade agreements. But in the middle of this, he says, maybe Pelosi shouldn't go to Taiwan.

He is all over the board, Jay. It's hard to keep up with exactly what his policies are. You know, and we talked about this yesterday, something I am really concerned with, and that is the Chinese Communist Party owns companies. If you're a company in China, if you're a U.S. company, different. But if you're a Chinese company, guess what?

You're owned by the Chinese Communist Party. They're buying land immediately adjacent to a base that you said yesterday, Colonel Smith, was one of our most secured for intelligence gathering and satellite work. Yes, a very sensitive Air Force base, Grand Forks Air Force Base, is involved with our satellite.

The satellites that actually enable communication with all branches of the military worldwide, it is also the headquarters for our drone technology. And so they want to buy land close to the base? Yes, because the Chinese government, Andy, wants to get into the farming business. I mean, nobody believes this.

Yeah, right. They're interested in coming into the United States to help promote agriculture, and they're going to plant agricultural products on that land. Who are you kidding? And who are you making these statements to?

This is an inconsistent policy. You reduce the tariffs so we have more Chinese products, and then condemn them for trying to corner the market on certain things, buying land near our bases. There were sensitive areas of the United States having Chinese front companies, and I've experienced with those personally, Jay, having Chinese front companies buying land near our bases. And at the same time, giving a mixed signal as to whether the third-ranking highest United States official, with whom I disagree, by the way, on every policy statement that she utters, Nancy Pelosi, she's nonetheless the Speaker of the House, sending a mixed message on whether she should go to Taiwan. Where is the President landing?

A, B, C, D, E, F, where? We don't know. Yeah, but you know what? We are working on it, though, at the American Center for Law and Justice and ACLJ Action are looking and working right now on the situation with China buying this property near these military bases. Our Director of our Government Affairs Project, our ACLJ Action Team, Mike Pompeo, former Secretary of State, our Senior Counsel for Global Affairs, where everybody's on it. So this is serious.

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Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Welcome back to the broadcast. And we've got a lot of topics we've already covered. We've covered China. We've covered the border issue. We are, of course, breaking news.

Logan, you could deal with this. There's breaking news regarding the President's health. Yeah. Breaking news is obviously that President Biden has tested positive for COVID. This isn't something we know. He's been traveling overseas and all these, you know, this seems to be happening more and more right now. We've seen an uptick. He did put out a statement just a short time ago. If you're watching right now, we'll show you the tweet that he put up. Can we get that up there?

There it goes. He said, folks, I'm doing great. Thanks for your concern.

Just called Senator and Congressmen and Mayors and his Scranton cousins to send my regret for missing our event today, keeping busy as a picture of him getting the job. Don, curious who took that picture. But, you know, whatever.

Maybe it's a telephoto lens. But interesting that they have a, they're having to put out these statements because I think it opens up. Look, COVID's not something that I'm laughing at. It's a serious situation. It's still a serious situation years later.

And the American people get concerned when stuff like this happens. We want to make sure we reset the show so you knew that was the breaking news item. As we head into the next segments of the broadcast, we're going to be going to Israel and hear from people, two different guests who are our regulars.

Obviously, Jeff Balbon from our office in Israel and Rick Grenell, who is currently there as part of CPAC in Jerusalem right now. So it should be a pretty interesting second half hour here with the broadcast. By the way, that picture that you saw, if you're listening on radio, there's a picture of the President in a sport coat at a desk that is right outside of the part of the residence. So in the residence, they have what's called the, there's a map room. There's all these other rooms. There's a upper oval. It's the elbow office upstairs that is more of a seating area. And there are the rooms right there for the President to work out of.

So again, kind of the normal process. We are going to go to two live reports from Israel because there's a lot happening there. And we're going to hear from Rick Grenell, who's been in Israel for a week. And we're going to hear also from Jeff Balbon, who is based in our office in Jerusalem.

And a lot of you don't know this. When we talk about the issues in Israel and our defense of Israel, what you need to understand is we have an operating office of the American Center for Law and Justice, not an Israeli Center for Law and Justice. The American Center for Law and Justice based in Jerusalem. I mean right in the heart of Jerusalem overlooks the Temple Mount.

I mean it's a great location. But also a strategic location for our work in the greater Middle East, which has picked up significance obviously over the last couple of years. So when the Abraham records we're working on, we had influence on policies there. We've been to the International Criminal Court in The Hague presenting Israel's position. They don't go to The Hague as a member, but their position before the tribunals there. I've done that for the United States as well, who's not a member. But I presented the U.S. position at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. A lot of that work comes out of our office in Jerusalem, of course also impacting Jerusalem, Israel itself.

There's a lot of issues moving. President Biden just came back from the Middle East. He was in Israel. The Palestinian Authority felt like they got nothing. And the truth of the matter is that's why the Abraham Accords have worked.

The new alignment of partners in the Middle East with Israel have presented the Palestinians with a dilemma. And that is they have a failed government. They have a corrupt government. They have a government that rewards people that kill civilians. So guess what? The rest of the world, including the rest of the Muslim and Arab world, are turning on them.

Why? Because they know it is a corrupt system. And that is not bringing people, generally want peace. Not every group wants peace, but there's a lot of people in the Middle East that want peace.

That's why you're seeing relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel so significantly increased. But we have an office in Jerusalem, so your support for the ACLJ has a direct and huge impact. And that's why we want you to come and be part of our Matching Challenge campaign. That's right. You can do that by easily going to ACLJ.org or downloading the ACLJ app and make any donation.

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You've got to spend some time on this website, spend some time on our app and really get yourself informed and engaged. We'll be right back. Hey, welcome back to the broadcast, everyone. We're going to go right to Jerusalem. We've got our senior advisor for our national intelligence and security, Rick Grenell, former director of national intelligence, former ambassador to Germany, who's in Jerusalem right now and he is joining us from Jerusalem. So, Rick, give me your sense on the ground that President Biden was just there, kind of came back very empty handed to say the least. Now there's even some friction between some of the governments because there were all these accords going into place that you were worked on, the Abraham Accords, of course, that we were all worked on and so pleased with. And the United States has now tried to assert themselves in, and this is the report right now, that there was going to be a regional security alliance, but the United States basically wanted to run it and it got all these governments saying, that's not the way we envision this happening.

Your assessment, you're on the ground there. Well, we're here right after President Biden, and there's a lot of conservatives in Jerusalem right now. We're doing the CPAC conference here in Jerusalem.

Actually, last night we were in Tel Aviv and had a crowd of about 3,000 people. So I think it's pretty clear that conservatives in America, conservatives in Israel are hungry to step up and try to make a difference. We're watching as President Biden and the world is really just in crisis mode. I think what our allies and friends and others are noticing is exactly what we have been watching in all the videos, Biden falling off a bike, his mispronunciation, his mistakes, his blunders. And I think what's happening is the world is seeing America right now, not leading. And so when America and the State Department, the Biden administration steps forward to say, we'd like to organize something in the region, the regional players, the leaders in the Middle East are saying, no, we've watched you flounder in Afghanistan. We've watched you say that you only want 90% of the people coming home.

We don't want you organizing us. You know, it's interesting you said this, Rick, because I just wrote a note to myself because I want to follow up on the Afghanistan situation. I think that moment with Afghanistan really changed the trajectory on the way we exited Afghanistan, really changed the trajectory and how we're viewed globally. Because it was not only weak, it was chaotic.

We lost 13, more than that now, but 13 Americans in the military. It was a chaotic withdrawal. It was not planned properly. It looked like exiting Vietnam and Hanoi.

The famous helicopter lifts and we had the airplane situation. So you see all that happening and you say to yourself, these policies have, you know, it's one thing if the President, you know, stumbles on a word or that's one thing, but when the policy is being implemented, that's another. And it's the policy problems that are harming a tremendous amount of progress that was made in the Middle East with the regional partners of Israel, including Jordan, Egypt, you know, the Gulf States, really Saudi Arabia. I know you were working on this. I know others were working on it.

We all were working on this because it was such a big opportunity. Saudi Arabia was going to be the next country to sign on to the Abraham Accords. But I think everybody, and I think the cooperation between Israel and Saudi Arabia is still very good, but we have to be honest and that the United States as a player in this right now is very destabilizing.

And let's be honest also, the Israeli government coalitions fall apart, so they're pretty destabilized over there too. Yeah, look, I don't think that you can talk about these issues without talking exactly what you were saying about Saudi Arabia. The Biden administration came in and decided to ostracize Saudi Arabia, mock them, and what they were doing was sending a message to Iran that they wanted to negotiate and they wanted to show Iran that they could beat up on Saudi Arabia. And now what we're seeing because of gas prices, because of the regional instability, remember the Houthis were taken off the terrorist list by Joe Biden. Joe Biden drops the sanctions on Nord Stream 2 pipeline. They're seeing a series of bad policies and the leaders in the Middle East are saying, we don't want anything to do with this.

I have to say one other thing, Jay. Something has happened because I just went to Serbia, Albania, and Montenegro before I came to Israel, and the heads of state in all of those countries sought me out to want to talk. They wanted to be able to meet, and I can't help but think that they're looking at Joe Biden and saying there's no possible way the Biden administration is going to be able to continue because numbers are low, Democrats are making a mess of the House, the Senate, and the White House, and they're thinking there's got to be a future for conservatives in America. You know, one of the things I'm really concerned about in all of this is we had this trajectory in the Middle East that for decades has been terrible. I mean, you'd have the Oslo Accords and nothing really got implemented. You had the White Plantation meetings.

I mean, all these attempts. You had, of course, Camp David and little progress was made. Then you had this really bold initiative, changing the framework upon which we were going to continue it and move forward, and that was to have the Abraham Accords where these governments, these countries would be signing agreements with Israel as a party for regional cooperation, including the Gulf states, including Jordan, Egypt, where there already were peace treaties in place.

Saudi Arabia was very cooperative. And you had this trajectory of a positive situation going on, right? And then you had this change of events, and I keep going back to it, Rick. I keep going back to, you know, Afghanistan just kind of showed the world our problem. And it seems like the administration, while they've given a nod now to the Abraham Accords, their idea that the United States is going to get in the regional cooperation business shows you a fundamental misunderstanding of what the Abraham Accords were trying to accomplish. Look, the media, the political class in Washington all told us that Donald Trump would be so dangerous for America and that he would start World War Three. And the opposite actually happened.

He not only did not start new wars, but he brought forward peace treaties. And so I think that we have to be very clear about what the political class, the Washington, D.C. types in the media are always going to miss it because they don't want to talk about a strong America First policy. They want consensus with the rest of the world.

They want global policy. Well, I appreciate it, Rick, and thanks. And Rick, by the way, is talking to us from Israel. We appreciate it very much. I want to make a couple of comments here. I've done a lot of work in the region. Like I said, we established an office in Jerusalem years ago. And a lot of that work was involving protecting religious sites, Christian sites, Jewish heritage sites from an onslaught of the then very hostile Muslim world. And then we had the situations where we were engaged on issues at the United Nations, at the International Criminal Court. We dealt with the U.N.'s Religious Liberty Rapporteur who was doing a report on Israel.

And we were able to show that of all the countries in the region, Israel is the most open to democracy, liberty, and freedom. Now, having said that, the previous attempts to come to treaties, resolutions, you could go all the way back to the, I think go back all the way to Camp David. They were trying. I'm not saying President Carter wasn't trying. I'm not saying these other Presidents weren't trying. President Bush wasn't trying.

President Clinton wasn't trying. But it didn't work. Because the Palestinian problem constantly got in the way of any progress.

Then you had the opportunity, and I think this is what changed a lot, for a new direction in this. A new approach to how we're going to deal with what is clearly a problem. And look, I'm not going to say it's not a problem. The Middle East is very complex. What you have to do when you've got a complex situation is make sure you have solutions and maybe try something different. And frankly, the Abraham Accords were something different.

So here's what you have to say. It worked. You had regional cooperation. You had commerce and trade between the United States and Arab partners, majority Muslim countries.

And then ask yourself, what has happened now? The fact of the matter is, what's happening now is, and I go back to Afghanistan, it was a sign of weakness. And that sign of weakness in our withdrawal has presented huge problems. Do we have the statements from the President about Afghanistan when we were doing it? Do we have those available? I think it'd be important.

I'm going to pull those up again in the future, because it gives an idea of what we have and what our abilities are. But I want to tell you something. We've been working in that region for a long time. And that's why we have an office in Jerusalem. And we're going to continue to have an office in Jerusalem and continue to work out of Jerusalem. And you're going to be hearing from Chet Balamon, from our senior counsel, from our office in Jerusalem.

Because we know you have to be there. We're also in a matching challenge campaign. Any amount you donate to the ACLJ, we're getting a matching gift for. That is ACLJ.org. ACLJ.org. And your gift is doubled. You're not paying double. You donate $20.

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We're on Truth Social as well. We'll be back with more in just a moment. Hey, welcome back to the broadcast, everyone. We've had a bit of a focus on those last two segments. And we're going to continue that on the situation in Israel and regional cooperation. Jeff Balamon, senior counsel for the ACLJ, out of our office in Jerusalem.

And, Jeff, there is – and I was just talking to Rick Grenell about this. The United States, ever since the Afghanistan pullout, which was such a disaster the way it was handled, has sent a message to the rest of the world that's not very comforting to say – that's being kind. Showed chaos, disorganization, we lost lives. It's not the way we want to do our military and our political engagements. There was this idea of a regional security alliance, which only about a week ago seemed to be happening. And I mean a lot of these governments, as you know, and you're over there right now, are working together. But then the United States gets in and said it was going to put itself in charge of shepherding this to completion.

The United States was going to interdict itself into a regional security alliance, which I think has maybe blown a hole in the whole process. So what's your – you're there. What's your assessment? What are you hearing? We have no audio. Okay, we're going to see if we can get that fixed.

One of the things I wanted to – the reason I raised this issue, folks, is – A long time. Oh, there we go. Okay, Jeff, let's start that over. We got your audio now. Let's go ahead.

Say that again. Okay, you hear me now? We're good? Yes, we're good.

Great. So, yeah, well, in your last segment, Jay, you discussed how this is a very complicated region, and indeed it is. And I would say that for decades people were looking for solutions. Well, now we're at a stage of, for America, first do no harm, because thanks to the last administration, changed, as you described, the entire dynamic, suddenly there's regional cooperation between parties that are of interest that are overlooking decades of enmity against Israel for being a Jewish state, and they're normalizing, and they're now maximizing security arrangements against the very people, the very enemies that America is trying to shove into it.

It's impossible for them to have them in their own security arrangements. They're literally the enemy. And so America has stepped right in and is now doing terrible harm to the Abraham Accords, to security arrangements between Israel and its Arab allies and the Arab countries themselves who are America's allies. You know, it's very interesting, Jeff, when you say the word, I mean, who would have thought we would have lived to have seen the day, and I know you worked on the Abraham Accords, I did, others did, with influence on this. It was a great idea to view the Middle East in a whole different paradigm, to not let the Palestinian situation, the Palestinian question, to interpose itself on every discussion of regional peace and cooperation. So you had all this cooperation, tremendous improvement. You had, I think, more progress with the Abraham Accords than Camp David, Oslo, 1 and 2 combined.

No question. And now you've got this regional peace alliance, which the Arab neighbors of Israel, in alliance with Israel, with Saudi Arabia allowing Israeli aircraft and flying back, I mean, it's incredible what's happened. And then the United States cannot leave well enough alone. That's what it seems like to me, Jeff. And we have to get in there and mess this up so that we end up, so everybody pulls back and say, wait a minute, we didn't think the United States was going to be the overlords of this in the Middle East?

Look, let's be clear. The administration likes to use the language of concern for peace and concern for diplomacy, but the forces that they are bringing in through the force of being the United States of America, these are the forces of terror. These are the forces of nuclear threat against our allies and against the United States itself. These are the ones we have to protect against.

It's an absurdity. Not only they can't leave well enough alone, Jay, when President Biden and those who work for him talk about the safety and security of Israel, there's nothing behind that. What his goal is in every one of those conversations actually is to help Iran, which is Israel's enemy and America's enemy, and to help the Palestinian Authority, which is Israel's enemy and America's enemy.

It's exactly the opposite of what needs to happen here. And if you try to blow up peace, you try to throw this region into violence, you could not do better than what Joe Biden is doing. So, you know, you mentioned this, and I think we gotta mention that we can't ignore the, you're in Jerusalem, so you're in Israel, and the ACLJ, and I said, folks, it's an American Center for Law and Justice office in Israel, because we understand what we have to do. But you mentioned Iran. They are so desperate, the administration, for a deal with Iran, even though Iran's bragging that they already have the capacity to create a nuclear weapon, the Israelis, right, left, or center, do not want a nuclearized Iran, nor do Saudi Arabia, nor do the Gulf States. You know, Putin doesn't mind that. Chairman Xi doesn't mind that. But the players in the Middle East, they mind it. They don't want this to happen. And the United States appears to be so desperate for a deal with the Iranians that we are still in these, you know, you call them bilateral, trilateral talks. You and I have participated in those in the Middle East. We know what that's like. The fact of the matter is, they want a deal so desperately, I'm afraid that they'll come up with something that's going to harm the region even more.

Jay, I think you can pretty much guarantee it. They're already doing it now. By Biden's actions, which belie his words, and by his words themselves, he's demonstrated that he does not believe that Israel is sovereign over Jerusalem. He believes that Jews are the occupiers.

He said that. He compared the Palestinians to the Irish and the Jews to Great Britain. Well, the fact is, it's the Jews' indigenous homeland, and the Arabs from Arabia have been occupying it, and he's completely inverted reality here. And in this way, again, he claims to be a friend of Israel, but every action is hostile to Israel. And yes, he's throwing us into turmoil. One of the other aspects of it, and Jeff, I know you're dealing with members of the Knesset, and I'm hearing from friends of mine that even the left side of the Knesset, those parties, are very concerned about what the Biden administration is trying to do in this, not just regional cooperation with Iran. Very, very concerned. Look, the Israelis run on a track, which is completely understandable, when all is said and done, as impressive as Israeli accomplishments are, and they're extraordinary.

We know this. The truth is, it is still living in the most dangerous region in the world, and it's by far the outsider and the one that's most hated as being a bastion of Western liberalism and democracy, and of course, for being a Jewish state. And so the rule has always been, don't say anything to anger America publicly, and really, they showed it, right? I mean, they gave the President, President Biden, the Presidential award here, as though he were their friend, because America is their friend, but this current leadership is not. So Israel is very afraid to say publicly what they feel, as you say, Jay, left, right, and center. There is no disagreement here across the board that what Joe Biden is doing is catastrophic.

They're afraid that it's more catastrophic to speak out against an American President, and that's the bind that they're being put in. You know, it makes it a very difficult situation, but I want to thank you, Jeff, for your insight on that. But folks, we're coming to you right from Jerusalem. In fact, we had two of our folks, Jeff Balibon, Senior Counsel for the ACLJ, Rick Rinnell, our Senior Advisor for the ACLJ, both in Jerusalem right now.

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